Photographs of the Trapp Family and Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Hotels/TrappFamilyLodge/Trapp2013.htm 

 

Tidbits on September 12, 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 
 

 




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

What We Still Don’t Know: Martin Rees Tackles Deepest Scientific Questions in Great Documentary --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/what-we-still-dont-know-martin-rees-tackles-deepest-scientific-questions-in-great-documentary.html

100 Best Hollywood Scenes/Quotations (American Film Institute) ---
http://www.flixxy.com/100-movie-quotes-american-film-institute.htm?utm_source=nl#.UcBYhJJm3nI.email

Albert Einstein Called Racism “A Disease of White People” in His Little-Known Fight for Civil Rights ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/albert-einstein-civil-rights-activist.html

Watch The March, the Masterful, Digitally Restored Documentary on The Great March on Washington ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/140c9fa1359581eb

Russian Television Commercial for Cars (ice skating) --- http://www.youtube.com/embed/rv7dGhj5UlA

He correctly anticipated a lot of what we will take for granted in 2014
Isaac Asimov’s 1964 Predictions About What the World Will Look 50 Years Later — in 2014 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/isaac-asimovs-1964-predictions-about-2014.html

 


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

Delta Honor Guard --- http://www.youtube.com/embed/c_VGxfmDmEo

Extreme Yoga (purportedly there were really not any chairs)
Shanghai Expo Closing Ceremony ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=6HfDeTVpinU&vq=medium
Also see the following:
http://travel.cnn.com/shanghai/life/gallery-shanghai-expo-closing-ceremony-701744
https://www.google.ca/search?q="Shanghai+Expo+Closing+Ceremony."&lr=&as_qdr=all&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=mWYsUqinJoTO9QSl4IGQDA&ved=0CDcQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=470 

Hear 38 Versions of “September Song,” from James Brown, Lou Reed, Sarah Vaughan and Others ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/hear-38-versions-of-september-song.html

Boogie Woogie Twins (click on the small piano) --- https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/140e709bafb40926

My Favorite Boogie Woogie
For Boogie Woogie Piano Dancers (GREAT!) --- http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=26579077
More free Boogie Woogie by Sylvan Zingg (on piano, Hit the Play All Songs Button) --- http://cdbaby.com/cd/zinggtrio
Other Boogie Woogie Sites (including free lesson sites) --- http://www.boogiewoogiepiano.net/piano-jukebox/other-web-sites/other-websites.html


More free Boogie Woogie by Sylvan Zingg (on piano) --- http://cdbaby.com/cd/zinggtrio

 

The Art of Fugue: Gould Plays Bach ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-art-of-fugue-gould-plays-bach.html

Glenn Gould Explains the Genius of Johann Sebastian Bach (1962)

The Genius of J.S. Bach’s “Crab Canon” Visualized on a Möbius Strip

A Big Bach Download: The Complete Organ Works for Free

 

Trigger The life of a guitar (Willie Nelson History) --- http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/trigger

The Typewriter (Composed by the great Leroy Anderson) ---https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/140d115547da98c3  

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

American Cites 100 Years Ago (great photographs) ---
http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/01/09/american-cities-a-century-ago-34-photos/

Festival de Flor y Canto de Aztlan, Films and Photographs  ---
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15799coll79

Stars and Cars --- http://caughtatthecurb.blogspot.com/2011/04/movie-stars-and-their-cars.html

10 Mind-Bending Photos From The Spitzer Telescope ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/10-year-anniversary-of-nasas-spitzer-telescope-2013-8

Landscapes in Passing: Photographs by Steve Fitch, Robbert Flick, and Elaine Mayes
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2013/passing_landscapes/

Stars and cars from another era! --- Click Here
http://www.katagogi.com/PhotoAlbum/Default.aspx?l=EN&mid=e8c96b35-7fb2-45c2-8a22-d96a07cc513d&fid=12233&t=vp&aid=a584945_1112229482_108177&PreveVal=8377|FuRGx9CIKP0Hmra1CLPCnQTQv3CQIApPw88Yot0ZMWI=|LlOgpp3UphspFvNDWOkhnA==1
Also see http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncsilverbear/6797686759/

21 Photos That Will Make You Grateful For Your Commute ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-worlds-worst-commutes-2013-8

Irish Poet Seamus Heaney Dies ---
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/30/217122022/irish-poet-seamus-heaney-dies
Jensen Comment
One of the experiences of my life that I will never forget wss the wonderful readings of his poetry on the Trinity University campus years ago.

August 29,  2014 message from Gaylon Greger

Dr. Jensen...you might be interested in this math-art story (Block Monoid) from two folks who have spent years at Trinity University.
See attachment --- http://www.islandpacket.com/2013/03/21/2429112/hilton-head-island-artist-gaylon.html
Gaylon Greger ---  http://www.artbygreger.com/  and http://www.artbygreger.com/personality.html

Added Information
Scott Chapman is a professor of mathematics and the editor of The American Mathematical Monthly journal, currently housed at Sam Houston State University. He collaborated with his friend and former colleague Gaylon Greger to create an "unusual piece of
art dealing with an unusual piece of theory," as Greger describes the project.

A "Block Monoid" is an algebraic structure that was created to help understand certain numbers that do not follow the
usual pattern of unique factorization.

Meredith Moir wrote the following:|

Sam Houston State University math professor Scott Chapman’s work is about breaking things down; for years, he has solved math problems by breaking large problem into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Conversely, as an artist, Gaylon Rex Greger’s work is about building things out of nothing; working primarily in sculpture and abstract expressionism, he makes visual and creative statements that reflect overarching ideas.

So it was quite the combination when, as former colleagues at Trinity University in San Antonio, Chapman’s and Greger’s work collided. The result was a piece of art that represents both of their worlds.

 

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


Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

What Books Do Writers Teach?: Zadie Smith and Gary Shteyngart’s Syllabi from Columbia University ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/zadie-smith-and-gary-shteyngarts-syllabi-from-columbia-university.html

Irish Poet Seamus Heaney Dies ---
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/30/217122022/irish-poet-seamus-heaney-dies
Jensen Comment
One of the experiences of my life that I will never forget was the wonderful readings of his poetry on the Trinity University campus years ago.

The 33 Volumes of Jorge Luis Borges’ Favorite Short Stories (Read 7 Free Online) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/jorge-luis-borges-favorite-short-stories.html

Free Literature Course From Harvard (plus 750 other free online literature courses)
An Introduction to World Literature by a Cast Of Literary & Academic Stars ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/introduction-to-world-literature-free-course.html

Permanently housed in the Literature section of our collection of 750 Free Online Courses, Invitation to World Literature features the following lectures:

  1. The Epic of Gilgamesh
  2. My Name is Red
  3. The Odyssey
  4. The Bacchae
  5. The Bhagavad Gita
  6. The Tale of the Genji
  7. Journey to the West
  8. Popul Vuh
  9. Candide
  10. Things Fall Apart
  11. One Hundred Years of Solitude
  12. The God of Small Things
  13. The Thousand and One Nights

Related Content:

Free Literature Courses

The Art of Living: A Free Stanford Course Explores Timeless Questions

A Crash Course in English Literature: A New Video Series by Best-Selling Author John Green

Contemporary American Literature: An Open Yale Course

David Foster Wallace’s 1994 Syllabus: How to Teach Serious Literature with Lightweight Books

W.H. Auden’s 1941 Literature Syllabus Asks Students to Read 32 Great Works, Covering 6000 Pages

Bob Jensen's threads on free MOOCs, SMOCs, videos, and course materials from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

 

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 September 12, 2013
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2013/TidbitsQuotations091213.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




Reporter XXXXX asked me for my predictions concerning higher education for the years 2024 and 2040. My reply was as follows:

Hi XXXXX,

Much of your question has already been answered at
THE COLLEGE OF 2020: STUDENTS  ---
https://www.chronicle-store.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=78956&WG=0

However, I will give you some of my specific predictions for 2024 and 2040. In 2024 it's more likely that classrooms with 500-1500+ will virtually disappear. Universities by 2024 will replace these with either classrooms of less than 60 students or competency-based credits without contact hours required for credits.

Small classes of less than 60 students will probably increase in numbers both onsite and online. Many will be classes of less than 25 students and have intense communications with instructors and each other, including small online courses. Professors will teach more subjects and more students than is the case in 2013.

College campuses provide much more than learning for degrees. Heavily endowed universities like Swarthmore, Davidson, and Haverford will continue to thrive as Tier 1 residency campuses along with Tier 2 residency campuses like Richmond and Trinity Universities. Most poorly endowed colleges will disappear or totally redefine their missions.

More students will enroll in Minerva-like programs, although these will still be a small proportion of the total number of higher education students --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Minerva 

Medical students and perhaps accounting, engineering, nursing, and pharmacy students will drop more and more education from their increasingly intense and streamlined training programs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#MedicalSchool 

In 2024 there will be an enormous increase in degrees awarded to students who have no instructors or very few instructors --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#NoInstructors 
By 2040 there won't be such things as degrees and diplomas. See below.

Students will continue to live, learn, and mature on larger campuses like the Ivy League, Notre Dame, and BYU. Smaller classes will increase in frequency. Enormous universities like OSU, Texas, Illinois, etc. will have the hardest time adapting, but they will probably adapt with more online courses, MOOCs, and SMOCs taking the place of large lecture halls.  At the same time they will offer many more small and specialized courses onsite and online.

Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs and SMOCs are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

MOOC and SMOC mentoring sections will greatly increase in number that will be somewhat similar to the recitation sections that now exist for enormous lecture courses. These mentoring sections will also be available for smaller classes, although usage by students willing to pay the reasonable fees will probably be voluntary. Mentoring fees for minority students and learning disabled students will increasingly paid for by taxpayers.

Degree programs based on course credit accumulations will probably disappear, although perhaps this will be more like 2040 than 2024. Students in virtually all universities will eventually be confronted with competency-based certifications. The washed will do so in as residents on campuses. The unwashed will do so without spending many (probably not any) terms on campus.

Competency-based performance will cease to be on a pass-fail basis. Instead competency-based scores will be reported on ordinal or possible even ratio scales that have common zero points. This may also be the case for professional licensing scores on things like CPA examinations, BAR examinations, medical certification examinations, nursing examinations, etc. ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Compentency-Based 

Tenure will probably disappear by 2040, although it may not matter much if seniority based upon years of service is still engrained in the USA. Performance rewards may be more heavily based upon teaching performance than research --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#MicroLevelResearch 

More performance credit may be given for micro-level research ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#MicroLevelResearch
This is a good thing.

