Tidbits on October 29, 2012
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
My Maple Tree and Maple Sugaring Favorite Photographs
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Trees/Maple/Maples01.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
White
Mountain News ---
http://www.whitemtnews.com/
Tidbits on October 29, 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
A Recent Essay
"How Non-Scientific Granulation Can Improve Scientific Accountics"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsGranulationCurrentDraft.pdf
By Bob Jensen
This essay takes off from the following quotation:
A recent accountics science study suggests
that audit firm scandal with respect to someone else's audit may be a reason
for changing auditors.
"Audit Quality and Auditor Reputation: Evidence from Japan," by Douglas J.
Skinner and Suraj Srinivasan, The Accounting Review, September 2012,
Vol. 87, No. 5, pp. 1737-1765.
Our conclusions are subject
to two caveats. First, we find that clients switched away from ChuoAoyama in
large numbers in Spring 2006, just after Japanese regulators announced the
two-month suspension and PwC formed Aarata. While we interpret these events
as being a clear and undeniable signal of audit-quality problems at
ChuoAoyama, we cannot know for sure what drove these switches
(emphasis added).
It is possible that the suspension caused firms to switch auditors for
reasons unrelated to audit quality. Second, our analysis presumes that audit
quality is important to Japanese companies. While we believe this to be the
case, especially over the past two decades as Japanese capital markets have
evolved to be more like their Western counterparts, it is possible
that audit quality is, in general, less important in Japan
(emphasis added) .
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
The Origin of Quantum Mechanics Explained in Four Animated
Minutes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/the_origin_of_quantum_mechanics_in_four_animated_minutes.html
Millions of Starlings on a Feeding Frenzy (reminds me of
campaign donors seeking returns on their investments in a winning politician)
---
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/falcon-feeding-frenzy/pdqm5e7?from=en-us_msnhp%2cdest_en-us&src=v5%3aendslate%3arelated^play%3arelated_0
Ted Talk: Heather Brooke: My battle to expose government
corruption ---
Click Here
http://www.ted.com/talks/heather_brooke_my_battle_to_expose_government_corruption.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TEDTalks_video+%28TEDTalks+Main+%28SD%29+-+Site%29
Norwegian Royal Guard ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/13a582988bcb41b0
Three German Shepherds Walk into a Bar ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=f309fSTWYo4
Free music downloads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Tchaikovsky's "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"
from The Nutcracker (performed on a glass harp) ---
http://biggeekdad.com/2011/12/glass-harp/
Helen Keller Pays a Visit to Martha Graham’s
Dance Studio Circa 1954 ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/helen_keller_pays_a_visit_to_martha_grahams_dance_studio_circa_1954.html
Flash Mob
Commuters Play Beethoven’s “Bus Station Sonata” in the UK ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/commuters_play_beethovens_bus_station_sonata_in_the_uk.html
Glenn Gould Explains the Genius of Johann Sebastian Bach (1962)
---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/glenn_gould_explains_the_genius_of_johann_sebastian_bach_1962.html
Britain's I've Got Talent ---
http://biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=33967
It's never over until the fat man sings.
Rare 1946 Video: The Great Russian Composer
Sergei Prokofiev Plays Piano, Discusses His Music ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/rare_1946_film_sergei_prokofiev.html
Ave Maria en Kathedraal de GAUDI ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym2NmeGB6XY
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
100 Ideas That Have Changed Art (slow loading)
---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/25/100-ideas-that-changed-art/
100 Ideas That Have Changed Photography (slow
loading) ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/24/100-ideas-that-changed-photography/
National Geographic Photo Contest ---
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/11/national-geographic-photo-contest-2011/100187/
Block Prints of the Chinese Revolution ---
http://pudl.princeton.edu/collections/pudl0030
Joplin Historical Postcards (Missouri) ---
http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?page=index;c=joplinic
The Bronx Park Postcard Collection ---
http://ielc.libguides.com/bronxparkpostcards
Greetings from Milwaukee (historical postcards) ---
http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/postcards/index.cfm
Robert W. Krueger Collection (20th Century) ---
http://www.chipublib.org/images/krueger/index.ph
Joel Conway/Flying A Studios Photograph
Collection (movie industry) ---
http://digital.library.ucsb.edu/collections/show/10
Imperial War Museums - Google Art Project ---
http://www.googleartproject.com/collection/imperial-war-museum/
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
University of San Francisco: Gleeson Library Digital
Collections (Literature History) ---
http://digitalcollections.usfca.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p264101coll8
World Shakespeare Festival Presents 37 Plays by the Bard in 37
Languages: Watch Them Online ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/world_shakespeare_festival_presents_37_plays_by_the_bard_in_37_languages_watch_them_online.html
Orson Welles Remembers his Stormy Friendship with Ernest
Hemingway ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/orson_welles_remembers_his_stormy_friendship_with_ernest_hemingway.html
"75 Scientific Mysteries, Illustrated by Some of Today's Hottest Artists" by
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, October 12, 2012 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/12/where-why-how-julia-rothman/
The Moth Now Streams its Brilliant & Quietly Addictive Stories
on the Web --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/the_moth_now_streams_its_brilliant_and_quietly_addictive_stories_via_the_web.html
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 October 29, 2012
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2012/TidbitsQuotations012412.htm
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
Faking It: Manipulated Photography before
Photoshop (Metropolitan Museum of Art) [Hardcover], by Mia Fineman ---
http://www.amazon.com/Faking-Manipulated-Photography-Photoshop-Metropolitan/dp/0300185014/?tag=braipick-20
Photographic manipulation is a familiar phenomenon
in the digital era. What will come as a revelation to readers of this
captivating, wide-ranging book is that nearly every type of manipulation we
associate with Adobe’s now-ubiquitous Photoshop software was also part of
photography’s predigital repertoire, from slimming waistlines and smoothing
away wrinkles to adding people to (or removing them from) pictures, not to
mention fabricating events that never took place. Indeed, the desire and
determination to modify the camera image are as old as photography
itself—only the methods have changed.
By tracing the history of manipulated photography
from the earliest days of the medium to the release of Photoshop 1.0 in
1990, Mia Fineman offers a corrective to the dominant narrative of
photography’s development, in which champions of photographic “purity,” such
as Paul Strand, Edward Weston, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, get all the glory,
while devotees of manipulation, including Henry Peach Robinson, Edward
Steichen, and John Heartfield, are treated as conspicuous anomalies. Among
the techniques discussed on these pages—abundantly illustrated with works
Examples
The Vision (Orpheus Scene) (F. Holland Day, 1907)
Lenin and Stalin in Gorki in 1922 (Unidentified Russian artist, 1949)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as Artist and Model (Maurice Guibert, ca.
1900)
Man Juggling His Own Head (Unidentified French artist, Published by
Allain de Torbéchet et Cie. ca. 1880)
Sueño No. 1: Articulos eléctricos para el hogar / Dream No. 1:
Electrical Appliances for the Home (Grete Stern, 1948)
Jensen Comment
Figure this one out on Amazon?
Maybe the used copies have added centerfolds.
Tired of Encountering Voicemail's Endless Path Button Pushing and/or
Having to Shout Responses into the Phone?
You might give GetHuman a try (no guarantees) ---
http://gethuman.com/
Paul M. English ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_M._English
. . .
English is the founder of the “gethuman” movement
to restore personal contact in customer service. The most popular part of
the gethuman.com website is a database of secret phone numbers and shortcuts
to reach a human at 500 major US corporations. English and the gethuman
project have been featured in the New York Times and hundreds of
other news outlets.
Continued in article
Trivia from Grammar Girl on October 23, 2012
Why Is There an Apostrophe in "Hallowe'en"?
Allegra Young asked, "What's your take on the apostrophe in 'Hallowe'en'?
To use or not to use?"
One early spelling of "Halloween" was "all hallows' even," in which "even"
meant "evening." The "all" and "s" got dropped, "hallows' " and "even"
became a closed compound, and the apostrophe took the place of the "v,"
giving us "Hallowe'en"—just one of many transitional spellings along the way
to "Halloween."
Financial
Salary Guides for 21 Nations ---
http://www.roberthalf.com/SalaryGuide
According to Robert Half career services times are very good for accountants
with experience to either get promotions or upgraded new jobs.
"Microsoft Introduces Office 365 for Higher Ed," by George Williams,
Chronicle of Higher Education, October 23, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/office-365-for-higher-ed/43588?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Here at ProfHacker, we’ve written several posts
over the years about cloud computing and collaboration. Most of our focus
has been on GoogleDocs and collaborative authorship (see my “GoogleDocs
and Collaboration in the Classroom,” for example).
Not to be outdone by the cloud services offered by
Google and others, Microsoft has been working on offerings like Office Live
(which
I wrote about in 2010)
and Office 365 (which
the New York Times covered in 2011).
These services are designed to let users access and edit cloud-based
documents, spreadsheets, and presentations from any device with a connection
to the Internet and to collaborate on these files simultaneously with other
users. And as Microsoft attempts to
stay competitive with its mobile devices, introduces
a new operating system (or two), and starts
selling a new
tablet device,
cloud-based tools are going to be more and more important.
Last week, Microsoft announced
Office 365 University, a cloud-based service to be
made available to students, faculty, and staff at colleges and universities.
The company says that the service is scheduled to become “[a]vailable in the
first quarter of 2013,” and will be free for higher ed users who have
purchased
Office University 2010 or
Office University for Mac 2011. (However, later in
that same announcement a price of $1.67 per month is specified, which is
still pretty good, but not as good as free).
Continued in article
The Chronicle’s 2012 Digital Campus Microsite ---
http://chronicle.com/section/The-Digital-Campus/519/?cid=dl_dcmtxt_h4
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
The Writer Who Couldn’t Read … And What That Tells Us About the Brain
---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/the_writer_who_couldnt_read.html
Jensen Comment
This falls under the category of "Truth That's Stranger Than Fiction." Another
example that I learned about third-handedly was when friend of a friend who
recently had delicate surgery in a nearby hospital. Purportedly, the skilled
surgeon has a severe hand tremor most of his awake moments. I don't know the
cause, but it sounds like a type of Parkinson's disease. But apparently when he
gets a scalpel in his hand, both of his hands cease to tremor when he commences
to cut.
There are other confusing and related phenomena such as famous singers with
severe stammers in speech but not when singing. It would be a bit odd for them
to communicate orally always by singing, but this may be understandable in their
cases. There are also instances where people speaking to judges on
America's Got Talent have singing voices totally unrelated to their
speaking voices.
"A Handheld Projector You Might Actually Want With built-in Roku,
it's like a portable internet TV," by David Zax, MIT's Technology Review,
October 11, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/429596/a-handheld-projector-you-might-actually-want/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20121012
Here’s something you probably didn’t know you
wanted. 3M has come up with a handheld projector--or “picoprojector”--with a
Roku Streaming Stick built in. That means that the $300 device can function
as something of a portable TV, with access to Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu
Plus, HBO Go, and the like.
BGR was one of the first to spot 3M’s
press release on the topic a few days back. In it,
3M touted a projector “small enough to fit in your hand, yet able to project
an image up to 120 inches,” one that was “perfect for family movie nights,
sleepovers and evening backyard parties,” with it’s (claimed)
two-hour-forty-five-minute battery life. 3M also called the device
“first-of-its-kind,” promising a shipping date by October 22. (It can be
preordered here, for now with a promo offering a
$20 credit from Amazon Instant Video.)
The
good people of CNET have already gone hands-on
with the device, which they grant 3.5 stars out of 5: “very good.” They call
it the first mini-projector with “some mainstream appeal.” They also dub it
a “well-thought-out gadget” and especially recommend what seems to me the
delightful experience of projecting video onto the ceiling while in bed.
CNET’s principal quarrels are that the resolution is merely
DVD-level, and that the device only puts out 60 lumens. You’ll need to be in
a pitch black room with the whitest of walls if you really want to get up to
that 120-inch screen. (Here, a
deep dive on their image test data.) The biggest
problem CNET identified is that the battery life, in practice, appeared to
actually be closer to one hour and forty-five minutes--barely
enough for a movie.
Technology Review has written a fair amount
on handheld projectors in the past. For more info on the project of
integrating them with smartphones, see “The
Galaxy Beam: 15 Lumens and a Lot of Cheese,” and
“In
Quest for Smartphone Projectors, a Focus on the Lens.” And
for a look at the research that went into the narrowest pocket projector out
there--a mere six millimeters thick--check out Duncan Graham-Rowe’s article,
“An
Even Smaller Pocket Projector.”
The 3M projector isn’t cheap, but I like the
sentiment at the end of this video: “It’s time to share the big screen
together.” In an era in which we would sooner cluster around an iPhone with
friends to share a tiny YouTube video than head out to the Cineplex for some
old-fashioned movie magic, this picoprojector recaptures some of the
cinematic experience in a device not so much larger than the gadget in your
pocket.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on gadgets ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#Technology
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
"Alex Karras, RIP," by Mark W. Hendrickson, Townhall, October
13, 2012 ---
http://townhall.com/columnists/markwhendrickson/2012/10/13/alex_karras_rip
'Why Women Earn Less Than Men a Year Out of School," by Elizabeth
Dwoskin, Bloomberg Business Week, October 25, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-25/why-women-earn-less-than-men-a-year-out-of-school
Consider this scenario: A man and a woman
graduate from the same university in 2009. They both major in computer
science. They are 22 years old at graduation, single, and have no prior work
experience. One year later, both are working full time as computer
technicians in cities not too far from where they went to school.
According to a
new report (PDF) by the American Association of
University Women, the man would be earning a salary of $51,300. The woman’s
pay would be $39,600—about 77 percent of what her male counterpart earns.
The AAUW report compared the earnings of men and
women just one year out of college across various sectors of the economy.
The report controlled for different factors that tend to impact pay,
including hours, job type, employment sector, and college major. The
report—which uses the class of 2009 as its sample cohort—found that on
average, women working full time earned 82 percent of what their male peers
earned. The average for all women, at all experience levels, is 77 percent,
a number that has
barely budged in a decade.
A good portion of the pay differential one year out
of school can be explained by choice of major. Eighty-one percent of
education majors are female, as are 88 percent of health-care majors. In
computer science, information technology, and engineering, more than 80
percent of majors are male. Teachers and physical therapists, on average,
tend to earn less than engineers. Women also choose to work in sectors of
the economy where there are fewer opportunities to advance into
higher-paying jobs. (A teacher might get tenure or become a school principal
after working for 20 years. An engineer will move up the pay scale more
quickly, and the raises will be bigger over time.)
But as the scenario above shows, even when women
and men are in practically identical situations, their earnings start to
diverge just one year out of school. That’s true across most sectors of the
economy. One year out of college, female teachers earn 89 percent of what
male teachers earn. In sales jobs, women earn 77 percent of what male peers
earn. Women who major in business earn, on average, just over $38,000 the
first year after graduation, while men earn just over $45,000. “About
one-third of the gap cannot be explained by any of the factors commonly
understood to impact earnings,” write the AAUW researchers, Catherine Hill
and Christianne Corbett.
Hill and Corbett consider what could be causing
that “unexplained” portion of the gender wage gap. One obvious culprit is
discrimination. A less obvious culprit is salary negotiations. Women tend to
be worse at negotiating throughout their careers, including their starting
pay, Hill says.
Everyone knows that bias exists, but it’s basically
impossible to measure—particularly when the bias is unconscious. One way to
track it is to look at the number of sex discrimination complaints filed
with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which have jumped
18 percent over the past decade. There are isolated cases, as when drugmaker
Novartis (NVS)
was
fined $250 million in 2010 for discriminating on
pay, promotion, and pregnancy against female sales representatives. The
authors cite a recent experiment in which male science faculty members at a
research university were asked to pick a starting salary for a laboratory
manager position. The scientists, who were provided with the same résumé and
qualifications for each applicant, offered a higher starting salary to the
male candidate.
Most women who are victims of wage discrimination
are probably not even aware of it. Asking about your colleagues’ salaries is
frowned upon in the workplace. Those who suspect discrimination may not want
to risk it: Many corporate human-resources policies prohibit employees from
poking around.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
This article points out interesting things that our first year students should
consider when mapping out a career future for themselves. The article raises
questions, but it does not provide answers to some of the most systemic
problems. For example, why does a kindergarten teacher earn less than an IT
woman, computer programming woman, or chemical engineering woman? There are many
reasons of course, but one reason might be that the kindergarten teacher gets to
stay at home with her family almost 16 weeks every year. No such luck in most
other careers for men or women, except for college professor women that are
under heavy publish or perish pressures that can ruin those 16 weeks of personal
time out of the classroom..
The article asserts that women one year out earn less than their male
counterparts in the same disciplines like accounting. This to me is very
disturbing. When we look for reasons, perhaps some of the major causes are still
those things sociologists study more in depth. For example, women often get
married or become significant others in the first year following graduation. It
is extremely common for men and women to get their first jobs or change jobs in
that first year. And those new jobs often entail relocating to other cities and
towns. I didn't look up the studies on this, but I think it is still more common
for the woman give up her job to follow career opportunities of her significant
other, although it may be becoming less as women are facing more and better
opportunities than they did in the 1950s. Then there is still a fact that we
cannot ignore. Many women either drop out of the labor force or go into the
part-time labor force when they be come a parent more than men in the same
situations. The problem may be exacerbated if the male parent is earning more
than the female parent in the full-time labor force. For example, suppose the
husband is a chemical engineer and his wife teaches kindergarten.
