Featured This Week:  Bob Jensen's Favorite Pictures of Mt. Lafayette
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Mountains/Layfayette01/Lafayette01.htm
With nine pages quoted from Bill Bryson's traumatic climb up Mt. Lafayette
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (Anchor Books, 2007)

 

 

 

Tidbits on August 19, 2013
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

 

From the University of Pittsburgh
Birds of America (435 birds mounted online) --- http://digital.library.pitt.edu/a/audubon/
The Darlington Digital Library (bird photographs) --- http://digital.library.pitt.edu/d/darlington
Audubon Magazine - Multimedia --- http://archive.audubonmagazine.org/multimedia/index.html

America in Color from 1939-1943 --- http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.asp

Tree Tunnels --- http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/magnificent-tree-tunnels

Historic New England --- http://www.historicnewengland.org/

Black Locust ---
http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/rops1.htm

Trees in New England --- Click Here
http://www.google.ca/search?q="Trees+in+New+England"&lr=&as_qdr=all&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=BS_HUYmzOtKs4AOGmICYBw&ved=0CEIQsAQ&biw=1152&bih=700

The New England Forest ---
http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/newtown_square/publications/resource_bulletins/pdfs/scanned/OCR/ne_rb124.pdf

An Animated History of the Tulip ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/06/an_animated_history_of_the_tulip.html

USDA: The People's Garden --- http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=PEOPLES_GARDEN

From the University of Pittsburgh
Birds of America (435 birds mounted online) --- http://digital.library.pitt.edu/a/audubon/
The Darlington Digital Library (bird photographs) --- http://digital.library.pitt.edu/d/darlington
Audubon Magazine - Multimedia --- http://archive.audubonmagazine.org/multimedia/index.html

America in Color from 1939-1943 --- http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.asp

Tree Tunnels --- http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/magnificent-tree-tunnels

Gudvangen, Norway --- Click Here
http://www.google.ca/search?q="Gudvangen"&lr=&as_qdr=all&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=6izdUZndCZK54APA9IDoAw&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=497

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

 

Tidbits on June 11, 2013
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/

Facebook is perhaps the ultimate example of the old, wise saying: If you aren’t paying for a product, then you ARE the product
Comparisons of Antivirus Software ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_antivirus_software#Microsoft_Windows

Based upon this analysis I chose F-Secure

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 

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy --- http://plato.stanford.edu/

"100 Websites You Should Know and Use (updated!)," by Jessica Gross, Ted Talk, August 3, 2007 ---
http://blog.ted.com/2007/08/03/100_websites_yo/

 

From the University of Pittsburgh
Birds of America (435 birds mounted online) --- http://digital.library.pitt.edu/a/audubon/
The Darlington Digital Library (bird photographs) --- http://digital.library.pitt.edu/d/darlington
Audubon Magazine - Multimedia --- http://archive.audubonmagazine.org/multimedia/index.html

America in Color from 1939-1943 --- http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.asp

Tree Tunnels --- http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/magnificent-tree-tunnels

 

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

 

 




Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Lorenzo International Horse Show --- http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=nOeIAnhHAik&feature=related

Russian Commercial --- http://www.youtube.com/embed/rv7dGhj5UlA

The Baby Bear versus the Hungry Mountain Lion ---
http://www.flixxy.com/bear-animal-nature-film.htm

NASA's Earth Observing System --- http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/


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

One of my favorite clips of all time
Eleanor Powell & Fred Astaire "Begin the Beguine" Tap Dancing
---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/1406ec0aae0b7077

Let's Dance --- http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=ab9i0s4WEY0&feature=related

Dueling Divas: Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick Sing Two Classic Versions of ‘I Say a Little Prayer’ ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/dueling-divas-aretha-franklin-and-dionne-warwick-sing-two-classic-versions-of-i-say-a-little-prayer.html

When the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Had a Concert for One Person ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/1407909477718493 

See a Peruvian Prison Seized with Dance Fever as They Try to Break a Guinness World Record ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/see-a-peruvian-prison-seized-with-dance-fever-as-they-try-to-break-a-guinness-world-record.html

Amazing Grace Like You Never Heard It Before ---
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1312

Beethoven’s Ode to Joy Played With 167 Theremins Placed Inside Matryoshka Dolls in Japan ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/07/beethovens-ode-to-joy-played-with-167-theremins-placed-inside-matryoshka-dolls-in-japan.html

Petrucci Music Library --- http://imslp.org/

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

Pandora (my favorite online music station) --- www.pandora.com
TheRadio
(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's threads on nearly all types of free music selections online ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm


Photographs and Art

25 Stunning National Park Vistas --- http://www.businessinsider.com/best-us-national-park-views-2013-8

Museum of Fine Arts: Hippie Chic --- http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/hippie-chic

The Getty Puts 4600 Art Images Into the Public Domain (and There’s More to Come) ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/1407cba473cbff67

1922 Photo: Claude Monet Stands on the Japanese Footbridge He Painted Through the Years ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/1922-photo-claude-monet-stands-on-the-japanese-footbridge.html

Free: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Offer 474 Free Art Catalogues Online ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/free-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-and-the-guggenheim-offer-474-free-art-catalogues-online.html

Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History

Free Library of Philadelphia: Historical Images of Philadelphia --- http://libwww.freelibrary.org/hip/

Railroads and the Making of Modern America --- http://railroads.unl.edu/

Transcontinental Railroad Pictures and Exhibits --- http://cprr.org/Museum/Exhibits.html

Steamtown National Historic Site (steam locomotives) ---  http://www.nps.gov/stea/index.htm

American Railroad Journal --- http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?page=home;c=arj

Railroad Picture Archives --- http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/

American Railroad Journal --- http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?page=home;c=arj

The Countryside Transformed: The Railroad and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, 1870-1935 ---
http://eshore.vcdh.virginia.edu/index.php

The Allure of the Automobile (museum) http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=3,1,1,17,1

Oregon State Parks and Recreation --- http://www.oregonstateparks.org/

Philadelphia Jewish Archives Photographs --- http://digital.library.temple.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15037coll15

An Eccentric Chinese Professor Spent Years Building This Bizarre Mountaintop Villa Above A Beijing High-Rise ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-man-mountaintop-villa-in-beijing-2013-8

NASA's Earth Observing System --- http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/

For your "bucket list":

America’s Supposed Favorite Summer Towns --- Click Here
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/08/13/americas-favorite-summer-towns/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AUG142013A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter 

It's difficult to rank summer towns apart from summer regions.
For example, hikers tend to flock to virtually all parts of the 2,100 Appalachian Trail. I have new pictures of one part of that trail at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Mountains/Layfayette01/Lafayette01.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

"The Best Books on Writing, NYC, Animals, and More: A Collaboration with the New York Public Library," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, August 3, 2013 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/07/29/nypl-books/

The Chicago Homer (classical studies) ---  http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/homer/

Classical Studies Resources --- http://classicalstudy.luckycontent.com/

Edgar Allen Poe --- http://eserver.org/books/poe/

Knowing Poe --- http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/default_flash.asp

I Know Poe http://www.iknowpoe.com/

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” Read by Christopher Walken, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/edgar-allan-poes-the-raven-read-by-christopher.html

Forgotten Chapters of Boston's Literary History (Feud Between Longfellow and Poe) --- http://www.bostonliteraryhistory.com/

The Pit And The Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) --- Click Here

Landor's Cottage by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 1849) --- Click Here

A Descent Into The Maelstrom by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) --- Click Here

Eleonora by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) --- Click Here

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” Read by Christopher Walken, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/edgar-allan-poes-the-raven-read-by-christopher.html

Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) --- Click Here

Hap-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) --- Click Here

Mellonta Tauta by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) --- Click Here

The Balloon Hoax by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) --- Click Here

William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) --- Click Here

From the Scout Report on September 14, 2008

The Bibliothecary: Ed & Edgar --- http://bibliothecary.squarespace.com/ed-and-edgar/ 

The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore --- http://www.eapoe.org/ 

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site --- http://www.nps.gov/edal/ 

Edgar Allan Poe --- http://etext.virginia.edu/poe/poebiog.html 

Scholar, Athlete, and Artist: Edgar Allan Poe at University of Virginia --- http://www.literarytraveler.com/literary_articles/edgar_allan_poe_author.aspx

In an effort to return Edgar Allan Poe to the City of Brotherly Love, scholar and pundit issues a challenge Baltimore Has Poe: Philadelphia Wants Him [Free registration may be required] --- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/us/06poe.html?em

 

The First Sex Manual Published in North America, 1766 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-first-sex-manual-published-in-north-america-1766.html

The “Celebrity Lecture Series” From Michigan State Features Talks by Great Writers of Our Time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-celebrity-lecture-series-from-michigan-state-features-talks-by-great-writers-of-our-time.html

Free Science Fiction Classics on the Web: Huxley, Orwell, Asimov, Gaiman & Beyond

Free Philip K. Dick: Download 11 Great Science Fiction Stories

Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Classic, The Foundation Trilogy, Dramatized for Radio (1973)

Neil Gaiman’s Free Short Stories

425 Free eBooks: Download to Kindle, iPad/iPhone & Nook

From Stanford + Connects in August 2013

Fiction is in fashion this summer for President Hennessy, Vice Provost Harry J. Elam Jr., and other Stanford bookworms. Browse their summer reading lists.

What's So Bad About Horse Meat, Anyway? Professor Alvin Roth, MS '73, PhD '74, recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics, talks to Businessweek about repugnance as a constraint on the markets. Add your voice to the debate on the Stanford+Connects blog
.

Stanford Is Headed to Georgia »
Feed your mind with talks on neuroscience, energy, race and identity, improvisation and Stanford students today. Stanford is heading to Atlanta on November 2, and you're invited.
Take an Online Writing Course »
Join a small group of writers in one of 14 courses taught primarily by former Stegner fellows. Participate anytime, anywhere. Online classes begin the week of September 23. Stanford Alumni Association members are eligible for a 15% discount.

 

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 August 19, 2013
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2013/TidbitsQuotations081913.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




From the Harvard Business School:  Working Knowledge --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/
Topics --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/
Accounting and Control is listed under Finance --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/accountingandcontrol.html


From Wayne State University:  Changing Face of the Auto Industry ---
http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=cfai

The Allure of the Automobile (museum) --- http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=3,1,1,17,1


One of the Highest Tax State in the USA Creates Tax-Free Zones Around Its State Universities
"The New York Tax Advantage," by Kevin Kiley, Inside Higher Ed, August 14, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/14/new-yorks-tax-free-plan-puts-suny-center-economic-development


Why you should put your best teachers in the first course taken in a particular curriculum
"‘Majoring in a Professor," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Education, August 12, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/12/study-finds-choice-major-most-influenced-quality-intro-professor

Jensen Comment
Keep in mind that "best" is a relative term. The "best" teachers in the first two years of college (where inspiration is extremely important) are not necessarily the "best" teachers in advanced courses where scholarship depth takes on greater importance.

In some colleges the two basic accounting courses are "filler" courses in a professor's workload. For example, the professor might be assigned two sections of advanced accounting and one section of basic accounting on the assumption that the basic accounting course takes almost no preparation. However, to be really good at teaching the basic accounting course there should be a lot of preparation and thought given to pedagogy.

In some colleges, administrators teach sections of basic course. If the administrators are very busy with their administrative duties this can be a mistake.

In some universities the two basic accounting courses are taught by teaching assistants (from the doctoral program) and adjuncts (hired from the street). This usually leads to high variance in course quality. For example, it is sometimes assumed that a practicing accountant will be very inspiring in terms of looking toward accounting as a career. My experience, however, is that this is often a very bad assumption. Sometimes accountants from the street seek to supplement their incomes with teaching because they are not busy enough being great practicing accountants.

The best teachers are usually not the easiest teachers
What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard University Press) ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/08/what-the.html

The "best" lecture-method teachers are often not the best case-method teachers where nevewrt giving out answers becomes an art and a science for deeper and long-lasting metacognitive learning ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm

The "most popular" teachers are often not the "best" teachers. Much depends on how "most popular" is defined. The RateMyProfessor site is replete with comments that recommend teachers who are easy graders in spite of being lousy teachers in the eyes of the students going for the easy grades ---
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/


"'Zombies in the Academy'," by Serena Golden, Inside Higher Ed, August 12, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/12/new-book-examines-higher-education-through-lens-zombie-apocalypse


"Should College Athletes be paid?" by Steven Mintz, Ethics Sage, August 13, 2013 ---
http://www.ethicssage.com/2013/08/should-college-athletes-be-paid.html

Jensen Comment
This raises all sorts of matching questions regarding revenues and costs. Should revenues from the extremely popular Women's basketball team at the University of Connecticut go into an athletes' compensation pool that also rewards the less popular softball and volleyball players?

Should revenues from the extremely popular medical school faculty performing services at the Stanford University Hospital go into an faculty compensation pool that also rewards the less popular classics professors or should it only go into a medical faculty compensation pool?