For more predictions for the years 2000-2024 go to
THE COLLEGE OF 2020: STUDENTS  ---
https://www.chronicle-store.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=78956&WG=0

Bob Jensen


"Two Business Students Who Fixed Grades Get Probation," by Louis Lavelle, Bloomberg Businessweek, August 28, 2013 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-28/two-business-students-who-fixed-grades-get-probation 

One of the more bizarre cases of grade-fixing in recent memory has come to an end with the sentencing of two former business students at Ohio’s Miami University.

Two fraternity brothers had used stolen passwords to hack into the school’s computer system and change dozens of grades. David Callahan, 22, of Cambridge, Mass., changed his own grade and those of two other students in an attempt to cover his tracks. Beckley Parker, 22, of Weston, Conn., changed his own grades in 17 classes dating back more than two years, as well as those of 50 other students.

Callahan and Parker, who were students at Miami’s Farmer School of Business, pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of property, a first-degree misdemeanor. Callahan, who was charged with three counts, was sentenced Aug. 8 in Butler County Court to $750 in fines, one year probation, and forfeiture of an external computer drive and key logger he used to obtain the passwords that gave him access to the computer system. In June, Parker was sentenced on six counts to two years probation, 100 hours of community service, and $1,500 in fines. He was also ordered to forfeit his computer and iPad.

Continued in article

"Prosecutors appeal Mont. teacher's rape sentence (30 days)" by Matthew Brown, Yahoo News, September 5, 2013 --- 
http://news.yahoo.com/prosecutors-appeal-mont-teachers-rape-sentence-230303179.html 

Jensen Comment
With sentences like these there's not much deterrence to future incidents of the same crimes.

Bob Jensen's threads on academic cheating by students and faculty ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm


"Once-Flourishing Economics Ph.D. Program Prepares to Die," by Stacey Patton, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 9, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Once-Flourishing-Economics/141471/

For decades the Ph.D. program in economics at the University of Florida flourished. Highly regarded econometricians, like the late Henri Thiel and G.S. Maddala, taught there. Until the late 1990s, the department had been ranked among the top 20 of American public universities by prominent economics journals and associations.

Now, the 71-year-old doctoral program, housed in the Warrington College of Business Administration, is near death.

Like many public universities, the University of Florida faced significant budget cuts in the recent economic downturn. Such cuts led to reductions and eliminations of Ph.D. programs across the country, including at Florida, where the computer-science, engineering, psychology, and statistics programs have downsized. But it is rare for an economics program to be on the chopping block.

The number of economics Ph.D. programs housed in business colleges has held steady since 2008, according to a survey of 407 American institutions accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and the job market for new economics Ph.D.'s is relatively healthy. In 2010-11, almost 89 percent of all economics graduates who sought employment got jobs, and 62 percent of those landed academic positions, according to a survey of 191 economics departments by the Center for Business and Economic Research.

So what went wrong at Florida, which received up to 300 applicants for about 15 slots each year in the Ph.D. program's heyday, in the early 1990s? What does Florida's story say about the precariousness of doctoral programs elsewhere? If a program in economics isn't safe, is any? And what are the ripple effects when a thriving program slips away?

Florida announced last year that it would stop financing its economics doctoral program. Before that decision, the business-college dean gave the faculty the option to leave Warrington for the liberal-arts college, where, deans say, the Ph.D. program might have survived. The faculty voted not to move because, they say, the liberal-arts college has its own financial problems, and they were concerned about salaries, research budgets, and teaching loads.

If Florida loses all of its graduate students in the discipline, it would become the third university in the prestigious Association of American Universities without a Ph.D. offering in economics. Case Western Reserve University no longer has one, and Emory University suspended its program last year.

Since 1990 the number of professors in the department has shrunk from 38 to 11; the average age of those who remain is 63, according to the department's chairman.

Because of budget constraints, the all-male department hasn't made new hires since 2005 and has had to admit Ph.D. students on an every-other-year basis since 1995. A new cohort would have been admitted this fall under that schedule, but professors in the program decided not to admit a class without having any fellowships to offer.

Nineteen students remain in the Ph.D. program, and they will receive financial support for two more years. A few worry that graduating from a dying program could stigmatize them in the job market.

Some faculty members raise concerns about ripple effects across the university. Without a Ph.D. program in economics, some professors say, the selection of undergraduate courses in the subject will be limited. The university's stature as a whole also might take a hit, some faculty and students say, even as Florida seeks to become one of the nation's top 10 public institutions.

Fend for Yourself

The provost of the university and deans in Warrington say the program could still revive. But to continue, it will have to fend for itself.

Provost Joseph Glover says the department can still offer a Ph.D. and admit students, but those students will be responsible for paying the annual $30,000 tuition. None of the students now enrolled in the program are paying their own tuition. In past years, faculty members say, the department has admitted only a few students who paid their own way. By cutting off financial support, the administration has effectively sentenced the Ph.D. program to death, they say.

"They don't have to officially get rid of a program. They can accomplish the same goal by defunding a program," says Roger D. Blair, chair of the department. Such a move, he and other faculty members say, can allow administrators to escape the scrutiny of a faculty-senate process and campus backlash.

Daniel S. Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, said it is rare for economics programs to be singled out for cuts. But being housed in a business school seems to make Ph.D. programs in economics more vulnerable, he said in an e-mail, because a business dean might see the program as "an easy target for cannibalization" in lean times.

Economics remains a popular undergraduate major at Florida and across the country, but student interest doesn't always determine a program's fate. At UF the undergraduate economics major has been growing since 2011, when it had 405 students. Last semester there were 693 undergraduate majors, according to Steven M. Slutsky, graduate coordinator of the economics department.

Daniel R. LeClair, who earned a Ph.D. in economics from the program in 1992 and is executive vice president of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, says it's hard to generalize about when or why economics programs are vulnerable.

Despite a robust job market and the popularity of the discipline, Mr. LeClair says, "decisions about cutting programs depend on factors like institutional priorities, the allocation of resources, and local politics."

Severe declines in financial resources prompted Florida to adopt an approach to budgeting called "responsibility-centered management" that requires individual departments and academic units to generate their own revenue. Mr. Glover, the provost, says this system, which started three years ago, creates more openness about how money is allocated and gives deans more control over their budgets.

The economics program, says John Kraft, dean of the business college, has long been troubled by operating deficits because it is undergraduate-oriented, with three times the majors in liberal arts than in the business college. As such, revenue goes to the liberal-arts college, not the business college. "They are the weakest program in business, have the weakest Ph.D. program, and have the highest gap between revenue and costs," Mr. Kraft says.

He expects to save the university $3-million each year by cutting funds for the economics Ph.D. program and reducing the faculty to six through retirement.

The program's resources are also being cut, Mr. Kraft adds, because an internal review of doctoral programs gave economics a grade of D. Its deficiencies included low program rankings and tenure-track-job placement records that failed to compare well with other business disciplines.

Professors in the economics department defend their program's record. Since the spring of 2000, the department has awarded 51 Ph.D.'s. Of those graduates, 27 have landed tenure-track positions, 16 found jobs in government, research institutions, and consulting firms, and seven went to non-tenure-track academic jobs, according to a 2011 report provided by Mr. Slutsky, the graduate coordinator. Only one graduate, who did not enter the job market because of family circumstances, has not been placed.

And, Mr. Slutsky says, the economics department supports the university in many ways, including by teaching large numbers of students in introductory courses. The tuition students pay for those courses, he says, more than covers the expense of running the department.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on the sad (shrinking) states of accountancy doctoral programs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms


From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on September 9, 2013

Verizon and the FCC are set to battle it out in court today over “net neutrality” rules. At the heart of the case is whether the FCC has the authority to tell broadband Internet providers that they can’t give priority to some services or adjust fees and speeds to handle data-heavy traffic like video, the WSJ reports. The FCC argues that, except for reasonable network management, such prioritization would undermine the openness that has allowed the Internet to flourish. But Verizon says the FCC is overstepping its bounds. The bigger issue is the balance of power between Internet firms like Google and Facebook and carriers like Verizon and Comcast when it comes to pricing and profiting from fast-growing Web traffic.

All eyes will be on Apple tomorrow, when the company is expected to unveil a new iPhone with a faster processor and another model that will be cheaper. A lower-cost smartphone could allow Apple to expand its share of overseas markets — especially in China, where the iPhone is highly desired but just out of reach of many consumers because of its price, the NYT says.

 


"Colleges With Lenient Grades Get Six Times as Many Grads Into B-School," 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

Anyone planning to apply to a top MBA program might want to avoid schools that take a tough stand against grade inflation. New research shows that selective programs are more likely to choose applicants from schools that award a lot of easy As.

The study, by researchers at Harvard Business School and Haas Business School at the University of California, Berkeley, and CivicScience, a polling research organization, involved several experiments. In one, 23 members of the undergraduate admissions staff at a U.S. university were asked to play the role of admissions staff at a selective MBA program. They received information on fake applicants, including GPA, the average GPA of the applicant’s institution, and 10 recently completed courses, including the candidate’s grade and the average for the course.

The upshot? Candidates from schools with tougher grading practices were admitted 12 percent of the time, while those from schools with more loosey-goosey grading practices were admitted 72 percent of the time. The authors said the findings “suggest that candidates who happen to graduate from schools with higher grading norms may actually have a better chance of being accepted to college or graduate school.”

A separate experiment, using real admissions decisions made involving more than 30,000 applicants at four selective MBA programs, seems to confirm that finding. From the schools, the researchers gathered information on each applicant’s undergraduate GPA and alma mater, GMAT scores, years of work experience, age, gender, race, and citizenship. They also gathered information on the colleges and universities they graduated from, including average GPA and quality measures such as rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

The researchers found that the average GPA of the undergraduate institution, in and of itself, “has a distinct and positive impact on candidate outcomes.”

Don Moore, an associate professor at Haas and one of the paper’s co-authors, in an interview with Inside HigherEd, acknowledged the troubling implications of the findings, which calls into question the logic of fighting the academic plague of grade inflation. “The disquieting strategic implication of this finding,” he said, “is that if a school wants to get its alumni into graduate school, it should grade more leniently.”

What colleges have the easiest grading aside from Harvard where 90% of the students graduate Cum Laude ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#RateMyProfessor


"Better Data Can Help Colleges Fight Cheating," by Frank Bi, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 9, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Better-Data-Can-Help-Colleges/141485/

Jensen Comment
About all this study shows is that most cheating either is undetected or is unreported. Read the comments that follow this article.

Surprise! Surprise! Law students cheat the most. But business students are closing in fast.

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

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


The Best Economies of the World --- Click Here
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/09/10/the-best-economies-in-the-world/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=SEP102013A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter

Jensen Comment
It's interesting to note the "biggest problem of doing business" in these top-rated economies. The Number 1 economy, Switzerland, has an "inadequately trained work force." The biggest problems in the Number 2 and 3 nations are "restrictive regulations."

