Tidbits on July 18, 2012
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

This Week I Feature the Life Cycle of Our Peonies in 2012 in Photographs
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Peonies/Set02/PeoniesSet02.htm

 

What Goes on in a Garden? --- http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0

The Beauty of Pollination --- http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0

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

 

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

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

Tidbits on July 18, 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

Andy Griffith (1926-2012) Gives a History Lesson on the American Revolution --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/andy_griffith_1926-2012_gives_a_lesson_on_the_american_revolution.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

I cry every time I watch this.
Thank You America (slide show) --- Click Here

Heart of a Teacher --- http://www.heartofateachermovie.com/if

Frontline: Digital Nation http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/

The Evolution of the Moon: 4.5 Billions Years in 2.6 Minutes --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/the_evolution_of_the_moon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The Hubble Looking Out at "Nothing"  (The Ultra Deep Field) --- http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm

Elephants Taking a Mud Bath --- http://www.youtube.com/embed/f_gBWPs4r3U

TED Talk:  Time Lapse Photography (Louie Schwartzberg) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ&vq=medium

Woody Allen Lives the “Delicious Life” in Early-80s Japanese Commercials --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/woody_allen_lives_the_delicious_life_in_early-80s_japanese_commercials.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Jon Stewart --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Stewart
Jon Stewart’s William & Mary Commencement Address: The Entire World is an Elective --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/jon_stewarts_william_mary_commencement_address_the_entire_world_is_an_elective.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Deer for Breakfast --- http://www.snotr.com/video/2772

Light Bulb Changer Who's Closer to Heaven ---
http://www.liveleak.com/e/07b_1284580365

Dangerous Knowledge & Breaking the Code: Two Films about Alan Turing on His 100th Birthday --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/idangerous_knowledgei_ibreaking_the_codei_two_films_about_alan_turing_on_his_100th_birthday.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

 


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

Blind and Crippled at Birth (what determination can do for winners) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=9xwCG0Ey2Mg

An Irish Blessing for You --- http://www.andiesisle.com/ThisBlessingIsForYou.html

Video:  The Lord's Prayer-(Diva)--- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEYpi3c90rY  

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

Blind and Crippled at Birth (what determination can do for winners) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=9xwCG0Ey2Mg
This is a must see!

Battle Hymn of the Republic --- http://www.greatdanepro.com/Battle Hymn/index.htm

Video Inspiration:  The Heart of a Teacher --- http://www.heartofateachermovie.com/if

Ray Stevens Asks President Obama Some Questions --- http://videos2view.net/rays.htm

An Abridged History of Western Music: “What a Wonderful World” Sung in 16 Different Styles --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/an_abridged_history_of_western_music.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

One Pair Of Hands By Elvis Presley (LOST SONG)  ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezF8kteNLIE

Celtec Thunder --- http://worriersanonymous.org/Share/Godspeople.htm

Dancing With Rita Hayworth -- http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=mz3CPzdCDws

Video of a Typewriter Doing What a Laptop Cannot Do ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=G4nX0Xrn-wo&sns=em

The Remember Song (comedy about growing old) --- http://www.tomrush.com./video_remember.html

Another Great Dance Montage --- http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=ab9i0s4WEY0&feature=related

University of Colorado Digital Music Library --- http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/music/smp/index.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

Digital Collections: Amherst College --- https://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/holdings/electexts

University of Colorado Digital Music Library --- http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/music/smp/index.htm

The Montreal Symphony's Evolution Of Music (entire concert) ---
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/15/136284053/the-montreal-symphonys-evolution-of-music

Science of Music: Exploratorium's Accidental Scientist --- http://www.exploratorium.edu/music/index.html

Moof (music sharing) --- http://moof.com/

Theo Wangemann's 1889-90 European Recordings (sound) ---
http://www.nps.gov/edis/photosmultimedia/theo-wangemann-1889-1890-european-recordings.htm 

Introducing the New York Philharmonic Digital Archives --- http://archives.nyphil.org/

Hear HERE!: The Royal Philharmonic Society --- http://www.hearhear.org.uk/

Music and the Brain [iTunes] http://www.loc.gov/podcasts/musicandthebrain/index.html 

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

The Remember Song (comedy about growing old) --- http://www.tomrush.com./video_remember.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

Google Art Project --- http://www.googleartproject.com/ 

World Panoramas --- http://dan.somnea.free.fr/TOUR/WorldPanoramas.html

Historic Barn Etchings Tell Tale of Hard-Working Children --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/historic_barn_etchings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The Aurora Page --- http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/

The Aurora Borealis Viewed from Orbit (and What Creates Those Northern Lights?) --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/09/aurora_borealis_from_orbit.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals from Talladega College (slavery) --- http://www.high.org/Art/Exhibitions/Rising-Up-Hale-Woodruff.aspx

Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph Collection (Indiana Newspaper Photographer) ---
 http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/hohenberger/

Digital Image Collections: Indiana Historical Society ---
http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/digital-image-collections 

Seattle Art Museum: Australian Aboriginal Art --- http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/ancestralmodern/

Amazing 1950s Car Collection in Canada ---
http://unmuffled.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/such-an-amazing-old-car-collection-on-vancouver-island/

Slavery in America: Image Gallery --- http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/scripts/sia/gallery.cgi \

Rand Corporation: Education and the Arts --- http://www.rand.org/topics/education-and-the-arts.html

Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective (pop art) ---  http://roy.artic.edu/

How the Wild West Really Looked (great antique photographs) ---
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2149899/The-American-West-youve-seen-Amazing-19th-century-pictures-landscape-chartered-time.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

Isaac Asimov Recalls the Golden Age of Science Fiction (1937-1950) --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/isaac_asimov_recalls_the_golden_age_of_science_fiction_1937-1950.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Project --- http://www.und.edu/instruct/sdonaldson/

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

The University of Michigan Digital Humanities Series---
 http://www.digitalculture.org/books/book-series/digital-humanities-series/

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 July 18, 2012
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2012/TidbitsQuotations071812.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




I'm reminded of something my sister-in-law once said about people in general --- not just me. She said:
"We can move from town to town, but we always take ourselves with us."

"Endings That Set Us Free," By Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 25, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Endings-That-Set-Us-Free/132383/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

Jensen's Comments
I've often reflected on "Endings" in my professional life, but these were not often endings that "set me free." They were instead "beginnings" that afforded me new challenges and serendipitously changed the course of my professional career. Although I've held named professorships in three different universities, it was the Jesse Jones Chair at Trinity University what really ended my obsession with adding journal articles to my resume. By 1990, the marginal benefit of another journal article, even in a top academic research journal, was minimal to my internal and external reputation. I was at last set free to become more relevant to my students, my peers, and the "world." This was indeed an "ending" that became an open sharing "beginning."

Other endings along the way included my decision to end my budding career (after 18 months) with Ernst & Ernst to enter Stanford's budding accountancy doctoral program. My original intent was to become a professor to financially support my intent to be a ski bum without having to live like a bum and chase wild women. Yeah right! Instead I became a husband, a parent, and boring accounting professor with a 60-70 hour work week.

Other endings came after leaving faculty positions at four universities. It was not that I was ever professionally unhappy in any faculty position at any university. Rather it was to seek out new "beginnings" ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Resume.htm

Other endings came when I shifted the goals of my research and teaching. One huge shift was the ending of my goal to publish in TAR, JAR, Operations Research, Mathematical Modelling, and other quant journals to focus on technology of education and to commence touring hundreds of universities around the world by literally lugging my PC on airplanes and showing off my HyperGraphics, ToolBooks, and HTML Web pages ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Resume.htm#Presentations

Other endings really became beginnings. My early "beginnings" on the AECM Listserv in the 1990s showed me the genuine thrill it was to open share and open debate among professors, students, and practitioners. Barry Rice put an open sharing carrot in front of my nose, and I've been chasing that carrot ever since ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm#Blogs

Other endings came with the waning of opportunities to make presentations of obscure accountics research and the rising opportunities to consult on FAS 133 and to conduct CPE workshops on accounting for derivative financial instruments and hedging activities. This new beginning also paid much, much better ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Resume.htm#Presentations

So now I'm typing this in retirement while looking out at beautiful cloud formations over three mountain ranges. Retirement? I think I've still a dull accountant working 60-70 hour weeks. Endings do not always bring more sleep and truly new beginnings. They just make us think we have new beginnings.

I'm reminded of something my sister-in-law once said about people in general --- not just me. She said:
"We can move from town to town, but we always take ourselves with us."


"3 Reasons You'll Buy Google's Nexus 7 Tablet," by Eliot Weisberg, ReadWriteWeb, June 28, 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/video-3-reasons-youll-buy-googles-nexus-7-tablet.php

"Google Nexus 7 Makes Amazon Kindle Fire Irrelevant," by Dan Rowinski, ReadWriteWeb, June 28, 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/06/google-nexus-7-makes-amazon-kindle-fire-irrelevant.php

"Will Google’s New Nexus Q Kill Google TV?" by Mark Hachman, ReadWriteWeb, June 28, 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/will-googles-new-nexus-q-kill-google-tv.php

Bob Jensen's technology bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm

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

 


Nexus 7 --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_7

"From Google, the Toughest Challenger to the iPad," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303343404577518871956122982.html

Tired of watching in frustration as its popular Android mobile operating system failed to make much of a dent in the tablet market, Google GOOG -1.81% is stepping in next week with an Android tablet it helped design. It's the Nexus 7, a $199 model with a 7-inch screen. And in my view, it's a winner.

After testing the Nexus 7 for a couple of weeks, I consider it the best Android tablet I've used. It's a serious alternative to both Apple's AAPL -0.62% larger $499 iPad and to a more direct rival: Amazon's $199, Android-based, 7-inch Kindle Fire. I prefer the Nexus 7 to 7-inch models from Google partners like Samsung, 005930.SE -0.80% whose comparable product costs $250. [image] Google

The Google Nexus 7's My Library home screen displays a user's recent media content.

The new Google tablet doesn't have all the features of the iPad. For instance, it lacks a cellular connectivity option, a rear camera and the iPad's dazzling screen resolution. Its base model has half the memory of the iPad's. It offers fewer content choices—music, movies, TV shows—than either the Apple or Amazon devices do. It also has very few apps designed for a tablet, as opposed to a phone, while the iPad boasts over 200,000 apps for tablet use. And its screen area is less than half the size of the iPad's.

But Google's tablet is a better choice than the iPad for people on a budget; for those who prefer a lighter, more compact tablet that's easier to carry and operate with one hand; and for those who prefer Google's ecosystem of apps, services and content to Apple's.

Despite some drawbacks, I found it a pleasure to use.

. . .

Google's voice-controlled question-and-answer feature, like Apple's Siri, didn't understand me or get it right a lot of the time. And it didn't understand some questions Siri does, like "Will I need an umbrella today?"

And Google Now requires you to compromise some privacy, by allowing the service to track your location and search history. It tries to figure out your home address by detecting where the device is during most nights.

Overall, however, Google and Asus have produced a very good tablet in the Nexus 7, one I can recommend.

"3 Reasons You'll Buy Google's Nexus 7 Tablet," by Eliot Weisberg, ReadWriteWeb, June 28, 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/video-3-reasons-youll-buy-googles-nexus-7-tablet.php

"Google Nexus 7 Makes Amazon Kindle Fire Irrelevant," by Dan Rowinski, ReadWriteWeb, June 28, 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/06/google-nexus-7-makes-amazon-kindle-fire-irrelevant.php

"Will Google’s New Nexus Q Kill Google TV?" by Mark Hachman, ReadWriteWeb, June 28, 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/will-googles-new-nexus-q-kill-google-tv.php

Bob Jensen's threads on Tablet Computing ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Tablets


"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


If more people remembered this, there would not be as debacles based on models that failed.
Jim Mahar --- https://www.facebook.com/FinanceProfessorBlog/posts/330370297050076

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance.
It's the illusion of knowledge
.

Stephen Hawking

"What Robert Dittmar Knows: Questions on Finance, Economics, and Taxing the Rich," by John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, July 2, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/education-oronte-churm/what-robert-dittmar-knows-questions-finance-economics-and-taxing-rich

Robert Dittmar is a friend of mine from college who also happens to be an Associate Professor in the Finance Area at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. I wanted to talk to him because he knows all kinds of things about finance and economics, an area where I think we’re often victims of simplistic thinking. I wanted to know why we shouldn’t just go ahead and tax the rich. Bob had some interesting answers.

 

. . .

JW: Sounds to me like maybe we should just go ahead and tax the rich.

RD:  I don’t think that is really a solution. Or, perhaps, if it is a solution, the solution needs to be more nuanced. I make absolutely no claim to be an expert on tax policy.  I think that the evidence suggests that merely increasing taxes on the very wealthy would do little to close structural gaps in our government’s fiscal condition. But I am also unsure that current tax policy is optimally suited to promote incentives and growth.

Mitt Romney’s disclosure of his tax returns provides an interesting case in point.  Most of his income derives from dividends and capital gains rather than wage income, and his marginal tax rate is approximately that of the lowest tier of earners in the U.S.  The argument in favor of his low tax rate is that lower capital gains and dividend taxes provide incentive to investment, which in turn spurs job creation and economic growth.  To some extent I think this is true, but in his specific case, and in a broader context, I don’t buy the argument.  I’ll try to explain why.

Suppose that I’ve got $10,000,000 that I want to invest in some startup technology.  There is a huge probability (maybe 90-95%) that my business will fail.  So I am taking on a huge risk.  If I succeed, I will create jobs and shock the economy in a way that results in improved economic growth.  I’ve taken a huge risk in the name of economic growth, and perhaps I deserve to be rewarded.  If my company IPO’s at $500,000,000, I will earn capital gains if I sell out of $490,000,000.  If I were taxed on that at the top marginal tax rate, my tax bill would be $171,500,000.  However, because this is a long term capital gain, I am only taxed $98,000,000.  One might argue that this is reasonable because I have created more than the difference of $73,500,000 in value to the overall economy.  So the lower tax rate spurs innovation and economic growth.

Now suppose that it is June, 2003. I invest my $10,000,000 in Apple stock. At the end of May, 2012, I would have approximately $542,250,000. If I sell out, I have long term capital gains of $532,000,000, which are taxed at 20%, or approximately $106,450,000.  If my marginal tax rate were 35%, I would have been taxed $186,270,000. The question is, have I added nearly $80,000,000 in value to the economy? You would have to believe that, had I not bought already outstanding Apple stock, Apple would not be able to innovate in the way that it has to benefit the economy.  I guess I think that is a bit of a stretch.

In Mr. Romney’s case, it is even more complicated. He was involved in a business that sought to improve efficiency through cutting costs and is realizing the capital gains from those efficiency improvements.  If this is really efficiency-improving, it is beneficial to the economy; it is allocating resources to the correct place.  My concern is that it is not.  Labor productivity has increased in the United States dramatically, and as I mentioned, wage and salary income has stagnated.  This implies an inefficient resource allocation to me; workers are not being paid what they are worth.  If true, that means that the capital gains are in part a transfer of what workers should be earning due to increased productivity to people like Mr. Romney.

I don’t know how much tax reforms would affect economic welfare. I bring up these examples just to emphasize that it is difficult to tease out the potential costs, benefits, and effects.  So a simple answer like “tax the rich” won’t solve the problem.


Betting Against the U.S. Dollar
"Where the (Mitt Romney's) Money Lives,"  by Nicholas Shaxson, Vanity Fair, August 2012 ---
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accounts

Question
How can a capital gains tax lower than ordinary income tax rates be justified?

Jensen Comment
It appears that after factoring out nonsense about stimulating investments there is only one weak and one strong justification. The weak one is the argument of double taxation. The strong one is that when investments held for years over long-term periods of inflation, taxing capital gains is totally unfair unless the investments made in dear dollars having higher purchasing power are price-level adjusted to sales amounts in cheap dollars having lower purchasing power.

Often those debating capital gains taxation ignore the fair solution of having no special capital gains tax rates while adjusting the gains for fictitious gains due to inflation:

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3798

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/do-low-taxes-on-capital-gains-spur-growth-not-necessarily/2012/01/19/gIQAJZ4yAQ_blog.html

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-23/home/30654496_1_ordinary-income-corporate-income-tax-tax-rate


"The California Dream is fizzling out," By John D. Sutter, CNN, June 27, 2011 ---
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/27/california.dream.census.slump/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

PBS News Hour
California Community Colleges Face Dilemmas Amid Tighter Budgets ---
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june12/commcolleges_04-10.html

Tax and Spend," by Kevin Kiley and Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed, May 15, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/15/californias-public-colleges-face-more-budget-cuts-if-tax-hike-fails 

"Further trigger cuts in January could be the breaking point financially for some colleges," said Jack Scott, the system's chancellor, in a written statement,"

 


The End of History

Hi Jagdish,

Oops, I accidentally hit the send button too soon.

Francis Fukuyama --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Fukuyama

He is best known for his book The End of History and the Last Man (1992), which argued that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies and free market capitalism of the West and its lifestyle may signal the end point of humanity's sociocultural evolution and become the final form of human government. However, his subsequent book "Trust: Social Virtues and Creation of Prosperity" (1995) modified his earlier position to acknowledge that culture cannot be cleanly separated from economics. Fukuyama is also associated with the rise of the neoconservative movement, from which he has since distanced himself.

Fukuyama is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University.Before that he served as a professor and director of the International Development program at the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University.