"What the Hell Has Happened to College Sports?" Chronicle of Higher Ed, December 11, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-the-Hell-Has-Happened-to/130071/

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


The LSAT Is Not the Problem and Affirmative Action Is Not the Answer ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/08/nlj-dont-blame.html

Passage of the Bar exam is a problem for minorities ---
California Law School Sues State Bar, Claims First Amendment Right to Hide Bar Passage Stats ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/08/california-.html


"Public Universities With The Worst Graduation Rates," by Blair Briody, The Fiscal Times, May 17, 2012 ---
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/05/17/11-Public-Universities-with-the-Worst-Graduation-Rates.aspx#page1

Jensen Comment
Most of the worst have acceptance rates exceeding 80%. One even accepted 99.7% of the applicants. Here's a sampling:

1. Southern University at New Orleans, Louisiana
Graduation rate:
4%
Undergraduates: 2,590
Median SAT score: 715
Pell Grant recipients: 75.8%
In-State Tuition and fees: $3,906
Acceptance rate: 48.4%

2. University of the District of Columbia, Washington D.C
Graduation rate: 7.7%
Undergraduates: 5,311
Pell Grant recipients: 44.7%
In-State Tuition and fees: $7,000
Acceptance rate: 63.2%

3. Kent State University-East Liverpool, East Liverpool Ohio
Graduation rate: 8.9%
Undergraduates: 1,371
Pell Grant recipients: 51.2%
In-State Tuition and fees: $5,288
Acceptance rate: 88.7%

Just because the graduation rates are so low (e.g., 4%) is not necessarily due to rigorous academic standards. In many (most?) instances the drop outs just disappear before graduation. Over half even had Pell Grants. Not ranked is the Chicago State University which was revealed, in a Chicago Tribune investigation, of retaining students term-after-term, with cumulative grade averages of 0.00 just to collect more government money.

Unacceptable Dropout Rates

But at a recent meeting about assessment, I learned the following tantalizing datum: Sixty-three percent of our full-time students who complete their first semester with a 3.0 or better grade-point average graduate within six years. When full-time students finish the first semester with a GPA below 2.0, only 9 percent graduate within six years. This sort of tracking, conceived and performed by experts in assessment and statistical analysis, ought to spur professors to think about their mission, about their individual courses, and about their institutions’ political status in a state or system. What are we teaching our students? How can we convey to first-year students the seriousness of creditable habits? How can we discuss seriously with outside stakeholders the challenges posed by teaching adults? . . . Many faculty are suspicious about assessment, whether for ideological reasons or because they perceive it as an unfunded administrative mandate. And faculty hear numbers, especially subpar numbers, as an indictment of their expertise or their empathy for students. I have reacted this way myself. Now, however, I try to remember that numbers are an opening salvo, not the final word: We’ve got a measurement — how do we improve it? That number looks bad — but what are its causes? Is the instrument measuring the right thing? Are we administering it in the best way? Are we making sure there’s a tight fit between assessment measures and intended learning outcomes? Until we begin to think clearly, both within departments and across schools and even across peer institutions — about what our students are up to, our own cultural position will continue to seem in crisis.
Jason B. Jones, "Start With a Number," Inside Higher Ed, November 16, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/11/16/jones 

Over half the first-year students don't return the second year
A new report from the Public Policy Institute of California criticizes the state’s community colleges for having low graduation and transfer rates. Half of all students in the mammoth system — the largest in American higher education — don’t return for a second year, the report found. The transfer rate for Asian students was double the rate for students from other minority groups.
Inside Higher Ed, November 17, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/17/qt 

Graduation rates at four-year colleges and universities are heavily influenced by the socioeconomic background of students, with rates dropping as the proportion of low-income students enrolled increases, according to a report released Thursday by the National Center for Education Statistics. Women graduate at higher rates than do men, the study found.
Inside Higher Ed, November 17, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/17/qt 

Success with Community College Success Courses
Sixty percent of students who enrolled in for-credit “success courses,” classes that teach students skills for note-taking, test-taking and time management, had “academic success” during the study’s five years, while just 40 percent of students who did not take success classes had the same success and had earned a degree or certificate, transferred to a state university or continued enrollment in a community college. In a field where student retention is a major concern, the results of the study, “Do Student Success Courses Actually Help Community College Students Succeed?” are significant, illustrating that success courses really are effective in helping students succeed.
Jennifer Epstein, "Teaching Success," Inside Higher Ed, June 18, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/18/success

In one century we went from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to offering remedial English in college.
Joseph Sobran as quoted by Mark Shapiro at http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-11-27-07.htm

August 14, 2013 reply from Patricia Walters

I don't disagree with you. Yes, socially, economically, and educationally disadvantaged children and young adults would likely do better at better schools but theses schools are generally not in their neighborhoods, they are not being recruited to those schools, and the overall costs of getting and education might be higher.

Somewhere (probably here) I read an article about students whose qualifications would likely get them into elite schools but they don't apply to those schools because they are not encouraged to apply. They are not in their mindset because the high schools they go to are also poorer in many ways from more affluent schools.

It's easy to right a damning article about results without taking a harder look at the societal issues that create both the problems these schools face and the incentives that you point out that encourage the schools to game the system.

Obviously students who attend these schools and for profit schools want an education and a higher quality life. The tragedy is that we complain that the only choices they have do not provide either of those goals.

What do you suggest we do about it?

Pat

August 14, 2013 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Pat,

Many of the constituencies we're talking about are victims of really lousy K-12 schools and home environments that are 180 degrees the opposite from home environments in Finland (where two-parent homes do make a difference).

I think the answer for college education for disadvantaged constituencies is almost hopeless until we do better at the K-12 level, but this is a much larger societal problem when eager-to-learn children are ambushed on the way to school by gangs and return home to a drug-addicted single parent.

Bill Gates and others are trying to solve the problem for a small proportion of disadvantaged students with charter schools having great teachers and intense 10-hour days six days a week. This demonstrates that the disadvantaged students are not hopeless learners --- they can become great learners.

But removing the top 1% of the best learners from gangland does not serve the 99% that are left to struggle in gangland. I think offering them hope for a college degree in lousy colleges is not the answer.

We all shudder at Orwell's Big Brother, but maybe Big Brother has to take policing control of the ganglands before our disadvantaged urban children commence to have a chance. We now throw a lot of money at urban K-12 schools. If we take the gangland dangers out of those schools perhaps they will begin to perform as intended.

Poor schools in rural parts of the USA face a somewhat different problem. Improving those schools along with providing better incentives to learn (such as paying students for grades) may be a better solution in those rural areas.

The bottom line is that I have no solutions that have not previously been suggested by scholars who live with these problems every day. Any solution will take lots of money. But money alone for schools is not the answer., And throwing taxpayer money at lousy colleges offering false hopes is certainly not the answer.

I would suggest the German model that makes learning the trades more respectable and financially rewarding after many years of learning and apprenticeship. Laborers in Germany do not have to get college degrees to be respected for their talents and skills.

Respectfully,
Bob Jensen


"IBM and Universities Team Up to Close a 'Big Data' Skills Gap," by Lee Gardner, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 14, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/IBMUniversities-Team-Up/141111/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en


"Why the Cheap Firefox Smartphone Isn't So Cheap," by Joshua Brustein, Bloomberg Businessweek, August 13, 2013 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-13/why-the-cheap-firefox-smartphone-isnt-so-cheap?campaign_id=DN081313

Jensen Comment
I suspect a much better decision would be to sell on Amazon at much lower prices.


"'Spoofers' Use Fake GPS Signals to Knock a Yacht Off Course: Civilian GPS is vulnerable to being spoofed—and researchers are searching for a way to stop it," by Aviva Hope Rutkin, MIT's Technology Review, August 14, 2013 --- Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517686/spoofers-use-fake-gps-signals-to-knock-a-yacht-off-course/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130814

Jensen Comment
Welcome to a Somali Pirate's den.


This may be important for AIS curriculum designs

 Click Here
http://readwrite.com/2013/08/09/why-javascript-will-become-the-dominant-programming-language-of-the-enterprise#awesm=~oelsieqmjCnmDv

Bob Jensen's sadly neglected JavaScript tutorials ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm#JavaScript
One advantage of JavaScript is it's simplicity relative to other scripting alternatives.


How to Let Someone Else Use Your Computer Without Giving Them Access To All Your Stuff --- Click Here
http://www.howtogeek.com/170269/how-to-let-someone-else-use-your-computer-without-giving-them-access-to-all-your-stuff/


"A New and Improved Nexus 7," by David A. Pogue, The New York Times, August 8, 2013 ---
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/a-new-and-improved-nexus-7/

OK, we get it, Google — you want to be a hardware company.

Well, guess what? You’re actually doing a pretty good job of it!

One year ago, you offered a seven-inch tablet called the Nexus 7. You priced it at a remarkably low $200. You admitted that you didn’t make any money on it, in hopes of selling more books, movies, music and TV shows

¶You priced the new Nexus 7 higher: $230 for the 16GB model. The 16GB iPad Mini has a larger screen, but it’s also $100 more. The value of the Nexus 7 looks even better next in the configurations with 32 gigabytes of storage ($270, versus $430 on the Mini) and, coming soon, LTE cellular Internet ($350, versus $560 on the Mini).

¶Meanwhile, you’ve improved the tablet in dozens of ways. You’ve added a (mediocre) camera on the back, although, bizarrely, you’ve moved the front camera way off-center. You added stereo speakers: they are fine, but not as strong or clear as the Kindle Fire’s. You threw in (very slow) wireless charging, meaning that you can set the thing down onto a compatible charging base without actually plugging in a cable.

¶You’ve made the thing slightly slimmer, slightly lighter (0.64 pounds) and slightly narrower — only 4.5 inches wide, which means that a large hand can hold the entire thing edge to edge and still have a free thumb to tap the screen.

¶And that screen — wowsers. It’s glorious, bright and sharp. You maintain, Google, that at 323 dots per inch, it’s the sharpest of any 7-inch tablet. I believe you’re right.

¶It’s too bad you made those design compromises, though. That nice pleather back is gone — on the new model, it’s just hard plastic with a slightly rubbery coating. The corners are sharper. And you made the margins on the short ends much bigger than on the long sides, making this long, skinny tablet look even longer and skinnier.

¶I’m so glad you focused on speed, Google. According to CNET’s benchmark testing, the new Nexus 7 was faster in most tests against the Mini and rival tablets from Samsung and Sony. Responses to touches on the screen are smooth and fluid. Battery life is around a day and a half of typical on-and-off use.

¶The operating system, Android 4.3 (which you still call Jelly Bean), has a few tiny tweaks and a couple of bigger improvements. First, parents can set up a children’s account so that children can access only apps that parents approve. (And it can restrict access to in-app purchases). Weirdly, though, parents can’t make the Settings app off-limits, so the truly rebellious offspring can still wreak some havoc.

¶Second, you added Bluetooth 4.0, which lets certain accessories — usually activity trackers like the Fitbit Flex — communicate wirelessly without draining the battery much.

¶Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on gadgets ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#Technology


"Scavenging Radio Waves Gives Battery-Free Gadgets a Wireless Connection:  Devices that can make wireless connections even without an onboard battery could spread computing power into everything you own," by Tom Simonite, MIT's Technology Review, August 14, 2013 --- Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/518111/devices-connect-with-borrowed-tv-signals-and-need-no-power-source/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130815


Those Big Flubs versus Those Winning Discoveries in the Evolution of Scientific Knowledge Over Time
Book Reviews of "Science, Right and Wrong: The evolution of knowledge"
by Sam Kean
American Scholar
Summer 2013
http://theamericanscholar.org/science-right-and-wrong/#.Uga0521sjmt

Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything, By Philip Ball, University of Chicago Press, 465 pp., $35

Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein—Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe, 
By Mario Livio, Simon & Schuster, 341 pp., $26

Aristotle called it aimless and witless. St. Augustine condemned it as a disease. The ancient Greeks blamed it for Pandora’s unleashing destruction on the world. And one early Christian leader even pinned the fall of Lucifer himself on idle, intemperate, unrestrained curiosity.

Today, the exploration of new places and new ideas seems self-evidently a good thing. For much of human history, though, priests, politicians, and philosophers cast a suspicious eye on curious folks. It wasn’t just that staring at rainbows all day or pulling apart insects’ wings seemed weird, even childish. It also represented a colossal waste of time, which could be better spent building the economy or reading the Bible. Philip Ball explains in his thought-provoking new book, Curiosity, that only in the 1600s did society start to sanction (or at least tolerate) the pursuit of idle interests. And as much as any other factor, Ball argues, that shift led to the rise of modern science.

We normally think about the early opposition to science as simple religious bias. But “natural philosophy” (as science was then known) also faced serious philosophical objections, especially about the trustworthiness of the knowledge obtained. For instance, Galileo used a telescope to discover both the craters on our moon and the existence of moons orbiting Jupiter. These discoveries demonstrated, contra the ancient Greeks, that not all heavenly bodies were perfect spheres and that not all of them orbited Earth. Galileo’s conclusions, however, relied on a huge assumption—that his telescope provided a true picture of the heavens. How could he know, his critics protested, that optical instruments didn’t garble or distort as much as they revealed? It’s a valid point.

Another debate revolved around what now seems like an uncontroversial idea: that scientists should perform experiments. The sticking point was that experiments, almost by definition, explore nature under artificial conditions. But if you want to understand nature, shouldn’t the conditions be as natural as possible—free from human interference? Perhaps the results of experiments were no more reliable than testimony extracted from witnesses under torture.

Specific methods aside, critics argued that unregulated curiosity led to an insatiable desire for novelty—not to true knowledge, which required years of immersion in a subject. Today, in an ever-more-distracted world, that argument resonates. In fact, even though many early critics of natural philosophy come off as shrill and small-minded, it’s a testament to Ball that you occasionally find yourself nodding in agreement with people who ended up on the “wrong” side of history.

Ultimately, Curiosity is a Big Ideas book. Although Newton, Galileo, and others play important roles, Ball wants to provide a comprehensive account of early natural philosophy, and that means delving into dozens of other, minor thinkers. In contrast, Mario Livio’s topsy-turvy book, Brilliant Blunders, focuses on Big Names in science history. It’s a telling difference that whereas Ball’s book, like a Russian novel, needs an appendix with a cast of characters, Livio’s characters usually go by one name—Darwin, Kelvin, Pauling, Hoyle, and Einstein.

Livio’s book is topsy-turvy because, rather than repeat the obvious—these were some smart dudes—he examines infamous mistakes they made. He also indulges in some not always convincing armchair psychology to determine how each man’s temperament made him prone to commit the errors he did.