Note that the top three nations are relatively small nations with very low crime rates. The larger Number 4 and Number 5 nations (Germany and the USA) suffer most from restrictive "tax regulations" that restrain economic growth.

Sweden is restrained by restrictive labor regulations. Japan is restrained by taxes.

The Netherlands and the U.K. are restrained by difficulty of raising financing.

The drag on Hong Kong is rather surprising to me.


"Ten Investing Mistakes That Can Destroy a Stock and Bond Portfolio," by Lee Jackson, 24/Wall Street, September 5, 2013 --- Click Here
http://247wallst.com/investing/2013/09/05/ten-investing-mistakes-that-can-destroy-a-stock-and-bond-portfolio/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=SEP052013A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter

Jensen Comment
What I might add is something my grandmother used to say:
"Never say never!"

Bob Jensen's investment helpers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers


"The Man Who Invented Modern Probability Mathematics: Chance encounters in the life of Andrei Kolmogorov," by Slava Gerovitch, Nautilus, Issue 4 in 2013 ---
http://nautil.us/issue/4/the-unlikely/the-man-who-invented-modern-probability

If two statisticians were to lose each other in an infinite forest, the first thing they would do is get drunk. That way, they would walk more or less randomly, which would give them the best chance of finding each other. However, the statisticians should stay sober if they want to pick mushrooms. Stumbling around drunk and without purpose would reduce the area of exploration, and make it more likely that the seekers would return to the same spot, where the mushrooms are already gone.

Such considerations belong to the statistical theory of “random walk” or “drunkard’s walk,” in which the future depends only on the present and not the past. Today, random walk is used to model share prices, molecular diffusion, neural activity, and population dynamics, among other processes. It is also thought to describe how “genetic drift” can result in a particular gene—say, for blue eye color—becoming prevalent in a population. Ironically, this theory, which ignores the past, has a rather rich history of its own. It is one of the many intellectual innovations dreamed up by Andrei Kolmogorov, a mathematician of startling breadth and ability who revolutionized the role of the unlikely in mathematics, while carefully negotiating the shifting probabilities of political and academic life in Soviet Russia.

As a young man, Kolmogorov was nourished by the intellectual ferment of post-revolutionary Moscow, where literary experimentation, the artistic avant-garde, and radical new scientific ideas were in the air. In the early 1920s, as a 17-year-old history student, he presented a paper to a group of his peers at Moscow University, offering an unconventional statistical analysis of the lives of medieval Russians. It found, for example, that the tax levied on villages was usually a whole number, while taxes on individual households were often expressed as fractions. The paper concluded, controversially for the time, that taxes were imposed on whole villages and then split among the households, rather than imposed on households and accumulated by village. “You have found only one proof,” was his professor’s acid observation. “That is not enough for a historian. You need at least five proofs.” At that moment, Kolmogorov decided to change his concentration to mathematics, where one proof would suffice.

It is oddly appropriate that a chance event drove Kolmogorov into the arms of probability theory, which at the time was a maligned sub-discipline of mathematics. Pre-modern societies often viewed chance as an expression of the gods’ will; in ancient Egypt and classical Greece, throwing dice was seen as a reliable method of divination and fortune telling. By the early 19th century, European mathematicians had developed techniques for calculating odds, and distilled probability to the ratio of the number of favorable cases to the number of all equally probable cases. But this approach suffered from circularity—probability was defined in terms of equally probable cases—and only worked for systems with a finite number of possible outcomes. It could not handle countable infinity (such as a game of dice with infinitely many faces) or a continuum (such as a game with a spherical die, where each point on the sphere represents a possible outcome). Attempts to grapple with such situations produced contradictory results, and earned probability a bad reputation.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on tutorials for mathematics, probability, and statistics ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics


Immigration Forms --- http://www.immigrationforms.com/military-and-immigration/index.html


"Risk Ahoy: Maersk, Daewoo Build the World's Biggest Boat," by Drake Bennett. Bloomberg Businessweek, September 5, 2013 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-05/risk-ahoy-maersk-daewoo-build-the-worlds-biggest-boat 

Jensen Comment
It would really be interesting to compare the estimated shipping costs of this giant new container ship with conventional container ships to date. This is a hint for some accounting researcher team to take up the task.

Other considerations include the increased bribes (err fees)  that must be paid to longshoremen to load and unload these giants plus the costs of port modifications to handle each floating "Empire State Building." It may take so long to load and unload such a big container vessel that other vessels become backed up for days or weeks outside the ports.

Enough of these ships put to sea may even add to the globally-warmed rising sea levels. (Just kidding)

It would have been a disaster to have such large cargo ships in WW II. The Germans could have made long-range torpedoes that could hit their easy  targets from U Boats hundreds of miles distant at sea.

In any case, they can't make enough of these floating Empire State Buildings to meet the demand for marijuana imports in the the USA.


"The Most Surprising Things About America, According To An Indian International Student," by Gus Lubin, Business Insider, August 29, 2013 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-weirdest-things-about-america-2013-8


"So Dropbox Can Be Hacked—What Else Is New?" by Adriana Lee, ReadWriteWeb, August 28, 2013 ---
http://readwrite.com/2013/08/28/dropbox-hacked-reverse-engineered-client#awesm=~ofPSz5bGnt2Lfa


"5 First Impressions of 3D Printing," by Jason B. Jones, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 27, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/5-first-impressions-of-3d-printing/51923?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en


"Teen employment hits record lows, suggesting lost generation," by Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Report, August 29, 2013 ---
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/29/200769/teen-employment-hits-record-lows.html#.UiMgBz9qDfW 

For the fourth consecutive summer, teen employment has stayed anchored around record lows, prompting experts to fear that a generation of youth is likely to be economically stunted with lower earnings and opportunities in years ahead.

The trend is all the more striking given that the overall unemployment rate has steadily dropped, to 7.4 percent in August. And employers in recent months have been collectively adding almost 200,000 new jobs a month. It led to hopes that this would be the summer when teen employment improved.

In 1999, slightly more than 52 percent of teens 16 to 19 worked a summer job. By this year, that number had plunged to about 32.25 percent over June and July. It means that slightly more than three in 10 teens actually worked a summer job, out of a universe of roughly 16.8 million U.S. teens.

“We have never had anything this low in our lives. This is a Great Depression for teens, and no time in history have we encountered anything like that,” said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. “That’s why it’s such an important story.”

Summer is traditionally the peak period of employment for teens as they are off from school and get their first brush with employment and the responsibilities that come with it. Falling teen employment, however, is just as striking in the 12-month numbers over the past decade.

The picture these teen employment statistics provide looks even worse when viewed through the complex prism of race. Sum and colleagues did just that, comparing June and July 2000 and the same two months of 2013. In 2000, 61.28 percent of white teens 16 to 19 held a job, a number that fell to 39.25 percent this summer. For African-Americans, a number that was dismal in 2000, 33.91 percent of 16 to 19 year olds holding a job, fell to a staggering low of 19.25 percent this June and July.

It wasn’t terribly better for Hispanics, who saw the percentage of employed teens fall from 40.31 percent in the two-month period of 2000 to 26.7 percent in June and July 2013.

One of the more surprising findings of Sum’s research is that teens whose parents were wealthy were more likely to have a job than those whose parents had less income. Some 46 percent of white male teens whose parents earned between $100,000 and $149,000 held a job this summer, compared with just 9.1 percent of black male teens whose family income was below $20,000 and 15.2 percent for Hispanic teen males with that same low family income.

That finding is important because a plethora of research shows that teens who work do better in a wide range of social and economic indicators. The plunging teen employment rate is likely to mean trouble for this generation of young workers of all races.

“Kids that get work experience when they are 17 or 18 end up graduating from college at a higher rate,” said Michael Gritton, executive director of the Workforce Investment Board, which promotes job creation and teen employment in Louisville, Ky., and six surrounding counties. “There are economic returns to those young people because they get a chance to work. Almost every person you ask remembers their first job because they started to learn things from the world of work that they can’t learn in the classroom.”

The teen employment numbers are calculated from the Current Population Survey, carried out by the Census Bureau for the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. This survey of households is used in determining estimates for the size of the civilian workforce, the number of employed nationally and the unemployment rate.

Unemployment data is calculated in a different fashion, and while it tells a similar story of hardship for teens, it is not considered by researchers to be as accurate as the employment data because it underestimates the severity of the slow economy.

The weak employment numbers sometimes prompt a mistaken narrative that younger workers are just staying in college longer rather than entering the workforce, or are going on to graduate school given the impaired jobs market.

“I think there is this myth out there that there is some silver lining for young people, that they are going on to college. . . . You don’t see an increase in enrollment rates over and above the long-term trend. You can’t see a Great Recession blip,” said Heidi Scheirholz, a labor economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, a research group. “They are not in school. There’s been a huge spike in the not-in-school, not employed. It’s just a huge missed opportunity.”

Even before the economic crisis exploded in the summer of 2008, workers ages 16 to 19 made up a declining share of the overall workforce, in part because of a decades-long climb in college enrollment, and in part because universities now place less importance on work and more on life experiences and community service.

But most of this decline in youth in the workforce is thought to be the result of the severe economic crisis and its aftermath, with older workers taking the jobs of teens.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Teens can do volunteer work for free in the non-profit sector, but this does not provide money for school, cars, pregnancies, and moving out of parents' homes ---
http://www.4-h.org/about/revolution/stories-of-responsibility/citizenship/?cr=redcpcggrofrHScommunityservicegetfirsthand&gclid=CPfXn46JqrkCFcOe4Aod9QMADw

Volunteer work for for charity seldom is the best place for job training since charities are often seeking "gofer" helpers rather than using their resources for education and training purposes only. Actual jobs and internships in the private sector are often better for job training. However, teens cannot volunteer below minimum wage for work with companies that might provide higher job skills. They might, however, be able to get unpaid internships in the nonprofit sector ---
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf

Fact Sheet #71: Internship Program s Under The Fair Labor Standards Act
This fact sheet provides general information to help determine whether interns must be paid the minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standard s Act for the services that they provide to “for-profit” private sector employers. Background The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) defines the term “employ” very broadly as including to “suffer or permit to work.” Covered and non-exempt individuals who are “suffered or permitted” to work must be compensated under the law for the services they perform for an employer. Internships in the “for-profit” private sector will most often be viewed as employment, unless the test described below relating to trainees is met. Interns in the “for-profit” private sector who qualify as employees rather than trainees typically must be paid at least the minimum wage and overtime compensation for hours worked over forty in a workweek.