Continued in article

The phrase for what this nation and many others aspire towards is "Limited Democracy" or "Liberal Democracy" where certain rights (constitutional rights, safety, education, voting, religion, and even health care in an emergency room) are inalienable rights that cannot be voted away for any minority by a majority.

The term is probably best known in the writings of Fukuyama. When I taught one of the sections of Trinity University's First-Year Seminar, the best known of Fukuyama's books was one of the assigned six books to read and debate in my section of this seminar. Each instructor was free to choose the theme for her/his section and the assigned readings. The purpose of this course was to provide a seminar experience for first-year students without dictating content for the course. It would, however, be deemed inappropriate to turn the course into a skills course such as math, computer programming, or bookkeeping)

End of History --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_History

Fukuyama's sequence of books clearly demonstrate the evolution and mutations of his thinking over time.

 


LIBOR --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIBOR
Note that LIBOR is a global index used in hundreds of millions of contracts around the world as an underlying for interest rate movements. Nobody ever argued that LIBOR was as risk free as the U.S. Treasury Rate, but globally the U.S. Treasury rate paled relative to LIBOR as a market index for interest rates, especially hundreds of trillions of dollars in interest rate swaps.

Hence when LIBOR becomes manipulated by traders it affects worldwide settlements. This is why pension funds of small U.S. towns, labor unions, and banks of all sizes are now suing Barclays and the other U.K banks that allegedly manipulated the LIBOR market rates for their own personal agenda.

"Lies, Damn Lies and Libor:  Call it one more improvisation in 'too big to fail' crisis management," by Holman W. Jenkins Jr., The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304141204577510490732163260.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_t&mg=reno64-wsj

Ignore the man behind the curtain, said the Wizard of Oz. That advice doesn't pay in the latest scandal of the century, over manipulation of Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate. The mess is one more proof of the failing wizardry of the First World's monetary-cum-banking arrangements.

Libor is a reference point for interest rates on everything from auto loans and mortgages to commercial credit and complex derivatives. Major world banks are accused of artificially suppressing their claimed Libor rates during the 2007-08 financial crisis to hide an erosion of trust in each other.

Did the Bank of England or other regulators encourage and abet this manipulation of a global financial indicator?

We are talking about TBTF banks—too big to fail banks. Banks that, by definition, become suspect only when creditors begin to wonder if regulators might seize them and impose losses selectively on creditors. Their overseers could not have failed to notice that interbank liquidity was drying up and the banks nevertheless were reporting Libor rates that suggested all was well. The now-famous nudging phone call from the Bank of England's Paul Tucker to Barclays's Bob Diamond came many months after Libor manipulation had already been aired in the press and in meetings on both sides of the Atlantic. That call was meant to convey the British establishment's concern about Barclays's too-high Libor submissions.

Let's not kid ourselves about something else: Central banks everywhere at the time were fighting collapsing confidence by cutting rates to stimulate retail lending. Their efforts would have been thwarted if Libor flew up on panic about the solvency of the major banks.

Of all the questionably legal improvisations regulators resorted to during the crisis, then, the Libor fudge appears to be just one more. Regulators everywhere gamed their own capital standards to keep banks afloat. The Fed's bailout of AIG, an insurance company, hardly bears close examination. And who can forget J.P. Morgan's last-minute decision to pay Bear Stearns shareholders $10 a share, rather than the $2 mandated by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, to avoid a legal test of the Fed-orchestrated takeover? Even today, the European Central Bank continues to extend its mandate in dubious ways to fight the euro crisis.

There has been little legal blowback from any of this, but apparently there will be a great deal of blowback from the Libor fudge. Barclays has paid $453 million in fines. Half its top management has resigned. A dozen banks—including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase—remain under investigation. Private litigants are lining up even as officialdom seemingly intends to wash its hands of its own role.

Yet the larger lesson isn't that bankers are moral scum, badder than the rest of us. The Libor scandal is another testimony (as if more were needed) of just how lacking in rational design most human institutions inevitably are.

Libor was flawed by the assumption that the banks setting it would always be seen as top-drawer credit risks. The Basel capital-adequacy rules were flawed because they incentivized banks to overproduce "safe" assets, like Greek bonds and U.S. mortgages. The ratings process was flawed eight ways from Sunday, including the fact that many fiduciaries, under law, were required to invest in securities blessed by the rating agencies.

Some Barclays emails imply that traders, even before the crisis, sought to influence the bank's Libor submissions for profit-seeking reasons. This is puzzling and may amount to empty chest thumping. Barclays's "submitters" wouldn't seem in a position to move Libor in ways of great use to traders. Sixteen banks are polled to set Libor and any outlying results are thrown out. Plus each bank's name and submission are published daily. But let's ask: Instead of trying to manipulate Libor in a crisis, what would have been a more straightforward way of dealing with its exposed flaws, considering the many trillions in outstanding credit tied to Libor?

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on interest rate swaps and LIBOR ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm
Search for LIBOR or swap.


Research at the University of Rochester ---  https://urresearch.rochester.edu/home.action

Jensen Comment
Note that this site includes a long listing of research in accounting, finance, and economics, much of it based on positivism and financial markets.

July 8m 2012 reply from Jagdish Gangolly

Bob,

I browsed the PhD theses list at this site. One interesting observation I can make is that many of them are collection of essays. I know that many universities, including us, discourage this type of theses.

I personally think it is a very good idea, but was not able to convince my colleagues. A year ago for the first time, I did sit on a dissertation committee where the student wrote a bunch of essays (they were in the area of computational linguistics in medical informatics). I was thrilled.

I wonder what the practice is at other schools.

Regards,

Jagdish

Jagdish S. Gangolly
Department of Informatics
College of Computing & Information
State University of New York at Albany Harriman Campus,
Building 7A, Suite 220
Albany, NY 12222
Phone: 518-956-8251, Fax: 518-956-8247

 


Question
Is this a new trend for a few prestigious free open-sharing research articles?

Jensen Comment
Presumably this is an added fee when an article is accepted. Many (I think most) journals also have a submission fee that goes toward the cost of refereeing. That fee is sucked up whether or not the article is accepted unless the journal's editor turns the paper away by refusing to have it refereed.

Cambridge University Press intends to waive the added author acceptance fee for three years.
"Cambridge University Press waives author charges for new open access mathematics journals,"
http://www.cambridge.org/home/news/article/item6968539/?site_locale=en_GB
Thank you Neal Hannon for the heads up.

Cambridge has established the Forum of Mathematics to offer OA journals to the mathematics community, with the same high-level peer-review process as traditional subscription journals, with standards set by an international editorial board of the highest calibre.

For the first three years Cambridge University Press will waive publication charges, though authors with access to specific funds for OA publication will be encouraged to pay a low charge of £500/$750.


Big Hogs at the Internet Trough
Netflix Streaming Tops 1 Billion Hours in June 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/netflix-streaming-tops-1-billion-views-in-june.php


"Why don’t people like markets?" by Pascal Boyer, Cognition and Culture, June 18, 2012 ---
http://www.cognitionandculture.net/home/blog/35-pascals-blog/2423-why-dont-people-like-markets-the-largely-missing-cognition-and-culture-perspective

People do not love markets – there is a lot of evidence for that. Is it relevant that, well, to put it bluntly, people do not seem to understand much about market economics?

That is a common enough message from professional economists. It is put into sharper focus by Bryan Caplan in his book The myth of the rational voter. Caplan (among other important and interesting things) reports on systematic studies of voters’ knowledge of policies and their effects on economic processes. The take-home message is that people just don’t get it, and that their voting preferences are largely irrational.

Now, voter ignorance or irrationality would not be very bad, if it was completely random. If most voters chose policies randomly, the net result would be no strong aggregate preference for any policy. But Caplan shows that people’s irrationality about economic issues is not random at all. There is method in their madness. It consists in a series of “biases”, like the anti-foreign and anti-trade bias (i.e., “when foreign countries prosper we suffer”). If this is true, many “rational voter” models in political science are in serious trouble.

As usual when people describe folk-understandings as “irrational” or “biased”, we cognition and culture and evolution folks get a trifle impatient.

Too often, such descriptions boil down to the observation that human minds do not follow some arbitrarily chosen normative model (see Tversky and Kahneman passim and Gerd Gigerenzer on the alternative perspective). Surely we should not stop at saying that people “don’t attend to base rates” or “have a bias against foreign trade”. The real questions is, why? What psychological processes lead to such biases?

The truth is, no-one knows because no-one bothered to study that. I am surprized, nay flabbergasted that there is no study of folk-economics in the social science literature. No-one (except Caplan and a few others) seems to study what makes people’s economic modules tick. In psychology we have had decades of study of folk-physics, folk-biology, intuitive psychology and the like. Intuitive economics anyone?

Robert Nozick observed that intellectuals dislike markets, probably because intellectuals are used to and thrive in knowledge-rewarding meritocracies, while markets do not really care for your effort, intelligence or just desert, as long as you provide what others want. This may be true. But it is not sufficient, for most people, not just intellectuals, are leery of markets.

Market process are unloved for many reasons.

One of them, obviously, is that market processes are not visible. Going through our everyday tasks, we fail to notice how millions of voluntary transactions resulted in precisely these goods and services being available to us when and where we want them at a price that makes them affordable. That is of course a point that Adam Smith and others made long ago, but could be made more forcefully if we understood the limits and susceptibilities of human imagination. In a powerful essay, 19th century free-trader Frédéric Bastiat noted that the economic process comprises ‘what is seen’ and ‘what is unseen’. For instance, when a government taxes its citizens and offers a subsidy to some producers, what is seen is the money taken and the money received. What is unseen is the amount of production that would occur in the absence of such transfers

Another plausible factor is that markets are intrinsically probabilistic and therefore marked with uncertainty. Even though it is likely that whoever makes something that others want will earn income, it is not clear who these others will be, how much they will need what you make or when you will run into them. Like other living organisms, we are loss-averse and try to minimise uncertainty. (Note, however, that market uncertainty creates a niche for market-uncertainty insurance, which itself is all the more efficient as it is driven by demand).

Continued in article

Why do they hate us (professors)? --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Hate

Jensen Comment
Professors (and other intellectuals) hate markets, and non-intellectuals hate professors. So we must learn to live with hate. We don't live very well without some things we hate. Students cannot imagine learning without the help of professors, both research professors who discover new knowledge and teachers who provide materials and other aids for learning existing knowledge.

Nationwide experiments with resource allocation based up government planning boards are now mostly rotting hulls on the shores of failed experimental utopias. Where governments stepped in to distribute goods and services with coupon books or highly controlled prices, black markets moved in to make up for the failures of those controlled economies. The biggest failures came with mismatches of supply and demand creating surpluses of things consumers did not much want in great quantities and shortages of things that they desperately wanted. Countries that brutally control the black markets often end up with mass starvation like what has happened in North Korea for decades.

This of course does not mean that government should not regulate prices and resource allocations where there are resources that are externalities incapable of being effectively and efficiently priced on the market such as clean air, pure water, national security, public safety, universal education. I think universal health care (at least at basic levels) should also be considered externalities needing government regulation. There are also huge risks of overgrazing the commons without some government regulations and price controls.

One major problem is where subsets, often very small subsets, of people desperately need some essentials that cannot be produced at prices they can afford to pay. For example, we're currently having this problem with certain life-saving cancer drugs that are enormously expensive to produce in the often small quantities desperately needed by the few patients who will die without them. On occasion very tough choices must be made regarding subsidized pricing. Should we raise taxes by a billion dollars per year to provide 25,000 children with a life saving drug? Should we raise taxes by a billion dollars per year to provide 10 children with a life saving drug? There are obviously tough decisions to be made for some externalities.

The American Dream ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm

June 26, 2012 reply from Richard Sansing

Folk Economics ---
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1061637?uid=3739712&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=56278089403



Lifetime Social Security and Medicare Disability Benefits (at any age) --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Disability_Insurance

"85,000 Americans went on disability benefit in June (while only 80,000 jobs were added same period)," by Snejana Farberov, Daily Mail, July 7, 2012 ---
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2170044/85-000-Americans-went-disability-benefit-June-80-000-jobs-added-period.html

Disability Fraud --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_fraud


"Nearly A Third Of Private Sector Jobs Added Were Temporary," by Brett LoGiurato, Business Insider, July 6, 2012 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/june-jobs-report-private-sector-hiring-misses-2012-7


"Has Higher Education Become an Engine of Inequality?" Chronicle of Higher Education's Chronicle Review, July 2, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Has-Higher-Education-Become-an/132619/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

Jensen Comment
When I grew up in Iowa farm country there was no inequality in K-12 education between the poorest kids and the richest kids in the small towns and farms. I cannot recall a single family that sent their children to expensive "prep schools," although such a practice was common in some other parts of the nation. There was somewhat a difference between the Roman Catholic K-12 schools and the public schools, but the difference was not great in Iowa in those days. The parochial schools lacked resources for some college prep courses. In my home town students in the Catholic schools sometimes took selective courses in our public high school. Iowa and South Dakota were both noted states back then for having highest quality K-12 schools. But I think more credit should go to their mostly hard working and loving parents. Some Catholic kids chose to go to public schools primarily because they wanted to compete in varsity athletics. But they still worked their butts off for grades in most cases.

Parental support was generally strong, although there were a very few alcoholic parents that could be somewhat problematic. I don't recall anybody ever mentioning narcotics, not even pot. And I honestly only recall one divorced couple who still got along when it came to raising their daughter. I never had a drink of alcohol until college days, and even in Iowa State University fraternities and sororities in those days drinking was much less problematic than in more recent years.

There was no distance education via computer networks in those days, and I can't recall a single student who took college courses from correspondence colleges even though there were come correspondence credit alternatives back in those days. Most of the high school graduates either went to work full time, became stay-at-home mothers, or went on to universities and colleges in Iowa, especially to the three major state universities. There were, however, quite a few private colleges, mostly not well known nationally except for Grinnell, where some student opted for in higher education (I think that in many, many cases it was because those private schools were less competitive for top grades). There weren't any state supported community colleges in the rural Iowa towns in those days --- at least I cannot recall such community colleges.

As for stay-at-home mothers there was a huge difference between a stay-at-home mother in town versus on a farm. This farm mothers worked harder than the menfolk on those farms --- at least in those days when farm mothers bundled up their babies and waded snow in the dark to milk cows by hand (no milking machines), return to the house to cook a full breakfast for the family, and wring the heads off of chickens and clean the pin feathers in scalding water before commencing the noon meal, washing and ironing --- and so on throughout the day until it was time to milk those same cows in the late afternoon and then start supper after dark.

My bottom line conclusion is that K-12 schools and our area colleges did not contribute greatly to inequality in those days. Instead they contributed to opportunity. The poorest of the poor had a chance. I recall going to Iowa State University with Dale K. who came from arguably the poorest family. kids in our high school. He had 14 brothers and sisters in various grades in our public schools. Dale worked summers and part-time to put himself through Iowa State University and graduated with an aeronautical engineering diploma. Some of his brothers and sisters did the did the same to put themselves through Iowa State Teachers College. I played football with Frank K., Dale's brother, who still pumps gas part-time for a minimum wage in my home town and gets about on a beat-up bicycle. Frank never earned more than a minimum wage in his whole life.

I recall that in grade school Frank always won our spelling contests. Sometimes there's just no accounting for income inequality later in life. Frank is in superb health and also still runs 5-10 miles a day for exercise. He has a wife who also contributed minimum wages to help raise their two kids.

At least one of Dale's brothers went into the Army and then returned to Iowa to attend college on the G.I. bill. Of course some of Dale's sisters got married young and commenced raising their children full time. This was back when it was much more common for young couples to get married before they commenced living together. I can't recall any of my classmates who commenced living together before they got married.

Now that I'm retired, I'm once again living in a rural region in the White Mountains. Some of my closest friends are K-12 teachers who contend there really is no significant inequality in K-12 education between the poorest kids and the richest kids in these mountains. Of course the home environments are often not ideal. We have divorced parents, alcoholics, and drug addicts. But these are less problematic than in the big cities.

Our White Mountain K-12 schools are relatively safe, and we sometimes get terrific teachers who will work for much less than they could make in Boston's schools, but our teachers generally prefer rural living, lower priced housing, no traffic, cleaner air, and having students in smaller classes eager to learn rather than classes where truancy and drug addiction is an enormous problem.

But when I look at nation as a whole, I think I have to say yes to the following question
"Has Higher Education Become an Engine of Inequality?" Chronicle of Higher Education's Chronicle Review, July 2, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Has-Higher-Education-Become-an/132619/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

 

But the true engine of inequality commences before our 21st Century students either graduate or drop out of the K-12 school system.


Feeding the PIGS: Finland Would Rather Exit Euro Than Pay for Others

Eurozone --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_zone
Notably absent are the U.K., Sweden, Norway,

PIGS in the Eurozone --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_%28economics%29

Greece Wants to Say, Finland Wants to Leave (maybe)
"Finland Would Rather Exit Euro Than Pay for Others," The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303962304577510232449188446.html?mg=reno64-wsj

Finland would rather leave the euro zone than pay down the debt of other countries in the currency bloc, Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said in a newspaper interview Friday.

"Finland is committed to being a member of the euro zone, and we think that the euro is useful for Finland," Urpilainen told financial daily Kauppalehti, adding though that "Finland will not hang itself to the euro at any cost and we are prepared for all scenarios."

"Collective responsibility for other countries' debt, economics and risks; this is not what we should be prepared for," she added.

Urpilainen's spokesman Matti Hirvola stressed to AFP that the minister's comments did not mean Finland was planning to exit the euro zone.