For those of us who, when reading about such thinkers, can’t help but compare our own pitiful intellects with theirs, this focus on mistakes is both encouraging and discouraging. It’s encouraging because their mistakes remind us that they were fallible, full of the same blind spots and foibles we all have. It’s discouraging because, even at their dumbest, these scientists did incredible work. Indeed, Livio argues that their “brilliant blunders” ended up benefiting science overall.

Take Kelvin’s error. During William Thomson Kelvin’s heyday in the later 1800s, various groups of scientists had an enormous row over the age of Earth, in large part because Darwin’s theory of natural selection seemed to require eons upon eons of time. Unfortunately, geologists provided little clarity here: they could date fossils and rock strata only relatively, not absolutely, so their estimates varied wildly. Into this vacuum stepped Kelvin, a mathematical physicist who studied heat. Kelvin knew that Earth had probably been a hot, molten liquid in the past. So if he could determine Earth’s initial temperature, its current temperature, and its rate of cooling, he could calculate its age. His initial estimate was 20 million years.

Continued in book reviews

Real Science versus Pseudo Science ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm#Pseudo-Science


"The World’s Best (And Worst) Scientific Institutions Ranked By Discipline:  A new website ranks the world’s scientific institutions by discipline and shows their location on a global map," MIT's Technology Review, August 7, 2013 --- Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/517606/the-worlds-best-and-worst-scientific-institutions-ranked-by-discipline/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130807

Jensen Comment
The poor rankings in Russia and China are consistent with the higher education poor reputations for cheating and plagiarism in those nations. There appears to be a correlation between quality of scientific institutions and academic integrity in the education system.


"The Best Books on Writing, NYC, Animals, and More: A Collaboration with the New York Public Library," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, August 3, 2013 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/07/29/nypl-books/

"Annie Dillard on Writing," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, August 9, 2013 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/09/annie-dillard-on-writing/

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


"The Man Who Would Overthrow Harvard:  Can the Minerva Project do to Ivy League universities what Amazon did to Borders?" by Matthew Kaminski, The Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2013 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324110404578627712224845012.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

'If you think as we do," says Ben Nelson, "Harvard's the world's most valuable brand." He doesn't mean only in higher education. "Our goal is to displace Harvard. We're perfectly happy for Harvard to be the world's second most valuable brand."

Listening to Mr. Nelson at his spare offices in San Francisco's Mid-Market, a couple of adjectives come to mind. Generous (to Harvard) isn't one. Nor immodest. Here's a big talker with bold ideas. Crazy, too, in that Silicon Valley take-a-flier way.

Mr. Nelson founded and runs the Minerva Project. The school touts itself as the first elite—make that "e-lite"—American university to open in 100 years. Or it will be when the first class enters in 2015. Mr. Nelson, who previously led the online photo-sharing company Snapfish, wants to topple and transcend the American academy's economic and educational model.

And why not? Higher education's product-delivery system—a professor droning to a limited number of students in a room—dates back a thousand years. The industry's physical plant (dorms, classrooms, gyms) often a century or more. Its most expensive employees, tenured faculty, can't be fired. The price of its product (tuition) and operating costs have outpaced inflation by multiples.

In similar circumstances, Wal-Mart took out America's small retail chains. Amazon crushed Borders. And Harvard will have to make way for . . . Minerva? "There is no better case to do something that I can think of in the history of the world," says Mr. Nelson.

Some people regarded as serious folks have bought the pitch, superlatives and all. Larry Summers, the former Harvard president, agreed to be the chairman of Minerva's advisory board. Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, who led the New School in New York from 2001-10, heads the fundraising arm. Stephen Kosslyn, previously dean of social sciences at Harvard, is Minerva's founding academic dean. Benchmark, a venture-capital firm that financed eBay and Twitter, last year made its largest-ever seed investment, $25 million, in Minerva.

Mr. Nelson calls Minerva a "reimagined university." Sure, there will be majors and semesters. Admission requirements will be "extraordinarily high," he says, as at the Ivies. Students will live together and attend classes. And one day, an alumni network will grease job and social opportunities.

But Minerva will have no hallowed halls, manicured lawns or campus. No fraternities or sports teams. Students will spend their first year in San Francisco, living together in a residence hall. If they need to borrow books, says Mr. Nelson, the city has a great public library. Who needs a student center with all of the coffee shops around?

Each of the next six semesters students will move, in cohorts of about 150, from one city to another. Residences and high-tech classrooms will be set up in the likes of São Paulo, London or Singapore—details to come. Professors get flexible, short-term contracts, but no tenure. Minerva is for-profit.

The business buzzword here is the "unbundling" of higher education, or disaggregation. Since the founding of Oxford in the 12th century, universities, as the word implies, have tried to offer everything in one package and one place. In the world of the Web and Google, physical barriers are disappearing.

Mr. Nelson wants to bring this technological disruption to the top end of the educational food chain, and at first look Minerva's sticker price stands out. Freed of the costs of athletics, the band and other pricey campus amenities, a degree will cost less than half the average top-end private education, which is now over $50,000 a year with room and board.

His larger conceit, inspired or outlandish, is to junk centuries of tradition and press the reset button on the university experience. Mr. Nelson offers a fully-formed educational philosophy with a practiced salesman's confidence. At Minerva, introductory courses are out. For Econ or Psych 101, buy some books or sign up for one of the MOOCs—as in massive open online course—on the Web.

"Too much of undergrad education is the dissemination of basic information that at that level of student you should expect them to know," he says. "We just feel we don't have any moral standing to charge you thousands of dollars for learning what you can learn for free." Legacy universities move students to their degrees through packed, required lecture classes, which Mr. Nelson calls their "profit pools." And yes, he adds, all schools are about raking in money, even if most don't pay taxes by claiming "not-for-profit" status.

In the Nelson dream curriculum, all incoming students take the same four yearlong courses. His common core won't make students read the Great Books. "We want to teach you how to think," Mr. Nelson says. A course on "multimodal communications" works on practical writing and debating skills. A "formal systems class" goes over "everything from logic to advanced stats, Big Data, to formal reasoning, to behavioral econ."

Over the next three years, Minervaites take small, discussion-heavy seminars via video from their various locations. Classes will be taped and used to critique not only how students handle the subjects, but also how they apply the reasoning and communication skills taught freshman year.

The idea for Minerva grew out of Mr. Nelson's undergraduate experience. As a freshman at Penn's Wharton School, he took a course on the history of the university. "I realized that what the universities are supposed to be is not what they are," he says. "That the concept of universities taking great raw material and teaching how it can have positive impact in the world is gone."

Undergraduates come in, take some random classes, settle on a major and "oh yeah, you're going to pick up critical thinking in the process by accident." By his senior year, Mr. Nelson was pushing for curriculum changes as chairman of a student committee on undergraduate education. As a 21-year-old, he designed Penn's still popular program of preceptorials, which are small, short-term and noncredit seminars offered "for the sake of learning."

A Wharton bachelor's degree in economics took him to consulting at Dean & Company in Washington, D.C. "My first six months, what did the consulting firm teach me? They didn't teach me the basics of how they do business. They taught me how to think. I didn't know how to check my work. I didn't think about order of magnitude. I didn't have habits of mind that a liberal arts education was supposed to have given me. And not only did I not have it, none of my other colleagues had it—people who had graduated from Princeton and Harvard and Yale."

After joining Snapfish in 1999 and leaving as CEO a little over a decade later, Mr. Nelson, who is 38 and married with a daughter, wrote and shopped around his business plan for Minerva. He says he considered partnering with existing institutions, but decided to build a 21st-century school from scratch to offer the "ideal education."

Ideas like his are not in short supply. The catch? No one has found a way to make a steady profit on an ed-tech startup.

Going back to the Internet bubble of the late 1990s, many have tried. With $120 million from Michael Milken and Larry Ellison and a board of big names, UNext launched in 1997 as a Web-based graduate university. It failed. Fathom, a for-profit online-learning venture founded by Columbia University in 2000, closed three years and several million in losses later.

In the current surge of investment in new educational companies, Minerva has no direct competitor but plenty of company. Udacity and Coursera, two prominent startups, are looking to monetize the proliferation of MOOCs. UniversityNow offers cheap, practical courses online and at brick-and-mortar locations in the Bay Area. And so on.

Education accounts for 8.7% of the U.S. economy, but less than 1% of all venture capital transactions in 1995-2011 and only 0.3% of total public market capitalization, as of 2011, according to Global Silicon Valley Advisors. The group predicts the market for postsecondary "eLearning" and for-profit universities will grow by double digits annually over the next five years.

Mr. Nelson's vision will be beside the point if Minerva fails to attract paying students. He makes a straightforward business case. Harvard and other top schools take only a small share of qualified applicants, and for 30 years have refused to meet growing demand. A new global middle class—some 1.5 billion people—desperately wants an elite American education. "The existing model doesn't work," he says. "The market was begging for a solution."

Audacious ideas are easy to pick apart, and Mr. Nelson's are no exception. He repeats "elite" to describe a startup without a single student. Reputations are usually earned over time. Many prospective students dream of Harvard for the brand. Even at around $20,000 a year—no bargain for middle-class Chinese 18-year-olds—Minerva won't soon have the Harvard cachet.

Any education startup must also brave a regulatory swamp. By opting out of government-backed student-loan programs, Minerva won't have to abide by many of the federal rules for so-called Title IV (of the relevant 1965 law) schools. Americans won't have an edge in admissions and Minerva expects most students will come from abroad.

But Mr. Nelson wants to be part of the club whose price of entry is accreditation. A cartel sanctioned by Congress places a high barrier to entry for newcomers, stifling educational innovation. Startups face a long slog to get accredited. So last month Minerva chose to partner with the Keck Graduate Institute, or KGI, a small school founded in 1997 that is part of the Claremont consortium of colleges near Los Angeles. Minerva degrees will now have, pending the regulatory OK, an accreditor's seal of approval.

With this move, Mr. Nelson eased one headache and raised some questions. KGI offers only graduate degrees in life sciences, an unusual fit for an undergraduate startup. KGI isn't a recognizable international name for Minerva to market. Yet Mr. Nelson says the schools are "completely complementary" and the deal represents "zero change in our mission."

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The Minerva Project might lay claim to "overthrowing Harvard," but at best it might overthrow only a small part of Harvard in terms of attracting students who prefer to study in cities around the world. Will Minerva overthrow the Harvard Medical School? Yeah right! Will Minerva overthrow the billions of dollars in research laboratories on the Harvard campus? Yeah right! Is Minerva a better choice than Harvard for natural science, nursing, pharmacy, and premed students? I doubt it!

Is Minerva better for humanities, social science, and business majors? Possibly in isolated instances. But there may be gaps in curricula that are important prerequisites for graduate school studies. Students intent on becoming CPAs in five years should never choose Minerva simply because Minerva does not and probably will never offer the prerequisite courses required for taking the CPA examination after five full-time years of study. Of course these same students should never choose Harvard since Harvard has no undergraduate accounting program feeding into its accounting Ph.D. program.

Will Minerva displace the networking advantages to students of having the world's most successful, powerful, and well-connected Harvard alumni base? For example, many new graduates of the Harvard Business School find that networking with HBS alumni, especially on Wall Street, is more valuable than what was learned in HBS classes.

Minerva will never overthrow Harvard, although it may steal away a miniscule number top first-year prospects. But will Harvard admissions officers lose any sleep over these losses? Yeah right!

Lastly, if Harvard ever pours billions into a program to compete with Minerva it will be no contest.

"Are Elite Colleges Worth It?" by Pamela Haag, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 30, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Are-Elite-Colleges-Worth-It-/129540/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

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


It's not a question of if; It's only a question of when:  MOOCs are coming to K-12 ---
http://online.qmags.com/TJL0813?sessionID=4CB36C8DBEEC3C846A1D7E17F&cid=2399838&eid=18342#pg1&mode1
See the article beginning on Page 20

New tools to prevent high tech cheating ---
http://online.qmags.com/TJL0813?sessionID=4CB36C8DBEEC3C846A1D7E17F&cid=2399838&eid=18342#pg1&mode1
See the article beginning on Page 213


America’s Great Shrinking Companies --- Click Here
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/08/14/americas-great-shrinking-companies/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AUG152013A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter


"These Amazing Maps Show How Threatened Your Home Is by Fires, Floods, and Hurricanes," by Joseph Flaherty, Wired News, August 15, 2013 ---
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/08/this-data-viz-shows-path-of-destruction/?viewall=true


Starting up your company before, during, or after you go to college?
"What To Consider Before," by Bastiaan Janmaat, Fastco Labs, August 2013 ---
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3014564/open-company/what-to-consider-before-starting-up-in-college

Some of today’s greatest tech companies, young and old, were started by college students: Microsoft, Dell, Facebook, Snapchat. In each case, their founders (Gates, Dell, Zuckerberg, and Spiegel) started working on their companies while in school, and then dropped out to pursue their ventures full-time. So is school a good place to start a business?

Starting Up In College: The Pros

The advent of cheap hosting and other outsourced infrastructure has brought the costs of starting a software company down dramatically. Now more than ever, students are building companies from their dorm rooms. This was especially salient for my cofounders and me at Stanford, where, in the last 18 months, we experienced much of the optimism and many of the resources that the university has become well-known for. Here are other things that student founders have going for them.

Finding A Cofounder Is Easier

“How do I find a cofounder?” is the single most common question asked of Paul Graham, and yet the hardest question for him to answer. PG’s answer is that he can’t find you your cofounder, because the best candidates are folks you already know. My cofounders, Mike and Alden, entered my life at Stanford. I met Mike through our shared interest in organizing founder meetups around campus. Mike and Alden met through Stanford’s CS classes. It’s cliche but in my opinion very true: Cofounders need to be respected and trusted peers first, and colleagues second. College is a fantastic mixing ground because it’s a place where people have natural flexibility, shared interest, and an objective of getting to know each other.