The Test For Unpaid Interns
There are some circumstances under which individuals who participate in “for-profit” private sector internships or training programs may do so without compensation. The Supreme Court has held that the term "suffer or permit to work" cannot be interpreted so as to make a person whose work serves only his or her own interest an employee of another who provides aid or instruction. This may apply to interns w ho receive training for their own educational benefit if the training meets certain criteria. The determination of whether an internship or training program meets this exclusion depends upon all of the facts and circumstances of each such program. The following six criteria must be applied when making this determination:

1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;

2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;

3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;

4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;

5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and

6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages fo r the time spent in the internship. If all of the factors listed above are met, an employment relationship does not exist under the FLSA, and the Act’s minimum wage and overtime provisions do not apply to the intern. This exclusion from the definition of employment is necessarily quite narrow because the FLSA’s definition of “employ” is very broad. Some of the most commonly discussed factors for “for-profit” private sector internship programs are considered below.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
In the budget squeeze since the 2008 recession, organizations are likely to offer less and less of internship training that meet the above Labor Department tests for non-compensated internships. The reason is that the above internships will drain resources for the benefit of interns without any cost savings in labor.

Thus in the USA teens face fewer and fewer jobs and internships. In Germany, however, employers are given more incentives to hire teens in apprenticeships.

"The Secret To Germany's Low Youth Unemployment," by Eric Westervelt, NPR, April 4, 2013 ---
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/04/149927290/the-secret-to-germanys-low-youth-unemployment

For as long as he can remember, German teenager Robin Dittmar has been obsessed with airplanes. As a little boy, the sound of a plane overhead would send him into the backyard to peer into the sky. Toys had to have wings. Even today, Dittmar sees his car as a kind of ersatz Boeing.

"I've got the number 747 as the number plate of my car. I'm really in love with this airplane," the 18-year-old says.

Less-than-perfect school grades dashed Dittmar's dream of becoming a commercial pilot. But they were good enough to earn him a coveted apprenticeship slot with Lufthansa Technik, the technical arm of Europe's largest airline, responsible for aircraft maintenance and repair across the globe.

One-third of the way through his three-and-a-half years of training at Lufthansa technical headquarters in Hamburg, Dittmar is honing the skills required to become an aircraft mechanic — and all-but-guaranteeing himself a job.

The protracted European debt crisis and austerity measures have made career prospects for many of the continent's youth bleaker than ever. In and , nearly half of all those under age 25 are unemployed.

But as Dittmar's experience illustrates, that's not the case in Germany. In stark contrast, Germany's youth employment is the highest in Europe, with only a 7.8 percent jobless rate. At the heart of that success is a learn-on-the-job apprenticeship system that has its roots in the Middle Ages but is thriving today in Germany's modern, export-oriented economy.

On-The-Job Training

A brightly lit Lufthansa workshop in Hamburg is part of that apprenticeship system. Teenagers like Dittmar, many dressed in the company's navy blue shirts and overalls, are busy learning the basics: drilling, filing, soldering and manipulating sheet metal.

Dittmar's apprenticeship is part of Germany's well-established and successful "dual system," so-called because training is done both in-house at a company and partly at local vocational colleges.

About two-thirds of his time is spent on the job at Lufthansa — split between workshops and classrooms, and actually working on real aircraft and engines supervised by an experienced full-time mechanic, a "training buddy."

"[The training buddies] are taking the apprentice with them in their work. They are integrating them in their work and they are making real training on the job," says Hans-Peter Meinhold, Lufthansa's head of vocational training. "So it's a one-to-one situation."

For an aviation buff like Dittmar, getting to work on real machines so soon is not only a sign that his employers see potential in him, but also fuels his passion for planes.

"I could work anyplace in the world. I like the system here," the teenager says. "I know that I will be a good aircraft mechanic when I'm out of the apprenticeship, so that's very cool to know."

About 60 percent of German high school graduates travel the same path as Dittmar, choosing vocational over academic education. Throughout his training, Lufthansa pays Dittmar the equivalent of $1,000 a month, one-third of the starting wage a qualified mechanic would get. That's part of the system that some foreign visitors can't comprehend, director Meinhold says.

"I tell them [the apprentices] don't pay anything for it, they get paid by the companies. They get money for their training," Meinhold says. "'You are training them and you are paying them for that?' They can't understand this."

Once qualified, these skilled aeronautical and engine mechanics feed into a fairly robust European aviation industry, either directly at Lufthansa or at one of its subsidiaries or competitors.

For many, the potential of being hired permanently is the key attraction. Germany's industry still offers a majority of skilled workers the elusive "job for life," a long-gone legend in many other Western countries.

Meinhold believes that despite the costs, the apprentice system is an investment vital to the ongoing success of Germany's export-dependent economy by creating loyal, well-trained employees.

"It's a quite expensive way we go," he says. "The benefit we get from the system later, that's a great benefit and makes everything economical."

A Model For The Rest Of Europe?

Germany's dual system trains 1.5 million people annually. Across the board, from bakers and car mechanics to carpenters and violin-makers, about 90 percent of apprentices successfully complete their training, German government figures show. The apprenticeships vary in length, between two and three-and-a-half years. The average training "allowance" is 680 euros a month (approximately $900), and about half of the apprentices stay on in the company that trained them.

British Prime Minister David Cameron recently called for his country to emulate parts of the German system by reinvigorating British apprenticeships with higher-level training.

Continued in article

"How to Stop the Drop in American Education:  Your math teacher was right: Algebra matters. Common Core standards are vital too," by Rex Tillerson (Exxon Mobil CEO), The Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2013 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324747104579024892381188288.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

With headlines announcing unemployment rates above 8% in some parts of the country, many people I talk to are surprised to learn that jobs by the hundreds of thousands remain vacant.

The reason for that is clear: American employers do not have enough applicants with adequate skills, especially in science, technology, engineering and math. The "STEM-related" positions that U.S. industry needs to fill are not just for biochemists, biophysicists and engineers. More and more jobs are applying cutting-edge technologies and now demand deeper knowledge of math and science in positions that most people don't think of as STEM-related, including machinists, electricians, auto techs, medical technicians, plumbers and pipefitters.

In fact, after more than 30 years working in the energy industry, and now as I work with business leaders from every sector of the American economy, I can attest that your high-school math teacher was right: Algebra matters.

These days the energy industry tests for math and science aptitude when hiring for entry-level positions. Our industry is seeking to fill positions that range from mechanics and lab support to blend and process technicians. But many applicants fail these basic tests, losing out on opportunities for good pay and good benefits.

The U.S. military is also being forced to turn away applicants because of a lack of preparation in math, science and other subjects. Each year, approximately 30% of high-school graduates who take the Armed Forces entrance exam fail the test.

Even more concerning, many of these educational shortfalls are apparent before students reach high school. According to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Process, only 35% of eighth graders performed at grade level or above in math.

As a nation, we must unite in recognizing the mounting evidence that the U.S. is falling behind international competitors in producing students ready for 21st-century jobs. According to the most recent Program for International Assessment, U.S. students rank 14th in the world in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math—and the trend line is moving in the wrong direction.

We have an opportunity to reverse this trend but it will take setting the right priorities. That starts with establishing high standards. It means leaders from government and business, and parents, need to defend the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted wholly or in part by dozens of states in recent years but are increasingly under attack from across the political spectrum.

These voluntary, state-driven standards are a set of expectations for the knowledge and skills that students from kindergarten to 12th grade need to master for college and career readiness. Some oppose the standards, complaining that they undermine the autonomy of teachers; others decry the standards as a takeover of local schools by big government.

The criticism is misguided. The Common Core State Standards are based on the best international research. They are built on the standards used by the most effective education systems around the world, including Singapore, Finland, Canada and the U.K. The standards are also designed to allow each state to make its own decisions regarding the curriculum, technology and lesson plans to be used in local schools.

In other words, the standards stipulate what we want all students to know and be able to do, but each state retains the explicit authority to determine how it teaches its students. The standards are a tool to help educators, not a straitjacket for them.

A major benefit of the Common Core State Standards is that they encourage students to analyze and apply critical reasoning skills to the texts they are reading and the math problems they are solving. These are the capabilities that students need as they prepare for high-skill jobs.

We need to raise expectations at every grade level so that, for instance, students who do well in math in lower grades are spurred to take algebra and more advanced math. But we need high standards to drive efforts to improve educational outcomes in every subject.

With these education standards under attack in many states where they have been adopted or are being considered, the Common Core needs support now more than ever if America is going to reverse its education decline and prepare its young people to compete in today's dynamic global economy. To abandon the standards is to endanger America's ability to create the technologies that change the world for the better.

The Common Core State Standards are the path to renewed competitiveness, and they deserve to be at the center of every state's effort to improve the education—and future—of every American child.

Mr. Tillerson is the chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. and the chairman of the Business Roundtable's Education & Workforce Committee.

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


Jensen Comment
It would be neat if replication clearly marked the difference between the real sciences versus the pseudo sciences, but this demarcation is not so clear cut since pseudo scientists sometimes (not as often) replicate research findings. A more clear cut demarcation is the obsession with finding causes that cannot be discovered in models from big data like census databases, financial statement databases   (e.g. Compustat and EDGAR), and economic statistics generated by governments and the United Nations. Real scientists slave away to go beyond discovered big data correlations in search of causality ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsGranulationCurrentDraft.pdf

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

Having said this scientists, especially real scientists, are obsessed with replication

Presumably a successful replication "reproduces" exactly the same outcomes and authenticates/verifies the original research. In scientific research, such authentication is considered extremely important. The IAPUC Gold Book makes a distinction between reproducibility and repeatability at
http://goldbook.iupac.org/
For purposes of this message, replication, reproducibility, and repeatability will be viewed as synonyms.

Allowance should be made for "conceptual replications" apart from "exact replications ---
http://www.jasnh.com/pdf/Vol6-No2.pdf

"Scientists Fail to Identify Their Tools, Study Finds, and May Hurt Replication," by Paul Voosen, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 5, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Scientists-Fail-to-Identify/141389/?cid=at

Define your terms. It's one of the oldest rules of writing. Yet when it comes to defining the exact resources used to conduct their research, many scientists fail to do exactly that. At least that's the conclusion of a new study, published on Thursday in the journal PeerJ.

Looking at 238 recently published papers, pulled from five fields of biomedicine, a team of scientists found that they could uniquely identify only 54 percent of the research materials, from lab mice to antibodies, used in the work. The rest disappeared into the terse fuzz and clipped descriptions of the methods section, the journal standard that ostensibly allows any scientist to reproduce a study.