"All claims that Finland would leave the euro are simply false," he said.

In her interview with Kauppalehti, the finance minister meanwhile insisted that Finland, one of only a few EU countries to still enjoy a triple-A credit rating, would not agree to an integration model in which countries are collectively responsible for member states' debts and risks.

She also insisted that a proposed banking union would not work if it was based on joint liability.

Urpilainen also acknowledged in an interview with the Helsingin Sanomat daily Thursday that Finland "represents a tough line" when it comes to the euro-zone bailouts.

"We are constructive and want to solve the crisis, but not on any terms," she said.

As part of its tough stance, Finland has said it will begin negotiations with Spain next week in order to obtain collateral in exchange for taking part in a bailout for ailing Spanish banks.

And last year, Finland created a significant stumbling block for the euro zone's second rescue package for Greece, only agreeing to take part after striking a collateral deal with Athens in October 2011.

Jensen Question
What can the desperate PIGS put up as collateral? (I haven't a clue)
Will PIGS really work for food? (Probably)
More importantly will the PIGS enforce tax laws (I doubt it)


Harvard Kennedy School: New study by Harvard Kennedy School researcher forecasts sharp increase in world oil production capacity, and risk of price collapse
Harvard Kennedy School, June 29, 2012
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/press-releases/maugeri-oil-production-study


LIBOR --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIBOR
Note that LIBOR is a global index used in hundreds of millions of contracts around the world as an underlying for interest rate movements. Nobody ever argued that LIBOR was as risk free as the U.S. Treasury Rate, but globally the U.S. Treasury rate paled relative to LIBOR as a market index for interest rates, especially hundreds of trillions of dollars in interest rate swaps.

Hence when LIBOR becomes manipulated by traders it affects worldwide settlements. This is why pension funds of small U.S. towns, labor unions, and banks of all sizes are now suing Barclays and the other U.K banks that allegedly manipulated the LIBOR market rates for their own personal agenda.

Bigger Than Enron
"Lies, Damn Lies and Libor:  Call it one more improvisation in 'too big to fail' crisis management," by Holman W. Jenkins Jr., The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304141204577510490732163260.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_t&mg=reno64-wsj

Ignore the man behind the curtain, said the Wizard of Oz. That advice doesn't pay in the latest scandal of the century, over manipulation of Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate. The mess is one more proof of the failing wizardry of the First World's monetary-cum-banking arrangements.

Libor is a reference point for interest rates on everything from auto loans and mortgages to commercial credit and complex derivatives. Major world banks are accused of artificially suppressing their claimed Libor rates during the 2007-08 financial crisis to hide an erosion of trust in each other.

Did the Bank of England or other regulators encourage and abet this manipulation of a global financial indicator?

We are talking about TBTF banks—too big to fail banks. Banks that, by definition, become suspect only when creditors begin to wonder if regulators might seize them and impose losses selectively on creditors. Their overseers could not have failed to notice that interbank liquidity was drying up and the banks nevertheless were reporting Libor rates that suggested all was well. The now-famous nudging phone call from the Bank of England's Paul Tucker to Barclays's Bob Diamond came many months after Libor manipulation had already been aired in the press and in meetings on both sides of the Atlantic. That call was meant to convey the British establishment's concern about Barclays's too-high Libor submissions.

Let's not kid ourselves about something else: Central banks everywhere at the time were fighting collapsing confidence by cutting rates to stimulate retail lending. Their efforts would have been thwarted if Libor flew up on panic about the solvency of the major banks.

Of all the questionably legal improvisations regulators resorted to during the crisis, then, the Libor fudge appears to be just one more. Regulators everywhere gamed their own capital standards to keep banks afloat. The Fed's bailout of AIG, an insurance company, hardly bears close examination. And who can forget J.P. Morgan's last-minute decision to pay Bear Stearns shareholders $10 a share, rather than the $2 mandated by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, to avoid a legal test of the Fed-orchestrated takeover? Even today, the European Central Bank continues to extend its mandate in dubious ways to fight the euro crisis.

There has been little legal blowback from any of this, but apparently there will be a great deal of blowback from the Libor fudge. Barclays has paid $453 million in fines. Half its top management has resigned. A dozen banks—including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase—remain under investigation. Private litigants are lining up even as officialdom seemingly intends to wash its hands of its own role.

Yet the larger lesson isn't that bankers are moral scum, badder than the rest of us. The Libor scandal is another testimony (as if more were needed) of just how lacking in rational design most human institutions inevitably are.

Libor was flawed by the assumption that the banks setting it would always be seen as top-drawer credit risks. The Basel capital-adequacy rules were flawed because they incentivized banks to overproduce "safe" assets, like Greek bonds and U.S. mortgages. The ratings process was flawed eight ways from Sunday, including the fact that many fiduciaries, under law, were required to invest in securities blessed by the rating agencies.

Some Barclays emails imply that traders, even before the crisis, sought to influence the bank's Libor submissions for profit-seeking reasons. This is puzzling and may amount to empty chest thumping. Barclays's "submitters" wouldn't seem in a position to move Libor in ways of great use to traders. Sixteen banks are polled to set Libor and any outlying results are thrown out. Plus each bank's name and submission are published daily. But let's ask: Instead of trying to manipulate Libor in a crisis, what would have been a more straightforward way of dealing with its exposed flaws, considering the many trillions in outstanding credit tied to Libor?

Continued in article

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

Bob Jensen's threads on interest rate swaps and LIBOR ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm
Search for LIBOR or swap.

Timeline of Financial Scandals, Auditing Failures, and the Evolution of International Accounting Standards ---- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudCongress.htm#DerivativesFrauds


Unemployed of the World Unite
"Why Marxism is on the rise again," by Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian, July 4, 2012 ---
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/04/the-return-of-marxism

Down With the Wages Based on Supply and Demand
Labor Theory of Value --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_theory_of_value#Marx.27s_contribution 

. . .

Marx's contribution

Contrary to popular belief, Marx does not base his LTV on what he dismisses as "ascribing a supernatural creative power to labor", arguing in the Critique of the Gotha Program that:

Labor is not the source of all wealth. Nature is just as much a source of use values (and it is surely of such that material wealth consists!) as labor which is itself only the manifestation of a force of nature, human labor power.[30]

Here Marx is drawing a distinction between exchange value (which is the subject of the LTV) and use value.

Marx uses the concept of "socially necessary abstract labor-time" to introduce a social perspective distinct from his predecessors and neoclassical economics. Whereas most economists start with the individual's perspective, Marx starts with the perspective of society as a whole. "Social production" involves a complicated and interconnected division of labor of a wide variety of people who depend on each other for their survival and prosperity.

"Abstract" labor refers to a characteristic of commodity-producing labor that is shared by all different kinds of heterogeneous (concrete) types of labor. That is, the concept abstracts from the particular characteristics of all of the labor and is akin to average labor.

"Socially necessary" labor refers to the quantity required to produce a commodity "in a given state of society, under certain social average conditions or production, with a given social average intensity, and average skill of the labour employed."[31] That is, the value of a product is determined more by societal standards than by individual conditions. This explains why technological breakthroughs lower the price of commodities and put less advanced producers out of business. Finally, it is not labor per se, which creates value, but labor power sold by free wage workers to capitalists. Another distinction to be made is that between productive and unproductive labor. Only wage workers of productive sectors of the economy produce value.[32]

Exploitation

"The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates. With the increasing value of the world of things proceeds in direct proportion to the devaluation of the world of men. Labor produces not only commodities; it produces itself and the worker as a commodity -- and does so in the proportion in which it produces commodities generally."
Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, 1844 [33]

Marx uses his LTV to derive his theory of exploitation under capitalism.

Unlike Ricardo or the Ricardian socialists, Marx distinguishes between labor power and labor. "Labor-power" is the potential or ability of workers to work, given their muscles, brains, skills, and capacities. It is the promise of creating value possessed by human labor that has not yet been expended. "Labor" is the actual activity of producing value. The profit or surplus-value arises when workers do more labor than is necessary to pay the cost of hiring their labor-power.

To explain the normality of exploitation, Marx describes capitalism as having an institutional framework in which a small minority (the capitalists) oligopolize the means of production. The workers cannot survive except by working for capitalists, and the state preserves this inequality of power. In normal role of force is structural, part of the usual workings of the system. The reserve army of unemployed workers continually threatens employed workers, pushing them to work hard to produce for the capitalists.

Criticisms

Many liberal economists believe that the Marxist labor theory of value has been "discredited".[34] The labor theory of value predicts that profits will be higher in labor-intensive industries than in capital-intensive industries, and empirical data contradicts this. This is sometimes referred to as the "Great Contradiction." Marx responds to this in his third volume of Capital with his competition of capitals theory, a mathematical transformation that has been fiercely debated. Most economists today also contest that the value of capital is limited to the "congealed labor" that it took to build the capital when that capital can increase the productive capability of labor much more than that[35].

Nonetheless, certain elements of the theory are still believed to be valid, or the theory is presented in a non-Marxist tradition.

Jensen Comment
Marx did not envision the future world of robotics and artificial intelligence where machines are efficiently and effectively replacing more and more unskilled as well as skilled labor. Factory workers, teachers, and even music composers are threatened. Increasingly a machine will be able to take blood and tissue samples for diagnostics superior to the general practitioner without computer skills. These days a laptop computer seems to be as much a part of the body of my physician as her eyes and ears. I ask her a challenging medical question and she finds me an answer in minutes --- not directly from her brain's stored knowledge but from and electronic knowledge base. Of course she has interpretive skills of medical jargon that are Greek to me. I still need her after all.

But there are anecdotal exceptions. After one of her heavy spine surgeries my wife had a physical therapist named Machie who came to our cottage twice each week. Machie and his wife immigrated from Poland. Machie's wife at one time was having terrible excruciating pains whenever she stood up, sat up, or even raised her head. Her physicians, including neurologists from the Dartmouth Medical Center, were mystified. So Machie went on an in-depth Internet search. He found some clues that his wife's troubles may be caused by rare and life-threatening leakage of spinal cord fluid. He contacted her physicians and they ordered some very non-standard tests. Sure enough that was her problem, and the problem gratefully could be corrected. She's in very good health today and carries on with her career as a mother and a massage therapist.


I'll be doggoned!

Mystery
Why did humans continue to evolve while Neandertals descended into extinction?

Hypothesis
Dog domestication may have helped humans thrive while Neandertals declined.

"Do the Eyes Have It?," by Pat Shipman, American Scientist ---
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/id.15294,y.0,no.,content.true,page.1,css.print/issue.aspx

We all know the adage that dogs are man’s best friend. And we’ve all heard heartwarming stories about dogs who save their owners—waking them during a fire or summoning help after an accident. Anyone who has ever loved a dog knows the amazing, almost inexpressible warmth of a dog’s companionship and devotion. But it just might be that dogs have done much, much more than that for humankind. They may have saved not only individuals but also our whole species, by “domesticating” us while we domesticated them.

One of the classic conundrums in paleoanthropology is why Neandertals went extinct while modern humans survived in the same habitat at the same time. (The phrase “modern humans,” in this context, refers to humans who were anatomically—if not behaviorally—indistinguishable from ourselves.) The two species overlapped in Europe and the Middle East between 45,000 and 35,000 years ago; at the end of that period, Neandertals were in steep decline and modern humans were thriving. What happened?

A stunning study that illuminates this decisive period was recently published in Science by Paul Mellars and Jennifer French of Cambridge University. They argue, based on a meta-analysis of 164 archaeological sites that date to the period when modern humans and Neandertals overlapped in the Dordogne region of southwest France, that the modern-human population grew so rapidly that it overwhelmed Neandertals with its sheer numbers.

Because not all the archaeological sites in the study contained clearly identifiable remains of modern humans or Neandertals, Mellars and French made a common assumption: that sites containing stone tools of the Mousterian tradition had been created by Neandertals, and those containing more sophisticated and generally later stone tools of the Upper Paleolithic were made by modern humans. This link between tool and toolmaker is well supported by sites that do contain hominin remains, but there is nothing inherent in a stone tool that tells you who made it—not even if you find a skeleton right next to it. Still, stone tools are one of the best available indicators of which species—modern human or Neandertal—inhabited a particular location.

Mellars and French compared the number and sizes of Neandertal and modern-human archaeological sites, as well as the density of tools and the weight per square meter of prey animals, represented by fossils, in those sites. They standardized their results for 1,000-year periods to compensate for the varying amounts of time that the different locations had been occupied. In every respect, modern humans surpassed Neandertals. In fact, the greater success of modern humans was so clear that, according to Mellars and French’s calculations, the human population increased tenfold over the 10,000-year overlap period. Modern humans thrived and Neandertals did not—even though Neandertals had lived in the European habitat for about 250,000 years before modern humans “invaded.” Why weren’t Neandertals better adapted to their environment than the newcomers?

There is no shortage of hypotheses. Some favor climate change, others a modern-human advantage derived from the use of more advanced hunting weapons or greater social cohesion. Now, several important and disparate studies are coming together to suggest another answer, or at least another good hypothesis: The dominance of modern humans could have been in part a consequence of domesticating dogs—possibly combined with a small, but key, change in human anatomy that made people better able to communicate with dogs.

Skulls and Souls

Until 2009, dogs were believed to have been domesticated about 17,000 years ago, long after Neandertals were already extinct. But then Mietje Germonpré of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and her colleagues developed a rigorous statistical method for identifying which fossil canid skulls belonged to wolves and which to dogs—the latter distinguished by their shorter, broader snouts and braincases. As I described in an earlier Marginalia column (“The Woof at the Door,” July–August 2009) the team used this technique to identify three Paleolithic skulls as domestic dogs. The earliest was from the Belgian cave of Goyet and dated to about 32,000 years ago.

Some critics of that study pointed to the long, 15,000-year interlude between those early dog skulls and the next oldest confirmed specimens. But recent discoveries have begun to fill the gap and lend credence to the ancient association between humans and large canids. In early 2012, Germonpré’s team published a study of nine additional canid skulls, three of which represented ancient dogs from Předmostí in the Czech Republic, a site dated to about 27,000 years ago. Another canid skull with many doglike features was recently studied by Nikolai Ovodov, of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and his team. It comes from Razboinichya Cave, Siberia, and is dated to about 29,000 years ago. Although this team did not use the same powerful statistical techniques as Germonpré’s group, they identified the Razboinichya skull as an “incipient dog”—an animal in an early stage of the domestication process.

None of these ancient dog skulls date exactly to the period of modern human–Neandertal overlap, but the domestication process must have been underway even before the first identifiable dog entered the fossil record. The rapidly developing consensus is that dogs were domesticated during the period when both modern humans and Neandertals lived in Europe. So far, all of these early dogs are from modern-human sites. Several lines of evidence suggest that dogs and wolves were especially revered by those humans.

. . .

Wide-Eyed Cooperation

A study by Hiromi Kobayashi and Shiro Kohshima of the Tokyo Institute of Technology showed that modern humans are unique among extant primates in having highly visible white sclerae surrounding the colored irises of their eyes, as well as eyelids that expose much of the sclerae. In other primates, the dark sclerae, similarly colored skin and concealing eyelids tend to mask the direction in which the animal is looking, according to the Japanese team. In humans, the white sclerae and open eyelids make the direction of a person’s gaze visible from a distance, particularly if that glance is directed in a more or less horizontal direction. The changes in the human eye may be adaptations to enhance the effectiveness of the gaze signal.

Michael Tomasello and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, developed this idea as the “cooperative eye hypothesis.” They suggested that cooperation among humans was facilitated by the ability to recognize where others were looking. Apes will follow gaze less often than human infants, they found. If the direction of gaze and the direction of the head conflicted, apes tended to follow head direction. In a humorous aside, the researchers noted that they tried their experiment with 14 chimpanzees, 4 gorillas, 4 bonobos and 5 orangutans—but dropped the results of tests on three chimps and all five orangutans because they “did not pay attention to the gaze cues sufficiently for their skills to be reliably assessed.” Following gaze was apparently not a high priority to the apes.

The mutation causing white sclerae is universal in humans, but it turns up occasionally in apes, too. In decades of observations at Gombe National Park in Tanzania, Jane Goodall observed two chimps, probably brothers, who had white sclerae. A third, female chimp developed white sclerae as an adult. But the trait has not spread or reappeared in that population. The advantage of the white sclerae must be related to something that ancient humans did commonly and chimps don’t do or do rarely. Although chimps hunt small prey, often cooperatively, meat makes up less than 2 percent of their diet, whereas Paleolithic humans hunted much larger game that apparently provided a significant part of their diet. Obviously, silent communication among humans would be advantageous for hunting in groups. But there is another skilled gaze-reader: the domestic dog.

A dog will follow the gaze of a videotaped human if the human first attracts the dog’s attention by speaking to it and looking at it, according to results published by Ernõ Téglás, of the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and his colleagues. Indeed, dogs perform as well as human infants at following the gaze of a speaker in tests in which the speaker’s head is held still.

Ádám Miklósi of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, and his team tested dogs and wolves, and found that dogs were far more attentive to human faces than were wolves, even socialized wolves. Although wolves excel at some gaze-following tasks, perhaps suggesting a preadaptation for communicating with humans, dogs tend to look at human faces for cues and wolves do not. Miklósi’s team believes this major behavioral difference is the result of selective breeding during domestication.