You Can Use Class Time To Incubate Ideas

Starting a company while at Stanford, we were able to iterate our concept quickly in classes designed to “test the entrepreneurial waters.” In the d.school’sLaunchpad,” we were asked to create a working prototype in one week, have a paying customer after two, and constantly iterate our product according to user feedback. Over at the Graduate School of Business, Professors Barnett and Rachleff taught us how to findproduct-market fit.” In both cases, the school environment helped stimulate us to think about our ideas in ways that are hard to reproduce outside of school. Outside of Stanford, many startups now adopt the “Lean Startup” Methodology championed by Eric Ries and taught at many forward-thinking universities around the world.

You’re In A Low-Risk Environment

Mike, Alden, and I focused many class projects and presentations on our own startup, garnering help and feedback from smart classmates while enabling us to refine our business plan and pitch in a low-risk environment. In school you can pick up a project, work on it with a group of people, talk to potential customers, fail, and do it all over again, without the risks that would come later in life; having to leave your job to try something new, supporting a big family, etc.

You Can Call Anyone For Help

People will almost always extend a helping hand to students--even when they might not have helped that person outside the context of school. It’s much easier to learn from and get to know future partners, colleagues, or competitors while you’re still in school and they feel an intrinsic desire to help you.

Starting Up In College: The Cons

So with all those benefits and resources, shouldn’t every entrepreneurially minded student be starting a business in school? Notwithstanding all the benefits of starting a company in school, there are challenges and risks that I came across the hard way when founding LifeSwap (the predecessor to my current startup--here’s our pivot story). Consider these disadvantages:

Hunting For Ideas Is Harder

Some of the startups founded in school arise through class projects where a group of students proactively seek to uncover and develop a business opportunity. This goes against the belief that true innovation stems from authentic and unique insight into a problem. When students come up with business ideas that are inauthentic to their own experience, or lack deep insight into a pain point, there’s a risk that the idea is more of a vitamin than a painkiller, and thus less likely to be a necessary solution.

You’re In An Echo Chamber

Less-than-great ideas, rather than dying quickly, stay alive due to falsely positive feedback from others. Affirmative feedback from surveying classmates is too often taken as confirmation of a use case, when it is a result of people’s inclination to be supportive. We learned this lesson with LifeSwap: People loved the idea of experiencing another job for a few hours! But our classmates weren’t our target market... so make sure you getout of the buildingto test your product with your real customers.

False Positives Are More Likely

Amidst that echo chamber of excitement about your startup, and positive reactions from those around you, many student founders experience an escalation of commitment. Before I knew it, I was working on LifeSwap in lieu of a summer internship, and being asked if I was planning to “drop out” before graduation. I considered it, as did a number of classmates of mine. With hindsight, I’m relieved that I decided to stay in school. My chances to start a business didn’t dissipate, while the experience of attending graduate school and building a valuable network would have been hard to replicate later on. One question to ask is whether deferral is an option.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on careers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers


"iPad Suffers Significant Decline as Android Strengthens Tablet Position," by David Nagel, T.H.E. Journal, August 5, 2013 ---
http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/08/05/ipad-suffers-significant-decline-as-android-strengthens-tablet-position.aspx?=THE21


How to Use a 529 Plan to Pay for College ---
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/money-finance/investing/how-use-529-plan-pay-college


2013 AAUP Faculty Salary Survey How much 1,142 colleges paid their faculty members ---
http://chronicle.com/article/aaup-survey-data-2013/138309#id=144050

Jensen Comment
This database must be viewed in the context of the usual warnings. The most serious limitation lies in supplemental income variations between different universities. For example, some medical schools pay huge bonuses from services to university hospitals.

Universities vary regarding how much private money (gifts) is devoted to supporting summer salaries for research by newer faculty and by high-performing faculty.

Universities vary regarding the amount of research expense funding given to faculty. For example, a top researcher might get a $30,000 expense fund that, among other things, supports taking her or his family to Europe while gathering data.

There are also tremendous living cost differences. For example, a horse farm outside Vermillion, South Dakota valued at $500,000 might be valued at $40 million west of the Stanford University campus. Property taxes and other living costs in Manhattan are enormous relative to property taxes and living costs in Vermillion. Also in Vermillion the public schools are relatively great. Forget the public school system in NYC and most other large USA cities.

My point is that a $140,000 in Vermillion may go a lot further than a $400,000 salary in a large USA city even if subsidized housing is available from the employer. Without subsidized housing universities in large USA cities do not pay enough to live close to the university. In come cases, faculty must commute over an hour a day each way in order to live in remote suburbia.

What seem like high salaries to some faculty are only a drop in the bucket relative to their total family income due to spousal income, book royalties, solid gold consulting, etc. Stanford, NYU, Columbia, and UCLA must pay those high salaries to persuade top faculty to even bother with teaching and remaining on the faculty. Sometimes those high salaries are paid to motivate wealthy faculty to stay on board until retirement in hopes of receiving they gifts of millions of dollars later on. For example, a number of highly paid faculty at Stanford University have given that University's Foundation tens of millions of dollars later in life. Their earlier stellar salaries may actually turn out to be good investments.

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


"The Overworked College Administrator," by Barbara Mainwaring, Inside Higher Ed, August 10, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/08/10/mainwaring
How can teachers/researchers gain collegiate administrative skills?
Many professors worry that colleges these days prefer a professional class of administrators to promoting faculty members. In turn, many administrators complain that faculty members — however good at their teaching and research — may lack key skills for more responsibility. A new program at Simmons College — one of six master’s institutions receiving grants Tuesday to promote “faculty career flexibility” — aims to provide professors with a path to pick up administrative skills, without just adding on to their workloads. The grants are being awarded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which last year awarded similar grants to research universities.
Scott Jaschik, "Promoting Career Flexibility," Inside Higher Ed, January 30, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/01/30/sloan

The Almanac of Higher Education
The new Almanac of Higher Education features national and state-by-state data on colleges and universities, and their students, finances, and faculty and staff members, as well as regional profiles of the issues facing academe across the country.
Chronicle of Higher Education --- http://chronicle.com/article/Almanac-2010-The-Profession/123918/
2011-12 Edition --- http://chronicle.texterity.com/chronicle/20110826a?sub_id=yf6H2Es7OzfJ
Jensen Comment
There's a ton of financial information here, including salary juxtaposed against cost of living in different regions.

Law School Faculty Salary Links from Paul Carone on the TaxProf Blog on June 11, 2013

Following up on my recent post, Law Faculty Salaries, 2012-13:  Above the Law has blogged individual law faculty salaries at these Top 20 public schools:

Jensen Comment
This is a better way to compare faculty salaries in top schools. Large surveys like those of the AAUP, Chronicle of Higher Education, and the AACSB are too skewed by small and low paying colleges.

Keep in mind that salary comparison in general can be like comparisons of apples and kangaroos. Things to consider are the many aspects of "compensation" contracts such as summer income assurances (research or teaching), expense budgets (that in prestigious schools may be near $20,000 allowances for travel, etc.), and most importantly access to additional consulting revenues. For example, faculty at the Harvard Business School may make more consulting with and teaching CPE credits in HBS alumni companies than they make from their Harvard salaries.

Just being on the faculty of a prestigious university also opens doors to lucrative expert witness offers, consulting offers, and textbook publishing deals where prestigious faculty are offered deals to publish with lesser known writers who write most of the books.

Some schools like Stanford, NYU, and Columbia offer faculty great housing deals such as relatively low rents or 100-year lot leases for a dollar a year.

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


"10 Visual Steps To Self-Publishing Your Book On Amazon," ReadWriteWeb, July 22, 2013 ---
http://readwrite.com/2013/07/22/10-simple-steps-to-self-publishing-your-book-on-amazon#awesm=~od74IixROnAXlS

Make Your Own eBook with Blurb ---
http://www.blurb.com/

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


"A THOUGHTFUL NEW BOOK ON THE MARKET," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, August 9, 2013 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-thoughtful-new-book-on-market.html


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

Streaming Television = Google's Chromecast + a hardware Dongle
"Chromecast Review: Finally, an Easy Way to Watch the Web on TV," by Rachel Meltz, MIT's Technology Review, July 30, 2013 --- Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517656/chromecast-review-finally-an-easy-way-to-watch-the-web-on-tv/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130731

Jensen Comment
I have pretty good experience with the HDMI connection on my high-end Dell Laptop (called Studio) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

My wireless connection to the HDMI plug is rather unreliable so I instead take my laptop close to the television set and use a hard wire connection. It works great.

The problem is that lower-end cheaper laptops do not have the HDMI port. I think the Chromecast dongle only requires a USB port.


At Iowa University students must distilling that corn
"U. of Iowa Tops Princeton Review's 2014 Party School List August 6, 2013," Inside Higher Ed, August 6, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/08/06/u-iowa-tops-princeton-reviews-2014-party-school-list 

Jensen Comment
Drink in Iowa City and eat in the nearby great Amish family-style restaurants.

The 20 Most Fun Colleges In America ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-most-fun-colleges-in-america-2013-8

Jensen Comment
Why can't there be fun without booze?


One Number That Shows The Reason For Microsoft's Upheaval ---
http://readwrite.com/2013/08/13/browser-desktop-mobile-microsoft-internet-explorer-upheaval#awesm=~oeCFdMHqlLIrTn

Jensen Comment
Personally IE market share seems to be a only a miniscule part of Microsoft's enormous problems. The most important challenge facing Microsoft is in retaining its huge market share of the operating systems market for PCs along with gaining market share in the mobile device world and cloud worlds. Windows 8 was a disaster because, in an effort to capture more of the mobile device and cloud worlds, it discovered that long-time users of previous versions of Windows hated Version 8. This coupled with lack of growth in the PC and laptop markets is the main reason for the current "upheaval" in Microsoft.

It's a little like betting on Chevy Volt and not innovating the Silverado SUV or making the Silverado SUV smaller and more fuel efficient when the customers do not yet want to give up gas-guzzling heavy metal SUVs that can haul two adults, six kids, a big dog, and a pet goat. If a big 2014 SUV is no longer available, the family may be inclined to shoot for a million miles on their old 2010 model. This would not please General Motors any more than it does not please Microsoft when so many customers prefer their old Windows 7 operating systems to the new Windows 8 versions.


"Colleges (i.e., prestigious colleges) With Lenient Grades Get Six Times as Many Grads Into B-School (and jobs)," by Louis Lavelle, Bloomberg Businessweek, July 30, 2013 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-30/colleges-with-lenient-grades-get-six-times-as-many-grads-into-b-school

Link to the Study  --- http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0069258

Abstract
When explaining others' behaviors, achievements, and failures, it is common for people to attribute too much influence to disposition and too little influence to structural and situational factors. We examine whether this tendency leads even experienced professionals to make systematic mistakes in their selection decisions, favoring alumni from academic institutions with high grade distributions and employees from forgiving business environments. We find that candidates benefiting from favorable situations are more likely to be admitted and promoted than their equivalently skilled peers. The results suggest that decision-makers take high nominal performance as evidence of high ability and do not discount it by the ease with which it was achieved. These results clarify our understanding of the correspondence bias using evidence from both archival studies and experiments with experienced professionals. We discuss implications for both admissions and personnel selection practices.

. . .

General Discussion

Many studies in the social psychology and organizational behavior literatures have found that people tend to attribute too much influence to disposition and too little influence to situational factors impinging on the actor when explaining others' behaviors, achievements, and failures. This common tendency, labeled the correspondence bias or the fundamental attribution error, has been shown to be robust across a variety of contexts and situations. Yet, to date, most of the evidence about this bias comes from laboratory experiments with college students as participants, and its implications for field settings and organizational outcomes are seldom examined. Using data from both the experimental laboratory and the field, we extend prior research by investigating whether this tendency leads experienced professionals to make systematic mistakes in their selection decisions, favoring alumni from academic institutions with higher grade distributions and employees working in favorable business climates. Our results indicate that candidates who have demonstrated high performance thanks to favorable situations are more likely to be rated highly and selected. Across all our studies, the results suggest that experts take high performance as evidence of high ability and do not sufficiently discount it by the ease with which that performance was achieved. High grades are easier to achieve in an environment where the average is high and so are less indicative of high performance than are the same grades that were earned from an institution with lower grades on average. Sky-high on-time percentages should be less impressive at an airport that was running well before the manager got there. Although we focused on two selection scenarios, we believe the results speak to other selection and evaluation problems.

Indeed, we see consistent evidence of situation neglect in contexts where political and business leaders are credited with performance that derives directly from stochastic economic factors. Voters face a Lewinian dilemma when they evaluate the performance of incumbent politicians running for re-election. They should reward politicians who create positive change for their constituencies while considering what portion of those changes were due to lucky or exogenous factors. Wolfers [41] finds that voters, like our admissions professionals and executives, favor politicians that had the good luck to work under favorable conditions. Voters are more likely to reelect incumbents after terms marked by positive national economic trends or (in the case of oil-rich states) high oil prices. CEOs also benefit from fortuitous economic conditions for which they are not responsible. Bertrand and Mullainathan [42] present evidence that CEO compensation is driven to equal degrees by their management and the uncontrollable economic conditions in which they managed. Stakeholders in these cases have strong incentives to reward leaders who add value above the vagaries of the economy, but they seem blind to the difference.

It is often the case that structural and situational factors are the most powerful influences on behavior. Within organizations, for example, it is easier to succeed in some jobs than in others [43]. Sometimes people will achieve positive outcomes simply because of a beneficent environment. It is easier to achieve success as a manager when your team is strong than when your team is weak. Likewise, it is easier to obtain a strong education in an excellent private school than in an under-funded public school. And it is easier to achieve high grades at schools where higher grades are the norm. So it would be a mistake to neglect situational effects on performance, but that is what our data suggest that even experts and professionals tend to do.