It's also a chance to stress with students how to lie with statistics. For
example, just because women earn less than their male counterparts in the same
types of careers on average does not mean that they cannot overcome this
difference in their own situations. Women can individually decide that they do
not automatically sacrifice their jobs to follow a significant other/spouse.
Women can elect to work overtime as much or more than their male counterparts.
Women can elect not to become a mother or to insist that fathers share more of
the burden of parenting.
I know it's is heresy to criticize the STEM movement. There's a concerted
effort at the moment to get women more into science careers. But first-year
women should carefully consider the career opportunities they will face upon
graduation in various STEM disciplines. What opportunities will four-year
graduates face in such disciplines as chemistry, physics, and geology? It often
becomes necessary to pursue doctoral studies in science, medicine, law,
business, or whatever where the jobs are more plentiful, and graduate studies
can be very expensive in terms of stress, time, and money. Compare this with
opportunities that do not require doctoral degrees in engineering, nursing,
business, accounting, and K-12 education.
All this does not excuse subtle forms of gender or other discrimination that
still exist in the U.S. We must look to nations that seem to be doing a better
job like Canada or Sweden. Those of you know, however, know that I do not buy
into dysfunctional social programs that discourage motivation to work overtime
or discourage risk taking and stress by investing savings and working 70 hours a
week in entrepreneurial ventures ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the gender gap in higher education ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Harvard
"First University System (University of Texas) Joins EdX," by Tanya
Roscorla, Center for Digital Education, October 15, 2012 ---
http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/First-University-System-Joins-edX.html
With this news, the University of Texas System
becomes the first university system to throw in its hat with edX, a
not-for-profit enterprise started by Harvard and MIT in May 2012. By
partnering with edX, the University of Texas' nine campuses and six health
institutions will develop massively open online courses (MOOCs). These
courses allow anyone around the world to participate, draw large numbers of
students and do not charge participants to take the course.
"Our partnership with edX will help us provide that
high-quality education, make it more efficient, make it more accessible and
make us more affordable," said Gene Powell, Board of Regents chairman.
The university system decided to offer massively
open online courses to provide maximum options to students, said system
Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa. Current students and alumni — as well as
anyone else who wants to — will be able to take courses from edX
institutions. These institutions include MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley and the
University of Texas System. While they won't get credit for the course, they
will get a grade and a certificate of completion from that campus if they
finish.
"We wanted to join the world of MOOCs, and we felt
that if we joined with edX, we'd leapfrog into a great orbit of excellence,"
Cigarroa said.
But this isn't something the university system
jumped on overnight. Nineteen months ago, the Board of Regents created two
task forces to improve the system's excellence, access and affordability of
higher education. One of these task forces looked into blended and online
learning. As a result of its research, blended and online learning made it
into the chancellor's framework, and the Institute for Transformational
Learning was created.
"Higher education is at a crossroads," said Steve
Mintz, executive director of the Institute for Transformational Learning in
the University of Texas System. "But by leveraging new technologies, we can
enhance student learning, we can accelerate graduation, and we can hold down
the cost of higher ed."
EdX, Coursera and Udacity all provide platforms for
these types of courses. But the University of Texas System chose edX for a
number of reasons, Cigarroa said:
- The organization aligns with the mission and
vision of the Institute for Transformational Learning;
- The system protects the intellectual property
of faculty and the university;
- Faculty can modify and contribute to the
course development;
- The system has access to the platform's
foundation code.
Existing online course partnerships with other
organizations including Academic Partnerships can continue as well. And this
will be more of a partner relationship with edX rather than a vendor
relationship.
The chancellor stressed that the massively open
online courses will be of high quality and will be offered along with
existing blended and online learning options the system already has for its
students. In fact, some of the massively open online courses can be offered
in a blended format on campus. In these classes, students would watch
recorded lectures and participate in the forums, but also have in-class
discussions and one-on-one time with professors.
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs, MITx, and EDX ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"Windows Pushes Into the Tablet Age New-Style Apps and Touch Interface
Modernize Old-School Operating System," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall
Street Journal, October 18, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443675404578060603341778848.html?mg=reno64-wsj
Microsoft MSFT -2.29% is giving Windows its most
radical overhaul since 1995 and even its most devoted users won't recognize
the venerable computer operating system in this new incarnation, called
Windows 8, when it appears Oct. 26.
The minute you turn it on, the difference is
apparent. Instead of the familiar desktop, you see a handsome, modern, slick
world of large, scrolling tiles and simpler, full-screen apps best used on a
touch screen and inspired by tablets and smartphones.
This is called the Start screen and it replaces the
Start Menu every Windows user knows. But it's not just a menu, it's a whole
computing environment that takes over the entire display, with its own
separate apps and controls. The old desktop and old-style apps are still
there. But in Windows 8, the desktop is like another app—you tap or click on
a Start screen icon or button to use it.
This is a bold move and in my view, the new
tile-based environment works very well and is a welcome step. It feels
natural, especially on a touch screen, and brings Windows into the tablet
era. It may even mark the beginning of a long transition in which the new
design gradually displaces the old one, though that will depend on how fast
Microsoft can attract new-style apps.
Windows will now consist of two very different user
experiences bound into a single package. The idea is it's a
one-size-fits-all operating system, which can run on everything from older,
mouse-driven PCs to touch-controlled tablets without compromise. Everything
from a touch-based weather app to mouse-driven Excel will run on it. That's
a big contrast to Apple's approach, which uses separate operating systems
for its iPad tablets and more standard Mac computers. Potential for
Confusion
By adopting the dual-environment strategy,
Microsoft risks confusing traditional PC users, who will be jumping back and
forth between two ways of doing things. Both the new and old environments
can work via either touch or a mouse and keyboard, but the former works best
with touch, the latter best with the mouse or track pad.
There are even two different versions of Internet
Explorer. And many functions are different. For instance, Start-screen apps
typically lack the standard menus, toolbars, resizing and closing buttons at
the top that older apps do.
The company is gambling that the confusion will be
brief and will be offset by the ability, via the old desktop, to run
traditional productivity apps like Microsoft Office, which can't be run on
the iPad or its Android brethren. Different Versions and Abilities
But wait, there's even more potential for
confusion. Windows 8 will come in two versions, one for standard Intel-based
PCs and one, called RT, for tablets that run on the same type of processor
that powers competing smartphones and tablets.
. . .
Microsoft deserves credit for giving Windows a new,
modern, face. And the company will surely please existing users by
maintaining the old one and the ability to run older apps. But the
combination will require re-learning the most familiar computing system on
the planet.
—Find all of Walt Mossberg's columns and videos at
walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at
mossberg@wsj.com.
Jensen Comment
Walt Mossberg is one of the world's most independent commentators on technology.
While being one of Steve Job's best personal friends in life, Walt has always
shown his independence when reviewing Apple, Microsoft, and other technology
products.
For me, she says, "this really showed the beauty of
science, that you can have this personal experience that isn't reflected in big
data."
Jennifer Jacquet as quoted in
"Gender Gap: Women cluster in certain fields, according to a study of
millions of journal articles, while men get more credit," by Robin Wilson,
Inside Higher Ed, October 22, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Hard-Numbers-Behind/135236/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
In quantitative finance and accountics science, we call important factors not
reflected in big data, or otherwise that cannot be scientifically quantified,
"black swans" or "causal factors."
"Favorite Professors: Carnegie Mellon's Milton Cofield," by Kate
Abbott, Bloomberg Business Week, October 12, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-12/favorite-professors-carnegie-mellons-milton-cofield
Milton Cofield
Tepper School of Business, Carnegie
Mellon University
Undergraduate Courses Taught: Global Business,
International Management
One of Milton
Cofield’s goals in the classroom is to help his students relate
the material he’s teaching to the real world. Cofield, the
executive director of the undergraduate program at Tepper, says
a typical lecture could include the “PowerPoints and lecturing
that people hate,” but he mixes up his lessons with the
occasional dramatic reading from a Shakespeare play. He uses
current events and real-life examples of corporate
decision-making in his business classes so that students are
“really prepared for the world they want to be a part of,” he
says.
Cofield took an
unconventional path to the teaching ranks. True, his educational
experience pointed to a career in academia, but he calls his
work trajectory “nontraditional.” After spending more than a
decade as a physical scientist in a research lab, he entered
higher education in 1991. “The transition was supposed to be
about becoming an academic administrator,” he says, “but then I
discovered the best job in university is teaching.” Cofield has
taught a variety of subjects, including chemistry, physics,
mathematics, and business administration. He joined the Carnegie
Mellon faculty in 2001. “I had a very broad range of
professional experiences, a very diverse educational background,
and I think I understand the issues of management, strategic
management, global enterprise, from all of those perspectives,”
he says.
Cofield holds a
B.S. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in philosophy. He received his MBA
from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1989.
Students
say:
• “He brings a
real-life feel to the classroom and acts more like your friend
than a professor. However, he is able to teach the material as
well as keep the class as a more informal setting.”
• “It’s very
rare that the director of a program takes the time to teach
students, but it is exactly what happens at Carnegie Mellon
University. It’s obvious that he knew the material he was
teaching and had the experience to back it up. All in all, it
was an enjoyable class that made you more interested in the
material, even if there was a lot of work.”
Cofield
on using Shakespeare in the classroom:
I quote from
Macbeth, because there’s more drama and the consequences of
being are significant and real. There’s more of the sense that
not everything is determined by the individual. Business
students are people, too. People go to college to learn how to
interpret their experiences using new resources, and
[Shakespeare] is only one of them.
Editor’s Note: This profile
is part of Bloomberg Businessweek’s series on favorite
undergraduate business professors. Subjects were chosen based on
feedback collected in Bloomberg Businessweek’s annual
survey of senior business students. The featured professors were
the ones most often mentioned by students as being their
favorite. Student quotes come directly from the student survey.
Ethics Relativism
"A Decision to Slaughter Oxen at a College Farm Angers Animal-Rights
Activists," by Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, October
21, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/buildings/a-decision-to-slaughter-oxen-at-a-college-farm-angers-animal-rights-activists/32260?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
There's somewhat of a generation gap in this controversy. When I was a kid on a
farm, we had cows, horses, and even hogs so long that they became like pets ---
especially those that were raised for the Kossuth County Fair 4H competitions.
Yet we never gave it a second thought when the time came to butcher our "pets."
The beef and pork pieces were usually home-canned for the winter months.
The horses that died or were put down were sold to area "rendering plants"
otherwise known as glue factories.
I'm not sure we ever thought of chickens as being pets, although we often
gave them names. Almost daily, my aunt or grandmother would go out and wring the
heads off chickens for our noon meals. I don't recall that my mother ever
flipped the head off a chicken.
In 1981 when my son's horse Travis foundered in our pasture in Florida, I
discovered that these days dead horses are often shipped to Europe, especially
France, for fine cuisine. My children were appalled at the thought of Travis
ending up in a Paris bowl of soup. So I hired a guy with a back hoe to dig a
grave, and we had a proper family funeral for Travis. Digging a grave and having
a funeral for a horse just never occurred to us when I was a kid on an Iowa
farm.
What the above article shows is how relative morality and ethics can become,
especially over time. In the 1950s I cannot recall animal activists, although
there was some movement even then for humane killings in slaughter houses. If
Iowa State University had pet oxen, I don't think a second thought would've been
given later on when ox tail soup was served up in the dorms. In the 21st
Century, however, the slaughter of animals, including pets, is an entirely new
ball game.
And containment feeding factories are about as inhumane to animals as it can
get. We would've never done that in the 1950s.
Simpson's Paradox and Cross-Validation
Simpson's Paradox ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox
"Simpson’s Paradox: A Cautionary Tale in Advanced Analytics," by Steve
Berman, Leandro DalleMule, Michael Greene, and John Lucker, Significance:
Statistics Making Sense, October 2012 ---
http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/2671151/Simpsons-Paradox-A-Cautionary-Tale-in-Advanced-Analytics.html
Analytics projects often present us with situations
in which common sense tells us one thing, while the numbers seem to tell us
something much different. Such situations are often opportunities to learn
something new by taking a deeper look at the data. Failure to perform a
sufficiently nuanced analysis, however, can lead to misunderstandings and
decision traps. To illustrate this danger, we present several instances of
Simpson’s Paradox in business and non-business environments. As we
demonstrate below, statistical tests and analysis can be confounded by a
simple misunderstanding of the data. Often taught in elementary probability
classes, Simpson’s Paradox refers to situations in which a trend or
relationship that is observed within multiple groups reverses when the
groups are combined. Our first example describes how Simpson’s Paradox
accounts for a highly surprising observation in a healthcare study. Our
second example involves an apparent violation of the law of supply and
demand: we describe a situation in which price changes seem to bear no
relationship with quantity purchased. This counterintuitive relationship,
however, disappears once we break the data into finer time periods. Our
final example illustrates how a naive analysis of marginal profit
improvements resulting from a price optimization project can potentially
mislead senior business management, leading to incorrect conclusions and
inappropriate decisions. Mathematically, Simpson’s Paradox is a fairly
simple—if counterintuitive—arithmetic phenomenon. Yet its significance for
business analytics is quite far-reaching. Simpson’s Paradox vividly
illustrates why business analytics must not be viewed as a purely technical
subject appropriate for mechanization or automation. Tacit knowledge, domain
expertise, common sense, and above all critical thinking, are necessary if
analytics projects are to reliably lead to appropriate evidence-based
decision making.
The past several years have seen decision making in
many areas of business steadily evolve from judgment-driven domains into
scientific domains in which the analysis of data and careful consideration
of evidence are more prominent than ever before. Additionally, mainstream
books, movies, alternative media and newspapers have covered many topics
describing how fact and metric driven analysis and subsequent action can
exceed results previously achieved through less rigorous methods. This trend
has been driven in part by the explosive growth of data availability
resulting from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) applications and the Internet and eCommerce more generally.
There are estimates that predict that more data will be created in the next
four years than in the history of the planet. For example, Wal-Mart handles
over one million customer transactions every hour, feeding databases
estimated at more than 2.5 petabytes in size - the equivalent of 167 times
the books in the United States Library of Congress.
Additionally, computing power has increased
exponentially over the past 30 years and this trend is expected to continue.
In 1969, astronauts landed on the moon with a 32-kilobyte memory computer.
Today, the average personal computer has more computing power than the
entire U.S. space program at that time. Decoding the human genome took 10
years when it was first done in 2003; now the same task can be performed in
a week or less. Finally, a large consumer credit card issuer crunched two
years of data (73 billion transactions) in 13 minutes, which not long ago
took over one month.
This explosion of data availability and the
advances in computing power and processing tools and software have paved the
way for statistical modeling to be at the front and center of decision
making not just in business, but everywhere. Statistics is the means to
interpret data and transform vast amounts of raw data into meaningful
information.
However, paradoxes and fallacies lurk behind even
elementary statistical exercises, with the important implication that
exercises in business analytics can produce deceptive results if not
performed properly. This point can be neatly illustrated by pointing to
instances of Simpson’s Paradox. The phenomenon is named after Edward
Simpson, who described it in a technical paper in the 1950s, though the
prominent statisticians Karl Pearson and Udney Yule noticed the phenomenon
over a century ago. Simpson’s Paradox, which regularly crops up in
statistical research, business analytics, and public policy, is a prime
example of why statistical analysis is useful as a corrective for the many
ways in which humans intuit false patterns in complex datasets.
Simpson’s Paradox is in a sense an arithmetic
trick: weighted averages can lead to reversals of meaningful
relationships—i.e., a trend or relationship that is observed within each of
several groups reverses when the groups are combined. Simpson’s Paradox can
arise in any number of marketing and pricing scenarios; we present here case
studies describing three such examples. These case studies serve as
cautionary tales: there is no comprehensive mechanical way to detect or
guard against instances of Simpson’s Paradox leading us astray. To be
effective, analytics projects should be informed by both a nuanced
understanding of statistical methodology as well as a pragmatic
understanding of the business being analyzed.
The first case study, from the medical field,
presents a surface indication on the effects of smoking that is at odds with
common sense. Only when the data are viewed at a more refined level of
analysis does one see the true effects of smoking on mortality. In the
second case study, decreasing prices appear to be associated with decreasing
sales and increasing prices appear to be associated with increasing sales.
On the surface, this makes no sense. A fundamental tenet of economics is
that of the demand curve: as the price of a good or service increases,
consumers demand less of it. Simpson’s Paradox is responsible for an
apparent—though illusory—violation of this fundamental law of economics. Our
final case study shows how marginal improvements in profitability in each of
the sales channels of a given manufacturer may result in an apparent
marginal reduction in the overall profitability the business. This seemingly
contradictory conclusion can also lead to serious decision traps if not
properly understood.
Case Study 1: Are those warning labels
really necessary?
We start with a simple example from the healthcare
world. This example both illustrates the phenomenon and serves as a reminder
that it can appear in any domain.
The data are taken from a 1996 follow-up study from
Appleton, French, and Vanderpump on the effects of smoking. The follow-up
catalogued women from the original study, categorizing based on the age
groups in the original study, as well as whether the women were smokers or
not. The study measured the deaths of smokers and non-smokers during the 20
year period.