Another way of looking at this phenomenon is that the white sclerae became universal among humans because it enabled them to communicate better not only with each other but also with dogs. Once dogs could read a human gaze signal, they would have been even more useful as hunting partners. No genetic study has yet confirmed the prevalence or absence of white sclerae in Paleolithic modern humans or in Neandertals. But if the white sclera mutation occurred more often among the former—perhaps by chance—this feature could have enhanced human-dog communication and promoted domestication. Although some genetic analyses have suggested that modern humans and Neandertals interbred, even the highest estimates of cross-breeding involve very low levels of genetic exchange that might have been inadequate to spread the white sclera trait among Neandertals.

Humans love to look into their dogs’ eyes to “read” their emotions. Dogs apparently feel the same. Maybe—just maybe—this reciprocal communication was instrumental in the survival of our species.

 

Jensen Comment
Oddly enough, a dog might still love you and have devoted loyalty even if you're ugly, cruel, and even mean to it. Fortunately, most dog owners these days who take the time and trouble to care for a dog also love that dog dearly and shed flowing tears when it is hurt or dies. Of course there are also those who neglect and abuse their dogs, making us wonder why those sorry excuses for humanity evolved along with the good folks on this planet.


LIBOR --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libor

Barclays --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclays

Questions
Why are US. towns & states, labor unions, and other investors suing U.K.'s Barclays and other U.K. banks for LIBOR manipulation?
Why do PwC auditors need more caffeine?

Answer
Many of their returns on investments in things like pension funds were diminished by U.K. bank conspiracies to manipulate LIBOR. And millions of interest rate swaps based upon LIBOR underlyings (notionals in the trillions) did not have fair and just settlements. What a huge mess going on while PwC and other Big Four auditing firms slept!!!

"Barclays Manipulates LIBOR While Auditor PwC Snoozes," by Francine McKenna, Forbes, July 2, 2012 ---
http://www.forbes.com/sites/francinemckenna/2012/07/02/barclays-manipulates-libor-while-auditor-pwc-snoozes/

Bob Jensen's threads on banks and traders that are rotten to the core ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#InvestmentBanking

Bob Jensen's threads on the woes of PwC are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

 


"Do Biologists Avoid Math-Heavy Papers?" Inside Higher Ed, June 27, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/06/27/do-biologists-avoid-math-heavy-papers

New research by professors at the University of Bristol suggests that biologists may be avoiding scientific papers that have extensive mathematical detail, Times Higher Education  reported. The Bristol researchers studied the number of citations to 600 evolutionary biology papers published in 1998. They found that the most "maths-heavy" papers were cited by others half as much as other papers. Each additional math equation appears to reduce the odds of a paper being cited. Tim Fawcett, a co-author of the paper, told Times Higher Education, "I think this is potentially something that could be a problem for all areas of science where there is a tight link between the theoretical mathematical models and experiment."

"Maths-heavy papers put biologists off," by Elizabeth Gibney, Times Higher Education, June 26, 2012 ---
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=420388&c=1

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, suggests that scientists pay less attention to theories that are dense with mathematical detail.

Researchers in Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences compared citation data with the number of equations per page in more than 600 evolutionary biology papers in 1998.

They found that most maths-heavy articles were referenced 50 per cent less often than those with little or no maths. Each additional equation per page reduced a paper’s citation success by 28 per cent.

The size of the effect was striking, Tim Fawcett, research fellow and the paper’s co-author, told Times Higher Education.

“I think this is potentially something that could be a problem for all areas of science where there is a tight link between the theoretical mathematical models and experiment,” he said.

The research stemmed from a suspicion that papers full of equations and technical detail could be putting off researchers who do not necessarily have much mathematical training, said Dr Fawcett.

“Even Steven Hawking worried that each equation he added to A Brief History of Time would reduce sales. So this idea has been out there for a while, but no one’s really looked at it until we did this study,” he added.

Andrew Higginson, Dr Fawcett’s co-author and a research associate in the School of Biological Sciences, said that scientists need to think more carefully about how they present the mathematical details of their work.

“The ideal solution is not to hide the maths away, but to add more explanatory text to take the reader carefully through the assumptions and implications of the theory,” he said.

But the authors say they fear that this approach will be resisted by some journals that favour concise papers and where space is in short supply.

An alternative solution is to put much of the mathematical details in an appendix, which tends to be published online.

“Our analysis seems to show that for equations put in an appendix there isn’t such an effect,” said Dr Fawcett.

But there’s a big risk that in doing that you are potentially hiding the maths away, so it's important to state clearly the assumptions and implications in the main text for everyone to see.”

Although the issue is likely to extend beyond evolutionary biology, it may not be such a problem in other branches of science where students and researchers tend to be trained in maths to a greater degree, he added.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The causes of this asserted avoidance are no doubt very complicated and vary in among individual instances. Some biologists might avoid biology quant papers because they themselves are not sufficiently quant to comprehend the mathematics. It would seem, however, that even quant biology papers have some non-mathematics summaries that might be of interest to the non-quant biologists.

I would be inclined to believer that biologists avoid quant papers for other reasons, especially some reasons that accounting teachers and practitioners most often avoid accountics research studies (that are quant by definition). I think the main reason for this avoidance is that biology and academic quants typically do their research in Plato's Cave with "convenient" assumptions that are too removed from the real and much more complicated world. For example, the real world is seldom in a state of equilibrium or a "steady state" needed to greatly simplify the mathematical derivations.

Bob Jensen's threads and illustrations of simplifying assumptions are at
Mathematical Analytics in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm#Analytics


This is Especially Important When Teaching from Cases
"Why MBAs, and B-Schools, Need to Embrace Failure," by Matt Symonds, Business Week, July 2, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-02/why-mbas-and-b-schools-need-to-embrace-failure

From the MIT Media Lab
Venture Classes With Cases in Successful and Unsuccessful Ventures ---
http://www.media.mit.edu/about/academics/venture-classes
You can contact the instructors for more details.

"Why Companies Fail--and How Their Founders Can Bounce Back," by Carmen Nobel, Harvard Business School, March 11, 2011 ---
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6591.html

"PATHWAYS TO FAILURE OF NEW VENTURES: A STUDY OF FAILED AND NON-FAILED INTERNET NEW VENTURES," by Radha Chaganti, Rider University Rajeswararao (Raj) Chaganti, Temple University ---
http://sbaer.uca.edu/research/sbi/2009/St. Petersburg, Florida/14.pdf

"McDonald’s failed venture in hotels," by Stefan Michel, Thunderbird Professor, Knowledge Network ---
http://knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/research/2008/07/11/anatomy-of-mcdonald%E2%80%99s-failed-venture-in-hotels/

Between November 1999 and February 2000, McDonald’s stock declined from $48 to $32 per share. The financial analysts surmised that McDonald’s in the United States had reached market saturation.

Martin Huber, CFO of McDonald’s Switzerland, concluded that every opening of a new McDonald’s restaurant intruded upon the revenue of other restaurants already in operation. As a result, McDonald’s decided to pursue a “diversification” strategy.

McDonald’s Switzerland, headed by CEO Urs Hammer, chose to pursue ventures in the hotel business and in 1999 received the green light from McDonald’s headquarters.

They soon began construction on two hotels. The crucial factor in deciding to pursue the hotel strategy was that CEO Hammer came from a hotelier background. Hammer hoped the hotels would continue “the spirit of McDonald’s hospitality philosophy.” Hammer also was a frequent traveler and knew exactly what customers wanted in a hotel.

“Our restaurants serve 74 million customers in a country with a population of 7 million,” Hammer argued. “If only one in 1,000 of those guests choose the Golden Arch Hotel, the project will be a success.”

Should the Swiss managers succeed, there was the chance that they could manage operations of this strategic business unit for the entire corporation from Switzerland. Jack Greenberg, CEO of the McDonald’s Corporation, viewed Hammer’s concept as a way forward for the company. Since McDonald’s competed in many saturated markets with its restaurant business, diversification was a promising way for future growth.

In March 2001, McDonald’s Corporation opened its first hotel in the Swiss town of Rümlang. The 211-bed, four-star Golden Arch Hotel was situated close to Airport Zürich-Kloten and was built at a cost of about $26 million. A few weeks later the second hotel in Lully was opened.

The five-story Rümlang hotel sat next to a 170-seat drive-through McDonald’s restaurant open 24 hours a day, which is unusual in Switzerland. The restaurant was separated from the hotel so that only hotel guests had access to the hotel building.

Two types of rooms were offered: one offered an oversized king-sized bed and the other two oversized single beds. The price range was set from $120 to $160 per night.

To ensure efficient luggage handling, McDonald’s developed a custom-made trolley for both hotels. In accordance with the McDonald’s restaurant philosophy, the hotel crew would consist of a similar, permanent, employee pool that could implement the consistent service standards for every task in order to better serve the guests.

The motivational job rotation principle would therefore replace the traditional hotel-industry applied job specialization and hierarchy system. Because of the different peak-period demands for restaurants and hotels, the synergy effect was used to assign employees different positions and tasks.

In order to bypass the rush of the check-in and check-out process, guests had the ability to check in and out of the hotel at the airport terminal.

In total, there were nine small meeting rooms, which were able to be transformed, due to a foldable-wall technology, into a larger 30-person conference room.

To provide optimal comfort for guests, management decided against saving on beds and mattresses and outfitted the rooms with the same beds and mattresses as a five-star hotel. The room’s beds had three built-in motors for a variety of positions.

What made the room layout unique was a curved wall that gave the room a special atmosphere and design. It was a one-piece, ready-to-use design that would be patent protected by McDonald’s Switzerland. One feature of the hotel room design was a futuristic shower that projected into the bedroom. The rooms had Internet and computer facilities, with the TV screen serving as a computer screen, and a cable-free keyboard.

Rümlang, a small town on the fringe of Zürich, was chosen as the first location because Zürich was on the upswing. Occupancy rates were high, and there was much population diversity. Young people considered Zürich trendy, while older people enjoyed its culture and businesses. Guests were coming and paying the prices.

Even more promising was the airport area. The national airline Swissair used the Airport Zürich-Kloten as a hub. The hub, in turn, generated more demand for hotel beds by tourists, business travelers, and airline crews. A major expansion of the airport was likely to increase its capacity by 50 percent in the first decade of the new millennium.

The nearest hotel was a family-owned hotel with 34 rooms, three stars and no airport shuttle. The room rates were $96 to $137. A more significant competitor was in Kloten since it competed in the same price range, but it was closer to the airport , had more rooms, fewer but larger meeting rooms, and a fine-dining restaurant. Very close to Golden Arch’s property was a hotel, part of a chain that operates more than 50 hotels around the world, with three restaurants and large meeting rooms. It offered a frequent-guest rewards program.

Another direct competitor was located between the airport and downtown, close to several major business centers and corporate offices.

In spite of the surprising number of new hotels, business was still excellent for all the hotel operators. In Zürich, hotel occupancy rates in 1999 were 73 percent, and in the previous year 71 percent. The region around the airport was averaging 80 percent capacity.

The two McDonald’s hotels opened to great fanfare due to the uniqueness of the venture and the celebrity of the Swiss CEO, Urs Hammer. In spite of the media attention, and the attention paid by the visitors of the McDonald’s restaurants adjacent to the hotels, activity at the hotels was limited.

Occupancy during the first year of operation rarely, if ever, met industry average. Management negotiated to get some of the bus tour business, which is a large segment of Swiss tourism. While this caused occupancy to rise somewhat, the negotiated rate was far lower than the typical rate charged (closer to a two-star range).

Because of the high cost of construction, the debt service on the construction costs could only be recovered at a three-star price range and above.

During the first year, the hotels also experienced an unusually high rate of turnover among the staff. Finding qualified chefs and hotel staff was extremely difficult, and those who were valued tended to jump to other hotels for higher wages.

Consumers also found it difficult to believe that a McDonald’s Hotel could offer four-star accommodations, which is where the hotels were priced. Consumers expected that the hotels would be more in line with the restaurants, which, if not the best, were clean and affordable. Consumers also found it hard to believe that a four-star hotel would be connected to a McDonald’s restaurant.

In the end, a confluence of events hurt tourism in Switzerland and, therefore, the prospects of the McDonald’s Hotels. The outbreak of SARS, the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and the grounding and bankruptcy of Swissair combined to lower tourism numbers soon after the hotels opened.

Occupancy was also hurt by the increasing competition from new properties, which were brought on line at the same time as the McDonald’s properties.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
I'm reminded of situations where a great reputation can be dysfunctional, especially if it is a reputation for bargain pricing. For example, years ago Burger King elected to dedicate a portion of some of it's restaurants to candle light and white table cloth dining and an upscaled menu.. Can you imagine trying to impress your spouse on a 25th wedding anniversary candle light dinner at Burger King?

Among other things it would be uncomfortable to be having a bourgeoisie dinner on one side of the restaurant with the proletariat chomping down Whoppers on the other side of the restaurant.

I can see where it might be difficult for McDonalds or Burger King to start chains of upscale hotels. Sometimes a great reputation in one market does not carry over into another market.  See the above article.

And sometimes an upscale bourgeoisie reputation can be tarnished by trying to trade on a bourgeoisie name in a proletariat market. I often wondered if this would happen if PwC bought out H&R Block and then tried to market strip mall tax return offices and bookkeeping services under the name "PwC Lite?"

July 4, 2012 reply from Rodney Alsup

In September 2010, I wrote a blog article titled, “Do MBA students Need to Redefine Failure.” I referenced several articles, one of which was Seth Godin’s article,  “Redefining Failure,” which appeared in HBR. I think my article and Seth’s article may add to the article referenced below, “Why MBAs, and B-Schools, Need to Embrace Failure.”

Regards,
Rodney
Rodney G. Alsup, D.B.A., CPA, CITP
Professor of Accounting
Founder of MyeEMBA.Com
+1 919.627.1622
rgalsup@myeemba.com

 


"Pride, Prejudice, and Publication," by Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, Inside Higher Ed, June 26, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/pride-prejudice-and-publication

Jensen Comment
The above article made me recall part of a sermon I once heard from a minister. He said that at some university, I think it was Princeton, there is a workshop where ministers critique each others' favorite sermons much like the way poets flock a couple miles down the road from our cottage to critique each others poems at the Robert Frost Museum in Franconia for a few weeks.

The minister said that some ministers leave the critique workshop physically depressed and in some rare instances leave the ministry. Many ministers refuse to have their favorite sermons critiqued at all in this workshop. One problem that ministers face is that virtually nobody confronts a minister with a list of all the things wrong with his/her sermons. Some parishioners walk with their feet to another church, but the ministers seldom know when the main reason is the preaching. Few ministers have preaching evaluations like teachers are confronted with written teaching evaluations (that are sometimes made available either to the campus community or even the entire world).

I do not know of any RateMyPreacher site analogous to the RateMyProfessor site ---
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/


Question
What's the difference between kudo and kudos?

Answer
A kudo does not exist. Kudos is a singular in the same sense that congratulations is singular.

Grammar Girl --- Click Here
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/staticcontent/101-troublesome-words.aspx?et_cid=29196104&et_rid=496441372&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fgrammar.quickanddirtytips.com%2fstaticcontent%2f101-troublesome-words.aspx&utm_campaign=%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute2%%

Kudos means "praise" or "glory" and is often used where congratulations would fit. It comes directly from Greek and is singular, just as praise and glory are singular. However, because kudos ends in s and congratulations is plural, some people mistakenly believe that kudos is plural and use kudo as a singular form. Such use is incorrect.

Grammar Girl Tips --- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

Bob Jensen's Helpers for Writers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries


Stanford Launches iPhone/iPad App Course (free) on iTunesU (with New Peer-to-Peer Learning Features) --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/stanford_launches_iphoneipad_app_course_on_itunesu_with_new_peer-to-peer_learning_features.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29


"The Netherlands to Abandon Multiculturalism," by Soeren Kern, Gatestone Institute, June 23, 2012 ---
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2219/netherlands-abandons-multiculturalism

The Dutch government says it will abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.

A new integration bill (covering letter and 15-page action plan), which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to parliament on June 16, reads: "The government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people. In the new integration system, the values of the Dutch society play a central role. With this change, the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society."

The letter continues: "A more obligatory integration is justified because the government also demands that from its own citizens. It is necessary because otherwise the society gradually grows apart and eventually no one feels at home anymore in the Netherlands. The integration will not be tailored to different groups."

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
This kind of multiculturalism is doomed to failure in the long run as cultures merge over the long-run. Of course, there's probably bound to be a struggle (not necessarily military) regarding which culture wins out the most. For example, would it be possible in The Netherlands for a subset of women to be denied equal opportunity and protection? On the other hand would it be possible for prostitution to remain legal and a choice alternative for some women?


Jensen Comment
The phrase "survival of the fittest" is rooted in Darwin's Theory of Evolution  and biologist Herbert Spencer ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest

Accounting Survival of Historical Cost
The phrase "survival of the fittest" is now used in many other contexts. For example, among all the accounting systems available to business firms and accounting standard setters, one defense of "Historical Cost Accounting" is that it survived for over six centuries of double entry bookkeeping amidst all the would-be pretenders to the throne. Of course many of the pretenders to the throne (notably economic, entry, and exit values) are valuation alternatives whereas historical cost really is not a "valuation" alternative that pretends to generate balance sheet "values.". Instead historical cost is more focused on the income statement than the balance sheet according to the  "Matching Principle" that attempts to allocate historical costs (possibly price-level adjusted) to the revenues that they helped to generate ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#AccountingHistory
Search for "Paton and Littleton".