Are we always doomed to make erroneous correspondent inferences? Evidence suggests not; the bias is subject to a number of moderating factors. These are useful to consider both because they provide clues about the psychological mechanisms at work and because they suggest potential debiasing treatments. For instance, when people are stressed, distracted, or busy, they are more likely to fall victim to the correspondence bias [44]. Those with greater capacity for reflective thought, as measured by need for cognition, are less likely to show the bias [45]. When people feel accountable to others, they are less likely to show the bias [46]. When people are in good moods, they appear more likely show the bias [47]. And some collectivistic cultures may be less vulnerable to the correspondence bias than individualistic ones [48], [49].

Organizations often adopt practices because they are legitimate, popular, or easy to justify [50], [51]. That may help explain why we observed such consistency in admissions policies in neglecting to consider differences in grade distributions between institutions. This sort of consistency in organizational “best” practices can create incentives for individuals to play along, despite their imperfections. Indeed, it is even conceivable that cultural or linguistic norms can make it easier for individuals to follow decision norms that are more easily understood by or explained to others. On the other hand, it is reasonable to assume that finding a better system to evaluate applicants would improve admissions decisions, allowing the schools that do it to identify strong candidates that other schools neglect. The Oakland Athletics baseball team did just this when it pioneered a new statistical approach to identifying promising baseball players to recruit [52]. Their success has since been emulated by other teams, changing the way baseball's talent scouts pick players. However, the problem for admissions departments may be more complicated because explicitly tarring some institutions as lenient-grading is likely to elicit energetic protests if they ever find out about it [53].

It is common in organizations for the abilities of an individual, a department, or a division to be shrouded in complicating or confounding influences that make them difficult to detect or measure [54]. Indeed, as much as ratings systems like grades and performance metrics like on-time percentages can help clarify standards for evaluation, they can also be used to obscure performance [55]. Variation in grading standards between institutions obscures the value of using grades to measure student performance. It is probably in the interest of lenient-grading institutions to hide the degree of their leniency. Consistent with this motive, recent years have seen changes in the disclosure that institutions are willing to make [56]. Fewer academic institutions are willing to disclose average grading data or class rankings for their students or alumni. When we contacted institutions to inquire regarding average grades elite, expensive, private institutions – those with the highest average grades – were most likely to decline to disclose the information.

Organizational Image, Legitimacy, and Stakeholder Appraisals

The strategic use of scoring and assessment metrics has implications at the organization level because of the way that institutions compete. Scott and Lane [57] advanced a theory of organizational image in which stakeholders (both members as well as outside audiences) play a key role in shaping the organization's image by making legitimacy appraisals that can counterbalance the organization's attempts at image management. This model is built on the dual premises that organizations and their members derive personal and economic benefits from promoting a positive image [58], [59], but that salient audiences have a role in validating that image [60], [61]. These forces form an equilibrium that balances the organization's incentives for an unbounded positive spin with the utility gained by stakeholders from an image grounded in reality. Scott and Lane [57] term the specific mechanism by which this equilibrium is reached reflected stakeholder appraisals. In the present paper we have investigated a setting in which stakeholders may have difficulty judging the appropriateness of image-relevant information which could then threaten the stability of the reflected stakeholder appraisal equilibrium.

In the context of higher education, graduating students are among the primary interfaces through which employers, graduate schools, and communities interact with undergraduate institutions. Their reputation in the form of grades contributes to the reputation [62] of the organization. As such, undergraduate institutions have an incentive to promote an image of intelligence and achievement to these outside audiences by maintaining a relatively high grade distribution. Given the tremendous value of being able to place alumni in better graduate schools and in better jobs, universities cannot be expected to go too far in seeking to curtail grade inflation. For example, universities are unlikely to implement meaningful institutional changes such as replacing grades with percentile rankings. Instead, we should expect academic institutions to pay lip service to the importance of high academic standards while at the same time avoiding publicizing average grade distributions and avoiding reporting class rank data on their students.

Do we see unchecked escalation of grade distributions by a market full of organizations unconstrained by the critical feedback from shareholders? Of course, there are multiple mechanisms supporting a moderate equilibrium even without functioning shareholder criticism of the type we have described, but some data suggest grade inflation is a prolonged and significant trend in U.S. Education [6]. More troubling are anecdotal reports of institutions manipulating their grade distribution with the publicly expressed intent of influencing the selection decisions of hiring firms [63]. Clearly, these institutions are anticipating that employers will not sufficiently discount the grades of their alumni to eliminate the advantage their inflated grades will confer.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

Our studies are subject to several important limitations. First, the sample used in our first study was relatively small due to the size of the admissions department that participated, even though the results were highly significant. In addition, the first and second studies employed hypothetical decisions, which may have limited validity as a model of fully consequential and incentivized decision making. Future research could benefit from a more qualitative research approach to investigate how admissions and promotion decisions are made by various organizations. As for Study 3, there are many variables (such as variations in average GPA by discipline within a school) for which we did lacked information and thus could not control in our analyses. These variables may have important influences on admission decisions that are not captured in the present research. Although these are important limitations, it is also worth noting that the limitations differ across studies and yet the findings are robust.

The conclusions implied by our results as well as the limitations of our research bring forth some fruitful and interesting possible avenues for future research. One interesting question is whether other academic selection contexts would show the same patterns as business school admissions decisions. Law schools, for instance, use the Law School Admissions Council, an organization that (among other things) processes applications for law schools and provides a service that gives schools a sense of where a given applicant's GPA falls relative to other applicants that the LSAC has seen from that same institution. The Graduate Management Admissions Council does not process business school applications and so does not provide an equivalent service for business schools. Does the LSAC's assistance help law schools make better admissions decisions?

Similarly, future research could explore the implications of the correspondence bias for promotions of business professionals. Just as educational institutions vary with respect to the ease of achieving high grades, so do companies, industries, and time periods differ with respect to the ease of achieving profitability. There are some industries (such as airlines) that are perennially plagued by losses and whose firms have trouble maintaining profitability. There are other industries (such as pharmaceuticals) that have seen more stable profitability over time. And clearly there are changes over time in industry conditions that drive profitability; for example, global oil prices drive profitability among oil companies.

We believe an important avenue for further investigation lies in continuing the study of the correspondence bias in empirical settings with organizationally-relevant outcomes. A more thorough understanding of the implications of this common bias for organizations could be achieved by further investigating business decisions such as promotions. There are also a multitude of other business decisions in which a latent variable of interest is seen in the context of varying situational pressures. Investment returns, sports achievements, and political success are all domains in which judgments are vulnerable to the tendency to insufficiently discount the influence of the situation. We expect that the correspondence bias affects outcomes in these domains.

Our theory holds that a firm's good fortune (in the form of greater profits) will be mistaken as evidence for the abilities of its managers. If this is so, then we should more often see employees of lucky firms being promoted than of unlucky firms [64]. We would expect, for instance, that pharmaceutical executives are more likely to be hired away to head other firms than are airline executives. However, this finding might be vulnerable to the critique that pharmaceutical executives actually are more capable than are airline executives–after all, their firms are more consistently profitable. Therefore, a better way to test this prediction would be using an industry (such as oil) in which fortunes fluctuate over time due to circumstances outside the control of any firm's managers. Our prediction, then, would be that oil executives are more likely to be hired away to head other firms when the oil industry is lucky (i.e., oil prices are high) than when the industry is unlucky (i.e., oil prices are low).

Theoretical Contributions

Our results contribute to the literature on the psychological process at work in comparative judgment, a literature that stretches across psychology [65], economics [66], and organizational behavior [67]. In this paper, we extend previous research by examining judgmental contexts in which expert decision-makers are comparing outcomes that vary with respect to both nominal performances and their ease. We should also point out that these results are, in a number of ways, more dramatic than the results of previous research showing biases in comparative judgment. Previous results have been strongest when participants themselves are the focus of judgment [65], [68]. Biases in comparative judgment shrink when people are comparing others, and shrink still further when they have excellent information about performance by those they are comparing [69]. Biases disappear when comparisons are made on a forced ranking scale [70]. In this paper, we have shown comparative judgments to be powerfully biased even when people are evaluating others about whom they have complete information (as modeled in Study 1), and even when the assessments (e.g., admission decisions) are made on a forced distribution that prevent them from rating everyone as better than everyone else.

Continued in article

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


"If I Challenge You to Become a Better Teacher in 2013-2014, What Is Your First Response?" by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, July 30, 2013 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2013/07/if-i-challenge-you-to-become-better.html

Jensen Comment
One word of caution --- "Better teacher" does not necessarily mean being a "more popular" teacher, although steps take to be a better teacher may make you more popular. For example, devoting more time to office hours can make you both a better teacher and a more popular teacher. Making Camtasia videos of the most difficult learning tasks in your syllabus (e.g., deriving bond yields or valuing interest rate swaps) might make you a better teacher, but don't expect students to flock to your courses just because you are teaching the the toughest things in your course better.


Warning:  I did not make the link live because the Newser link for me set off all sorts of pop up windows.

If McDonald's Doubled Wages, Big Macs Rise ... 68 Cents
Newser, 07/30/2013 |
By John Johnson

Fast-food workers want to make a "living wage" of $15 an hour. Chains say they'd have to jack up prices if that ever happened. But just how high? Turns out, not as high as you might think, at least according to a University of Kansas researcher. He found that if McDonald's immediately doubled the wages of all its workers (including the $9 million CEO), it would have to raise the price of a Big Mac 68 cents, from $3.99 to $4.67, reports the Huffington Post. Items on the Dollar Menu technically wouldn't qualify anymore, but that hike...

Jensen Comment
Most accountants know better than to make these naive conclusions and overly simplified implications in this article. To do a proper analysis an analyst has to do what is called a full CPV analysis and product mix analysis that may also entail doing a complex simulation in which many factors interact such as product demand as a function of alternative prices for other food items on the menu and nonlinear relationships between product mix/sales and customer demand elasticity.

Yes McDonalds might make the same profit before and after raising prices on all its menu choices to double wages, but it is not likely without knowing just how elastic customer demand is with pricing and sales mix. It may well be that prices would have to triple in order to make the same profit on greatly reduced customer demand. Perhaps prices could be decreased when wages are increased if robots take over the cooking and packaging. In cost accounting this is called changing the "operating leverage." Much depends on demand elasticity and changes in operating leverage.

At a minimum, McDonalds should test market a sampling of stores by changing prices and sales mixes. This is difficult, however, since McDonalds would not be alone in raising prices if the legal minimum wage was doubled. In that case all the other restaurants from fast food to five-star restaurants would have to raise prices. And grocery stores would have to raise prices and make cooking at home much more expensive.

Nobody really knows what the direct and higher order societal effects are from raising prices. For example, how many full-time and part-time jobs would be lost? At some point in the cost function, it does become more profitable to add more operating leverage with robots. Just ask the automobile manufacturing companies that have adopted robots big time. We don't usually think of Hal as cooking our Big Macs, but Hal can probably cook Big Macs better than most of the cooks in the McDonalds chain.

Physicists stole all the easy problems. They usually do not have to predict human interactive behavior.


Utah Fires Assistant Professor and Retires Another After Finding Science Lab Was Reckless With Data and Manipulated Images
"U. of Utah Review Finds ‘Reckless’ Research Misconduct in Lab," by Nick DeSantis, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 2, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/u-of-utah-review-finds-reckless-research-misconduct-in-lab?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Bob Jensen's threads on professors who cheat ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize


Links from the Tax Prof Blog on "The Last Days of Big Law"

Leiter's Reflections on The Economic Value of a Law Degree

Brian Leiter (Chicago), Reflections on "The Economic Value of a Law Degree" and the Response to It.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:


From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 5, 2013

Companies embroiled in patent battles may have to rethink their strategies
Over the weekend, President Obama vetoed a ruling from the U.S. International Trade Commission banning the sale of some Apple products,
the WSJ reports. It was the first such veto in a quarter century.

The veto could discourage companies from taking patent disputes to the ITC, the Journal says. It also could reduce some patent holders’ leverage in licensing talks, cutting the commercial value of their patents. And the FT says the veto risks undermining the administration’s push for stricter intellectual-property regimes around the world. We’ll have to keep an eye on some other pending cases to judge the impact. InterDigital has brought patent-infringement claims and sought product bans against several companies, including Samsung, Nokia, Huawei Technologies and ZTE. Late last year, Samsung and the Ericsson filed complaints against each other at the ITC.

In a letter explaining the veto, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the decision was based on the potential harm the sales ban would cause to consumers and the U.S. economy. And he suggested Samsung could still enforce its patents in the courts. That may be little consolation to Samsung—its shares were hammered today, with more than $1 billion in market value wiped out in early trading, the WSJ reports.

 


From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on July 22, 2013

Tax overhaul battle divides companies
Corporate battle lines are being drawn over the congressional effort to overhaul the tax code,
the WSJ’s Damian Paletta and Kate Linbaugh write. The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance Committee have given other lawmakers until Friday to defend current tax breaks and practices, while House Ways and Means Chairman David Camp (R., Mich.) could begin advancing a plan after Congress’s August recess. Companies like Amgen and Microsoft that benefit from royalty income from intellectual property are working to preserve their ability to park this income in low-tax locales such as Bermuda and Ireland. Both companies are fighting a draft proposal from Mr. Camp that aims to curtail such offshore practices by imposing a 15% tax on income from patents, trademarks or other U.S.-owned “intangibles,” regardless of where they are held. Another group, led by General Electric and backed by companies including Intel may be willing to accept Mr. Camp’s proposal in exchange for lower tax rates, among other things.