Continued in article
What happened to cross-validation in
accountics science research?
Over time I've become increasingly critical of
the lack of validation in accountics science, and I've focused mainly upon lack
of replication by independent researchers and lack of commentaries published in
accountics science journals ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
Another type of validation that seems to be on
the decline in accountics science are the so-called cross-validations.
Accountics scientists seem to be content with their statistical inference tests
on Z-Scores, F-Tests, and correlation significance testing. Cross-validation
seems to be less common, at least I'm having troubles finding examples of
cross-validation. Cross-validation entails comparing sample findings with
findings in holdout samples.
Cross Validation ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-validation_%28statistics%29
When reading the following paper using logit
regression to to predict audit firm changes, it struck me that this would've
been an ideal candidate for the authors to have performed cross-validation using
holdout samples.
"Audit Quality and Auditor Reputation: Evidence from Japan," by Douglas J.
Skinner and Suraj Srinivasan, The Accounting Review, September 2012, Vol.
87, No. 5, pp. 1737-1765.
We study events surrounding
ChuoAoyama's failed audit of Kanebo, a large Japanese cosmetics company
whose management engaged in a massive accounting fraud. ChuoAoyama was PwC's
Japanese affiliate and one of Japan's largest audit firms. In May 2006, the
Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) suspended ChuoAoyama for two months
for its role in the Kanebo fraud. This unprecedented action followed a
series of events that seriously damaged ChuoAoyama's reputation. We use
these events to provide evidence on the importance of auditors' reputation
for quality in a setting where litigation plays essentially no role. Around
one quarter of ChuoAoyama's clients defected from the firm after its
suspension, consistent with the importance of reputation. Larger firms and
those with greater growth options were more likely to leave, also consistent
with the reputation argument.
Jensen Comment
Rather than just use statistical inference tests
on logit model Z-statistics, it struck me that in statistics journals the
referees might've requested cross-validation tests on holdout samples of firms
that changed auditors and firms that did not change auditors.
I do find somewhat more frequent
cross-validation studies in finance, particularly in the areas of discriminant
analysis in bankruptcy prediction modes.
Instances of cross-validation in accounting
research journals seem to have died out in the past 20 years. There are earlier
examples of cross-validation in accounting research journals. Several examples
are cited below:
"A field study examination of budgetary
participation and locus of control," by Peter Brownell, The Accounting
Review, October 1982 ---
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/247411?uid=3739712&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101146090203
"Information choice and utilization in an
experiment on default prediction," Abdel-Khalik and KM El-Sheshai -
Journal of Accounting Research, 1980 ---
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2490581?uid=3739712&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101146090203
"Accounting ratios and the prediction of
failure: Some behavioral evidence," by Robert Libby, Journal of
Accounting Research, Spring 1975 ---
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2490653?uid=3739712&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101146090203
There are other examples of cross-validation
in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in bankruptcy prediction.
I have trouble finding illustrations of
cross-validation in the accounting research literature in more recent years. Has
the interest in cross-validating waned along with interest in validating
accountics research? Or am I just being careless in my search for illustrations?
Appeal for a "Daisy Chain of Replication"
"Nobel laureate challenges psychologists to clean up their act:
Social-priming research needs 'daisy chain' of replication," by Ed Yong,
Nature, October 3, 2012 ---
http://www.nature.com/news/nobel-laureate-challenges-psychologists-to-clean-up-their-act-1.11535
Nobel prize-winner Daniel Kahneman has issued a
strongly worded call to one group of psychologists to restore the
credibility of their field by creating a replication ring to check each
others’ results.
Kahneman, a psychologist at Princeton University in
New Jersey, addressed his
open e-mail to researchers who work on social
priming, the study of how subtle cues can unconsciously influence our
thoughts or behaviour. For example, volunteers might walk more slowly down a
corridor after seeing words related to old age1,
or fare better in general-knowledge tests after writing down the attributes
of a typical professor2.
Such tests are widely used in psychology, and
Kahneman counts himself as a “general believer” in priming effects. But in
his e-mail, seen by Nature, he writes that there is a “train wreck
looming” for the field, due to a “storm of doubt” about the robustness of
priming results.
Under fire
This scepticism has been fed by failed attempts to
replicate classic priming studies, increasing concerns about replicability
in psychology more broadly (see 'Bad
Copy'), and the exposure of fraudulent social
psychologists such as Diederik Stapel, Dirk Smeesters and Lawrence Sanna,
who used priming techniques in their work.
“For all these reasons, right or wrong, your field
is now the poster child for doubts about the integrity of psychological
research,” Kahneman writes. “I believe that you should collectively do
something about this mess.”
Kahneman’s chief concern is that graduate students
who have conducted priming research may find it difficult to get jobs after
being associated with a field that is being visibly questioned.
“Kahneman is a hard man to ignore. I suspect that
everybody who got a message from him read it immediately,” says Brian Nosek,
a social psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.David
Funder, at the University of California, Riverside, and president-elect of
the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, worries that the debate
about priming has descended into angry defensiveness rather than a
scientific discussion about data. “I think the e-mail hits exactly the right
tone,” he says. “If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what will.”
Hal Pashler, a cognitive psychologist at the
University of California, San Diego, says that several groups, including his
own, have already tried to replicate well-known social-priming findings, but
have not been able to reproduce any of the effects. “These are quite simple
experiments and the replication attempts are well powered, so it is all very
puzzling. The field needs to get to the bottom of this, and the quicker the
better.”
Chain of replication
To address this problem, Kahneman recommends that
established social psychologists set up a “daisy chain” of replications.
Each lab would try to repeat a priming effect demonstrated by its neighbour,
supervised by someone from the replicated lab. Both parties would record
every detail of the methods, commit beforehand to publish the results, and
make all data openly available.
Kahneman thinks that such collaborations are
necessary because priming effects are subtle, and could be undermined by
small experimental changes.
Norbert Schwarz, a social psychologist at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who received the e-mail, says that
priming studies attract sceptical attention because their results are often
surprising, not necessarily because they are scientifically flawed.. “There
is no empirical evidence that work in this area is more or less replicable
than work in other areas,” he says, although the “iconic status” of
individual findings has distracted from a larger body of supportive
evidence.
“You can think of this as psychology’s version of
the climate-change debate,” says Schwarz. “The consensus of the vast
majority of psychologists closely familiar with work in this area gets
drowned out by claims of a few persistent priming sceptics.”
Still, Schwarz broadly supports Kahneman’s
suggestion. “I will participate in such a daisy-chain if the field decides
that it is something that should be implemented,” says Schwarz, but not if
it is “merely directed at one single area of research”.
Continued in article
The lack of validation is an enormous problem in accountics science, but the
saving grace is that nobody much cares
574 Shields Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
"Mathematics and What It Means to Be Human, Part 2 Mathematics and What It
Means to Be Human, Part 1 2," by Michele Osherow and Michele Osherow and
Manil Suri, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/MathematicsWhat-It-Means/135114/
In May 2009, Michele Osherow, an English
professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and resident
dramaturg at the Folger Theatre, in Washington, invited her colleague Manil
Suri, a mathematician at the university, to act as mathematics consultant
for the Folger's production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. The play explores the
relationship between past and present through the characters' intellectual
pursuits, poetic and mathematical.That led to a series of "show and tell"
sessions explaining the mathematics behind the play both to cast members and
audiences. In the fall of 2011, the two professors decided to take their
collaboration to the classroom and jointly teach a freshman seminar on
"Mathematics and What It Means to be Human." Here is the second of a
three-part series on how the experiment played out. Part 1 is
here.
Michele Osherow: While Manil
astounded the students with mathematical impossibilities—the
trisection of an angle assignment, Zeno's paradox—I focused on the
possibilities that characterized the study of literature. Shakespeare's
King Lear made it easy to note the range of readings inspired by a
single work. But not every text we gave to the students was as richly
complex as Lear.
In fact, convoluted might better describe the
poetry we introduced next in the classroom from a collection called the
Oulipo Compendium. Oulipo poetry emerged in 1960 when Raymond Queneau
and François Le Lionnais gathered a group of writers and mathematicians in
France to create literature guided by strict (very strict) and often bizarre
constraints. For example, the S+7 (or N+7) constraint requires that every
noun in a text be replaced with the seventh noun appearing after it in a
dictionary. (You can find more information about Oulipo poetry
here.)
I had never heard the word Oulipo (short for
Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle, or Workshop of Potential Literature) and
was surprised when Manil handed me the anthology during our course planning.
He qualified the suggestion by saying he had "no idea if it was any good."
But I was intrigued: Literature produced through a series of strict
constraints was an interesting fusion of our two fields. I wasn't sure,
though, if the art was to be found in the language or in the template. I
worried that to some students it wouldn't matter.
When I began reading the material I told myself it
was probably more compelling in French. Mostly, I thought the Oulipo pieces
were sometimes clever, but more often bizarre outcomes of linguistic games.
There are some impressive names among the Oulipians (including Italo
Calvino), however, and we decided to let the class have at it. I saw it as
an opportunity to introduce students to postmodernism, and give them a
chance to think and write creatively. Though I dreaded that they would love
the stuff.
It felt strange calling the selections we examined
"poetry." I couldn't pull much meaning from the works, and neither could the
students, which lead to a discussion of the ways in which meaning might be
determined by a reader's will. Somehow, though, the more time we spent
examining Oulipian patterns, the more compelling I found the game. I liked
these poets' sense of humor and their intolerance of pretentious artists and
academics alike. Plus, I appreciated their name—the word potentielle
seemed so compelling, and forgiving. Could we brand our class a
seminaire potentiel?
Continued in article
Humanities Versus Business ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#HumanitiesVsBusiness
Increased Investor Risks Caused by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act
"The Data Facebook Didn't Want to Share," by Karen Wei, Bloomberg
Business Week, October 10, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-10/the-data-facebook-didnt-want-to-share
. . .
Today a great story from our colleagues over at
Bloomberg News looks at the recently released documents from Facebook’s IPO
and finds that the social network
fought to keep key risks hidden. The SEC forced
Facebook to avoid double-counting mobile users and to disclose that people
who accessed the site largely on mobile devices were making up a growing
share of its users. This was problematic for Facebook because it derives
less revenue for mobile users than for regular ones. Spokesmen for Facebook
and the SEC declined to comment for the Bloomberg story.
The SEC also asked Facebook why it didn’t report
how much revenue it generated per user. Facebook’s attorney responded that
the company preferred to use aggregate numbers. The SEC went ahead and
calculated the figures on its own—which showed that per-user revenue was
declining. Facebook ultimately included the statistics in its filings.
The Facebook letters show that while there is a
push and pull between the SEC and the company looking to launch an IPO,
ultimately the SEC has the final word. As Alan Mendelson, a partner at
Latham & Watkins, explained to us in February, a company “might have to cave
and put something in the document that you prefer not to.” Put another way,
had the SEC’s vetting process not existed, investors wouldn’t have known
details about the mobile-revenue concerns before the stock hit the market.
But something big has changed since Facebook
started its IPO process. In the spring, Congress passed—and President Obama
signed—the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, a
bill that loosened investor protections with the
goal of creating more jobs. The bill reduces disclosure requirements for
so-called emerging growth companies that want to go public; under the law an
emerging growth company can have as much as $1 billion in annual revenue.
The bill also opens the way for
buyer-beware offerings through crowdfunding. And
it allows companies to raise money from as many as 2,000 investors
privately, up from the previous limit of 500. When raising money privately,
companies are under far less obligation to divulge information. So once the
JOBS Act goes in to effect next year, more deals can avoid the SEC process
that forced Facebook to show its cards to investors.
Teaching Case from The Wall Street Journal Weekly Accounting Review on
October 19, 2012
Broadway Show Was Duped, Prosecutors Say
by:
Chad Bray and Jennifer Maloney
Oct 15, 2012
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
TOPICS: Factoring, Fraud
SUMMARY: "In one of the biggest fraud accusations in Broadway
history, a former stockbroker was charged Monday with duping the producers
of "Rebecca: The Musical" into believing he had secured $4.5 million from a
group of overseas investors-all of whom he had invented, federal prosecutors
said....Mr. Hotton has been accused of...a separate alleged scheme to induce
companies to advance $3.7 million to buy a portion of the purported accounts
receivable for businesses run by Mr. Hotton and his wife...."
CLASSROOM APPLICATION: The article may be used in an accounting or
MBA class to discuss fraud and factoring accounts receivable.
QUESTIONS:
1. (Introductory) Summarize the fraud purportedly committed by Mr.
Mark Hotton. What financial benefit did Mr. Hotton receive? Who paid those
funds to Mr. Hotton?
2. (Advanced) What caution does this story give for Broadway shows
or other artistic endeavors looking for funding?
3. (Advanced) Define the term "factoring" of accounts receivable.
How did Mr. Hotton also allegedly try to use this business practice to
fraudulently obtain funds from others?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
"Broadway Show Was Duped, Prosecutors Say," by Chad Bray and Jennifer
Maloney, The Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443624204578058220817847906.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid&mg=reno-wsj
In one of the biggest fraud accusations in Broadway
history, a former stockbroker was charged Monday with duping the producers
of "Rebecca: The Musical" into believing he had secured $4.5 million from a
group of overseas investors—all of whom he had invented, federal prosecutors
said.
Prosecutors alleged that Mark Hotton, a 46-year-old
living on Long Island outside New York City, created four investors out of
thin air, including an Australian named "Paul Abrams" who, in a fantastical
twist, was said to have contracted malaria on what Mr. Hotton claimed was an
African safari and died just as his wire transfer of funds was due.
In return for lining up these alleged investors as
well as a fake $1.1 million loan, the show's producers paid more than
$60,000 to Mr. Hotton or entities he controlled, prosecutors said.
Gerald Shargel, a lawyer for Mr. Hotton, declined
to comment Monday.
Mr. Hotton wove a complex but sometimes sloppy web
of deceit, using several fake email addresses and website domains, according
to court records. He used one email address for communications from two
different fictitious investors and later from assistants supposedly working
for Mr. Abrams, giving updates on the fake investor's rapidly declining
health.
Before Mr. Abrams's purported demise, Mr. Hotton
received an $18,000 advance from the show's producers supposedly for taking
the investor and his son on a safari, prosecutors said.
"Rebecca," based on the 1938 novel by Daphne du
Maurier, opened in Vienna in 2006, but suffered setbacks as producers tried
to bring it to Broadway, including a canceled production in London last year
and a postponement in New York this spring. It had been slated to open on
Broadway in November before it was postponed indefinitely Sept. 30, after
the money Mr. Hotton had promised failed to show up.
The criminal investigation provides a backstage
look into the secretive and sometimes murky relationships behind the funding
of Broadway's increasingly expensive shows.
"I think it's a wake-up call to producers to be
extra careful," said Steven Baruch, a longtime Broadway producer who wasn't
involved in "Rebecca." But, he added, "It's such a unique piece of
criminality that I don't think it scares substantial numbers of people
away."
Ronald G. Russo, an attorney for lead "Rebecca"
producer Ben Sprecher, said that when the producers first met Mr. Hotton,
they believed him to be legitimate because he held a Series 7 license,
required to be a stockbroker. According to the Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority, which regulates the securities industry, he hasn't held that
license since May.
"I guess going forward, you need to say, 'I want to
meet this investor, I want to shake his hand, I want to see his passport,' "
Mr. Russo said.
According to court documents, the show's producers
reached out to Mr. Hotton in January after they realized they were about $4
million short of the capital they needed to open. The show had a budget of
$12 million to $14 million.
Mr. Sprecher said he is committed to opening
"Rebecca" on Broadway. But other producers expressed skepticism he will be
able to find the investors he needs after having had trouble locking them
down so far.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Ted Talk: Heather Brooke: My battle to expose government corruption ---
Click Here
http://www.ted.com/talks/heather_brooke_my_battle_to_expose_government_corruption.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TEDTalks_video+%28TEDTalks+Main+%28SD%29+-+Site%29
Black Swan ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swan
Human Accomplishment ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Accomplishment
Video
Charles Murray, author of
Human Accomplishment, and Nassim Taleb, author of
The Black Swan,
discuss their interpretations of historical achievement and human
accomplishments.
A jailhouse interview with Steve Washak, (otherwise known as the Cincinnati
Boner King) who made millions selling “natural male enhancement” pills ---
http://longform.org/2012/10/09/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-cincinnati-boner-king/
Click on either the "Now" or "Later" hot words to read the article (not to be
enhanced)
Fortunately this sort of public dispute has never happened in accountics
science where professors just don't steal each others' ideas or insultingly
review each others' work in public. Accountics science is a polite science and
public reviews of published papers are rare, especially if they might be
critical ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
"Publicizing (Alleged) Plagiarism," by Alexandra Tilsley, Inside
Higher Ed, October 22, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/22/berkeley-launches-plagiarism-investigation-light-public-nature-complaints
The varied effects of the Internet age on the world
of academic research are
well-documented, but a website devoted solely to
highlighting one researcher’s alleged plagiarism has put a new spin on the
matter.
The University of California at Berkeley has begun
an investigation into allegations of plagiarism in professor Terrence
Deacon’s book, Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter,
largely in response to
the website
created about the supposed problems with Deacon’s
book. In Incomplete
Nature, Deacon, the chair of Berkeley's
anthropology department, melds science and philosophy to explain how mental
processes, the stuff that makes us human, emerged from the physical world.
