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?

26 new from $37.80 3 used from $63.19

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,” andIn 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:

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. IIncomplete 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

College Is Dead. Long Live College!
Can a new breed of online mega courses finally offer a college education to more people for less money?
8 Ideas to Improve Higher Education
TIME asked 8 experts about how to meet the challenge of soaring costs. Here’s what they came up with.
 
Obama's Viewpoint: Don't Stop Now On Higher Ed Reform
Our reforms are taking roots and delivery results
Romney's Viewpoint: Demand Real Change In Higher Education

Read more: http://nation.time.com/reinventing-college/#ixzz29xvMbK4a

 

 

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

Steve Keen in Australia --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Keen

They're Great!!!
Steve Keen: Behavioral Finance Lectures 2012  --- Click Here
http://www.valueinvestingworld.com/2012/09/steve-keen-behavioral-finance-lectures.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ValueInvestingWorld+%28Value+Investing+World%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

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.

 
"Video:  Behavioral Finance from PBS Nova," by Jim Mahar, Finance Professor Blog, March 27, 2011---
 http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/behavioarl-finance-from-pbs-nova.html

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:

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 SchoolFeatured 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 InseadFeatured business school 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 SchoolFeatured business school EMBA 186,324 138
  14 18 Iese Business School GEMBA 215,027 58
  15 10 London Business SchoolFeatured business school EMBA 180,070 68
  16 10 Duke University: Fuqua Duke MBA - Global Executive 250,913 43
  17 14 CUHK Business SchoolFeatured business school EMBA 309,340 45
  18 16 Kellogg / WHU BeisheimFeatured business school 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 EuropeFeatured business school 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 SchoolFeatured business school EMBA 140,590 75
  32 24 City University: CassFeatured business school 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: SaïdFeatured business school EMBA 182,709 56
  39 38 UCLA: Anderson EMBA 195,783 46
  40 - ESMT - European School of Management and TechnologyFeatured business school 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 BocconiFeatured business school 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 ManagementFeatured business school 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 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

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