 


2U Distance Education Course Provider --- http://www.study2u.com/
2U (The Anti-MOOC Provider) ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_technology

"3 Universities (Baylor, Southern Methodist, and Temple Universities) Will Grant Credit for 2U’s Online Courses," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 30, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/3-universities-will-grant-credit-for-2us-online-courses/45143?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Bob Jensen's Threads on Pricey Online Courses and Degrees ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
These do not help global low income students other than by allowing students  to learn at home and accumulate transcript credits toward degrees. Sometimes the credits are accepted only by the college or university providing distance education courses. Some universities like the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee that offer both onsite and online sections of the same course will charge higher fees for the online sections. Distance education for come colleges and universities are cash cows.

Bob Jensen's Threads on Free Online Courses, Videos, Tutorials, and Course Materials ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
These help low income students by providing totally free courses and learning materials, often from the best professors in the world at prestigious universities. However, if students want transcript credit there will be fees to take competency-based examinations. And those credits are not always accepted by other colleges and universities. The free alternatives are mainly for students who just want to learn.


The Washington Post Co did not sell its struggling for-profit distance education provider
"Kaplan 2.0 August 15, 2013," by Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed, August 15, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/15/profit-kaplan-branches-out-learning-science-projects 

Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud


Competency-Based Learning --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning

The University of Northern Arizona Offers a Dual Transcript Option, One of Which is Competency-Based
"Competency-Based Transcripts," by Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed, August 9, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/09/northern-arizona-universitys-new-competency-based-degrees-and-transcripts

Jensen Comment
This program at Northern Arizona differs from the competency-based programs at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Akron, Capella University, and Southern New Hampshire University in that students at Northern Arizona must sign up for online courses at Northern Arizona before becoming eligible for the competency-based transcript. It differs from Western Governors University in that there are two transcripts rather than just a competency-based transcript for online courses.

Capella may have a more difficult time getting employers and graduate schools to accept Capella's competency-based  transcript credit in general relative to the University of Wisconsin, the University of Akron, and Southern New Hampshire University. Time will tell. Much depends upon other criteria such as SAT scores, GRE scores, GMAT scores, LSAT scores, MCAT scores, and professional licensing examination scores.

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


Most of the cities on this list surprised me --- I suspect larger cities eventually pose more costly threats
Seven Cities at Risk of Rising Seas --- Click Here
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/08/12/seven-cities-at-risk-of-rising-sea-levels/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AUG132013A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter


Watch Barnaby Jack, who recently died, show how to trick an ATM machine into spewing out all of its cash --- Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/517621/watch-the-atm-hacker-at-work/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130730

Last week one of the network TV news shows showed surveillance video of a man using a mysterious tool that allegedly can open any locked car doo. Purportedly, experts who have never seen this tool haven't the slightest idea how it works.


Penn States First MAcc Class Placement = 100%
The first graduating class of the Penn State Smeal College of Business One-Year Master of Accounting (MAcc) Program has announced both a 100 percent internship placement rate and a 100 percent job placement rate at graduation. The students received their diplomas at Penn State’s summer 2013 commencement ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 10
---
http://news.psu.edu/story/283924/2013/08/12/academics/one-year-master-accounting-program-announces-100-percent-job

 

"Why Spending $150K On An MBA Is Probably A Dumb Idea," by Erika Andersen, Forbes, July 27, 2013 ---
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/07/27/why-spending-150k-on-an-mba-is-probably-a-dumb-idea/

Jensen Comment
The title of this article is very misleading. MBA degrees differ like night and day between universities. For example, having an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth means being in a tight and very supportive alumni cohort that can affect opportunities not only upon graduation but opportunities in life as well.

Erika Andersen assumes that getting an MBA degree is like getting a masters in history where the graduate studies are probably 80% learning and 20% applying for doctoral programs. An MBA degree is 60% learning and 40% networking.

Her article is reasonably good about learning, especially lifelong learning. But it is naive about what students really get out of MBA programs. The degree of learning varies a great deal with academic background before coming into the program. The courses can be amazing eye openers for engineers, scientists, and humanities undergraduates who know very little about accounting, finance, marketing, and management. The courses are less eye opening to former economics or business majors. There really is learning in an MBA program and in some programs like the Harvard Business School program there's a ton of writing every week with grading by course professors and not teaching assistants. A good MBA program is not a trade school. People that claim otherwise probably do not have MBA degrees from top schools.

Networking like MBA students get in the Ivy League and at Stanford and Northwestern can be extremely inspirational and motivational when combined with the truly exceptional faculty encountered along the way.

MBA degrees can be very important in rounding out essential knowledge for starting and successfully starting your own business. Great engineers and computer scientists might otherwise start businesses that crash and burn without knowing the basics that are covered in good MBA programs. Top MBA programs only admit smart students. Those students are among the best in the world in learning what is required of them in MBA programs.

MBA degrees also open doors to careers. Ask the many professionals on Wall Street, especially the managers and executives, who hold MBA degrees from top universities.

Hence spending $150K on an MBA is a bargain for many MBA graduates, especially graduates from leading MBA programs.  It may be more of a bargain than spending $250K on a law degree from that same institution. It may even worth more than a medical degree, especially if getting a medical degree means leaving the campus with $750K in student loans and bleak prospects without borrowing more and spending another four more years in residency Hell getting a specialty.

MBA degrees from some state universities may be cheaper and have worthwhile learning content. But without the great networking these are not necessarily as MBA degrees from top universities. Also MBA graduates from some state universities may have much more difficulty landing jobs that they had hoped for when beginning the MBA program.

One factor in getting a good starting job is the undergraduate specialty. MBA graduates with engineering and computer science degrees generally have an easier time than MBA graduates with art history, music, and some other humanities degrees.

Undergraduate majors in accounting probably will find it easier to get a job with a masters in accounting degree rather than an MBA. A MBA degree is not an especially good idea for accounting majors unless the degree is from one of the very top MBA programs.

The first graduating class of the Penn State Smeal College of Business One-Year Master of Accounting (MAcc) Program has announced both a 100 percent internship placement rate and a 100 percent job placement rate at graduation. The students received their diplomas at Penn State’s summer 2013 commencement ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 10.


Online AACSB-Accredited MBA Rankings --- http://onlinemba.com/

 
Rank School Business School Name Based In
1 Indiana University - Bloomington Kelly School of Business Bloomington, IN
2 Thunderbird School of Global Management Thunderbird School of Global Management Glendale, AZ
3 University of Illinois - Springfield College of Business and Management Springfield, IL
4 University of Tennessee - Martin College of Business & Global Affairs Martin, TN
5 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick and Newark Rutgers Business School Newark, NJ
6 North Carolina State University Poole College of Management, Jenkins Graduate School Raleigh, NC
7 George Washington University George Washington University School of Business Washington, DC
8 University of Florida Hough Graduate School of Business Gainesville, FL
9 Pennsylvania State University Smeal College of Business University Park, PA
10 Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business Tempe, AZ

Jensen Comment
For some reason the above ranking leaves out the University of North Carolina ---
 http://onlinemba.unc.edu/about/mba-at-unc/ 
Richard Sansing later pointed out that UNC comes in at Rank 11.


"Journalism Has Entered A Golden Age," by Henry Blodget. Business Insider, August 13, 2013 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/a-golden-age-for-journalism-2013-8

 Jensen Comment
This is a perfect example of how to write a great one-sided PR article. But if journalism is in a "Golden Age" why are journalism schools in universities struggling to survive. The fact of the matter, sadly, is that there are very few "paying" jobs for graduates that, in turn, has let to a dearth of journalism majors. Some universities like the University of Colorado dropped their journalism schools.

We need more rather than less reporters on the streets of the world.

Bob Jensen's threads on the sad state (which is very sad to me) are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#JSchools

 


Rise in Research Cheating
"A Sharp Rise in Retractions Prompts Calls for Reform," by Carl Zimmer, The New York Times, April 16, 2012 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/science/rise-in-scientific-journal-retractions-prompts-calls-for-reform.html?_r=2&

In the fall of 2010, Dr. Ferric C. Fang made an unsettling discovery. Dr. Fang, who is editor in chief of the journal Infection and Immunity, found that one of his authors had doctored several papers.

It was a new experience for him. “Prior to that time,” he said in an interview, “Infection and Immunity had only retracted nine articles over a 40-year period.”

The journal wound up retracting six of the papers from the author, Naoki Mori of the University of the Ryukyus in Japan. And it soon became clear that Infection and Immunity was hardly the only victim of Dr. Mori’s misconduct. Since then, other scientific journals have retracted two dozen of his papers, according to the watchdog blog Retraction Watch.

“Nobody had noticed the whole thing was rotten,” said Dr. Fang, who is a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Dr. Fang became curious how far the rot extended. To find out, he teamed up with a fellow editor at the journal, Dr. Arturo Casadevall of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. And before long they reached a troubling conclusion: not only that retractions were rising at an alarming rate, but that retractions were just a manifestation of a much more profound problem — “a symptom of a dysfunctional scientific climate,” as Dr. Fang put it.

Dr. Casadevall, now editor in chief of the journal mBio, said he feared that science had turned into a winner-take-all game with perverse incentives that lead scientists to cut corners and, in some cases, commit acts of misconduct.

“This is a tremendous threat,” he said.

Last month, in a pair of editorials in Infection and Immunity, the two editors issued a plea for fundamental reforms. They also presented their concerns at the March 27 meeting of the National Academies of Sciences committee on science, technology and the law.

Members of the committee agreed with their assessment. “I think this is really coming to a head,” said Dr. Roberta B. Ness, dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health. And Dr. David Korn of Harvard Medical School agreed that “there are problems all through the system.”

No one claims that science was ever free of misconduct or bad research. Indeed, the scientific method itself is intended to overcome mistakes and misdeeds. When scientists make a new discovery, others review the research skeptically before it is published. And once it is, the scientific community can try to replicate the results to see if they hold up.

But critics like Dr. Fang and Dr. Casadevall argue that science has changed in some worrying ways in recent decades — especially biomedical research, which consumes a larger and larger share of government science spending.

In October 2011, for example, the journal Nature reported that published retractions had increased tenfold over the past decade, while the number of published papers had increased by just 44 percent. In 2010 The Journal of Medical Ethics published a study finding the new raft of recent retractions was a mix of misconduct and honest scientific mistakes.

Several factors are at play here, scientists say. One may be that because journals are now online, bad papers are simply reaching a wider audience, making it more likely that errors will be spotted. “You can sit at your laptop and pull a lot of different papers together,” Dr. Fang said.

But other forces are more pernicious. To survive professionally, scientists feel the need to publish as many papers as possible, and to get them into high-profile journals. And sometimes they cut corners or even commit misconduct to get there.

To measure this claim, Dr. Fang and Dr. Casadevall looked at the rate of retractions in 17 journals from 2001 to 2010 and compared it with the journals’ “impact factor,” a score based on how often their papers are cited by scientists. The higher a journal’s impact factor, the two editors found, the higher its retraction rate.

The highest “retraction index” in the study went to one of the world’s leading medical journals, The New England Journal of Medicine. In a statement for this article, it questioned the study’s methodology, noting that it considered only papers with abstracts, which are included in a small fraction of studies published in each issue. “Because our denominator was low, the index was high,” the statement said.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on cheating by faculty are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize

August 14, 2013 reply from Dennis Huber

Hmmmm. I wonder. Does accounting research culture also need to be reformed?

August 14, 2013 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Dennis,

Academics have debated the need for reform in academic accounting research for decades. There are three primary areas of recommended reform, but those areas overlap a great deal.

One area of suggested reform is to make it less easy to cheat and commit undetected errors in academic accounting research by forcing/encouraging replication, which is part and parcel to quality control in real science ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm 

A second area of improvement would turn accountics science from a pseudo science into a real science. Real science does not stop inferring causality from correlation when the causality data needed is not contained in the databases studied empirically with econometric models.

Real scientists granulate deeper and deeper for causal factors to test whether correlations are spurious. Accountics scientists seldom granulate beyond their purchased databases ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsGranulationCurrentDraft.pdf 

A third area of improvement would arise if accountics scientists were forced to communicate their research findings better with accounting teachers and practitioners. Accountics scientists just do not care about such communications and should be forced to communicate in other venues such as having publication in a Tech Corner of the AAA Commons ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm#Commons

A fourth area of improvement would be expand research methods of accountics science to take on more interesting topics that are not so amenable to traditional quantitative and statistical modeling. See Cargo Cult mentality criticisms of accountics scients at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm#Essays


It might be argued that accountics scientists don't replicate their findings because nobody gives a damn about their findings ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm#CargoCult
That's taking the criticisms too far. I find lots of accountics science findings interesting. It's just that accountics scientists ignore topics that I find more interesting --- particularly topics of interest to accounting practitioners.

A fifth and related problem is that academic accounting inventors are rare in comparison with academic inventors in science and engineering ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm#Inventors

I summarize how academic accounting researchers should change at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm

 


Competency-Based Learning --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning

"Capella Gets Federal Approval for Competency-Based Degrees," Inside Higher Ed,  August 13, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/08/13/capella-gets-federal-approval-competency-based-degrees

The University of Northern Arizona Offers a Dual Transcript Option, One of Which is Competency-Based
"Competency-Based Transcripts," by Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed, August 9, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/09/northern-arizona-universitys-new-competency-based-degrees-and-transcripts

Jensen Comment
This program at Northern Arizona differs from the competency-based programs at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Akron, Capella University, and Southern New Hampshire University in that students at Northern Arizona must sign up for online courses at Northern Arizona before becoming eligible for the competency-based transcript. It differs from Western Governors University in that there are two transcripts rather than just a competency-based transcript for online courses.

Capella may have a more difficult time getting employers and graduate schools to accept Capella's competency-based  transcript credit in general relative to the University of Wisconsin, the University of Akron, and Southern New Hampshire University. Time will tell. Much depends upon other criteria such as SAT scores, GRE scores, GMAT scores, LSAT scores, MCAT scores, and professional licensing examination scores.