The allegations are not of direct, copy-and-paste
plagiarism, but of using ideas without proper citation. In a June review in
The New York Review of Books, Colin McGinn, a professor of
philosophy at the University of Miami, writes that ideas in Deacon’s book
draw heavily on ideas in works by
Alicia Juarrero,
professor emerita of philosophy at Prince George’s Community College who
earned her Ph.D. at Miami, and Evan Thompson, a philosophy professor at the
University of Toronto, though neither scholar is cited, as Thompson also
notes in his own
review in Nature.
McGinn writes: “I have no way of knowing whether
Deacon was aware of these books when he was writing his: if he was, he
should have cited them; if he was not, a simple literature search would have
easily turned them up (both appear from prominent presses).”
That is an argument Juarrero and her colleagues
Carl Rubino and Michael Lissack have pursued forcefully and publicly. Rubino,
a classics professor at Hamilton College, published a book with Juarrero
that he claims Deacon misappropriated, and that book was published by
Lissack’s Institute for the
Study of Coherence and Emergence. Juarrero, who
declined to comment for this article because of the continuing
investigation, is also a fellow of the institute.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on professors who cheat ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize
Are little cheaters a bigger problem than big cheaters in the world?
"The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: RSA Animate Version," by Dan
Ariely, October 20, 2012 ---
http://danariely.com/2012/10/20/the-honest-truth-about-dishonesty-rsa-animate-version/
Jensen Comment
This RSA animation is a very neat way to help students learn ---
http://www.321fastdraw.com/?gclid=CI7pp-vOlLMCFVTNOgodZVkApQ
Bob Jensen's threads on edutainment ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
"Study: Little Difference in Learning in Online and In-Class Science
Courses," Inside Higher Ed, October 22, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/10/22/study-little-difference-learning-online-and-class-science-courses
A
study in Colorado has found little difference in
the learning of students in online or in-person introductory science
courses. The study tracked community college students who took science
courses online and in traditional classes, and who then went on to four-year
universities in the state. Upon transferring, the students in the two groups
performed equally well. Some science faculty members have expressed
skepticism about the ability of online students in science, due to the lack
of group laboratory opportunities, but the programs in Colorado work with
companies to provide home kits so that online students can have a lab
experience.
Jensen Comment
Firstly, note that online courses are not necessarily mass education (MOOC)
styled courses. The student-student and student-faculty interactions can be
greater online than onsite. For example, my daughter's introductory chemistry
class at the University of Texas had over 600 students. On the date of the final
examination he'd never met her and had zero control over her final grade. On the
other hand, her microbiology instructor in a graduate course at the University
of Maine became her husband over 20 years ago.
Another factor is networking. For example, Harvard Business School students
meeting face-to-face in courses bond in life-long networks that may be stronger
than for students who've never established networks via classes, dining halls,
volley ball games, softball games, rowing on the Charles River, etc. There's
more to lerning than is typically tested in competency examinations.
My point is that there are many externalities to both onsite and online
learning. And concluding that there's "little difference in learning" depends
upon what you mean by learning. The SCALE experiments at the University of
Illinois found that students having the same instructor tended to do slightly
better than onsite students. This is partly because there are fewer logistical
time wasters in online learning. The effect becomes larger for off-campus
students where commuting time (as in Mexico City) can take hours going to and
from campus.
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm
"Coal-Eating Microbes Might Create Vast Amounts of Natural Gas: Companies
are demonstrating a novel way to turn inaccessible coal into usable fuel,"
by Kevin Bullis, MIT's Technology Review, October 23, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429682/coal-eating-microbes-might-create-vast-amounts-of/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20121023
Is this the Bluebird of Happiness?
"Wal-Mart’s New Prepaid Card May Be the Best Deal Yet," by Karen Weise,
Business Week, September 9, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-09/wal-marts-new-prepaid-card-may-be-the-best-deal-yet
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and American Express (AXP)
are taking a big plunge into the prepaid debit-card market with a new card
called Bluebird. The card has many features that are standard in regular
bank accounts and seems to have remarkably few fees—which have long been the
scourge of prepaid cards. Bluebird is the biggest sign yet that prepaid
cards are evolving from a product for the poor and unbanked into a more
mass-market offering that competes with regular checking accounts.
NerdWallet, which maintains a database of prepaid
cards, says Bluebird is “exactly as momentous as they make it out to be”
because it has virtually no fees. The card has no monthly maintenance fees,
and it’s free to load money on it through direct deposit, with cash at
Wal-Mart, or via transfer from a checking account. (It costs $2 to use a
debit card to load money on the Bluebird card, which seems like a strange
thing to do in any case.) Bluebird doesn’t allow overdrafts, so there will
be no surprise charges for spending more than the account balance. It costs
$2 to withdraw cash from an ATM—and that fee is waived for in-network ATMs
if the card is loaded via direct deposit. Strangely, the full Bluebird
website won’t be up and running for another week, so it’s not clear if there
will be fees for other features such as the peer-to-peer transfers that are
possible with Bluebird’s mobile app.
Amex and Wal-Mart started a pilot program for
Bluebird in 2011, with a more limited set of features. The relaunched
product is much closer to a true bank account alternative. For example, it
lets customers pay bills online and deposit checks by taking photos of them,
a feature several major banks have added as recently as last month. Like
many prepaid cards, Bluebird cards aren’t FDIC-insured and don’t have as
much consumer protection as a standard checking account
As NerdWallet pointed out, consumers haven’t been
particularly sensitive to prepaid card fees, perhaps because there are
usually so many different types of charges that customers have a hard time
shopping around. Some card providers are looking to create a standard fee
box to make costs clearer, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says
it’s working on new rules to regulate prepaid cards.
At first glance it seems strange that discount king
Wal-Mart is teaming up with Amex, the high-end credit-card company. While
the terms of the tie-up weren’t disclosed, there are benefits for both.
Bluebird gives Wal-Mart customers more reason to shop in its stores.
Wal-Mart already offers another, more traditional prepaid card, which is run
by Green Dot (GDOT), but it doesn’t have as many features and costs more.
And retailers have long complained about how much they pay banks and payment
networks to process transactions, so having two financial services suppliers
can’t hurt Wal-Mart’s long-term bargaining power.
For Amex, the card is a way in to expand to a less
affluent audience. After all, there’s plenty of competition for the big
spenders that make up Amex’s typical customer base. As a payment processor,
Amex would typically recoup swipe fees. As I’ve written before, swipes on
prepaid cards are exempt from the caps mandated in the Durbin Amendment.
Card issuers usually also make money off the “float,” where they can get
some return on investing account balances.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
I still prefer credit cards that give cash back.
"What Google Knows About the Presidential Race: Political insight:
people lie to pollsters, and probably on Facebook. But not to Google's search
bar," by David Talbot, MIT's Technology Review, October 23, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/429720/what-google-knows-about-the-presidential-race/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20121023
Lately I haven't been telling the full truth to
people calling my house asking about my political views. Why should I tell
them anything? Of course, since I keep telling Massachusetts senator Scott
Brown's people that I haven't made a final decision, they keep calling. This
tends to tie them down. I feel bad about that.
People fib to poll takers and survey makers. They
put their best face on Facebook. But by contrast, they tend to reveal their
true colors in Google searches—and this can provide some insight into what
will happen in the presidential race, as we were reminded in a
New York Times piece yesterday by a
Harvard PhD student, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.
Four years ago, in October of 2008, search rates
tended to predict high black turnout. Searches for voting information
overall were slightly lower than they'd been in October 2004 but were higher
in states with high black populations—North Carolina, Georgia, and
Mississippi. While this isn't surprising, it does show that Google searches
can predict behavior.
The piece is worth reading for insights including
this one: "Turnout might be expected to be higher in Ohio in 2012 than it
was in 2004 or 2008."
And: "Areas with the largest black populations
are, on average, Googling for voting information at rates similar to those
of 2008, rather than 2004, levels. By this metric, it does seem that
pollsters should assume a black share of the electorate similar to that of
2008, when African-Americans made up an estimated 12 percent of the
electorate, rather than 2004, when it was 11 percent—a good sign for Mr.
Obama.
And: "There is nice news for Mitt Romney in the
Google data, too: voting searches are higher in Idaho Falls and Salt Lake
City, the two media markets with the largest Mormon populations. While
neither Idaho nor Utah is a swing state, increased Mormon turnout might help
Mr. Romney somewhat in two important swing states: Nevada (7 percent Mormon)
and Colorado (3 percent Mormon)."
His overall conclusion: "Mr. Obama’s opponents hope
that the 2012 electorate will be less favorable to Democrats, more like the
2004 electorate. My early analysis of Google search data says: don’t count
on it."
"How Virtual Teams Can Outperform Traditional Teams," by Jason Sylva,
Harvard Business Review Blog, October 9, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://blogs.hbr.org/events/2012/10/how-virtual-teams-can-outperfo.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date
People can easily list problems they believe are
associated with virtual teams: They haven't met and don't really know other
team members; it is hard to monitor the work of others; and dispersions can
lead to big inefficiencies and degraded performance.
In this HBR webinar, Keith Ferrazzi, a foremost
expert on professional relationship development and author of Never Eat
Alone and Who's Got Your Back?, shares a strategy for managing virtual teams
that can change how your company operates - and how you manage for years to
come.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
This theory should be tested in a variety of ways with respect to case analysis
by teams. I've always argued that case learning is best in live classrooms, but
I'm beginning to doubt myself on this one. Even Harvard and Darden should
experiment with onsite versus online team assignments. One advantage of online
team assignments is grading if instructors carefully track team member
contributions, possibly by monitoring online performance as silent or active
(avatar) trackers.
Bob Jensen's threads on case teaching and research ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Cases
Zoom.us -- An Amazing
Cloud-based, Video-Conferencing Posting the AAA Commons by Rick Lillie
Zoom.us -- An
Amazing Cloud-based, Video-Conferencing...
blog entry posted September 1, 2012 by
Rick Lillie, last edited Yesterday
, tagged
research,
teaching,
technology,
technology tools
103 Views,
3 Comments
title:
Zoom.us -- An
Amazing Cloud-based, Video-Conferencing Service (It's free!)
intro text:
Recently,
I read about
Zoom.us
a new free, cloud-based, video-conferencing service.
Yesterday, three of us used zoom.us to work on a research
project. We are located throughout the U.S. We logged into
the video conference call and worked for more than an hour.
The audio and video were crystal clear. We shared desktops
to work on documents together. Wow! The virtual work
session was very productive and enjoyable.
I use
Skype to work with
colleagues and to offer virtual office hours for my
students. Skype offers a free 1:1 video-conference call
with desktop sharing. To include more than two people in a
Skype video call, you need to subscribe to
Skype's premium service. Skype's
fee is very reasonable; however, it's difficult to beat
"free."
Both
Zoom.us and Skype have features
that meet specific needs. Therefore, both services are
valuable to the teaching-learning experience. The quality
of the zoom.us video-conference call was exceptional. Zoom.us
versus Skype is not an either/or situation. Using one
service or the other is a judgment call regarding features
that best fit the need as hand.
Getting started with zoom.us is quick and easy to do. Their
support page explanations
are easy to follow. The service works with Google and
Facebook, iPad, iPhone, Windows and Mac. When I set up
zoom.us, I had to download a small file to my computer that
includes the zoom.us interface. The download was quick. No
problem.
Below is a
screenshot from the support page indicating key features of
the zoom.us interface screen. Individual members
participating in a video call are shown at the top of the
screen. When a member speaks, the border of the member's
screen turns "green." The speaker's screen displays in the
"big screen" section of the interface window. This process
works as the conversation switches among participants. Wow!
This is amazing and allows each speaker to be the center of
attention.
Check out
zoom.us. I think you'll like this new
video-conference service.
Best wishes,
Rick Lillie
(
CSU San Bernardino)
Bob Jensen's threads on case teaching and research ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Cases
Started by Two Economics Professors from George Mason University ---
Click Here
Marginal Revolution University Launches, Bringing Free Courses in Economics
to the Web ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/marginal_revolution_university_launches_bringing_free_courses_in_economics_to_the_web.html
A great year for open education got even better with the launch of Marginal
Revolution University. Founded by Tyler
Cowen and Alex
Tabarrok, two econ professors at George Mason University, MRUniversity promises
to deliver free, interactive courses in the economics space. And they’re
getting started with a course on
Development
Economics, a subdiscipline that explores why some countries grow rich
and others remain poor. In short, issues that have real meaning for everyday
people worldwide.
In an
announcement on the Marginal Revolution blog last month, Cowen outlined
a few of the principles guiding the project:
1. The product is free, and we offer more material in less time.
2. Most of our videos are short, so you can view and listen between
tasks, rather than needing to schedule time for them. The average video
is five minutes, twenty-eight seconds long. When needed, more videos
are used to explain complex topics.
3. No talking heads and no long, boring lectures. We have tried to
reconceptualize every aspect of the educational experience to be
friendly to the on-line world.
4. It is low bandwidth and mobile-friendly. No ads.
5. We offer tests and quizzes.
6. We have plans to subtitle the videos in major languages. Our
reach will be global, and in doing so we are building upon the global
emphasis of our home institution, George Mason University.
7. We invite users to submit content.
8. It is a flexible learning module. It is not a “MOOC”
per se, although it can be used to create a MOOC, namely a massive, open
on-line course.
9. It is designed to grow rapidly and flexibly, absorbing new content
in modular fashion — note the beehive structure to our logo. But we are
starting with plenty of material.
10. We are pleased to announce that our first course will begin on
October 1.
Bookmark MRUniversity
and look out for its curriculum to expand. In the meantime, you can find
more courses in the
Economics section of our big list of 530
Free
Courses Online.
Marginal Revolution University Launches, Bringing Free Courses in Economics
to the Web is a post from:
Open Culture. You
can follow Open Culture on
Facebook,
Twitter,
Google Plus and by
Email.
"Texas MOOCs for Credit?" by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed,
October 16, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/16/u-texas-aims-use-moocs-reduce-costs-increase-completion
So far the universities partnering with edX and
Coursera on massive open online courses (MOOCs) have focused on the ideal of
lowering the barriers to elite courses.
But edX’s
newest partner, the University of Texas System,
has more pragmatic ambitions. It wants to use them to get more students
through college more quickly and for less money.
“We’re trying to move the MOOC model,” said Steve
Mintz, executive director of the Texas system's Institute for
Transformational Learning, in an interview.
Cost and completion issues have turned the state of
Texas into a proving ground for unconventional ideas such as
outsourced online competency-based learning and
the
$10,000 bachelor’s degree. Now the University of
Texas will enter MOOCs into the equation with the hope that it will make a
Texas degree less expensive for some students.
The goal is to develop MOOCs that can stand up to
the scrutiny of the normal faculty approval processes at the system’s
various campus, then award credit to students who pass them.
The Texas system believes making certain “bridge”
courses — low-level courses that typically count toward multiple degree
pathways — available as MOOCs will make it less likely that students will be
locked out of those courses on their own campuses, said Mintz, who will lead
the implementation of the partnership agreement.
“Some students tell us that they are closed out of
classes because those classes are over-enrolled or aren’t being offered that
semester,” he said.
Another way MOOCs could give students a cheaper
path to a Texas degree is that some universities in the system may elect to
charge below market for the credits earned through massive courses, which
will theoretically cost less to deliver. Access to the course would be free
and open to everyone, but the universities would charge student enrolled at
Texas for the opportunity to redeem their learning for credit.
“It’s going to be up to the campuses how much to
charge,” said Mintz. “And it’s conceivable that these classes would have a
reduced tuition rate.”
Universities in the Texas system may award credit
for MOOCs from edX’s other partners, which currently include the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the University
of California at Berkeley. “I’m reasonably sure that at least some of the
campuses will take that option, based on conversations,” he said.
Texas will have the opportunity to make money by
awarding non-credit certificates to MOOC participants who are not enrolled
in the system. A university might award a Texas-branded certificate in
exchange for a “modest fee” and worthy scores on a “meaningful, proctored
exam.” (edX recently signed a deal with Pearson VUE to hold such exams at
Pearson’s many testing centers.)
As part of the agreement with edX, which is a
nonprofit, Texas will keep 100 percent of the profits it makes from its own
MOOCs, said Mintz. The agreement also reportedly calls for a $5 million
investment from the Texas system.
Texas faculty may worry that awarding credit for
über-scalable MOOCs could be the first step toward eliminating local
versions of those courses — and faculty jobs with them. “We have no
intention of doing that,” said Mintz.
Professors who are inclined to distrust the
university’s reassurances may take comfort in the fact that MOOCs so far
have seen dropout rates that most institutions would find unacceptable. Out
of 155,000 registrants for edX’s inaugural course in electrical engineering,
only 7,000 earned a passing grade on the final exam.
But for Anant Agarwal, the president of edX, poor
retention in the early courses, which were built to be particularly
challenging, does not mean a MOOC aimed at less well-prepared students is
doomed to fail.
“That is one of the particular exciting things
about the University of Texas coming on board,” said Agarwal in an interview
on Monday in Boston, where he had just given the keynote talk at a meeting
of the New England Board of Higher Education.