"Our hope would be that 100 percent of materials would be identifiable," said Nicole A. Vasilevsky, a project manager at Oregon Health & Science University, who led the investigation.

The group quantified a finding already well known to scientists: No one seems to know how to write a proper methods section, especially when different journals have such varied requirements. Those flaws, by extension, may make reproducing a study more difficult, a problem that has prompted, most recently, the journal Nature to impose more rigorous standards for reporting research.

"As researchers, we don't entirely know what to put into our methods section," said Shreejoy J. Tripathy, a doctoral student in neurobiology at Carnegie Mellon University, whose laboratory served as a case study for the research team. "You're supposed to write down everything you need to do. But it's not exactly clear what we need to write down."

Ms. Vasilevsky's study offers no grand solution. Indeed, despite its rhetoric, which centers on the hot topic of reproducibility, it provides no direct evidence that poorly labeled materials have hindered reproduction. That finding tends to rest on anecdote. Stories abound of dissertations diverted for years as students struggled to find the genetic strain or antibody used in a study they were recreating.

A Red Herring?

Here's what the study does show: In neuroscience, in immunology, and in developmental, molecular, and general biology, catalog codes exist to uniquely identify research materials, and they are often not used. (The team studied five biomedical resources in all: antibody proteins, model organisms, cell lines, DNA constructs, and gene-silencing chemicals.) Without such specificity, it can be difficult, for example, to distinguish multiple antibodies from the same vendor. That finding held true across the journals, publishers, and reporting methods surveyed—including, surprisingly, the few journals considered to have strict reporting requirements.

This goes back to anecdote, but the interior rigor of the lab also wasn't reflected in its published results. Ms. Vasilevsky found that she could identify about half of the antibodies and organisms used by the Nathan N. Urban lab at Carnegie Mellon, where Mr. Tripathy works. The lab's interior Excel spreadsheets were meticulous, but somewhere along the route to publication, that information disappeared.

How deep and broad a problem is this? It's difficult to say. Ms. Vasilevsky wouldn't be surprised to see a similar trend in other sciences. But for every graduate student reluctant to ask professors about their methods, for fear of sounding critical, other scientists will give them a ring straightaway. Given the shoddy state of the methods section, such calls will remain a staple even if 100 percent of materials are perfectly labeled, Ms. Vasilevsky added. And that's not necessarily a problem.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on the failures of pseudo science accounting scientists (historically called accountics scientists since 1897) can be found at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm#Replication


"Teaching Mistakes -- Do Any Of These Apply to YOU?" by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, August 26, 2013 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2013/08/teaching-mistakes-do-any-of-these-apply.html

Jensen Comment
To these I might add:
"Are there some technology tools mentioned on the AECM that you have overlooked?"

Have you considered becoming more passionate?
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Passion

Hundreds of these tools are mentioned at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

Can you help students learn your most technical material with Camtasia videos that you prepare for them?
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Video

Can you do more for learning disabled?
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped
For example, have you considered making instant messaging available to them?

Can you better engage your students with edutainment?
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment

Can your students learn more from the various free accounting and finance modules learning modules at the Khan Academy?
https://www.khanacademy.org/

Have you reviewed the teaching ideas and resources in Issues in Accounting Education from the AAA over the past few years?
http://aaahq.org/pubs/electpubs.htm


MOOC --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOOCs

"How to Convert a Classroom Course Into a MOOC," by Michael Fredette, Campus Technology, August 28, 2013 ---
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2013/08/28/how-to-convert-a-classroom-course-into-a-mooc.aspx?=CT21

Bob Jensen's threads on OKIs, MOOCs, and SMOCs (including instructions for signing up) are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


MOOC --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOOCs

"Lessons Learned From a Freshman-Composition MOOC," by Karen Head, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 6, 2013 --- Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/lessons-learned-from-a-freshman-composition-mooc/46337?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Bob Jensen's threads on OKIs, MOOCs, and SMOCs (including instructions for signing up) are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


"First Trial of Crowdsourced Grading for Computer Science Homework: The latest online crowdsourcing tool allows students to grade their classmates’ homework and receive credit for the effort they put in ," MIT's Technology Review, September 4, 2013 --- Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/519001/first-trial-of-crowdsourced-grading-for-computer-science-homework/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130904

The new tool is called CrowdGrader and it is available at http://www.crowdgrader.org/.

Jensen Comment
I remember that in K-12 school students traded papers and checked answers. Now we're coming full circle in distance education in the 21st Century. But there's a huge difference between grading answers for work done in a classroom versus work done remotely by distance education students. For example, an algebra or calculus problem solved in class has controls on cheating when each student is observed by other students and a teacher. Remotely, what is to prevent a student from having Wolfram Alpha solve an algebra or calculus problem? ---
http://www.wolframalpha.com/

When distance education small in size (say less than 30 students) there are alternatives for cheating controls on examinations ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#OnsiteVersusOnline

But when a MOOC or SMOC has over 10,000 students I have difficulty imagining how cheating can be controlled unless students are required to take examinations under observation of a trusted person like the village vicar or a K-12 teacher who is being paid to observe a student taking a MOOC or SMOC examination. Having many such vicars or teachers attest to the integrity of the examination is both expensive and not aperfect solution. But it sounds much better to me than having remote students grading each other without being able to observe the examination process.

The CrowdGrader software sounds like a great idea when students are willing to help each other. I don't buy into this tool for assigning transcript grades.

Bob Jensen's threads on OKIs, MOOCs, and SMOCs (including instructions for signing up) are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Disappearing Jobs in the USA --- Click Here
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/08/28/americas-disappearing-jobs/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AUG282013A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter

Jensen Comment
I'm surprised to disbelief about some on the list, especially bricklayers and tile setters. Up here the shortage is in the skilled craftsman who lay bricks and tiles. There's no shortage in jobs to a point where I had to wait almost a year to get my chimneys repointed. The jobs may be declining somewhat in terms of new home construction, but it would surprise me if the jobs are not increasing for existing remodeling jobs.

I think there is somewhat a problem of defining a "computer operator." Most universities and larger companies still have computer centers and technicians in those centers keeping the servers humming. The main frame computer operators may be declining but the computer center technicians seem to be increasing in numbers, and it's very hard to find those that are skilled in the programming and hardware skills that are combined in network serving machines.


"Nevada's Brothels Hurt by Online Competition, State's Weak Economy," by Alison Vekshin, Bloomberg Businessweek, September 5, 2013 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-05/nevadas-brothels-hurt-by-online-competition-states-weak-economy 

Jensen Comment
Now is probably a great time to create a thread on how robots are displacing workers.


How to mislead with statistics

"Stop Saying Robots Are Destroying Jobs—They Aren’t," by Robert D. Atkinson, MIT's Technology Review, September 3, 2013 --- Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/519016/stop-saying-robots-are-destroying-jobs-they-arent/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130904

Jensen Comment
What nonsense. This illustrates on macro big data can mislead relative to micro data. Any analyst who flat out claims robots are not destroying any jobs has not been inside many factories in the 21st Century. When a Chevrolet dealer submits an order for a new part a computer processes the order and submits a picking order to a robots who retrieve the part, package it, and ships it to that dealer along with a payment invoice. Not a single human is involved in getting this new part to dealers.

"Rise of the Robots," by Paul Krugman, The New York Times, December 8, 2012 ---
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/08/rise-of-the-robots/

"Raytheon's Missiles Are Now Made by Robots," by Ashlee Vance, Bloomberg Business Week, December 11, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-11/raytheons-missiles-now-made-by-robots

"Harley Goes Lean to Build Hogs," by James R. Hagerty, The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443720204578004164199848452.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid&mg=reno64-wsj

"Rethink Robotics invented a $22,000 humanoid (i.e. trainable) robot that competes with low-wage workers," by Antonio Regalado, MIT's Technology Review, January 16, 2013 --- Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509296/small-factories-give-baxter-the-robot-a-cautious-once-over/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130116

A World Without Work," by Dana Rousmaniere, Harvard Business Review Blog, January 27, 2013 --- Click Here
http://blogs.hbr.org/morning-advantage/2013/01/morning-advantage-a-world-with.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date

Every symphony in the world incurs an operating deficit
"Financial Leadership Required to Fight Symphony Orchestra ‘Cost Disease’," by Stanford University's Robert J Flanagan, Stanford Graduate School of Business, February 8, 2012 ---
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/symphony-financial-leadership.html

 What if you sat down in the concert hall one evening to hear Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 in E Minor and found 5 robots scattered among the human musicians? To get multiple audiences in and out of the concert hall faster, the human musicians and robots are playing the composition in double time.

Today’s orchestras have yet to go down this road. However, their traditional ways of doing business, as economist Robert J. Flanagan explains in his new book on symphony orchestra finances, locks them into limited opportunities for productivity growth and ensures that costs keep rising.

I think somebody needs to take Robert Atkinson on a tour of factories where robots have replaced workers.


Sort of Cartoon Humor
"From Kafka to Computers, a Graphic History of Automation in Education," by Megan O'Neil, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 4, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/from-kafka-to-computers-an-illustrated-history-of-automation-in-education/46149?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

"Patented Book Writing System Creates, Sells Hundreds Of Thousands Of Books On Amazon," by David J. Hull, Security Hub, December 13, 2012 ---
http://singularityhub.com/2012/12/13/patented-book-writing-system-lets-one-professor-create-hundreds-of-thousands-of-amazon-books-and-counting/


Ronald Coase --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Coase

"Here's The Key Thing You Should Know About Ronald Coase, The Great Economist Who Died Yesterday At 102," by Josh Barro, Business Insider, September 3, 2013 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-ronald-coase-the-great-economist-who-died-yesterday-at-102-2013-9 

"Remembering Ronald Coase," by Larry Downes, Harvard Business Review Blog, September 3, 2013 --- Click Here
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/09/remembering_ronald_coase.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29&cm_ite=DailyAlert-090413+%281%29&cm_lm=sp%3Arjensen%40trinity.edu&cm_ven=Spop-Email


How to Mislead With Statistics

Most Popular Six-Figure Jobs in the USA ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/08/29/americas-most-popular-six-figure-jobs/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AUG292013A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter

Jensen Comment
One of the most misleading things analysts can do is to compare compensation of high-end careers. For example, the above "most popular jobs" leaves out owners of farms in the Midwest who own and farm (i.e., work the land) really big farms, say 2,500-acre grain farms or larger. How does one compare "profits" on multimillion  farm investments with salaries of "Marketing Managers" who invest nothing but their labor?

How does one compare the "profits" of a one-neurosurgeon corporation with the salaries of "Marketing Managers" who may have not even invested in a college education? The neurosurgeon may have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars plus years of her life as a student. Her ultimate annual compensation is really a return on lost opportunity value and a large investment.