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

 


Should your rent or buy a home?

Warning:  The author (Zillow) of the article below likes to sell books and advice. However, this article (and its links) makes some good points.

Jensen Comment
I think the five-year rent versus buy threshold is too short for new assistant professors facing a seven-year tenure probationary period. My advice is not to buy until being tenured with plans to stay in place for at least another five year period after being granted tenure.

Always look at the resale market.
For example, condos and townhouses are usually harder to sell than dwellings on large lots. High prices are less discouraging in neighborhoods where houses are in great demand. For example, what seems like an absurd price for a home within walking distance to a college campus, hospital, or K-12 school may be better deal than cheaper housing that entails a long commute for yourself, your spouse, or your kids.

In cities like San Antonio it's no longer a good idea to buy a home unless it is in a gated community. Houses outside gated communities do not sell very well in San Antonio and other cities unless there are offsetting attractions such as being within walking distance of a college campus where you work. Note that I recommend a gated community not only because it is somewhat safer, but I recommend it simply because I think houses are easier to sell if they are in gated communities. Up here in the White Mountains, people tend to think of a gated community as one that fences in livestock. It's hopeless to try to fence out moose, deer, and bears.

I don't know of any gated communities up here that try to fence out bad guys. Gated communities in urban areas have an entirely different meaning.

If you are confused by tax considerations, get advice from tax and valuation experts such as those experts who subscribe to the AECM listserv.

Keep in mind that if you pay more than the tax assessment value for a home, the tax assessment will probably go up to what you pay for the home. For example, my taxes nearly doubled relative to what the seller paid in taxes here in the White Mountains. In California you taxes may soar relative to what the seller was paying under Proposition 13 protection.

If you get a bargain purchase for less than the tax assessment your taxes will not necessarily go down. Our minister bought a foreclosure house from a bank at less than half the tax assessment valuation. When his tax assessment did not go down afterwards, he took his case all the way to Superior Court --- where he lost. Bargain purchases will not necessarily bring you bargain property taxes.

Times change.
I owned what I considered five beautiful homes plus an ocean-shore cottage in my lifetime. Times were such that for my first three homes and the 12-acre ocean property I sold the them at sizeable gains the first day I put them on the market. My home in San Antonio was on the market for nearly a year when I got the one and only offer received (for a fair price that was still a slight capital loss after ownership for 24 years). Now I live our retirement acreage up here in the White Mountains. I would, however, lose a lot of money if I were forced to sell this place. If I own this acreage for another 20 years I am not expecting to make a lot of money on it in terms of price-level adjusted dollars. All of northern New England in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine is long-term depressed in terms of real estate values.

Forty years ago I advised people to buy a home even if they planned to move in 2-3 years. These days I tend to advise people to rent unless they plan to stay put for at least ten years. Home ownership is an inflation hedge and forces owners to save money during the equity build up of house payments. And there are tax advantages in the USA and home owners tend to improve their homes. But the risk of losing money in our cooled-off real estate markets these days are real bummers. Like I said, I lost money on my big San Antonio home after owning it 24 years. Times have changed.

"There's A Simple, Unbiased Way To Figure Out Whether To Rent Or Buy," by Leonard Baron, Zillow, Business Insider, July 31, 2013 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/decide-whether-to-rent-or-buy-2013-7 

If you are a renter and pondering whether it’s time buy a home, one thing that might be on your mind is a rent vs. own analysis. As you can imagine, this analysis will help you determine the financial benefits of owning a home vs. staying a renter.

Many online rent vs. own analysis tools are available, but a little caution is needed, as some of these tools are very biased and skewed. Some always find that it typically makes sense to buy, while others show that you should rarely buy. Most of them look at the difference between the monthly rental and mortgage payments and take into account tax benefits, equity earned, sales prices and other variables associated with home ownership.

The biggest problem with most of these tools is that they are way too complex for the average person to understand. And because this is the biggest financial decision you will ever make, it isn’t a smart idea to just trust, while not understanding, what’s behind the analysis.

But there is a simple way to do a rent vs. own analysis that will return the correct decision the vast majority of the time for the average home buyer. And it’s completely unbiased.

Long-term ownership

Ask yourself: Am I very confident that I will own the home at least five years?

If the answer is yes, it probably makes sense to buy because it will improve your net wealth.

If the answer is no, you should stay a renter because owning will most likely diminish your net wealth.

That’s it, the math is just that simple!

Why it works

When you sell a property, you pay about 10 to 15 percent of the sales price in costs. These costs are 5 to 6 percent in sales commission, 2 to 3 percent in escrow, title, closing and other costs, plus most likely a few percentage points in credits to the buyer, overlapping occupancy costs if you’ve already moved, plus extra costs of moving. It really does add up quickly, and your overall costs are always higher than you anticipate.

For example, if you bought a house for $200,000 and its value increased 3 percent per year, it would be worth about $232,000 at the end of year five. If you sold it for $232,000 and subtracted out 15 percent in sales costs ($34,800) you would net a little less than $200,000 on the sale.

Notice that $200,000 is the exact amount you paid for the property five years earlier. Now some people will think: Well if it cost less monthly to own than to rent, then it still made sense because you saved money along the way. But figuring the true monthly cost to own is more complicated than a simple comparison of your monthly housing expenses vs. what it would cost to rent. And a true analysis usually finds that it costs more to own than to rent, even with the purported “tax benefits of home ownership.”

The end result is that owning a home is much more expensive than people anticipate, plus the sale of a home is also much more expensive that most people realize.

And that’s why five years is about the breakeven period, in the vast majority of cases. If you don’t plan to keep a home for a long, long time, you’re better off financially by renting someone else’s property until you do find a place you plan to own for the long haul.
 

Related:


States Where It Is Hardest To Find Full-Time Work --- Click Here
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/08/06/states-where-it-is-hardest-to-find-full-time-work/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AUG072013A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter


Bloomberg reports JP Morgan has agreed to pay a $410 penalty over allegations it manipulated U.S. electricity markets ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-ferc-settlement-2013-7

Under the agreement, JPMVEC will pay a civil penalty of $285 million to the U.S. Treasury and disgorge $125 million in unjust profits. The first $124 million of the disgorged profits will go to ratepayers in the California Independent System Operator (California ISO), which operates the California electricity market. The other $1 million will go to ratepayers in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).

Jensen Comment
I thought some traders at Enron went to prison for doing the same thing in California. Where are the handcuffs?

That some bankers have ended up in prison is not a matter of scandal, but what is outrageous is the fact that all the others are free.
Honoré de Balzac

"Chase, Once Considered "The Good Bank," Is About to Pay Another Massive Settlement," by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, July 18, 2013 ---
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/chase-once-considered-the-good-bank-is-about-to-pay-another-massive-settlement-20130718

Bob Jensen's threads on dirty rotten bankers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#InvestmentBanking


From the Scout Report on July 26, 2013

Feeder Ninja --- http://feederninja.com/ 

Are you looking to create beautiful and elegant RSS and social feeds? Feeder Ninja can make this happen in just a few steps. On the Features section, visitors can learn about how to create attractive feed widgets for their site, along with details about how to insert the necessary code. The Examples area contains a host of recently crafted feeds and there's a helpful FAQ area. This version is compatible with all operating systems, including Linux.


Statwing --- https://www.statwing.com/ 

For policy folks and others, Statwing will be a most welcome find. Visitors can use the program to analyze data from their spreadsheets in order get compelling statistical analytical reports within seconds. There are some great examples here using the program, including those that use passenger data from the Titanic and the voting records of members of Congress. Additionally, there's a helpful demo included. This version is compatible with all operating systems.


With a flurry of new projects, interest continues to grow in
transit-oriented development
All aboard: Rail Centric Construction Gets Back on Track
http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2013/Jul/SpivakAllAboard?utm_source=uli&utm_medium=eblast&utm_campaign=072213

Citi grant supports transit-oriented development
http://www.stamfordplus.com/stm/information/nws1/publish/realestate/Citi-grant-supports-transit-oriented-development-in-Fairfield-County20557.shtml

What is TOD?
http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/what-we-do/what-is-tod/

Center for Transit-Oriented Development
http://www.cnt.org/tcd/projects/ctod/

Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical Review of the Interactions
Between Land Use, Transportation, and Environmental Quality
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/pdf/b-and-n/b-and-n-EPA-231K13001.pdf

Regional Transportation Authority: Transit-Oriented Development
http://rtachicago.com/initiatives/land-use-transit-oriented-development.html

From the Scout Report on August 2

Myndbook Maps --- http://www.myndbook.com 

Would you like to take notes seamlessly and bring together your thoughts in a visually intriguing fashion? Myndbook Maps can help as it gives users the ability to jot down notes and then bring them all together at a later date. The user interface is extremely flexible and users can also watch a short video about the many features and functionalities. This version is compatible with all operating systems.


4Sync --- http://www.4sync.com/ 

4Sync is a rather useful way to sync hundreds of files quickly and easily. The service provides users with backup copies of their files and visitors will find they can use multiple platforms to do so. This free version offers 15GB of storage at no charge and is compatible with all operating systems.


After a vandal strikes the Lincoln Memorial, the National Park
Foundation utilizes social media to rally support for this iconic work
Vandalism at national parks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/vandalism-at-national-parks/2013/07/26/b653b2ba-f62b-11e2-9434-60440856fadf_gallery.html


A brief history of D.C. landmark vandalism
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2013/07/29/a-brief-history-of-d-c-landmark-vandalism/


A look at the world's most notorious art vandalism
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/culture-lifestyle/130726/the-worlds-most-notorious-art-vandalism


Street-art vandals decade Northcote stencil featuring men kissing
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/north/streetart-vandals-deface-northcote-stencil-featuring-men-kissing/story-fnglenug-1226686472249


Gromit sculptures attacked in Bristol amid wave of public art vandalism
http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2013/07/01/gromit-sculptures-attacked-in-bristol-amid-wave-of-public-art-vandalism/


Public Art: The District of Columbia
http://dcarts.dc.gov/service/public-art-collections

 


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


Education Tutorials

State of America's Libraries Report 2013 --- http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2013

Ibiblio (library science tutorials and resources) ---  http://www.ibiblio.org/

IMLS: Video & Webcasts (library science) --- http://www.imls.gov/resources/videos.aspx

Center for the Book (Library of Congress) --- http://www.read.gov/cfb

Columbia Library Columns --- http://library.columbia.edu/content/libraryweb/indiv/rbml/digitalcollections/columns.html

Subject Guides at Syracuse University Library --- http://researchguides.library.syr.edu/index.php

Scitable (free library of science) ---  http://www.nature.com/scitable

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

The European Association for Digital Humanities --- http://www.allc.org/

University of San Francisco: Gleeson Library Digital Collections (Literature History) --- 
http://digitalcollections.usfca.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p264101coll8

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

Discovering American Women's History Online --- http://digital.mtsu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/women

Bob Jensen's threads on electronic books are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ebooks.htm

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.

From PBS:  NOVA Labs http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/

NPR: Education --- http://www.npr.org/sections/education/

From the Harvard Business School:  Working Knowledge --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/
Topics --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/
Accounting and Control is listed under Finance --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/accountingandcontrol.html

Federal Reserve Education --- http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago: Econ in the Classroom --- http://www.chicagofed.org/webpages/education/econ_classroom/

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: Center for Pacific Basin Studies ---
http://www.frbsf.org/economics/pbc/

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: Teacher Resources Index ---
http://www.frbsf.org/education/teachers/index.html

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

Bob Jensen's bookmarks for multiple disciplines ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

"A Black Hole Mystery Wrapped in a Firewall Paradox," by Dennis Overbye, The New York Times, August 12, 2013 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/13/science/space/a-black-hole-mystery-wrapped-in-a-firewall-paradox.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0#h[]

From PBS:  NOVA Labs http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/

NASA's Earth Observing System --- http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/

TeacherLink: NASA Instructional Units and Lesson Plans --- http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlnasa/units/index.html

Pedagogy in Action: the SERC portal for Educators (Carleton College's resources for science, engineering, and math Teachers) ---
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/studentresearch/index.html

NPR: Education --- http://www.npr.org/sections/education/

Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Educational Materials --- http://www.hhmi.org/educational-materials

Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine ---
http://collections.nlm.nih.gov/ext/pub/HIDDENTREASURE_NLM_BlastBooks.pdf

Circulating Now (history of medicine) --- http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/

National Institute of General Medical Sciences: Inside Life Science ---  http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/insidelifescience/

National Institutes of Health: Curriculum Supplement Series ---
http://science.education.nih.gov/customers.nsf/WebPages/CSHome

National Institutes of Health: Science Education: Research & Training ---
http://nih.gov/science/education.htm

The Learning Brain: Neuroscience ---
http://www.bioedonline.org/lessons-and-more/resource-collections/the-learning-brain-neuroscience/

Interactive Course on Magnetic Resonance Imagining (medicine, radiology) --- http://www.imaios.com/en/e-Courses/e-MRI/

Foundations of Nutrition Science --- http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/76

Healthy Lifestyle --- http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/HealthyLivingIndex/HealthyLivingIndex 

USDA: Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion --- http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/

Team Nutrition: Educator Resources --- http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/educators.html

Examination of Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols --- http://iom.edu/Activities/Nutrition/NutritionSymbols.aspx

Environmental Protection Agency: Learn the Issues --- http://www2.epa.gov/learn-issues

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

The Habitable Planet: A Systems Approach to Environmental Science
http://www.learner.org/resources/series209.html

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences: Lesson Resources for Teachers ---
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/scied/teachers/

Global Warming Science ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-340-global-warming-science-spring-2012/index.htm

Teaching Geology --- http://www.colorado.edu/geolsci/Resources/

Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology --- http://www.nbmg.unr.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