Continued in article
""Online Education Is Everywhere. What’s the Next Big Thing?" by Marc
Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 31, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-education-is-everywhere-whats-the-next-big-thing/32898?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOC alternatives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Introducing a List of 50 Free Courses
Granting Certificates from Great Universities ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/introducing_a_list_of_50_free_university_courses_with_certificates.html
See the list at October 2012 list at
http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses
Bob Jensen's threads on the controversies on competency-based testing,
evaluation, and grading ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Compentency-Based
Competency-based Learning ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ECA
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses, tutorials, videos, and course
materials from prestigious universities and MOOCs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education and training alternatives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
"Reinventing College," Time Magazine
Cover Story, October 29, 2012 ---
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20121029,00.html
Higher
Education
Can a new breed of online mega courses
finally offer a college education to more people for less money?
TIME asked 8 experts about how to meet
the challenge of soaring costs. Here’s what they came up with.
Our reforms are taking roots and
delivery results
Tufts University Online History ---
http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/collections/tufts-online-history/
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education
controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
"German Education Minister Accused of
Plagiarism," Inside Higher Ed, October 16, 2012 ---
http://nation.time.com/reinventing-college/
Germany's education minister, Annette Schavan, is under
scrutiny following an investigation by the University of
Düsseldorf that suggested she plagiarized her Ph.D.
dissertation,
Spiegel Online reported.
"Not only because of a pattern recurring throughout the
work, but also because of specific features found in a
significant plurality of sections (in the work), it can
be stated that there was a clear intention to deceive,"
said a report on the investigation.
A
significant number of passages in Schavan's dissertation
"show the characteristics of a plagiaristic approach,"
the report added. Schavan, who until now has not
commented specifically on the charges, told Südwest
Presse: "It is rather striking that a confidential
report written by a university professor is given to the
press before the person concerned even knows of its
existence. I completely reject the charges."
"Research Misconduct on the Rise, Study Finds," Inside Higher Ed,
October 3, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/10/03/research-misconduct-rise-study-finds
Bob Jensen's threads on professors who
plagiarize and otherwise cheat ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize
"Fake Peer Reviews, the Latest Form of Scientific Fraud, Fool Journals,"
by Josh Fischman, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 30, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Fake-Peer-Reviews-the-Latest/134784/
Scientists appear to have figured out a new way to
avoid any bad prepublication reviews that dissuade journals from publishing
their articles: Write positive reviews themselves, under other people's
names.
In incidents involving four scientists—the latest
case coming to light two weeks ago—journal editors say authors got to
critique their own papers by suggesting reviewers with contact e-mails that
actually went to themselves.
The glowing endorsements got the work into
Experimental Parasitology, Pharmaceutical Biology, and several other
journals. Fake reviews even got a pair of mathematics articles into journals
published by Elsevier, the academic publishing giant, which has a system in
place intended to thwart such misconduct. The frauds have produced
retractions of about 30 papers to date.
"I find it very shocking," said Laura Schmidt,
publisher in charge of mathematics journals at Elsevier. "It's very serious,
very manipulative, and very deliberate."
This "has taken a lot of people by surprise," wrote
Irene Hames, a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics, in an e-mail
to The Chronicle. The committee is an international group of
science editors that advises journals on ways to handle misconduct. "It
should be a wake-up call to any journals that don't have rigorous reviewer
selection and screening in place," she wrote.
Blame lies with those journals, she said, that
allow authors to nominate their own reviewers and don't check credentials
and contacts.
What's worse, said Ivan Oransky, co-publisher of
the blog Retraction Watch, which first uncovered this pattern, is that some
editors saw red flags but published the papers anyway. Later retractions
don't undo the harm created by
introducing falsehoods
into the scientific literature, he said, noting that some of these papers
were published years ago and have been cited by several other researchers.
'Do-It-Yourself'
Reviews
Claudiu Supuran, editor in chief of the Journal
of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry, became suspicious that
one of his authors was engaged in "do-it-yourself" peer review in 2010.
Hyung-In Moon, now an assistant professor at Dong-A University, in Busan,
South Korea, had submitted a manuscript along with the names of several
potential reviewers. Mr. Supuran, then an associate editor at the journal,
duly sent the article out for review and became suspicious when good reviews
came back in one or two days. "Reviewers never respond that quickly," he
said.
So he sent the manuscript to two scientists whom he
picked himself. Their reviews suggested revisions but were also positive, so
the article was published.
Jensen Comment
This problem probably never arises in accountics science since there are few, if
any peer reviews published in the accounting research journals. Academic
accounting research is also rarely reviewed in practitioner journals. The
closest thing we have to peer reviews are book reviews and published conference
proceedings where discussant papers are also published. But those "peer reviews"
are not faked and are, as a rule, not very critical of the research in question.
I suspect that anonymous referees who write caustic rejections are much more
polite and soft in their criticisms if their reviews are not anonymous. At one
time, the accounting research conferences at the University of Chicago used to
pride themselves in impoliteness (remember Sel Becker and Bob Jensen), but I
suspect those conferences are much more polite in the past 40 years.
I'm always a Doubting Thomas when reading book reviews in such places as
Amazon. The problem may not be that the authors themselves write fake reviews,
but the publishing companies may instigate positive reviews. About the only
reviews I really trust on Amazon are the negative reviews, and the reviews on
Amazon often contain a subset of negative reviews.
The hope for honest peer reviews of accounting research is in the blogs and
listservs like the AECM, but the blogs have to restrain themselves against
"political politeness" as well as "political correctness" if they are to
maintain academic integrity." Problems lie in that gray zone of where
researchers treat criticisms of their work as insults. There are of course
bullies and monsters who cross too far into that gray zone of criticism. I seem
to have become one of those who has made some criticisms too personal. For
this I apologize. I really am going to try to get better when pushing into
that gray zone of criticism.
"Empirics and Psychology: Eight of the World’s Top Young Economists
Discuss Where Their Field Is Going," There Are Free Lunches Blog,
October 8, 2012 ---
http://therearefreelunches.blogspot.com/2012/10/o2-3-empirics-and-psychology-eight-of.html
Link to the Big Think Interviews ---
Click Here
http://bigthink.com/power-games/empirics-and-psychology-eight-of-the-worlds-top-young-economists-discuss-where-their-field-is-going?goback=.gde_112700_member_141501666
Jensen Comment
Note that tied into Peter Leeson's comments is an entire excellent online course
by Steve Keen
I’ve just uploaded the first 8 lectures in my Behavioral Finance class
for 2012. The first few lectures are very similar to last year’s, but the
content changes substantially by about lecture 5 when I start to focus more
on Schumpeter’s approach to endogenous money ---
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/09/23/behavioral-finance-lectures/
Related book: Debunking
Economics
Jensen Comment
These are quite good slide show lectures.
Bob Jensen's Threads on Behavioral and Cultural Economics and Finance ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#Behavioral
Bob Jensen's threads on tutorials, lectures, videos and course materials
from prestigious universities ---
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/09/23/behavioral-finance-lectures/
Bob Jensen's threads on tutorials, lectures, videos and course materials
from prestigious universities ---
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/09/23/behavioral-finance-lectures/
Video: A Risky Scenario: Disruption of Group Health Insurance,
by Deloitte, CFO Journal, October 12, 2012 ---
http://deloitte.wsj.com/cfo/2012/10/12/a-risky-scenario-disruption-of-group-health-insurance/?icontype=video
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
creates, among many other things, a new marketplace for individuals and
small businesses to purchase health insurance, and for the first time, the
federal government will provide subsidies to individuals to make it
affordable. These and other issues are discussed in Deloitte Insights and in
a paper, Power to the People? How health care reform could result in the
disruption of the group health insurance industry.
The individual market starts January 1, 2014, and
while no one really knows exactly what the size is going to be, it is
certainly going to be much larger than it is today, which is about 14
million people. Depending on how many people decide to sign up for the new
insurance products and the subsidies from the federal government, as well as
how many employers might decide to drop coverage and promote their employees
to go to the exchange, there could be anywhere between 25 million and 60
million people inside these individual market exchanges.
Watch Deloitte Insights to learn how the growth of
the new individual market could disrupt the existing health insurance
industry. Deloitte Insights speakers are:
- Bill Copeland, vice chairman, U.S. Life
Sciences & Health Care leader and U.S. Health Plans leader, Deloitte LLP
- Michael Raynor, director, Deloitte Consulting
LLP, and a New York Times best-selling author
Related Resources
Bob Jensen's threads on health insurance controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
Amazon Finally Gets the Kindle Right with the
Paperwhite, Delivering on Price and Technology ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/amazon_finally_gets_the_kindle_right_with_the_paperwhite_delivering_on_price_and_technology.html
It
took five years and five models, but Amazon has finally
released a new generation of the Kindle — the
Kindle Paperwhite —
that delivers the goods. The problem with the previous
models boiled down to this. The screens were fairly
muddy. The contrast, poor. The words didn’t pop off of
the page. If you ever tried reading a Kindle indoors,
especially in lower light conditions, you know what I
mean.
With the
Kindle
Paperwhite, Amazon has made a
pretty big leap ahead. They’ve made improvements to the
font contrast and screen resolution, which definitely
enhance the reading experience. They’ve also added a
touchscreen to the e-ink model. But the big stride
forward is the built-in light that illuminates the
screen. The screen is sidelit, not backlit (à la the
iPad). The point of the light isn’t to make the screen
glow like a computer screen. It’s to make the screen
stay white, like the page of a book, under varying light
conditions. If you move from brighter to dimmer lighting
conditions, you nudge up the brightness so that the page
continues to look white. And then you stop there.
It
all works quite well, until you start reading with the
Paperwhite in pretty dim light conditions. Then you’ll
need to dial up the light until the screen actually
glows, and that’s when you’ll start to see some
imperfections in the design. As
David Pogue mentioned in his New York Times review,
the Paperwhite has some hotspots
(areas of uneven lighting) along the bottom of the
screen, which detract minorly from the reading
experience.
The last thing Amazon got right is the price. The
entry model
starts at $119, which means that Amazon is basically
selling the e-reader at cost, and then making money on
book sales. But that doesn’t mean that you need to spend
very much. You can always download texts from our
collection of 375 Free
eBooks. Or, if you’re an
Amazon Prime Member, you can
borrow up to 180,000 books for free.
For a complete tour of the new Kindle, watch
this 20 minute video.
Related Content:
Download 450 Free Audio Books
Read 160 Free Textbooks Online
Download a Free Audio Book From Audible.com
Bob Jensen's threads on eBooks or e-Books
(the preferred spelling according to Grammar Girl ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Ebooks.htm
HarvardX is off the ground in a small way (relative to MITx) ---
https://www.edx.org/university_profile/HarvardX
Principles of the Global Positioning System (one of various free courses from MIT's MITx
Program)
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-540-principles-of-the-global-positioning-system-spring-2012/
EdX ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EdX
Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITx) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Innovation_%26_Technology_Exchange
MIT versus MITx ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"5 Ways That EdX Could Change Education," by Marc Parry, Chronicle of
Higher Education, October 1, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/5-Ways-That-edX-Could-Change/134672/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on the EdXPrograms and other free courses, tutorials,
videos and course materials from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
“We inherited a set of expectations that, at the
moment, are actually dooming us to failure,” said
Debora Spar,
president of Barnard College, in a wide-ranging, lively
talk on modern feminism.
"Feminism without perfection: Reviewing gains at kickoff for 50th
year of women at HBS," Harvard edu, October 15, 2012 ---
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/10/feminism-without-perfection/
Jensen Hope
Please don't shoot the messenger.
Teaching Case from The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on
October 12, 2012
Caps on Tax Deductions Find Favor in Both Parties
by:
John D. McKinnon
Oct 05, 2012
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
TOPICS: Alternative Minimum Tax, Capital Gains, Income Taxes, Tax
Law, Tax Policy, Taxes
SUMMARY: Both the Republican presidential nominee and the incumbent
president are considering proposing limits to individual income tax
deductions--for different reasons.
CLASSROOM APPLICATION: The article may be used to introduce
political reasons for the differences between personal income tax
deductions, personal income tax credits, and limits to income tax
deductions.
QUESTIONS:
1. (Advanced) Define the term income tax deduction and
differentiate it from a personal income tax credit. Identify some items that
qualify as personal income tax deductions and some that qualify as personal
income tax credits.
2. (Introductory) Based on the article, explain the reasons why
each presidential candidate is considering the idea of limits on personal
income tax deductions. What would a candidate do to act on plans developed
in this area of taxation?
3. (Advanced) How is establishing a limit on personal income-tax
deductions different from eliminating certain tax deductions such as
mortgage interest and charitable donations? Based on discussion in the
article, how is this limit consistent with Democratic party principles?
4. (Advanced) Access the online interactive graphic entitled "Obama
and Romney on the Issues" and click on Taxes on the left-hand column. How
has the health care law known as "ObamaCare" included items related to
personal taxation?
5. (Advanced) Again, access the "Obama and Romney on the Issues"
graphic. What is the Alternative Minimum Tax? Explain what Mr. Romney
proposes about the AMT. How is that proposal consistent with Republican
perspectives?
6. (Advanced) What is special about the capital gains tax? How is
the Romney proposal, as described in the interactive graphic, consistent
with Republican principles?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
"Caps on Tax Deductions Find Favor in Both Parties," by John D. McKinnon,
The Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443493304578036932069468920.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid&mg=reno-wsj
The idea of limiting personal income-tax deductions
is gaining traction in both parties as a way to raise more federal revenue
without raising tax rates or scrapping popular breaks.
Republicans consider this a way to prevent rate
cuts they seek from widening the budget deficit, while Democrats see the
extra revenue as a means to shrink the deficit or fund programs.
The approach is also appealing because it would
make more income subject to taxation—which boosts revenue—while reducing
opposition from taxpayers who want to preserve specific deductions, such as
those for mortgage interest, charitable giving or local taxes.
But capping deductions would also inevitably stir
up opposition among groups worried that doing so would diminish incentives
in the current system, and could have widely disparate effects on taxpayers
in different regions.
As with any change in the tax code, the impact
would depend on the details.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney
joined the chorus supporting the idea this week when he floated the prospect
of a dollar cap on the total deductions a household could claim on its tax
return. He didn't offer a specific proposal, but suggested options ranging
from $17,000 to $50,000.
A $17,000 cap could generate $1.5 trillion or more
of extra tax revenue over a decade, according to William Gale, a tax
economist at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank populated
largely by Democrats. Mr. Gale was an author of a recent report that
questioned whether Mr. Romney could implement his proposed 20% rate cuts
without shifting the overall tax burden to the middle class. On Thursday, he
termed Mr. Romney's idea for capping deductions as "a step in the right
direction."
In Wednesday's debate, Mr. Romney described a cap
on deductions as one way to offset the cost of his proposed rate cut so it
doesn't worsen the deficit.
President Barack Obama charged again at the event
that Mr. Romney hasn't been specific enough about which deductions he would
limit. "He's been asked over a hundred times how you would close those
deductions and loopholes, and he hasn't been able to identify them," he
said.
Since taking office, Mr. Obama has supported his
own limit on the value of itemized deductions for higher-income households,
defined as couples earning more than $250,000. His plan would reduce the
value of all deductions for such households to 28% from the current 35%
maximum. For example, a deduction of $1 million currently would be worth
$350,000 in tax savings to someone in the 35% top bracket, all things being
equal. Under Mr. Obama's proposal, the same taxpayer would save $280,000.
The president's proposal has expanded in scope in
his recent budgets to similarly curb other tax breaks, such as exemptions
for interest on bonds issued by state and local governments, contributions
to retirement plans and employer-provided health care. His latest version
would raise about $584 billion over a decade.
Opponents say the move would damp incentives for
such worthwhile activities as charitable giving and home buying.
A Romney campaign aide said Mr. Romney would work
with Congress "to preserve access to tax preferences for middle-income
folks, and charitable [deductions] in particular."
Defenders of Mr. Obama's plan say it builds on a
long-standing concern among some tax experts that deductions unfairly give a
greater benefit to people who are subject to higher tax rates.
For months, lawmakers of both parties have been
exploring ways to limit deductions and other breaks. They haven't made
specific public proposals, but the debate is likely to heat up rapidly next
year when Congress turns to overhauling the tax system.
Some recent blue-ribbon proposals for an overhaul
also have embraced across-the-board limits on tax breaks. The 2010
deficit-reduction commission led by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson
suggested a plan to eliminate itemized deductions altogether, replacing them
with a system of tax credits and other breaks.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
There are two ways to limit deductions in arriving at adjusted gross income. One
that's already in place is to set a minimum threshold percentage of gross income
beneath which almost no deductions are allowed. This is already in place both
for nearly all AGI deductions plus additional minimum thresholds on selected
items like health expenses. Most taxpayers cannot deduct health expenses unless
disaster hits. Additionally, deductions that were once in place such as interest
on car loans are no longer allowed.
Setting much more serious minimum or maximum thresholds becomes a political
football in Washington DC. Lobbies for such groups as charities, real estate
firms, and medical providers will fight tooth and nail against both higher
minimum and lower maximum thresholds. I question whether our salivating Congress
will resist the lobbying handouts.