How does one compare the profits by partners in a small law firm with the salaries of lawyers employed in house by an enormous tobacco company?

One of the most misleading types of rankings is where the rankings are based on averages (means or medians) when there are enormous variances and/or high kurtosis. And there may be enormous changes over time. A shyster law firm may really struggle with partners barely earning minimum wage until they win the legal lottery --- that patient in a coma for 43 years after slipping on a burrito in a Taco Bell restaurant.

The bottom line is that it is not so misleading to compare hourly wages of McDonalds workers versus Pizza Hut workers. But don't try to compare the profit sharing plans of large law firms and medical practices with the salaries of "Marketing Managers."


How to Mislead With Statistics

"Secular researchers are likely to discover what they already suspect which is a co-relation between their values and high levels of intelligence," noted atheist sociologist Frank Furerdi. He questioned the value of such a project, where "social science research turns into advocacy research."
"Why Intelligent People Are Less Likely to Be Religious And how our expectations for Christians in education are changing," by Jordan Monge, Christianity Today, August 26, 2013 ---
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/august-web-only/brains-and-belief-arent-mutually-exclusive.html?paging=off 
Thank you Scott Bonacker for the heads up.


Cynical Jensen Comment
Years ago I had a full-time tax professor one time who also owned a Colorado ranch and ran a successful tax practice. He quite literally worked 12 hours a week on campus and spent the rest of his working hours on his ranch and his tax practice. Although he was quite a good teacher I have to admit that it was him more than any other professor who inspired me to become an accounting academic. I liked this idea of drawing a full-time teaching salary for a 12-hour per week job (with summers free and long holiday breaks thrown in to boot).

At the time, I really, really wanted to be a ski bum without being poor as most ski bums. If the pass between Aspen and Gunnison had not been closed in the winter, I most certainly would have signed the contract put before me to teach at the state university in Gunnison (which has since had a name change). However, when I learned that the pass/notch was closed in the winter I laid down my pen and took Stanford up on a free ride to get an accounting Ph.D. I never seriously skied after laying down that pen. And I eventually discovered that the full time work week of an academic is 60+ hours even in the summer. Sigh!

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/

Cynical Jensen Comment
Years ago I had a full-time tax professor one time who also owned a Colorado ranch and ran a successful tax practice. He quite literally worked 12 hours a week on campus and spent the rest of his working hours on his ranch and his tax practice. Although he was quite a good teacher I have to admit that it was him more than any other professor who inspired me to become an accounting academic. I liked this idea of drawing a full-time teaching salary for a 12-hour per week job (with summers free and long holiday breaks thrown in to boot).

At the time, I really, really wanted to be a ski bum without being poor as most ski bums. If the pass between Aspen and Gunnison had not been closed in the winter, I most certainly would have signed the contract put before me to teach at the state university in Gunnison (which has since had a name change). However, when I learned that the pass/notch was closed in the winter I laid down my pen and took Stanford up on a free ride to get an accounting Ph.D. I never seriously skied after laying down that pen. And I eventually discovered that the full time work week of an academic is 60+ hours even in the summer. Sigh!


"How Expedia Took Out Travelocity, by Justin Bachman, Bloomberg Businessweek, August 26, 2013 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-26/how-expedia-took-out-travelocity 


"Shedding the Superwoman Myth," by Debora L. Spar (President of Barnard College), Chronicle of Higher Education, September 2, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Where-Feminism-Went-Wrong/141293/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

"Women fall behind men at the top because they don’t put in enough hours," by Marina Krakovsky, Quartz, May 20, 2013 ---
http://qz.com/85404/women-fall-behind-men-at-the-top-because-they-dont-put-in-enough-hours/

Jensen Comment
Please don't shoot the messenger.

This research was conducted by a doctoral student and her faculty advisor in the  Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. The findings are consistent with earlier findings about women physicians.

Hypothesized reasons female doctors earn less than male physicians ---
http://thegrindstone.com/career-management/study-female-doctors-paid-much-less-than-their-male-counterparts-991/
What I would like to see is whether there is a significantly higher ratio of males to females in the highest paying medical careers. For example, do women tend to avoid those specialties taking the longest time to complete slave-driving residencies (such as neurosurgery)? Do women tend to avoid those specialties requiring more strength and endurance such as orthopedics? A friend who is a physician tells me this is the case, but I've not investigated the data.

Having said this, it should be noted that there are significant variances in these findings. My own female physician is one of the hardest working physicians I've ever seen. She works what seems to be 12-hour days on average 24/7. She's never been married and to my knowledge only has a relationship with her work. I also know a number of female professors who work about at the same pace.

History and Professionalism of Women ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#Women

Bob Jensen's threads on the History of Women in Accounting---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#Women


"Building resilience: an introduction to business models," CGMA, August 6, 2013 --- Click Here
http://www.cgma.org/Resources/Reports/Pages/building-resilience-an-introduction-to-business-models.aspx?token=f3c06648-f4c4-4dd2-9475-0d24c0e78d2f

Jensen Comment
These days it's amazing how many enormous companies are in search of more viable business models, including Microsoft, HP, and Yahoo. Many small businesses are also in search of new models, including our local old fashioned hardware store and a local country greenhouse facing increased winter heating  prices and serious competition from the big box stores. Our regional inns and restaurants are also seeking revised business models given the changing patterns of demand. For example, tourists and customers are increasingly seeking package-deal discounts and discount coupons. This is forcing our inns and restaurants to revise their business models and offerings. The Sunset Hill House Hotel down the road installed ten large solar panels on the roof.

Many of New England's ski resorts have shut down, and those that are still in business must have snow-making machines. It's not that we're getting less snow, but keeping it deep enough on the ground is problematic. In this era of global warming a hard winter rain on top of five feet of snow can be a disaster.

Many paper mills have shut down and cannot find an alternate business model. Smaller biomass plants for generating electricity are giving some relief to timber harvesters who used to mostly cut trees for paper and pulp mills. Our regional hospital, for example, is now building a small biomass electrical generating plant.

The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant could not find an alternate business model and is now shutting down. The claim is that nuclear can no longer compete with such alternate fuels as natural gas and biomass burners. This may be true, but the price of our electricity keeps going up rather than down.


"What should we make of President Obama’s Proposal to Rate Colleges to Curb Tuition Costs?" by Steven Mintz, Ethics Sage, August 26, 2013 ---
http://www.ethicssage.com/2013/08/what-should-we-make-of-president-obamas-proposal-to-rate-colleges-to-curb-tuition-costs.html


He probably will not be taking any accounting courses, but an 11-year old boy is commencing at TCU this fall ---
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/11-Year-Old-Boy-Attends-Texas-Christian-University-221408131.html

Jensen Comment
Conceivably he could get his drivers license and his Ph.D. in quantum physics on the same day.


"Free Digital-Textbook Venture at Rice U. Adds Users and Titles," by Megan O'Neil, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 28, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/free-digital-textbook-venture-at-rice-u-adds-users-and-titles/45881?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

A little more than one year after its debut, the digital-textbook program OpenStax College is set to expand by adding a sixth title to its slate of free online textbooks.

OpenStax, a nonprofit group based at Rice University, will add an introductory-statistics text in October. Five additional titles will be available for download by 2015, according to officials.

OpenStax doubled the number of professors adopting its textbooks during the past four months, bringing the total to 319 at 297 colleges and universities. The program is expected to save 40,000 students more than $3.7-million in textbook costs during the 2013-14 academic year.

“Year 1 has gone pretty spectacularly,” said Richard Baraniuk, who is the founder of OpenStax and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice. “We are in this for the long haul, so we set rather conservative adoption targets, realizing that it would take time to build a community-user base to really take this to scale. What we have been surprised about is how quickly this has happened.”

The venture started in June 2012 with two textbooks, for introductory courses in physics and in sociology. The content is written, peer-reviewed, and produced in-house by scholars and publishing-industry professionals. The texts are constructed in building-block like parts, so professors can tailor the material for their own courses—one OpenStax textbook has 50 variations, Mr. Baraniuk said.

The program was born out of Connexions, an existing platform at Rice that allowed users to create and publish e-textbooks. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others, provided start-up money. The goal is to save a million students a total of $95-million during the first five years.

OpenStax is also expanding its platforms. It currently has two titles on Apple iBooks for $4.99 per download, and there are plans to place all the OpenStax textbooks in the Apple iBook catalog. The iBooks have interactive features, including graphics, video, and quizzes. And students have the option to purchase the books in print.

The creation of OpenStax coincided with a national conversation about curbing the rising cost of higher education. Professors recognize that their students are under financial pressure, and educators are seeking high-quality materials at a low price, Mr. Baraniuk said.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on finding low-cost textbooks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#CheapTextbooks
Note that the best deal may still be a used copy purchased from a campus bookstore with a buy back option. Also don't forget to look for used book and Kindle deals on Amazon.


MOOC Performance Improves With a Different Mix of Students

The Old Mix
Udacity Experiment at San Jose State Suspended After 56% to 76% of Students Fail Final Exams ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/07/udacity-experiment-at-san-jose-state-suspended.html

The New Mix
"Scores Improve in New Round of San Jose State’s Experiment With Udacity," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 28, 2013 --- Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/scores-improve-in-new-round-of-san-jose-states-experiment-with-udacity/45997?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Earlier this year, it looked as if a high-profile online-education experiment at San Jose State University had gone on the rocks. In the first courses the university ran with technology from Udacity, the online-learning company, students’ grades were, frankly, dismal.

But now the pilot program appears to be back on course, buoyed by encouraging data from this summer’s trials, in which the university offered tweaked versions of the same courses to a much different mix of students.

In the spring, the university adapted three courses for Udacity’s platform and offered them to small groups of online students for credit. The idea was to test whether Udacity’s technology and teaching methods, which the company originally developed for its massive open online courses, could be useful in a more conventional online setting.

But the pass rates in all three Udacity-powered courses trailed far behind the rates in comparable face-to-face courses at San Jose State. The university decided not to offer any trial courses through Udacity in the fall.

The trials that had been planned for the summer went forward, however, with tweaked versions of the same three courses, plus two others. The results have been more promising. Pass rates in each of the three repeated courses leaped upward, approaching and sometimes exceeding the pass rates in the face-to-face sections.

For example, in the spring trial, only 25 percent of the students taking the “Udacified” version of a statistics course earned a C grade or higher; in the summer trial, 73 percent made at least a C. Only students in the adapted version of an entry-level mathematics course continued to lag well behind those in the face-to-face version on the San Jose State campus.