Of course AC Littleton turned over in his grave countless times as accounting standard setters corrupted parts (but certainly not all) of his pure historical cost accounting that admittedly required some arbitrary measures such as depreciation allocations and inventory cost flow assumptions and (shudder) conservatism adjustments to historical costs. But the subjectivity and arbitrary nature of historical cost computations are minor relative to measuring the economic-value's future cash flows of 300+ Days Inn Hotels, the appraised yard sale (exit) values of 300+ Days Inns Hotels, or the depreciation-adjusted current replacement (entry) values of 300+ Days Inn Hotels ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory02.htm#FairValue

 

A Book Review of "Darwin's Ghosts:  The Secret History of Evolution" by Rebecca Scott
"How the Fittest Theory Survived:  In "Darwin's Ghosts,' Rebecca Stott traces the work of the many scholars, philosophers and scientists whose insights into nature and its laws culminated in 'Origin of Species.',"by Laura J. Snyder, The Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303703004577476800626591224.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_t&mg=reno64-wsj

In December 1859, a month after he published "Origin of Species," Charles Darwin was eagerly awaiting the verdict of its reviewers. He feared his book would meet the fate of an earlier anonymous work promoting evolution, "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," which had received the geologist Adam Sedgwick's most damning insult: It seemed to have been written with "the science gleaned at a lady's boarding-school."

Darwin had not anticipated another type of criticism. In an otherwise complimentary letter, the Rev. Baden Powell, a mathematician and the father of the founder of the Scouting movement, Robert Baden-Powell, chastised Darwin for not giving sufficient credit to those who had proposed evolutionary theories before him.

As Rebecca Stott recounts in "Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution," Darwin reacted by drawing up a brief discussion of those who had preceded him. This "Historical Sketch" ultimately included 36 names and was added as a preface to later editions of "Origin." The conceit of Ms. Stott's project is that men she considers Darwin's predecessors—including a number not included in his "Historical Sketch"—were his "ghosts."

Ms. Stott describes the lives and work of these ghosts of Darwin: the Greek philosopher Aristotle, the ninth-century Arab scholar Al-Jahiz, the 15th-century artist-scientist Leonardo da Vinci, the 16th-century potter Bernard Palissy and, in the 18th century, the microscopist Abraham Trembley, the French natural historian Benoît de Maillet and the philosophe Denis Diderot. These chapters—focusing on men not part of the standard histories of evolutionary theory—are followed by chapters discussing evolution's "usual suspects": Erasmus Darwin, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Robert Grant, Robert Chambers and Alfred Russel Wallace.

In telling the stories of these men, Ms. Stott—who is also a novelist—writes with a novelist's flair. Here we are with Aristotle peering at the fish in the waters around the island of Lesbos and with Al-Jahiz lighting fires on riverbanks, in courtyards and in forests, watching the variety of insects that approach the fire at each location. We listen in on Leonardo's musings about the "petrifications" brought to him by peasants: "rocks with strange markings and shapes, flecked with oyster shells and corals." We watch Palissy making his own "fossils" by entombing live creatures in plaster, which he used in grotto he was building for Catherine de' Médici; Trembley discovering that the sea polyp regenerates its amputated body parts; and Grant dissecting sea sponges at water's edge.

Ms. Stott brings Darwin himself to life in a way consistent with what we know about him through his letters and notebooks: He comes off as an inquisitive, thoughtful and conscience-haunted man. Yet one sometimes wonders how Ms. Stott can be certain about what is going on in the mind of her subjects. "Conversations with Powell opened up in Darwin's head again and again, sometimes angry, sometimes defensive or apologetic. Christmas was no time to be defending one's reputation, he told himself."

The case is more troubling when we are dealing with figures about whom less is known, like Aristotle. Although in his "History of Animals" he writes that "around Lesbos the fish of the outer sea or of the lagoon bring forth their eggs or young in the lagoon," we do not know exactly in what manner Aristotle made the piscine observations that Ms. Stott describes in so much detail.

More egregious for the book's conceit is that, as Ms. Stott notes, Aristotle rejected the idea of evolution; he believed species are fixed, eternally unchanging. Ms. Stott points out that Darwin added Aristotle to his "Historical Sketch" in error, being led astray by an admirer of the Greek philosopher who had misread a passage in his works. Others whom Ms. Stott considers Darwin's ghosts—including Al-Jahiz, Leonardo and Trembley—were also strongly opposed to species evolution. Ms. Stott justifies their inclusion by explaining that these men were interested in issues that would later attract Darwin's attention, such as "adaptation"—the fact that species appear to be so well suited to their environments, like the duck, an aquatic bird, which has webbed feet that help it swim.

That organisms are fitted to their environments, however, has long been used as evidence against evolution as well as for it. In Darwin's time, opponents of evolution saw instances of adaptation as signs of God's divine plan. At Cambridge University, Darwin read the works of William Paley, who argued that the physical world was like a watch: Both are so complex and well-ordered that they could not have come to be randomly but only through the work of an intelligent designer. Some of Ms. Stott's subjects are ghosts of Paley as much as ghosts of Darwin.

The real story that Ms. Stott tells here is not the "secret" history of evolution but a larger, more fundamental history: the rise of an empirical, evidence-based approach to studying nature. As Ms. Stott notes of Leonardo: "In all his descriptions, he repeated the phrase 'I myself have seen it' again and again, invoking the Aristotelian imperative he lived by: never trust a fact unless you have seen it with your own eyes." Ms. Stott's "ghosts" spent their lives collecting facts about nature—"mountains of facts," as she says of French natural historian Benoît de Maillet—in order to gain insight into nature's laws.

From Aristotle to the great inductive philosopher Francis Bacon in the 17th century and on to William Whewell and John Herschel, the 19th-century writers who were such great influences on Darwin, a vision of science arose that privileged observation and experiment over axiomatic deduction or wild speculation. Darwin spent more than 20 years collecting his own mountain of facts, worrying up to the eve of publication that "Origin of Species" would be seen as insufficiently supported by empirical evidence. Darwin and the "ghosts" so richly described in Ms. Stott's enjoyable book are the descendants of Aristotle and Bacon and the ancestors of today's scientists.

Ms. Snyder is the author, most recently, of "The Philosophical Breakfast Club."

Accounting History in a Nutshell ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#AccountingHistory 

Underlying Bases of Balance Sheet Valuation ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory02.htm#BasesAccounting


Khan Academy --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy

The Trouble With Derek Muller
The trouble with Robert Talbot is that he relies on Derek Muller's superficial experiments on undergraduates and then extrapolates the findings to the entire world. He's Exhibit A about what we warn doctoral students about when they are learning how to conduct research and write up results of research.

In my viewpoint learning efficiency and effectiveness of any pedagogy 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:

It all boils down to how badly a student wants to learn something like how to take the derivative of a polynomial. Chances are that if a student is totally motivated and intent on learning this process, he or she can keep studying and re-studying Khan Academy videos for mastery learning far beyond what most any other pedagogy on this subject can offer.

The writings of Derek Muller are too superficial for my liking. Of course, learning from the Khan Academy can be superficial if the students are not intently focused on really, really wanting to learn. So what does that prove about the students who are intently focused on really, really wanting to learn?

The Kahn Academy is really intended for students who really, really want to learn. Don't knock it just because it doesn't work as well for unmotivated students used in superficial experiments.

A Really, 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

A Really Misleading Article
"The trouble with Khan Academy," by Robert Talbert, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 3, 2012
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/07/03/the-trouble-with-khan-academy/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en


BBC Podcasts:  Michael Sandel: The Public Philosopher ---
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/r4sandel
Examples include the following:

Topics Jensen would like to have Sandel take up

 


Question
Are you sick of reading your student's blogs?

"A Better Blogging Assignment," by Mark Sample, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 3, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-better-blogging-assignment/41127?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

"Teaching With Blogs, by Lanny Arvan, Inside Higher Ed, July 27, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/07/27/arvan

Bob Jensen's threads on blogging ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm#Blogs


Competency-Based Programs (where instructors do not assign the grades) Can Work Well But Do Not Always Work Well

A Research Report
"Competency-Based Degree Programs in the U.S. Postsecondary Credentials for Measurable Student Learning and Performance," Council on Adult and Experiential Learning," 2012 ---
http://www.cael.org/pdfs/2012_CompetencyBasedPrograms

Executive Summary
As our economy evolves, there is growing recognition of the importance of an educated workforce. A key challenge is how to help more people, particularly adults, succeed at the postsecondary level and earn degrees. However, promoting degree completion is not our only challenge. Today our higher education system is facing a crisis regarding its perceived quality. One model for improving quality is competency-based education, in which an institution clearly defines the specific competencies expected of its graduates. This paper examines the current state of competency-based postsecondary education in the U.S., profiling the various types of competency-based, or competency-focused, models that currently exist, the extent to which these programs assess for student competencies or learning outcomes, and the extent to which these programs operate outside of a credit-based system. These programs can help inform other institutions interested in developing a stronger focus on competencies, whether by demonstrating the possibilities of high quality programs or by facilitating the recognition of learning.

Jensen Comment
The good news is that competency-based grades virtually put an end to games played by students to influence their grades from their instructors. Instead they may be more demanding on their instructors to do a better job on content rather than being their buddies. Competency-based grading goes a long way to leveling the playing field.

However, a competency-based system can be dysfunctional to motivation and self-esteem. One of my old girl friends at the University of Denver was called in by her physical chemistry professor who made a deal with her. If she would change her major from chemistry he agreed to give her a C grade. I honestly think an F grade would've discouraged her to a point where she dropped out of college. Instead she changed to DU's nursing school and flourished with a 3.3 gpa. Purportedly she became an outstanding nurse in a long and very satisfying career that didn't require much aptitude for physical chemistry. For some reason she was better in organic chemistry.

I can't imagine teaching a case course in the Harvard Business School where the course grades are entirely based on a final examination that depends zero upon what the course instructor feels was "class participation." There's not much incentive to participate in class discussions if the those discussions impact some way upon grades and instructor evaluations (such as evaluations for graduate school and employment).

Much of what is learned in a course or an entire college curriculum cannot be measured in test grades and term paper grading (where the readers of the term papers are not the instructors).

In spite of all the worries about competency-based grading and student evaluations, there are circumstances where competency-based education inspires terrrific learning experiences.

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


I don't like Joe's question.
It's too simplistic and demands a complicated answer.

"What Is the Best Book You Ever Read?" by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, June 23, 2012 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-is-best-book-you-ever-read.html

Jensen Comment
Firstly I don't like this question because many readers who answer this question, especially in public, will be trying to say something about themselves instead of the book. To your Mom and your kids, the best book you ever read had better be The Bible or The Quran.

To your blog audience the best book you ever read from cover to cover had better be Toynbee's ten-volume set ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_J._Toynbee

Secondly, such a question should be asked in one of a hundred or more contexts. What is the best book you ever read in accounting history, financial accounting, cost accounting, tax accounting, accounting information systems, history of computing, learning and cognition, etc.

What is the best mystery novel you've ever read, the best romantic novel you ever read, the best biography you ever read, and on and on and on.

Beware of those oral interviews when applying for a job or college admission or membership in an exclusive club. Be prepared for those trick questions such as the examples given below:

 

In the end the choices at the top and bottom of your lists on most any topic are just too close together to rank. And your choices are not locked in time or place.

 

Conclusion
Of course my favorite set of books is Toynbee's ten-volume set.
Oops! Sorry Mom, I overlooked The Bible.

Bob Jensen's threads on ranking controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings

Bob Jensen's threads on systemic aggregation problem when ranking vegetables ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

Take a look at how your favorite greens stack up in the chart below:

Green (Raw - per 100 g serving) Vitamin A Vitamin C Fiber Folate Calories
Arugula 2,373 IU 15 mg 1 g 97 mcg 25
Chicory 4,000 IU 24 mg 4 g 109.5 mg 23
Collards 3,824 IU 35.3 mg 3 g 166 mcg 30
Endive 2,050 IU 6.5 mg 3 g 142 mcg 17
Kale 8,900 IU 120 mg 2 g 29.3 mcg 50
Butterhead (includes Boston and Bibb) 970 IU 8 mg 1 g 73.3 mcg 13
Romaine 2,600 IU 24 mg 1 g 135.7 mcg 14
Iceberg 330 IU 3.9 mg 1 g 56 mcg 12
Loose leaf (red, green) 1,900 IU 18 mg 1 g 49.8 mcg 18
Radicchio 27 IU 8 mg 0 g 60 mcg 23
Spinach 6,715 IU 28.1 mg 2 g 194.4 mcg 22
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1999

 


"Avoiding MBA Internship Blunders," Business Week, June 21, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-21/avoiding-mba-internship-blunders

Seven internship goofs listed by Aida in Adelaide (not goofs in CPA firms) ---
http://www.community.ichm.edu.au/s/226/images/editor_documents/Internship News 22-02-08.pdf

1. BEING A WALLFLOWER

Shy and quiet interns are at a definite disadvantage, says Roger Conner, Vice- President of Communications at Marriott International. "They may be quite intelligent, but it does not reflect well on them." Good interpersonal skills, such as making good eye contact, are extremely important, he says. Put those skills to use, and take advantage of company-wide events to get some face time with higher management. Those in higher positions are often more than willing to share their advice with interns, when asked. "Maybe they can spare the 30 minutes on their calendars, and maybe they can't -- but it doesn't hurt to try."

2. DUCKING THE EXTRACURRICULARS

Most companies make an effort to arrange informal events and outings such as football games or community service days -- sometimes for a whole department, sometimes just for interns. By not participating you might actually be sending the message that you don't understand the company's values. You'll also lose out on what may be the best opportunities to get to know your co-workers on a more personal level.

3. GRUNTING ABOUT GRUNT WORK

Whether it's making photocopies or polishing cutlery, menial duties are a fact of life in every job role. Getting on with those small tasks will make any department run smoother and will stand you in good stead with your manager, who’ll be impressed by your willingness to help out.

4. MISSING THE BIG PICTURE

Spending as much time as you can with as many people as you can is the best way to learn about the company you're working for. Don't be afraid to venture outside your immediate team or department to learn how your responsibilities fit into the big picture.

5. FAILING TO ASK QUESTIONS

Asking questions can be crucial to avoid wasting time and energy by approaching problems in the wrong way. They can also speak volumes about your desire to learn. There's perhaps no better way to show off your intellectual curiosity than by asking intelligent questions. It's the rare person in any organisation who knows everything.

6. REJECTING CRITICISM

Critical feedback is the most challenging to give and receive -- but it's also the most useful. That means it's smart for interns to seek out constructive criticism, rather than waiting for a formal review.

Some students, particularly confident ones in the classroom, may not be as open to criticism as they should be. Instead of really listening to feedback, a number of interns simply shut it out. Overly cocky interns aren't just making a bad impression; they're also missing out on valuable opportunities to improve their skills.

7. WASTING TIME

Recruiters consistently cite being proactive as one of the most important qualities in a successful intern. If you're waiting to be told what to do you're not doing enough. 6 months is short, and there's a lot you can learn by asking for new tasks.

 

Jensen Comment
Probably the best advice to consider is that given by the firm's employee who interviewed you for the internship. And pay particular attention to your accounting professors --- they're always right.

Seriously, the professor who has previously monitored a lot of interns probably has heard it all. That professor can probably highlight the big plus things to do on and internship as well as the minus things.

One of the toughest internship settings requires tolerance with dignity. One time I ended up with a house guest at a Comedy Club on the San Antonio River Walk. The show turned especially gross, and my friend and I soon walked out. I felt sorry for the 23 Ernst & Young employees and interns who were sitting alongside of us at the same show. Should you, as an intern, have walked out of the show leaving your 22 colleagues behind? I really don't know what to advise in these circumstances. I honestly think the E&Y local office employees, like us, did not really expect that Comedy Club show to become so gross. On the other hand, perhaps street smart people should always expect the worst from a Comedy Club.

And if the internship goes badly, the blame may not all fall on the intern. Sometimes employees dealing with interns are under stress and not at their best during a particular internship period. Do report any really bad stuff like sexual harassment and failure to deliver on what was promised to you in this internship. And do own up to your own mistakes. To err is human on the job. To cover it up or blame somebody else is generally stupid.

And remember things that seem cool among other students is not always cool on the job --- including those brass boogers sticking out the side of your nose, lip, or tongue and those edges of tattoos that peek out from your clothing.

Don't pretend to be a great intellectual by tossing out quotes from renowned scholars. Instead be able to discuss possible batting averages, injury, and e.r.a. reasons that the Red Sox are at the bottom of their division. Know the names of the top money winners in recent P.G.A. and L.P.G.A. tournaments.

Be polite everybody equally and don't be overly patronizing to women and minorities. If a particular woman makes a feminist joke or a black makes a watermelon joke this does not mean you are entitled to make the same types of jokes --- but jokes about Ole, Lena, Sven, and Swedes in general are commendable in any setting.

And remember that interns sometimes are treated differently than full-time employees. Be prepared for questions such as those shown below:

Sometimes such questions are just ways of making conversation with strangers. At other times they are trick questions to see if you tend to pretend to be somebody that you're really not or somebody who is slow to think and speak extemporaneously. Of course if you prepare for the above questions it's not exactly extemporaneous.