Rather than percentage thresholds, there could be actual dollar amount
thresholds. This is one way of clobbering higher income taxpayers without
hurting taxpayers with more modest income amounts. But since higher income
taxpayers are the backbone of many charities, churches, and markets for second
(vacation) homes, the lobbies will still fight tooth and nail against
absolute-amount as well as percentage thresholds.
When it comes to tinkering with tax exempt interest from municipal, school,
county, state, and hospital bonds, taxation of this interest on Federal tax
returns will force those non-profits to compete with corporations issuing safer
bonds. Most of those tax-exempt bonds have much greater financial risk, as
evidenced by the credit rating declines in California, Illinois, and elsewhere.
This could really clobber the cost of capital for municipal, school, county,
state, and hospital non-profit entities. In particular, this is a double
taxation in that homeowners and renters will both pay greatly increased property
taxes for public financing plus pay tax on any formerly tax-exempt bonds in
their savings portfolios. I can't imagine the Federal government forcing this
upon towns, schools, counties, states, hospitals, and retirement savings.
The fair thing to do would be to have the Feds pay the added cost of capital
for towns, schools, states, and hospitals. But now is not a good time to have
the Federal government add trillions to its own deficits.
It's one thing to plead for tax reform. It's quite another to drill down to
specifics that have enormous side effects and externalities.
Top Global Distance Education EMBA Programs
"EMBA ranking 2012," Financial Times, October 2012
http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/emba-ranking-2012
|
Rank 2012
|
3 year average
|
School name
|
Programme name
|
Salary ($)
|
Salary growth
|
|
1 |
1 |
Kellogg / Hong Kong UST Business School |
Kellogg-HKUST
EMBA |
465,774 |
42 |
|
2 |
2 |
Columbia / London Business School |
EMBA-Global
Americas and Europe |
265,596 |
89 |
|
3 |
3 |
Trium: HEC Paris / LSE / New York University: Stern |
Trium Global EMBA |
307,992 |
52 |
|
4 |
- |
Tsinghua University / Insead |
Tsinghua-INSEAD
EMBA |
287,630 |
57 |
|
5 |
- |
UCLA: Anderson / National University of Singapore |
UCLA-NUS EMBA |
250,940 |
77 |
|
6 |
5 |
Insead |
Insead Global
EMBA |
212,586 |
57 |
|
7 |
12 |
Ceibs |
Global EMBA |
274,546 |
74 |
|
8 |
8 |
University of Pennsylvania: Wharton |
Wharton MBA for
Executives |
229,086 |
60 |
|
9 |
14 |
Washington University: Olin |
Olin-Fudan EMBA |
255,945 |
60 |
|
10 |
7 |
University of Chicago: Booth |
EMBA |
230,855 |
60 |
|
11 |
- |
Sun Yat-sen Business School |
SYSBS EMBA |
280,374 |
69 |
|
12 |
- |
Korea University Business School |
EMBA |
268,324 |
95 |
|
12 |
9 |
IE Business School |
EMBA |
186,324 |
138 |
|
14 |
18 |
Iese Business School |
GEMBA |
215,027 |
58 |
|
15 |
10 |
London Business School |
EMBA |
180,070 |
68 |
|
16 |
10 |
Duke University: Fuqua |
Duke MBA - Global
Executive |
250,913 |
43 |
|
17 |
14 |
CUHK Business School |
EMBA |
309,340 |
45 |
|
18 |
16 |
Kellogg / WHU Beisheim |
Kellogg-WHU EMBA |
173,684 |
69 |
|
19 |
- |
Georgetown University / Esade Business School |
GEMBA |
247,110 |
42 |
|
20 |
16 |
IMD |
IMD EMBA |
221,809 |
60 |
|
21 |
22 |
ESCP Europe |
European EMBA |
153,168 |
77 |
|
21 |
23 |
Arizona State University: Carey |
Carey / SNAI EMBA |
237,672 |
74 |
|
23 |
20 |
Northwestern University: Kellogg |
Kellogg EMBA |
239,134 |
52 |
|
24 |
24 |
OneMBA: CUHK/RSM/UNC/FGV São Paulo/EGADE |
OneMBA |
184,612 |
54 |
|
24 |
31 |
Warwick Business School |
Warwick EMBA |
149,331 |
98 |
|
26 |
24 |
National University of Singapore Business School |
Asia-Pacific EMBA |
236,511 |
62 |
|
27 |
- |
University of Southern California: Marshall |
USC-SJTU GEMBA |
256,758 |
49 |
|
27 |
20 |
Kellogg / York University: Schulich |
Kellogg-Schulich
EMBA |
170,828 |
53 |
|
29 |
29 |
University of Toronto: Rotman |
Rotman One-Year
EMBA |
150,066 |
54 |
|
30 |
23 |
New York University: Stern |
NYU Stern EMBA |
192,874 |
48 |
|
31 |
29 |
Imperial College Business School |
EMBA |
140,590 |
75 |
|
32 |
24 |
City University: Cass |
EMBA |
153,329 |
71 |
|
32 |
24 |
Columbia Business School |
EMBA |
201,004 |
49 |
|
34 |
32 |
University of Michigan: Ross |
EMBA |
216,099 |
47 |
|
35 |
- |
Fudan University School of Management |
Fudan EMBA |
197,476 |
92 |
|
35 |
28 |
Cornell University: Johnson |
Cornell EMBA |
224,129 |
53 |
|
35 |
39 |
Georgetown University: McDonough |
EMBA |
190,462 |
67 |
|
38 |
33 |
University of Oxford: Saïd |
EMBA |
182,709 |
56 |
|
39 |
38 |
UCLA: Anderson |
EMBA |
195,783 |
46 |
|
40 |
- |
ESMT - European School of Management and Technology |
EMBA |
144,015 |
58 |
|
41 |
35 |
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University |
EMBA |
138,674 |
62 |
|
41 |
35 |
Essec / Mannheim |
Essec & Mannheim
EMBA |
141,500 |
56 |
|
43 |
36 |
University of Western Ontario: Ivey |
Ivey EMBA |
190,702 |
51 |
|
44 |
- |
University of California at Irvine: Merage |
EMBA |
154,612 |
62 |
|
45 |
48 |
Cornell University: Johnson/Queen's School of Business |
Cornell-Queen's
EMBA |
163,559 |
58 |
|
46 |
- |
Kozminski University |
EMBA |
152,930 |
62 |
|
46 |
42 |
Rice University: Jones |
Rice MBA for
Executives |
173,565 |
53 |
|
48 |
64 |
Euromed Management |
Euromed MBA Part
Time |
149,393 |
82 |
|
49 |
44 |
Emory University: Goizueta |
Weekend EMBA |
163,979 |
61 |
|
50 |
- |
Antwerp Management School |
EMBA |
175,930 |
53 |
|
51 |
- |
WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business)/University of
Minnesota: Carlson |
EMBA (Global) |
157,396 |
50 |
|
51 |
45 |
University of Maryland: Smith |
Smith EMBA |
176,914 |
43 |
|
53 |
- |
Henley Business School |
Henley EMBA |
148,557 |
65 |
|
54 |
- |
University of Hong Kong / Fudan University School of Management |
HKU-Fudan IMBA |
113,508 |
96 |
|
54 |
50 |
University of Texas at Austin: McCombs |
Texas EMBA |
142,770 |
44 |
|
56 |
64 |
University of St Gallen |
EMBA HSG |
136,325 |
51 |
|
56 |
70 |
Ohio State University: Fisher |
Fisher EMBA |
177,478 |
40 |
|
58 |
58 |
Texas A & M University: Mays |
Texas A&M EMBA |
182,448 |
51 |
|
59 |
60 |
Vanderbilt University: Owen |
Vanderbilt EMBA |
154,223 |
58 |
|
60 |
- |
EMLyon Business School |
EMBA |
110,467 |
49 |
|
60 |
- |
University of Pretoria, Gibs |
Modular and
Part-time MBA |
190,596 |
58 |
|
62 |
49 |
University of Pittsburgh: Katz |
EMBA Worldwide |
168,087 |
33 |
|
63 |
- |
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
EMBA at Illinois |
139,507 |
46 |
|
63 |
53 |
Temple University: Fox |
Fox EMBA |
143,806 |
47 |
|
63 |
68 |
Georgia State University: Robinson |
EMBA |
166,922 |
59 |
|
66 |
- |
Boston University School of Management |
Boston University
EMBA |
176,707 |
37 |
|
66 |
- |
SDA Bocconi |
EMBA |
142,636 |
52 |
|
66 |
49 |
National Taiwan University College of Management |
NTU EMBA |
204,860 |
39 |
|
66 |
69 |
University of Texas at Dallas: Jindal |
EMBA |
141,130 |
41 |
|
70 |
66 |
Yonsei University School of Business |
Corporate MBA |
149,664 |
62 |
|
70 |
71 |
Rutgers Business School |
Rutgers EMBA |
166,381 |
42 |
|
70 |
79 |
University of Washington: Foster |
Foster EMBA |
157,327 |
35 |
|
73 |
- |
Fordham University Graduate School of Business |
EMBA |
161,547 |
52 |
|
73 |
66 |
Villanova School of Business |
Villanova EMBA |
169,401 |
46 |
|
75 |
55 |
Cranfield School of Management |
EMBA |
132,934 |
53 |
|
76 |
84 |
University of Miami School of Business Administration |
University of
Miami EMBA |
153,073 |
39 |
|
77 |
- |
Centrum Católica |
Global MBA |
185,161 |
50 |
|
78 |
69 |
Koç University Graduate School of Business |
EMBA |
131,450 |
54 |
|
79 |
76 |
SMU: Cox |
SMU Cox EMBA |
166,155 |
43 |
|
80 |
- |
University of Minnesota: Carlson |
Carlson EMBA |
142,556 |
36 |
|
80 |
- |
University of Rochester: Simon |
EMBA |
132,067 |
47 |
|
80 |
76 |
Tulane University: Freeman |
EMBA |
161,009 |
46 |
|
83 |
66 |
Aalto University |
Aalto University
EMBA |
133,563 |
49 |
|
83 |
77 |
Thunderbird School of Global Management |
EMBA |
158,773 |
34 |
|
85 |
69 |
FIA - Fundação Instituto de Administração |
International
EMBA |
194,408 |
23 |
|
86 |
- |
Tilburg University, TiasNimbas |
EMBA |
98,560 |
51 |
|
86 |
60 |
Tongji University/ENPC |
Shanghai
International MBA (SIMBA) |
131,897 |
74 |
|
88 |
- |
Georgia Institute of Technology: Scheller |
EMBA |
143,494 |
37 |
|
88 |
66 |
University College Dublin: Smurfit |
EMBA |
115,445 |
53 |
|
90 |
77 |
Vlerick Business School |
EMBA |
115,204 |
54 |
|
91 |
68 |
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York |
EMBA |
140,545 |
51 |
|
92 |
72 |
Copenhagen Business School |
EMBA |
119,169 |
38 |
|
92 |
82 |
Queen's School of Business |
Queen's EMBA |
127,542 |
39 |
|
94 |
73 |
Ashridge |
EMBA |
145,731 |
58 |
|
95 |
77 |
University of Georgia: Terry |
Terry EMBA |
146,122 |
42 |
|
96 |
- |
HEC Lausanne |
EMBA in
Management & Corporate Finance |
104,096 |
34 |
|
96 |
92 |
Baylor University: Hankamer |
Baylor University
EMBA |
126,410 |
57 |
|
96 |
97 |
University of Denver: Daniels |
Daniels EMBA |
163,450 |
44 |
|
99 |
73 |
University of Alberta/University of Calgary: Haskayne |
Alberta /
Haskayne EMBA |
130,094 |
41 |
|
100 |
- |
University of Zurich |
Zurich EMBA |
121,552 |
18 |
|
Bob Jensen's thread on Onsite MBA Programs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings
"The World's Priciest Business Schools," Posted by Louis Lavelle,
Bloomberg Business Week, October 18, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-18/the-worlds-priciest-business-schools
Ranking season is upon us, and in
anticipation of the Nov. 15 release of the 2012 Bloomberg Businessweek
Best B-School ranking, over the next few weeks we’ll give readers a sneak
preview of some of the more compelling information we collected. And what
better place to start than with the world’s most expensive business schools?
The cost of an MBA from a top-ranked program has
been growing by leaps and bounds over the past decade, and the more than 100
programs participating in this year’s ranking are no exception. Nonresident
tuition and fees for all schools averaged $78,982, with two-year programs
coming in at $85,306 and more than 20 programs breaking the $100,000 mark.
Factor in two years of tuition and fees, two years of books and living
expenses, plus two years of forgone salary, and the average opportunity cost
comes to $230,676.
Those are just averages, though. At the University
of California, Berkeley’s
Haas School of Business
the total comes to $303,634. That’s something of a bargain compared with New
York University’s
Stern School of Business, where the total
is $317,554.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on media rankings of colleges and universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings
Nobel Laureate Harry Markowitz ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markowitz
Video (apart from an introduction to Professor Markowitz that is entirely too
long)
Markowitz' views on Modern Portfolio Theory in his own words ---
http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/markowitz-views-on-modern-portfolio.html
"Diversifcation: good but not as good as you probably think," by Jim
Mahar, FinanceProfessor.com, October 23, 2012 ---
http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/diversifcation-good-but-not-as-god-as.html
For years (at least since 2001) this idea has been a
mainstay in my classes. The benefits of diversification have been
overstated. Why? The correlations that are used to diversify and get the
so called optimal portfolio change and the change is NOT in a random format:
the correlations go up in bad times.
The Physics of Finance: Why diversification doesn't work:
"Harry Markowitz introduced the idea of
diversification into investing back in the 1950s (at least he formalized
the idea, which was probably around long before). Using information on
the mathematical correlations between the returns of the different
stocks in a portfolio, you can choose a weighted portfolio to minimize
the overall portfolio of volatility for any expected return. This is
maybe the most basic of all results in mathematical finance.
But it doesn't work; it suffers from the same problem as the balanced
man in the canoe. This is clear from any number of studies over the past
decade which show that the correlations between stocks change when
markets move up or down."
Click through, this will almost assuredly be a test
question for SIMM!
"How to Reduce America's Talent Deficit: At Microsoft, we have more
than 6,000 open jobs in the U.S. Some 3,400 of the positions are for engineers.
Schools aren't producing graduates with the skills needed in the marketplace,"
by Brad Smith (executive vice president and general counsel of Microsoft) ,
The Wall Street Journal, October 18, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443675404578058163640361032.html?mg=reno64-wsj#mod=djemEditorialPage_t
Each month, when the government publishes the
national jobs report, Americans pick over small movements in the headline
rate of unemployment. In doing so, they largely miss a crucial aspect of the
U.S. jobs crisis.
Many American companies are now creating more jobs
for which they can't find qualified applicants than jobs for which they can.
Thus the economy faces a paradox: Too many Americans can't find jobs, yet
too many companies can't fill open positions. There are too few Americans
with the necessary science, technology, engineering and math skills to meet
companies' demand.
At
Microsoft,
MSFT -0.32%
we have more than 6,000 open jobs in the U.S., a 15% increase from a year
ago. Some 3,400 of these positions are for engineers, software developers
and researchers (a 34% increase from last year).
Other companies face the same problem. As the
national unemployment rate this summer exceeded 8% for the third consecutive
year, the rate in computer-related occupations was only 3.4%. Even outside
of the technology sector, nearly every firm is in some way a software
company given the importance of automation. So America's skills shortage
affects businesses in every industry and region.
Unfortunately the problem is likely to get even
worse. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. this year
will create some 120,000 new jobs requiring at least a bachelor's degree in
computer science. But all of our colleges and universities put together will
produce only 40,000 new bachelor's degrees in computer science. The BLS
forecasts that this demand for new jobs will persist every year this decade.
And when one adds the high multiplier effect of engineering jobs—each one
filled typically leads to five additional jobs in the economy, according to
Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti—it is clear that this problem touches all
of us.
If we don't increase the number of Americans with
necessary skills, jobs will increasingly migrate abroad, creating even
bigger challenges for our long-term competitiveness and economic growth.
This is a personal crisis for young people facing an increasing opportunity
divide.
America has more than 30,000 public high schools
and 12,000 private ones, yet last year only 2,100 of these schools offered
the advanced placement course in computer science. Four decades after Bill
Gates and Steve Jobs were teenagers, we still live in a country where you
have to be one of the fortunate few to take computer science in high school.
Last month Microsoft laid out a proposal for how to
begin addressing the problem. It couples long-term improvements in American
education with short-term, skills-focused immigration reform. Done right,
immigration reforms can even help fund education improvements, ensuring that
more Americans gain the skills they need.
We need a national "Race to the Future" akin to the
Obama administration's Race to the Top grant program (which Mitt Romney
praises). It would provide new funding and incentives for states to:
• Strengthen science, technology, engineering
and math education in grade school by recruiting and training teachers
and implementing the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation
Science Standards.
• Broaden access to computer science in high
schools.
• Help colleges and universities raise their
graduation rates.
• Expand colleges' capacity to produce more
degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, with a particular
focus on computer science.
On the immigration front, Congress should create a
new, supplemental category with 20,000 annual visas for people with science
and technology skills that are in short supply. Lawmakers should also take
advantage of existing, unused green cards by allocating 20,000 for workers
with these vital skills.