The results come with an important caveat: Unlike the spring trials, which drew on San Jose State undergraduates as well as underprivileged high-school students, the summer trials were open to anybody who wanted to register.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Sebastian Thrun, the founder of Udacity, said that half the students in the summer trials already held bachelor’s degrees and 20 percent had advanced degrees. In general, the summer students were older, with more work experience and higher levels of educational attainment. Given the difference in populations, trying to compare the pass rates for the spring and summer trials is probably not a particularly profitable exercise.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs and SMOCs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Free Literature Course From Harvard (plus 750 other free online literature courses)
An Introduction to World Literature by a Cast Of Literary & Academic Stars ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/introduction-to-world-literature-free-course.html

Permanently housed in the Literature section of our collection of 750 Free Online Courses, Invitation to World Literature features the following lectures:

  1. The Epic of Gilgamesh
  2. My Name is Red
  3. The Odyssey
  4. The Bacchae
  5. The Bhagavad Gita
  6. The Tale of the Genji
  7. Journey to the West
  8. Popul Vuh
  9. Candide
  10. Things Fall Apart
  11. One Hundred Years of Solitude
  12. The God of Small Things
  13. The Thousand and One Nights

Related Content:

Free Literature Courses

The Art of Living: A Free Stanford Course Explores Timeless Questions

A Crash Course in English Literature: A New Video Series by Best-Selling Author John Green

Contemporary American Literature: An Open Yale Course

David Foster Wallace’s 1994 Syllabus: How to Teach Serious Literature with Lightweight Books

W.H. Auden’s 1941 Literature Syllabus Asks Students to Read 32 Great Works, Covering 6000 Pages

Bob Jensen's threads on free MOOCs, SMOCs, videos, and course materials from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

 


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


From the Scout Report on August 30, 2013

WordPress Editorial Calendar  --- http://wordpress.org/plugins/editorial-calendar/ 

If you're a blogger, you probably make plans both grand and modest about publishing new posts and content. One can be easily overwhelmed by such plans, and it's nice to have a way to keep up to date with such important matters. For those using WordPress, the Editorial Calendar plugin allows users to view all of their posts, their status, and information about how many posts are planned for a given day or week. It's quite easy to use and it is compatible with all operating systems.


Storyboard That --- http://www.storyboardthat.com/ 

Are you interested in creating storyboards for the classroom, the boardroom, or just the rec room? Storyboard That is a fine application for doing just that, with an elegant user interface that is most welcoming. Visitors can view recently created examples on the homepage, and the free version allows visitors to make three storyboards each week. Also, visitors can search over 25,000 royalty-free images and a variety of default templates. This version is compatible with all operating systems.


Study suggests that poverty can significantly impede cognitive function
Poverty saps mental capacity to deal with complex tasks, say scientists
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/29/poverty-mental-capacity-complex-tasks

Poverty significantly saps our mental abilities say researchers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23881780

Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976.full

Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much
http://www.aspenideas.org/session/scarcity-why-having-too-little-means-so-much

Poverty & Equity Data
http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home/

TeachUNICEF: Poverty
http://teachunicef.org/explore/topic/poverty


From the Scout Report on September 6, 2013

Import iO --- http://import.io/ 

The Import iO application helps interested parties find an online source for their data, regardless of whether it's a single web page or a search engine. After retrieving the data, visitors can use the application to analyze the data or to import it into their preferred spreadsheet program. This version is compatible with all operating systems.


Planetary 2.0 ---  http://planetary.bloom.io/ 

Could there be a place where artists are stars? Albums are planets? Tracks are moons? Yes, yes, and yes. It is called Planetary 2.0 and it is a beautiful way to explore a music collection. Visitors can use this application with their music collection to create a series of wonderful visuals based on the planets, the stars, and various astronomical phenomena. Albums orbit around their artist star, the planet surface is derived from album cover art and the tracks are moons that orbit at a speed based on the length of the track. This version is compatible with all iPads running i0S 5.


With a final cost of $6.4 billion, the east span of the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opens
SF Bay Bridge re-opens with new “quakeproof” span
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/03/san-francisco-bay-bridge-reopens/2756741/

Bay Bridge made to withstand major earthquake
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Bridge-made-to-withstand-major-earthquake-4778622.php

Hundreds of Bay Bridge workers celebrate at bash
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Hundreds-of-Bay-Bridge-workers-celebrate-at-bash-4781964.php

Bay Bridge Info
http://baybridgeinfo.org/

Golden Gate Bridge: Construction Information
http://goldengatebridge.org/research/construction.php

The World's 18 Strangest Bridges
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/architecture/4335705


Education Tutorials

Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning --- http://bokcenter.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do

Smithsonian Lesson Plans ---
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/lesson_plans.html

eCUIP: Education and Outreach Collections from the University of Chicago (natural history) --- http://ecuip.lib.uchicago.edu/

Latino USA --- http://latinousa.org/

Latino Distance Education
American RadioWorks: Rising by Degrees [iTunes] http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/latino_college/index.html

Center for the Mathematics Education of Latinos ---
http://math.arizona.edu/~cemela/english/index.php

The Pew Hispanic Center --- http://www.pewhispanic.org/index.jsp 

The Pew Hispanic Center's mission is to improve understanding of the diverse Hispanic population in the United States and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the nation. The Center strives to inform debate on critical issues through dissemination of its research to policymakers, business leaders, academic institutions and the media.

Teach With Movies --- http://www.teachwithmovies.org/
I think this site needs a better search engine. The term accounting led to all hits with the word "account," most of which were not about accounting. The search term "finance" had zero hits even though there are hundreds of movies about finance.

Accounting Novels, Plays, and Movies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNovels.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on edutainment are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment

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

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


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

What We Still Don’t Know: Martin Rees Tackles Deepest Scientific Questions in Great Documentary --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/what-we-still-dont-know-martin-rees-tackles-deepest-scientific-questions-in-great-documentary.htm

Teacher Resource Center: STEM Lesson Plans --- http://tse.unl.edu/trc/lesson_plans.php

STEM Resources for Teachers and Students --- http://www.thinkfinity.org/stem

The Works STEM Education (American History of Industry and Science) --- 
http://www.attheworks.org/ExploreTheWorks/EducatorInfo.aspx

Science Safety --- http://www.bioedonline.org/videos/content-presentations/tools-and-techniques/science-safety/

BioEd Online: Lessons - Safety and Lab Techniques (from the Baylor University School of Medicine) ---
http://www.bioedonline.org/lessons/safetylab.cfm

The Getty Iris (online magazine of science and the environnment) ---  http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/

Cincinnati Inventors Database --- http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/resources/invent/

The 20 big questions in science
From the nature of the universe (that's if there is only one) to the purpose of dreams, there are lots of things we still don't know – but we might do soon. A new book seeks some answers
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/01/20-big-questions-in-science

Jensen Comment
There's no definition of a "big question," And the definition of "science" is ambiguous. All the academic disciplines have "big questions." In medicine there are a lot of big questions, including President Obama's first choice on mapping the human brain. In economics it's how to eradicate global poverty without destroying incentives to innovate and work productively. In sociology its how to eliminate criminal exploitation and gang warfare. In education it's how to provide unrestrained opportunity in training and productive careers. In accounting it's how to operationally define the "net earnings" component of Other Comprehensive Income. That problem is so huge that accounting standard setters and professors simply gave up the ghost and chose to ignore this "big question."
http://www.fasri.net/index.php/2009/10/the-asset-liability-approach-primacy-does-not-mean-priority/
Fortunately, scientists are still trying to make inroads on the above "20 big questions" even though net earnings will never be defined operationally.

The A&P Professor (Anatomy & Physiology) --- http://www.theap

Instant Anatomy --- http://www.instantanatomy.net/podcasts.html

Nervous System, Neurons, Nerves --- http://www.nsta.org/publications/interactive/nerves/

Cellular Neurobiology --- http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/biology/7-29j-cellular-neurobiology-spring-2012/

Neuroscience & the Classroom --- http://www.learner.org/resources/series214.html

NOVA Online: Health Science Classroom Activities --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/education/resources/subj_05_03.html

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

 

Isaac Asimov correctly anticipated a lot of what we will take for granted in 2014
Isaac Asimov’s 1964 Predictions About What the World Will Look 50 Years Later — in 2014 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/isaac-asimovs-1964-predictions-about-2014.html

Ontario Association of Architects --- http://www.oaa.on.ca/

The ABC of Architects: An Animated Flipbook of Famous Architects and Their Best-Known Buildings --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2013/01/the_abc_of_architects_an_animated_flipbook_of_famous_architects_and_their_best-known_buildings.html

International Architecture Database --- http://eng.archinform.net/index.htm

Introduction to the History and Theory of Architecture ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/architecture/4-605-introduction-to-the-history-and-theory-of-architecture-spring-2012/

Dreaming the Skyline (architecture) ---  http://digital.library.unlv.edu/skyline

From the Scout Report on December 7, 2012

Despite economic troubles around the world, skyscrapers continue to
rise

Reaching for the sky: streets in the sky
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20526219

Skyscraper stories: Reaching for the sky
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20578262

London's Walkie-Talkie Skyscraper to be Fuel Cell Powered
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/news-events/news-archive/2012/december/london’s-walkie-talkie-skyscraper-to-be-fuel-cell-powered

Why China's Sky City One is a Bad Idea?
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-chinas-sky-city-one-is-a-bad-idea-2012-11

Burlington's Lonely Skyscraper: 83 Years Young
http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/top-news/burlington-s-lonely-skyscraper-83-years-young-1.58413

Emporis
http://www.emporis.com/

 

Dream, Design, Build: The UW Architecture Student Drawing Collection, 1914-1947 ---
http://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/dream-design-build/

The History of Western Architecture in 39 Free Video Lectures ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/the_history_of_western_architecture_in_39_free_lectures_.html

Buffalo Architecture Foundation Building Stories Collection --- http://ubdigit.buffalo.edu/cdm/search/collection/LIB-APL001

The History of Western Architecture in 39 Free Video Lectures ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/the_history_of_western_architecture_in_39_free_lectures_.html

The Architecture Centre: Teaching Resources --- http://www.architecturecentre.co.uk/education-teaching-resources

Building Inside/Studio Gang (Chicago Architecture) --- http://extras.artic.edu/studiogang

Richard and Dion Neutra Papers, 1925-1970 (architecture) ---
http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0008b9tw

International Architecture Database --- http://eng.archinform.net/index.htm

Introduction to the History and Theory of Architecture ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/architecture/4-605-introduction-to-the-history-and-theory-of-architecture-spring-2012/

Coastal Protection & Restoration: State of Louisiana --- http://www.coastal.la.gov/

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

Albert Einstein Called Racism “A Disease of White People” in His Little-Known Fight for Civil Rights ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/albert-einstein-civil-rights-activist.html

The Racial Dot Map --- http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html

Watch The March, the Masterful, Digitally Restored Documentary on The Great March on Washington ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/140c9fa1359581eb

Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South ---
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/behindtheveil/

Latino USA --- http://latinousa.org/

Latino Settlement in the New Century --- http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/96.pdf 

American Latino Heritage --- http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/American_Latino_Heritage/

Pueblo, USA: How Latino Immigration is Changing America ---
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/immigration/

Latino Distance Education
American RadioWorks: Rising by Degrees [iTunes] http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/latino_college/index.html

Center for the Mathematics Education of Latinos ---
http://math.arizona.edu/~cemela/english/index.php

Festival de Flor y Canto de Aztlan, Films and Photographs  ---
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15799coll79

The Pew Hispanic Center --- http://www.pewhispanic.org/index.jsp 

The Pew Hispanic Center's mission is to improve understanding of the diverse Hispanic population in the United States and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the nation. The Center strives to inform debate on critical issues through dissemination of its research to policymakers, business leaders, academic institutions and the media.