From the Harvard Business School:  Working Knowledge --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/
Topics --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/
Accounting and Control is listed under Finance --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/accountingandcontrol.html

Pedagogy in Action: the SERC portal for Educators (Carleton College's resources for science, engineering, and math teachers) ---
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/studentresearch/index.html

Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT --- http://ksj.mit.edu/

Knight Foundation (Journalism, Newspapers, Media, Writing, Reporting) ---  http://www.knightfoundation.org/

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

From Wayne State University:  Changing Face of the Auto Industry ---
http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=cfai

The Allure of the Automobile (museum) http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=3,1,1,17,1

NPR: Education --- http://www.npr.org/sections/education/

Michel Foucault’s Controversial Life and Philosophy Explored in a Revealing 1993 Documentary ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/michel-foucaults-controversial-life-and-philosophy-explored-in-a-revealing-1993-documentary.html
Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault

Free Social Science and Philosophy Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social

Federal Reserve Education --- http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago: Econ in the Classroom --- http://www.chicagofed.org/webpages/education/econ_classroom/

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: Center for Pacific Basin Studies ---
http://www.frbsf.org/economics/pbc/

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: Teacher Resources Index ---
http://www.frbsf.org/education/teachers/index.html

UN-Habitat: Sustainable Urban Development Network --- http://www.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=570

Mashable (social media news) --- http://mashable.com/

Bob Jensen's threads on the social media --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm

American Anthropological Association --- http://www.aaanet.org/

Environmental Protection Agency: Learn the Issues --- http://www2.epa.gov/learn-issues

The Habitable Planet: A Systems Approach to Environmental Science
http://www.learner.org/resources/series209.html

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

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences: Lesson Resources for Teachers ---
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/scied/teachers/

Global Warming Science ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-340-global-warming-science-spring-2012/index.htm

Integrating U.S. Climate, Energy, and Transportation Policies --- http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/2009/RAND_CF256.pdf

Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network --- http://cleanet.org/

University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute --- http://www.umtri.umich.edu/news.ph

Northwestern University Transportation Center --- http://www.transportation.northwestern.edu/

University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute --- http://www.umtri.umich.edu/news.ph

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute --- http://www.vtti.vt.edu/ 

National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Education Programs --- http://www.nrel.gov/education/

From the Scout Report on July 26, 2013

With a flurry of new projects, interest continues to grow in
transit-oriented development
All aboard: Rail Centric Construction Gets Back on Track
http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2013/Jul/SpivakAllAboard?utm_source=uli&utm_medium=eblast&utm_campaign=072213

Citi grant supports transit-oriented development
http://www.stamfordplus.com/stm/information/nws1/publish/realestate/Citi-grant-supports-transit-oriented-development-in-Fairfield-County20557.shtml

What is TOD?
http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/what-we-do/what-is-tod/

Center for Transit-Oriented Development
http://www.cnt.org/tcd/projects/ctod/

Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical Review of the Interactions
Between Land Use, Transportation, and Environmental Quality
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/pdf/b-and-n/b-and-n-EPA-231K13001.pdf

Regional Transportation Authority: Transit-Oriented Development
http://rtachicago.com/initiatives/land-use-transit-oriented-development.html

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

Pedagogy in Action: the SERC portal for Educators (Carleton College's resources for science, engineering, and math Teachers) ---
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/studentresearch/index.html

Saylor.org: Free Education --- http://www.saylor.org/

Mathematics in Movies: Harvard Prof Curates 150+ Scenes --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/11/mathematics_in_movies.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Bates College Online Resources for Calculus and Linear Algebra --- http://abacus.bates.edu/~etowne/mathresources.html

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


History Tutorials

Histomap of World History ---
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/08/12/the_1931_histomap_the_entire_history_of_the_world_distilled_into_a_single.html

World History --- http://www.fsmitha.com/maps.html

Bridging World History --- http://www.learner.org/resources/series197.html

3,000 Years of World History --- http://www.hyperhistory.com/

The Encyclopedia of World History http://www.bartleby.com/67/

HISTORICAL INFORMATION RESOURCES --- http://www.refdesk.com/facthist.html

Digital History of the U.S. --- http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/timeline/timelineN.cfm

The Getty Puts 4600 Art Images Into the Public Domain (and There’s More to Come) ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/1407cba473cbff67

Museum of Fine Arts: Hippie Chic --- http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/hippie-chic

Library of Congress: Places in History --- http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/placesinhistory/

Michel Foucault’s Controversial Life and Philosophy Explored in a Revealing 1993 Documentary ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/michel-foucaults-controversial-life-and-philosophy-explored-in-a-revealing-1993-documentary.html
Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault

Free Social Science and Philosophy Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social

NPR: Education --- http://www.npr.org/sections/education/

The Chicago Homer (classical studies) ---  http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/homer/

Classical Studies Resources --- http://classicalstudy.luckycontent.com/

Railroads and the Making of Modern America --- http://railroads.unl.edu/

Transcontinental Railroad Pictures and Exhibits --- http://cprr.org/Museum/Exhibits.html

Steamtown National Historic Site (steam locomotives) ---  http://www.nps.gov/stea/index.htm

American Railroad Journal --- http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?page=home;c=arj

Railroad Picture Archives --- http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/

American Railroad Journal --- http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?page=home;c=arj

The Countryside Transformed: The Railroad and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, 1870-1935 ---
http://eshore.vcdh.virginia.edu/index.php

Railroads: The Transformation of Capitalism --- http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/railroads/

Accounting History (Railroad)
"The Collapse of the Railway Mania & the Birth of Accounting," by Paul Kedrosky, Paul Kedrosky,com, · July 18, 2011 --- Click Here
http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2011/07/the-collapse-of-the-railway-mania-the-birth-of-accounting.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InfectiousGreed+%28Paul+Kedrosky%27s+Infectious+Greed%29 

AmericanRadioWorks: Power and Smoke: A Nation Built on Coal --- http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/coal/

1922 Photo: Claude Monet Stands on the Japanese Footbridge He Painted Through the Years ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/1922-photo-claude-monet-stands-on-the-japanese-footbridge.html

The First Sex Manual Published in North America, 1766 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-first-sex-manual-published-in-north-america-1766.html

The “Celebrity Lecture Series” From Michigan State Features Talks by Great Writers of Our Time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-celebrity-lecture-series-from-michigan-state-features-talks-by-great-writers-of-our-time.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  

Boston Abolitionists, 1831-1865 --- https://www.masshist.org/features/boston-abolitionists

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

Free Library of Philadelphia: Historical Images of Philadelphia --- http://libwww.freelibrary.org/hip/

Philadelphia Jewish Archives Photographs --- http://digital.library.temple.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15037coll15

Oregon State Parks and Recreation --- http://www.oregonstateparks.org/

Landmarks Illinois --- http://www.landmarks.org/

Illinois Harvest --- http://illinoisharvest.grainger.uiuc.edu

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


Language Tutorials

 

Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Languages


Music Tutorials

Petrucci Music Library --- http://imslp.org/

Amazing Grace Like You Never Heard It Before ---
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1312

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

The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools ---
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teachers-technology-and-writing.aspx

"The Best Books on Writing, NYC, Animals, and More: A Collaboration with the New York Public Library," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, August 3, 2013 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/07/29/nypl-books/

See What Happens When You Run Finnegans Wake Through a Spell Checker ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/07/what-happens-when-you-run-finnegans-wake-through-a-spell-checker.html

The “Celebrity Lecture Series” From Michigan State Features Talks by Great Writers of Our Time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-celebrity-lecture-series-from-michigan-state-features-talks-by-great-writers-of-our-time.html

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


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

July 30, 2013

July 31, 2013

August 2, 2013

 

 

August 6, 2013

  • Channel Blockers for Blood Pressure Linked to Breast Cancer Risk, Study Finds
  • New Health Insurance Tool for Business Owners
  • Sugary Drinks Tied to Preschoolers' Extra Pounds
  • Mother's Asthma During Pregnancy
  • FDA Warns of Rare Acetaminophen Risk
  • 400 Now Sickened in Stomach Bug Outbreak
  • Could Dietary Tweaks Ease Type 1 Diabetes?
  • FDA Defines 'Gluten-Free' for Food Labels
  • Childhood Abuse & Later Thyroid Problems for Women
  • August 8, 2013

    August 9, 2013

    August 10, 2013

    August 12, 2013

    August 13, 2013

    August 14, 2013

    August 15, 2013

    August 16, 2013

    August 17, 2013

     

     


    Foundations of Nutrition Science --- http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/76

    Healthy Lifestyle --- http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/HealthyLivingIndex/HealthyLivingIndex 

    USDA: Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion --- http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/

    Team Nutrition: Educator Resources --- http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/educators.html

    Examination of Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols --- http://iom.edu/Activities/Nutrition/NutritionSymbols.aspx


    Externalities:  Using Taxes to Change Behavior
    Cigarette Taxes Deter Heavy Drinking, Study Says ---
    http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20130809/cigarette-taxes-deter-heavy-drinking-study-suggests


    What Prisoners Ate at Alcatraz in 1946: A Vintage Prison Menu ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/what-prisoners-ate-at-alcatraz-in-1946-a-vintage-prison-menu.html
    Perhaps this menu reduced desire to escape from Alcatraz.

    I wonder if a 21st Century restaurant on The Rock could make a go of it serving up the same scrumptious meals included in boat tours to the old prison? Better yet a luxury hotel to boot that includes free striped pajamas.


    National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences: Lesson Resources for Teachers ---
    http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/scied/teachers/




    A Bit of Humor

    The 15 Weirdest Guinness World Records ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/the-weirdest-guinness-world-records-2013-7

    John Oliver's Hilarious Summary Of Why Australian Elections Are Better Than US Elections ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/john-oliver-australian-elections-daily-show-2013-8

     

    "Modern Masterpieces of Comedic Genius: The Art of the Humorous Amazon Review," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, May 20, 2013 ---

     

    Phyllis Dillar Quotations forwarded by Dan Gheorghe Somnea

    Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?
    Phyllis Diller

    Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.
    Phyllis Diller

    A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
    Phyllis Diller

    The reason women don't play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit in public.
    Phyllis Diller

    Best way to get rid of kitchen odours: Eat out.
    Phyllis Diller

    A bachelor is a guy who never made the same mistake once.
    Phyllis Diller

    Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.
    Phyllis Diller

    I want my children to have all the things I couldn't afford. Then I want to move in with them.
    Phyllis Diller

    Most children threaten at times to run away from home. This is the only thing that keeps some parents going.
    Phyllis Diller

    My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration: set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes, cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell, simmer down and go about business as usual.
    Phyllis Diller

    Aim high, and you won't shoot your foot off.
    Phyllis Diller

    Any time three New Yorkers get into a cab without an argument, a bank has just been robbed.
    Phyllis Diller

    We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.
    Phyllis Diller

    Burt Reynolds once asked me out. I was in his room.
    Phyllis Diller

    If it weren't for baseball, many kids wouldn't know what a millionaire looked like.
    Phyllis Diller

    You know you're old if your walker has an airbag.
    Phyllis Diller

    I'm eighteen years behind in my ironing.
    Phyllis Diller

    What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.
    Phyllis Diller

    The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.
    Phyllis Diller

     Whatever you may look like, marry a man your own age - as your beauty fades, so will his eyesight.
    Phyllis Diller

    I've been asked to say a couple of words about my husband, Fang. How about short and cheap?
    Phyllis Diller

    I buried a lot of my ironing in the back yard.
    Phyllis Diller

    Tranquilizers work only if you follow the advice on the bottle - keep away from children.
    Phyllis Diller

    I asked the waiter, 'Is this milk fresh?' He said, 'Lady, three hours ago it was grass.'
    Phyllis Diller

    The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing.
    Phyllis Diller

    You know you're old if they have discontinued your blood type.
    Phyllis Diller

    It's a good thing that beauty is only skin deep, or I'd be rotten to the core.
    Phyllis Diller

    There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem?
    Phyllis Diller

    His finest hour lasted a minute and a half.

    Phyllis Diller

    Old age is when the liver spots show through your gloves.
    Phyllis Diller

    My photographs don't do me justice - they just look like me.
    Phyllis Diller

    There's so little money in my bank account, my scenic checks show a ghetto.
    Phyllis Diller

    I admit, I have a tremendous sex drive. My boyfriend lives forty miles away.
    Phyllis Diller

    My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor.
    Phyllis Diller

    My mother-in-law had a pain beneath her left breast. Turned out to be a trick knee.
    Phyllis Diller

    Humor Between June 1-30, 2013 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q2.htm#Humor063013

    Humor Between June 30, 2013 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q2.htm#Humor063013

    Humor Between May 1-31, 2013 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q2.htm#Humor053113

    Humor Between April 1-30, 2013 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q2.htm#Humor04301

    Humor Between March 1-31, 2013 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q1.htm#Humor033113

    Humor Between February 1-28, 2013 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q1.htm#Humor022813

    Humor Between January 1-31, 2013 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q1.htm#Humor013113

    Humor Between December 1-31, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q4.htm#Humor123112

    Humor Between November 1-30, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q4.htm#Humor113012

    Humor Between October 1-31, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q4.htm#Humor103112

    Humor Between September 1-30, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q3.htm#Humor093012

    Humor Between August 1-31, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q3.htm#Humor083112

    Humor Between July 1-31, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q3.htm#Humor073112

    Humor Between June 1-30, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q2.htm#Humor063012

    Humor Between May 1-31, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q2.htm#Humor053112  

    Humor Between April 1-30, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q2.htm#Humor043012

    Humor Between March 1-31, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q1.htm#Humor033112  

    Humor Between February 1-29, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q1.htm#Humor022912 

    Humor Between January 1-31, 2012 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book12q1.htm#Humor013112

     




    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