It would be fair and feasible to make these
supplemental steps more expensive, for example by charging $10,000 for the
new high-skill visas and $15,000 for the new green cards. (Large companies
pay about $2,300 for each such H-1B petition today.) This would raise $5
billion over the next decade that the federal government could provide to
states committed to smart reforms for cultivating important job skills.
Microsoft is convinced that these initiatives could
earn bipartisan support, but lawmakers need to summon the will to act. We
can't expect to build the economy of the future with only the jobs and ideas
of the past.
Jensen Comment
In spite of the tone of the above article there are a number of things to keep
in mind.
- The science and technology (STEM) opportunities for graduates (bachelor,
masters, and Ph.D. graduates) are heavily skewed among the sub-disciplines.
Whereas chemistry, physics, mathematics, and geology graduates struggle to
advance their careers with good jobs following graduation, IT and most of
the engineering graduates face better prospects. Emory University dropped
its geology program, and Texas universities dropped some of their physics
programs. For better job opportunities many science and engineering
graduates enter MBA programs and/or doctoral programs. Opportunities in law
declined.
- Science and engineering Ph.D. graduates finding opportunities in
industry do not find the same opportunities in academe. Universities that
have tenure track openings in science and engineering are usually flooded
with highly qualified applicants. And affirmative action comes into play
where qualified women and minorities are favored to fill those science and
engineering tenure track openings. There are shortages of women and minority
candidates in engineering and computer science in industry and in academe.
- Job opportunities are geographically skewed for science and technology
graduates. For example, the son of one of our best friends up here in the
White Mountains is graduating in IT this year from a regional college in
northern New Hampshire. If he had instead been an accounting graduate there
would be opportunities to work for a regional accounting firm, business
firm, and even regional government agencies. After he gains experience say
in tax accounting, there might also be opportunities to start his own
accounting firm northern New Hampshire. But there are virtually no decent IT
opportunities regionally, just as there are virtually no regional
opportunities for most any type of engineering, science, or mathematics
graduate. IT and engineering job opportunities exist but vary
geographically. In most instances graduates must move to large cities
offering varying career opportunities. The woman and mother of the IT
graduate mentioned above has two degrees in entomology. But to live in
Littleton, New Hampshire her business is into landscaping, house painting,
and wallpapering. To find a career in entomology she would have to move far
from Littleton, NH.
- In the 1950s, an accounting and engineering graduate with a C average
generally faced some good job opportunities following graduation. With grade
inflation in colleges and universities over the ensuing decades, a C average
graduate in almost any discipline faces dismal job opportunities in 2012.
For example, those accounting graduates having a 3.5 or higher grade
averages have the world at their feet in the 21st Century in North America.
But those with 2.3 grade averages might have to move back home to live with
their parents and/or accept a job that does not even require a college
education. The same thing has happens to 2.3 g.p.a. science and engineering
graduates.
The Sad State of North American
Accounting Ph.D. Programs
Accounting at a Tipping Point (Slide Show)
Former AAA President Sue Haka
April 18, 2009
http://commons.aaahq.org/files/20bbec721b/Midwest_region_meeting_slides-04-17-09.pptm
Bob Jensen's threads on the
Sad State of North American Ph.D. Programs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
Bob Jensen's threads on career opportunities are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers
From the Scout Report on October 12, 2012
TalkTyper ---
http://talktyper.com/
If you are looking for a bit of fine free speech
recognition software, look no further than TalkTyper. Visitors can dictate
documents, emails, blog posts, and so on. After clicking on the microphone
icon, users begin speaking. At the conclusion of any passage, users can just
click the "Copy" button and things will be all set. This version of
TalkTyper is compatible with all computers running Chrome 11 and newer. (For
those without Chrome, clicking on Alternatives at the bottom of the
TextTyper home page provides users with a list of other Speech to Text
programs and apps.)
Iconify/Portfolio ---
http://iconify.co/?lrRef=
Creative types will love Iconify. The basic premise
of this web-based application is that it allows creative professionals to
turn their work, drawings, photographs, and sketches into both a streamlined
website and a downloadable app. Visitors can upload their images and
graphics and tinker with them to get things just as they want them. After
that, they can share their portfolios via a wide range of social networking
sites. This version is compatible with all operating systems.
A report calls on Italy to address widespread government corruption
Italy needs anti-corruption authority: Transparency International
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-italy-corruptionbre8941bb-20121005,0,988805.story
Italy: open letter to Prime Minister Monti
http://www.transparency.org/news/feature/italy_open_letter_to_prime_minister_monti
European Commission: Italy ---
http://cordis.europa.eu/italy/
Italy and the European Union ---
http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2011/italyandtheeuropeanunion
Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2011-2012 ---
http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html
Transparency International ---
http://www.transparency.org/
From the Scout Report on October 19
ExpenseMagic ---
https://expensemagic.com/
This helpful site provides interested parties with
a way to quickly turn their business receipts into expense reports. Visitors
can take a photo of their receipt and once it's sent along, a monthly
expense report is generated at your convenience to turn your clutter of
receipts into a smart, manageable format. Versions range from a free basic
edition to £9.99 a month for premium to £4.99 a month for corporate. There
is a free iPhone/iPad app with unlimited receipt storage, but no app options
are available for Android or Blackberry at this time.
FotoMix 9 ---
http://www.diphso.no/FotoMix.html
FotoMix 9 provides a nice and free tool for
interested parties to crop, resize, rotate, enhance, mix and match their
photos to create a range of images without the learning curve of higher-end
software. For those unfamiliar with the tools, the site includes a helpful
tutorial to get acquainted with the program. This particular version is
compatible with Windows XP and newer.
In the wake of recent events, there are more concerns about Facebook's
privacy settings
Facebook users raise privacy concerns as company tweaks security settings
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/15/facebook-users-privacy-concerns-security?newsfeed=true
When the Most Personal Secrets Get Outed on Facebook
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/when-the-most-personal-secrets-get-outed-on-facebook.html
Three years, deleting your photos on Facebook now actually works
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/08/facebook-finally-changes-photo-deletion-policy-after-3-years-of-reporting/
Three Facebook Privacy Loopholes
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/10/12/three-facebook-privacy-loopholes/
Facebook: Data Use Policy
http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy
The Brief History of Social Media
http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html
Free online textbooks, cases, and tutorials in accounting, finance,
economics, and statistics ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Education Tutorials
Introducing a List of 50 Free Courses Granting
Certificates from Great Universities ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/introducing_a_list_of_50_free_university_courses_with_certificates.html
See the list at October 2012 list at
http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses
Ask a Scientist ---
http://www.hhmi.org/askascientist/
Frontline: Dropout Nation ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dropout-nation/
Tufts University Online History ---
http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/collections/tufts-online-history/
Philosophy Made Fun: Read the Free Preview Edition of the Action
Philosophers! Comic ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/action_philosophers_comic.html
Bob Jensen's threads on Edutainment ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials
Ask a Scientist ---
http://www.hhmi.org/askascientist/
The Origin of Quantum Mechanics Explained in Four Animated Minutes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/the_origin_of_quantum_mechanics_in_four_animated_minutes.html
National Science Resources Center ---
http://www.nsrconline.org/index.html
Learn Genetics: Variation, Selection & Time ---
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/variation/
American Geosciences Institute: Curriculum Materials and Archives ---
http://www.agiweb.org/education/curriculum
USDA: Educators and Students ---
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=EDUCATOR_STUDENT&navtype=AU
The Architecture Centre: Teaching Resources ---
http://www.architecturecentre.co.uk/education-teaching-resources
Macs in Chemistry ---
http://www.macinchem.org/
Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research ---
http://prst-per.aps.org/
Building Inside/Studio Gang (Chicago Architecture) ---
http://extras.artic.edu/studiogang
Lincoln Park Architectural Photographs ---
http://digicol.lib.depaul.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/lpnc1
Principles of the Global Positioning System (Free course from MIT's MITx
Program)
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-540-principles-of-the-global-positioning-system-spring-2012/
Bob Jensen's threads on the MITx Program ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Pennsylvania State University: Advanced Classroom Experiments and Resources
in Food Science ---
http://foodscience.psu.edu/youth/classroom
Illinois Harvest ---
http://illinoisharvest.grainger.uiuc.edu
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
Frontline: Dropout Nation ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dropout-nation
Liberty Street Economics ---
http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/
Mapping Militant Organizations ---
http://www.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/
Living Proof Podcast Series (social work) ---
http://www.socialwork.buffalo.edu/podcast/
Frontline: Dropout Nation ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dropout-nation/
Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and
Philosophy tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social
Law and Legal Studies
Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Law
Math Tutorials
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics
History Tutorials
100 Ideas That Have Changed Art (slow loading) ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/25/100-ideas-that-changed-art/
100 Ideas That Have Changed Photography (slow loading) ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/24/100-ideas-that-changed-photography/
Conflict History: All Human Conflicts on a Single Map ---
http://infosthetics.com/archives/2012/10/conflict_history_all_human_conflicts_on_a_single_map.html
New Hampshire Historical Society ---
http://www.nhhistory.org
Tufts University Online History ---
http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/collections/tufts-online-history/
Today in History ---
http://www.stevenlberg.info/today/
Imperial War Museums - Google Art Project ---
http://www.googleartproject.com/collection/imperial-war-museum/
University of San Francisco: Gleeson Library Digital Collections (Literature
History) ---
http://digitalcollections.usfca.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p264101coll8
Orson Welles Remembers his Stormy Friendship with Ernest Hemingway ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/orson_welles_remembers_his_stormy_friendship_with_ernest_hemingway.html
Block Prints of the Chinese Revolution ---
http://pudl.princeton.edu/collections/pudl0030
Joel Conway/Flying A Studios Photograph Collection (movie industry) ---
http://digital.library.ucsb.edu/collections/show/10
Rare 1946 Video: The Great Russian Composer Sergei Prokofiev Plays Piano,
Discusses His Music ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/rare_1946_film_sergei_prokofiev.html
The Origin of Quantum Mechanics Explained in Four Animated Minutes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/the_origin_of_quantum_mechanics_in_four_animated_minutes.html
Joplin Historical Postcards (Missouri) ---
http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?page=index;c=joplinic
The Bronx Park Postcard Collection ---
http://ielc.libguides.com/bronxparkpostcards
Greetings from Milwaukee (historical postcards) ---
http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/postcards/index.cfm
Illinois Harvest ---
http://illinoisharvest.grainger.uiuc.edu
Robert W. Krueger Collection (20th Century) ---
http://www.chipublib.org/images/krueger/index.ph
A jailhouse interview with Steve Washak, (otherwise known as the
Cincinnati Boner King) who made millions selling “natural male
enhancement” pills ---
http://longform.org/2012/10/09/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-cincinnati-boner-king/
Click on either the "Now" or "Later" hot words to read the article (not
to be enhanced)
The Diary of a Civil War Nurse ---
http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/nursing_1.html
Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War
Medicine ---
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/bindingwounds/index.html
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
Rare 1946 Video: The Great Russian Composer Sergei Prokofiev Plays Piano,
Discusses His Music ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/rare_1946_film_sergei_prokofiev.html
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
"Freud on Creative Writing and Daydreaming,"
by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, October 15, 2012 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/15/freud-creative-writers-and-day-dreaming/
Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Updates from WebMD ---
http://www.webmd.com/
October 12, 2012
October 13, 2012
October 15, 2012
October 17, 2012
October 19, 2012
October 22, 2012
October 23, 2012
October 24, 2012
October 25, 2012
October 27, 2012
October 29, 2012
Richard Kaplan ---
http://www.law.illinois.edu/faculty/profile/RichardKaplan
"Does
Anyone Really Understand Medicare? Richard Kaplan Does, and You Can, Too (Jotwell)
(reviewing
Richard L. Kaplan (Illinois),
Top Ten Myths of Medicare, 20 Elder L.J. 1 (2012)): ---
http://tax.jotwell.com/does-anyone-really-understand-medicare-richard-kaplan-does-and-you-can-too/
When former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
chose Paul Ryan to be his running mate in the 2012 United States
Presidential election, he guaranteed that Medicare would become a central
battleground of the campaign. Ryan, a veteran Congressman from Wisconsin,
is widely known for his efforts to turn the federal Medicare program into a
voucher program (with the value of the vouchers deliberately calibrated
not to keep up with health care costs over time), a transformation that
would change everything about Medicare except its name.
Ryan’s proposal is sufficiently controversial that
the Romney/Ryan camp has gone to significant lengths to distance itself from
it – refusing to use the word “vouchers,” for example, which they evidently
believe is toxic politically. At the same time, the Republican team’s
strategists have made a point of highlighting the decreases in Medicare
spending that have been projected as a result of various cost-saving
measures in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, calling those
measures “cuts in Medicare” for which President Obama should be blamed.
Both parties apparently believe that there is such strong support among
likely voters to preserve Medicare that they must try to convince voters
that the other candidate is going to gut the program, even though only the
Republican side has ever proposed actually doing so.
Jotwell readers who wish to know more
about Medicare might lament the lack of an accessible source of basic facts
about how Medicare works. That is where Professor Richard L. Kaplan comes
in. Kaplan, a noted tax scholar who teaches at the University of Illinois
College of Law, is the founding advisor of the Elder Law Journal,
and a noted expert in the field of elder law. Professor Kaplan draws on his
wealth of knowledge about the subject of health care for the elderly in “Top
Ten Myths of Medicare,” which was published this past summer. The article
expertly walks the line between being technically accurate and broadly
understandable. Neophytes, as well as those of us who think we know a lot
about these issues, will come away from Professor Kaplan’s short article
(fewer than 14,000 words) with both knowledge and insight that are sorely
lacking in public discussions about this crucial program.
To put the importance of this article in some
perspective, readers might consider that the forecasts of long-term U.S.
budget deficits that are so often mentioned in the press are driven almost
entirely by projected increases in health care costs. As the economist Paul
Krugman once put it, any long-term fiscal problem that the United States
faces can be summarized “in seven words: health care, health care, health
care, revenue.” In other words, other than replacing the revenues lost to
the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, the only thing that matters in our
long-term fiscal picture is getting health care spending under control. (I
should also note that this means, as both Professor Kaplan and I have each
written about in many other venues, Social Security is most definitely
not part of the problem, nor need it be any part of a solution.)
Professor Kaplan’s article, however, does not
merely enlighten readers about the costs of the program and its interaction
with federal budgeting (although he does that well). He also includes
explanations of the nuts and bolts of the program, while trying to correct
the public’s misunderstandings about a wide range of issues regarding
Medicare beneficiaries, medical providers, and so on.
The article, as its title makes clear, is usefully
organized as a “top ten” list. In a short review like this one, one must
fight the temptation simply to list the ten subject headings, even though
each one offers its own enticing hint of what one might learn by reading the
article. In addition to debunking a few obvious myths (#2: “Medicare is
Going Bankrupt,” and #10: “Increased Longevity Will Sink Medicare”), the
reader is treated to some genuinely unexpected revelations, perhaps the most
surprising of all being Myth #1: “There is One Medicare Program.” Some
readers will know that Medicare has multiple parts (Part A, Part B, and so
on), but few will know the specifics of those separate programs as well as
Professor Kaplan does.
This kind of academic article does, however, often
run the risk of simply becoming a summary of a statute. Fortunately, the
myth-busting format provides an over-arching narrative to the article that
allows Professor Kaplan to make some larger points – points that are truly
counter-intuitive, or that are at least contrary to the conventional wisdom
in U.S. policy circles today.
One theme that infuses the article is that Medicare
is not the gold-plated, overly generous big government program that so many
portray. On page 13 of the article, for example, we learn how stringently
(and, I would argue, absurdly) the program restricts benefits for nursing
home care. After detailing five surprising requirements before a patient
can qualify for such coverage at all, Kaplan notes that Medicare pays for
only twenty days of such care, and then for no more than an additional
eighty days, with an inflation-adjusted deductible currently set at $144.50
per day.
This theme – that Medicare is hardly a freebie,
forcing its enrollees to have serious financial “skin in the game” – is not
merely a point about how well or poorly we actually provide for our elders’
care. Professor Kaplan’s concern is also about planning, noting that too
many people believe that Medicare simply covers everything, and so they fail
to prepare for the large costs that they will actually face when they
inevitably need health care. Failure to plan, under the many onerous rules
that Kaplan describes, is truly disastrous for many elderly Americans and
their families.
Finally, although Professor Kaplan is very
obviously a passionate proponent of Medicare in its current basic form, he
is more than willing to acknowledge some troubling facts – facts that might
(at least partially) support those whose views of Medicare are less
favorable than Kaplan’s.
One of the common themes among supporters of
Medicare is to point to the very low administrative costs associated with
the program, compared to the costs borne by private, for-profit health
insurers. Even while debunking the myth that “Medicare Is Less Efficient
than Private Health Insurance” – a myth that, as he points out, is based on
little more than the presumption that government programs must be
inefficient, because they are government programs – Kaplan carefully
discusses why one key statistic is misleading: “Medicare spends only 1.4% of
medical benefits paid on administrative expenditures, while private insurers
spend 25% or more for such costs.”
The most cynical explanation for this “apparently
excellent result” is that any program can keep its administrative costs down
if it does not put much effort into policing false claims. Medicare, we
learn, sometimes has a “practice of paying apparently reasonable claims for
medical services with little verification of the claims’ validity.”