 


No increase in taxes for the middle class! Yeah Right!
For example, greatly reducing exemptions for school, town, county, and state bond interest could massively increase property taxes for the middle class.
Reducing tax breaks for health insurance and care will massively impact the poor and the middle class.
It's a good thing President Obama that most voters won't understand his budget before the 2012 election and that the liberal media will try to keep this a secret


"The President’s 2013 Budget: More Troubling Tax Increases in the Fine Print," by Curtis Dubay, The Heritage Foundation, June 25, 2012 ---
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/06/the-presidents-2013-budget-more-troubling-tax-increases-in-the-fine-print

Abstract: Buried in the fine print of President Obama’s FY 2013 budget proposal is an expansion of his cap on itemized tax deductions—to now include exemptions and exclusions. Applying the cap to exemptions and exclusions is yet another way the President has devised to increase the already sizeable tax burden shouldered by families and small businesses who earn $200,000 or more a year. This policy change so badly violates the basic tenets of sound taxation that it is little more than a move to further punish the most successful Americans with yet another confiscatory tax increase. Congress should reject the President’s cap, like it has in the past, and focus on revenue-neutral fundamental tax reform that would lower tax rates and improve neutrality to encourage economic growth.

It is generally known that President Barack Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget calls for a massive $2 trillion tax increase. This amount is not explicitly in the budget because it hides several tax increases in the fine print. Also buried deep in the fine print is the President’s expansion of his cap on itemized deductions, which, unlike in previous years, now applies to tax exemptions and exclusions.

The devil really is in the details in this case. Applying the cap to exemptions and exclusions is yet another way the President has devised to increase the already sizeable tax burden shouldered by individuals and small businesses earning $200,000 a year or more ($250,000 for married couples). This makes it yet another growth-slowing tax increase in the long list of tax increases already proposed by the President.

President Obama’s cap would slow growth even further because it would also move taxes further from neutrality. A proper tax code does not influence economic decisions of families, businesses, investors, and entrepreneurs. Neutrality is the standard against which tax policies are compared in order to determine if they influence decisions. A neutral policy is one that does not influence, neither in a positive nor negative way, economic choices. Policies that move in the opposite direction of neutrality, like President Obama’s application of his cap to exemptions and exclusions, slow growth.

Congress has rightly rejected the President’s cap in previous years. The inclusion of exemptions and exclusions should give it even more reason to do so again.

Capping Exemptions and Exclusions

In each of his three previous budgets, President Obama proposed a cap on the itemized tax deductions of individuals and businesses earning $200,000 or more a year. The cap served different purposes in previous budgets. In 2009, it was a way to raise revenue for the impending health care bill. In 2010, it was a way to raise more revenue for general spending. In 2011, the President wanted a cap as a misguided way to “pay for” patching the alternative minimum tax (AMT) for middle-income taxpayers. This year, the cap is back as an intended revenue raiser.

In its first three iterations, the cap restricted taxpayers’ itemized deductions to the amount that those deductions would have reduced their tax bill had they paid the 28 percent marginal rate instead of the higher marginal rate they actually paid. This year, the cap still limits deductions to their value at the 28 percent marginal tax rate, but now also applies to tax exemptions and exclusions as well.

President Obama provided no details in his budget about how the expansion of the cap would work, but the Treasury Department reports that, at a minimum, President Obama’s cap would include the following exemptions or exclusions:

Job-Destroying Revenue Grab

Expanding the cap to exemptions and exclusions greatly expands the policy’s tax-hiking capacity. In President Obama’s FY 2012 budget, when the cap only applied to itemized deductions, the Treasury Department estimated that it would raise $321 billion over 10 years.[4] Now that the cap includes exemptions and exclusions, the Treasury Department estimates that it would raise $584 billion over 10 years.[5] That is an increase of more than 80 percent.

The extension of the cap to exemptions and exclusions is another way to raise the taxes of job creators, such as businesses that pay their taxes through the individual income tax, as well as investors and entrepreneurs. The President already wanted to raise their marginal tax rates, their tax rates on capital gains and dividends rates, and revive old provisions that phased out their personal exemptions and deductions (PEP and Pease).

By taking even more of these job creators’ earnings, President Obama would further erode their already diminished ability to make the investments that are necessary to create the jobs the economy so desperately needs.

Step in Wrong Direction. Expanding the cap to exemptions and exclusions would slow economic growth not merely by taking resources from job creators, but also by moving taxes further from neutrality. It would also make repairing the broken health insurance market more difficult. The new cap would do these things by levying tax on the following exemptions or exclusions:

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
What most voters least understand is that governments at all levels, especially school districts, towns, counties, and states, will increase the Federal tax revenues that result in less revenue for them in President Obama's proposed budget. And the poor pay rent such they there will be rent increases to cover the increases in property taxes to say nothing about the added sales taxes and fees.

If you like watching the drama of gridlock in Washington DC, you're going to love watching the forthcoming budget legislation wars in Congress. And in the meantime you can watch the trillion-dollar deficits grow into ten-of-trillions of dollars in deficits.


"Starting to Reprogram Your Students - Part One," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, July 1, 2012 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2012/07/starting-to-reprogram-your-students.html

"Starting to Reprogram Your Students - Part Two," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, July 12, 2012 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2012/07/starting-to-reprogram-your-students_12.html

Jensen Comment
I wonder why reprogramming students is different from reprogramming a PC that is loaded with malicious malware. My tech experts tell me that the only solutions to many malware infestations is to "rebuild the PC" which is tantamount to erasing the hard drive and re-installing the operating system and desired programs.

Sadly, we cannot reprogram a student like we can rebuild a PC. Thus, Professor Hoyle's rebuilding efforts entails trying to work around the malware that's already embedded in a student. That's a really tough problem for some types of human malware.


Case on Professional Writing in the Work Place
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on June 22, 2012

This Embarrasses You and I*
by: Sue Shellenbarger
Jun 19, 2012
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
Click here to view the video on WSJ.com WSJ Video
 

TOPICS: Accounting


 

SUMMARY: The article highlights the need for correct grammar in the workplace, particularly in corporate interactions with customers and other outsiders. It describes many corporations providing grammar training at the workplace, including holding spelling bees and other grammar-oriented competitions to get employees' competitive juices flowing. The narrative describes many industries including accounting via a paragraph about the chief internal auditor at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp.


 

CLASSROOM APPLICATION: The article is helpful for all instructors wanting to motivate students in their writing efforts for these WSJ Reviews. Good references to aid accounting instructors in leading this discussion are May, Claire B. and Gordon S. May, Effective Writing: A Handbook for Accountants, 9th Edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2011. ISBN #9780132567244 Strunk, W. Jr., and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, 5th Edition. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2009. ISBN 978-0-205-31342-6.


 

QUESTIONS: 
1. (Introductory) Identify all professions or industries highlighted in the article.

 

2. (Advanced) How have firms in each of the industries listed above been affected by diminished use of proper grammar?

 

3. (Introductory) According to the author's discussion in the related video, what is the overall major concern with slippage in business use of appropriate English grammar?

 

4. (Advanced) Take the online quiz offered in the interactive graphic for the article available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303410404577466662919275448.html?KEYWORDS=grammar+workplace#project%3DWORKFAM0619%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive How many questions did you answer correctly? List all questions you answered incorrectly for which you do not know the reason behind your error.
 


 

SMALL GROUP ASSIGNMENT: 
Assign the WSJ article in one class. Then, in the ensuing class, break students into groups to discuss the errors listed in answer to question 4. Have students help one another to determine the reasons for the errors, then report out: 1. The most common grammatical errors in the group. 2. The reasons for the errors. Conduct discussion to ensure that all students have correct reasons for solutions to the common errors.

Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island

 

"This Embarrasses You and I*,"  by: Sue Shellenbarger, The Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303410404577466662919275448.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid&mg=reno64-wsj

When Caren Berg told colleagues at a recent staff meeting, "There's new people you should meet," her boss Don Silver broke in, says Ms. Berg, a senior vice president at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., marketing and crisis-communications company.


 

"I cringe every time I hear" people misuse "is" for "are," Mr. Silver says. The company's chief operations officer, Mr. Silver also hammers interns to stop peppering sentences with "like." For years, he imposed a 25-cent fine on new hires for each offense. "I am losing the battle," he says.


 

Managers are fighting an epidemic of grammar gaffes in the workplace. Many of them attribute slipping skills to the informality of email, texting and Twitter where slang and shortcuts are common. Such looseness with language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors, many managers say.


 

There's no easy fix. Some bosses and co-workers step in to correct mistakes, while others consult business-grammar guides for help. In a survey conducted earlier this year, about 45% of 430 employers said they were increasing employee-training programs to improve employees' grammar and other skills, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP.


 

"I'm shocked at the rampant illiteracy" on Twitter, says Bryan A. Garner, author of "Garner's Modern American Usage" and president of LawProse, a Dallas training and consulting firm. He has compiled a list of 30 examples of "uneducated English," such as saying "I could care less," instead of "I couldn't care less," or, "He expected Helen and I to help him," instead of "Helen and me."


 

Leslie Ferrier says she was aghast at letters employees were sending to customers at a Jersey City, N.J., hair- and skin-product marketer when she joined the firm in 2009. The letters included grammar and style mistakes and were written "as if they were speaking to a friend," says Ms. Ferrier, a human-resources executive. She had employees use templates to eliminate mistakes and started training programs in business writing.


 

At Work

Readers weigh in on the grammar gaffes and malapropisms that make them fume. Share yours.


 

Most participants in the Society for Human Resource Management-AARP survey blame younger workers for the skills gap. Tamara Erickson, an author and consultant on generational issues, says the problem isn't a lack of skill among 20- and 30-somethings. Accustomed to texting and social networking, "they've developed a new norm," Ms. Erickson says.


 

At RescueTime, for example, grammar rules have never come up. At the Seattle-based maker of personal-productivity software, most employees are in their 30s. Sincerity and clarity expressed in "140 characters and sound bytes" are seen as hallmarks of good communication—not "the king's grammar," says Jason Grimes, 38, vice president of product marketing. "Those who can be sincere, and still text and Twitter and communicate on Facebook—those are the ones who are going to succeed."


 

Also, some grammar rules aren't clear, leaving plenty of room for disagreement. Tom Kamenick battled fellow attorneys at a Milwaukee, Wis., public-interest law firm over use of "the Oxford comma"—an additional comma placed before the "and" or "or" in a series of nouns. Leaving it out can change the meaning of a sentence, Mr. Kamenick says: The sentence, "The greatest influences in my life are my sisters, Oprah Winfrey and Madonna," means something different from the sentence, "The greatest influences in my life are my sisters, Oprah Winfrey, and Madonna," he says. (The first sentence implies the writer has two celebrity sisters; the second says the sisters and the stars are different individuals.) After Mr. Kamenick asserted in digital edits of briefs and papers that "I was willing to go to war on that one," he says, colleagues backed down, either because they were convinced, or "for the sake of their own sanity and workplace decorum."


 

Patricia T. O'Conner, author of a humorous guidebook for people who struggle with grammar, fields workplace disputes on a blog she cowrites, Grammarphobia. "These disagreements can get pretty contentious," Ms. O'Conner says. One employee complained that his boss ordered him to make a memo read, "for John and I," rather than the correct usage, "for John and me," Ms. O'Conner says.


 

In workplace-training programs run by Jack Appleman, a Monroe, N.Y., corporate writing instructor, "people are banging the table," yelling or high-fiving each other during grammar contests he stages, he says. "People get passionate about grammar," says Mr. Appleman, author of a book on business writing.

Continued in article

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

 

June 25, 2012 message from Phillip Drake at Arizona State University
 
Professor Jensen,
 
As a lurker on AECM, I wanted to share with you an Accounting Review article from 1951 lamenting the writing skills of junior accountants along with Northwestern's innovative approach to addressing it.

 
Apparently we, as a profession, have struggled with this issue for generations.

 
Respectfully,

 
Phil Drake
 
Clinical Professor of Accounting
 
Arizona State University

 

"Can Junior Accountants be Trained to Write Better," by George A. Owen and Richard C Gerfen, The Accounting Review, Volume 26, No. 3, 1951, pp. 313-320.
The article is available from JSTOR.
Jensen Comment
The research is based on survey methodology. It's main conclusion is that there is incremental advantage to specialized (in this case on-the-job) writing of accounting reports. It also recommends that writing skills become more of a part of job performance expectations.

Grammar Girl's 101 Troublesome Words You'll Master in No Time (not free) --- Click Here
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/staticcontent/101-troublesome-words.aspx?et_cid=29181500&et_rid=496441372&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fgrammar.quickanddirtytips.com%2fstaticcontent%2f101-troublesome-words.aspx&utm_campaign=%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute2%%

I don't have much trouble with these words because I learned Phonicks.

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

 


English spelling is notoriously inconsistent, and some have gone further, calling it “the world’s most awesome mess” or “an insult to human intelligence” (both these from linguists, one American, one Austrian.
"The myth of English as a global language," by Tom Shippey, The Times Literary Supplement, May 23, 2012 ---
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1044656.ece

English spelling is notoriously inconsistent, and some have gone further, calling it “the world’s most awesome mess” or “an insult to human intelligence” (both these from linguists, one American, one Austrian). Maybe this is just because our alphabet only has twenty-six letters to represent more than forty phonemes, or distinctive speech-sounds, and some of those – notably q and x – are not pulling their weight, while j is not allowed to (see “John” but also “George”). If we gave s and z a consistent value (“seazon”) and extended this to k and c (“klok” and “sertain”), we could free c up for other duties, such as maybe representing ch, as once it did. But then there are all the vowels . . . .

How did this unsystematic system come about? And is it really that bad? Some say that there are only a few hundred deeply irregular words, but the trouble is that most of them are common. Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle even went so far as to claim that we have “close to an optimal system”, though that takes a deal of argument to convince. The History of English Spelling does not, in any case, try to resolve the dispute. It is based on a very large collection of data made by the late Christopher Upward – much of which has had to be excluded, though available from www.historyofenglishspelling.info  – put in order by George Davidson. Successive chapters look at the way words were spelled in Old and Middle English, how Franco-Latin and other words were dealt with, before going on to “The Exotic Input”. Each chapter is organized by letters, in alphabetical order. This is not, in other words, a book easily read. The most convenient way to use it may be to look up individual words for their histories in the forty-page word index.

Richard J. Watts’s Language Myths and the History of English has a much more evident polemical and narrative structure. It is concerned to correct what the author sees as an interlocking and mutually reinforcing system of myths about English, which have been deployed in the service of elitist and often nationalist ideology. The trouble is, one person’s myth is someone else’s securely established datum, and vice versa.

One can agree that there are some familiar metaphors applied to language generally, and sometimes more particularly to English, which should not be taken too far. Watts notes the metaphor of language as a human being – which means it can have qualities applied to it, like “noble” or “healthy” or “diseased” – and also language as family member (French as a “daughter” of Latin), or language as geological formation (so English has “strata”). The dangerous one as regards English, I would suggest, is language as threatened female, whose “purity” is continually being “violated” or “polluted” by vulgarisms, Americanisms, anything one doesn’t happen to like. If one pursued this image, one would have to say that English, far from being a pure maiden, looks like a woman who has appeared out of some distant fen, had more partners than Moll Flanders, learned a lot in the process, and is now running a house of negotiable affection near an international airport. But metaphors can be taken too far.

Watts’s first assaults are on the myths of English as ancient, and of the unbroken tradition of English. He seems in neither case to be on sure ground. The first straw men set up to be demolished are Richard Chenevix-Trench (1855) and Thomas KingtonOliphant (1878), neither of them any longer authoritative. In any case I cannot see what objection there is to the former’s belief that “the beginnings of Old English go well back into the past beyond the written evidence we possess”. Of course they do. Just as every creature now alive has an ancestry going back to the primordial ooze – if it didn’t have such an ancestry, it wouldn’t be there – so every language in the world (except maybe the artificially invented ones like Esperanto) has an ancestry going far back into prehistory. Along the way, there have been continual changes, mutations, even speciation – the question of where Vulgar Latin turns into French, or Early Runic becomes Old Norse, is a judgement call. However, one powerful reason for calling the language Anglo-Saxons spoke “Old English”, a custom Watts rejects, is that that’s what they called it: first englisc, and then ald englis.

Continued in article

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


"For-Profit Grads' Wage Disadvantage," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, July 3, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/03/study-finds-wage-disadvantage-those-starting-profits

In analyzing the salary gains associated with various kinds of academic programs, advocates of for-profit higher education have noted that the sector's students tend to be less prepared for postsecondary work than are students in other sectors. A study released Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research agrees with that generalization. But it finds that, even when controlling for such factors, there is an advantage for the nonprofit sectors in boosting salaries, over the for-profit sector.

The study (abstract available here) arrives at a time of continued debate between for-profit advocates and critics on the extent to which for-profit programs advance students economically.

For the study, the authors -- Kevin Lang and Russell Weinstein, economists at Boston University -- examined data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study for some 16,6803 students who began postsecondary education for the fi?rst time in the 2003-4 academic year. Specifically, the researchers focused on those starting certificate and associate degree programs.

In certificate programs, the study found little economic gain for those who completed -- regardless of what kind of institutions they attended. But for those who started in associate degree programs, the study found "large, statistically significant benefits from obtaining certificates/degrees from public and not-for-profit but not from for-profit institutions." The study noted that "these results are robust to addressing selection into the labor market from college, and into positive earnings from unemployment."

While the study did not find that the differences were restricted to health fields, it did find key differences there. And for both certificate and associate programs at both for-profit and nonprofit institutions, the most popular field of study is health. "We observe a large and statistically significant return to earning a certificate in health from a public or not-for-pro?fit institution," the study says. "In contrast, the point estimate for earning such a certificate from a for-pro?fit is close to zero.... We also observe a noticeably (albeit not statistically significantly) larger return to an associate degree in health from a not-for-pro?fit/public than we found for the whole sample."

The authors note reasons to be cautious about the findings. For example, these graduates entered the work force in economically difficult times. But the paper also notes factor after factor that could explain the gaps -- and that did not turn out to be the case. For instance, the authors note that "one possibility is that students at not-for-profi?t and public institutions have access to better career offices." But in fact, the study finds that those at for-profit institutions received more help from career offices than did those in the nonprofit sector.

Continued in article

 

Link to the Study
http://papers.nber.org/papers/w18201?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

Jensen Comment
Even when there is economic gain from a for-profit certificate or a degree, the gain is often wiped out by higher student loan debt due to higher costs of for-profit university certificates and degrees. I think that students should be encouraged whenever possible to seek out certificate and degree programs in state-supported schools charging less.

For-Profit Universities and the Gray Zone of Fraud ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud


"Distance Education at Research Universities?" by Philip G. Altbach, Inside Higher Ed, July 1, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/world-view/distance-education-research-universities

US News Top Online Education Programs --- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Do not confuse this with the US News project to evaluate for-profit universities --- a project hampered by refusal of many for-profit universities to provide data

'Honor Roll' From 'U.S. News' of Online Graduate Programs in Business

Institution Teaching Practices and Student Engagement Student Services and Technology Faculty Credentials and Training Admissions Selectivity
Arizona State U., W.P. Carey School of Business 24 32 37 11
Arkansas State U. 9 21 1 36
Brandman U. (Part of the Chapman U. system) 40 24 29 n/a
Central Michigan U. 11 3 56 9
Clarkson U. 4 24 2 23
Florida Institute of Technology 43 16 23 n/a
Gardner-Webb U. 27 1 15 n/a
George Washington U. 20 9 7 n/a
Indiana U. at Bloomington, Kelley School of Business 29 19 40 3
Marist College 67 23 6 5
Quinnipiac U. 6 4 13 16
Temple U., Fox School of Business 39 8 17 34
U. of Houston-Clear Lake 8 21 18 n/a
U. of Mississippi 37 44 20 n/a

Source: U.S. News & World Report

US News Comparisons of Top Online Graduate MBA (Business) Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba

Institution name Ranks Arizona State University Tempe, AZ

#11 in Admissions Selectivity
#37 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#24 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#32 in Student Services and Technology
 

Arkansas State University--Jonesboro Jonesboro, AR

#36 in Admissions Selectivity
#1 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#9 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#21 in Student Services and Technology
 

Brandman University Irvine, CA

NR* in Admissions Selectivity
#29 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#40 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#24 in Student Services and Technology
 

Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI

#9 in Admissions Selectivity
#56 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#11 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#3 in Student Services and Technology
 

Clarkson University Potsdam, NY

#23 in Admissions Selectivity
#2 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#4 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#24 in Student Services and Technology
 

Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne, FL

NR in Admissions Selectivity
#23 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#43 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#16 in Student Services and Technology
 

Gardner-Webb University Boiling Springs, NC

NR in Admissions Selectivity
#15 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#27 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#1 in Student Services and Technology
 

George Washington University Washington, DC

NR in Admissions Selectivity
#7 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#20 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#9 in Student Services and Technology
 

Indiana University--Bloomington Bloomington, IN

#3 in Admissions Selectivity
#40 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#29 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#19 in Student Services and Technology
 

Marist College Poughkeepsie, NY

#5 in Admissions Selectivity
#6 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#67 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#23 in Student Services and Technology
 

Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT

#16 in Admissions Selectivity
#13 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#6 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#4 in Student Services and Technology
 

Temple University Philadelphia, PA

#34 in Admissions Selectivity
#17 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#39 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#8 in Student Services and Technology
 

University of Houston--Clear Lake Houston, TX

NR in Admissions Selectivity
#18 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#8 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#21 in Student Services and Technology
 

University of Mississippi University, MS

NR in Admissions Selectivity
#20 in Faculty Credentials and Training
#37 in Student Engagement and Accreditation
#44 in Student Services and Technology

 

Bob Jensen's threads on online education and training alternatives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm

Jensen Comment
I don't know why the largest for-profit universities that generally provide more online degrees than the above universities combined are not included in the final outcomes. For example, the University of Phoenix alone as has over 600,000 students, most of whom are taking some or all online courses.

My guess is that most for-profit universities are not forthcoming with the data requested by US News analysts. Note that the US News condition that the set of online programs to be considered be regionally accredited does not exclude many for-profit universities. For example, enter in such for-profit names as "University of Phoenix" or "Capella University" in the "College Search" box at
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-phoenix-20988
These universities are included in the set of eligible regionally accredited online degree programs to be evaluated. They just did not do well in the above "Honor Roll" of outcomes for online degree programs.

For-profit universities may have shot themselves in the foot by not providing the evaluation data to US News for online degree program evaluation. But there may b e reasons for this. For example, one of the big failings of most for-profit online degree programs is in undergraduate "Admissions Selectivity."  

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

Bob Jensen's threads on ranking controversies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings

Bob Jensen's threads on distance education ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation

For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray Zone of Fraud ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud


Ohio State University:  Synchronous Partnering Course Modules in Universities in Different Nations

"Frontiers in Higher Education: A Procedural Model," Ruth Sesco, The International HETL Review, Volume 2, June 9, 2012 ---
http://hetl.org/

The paper describes a procedural model implemented at Ohio State University that shares similar content and interaction among international partner classes for a short time, usually 3-5 weeks. The model is flexible and adaptive to any discipline at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and includes expertise from both partnering instructors. Technologies are embedded to integrate a variety of structured opportunities for interaction and to utilize different teaching and learning strategies. There is no exchange of credits or funding, and all instructors are individually responsible for grading their own students, thus allowing subject expertise and peer interaction from around the world at no extra personal cost. The model can be implemented to internationalize an entire curriculum to a broad spectrum of learners world-wide with a significantly reduced carbon footprint, at minimal cost, and in direct response to the needs of higher education.

Jensen Comment

I suspect that Ruth Sesco independently developed a model that was invented for an international accounting course by a San Diego State University accounting professor years ago when the most advanced online technology was rudimentary.

You can read about this remarkable international accounting professor and what she accomplished with almost no budget by going to ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255light.htm


"Customization Is the Future of Teaching, Harvard Researcher Says," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 25, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Future-of-Teaching-/132493/

Jensen Comment
I'm reminded of Steve Hornik at Central Florida who stands in front of a classroom of over 1,000 students. The above article presents Chris Dede's ideas on how to customize large lecture and case courses to the varying needs of individual students.

By the way Steve was an early adopter of Second Live 3-D learning technology ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#SecondLife

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


"Penn Whistle-Blower Says University Side-Stepped Ghostwriting Complaint," by Paul Basken, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 26, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Penn-Whistle-Blower-Says/132609/

The University of Pennsylvania was so eager to clear its psychiatry-department chairman and a colleague of ghostwriting charges that it disregarded an offer to review documents proving their hidden corporate author, a faculty whistle-blower has charged.

The company that employed the outside author, Scientific Therapeutics Information, agreed to give Penn documents showing that Dwight L. Evans, its chairman of psychiatry, and Laszlo Gyulai, an associate professor of psychiatry, were not the original authors of a 2001 journal article, according to a complaint filed Tuesday on behalf of Jay D. Amsterdam, a professor of psychiatry at Penn.

The university, however, "intentionally chose not to review these highly probative documents," Bijan Esfandiari, a lawyer for Dr. Amsterdam, said Tuesday in a letter to the federal government's Office of Research Integrity. "The university's struthious approach to the probative and available STI documents is disturbing and creates the impression that its inquiry was anything but intended to discover the truth."

The case involves a June 2001 article in The American Journal of Psychiatry that Dr. Amsterdam has described as overstating the benefits and understating the risks of the antidepressant drug Paxil. Dr. Amsterdam has cited evidence that Scientific Therapeutics Information was hired by Paxil's manufacturer, SmithKline Beecham, now known as GlaxoSmithKline, and that two STI writers largely produced the article that listed five university authors, including Drs. Evans and Gyulai.

Additional listed authors include researchers from Harvard University, the University of Miami, and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. While the University of Pennsylvania conducted a review that absolved Drs. Evans and Gyulai of participating in ghostwriting, the other three universities have not chosen to investigate their faculties' roles, Mr. Esfandiari said.

A spokesman for the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, Will C. Sansom, said the office of the vice president for research "conducted an internal review and found no merit to the assertions" concerning Charles L. Bowden, the Texas institution's chairman of psychiatry, who was listed as an author of the June 2001 article. Officials at Harvard and the University of Miami did not respond to requests for comment.

Haunted by Questions

Universities have come under growing pressure in recent years from internal and external critics, including in Congress, to crack down on the practice of researchers allowing their names to be placed on medical-journal articles that are actually written by companies with an interest in the drug or device being studied.

The ghostwriting complaint raised by Dr. Amsterdam has gained particular attention because of the reputation of the institutions, the prominence of the researchers, and the extent of corroborating documentation. In addition, the president of Penn, Amy Gutmann, is chairman of the federal government's Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

Penn has rejected suggestions that Ms. Gutmann step down from the presidential bioethics commission while she resolves the complaint against her faculty, and the university has declined to make public its investigative review of the case. In that review, the university acknowledged Drs. Evans and Gyulai allowed their names to be listed on the June 2001 journal article but said they deserved no sanction because the article was published before new university rules and journal standards expressly forbidding ghostwriting went into effect.

Critics of that decision include Jeffrey R. Lacasse, an assistant professor of social work at Arizona State University, and Jonathan Leo, an associate dean of students and associate professor of neuroanatomy at Lincoln Memorial University. In a commentary published May 31 in the Springer journal Society, Mr. Lacasse and Mr. Leo contend that the Penn review asked the wrong question. Penn spent its investigation showing that Drs. Evans and Gyulai made some contributions to the article but entirely side-stepped the key question of whether it failed to properly note the STI writers, led by Sally K. Laden, who contributed the bulk of the writing, Mr. Lacasse and Mr. Leo said.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The sidebar here is why rumors that the real authors and fake authors were showering together on campus were not investigated as well. Oops, that rumor commenced at Penn State rather than Penn.

Bob Jensen's threads on Professors Who Cheat ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize

 


If Texas A&M can buy a law school for $20 million, why didn't it also buy The Chicken Ranch ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Ranch_%28Texas%29
The Chicken Ranch is more in line with this land-grant agriculture university. It is also the focus of one of my favorite Broadway musicals (watched it three times plus twice more when it became a movie) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Little_Whorehouse_in_Texas_%28film%29

 

"Texas A&M, Texas Wesleyan University Partner To Form The Texas A&M School Of Law At Texas Wesleyan University," TAMU Times, June 26, 2012 ---
http://tamutimes.tamu.edu/2012/06/26/texas-am-texas-wesleyan-university-partner-to-form-the-texas-am-school-of-law-at-texas-wesleyan-university/

Jensen Comment
Sadly, both law schools and chicken ranches have fallen on bad times. They are a lot alike in other respects.


"193 Vocational Programs Fail 'Gainful Employment' Test," by Michael Stratford, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 26, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/193-Vocational-Programs-Fail/132593/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Jensen Comment
Some vocational/technical training programs in the U.S. are frauds in terms of admission standards and training standards. Out of the others that really do try to provide quality vocational and technical training there are huge problems in doing so.

Firstly, unlike in Germany the aptitudes of people in the applicant pools in the U.S. are usually very low in intelligence and talent coupled with questionable on-the-job motivation and reliability.

Secondly, in the U.S. the time between the start of training and "graduation" is too short relative to Germany where the training time is very long in most cases with intense periods of on-the-job apprenticeships. By the time German apprentices reach the "graduation" point they have proven themselves in terms of skills and work ethics.

High school students in the U.S. are obsessed with going to college with a tradition that only the dregs go to vocational school. This system has become dysfunctional for purposes of having talented and motivated people in the skilled trades. While at the same time we have thousands upon thousands of college graduates who are not trained for anything except McJobs at minimum wage.

There should not be such a high proportion of our high school graduates aspiring for college admission rather than skilled trade licenses. Technology has made it possible to become dashboard mechanics and jet engine mechanics and still become scholars of Shakespeare or Thomas Hobbes using free online courses and course materials from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

The Case Against College Education ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#CaseAgainst

 


I Know the Feeling as a Complete Amateur
"Even Video Pros Make Mistakes," by David Pogue, The New York Times, June 25, 2012 ---
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/even-video-pros-make-mistakes/

During a drive back from a shoot last week for the PBS series I’m hosting, “NOVA ScienceNow,” I was telling the story of one cameraman I worked with, earlier in my career, who found himself in that classic nightmare: He discovered that he hadn’t been filming when he thought he was, and was filming when he thought he wasn’t. He’d somehow gotten out of cycle with his Record button. (The new season of the show will have six episodes, one hour each; they begin in October.)

¶I told that anecdote thinking that it would crack up Jimmy Jay Frieden, our camera operator for the day’s shoot. That earlier guy was a professional, making the same mistake that every parent who ever owned a camcorder has probably made at one time or another.

¶To my surprise, Mr. Frieden shook his head somberly. “There’s probably not a cameraman alive who hasn’t made that mistake at one point or another — even me,” he said. “But one time is all it takes; after that, you never make that mistake again.”

¶Now I was really surprised. But he went on to mention two other factors that contribute to the ease of making this on/off mistake.

¶First, professional video cameras record time-code: hours:minutes:seconds:frame data that’s invisibly stamped onto each frame to help editors synchronize, log, and identify various clips as they work.

¶You can set your camera into either of two time-code systems, according to the preferences of the producer or editor. If you set it to “record run,” the camera increments the time-code only when you’re recording, as measured from the beginning of the tape, disk, or recording session. In the viewfinder, you see the numbers going up when you’re recording, but they freeze when you stop.

¶But if you set the camera to “free run” or “time of day,” the time-code rolls continuously; the footage is stamped with, yes, the time of day. That way, editors can synchronize footage from several cameras that stopped and started at different times.

¶Trouble with “time of day,” though, is that your viewfinder displays the steadily incrementing hours:minutes:seconds display even when you’re not rolling. There goes one helpful clue that might distinguish “rolling”/ “not rolling.”

Continued in article

 


 


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

Finance Professor and Blogger Jim Mahar on Facebook Says $200 Textbooks are Too Much ---
https://www.facebook.com/FinanceProfessorBlog/posts/386988958017435

I THINK I made my decision on Fall text books. Sorry to the major publishers, but $200+ books is just too much. Going with Ivo Welch' s Corporate Finance for MBA 610 (free online or $60 for hard copy) and Tim Gallagher's Financial Management (Cost from $17.95 to about $50) for Fin 401. Still looking for Behavioral Finance, any ideas?
Read the comments from readers.

Jim's excellent Finance Professor Blog --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/
Jim is a very giving person and often goes off weeks at a time to volunteer in places like Haiti and poor parts of the U.S.

Jensen Comment

With respect to textbooks, instructors are between rocks and high prices since the big publishing firms merged into oligopoly status and take advantage in the pricing of new textbooks. The e-book alternatives sound great on paper, but often their prices are not as competitive as we would like. And I think some people, like me,  learn better from hard copy.

There are many free older textbooks available for courses, but these are seldom kept up to date by authors who are no longer compensated for their time and effort ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
In financial accounting this is especially troublesome because the end-of-chapter material may actually be misleading in terms of new FASB/IASB standards and interpretations. One possible class assignment is to have students update the end-of-chapter material and write new problems and cases for older free textbooks.

Instructors may adopt newer and cheaper textbooks but the cheap part generally applies to the sparse and superficial end-of-chapter material. This same type of dilemma applies to instructor-authored hundreds of pages of handouts. It's almost impossible for instructors to both keep the handouts up-to-date and to revise illustrations, problems, and cases for new standards and interpretations.

The one saving grace is the used textbook market. Sometimes the updates to new editions are so superficial, that for a semester or two, instructors can get by with recommending used textbook purchases of a slightly older edition. Amazon is a great place for purchasing used copies By then, there are usually a lot of used copies of the newer edition of the textbook. Instructors should save old test banks and both modify and update older test banks.

Always remember that most likely students have obtained legitimate or not-so-legitimate tests and assignment answers used in prior semesters. Lazy instructors ignore this way students, especially fraternity and sorority students, create an uneven playing field.

 


If you're going to plagiarize a poet, copy the works of obscure poets like Bob Jensen, Neal Hannon, and Wanda Wallace. It's dumb to plagiarize Dylan Thomas, Shakespeare, or Robert Frost.

"British Instructor Accused of Copying Work of Dylan Thomas," Chronicle of Higher Education, June 22, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/global/british-instructor-accused-of-copying-work-of-dylan-thomas/33527?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

A creative-writing instructor at Britain’s Open University has been accused of “multiple instances” of plagiarism, including what “appears to be a verbatim copy of a radio play” by Dylan Thomas, reports The Telegraph. The distance-learning institution is  investigating the matter. Allegations against Joanne Benford include her virtually copying a Dylan Thomas story, “Holiday Memory,” under the same title in Down by the Water, which her Web site says is her first book. The Welsh writer’s estate has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Ms. Benford, adds the newspaper, which says it was unable to reach her for comment.