Moreover, some of the program’s administrative needs are already covered by
other agencies, such as the IRS’s role in collecting Medicare premia from
workers’ paychecks. This means that Medicare itself need not expend those
resources, but the government as a whole does.
Still, the reader cannot help but come away with
the sense that the lower administrative costs of Medicare mostly reflect
genuine advantages over private plans. Medicare need not advertise, and,
perhaps most importantly, it has no reason to try to exclude sick people
from its coverage, which is a major activity of private plans that must (for
reasons of profit maximization) try to cherry-pick the healthiest customers
and deny benefits to as many people as possible.
In short, readers could not find a better article
to explain Medicare’s basic workings, its budgetary and political realities,
and its combination of shortcomings and truly significant benefits to
American society. Even if the next U.S. President were not going to be
chosen on the basis of his commitment to protecting Medicare, reading this
article would be worth anyone’s time.
Bob
Jensen's universal health care messaging ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
Richard Kaplan ---
http://www.law.illinois.edu/faculty/profile/RichardKaplan
"Does
Anyone Really Understand Medicare? Richard Kaplan Does, and You Can, Too
(Jotwell) (reviewing
Richard L. Kaplan (Illinois),
Top Ten Myths of Medicare, 20 Elder L.J. 1 (2012)): ---
http://tax.jotwell.com/does-anyone-really-understand-medicare-richard-kaplan-does-and-you-can-too/
When former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
chose Paul Ryan to be his running mate in the 2012 United States
Presidential election, he guaranteed that Medicare would become a central
battleground of the campaign. Ryan, a veteran Congressman from Wisconsin,
is widely known for his efforts to turn the federal Medicare program into a
voucher program (with the value of the vouchers deliberately calibrated
not to keep up with health care costs over time), a transformation that
would change everything about Medicare except its name.
Ryan’s proposal is sufficiently controversial that
the Romney/Ryan camp has gone to significant lengths to distance itself from
it – refusing to use the word “vouchers,” for example, which they evidently
believe is toxic politically. At the same time, the Republican team’s
strategists have made a point of highlighting the decreases in Medicare
spending that have been projected as a result of various cost-saving
measures in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, calling those
measures “cuts in Medicare” for which President Obama should be blamed.
Both parties apparently believe that there is such strong support among
likely voters to preserve Medicare that they must try to convince voters
that the other candidate is going to gut the program, even though only the
Republican side has ever proposed actually doing so.
Jotwell readers who wish to know more
about Medicare might lament the lack of an accessible source of basic facts
about how Medicare works. That is where Professor Richard L. Kaplan comes
in. Kaplan, a noted tax scholar who teaches at the University of Illinois
College of Law, is the founding advisor of the Elder Law Journal,
and a noted expert in the field of elder law. Professor Kaplan draws on his
wealth of knowledge about the subject of health care for the elderly in “Top
Ten Myths of Medicare,” which was published this past summer. The article
expertly walks the line between being technically accurate and broadly
understandable. Neophytes, as well as those of us who think we know a lot
about these issues, will come away from Professor Kaplan’s short article
(fewer than 14,000 words) with both knowledge and insight that are sorely
lacking in public discussions about this crucial program.
To put the importance of this article in some
perspective, readers might consider that the forecasts of long-term U.S.
budget deficits that are so often mentioned in the press are driven almost
entirely by projected increases in health care costs. As the economist Paul
Krugman once put it, any long-term fiscal problem that the United States
faces can be summarized “in seven words: health care, health care, health
care, revenue.” In other words, other than replacing the revenues lost to
the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, the only thing that matters in our
long-term fiscal picture is getting health care spending under control. (I
should also note that this means, as both Professor Kaplan and I have each
written about in many other venues, Social Security is most definitely
not part of the problem, nor need it be any part of a solution.)
Professor Kaplan’s article, however, does not
merely enlighten readers about the costs of the program and its interaction
with federal budgeting (although he does that well). He also includes
explanations of the nuts and bolts of the program, while trying to correct
the public’s misunderstandings about a wide range of issues regarding
Medicare beneficiaries, medical providers, and so on.
The article, as its title makes clear, is usefully
organized as a “top ten” list. In a short review like this one, one must
fight the temptation simply to list the ten subject headings, even though
each one offers its own enticing hint of what one might learn by reading the
article. In addition to debunking a few obvious myths (#2: “Medicare is
Going Bankrupt,” and #10: “Increased Longevity Will Sink Medicare”), the
reader is treated to some genuinely unexpected revelations, perhaps the most
surprising of all being Myth #1: “There is One Medicare Program.” Some
readers will know that Medicare has multiple parts (Part A, Part B, and so
on), but few will know the specifics of those separate programs as well as
Professor Kaplan does.
This kind of academic article does, however, often
run the risk of simply becoming a summary of a statute. Fortunately, the
myth-busting format provides an over-arching narrative to the article that
allows Professor Kaplan to make some larger points – points that are truly
counter-intuitive, or that are at least contrary to the conventional wisdom
in U.S. policy circles today.
One theme that infuses the article is that Medicare
is not the gold-plated, overly generous big government program that so many
portray. On page 13 of the article, for example, we learn how stringently
(and, I would argue, absurdly) the program restricts benefits for nursing
home care. After detailing five surprising requirements before a patient
can qualify for such coverage at all, Kaplan notes that Medicare pays for
only twenty days of such care, and then for no more than an additional
eighty days, with an inflation-adjusted deductible currently set at $144.50
per day.
This theme – that Medicare is hardly a freebie,
forcing its enrollees to have serious financial “skin in the game” – is not
merely a point about how well or poorly we actually provide for our elders’
care. Professor Kaplan’s concern is also about planning, noting that too
many people believe that Medicare simply covers everything, and so they fail
to prepare for the large costs that they will actually face when they
inevitably need health care. Failure to plan, under the many onerous rules
that Kaplan describes, is truly disastrous for many elderly Americans and
their families.
Finally, although Professor Kaplan is very
obviously a passionate proponent of Medicare in its current basic form, he
is more than willing to acknowledge some troubling facts – facts that might
(at least partially) support those whose views of Medicare are less
favorable than Kaplan’s.
One of the common themes among supporters of
Medicare is to point to the very low administrative costs associated with
the program, compared to the costs borne by private, for-profit health
insurers. Even while debunking the myth that “Medicare Is Less Efficient
than Private Health Insurance” – a myth that, as he points out, is based on
little more than the presumption that government programs must be
inefficient, because they are government programs – Kaplan carefully
discusses why one key statistic is misleading: “Medicare spends only 1.4% of
medical benefits paid on administrative expenditures, while private insurers
spend 25% or more for such costs.”
The most cynical explanation for this “apparently
excellent result” is that any program can keep its administrative costs down
if it does not put much effort into policing false claims. Medicare, we
learn, sometimes has a “practice of paying apparently reasonable claims for
medical services with little verification of the claims’ validity.”
Moreover, some of the program’s administrative needs are already covered by
other agencies, such as the IRS’s role in collecting Medicare premia from
workers’ paychecks. This means that Medicare itself need not expend those
resources, but the government as a whole does.
Still, the reader cannot help but come away with
the sense that the lower administrative costs of Medicare mostly reflect
genuine advantages over private plans. Medicare need not advertise, and,
perhaps most importantly, it has no reason to try to exclude sick people
from its coverage, which is a major activity of private plans that must (for
reasons of profit maximization) try to cherry-pick the healthiest customers
and deny benefits to as many people as possible.
In short, readers could not find a better article
to explain Medicare’s basic workings, its budgetary and political realities,
and its combination of shortcomings and truly significant benefits to
American society. Even if the next U.S. President were not going to be
chosen on the basis of his commitment to protecting Medicare, reading this
article would be worth anyone’s time.
Jensen Comment
One reason Medicare's administrative costs are so low, is that it is a piñata
for fraud, including payments to scam artists for equipment to never delivered
on fictitious claims. Medicare floods us with mailings about every payment they
make on our behalf. However, when there's a billing error such as when report a
charge that was not our charge (maybe a payment for some phony claim or for a
patient not eligible for Medicare) the system seemingly does nothing about it.
Of course we do not really, really care personally if we had not copays for a
phony claim, but not investigating phony claims is one way of keeping Medicare's
administrative costs low. Perhaps more would get done if we filed a claim with
the Justice Department, but the Justice Department most likely would do nothing
until a pattern of related claims are reported.
Bob
Jensen's universal health care messaging ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
Our emotional life maps our incompleteness: A
creature without any needs would never have reasons for fear, or grief, or hope,
or anger.
Do Not Despise Your Inner World: Advice on a Full Life from Philosopher
Martha Nussbaum
Brain Pickings
October 12, 2012
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/12/martha-nussbaum-take-my-advice/
When he was twenty-one, artist and writer
James Harmon stumbled into a bookstore and found himself mesmerized
by a copy of Rilke's
Letters to a Young Poet, the central concerns
in which – love, fear, art, doubt – resonated powerfully with his restless
young mind and inspired him to envision what advice to young people might
look like a century after Rilke. So he set out to create an antidote to the
"toxic cloud of tepid-broth wisdom" found in books "with the shelf life of a
banana" that the contemporary publishing world peddled and reached out to
some of the most "outspoken provocateurs, funky philosophers, cunning
cultural critics, social gadflies, cyberpunks, raconteurs, radical
academics, literary outlaws, and obscure but wildly talented poets. The
result, a decade in the making and the stubborn survivor of ample publishing
pressure to grind it into precisely the kind of mush Harmon was determined
to avoid, is
Take My Advice: Letters to the Next Generation from People Who Know a Thing
or Two (public
library) – an anthology of thoughtful,
honest, brave, unfluffed advice from 79 cultural icons, including
Mark Helprin, Katharine Hepburn, Bette
Davis, and William S. Burroughs.
One of the most poignant letters comes from
philosopher
Martha Nussbaum, who makes an eloquent case for
the importance of cultivating a rich inner life by
celebrating emotional excess as a generative force,
embracing vulnerability,
not fearing feelings, and
harnessing
the empathic power of storytelling.
Continued in article
Three German Shepherds Walk into a Bar ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=f309fSTWYo4
"Lone Ranger" Story -Jay Thomas on Dave Letterman ---
http://stg.do/0N3c
Forwarded by Maureen
1.. The sport of choice for the urban poor is BASKETBALL.
2.. The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is BOWLING.
3.. The sport of choice for front-line workers is FOOTBALL.
4.. The sport of choice for supervisors is BASEBALL.
5.. The sport of choice for middle management is TENNIS.
6.. The sport of choice for corporate executives and officers is GOLF.
THE AMAZING CONCLUSION:
The higher you go in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become.
Therefore, one might conclude, there must be a ton of people in Washington
playing marbles.
Blonde Joke Forwarded by Paula
Two blonde girls were working for the city public works department.
One would dig a hole and the other would follow behind her and fill the hole in.
They worked up one side of the street, then down the other, then moved onto the
next street, working furiously all day without a rest, one girl digging a hole,
the other girl filling it in again.
An onlooker was amazed at their hard work, but couldn't understand what they
were doing.
So he asked the hole digger, "I'm impressed by the effort you two are putting
into your work, but I don't get it-why do you dig a hole, only to have your
partner follow behind and fill it up again?"
The hole digger wiped her brow and sighed,"Well, I suppose it probably looks odd
because we're normally a three-person team. But today the girl who plants the
trees called in sick."
Jensen Comment
Last week on the AECM we had a message claiming most companies do not continue
to use ABC costing. Yet it remains a heavy component of our cost and managerial
courses as well as their textbooks. Could it be that ABC costing is like the
"third girl" above who no longer shows up for work?
Tidbits Archives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter ---
Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron"
enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and
other universities is at
http://www.searchedu.com/
Online Distance Education Training and Education ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray
Zone of Fraud (College, Inc.) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
-
With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review
(TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
- With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors
Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
- With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of
Accountancy Ignores TAR
- With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research
into Undergraduate Accounting Courses
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral
Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH
CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm
Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and
Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the
vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
World Clock ---
http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time --- http://www.worldometers.info/
Interesting Online Clock
and Calendar
---
http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones ---
http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) ---
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
Also see
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
Facts about population growth (video) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
Projected U.S. Population Growth ---
http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq ---
http://www.costofwar.com/
Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons ---
http://zipskinny.com/
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.
Free (updated) Basic Accounting Textbook --- search for Hoyle at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
CPA Examination ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
Free CPA Examination Review Course Courtesy of Joe Hoyle ---
http://cpareviewforfree.com/
Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at
http://iaed.wordpress.com/
Accounting News, Blogs, Listservs, and Social
Networking ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Online Books, Poems, References,
and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Some of Bob Jensen's Tutorials
Accounting program news items for colleges are posted at
http://www.accountingweb.com/news/college_news.html
Sometimes the news items provide links to teaching resources for accounting
educators.
Any college may post a news item.
Accounting and Taxation News Sites ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for
free) go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
AECM
(Educators)
http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
AECM is an email Listserv list which
provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software
which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the
college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and
peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets,
multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base
programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc.
Over the years the AECM has become the worldwide forum for
accounting educators on all issues of accountancy and accounting
education, including debates on accounting standards, managerial
accounting, careers, fraud, forensic accounting, auditing,
doctoral programs, and critical debates on academic (accountics)
research, publication, replication, and validity testing.
|
CPAS-L
(Practitioners)
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/ (Closed
Down)
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of
all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an
unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments,
ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed.
Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L
or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for
a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional
accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or
education. Others will be denied access. |
Yahoo (Practitioners)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA.
This can be anything from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ
initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA. |
AccountantsWorld
http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as
accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed
assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and
taxation. |
Business Valuation Group
BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag
[RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM] |
FEI's Financial Reporting Blog
Smart Stops on the Web, Journal of Accountancy, March 2008 ---
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2008/smart_stops.htm
FINANCIAL REPORTING PORTAL
www.financialexecutives.org/blog
Find news highlights from the SEC, FASB
and the International Accounting
Standards Board on this financial
reporting blog from Financial Executives
International. The site, updated daily,
compiles regulatory news, rulings and
statements, comment letters on
standards, and hot topics from the Web’s
largest business and accounting
publications and organizations. Look for
continuing coverage of SOX requirements,
fair value reporting and the Alternative
Minimum Tax, plus emerging issues such
as the subprime mortgage crisis,
international convergence, and rules for
tax return preparers. |
|
|
The CAlCPA Tax Listserv September 4, 2008 message from Scott Bonacker
[lister@bonackers.com]
Scott has been a long-time contributor to the AECM listserv (he's a techie as
well as a practicing CPA)
I found another listserve
that is exceptional -
CalCPA maintains
http://groups.yahoo.com/taxtalk/
and they let almost anyone join it.
Jim Counts, CPA is moderator.
There are several highly
capable people that make frequent answers to tax questions posted there, and
the answers are often in depth.
Scott
Scott forwarded the following message from Jim
Counts
Yes you may mention info on
your listserve about TaxTalk. As part of what you say please say [... any
CPA or attorney or a member of the Calif Society of CPAs may join. It is
possible to join without having a free Yahoo account but then they will not
have access to the files and other items posted.
Once signed in on their Yahoo account go to
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxTalk/ and I believe in
top right corner is Join Group. Click on it and answer the few questions and
in the comment box say you are a CPA or attorney, whichever you are and I
will get the request to join.
Be aware that we run on the average 30 or move emails per day. I encourage
people to set up a folder for just the emails from this listserve and then
via a rule or filter send them to that folder instead of having them be in
your inbox. Thus you can read them when you want and it will not fill up the
inbox when you are looking for client emails etc.
We currently have about 830 CPAs and attorneys nationwide but mainly in
California.... ]
Please encourage your members
to join our listserve.
If any questions let me know.
Jim Counts CPA.CITP CTFA
Hemet, CA
Moderator TaxTalk
|
Many useful accounting sites (scroll down) ---
http://www.iasplus.com/links/links.htm
Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Some
Accounting History Sites
Bob Jensen's
Accounting History in a Nutshell and Links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#AccountingHistory
Accounting
History Libraries at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) ---
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/libraries.html
The above libraries include international accounting history.
The above libraries include film and video historical collections.
MAAW Knowledge Portal for Management and Accounting ---
http://maaw.info/
Academy of Accounting Historians and the Accounting Historians Journal ---
http://www.accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aah/
Sage Accounting History ---
http://ach.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/11/3/269
A nice timeline on the development of U.S. standards and the evolution of
thinking about the income statement versus the balance sheet is provided at:
"The Evolution of U.S. GAAP: The Political Forces Behind Professional
Standards (1930-1973)," by Stephen A. Zeff, CPA Journal, January 2005
---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/105/infocus/p18.htm
Part II covering years 1974-2003 published in February 2005 ---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/205/index.htm
A nice
timeline of accounting history ---
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2187711/A-HISTORY-OF-ACCOUNTING
From Texas
A&M University
Accounting History Outline ---
http://acct.tamu.edu/giroux/history.html
Bob
Jensen's timeline of derivative financial instruments and hedge accounting ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds
History of
Fraud in America ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/415wp/AmericanHistoryOfFraud.htm
Also see
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm
Bob Jensen's
Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
All
my online pictures ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone: 603-823-8482
Email:
rjensen@trinity.edu