Jensen Comment
I wonder what defense the attorneys for Roger Clemens and Casey Anthony would mount for Joanne Benford.

One possible defense is that the students were assigned the tasks of identifying the plagiarized passages and to reference the original sources.

Of course it's hard to defend Benford's acceptance of royalties for plagiarized passages. Then again, justice was not exactly served in the cases of Clemens, Anthony, OJ, Vladimir Putin, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jerry Seinfield's wife, and on and on and on ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#Celebrities

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


"Dissertation for Sale: A Cautionary Tale," by Manuel R. Torres, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 24, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Dissertation-for-Sale-A/132401/


From the Scout Report on June 22

inFocus --- http://infocus.cc/ 

The inFocus feature is quite useful if you want to focus in on a particular feature of a website. Visitors can just type in any given website, and they will have the ability to create rectangles that highlight certain areas of interest. It's very easy to utilize and it is compatible with all operating systems. 


Abine Googlesharing --- http://abine.com/googlesharing/ 

Many people like to browse anonymously, but this can be difficult with search services such as Google and others. The Abine company has created the GoogleSharing add-on to help people retain anonymity. GoogleSharing is a kind of proxy service that mixes the request of many different users together, so that Google is not capable of telling what is coming from whom. The current beta version of Googlesharing is only compatible with Firefox.

 

From the Scout Report on June 29, 2012

Pomodoro --- http://ryhan.me/pomodoro/ 

The function of the Pomodoro application is fairly simple. It givers users a 25-minute block of time to complete a task. After the timer sounds off at the conclusion of the 25 minutes, users will receive a five minute break to collect their thoughts. Interestingly, this application is part of a broader time-management technique developed in the 1980s, which users can read about on the site. This version is compatible with all operating systems.


CorkBoard in the Cloud 1.0.1 --- http://itunes.apple.com/it/app/corkboard-in-the-cloud/id484736079?mt=12 

If you're looking for an online corkboard that exists in the cloud, look no further than this handy application. With this application, visitors can add items from anywhere, and they can sync the corkboard with any of their devices. This particular version is compatible with all operating systems running iOS 5 or Mac OS X 10.7.


Can "Big Data" tell us new things about big cities?
Urban research: the laws of the city
http://www.economist.com/node/21557313

Why Bigger Cities Are Greener Cities
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/04/why-bigger-cities-
are-greener/863/


The Economic Productivity of Urban Areas: Disentangling General Scale
Effects from Local Exceptionability
http://www.santafe.edu/media/workingpapers/11-09-046.pdf

Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/casa

SENSEable City Lab
http://senseable.mit.edu/

IBM: Smarter Cities
http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_cities/overview/index.html

From the Scout Report on July 6, 2012

Pinwheel 1.1.18 --- http://www.pinweel.com/ 

A pinwheel is a colorful thing, and this Pinwheel can be quite colorful as well. With this helpful application, visitors can create a public (or private) group album, and then invite their friends to join. Those users can share their photos so they are all available in one place. Pinwheel also has a number of cool filters, and allows visitors to comment on photos. This version is compatible with all devices running iOS 4.0 or later.


Kwout --- http://kwout.com/ 

What is "kwout"? Basically, it's a tiny application that allows users to "quote" a part of a web page as an image with an image map. It is easy to use, as all users have to do is add the kwout bookmarklet to their favorite browser. Visitors can then grab a screenshot, cut out the area of interest, and post it to social media sites, such as Twitter, Tumblr, and so on. Overall, it's a rather neat tool and it is compatible with any operating system.

 


Education Tutorials

Computer Science Teachers Association --- http://csta.acm.org/Resources/sub/HighlightedResources.html

American RadioWorks: Who Needs An English Major?
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/english-major/  

CNN: Podcasting --- http://www.cnn.com/services/podcastin

NFB Interactive: Bla Bla --- http://blabla.nfb.ca/

Rand Corporation: Education and the Arts --- http://www.rand.org/topics/education-and-the-arts.html

Earth Exploration Toolbook ---  http://serc.carleton.edu/eet/index.html

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


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

The Evolution of the Moon: 4.5 Billions Years in 2.6 Minutes --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/the_evolution_of_the_moon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Computer Science Teachers Association --- http://csta.acm.org/Resources/sub/HighlightedResources.html

NASA - Educators --- http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html

Earth Exploration Toolbook --- http://serc.carleton.edu/eet/index.html

The Hubble Looking Out at "Nothing" (The Ultra Deep Field) --- http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm

Atomic Energy & Nuclear History Learning Curriculum ---
http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/omeka/exhibits/show/atomic

Lauren R. Donaldson Collection (first atomic bomb tests) --- http://content.lib.washington.edu/donaldsonweb/

From the UCLA Asian Studies Center
Children of the Atomic Bomb --- http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/cab/index.html 

The Physics Front --- http://www.thephysicsfront.org/

Chemdex --- http://www.chemdex.org/

Frontline: Digital Nation
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering --- http://wyss.harvard.edu/

Creatures of Light ---  http://ez-www.amnh.org/creatures-of-light

Cape Cod National Seashore --- http://www.nps.gov/caco/index.htm

Teaching the Ocean System: Resources for Educators --- http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/ocean/ 

The Aurora Page --- http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/

The Aurora Borealis Viewed from Orbit (and What Creates Those Northern Lights?) --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/09/aurora_borealis_from_orbit.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Chemistry: A Molecular Approach --- http://wps.prenhall.com/esm_tro_chemistry_1/ 

Molecular Workbench --- http://mw.concord.org/modeler/

Molecular Logic: Browsing Stepping Stones
http://molo.concord.org/database/browse/stepping-stones/

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County --- http://www.nhm.org/site/

BBC: Human Body & Mind --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/

The Whole Brain Atlas  --- http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html

The Science of Sleep and Daily Rhythms --- http://www.bioedonline.org/resources/files/TSO_SD_s.pdf

Healthy Sleep --- http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/

Transferable Integrated Design Engineering Education --- http://www.tidee.wsu.edu/resources/course-materials.html

Design Challenge Projects (Engineering) --- http://www-mdp.eng.cam.ac.uk/nagty/projects.html

The Higher Education Academy Engineering --- http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/disciplines/engineering

The Environmental Institute --- http://www.umass.edu/tei/

Research at the University of Rochester ---  https://urresearch.rochester.edu/home.action

From the Scout Report on June 22, 2012

Amidst global conflict and economic uncertainty, the Rio+20 meeting goes
on
Rio Environment Meeting Focuses on 'Energy for All'
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/19/155294726/rio-environment-meeting-focuses-on-energy-for-all

Rio+20 Summit Overshadowed by Global Economy
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/world/americas/rio20-summit-overshadowed-by-global-economy.html

Major cities tackle climate change while Rio summit's outcome remains
uncertain
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/major-cities-tackle-climate-change-while-rio-summits-outcome-remains-uncertain/2012/06/18/gJQAzSzrmV_story.html

Kazuhiko Takemoto: Rio 20: What Will Come Of It?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kazuhiko-takemoto/rio-20-what-will-come-of-_b_1604405.html

C40 Cities: Climate Leadership Group --- http://www.c40cities.org/

Rio+20 --- http://www.uncsd2012.org/

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

Census Information --- http://www.peoplefind.com/frames/freeresources/govdataindex.htm 
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/ 

U.S. Census Bureau: County Business and Demographics --- http://www.census.gov/cbdmap/

U.S. Census Bureau: Random Samplings --- http://blogs.census.gov/

Research!America --- http://www.researchamerica.org/

U.S. Census: Facts for Features & Special Editions ---
http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/

Sociology Databases Served Up by Mike Kearl at Trinity University ---
http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/

Challenge.gov --- http://challenge.gov/ 

The Environmental Institute --- http://www.umass.edu/tei/

Rational Irrationality (The New Yorker) --- http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/

Archaeology Magazine's Top 10 Discoveries of 2011 ---
http://www.archaeology.org/1201/features/australopithecus_arab_spring_pompeii_altamira.html

"The California Dream is fizzling out," By John D. Sutter, CNN, June 27, 2011 ---
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/27/california.dream.census.slump/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Morrison Institute for Public Policy --- http://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/

Ford Foundation: Library --- http://www.fordfoundation.org/library

Frontline: Digital Nation
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/

CNN: Podcasting --- http://www.cnn.com/services/podcasting/

The Aspen Institute: Multimedia (and social media) --- http://www.aspeninstitute.org/video

Dartmouth Digital Collections: Books --- http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/collections/books.html

Illinois Digital Archives --- http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/

The University of Michigan Digital Humanities Series---
 http://www.digitalculture.org/books/book-series/digital-humanities-series/

Knight Digital Media Center (journalism tutorials) --- http://knightdigitalmediacenter.org/

Research at the University of Rochester ---  https://urresearch.rochester.edu/home.action

Research at the University of Rochester ---  https://urresearch.rochester.edu/home.action

Money --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money

"The Mysteries of Money,: by Venkat, RibbonFarm, June 20, 2012 ---
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/06/20/the-mysteries-of-money/

. . .

I now see money as the implicit organizing concept for all of my writing about social reality.  Organizing along those lines, I have broken down this sequence into posts about money itself, posts about organizations (understood as things that move money around), posts about markets (understood as fields of money) and finally, civilization itself (understood as the space where money matters).  Barbarian or exiled states of being, and possible post-civilizational futures, are best understood as the negative space of social reality. Their common salient feature is a vastly attentuated role for money, broadly understood. These states never quite rise above shared, communal, interpersonal realities to shared, impersonal, social realities.

Money

  1. Ancient Rivers of Money
  2. Fools and their Money Metaphors
  3. Time and Money: Separated at Birth?

Moving Money

  1. The Eight Metaphors of Organization
  2. The Lords of Strategy by Walter Kiechel
  3. A Brief History of the Corporation: 1600 to 2100

Fields of Money

  1. Marketing, Innovation and the Creation of Customers
  2. The Milo Criterion
  3. Ubiquity Illusions and the Chicken-Egg Problem
  4. The Seven Dimensions of Positioning
  5. Coloring the Whole Egg: Fixing Integrated Marketing
  6. How to Draw and Judge Quadrant Diagrams
  7. The Gollum Effect
  8. Peak Attention and the Colonization of Subcultures

Life Outside Money

  1. Acting Dead, Trading Up and Leaving the Middle Class
  2. Can Hydras Eat Unknown-Unknowns for Lunch?
  3. The Return of the Barbarian

Next week, I’ll do a wrap-up of the wrap-ups and attempt to construct a big-picture view of what this blog is ultimately about, and situate the two crucial keystone pieces required for making sense of ribbonfarm. I expect a few of you can guess what those two pieces are. They haven’t been included in any of these sequences.

A free copy of Tempo for the first person to correctly identify the two missing pieces via a comment.

 

 

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

Research at the University of Rochester ---  https://urresearch.rochester.edu/home.action

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


Math Tutorials

Research at the University of Rochester ---  https://urresearch.rochester.edu/home.action

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


History Tutorials

Dangerous Knowledge & Breaking the Code: Two Films about Alan Turing on His 100th Birthday --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/idangerous_knowledgei_ibreaking_the_codei_two_films_about_alan_turing_on_his_100th_birthday.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Frontline: Digital Nation
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/

Atomic Energy & Nuclear History Learning Curriculum ---
http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/omeka/exhibits/show/atomic

Lauren R. Donaldson Collection (first atomic bomb tests) --- http://content.lib.washington.edu/donaldsonweb/

Historic Barn Etchings Tell Tale of Hard-Working Children --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/historic_barn_etchings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Google Art Project --- http://www.googleartproject.com/

Bibliography of the History of Art --- http://library.getty.edu:7101/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Project --- http://www.und.edu/instruct/sdonaldson/

Steve Jobs at the Smithsonian --- http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions/stevejobs

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

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

Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals from Talladega College (slavery) --- http://www.high.org/Art/Exhibitions/Rising-Up-Hale-Woodruff.aspx

Slavery in America: Image Gallery --- http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/scripts/sia/gallery.cgi

Isaac Asimov Recalls the Golden Age of Science Fiction (1937-1950) --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/isaac_asimov_recalls_the_golden_age_of_science_fiction_1937-1950.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Woody Allen Lives the “Delicious Life” in Early-80s Japanese Commercials --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/woody_allen_lives_the_delicious_life_in_early-80s_japanese_commercials.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Drexel University Costume Collection --- http://digimuse.cis.drexel.edu/

Costume History Collection --- http://www.wmich.edu/library/digi/collections/costume/

The Aspen Institute: Multimedia (and social media) --- http://www.aspeninstitute.org/video

Rand Corporation: Education and the Arts --- http://www.rand.org/topics/education-and-the-arts.html

African American Funeral Programs from the East Central Georgia Regional Library --- http://funeral.galileo.usg.edu/funeral/

Black History in Wisconsin --- http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/topics/blackhistory/

he March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project --- http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/march/index.cf

Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective (pop art) ---  http://roy.artic.edu/

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County --- http://www.nhm.org/site/

Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph Collection (Indiana Newspaper Photographer) ---
 http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/hohenberger/

Digital Image Collections: Indiana Historical Society ---
http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/digital-image-collections 

Seattle Art Museum: Australian Aboriginal Art --- http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/ancestralmoder

Aboriginal Documentary Heritage --- http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/aboriginal-heritage/index-e.html

New Communication Technologies (including an annotated bibliography) --- http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/NewComm

Knight Digital Media Center: Presentations and Webcasts --- http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/presentations/

Knight Digital Media Center (journalism tutorials) --- http://knightdigitalmediacenter.org/

Research at the University of Rochester ---  https://urresearch.rochester.edu/home.action

From the Scout Report on July 6, 2012

Amidst celebrations for the 4th of July, some remember and reconsider
the War of 1812
War of 1812 Bicentennial: Why does no one remember the war that made Andrew
Jackson famous?
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2012/05/war_of_1812_bicentennial_why_does_no_one_remember_the_war_that_made_andrew_jackson_famous_.html

New Washington museum exhibit explains War of 1812
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48042369/ns/travel-destination_travel/#.T_LhdI7N5FI

Tall ships provide a taste of War of 1812
http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-02/metro/32495232_1_tall-ships-pride-of-baltimore-ii-cannons

1812: The War Without a Name
http://articles.philly.com/2012-06-18/news/32300131_1_civil-war-first-war-independence

The Official War of 1812 Bicentennial Website
http://www.visit1812.com/

The Library of Congress: A Guide to the War of 1812
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/1812/

 

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

University of Colorado Digital Music Library --- http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/music/smp/index.htm

An Abridged History of Western Music: “What a Wonderful World” Sung in 16 Different Styles --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/an_abridged_history_of_western_music.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

NFB Interactive: Bla Bla --- http://blabla.nfb.ca/

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

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


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

June 25, 2012

June 26, 2012

June 27, 2012

June 28, 2012

June 29, 2012

July 2, 2012

July 3, 2012

July 4, 2012

July 5, 2012

July 7, 2012

July 9, 2012

July 10, 2012

July 11, 2012

July 12, 2012

July 13, 2012

July 14, 2012

 


CPR Heart Rescue --- http://www.heartrescuenow.com/


The Science of Sleep and Daily Rhythms --- http://www.bioedonline.org/resources/files/TSO_SD_s.pdf

Healthy Sleep --- http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/


Research at the University of Rochester ---  https://urresearch.rochester.edu/home.action


Stem cells can beat back diabetes: UBC research --- http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-stem-cells-diabetes-ubc.html


Women's Health --- http://www.womenshealth.gov/




Robert De Niro On Saturday Night Live ---
http://www.hollywood.com/news/Robert_De_Niro_On_SNL_The_Skits_You_Missed/7738903

Video of a Typewriter Doing What a Laptop Cannot Do ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=G4nX0Xrn-wo&sns=em

The Remember Song (comedy about growing old) --- http://www.tomrush.com./video_remember.html

 


Forwarded by Paula

A Scotsman and his wife walked past a swanky new restaurant last night...

"Did you smell that food?" she asked... "Incredible!"

Being the 'Kind Hearted Scotsman', he thought,

"What the heck, I'll treat her!"

.... So they walked past it again ...before going to a fish & chips dump.

So papa, how do you like the iPad we got you?
No need to understand the language to get it.
http://www.snotr.com/video/8965/

Bill Murray’s Baseball Hall of Fame Speech (and Hideous Sports Coat) --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/bill_murrays_baseball_hall_of_fame_speech_and_hideous_sports_coat.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29



June 22, 2012 email message from the Queen of England

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

 
In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

 
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

 
Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

 
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.  A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

 
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

 
1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.'  Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters,  and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.'  Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels.  (look up 'vocabulary'). And you will spell "Center" as "Centre".
------------------------
2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf.  The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of  '-ize.'
-------------------
3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
-----------------
4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists.  The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent.  Guns should only be used for shooting grouse.  If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.
----------------------
5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
----------------------
6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect.  At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables.   Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
--------------------
7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon.  Get used to it.
-------------------
8. You will learn to make real chips.  Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps.  Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed, not with ketchup, but with vinegar.
-------------------
9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all.  Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of  known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager.  New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer.  They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them.  American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
---------------------
10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys.  Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters.  Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.
---------------------
11. You will cease playing American football.  There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders).  Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).
---------------------
12. Further, you will stop playing baseball.  It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America.  Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable.  You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians (World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
--------------------
13. You must tell us who killed JFK.  It's been driving us mad.
-----------------
14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
---------------
15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream)  when in season.

 
God Save the Queen!




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

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