Brookings: Education (Economics and Government) --- http://www.brookings.edu/research/topics/education

Trains Magazine (railroads) --- http://trn.trains.com/

Fostering Growth Through Innovation: Brookings Institution [economics] ---
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0113_growth_innovation.aspx

Civil Engagement and the Judicial Reform: The Role of Civil Society in Reforming Criminal Justice in Mexico ---
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/rodriguez_judicial_reform.pdf

Federal Highway Administration: Transportation Policy Studies --- http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/otps/

Coastal Protection & Restoration: State of Louisiana --- http://www.coastal.la.gov/

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

Civil Engagement and the Judicial Reform: The Role of Civil Society in Reforming Criminal Justice in Mexico ---
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/rodriguez_judicial_reform.pdf

FBI’s “Vault” Web Site Reveals Declassified Files on Hemingway, Einstein, Marilyn & Other Icons ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/fbis-vault-web-site-reveals-declassified-files-on-hemingway-einstein-marilyn-other-icons.html

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


Math Tutorials

August 29,  2014 message from Gaylon Greger

Dr. Jensen...you might be interested in this math-art story (Block Monoid) from two folks who have spent years at Trinity University.
See attachment --- http://www.islandpacket.com/2013/03/21/2429112/hilton-head-island-artist-gaylon.html
Gaylon Greger ---  http://www.artbygreger.com/  and http://www.artbygreger.com/personality.html

Added Information
Scott Chapman is a professor of mathematics and the editor of The American Mathematical Monthly journal, currently housed at Sam Houston State University. He collaborated with his friend and former colleague Gaylon Greger to create an "unusual piece of
art dealing with an unusual piece of theory," as Greger describes the project.

A "Block Monoid" is an algebraic structure that was created to help understand certain numbers that do not follow the
usual pattern of unique factorization.

Meredith Moir wrote the following:|

Sam Houston State University math professor Scott Chapman’s work is about breaking things down; for years, he has solved math problems by breaking large problem into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Conversely, as an artist, Gaylon Rex Greger’s work is about building things out of nothing; working primarily in sculpture and abstract expressionism, he makes visual and creative statements that reflect overarching ideas.

So it was quite the combination when, as former colleagues at Trinity University in San Antonio, Chapman’s and Greger’s work collided. The result was a piece of art that represents both of their worlds.

 

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


History Tutorials

Smithsonian Lesson Plans ---
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/lesson_plans.html

American Cites 100 Years Ago (great photographs) ---
http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/01/09/american-cities-a-century-ago-34-photos/

FBI’s “Vault” Web Site Reveals Declassified Files on Hemingway, Einstein, Marilyn & Other Icons ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/fbis-vault-web-site-reveals-declassified-files-on-hemingway-einstein-marilyn-other-icons.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  

Pennsylvania History --- http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/pennsylvania_history/

PA's Past: Digital Bookshelf (Pennsylvania History) --- https://secureapps.libraries.psu.edu/digitalbookshelf/

ExploreKY History --- http://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/

WhatWasThere (history of various street locations and town) --- http://www.whatwasthere.com/
I entered Sugar Hill, NH and got a few tidbits of history, including a picture of the Sunset Hill House Hotel where our cottage now sits.

Landscapes in Passing: Photographs by Steve Fitch, Robbert Flick, and Elaine Mayes
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2013/passing_landscapes/

Robert Adams: The Place We Live --- http://artgallery.yale.edu/adams/

Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans: A Woman's Place is the Sewall-Belmont House
http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/148sewallbelmont/148sewallbelmont.htm

Irish Poet Seamus Heaney Dies ---
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/30/217122022/irish-poet-seamus-heaney-dies
Jensen Comment
One of the experiences of my life that I will never forget was the wonderful readings of his poetry on the Trinity University campus years ago.

Cincinnati Inventors Database --- http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/resources/invent/

Trains Magazine (railroads) --- http://trn.trains.com/

American Heritage Magazine (history) --- http://www.americanheritage.com 

Invention and Technology  (Including an Inventor's Hall of Fame) --- http://www.americanheritage.com/it/index.shtml 
What is underrated and what is overrated?   http://www.americanheritage.com/AMHER/2002/05/over-under.shtml

Free Literature Course From Harvard (plus 750 other free online literature courses)
An Introduction to World Literature by a Cast Of Literary & Academic Stars ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/introduction-to-world-literature-free-course.html

Permanently housed in the Literature section of our collection of 750 Free Online Courses, Invitation to World Literature features the following lectures:

  1. The Epic of Gilgamesh
  2. My Name is Red
  3. The Odyssey
  4. The Bacchae
  5. The Bhagavad Gita
  6. The Tale of the Genji
  7. Journey to the West
  8. Popul Vuh
  9. Candide
  10. Things Fall Apart
  11. One Hundred Years of Solitude
  12. The God of Small Things
  13. The Thousand and One Nights

Related Content:

Free Literature Courses

The Art of Living: A Free Stanford Course Explores Timeless Questions

A Crash Course in English Literature: A New Video Series by Best-Selling Author John Green

Contemporary American Literature: An Open Yale Course

David Foster Wallace’s 1994 Syllabus: How to Teach Serious Literature with Lightweight Books

W.H. Auden’s 1941 Literature Syllabus Asks Students to Read 32 Great Works, Covering 6000 Pages

Bob Jensen's threads on free MOOCs, SMOCs, videos, and course materials from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Language Tutorials

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


Music Tutorials

The Art of Fugue: Gould Plays Bach ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-art-of-fugue-gould-plays-bach.html

Glenn Gould Explains the Genius of Johann Sebastian Bach (1962)

The Genius of J.S. Bach’s “Crab Canon” Visualized on a Möbius Strip

A Big Bach Download: The Complete Organ Works for Free

 

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

National Writing Project --- http://digitalis.nwp.org/

WordPress Editorial Calendar --- http://wordpress.org/plugins/editorial-calendar/

What Books Do Writers Teach?: Zadie Smith and Gary Shteyngart’s Syllabi from Columbia University ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/zadie-smith-and-gary-shteyngarts-syllabi-from-columbia-university.html

When you’re trying to create a career as a writer, a little delusional thinking goes a long way
"Michael Lewis on Writing, Money, and the Necessary Self-Delusion of Creativity," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, August 26, 2013 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/26/michael-lewis-on-writing/

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


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

August 28, 2013

August 29, 2013

August 30, 2013

August 31, 2013

September 3, 2013

September 4, 2013

September 5, 2013

September 6, 2013

September 7, 2013

September 9, 2013

September 10, 2013

September 11, 2013

 


Forwarded by the wife of a cardiologist (these two friends are also neighbors)

WATER &  ASPIRIN

When to Drink  Water;  Great Info...

Something else I didn't know .... I asked my Doctor  why do people need to urinate so much at night time.

Answer from my Cardiac Doctor - Gravity holds water  in the lower part of your body when you are upright  (legs swell). When you lie down and the lower body (legs  and etc) seeks level with the kidneys, it is then that the kidneys remove the water because it is easier. This  then ties in with the last statement! I knew you need  your minimum water to help flush the toxins out of your  body, but this was news to me.

Correct time to drink water... Very Important. From A Cardiac Specialist!

Drinking water at a certain time  maximizes its effectiveness on the body: 2 glasses of  water after waking up - helps activate internal  organs

1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal - helps digestion

1 glass of water before taking a bath - helps lower blood pressure

1 glass of water before  going to bed - avoids stroke or heart attack

I  can also add to this... My Physician told me that water  at bed time will also help prevent night time leg  cramps. Your leg muscles are seeking hydration when  they cramp and wake you up with a Charlie Horse.

Mayo  Clinic Aspirin... Dr. Virend Somers, is a Cardiologist  from the Mayo Clinic, who is lead author of the report  in the July 29, 2008 issue of the Journal of the  American College of Cardiology.

Most heart attacks occur in the day, generally between 6 A.M. and noon. Having one during the night, when the heart should  be most at rest, means that something unusual happened.  Somers and his colleagues have been working for a decade  to show that sleep apnea is to  blame.

1. If you  take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at  night..

The reason: Aspirin has a 24-hour "half-life"; therefore, if most heart attacks happen in  the wee hours of the morning, the Aspirin would be  strongest in your system.

2. FYI, Aspirin lasts a  really long time in your medicine chest for years,
(when it gets  old, it smells like vinegar).

Please read on.

Something that we can do to help ourselves - nice  to know.

Bayer is making crystal aspirin to dissolve instantly on the tongue. They work much faster than  the tablets.

Why keep Aspirin by your bedside?

It's about Heart Attacks -

There are other  symptoms of a heart attack, besides the pain on the left  arm. One must also be aware of an intense pain on the  chin, as well as nausea and lots of sweating; however,  these symptoms may also occur less  frequently.

Note: There may be NO pain in the chest during a heart attack.

The majority of people (about 60%) who had a heart attack during their sleep did not wake up.

However, if it occurs, the  chest pain may wake you up from your deep  sleep.

If that happens, immediately dissolve two aspirins in your mouth and swallow them with a bit of water.

Afterwards: - Call 911. - Phone a neighbor  or a family member who lives very close by.

Say  "heart attack!" - Say that you have taken 2 Aspirins.

Take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door, and  wait for their arrival and ...

DO NOT LIE  DOWN!

Jensen Comment
The only thing I might add is at around 5:00 p.m. water seems to mix well with scotch.

Also note that there are various false claims that water will cure diseases ---
http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/heartattacksandwater.asp

Also note that water is no magic bullet for heart attack and stroke prevention ---
http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/aspirin.asp

What is still not clear to me is when water substitutes are equal to or better than water. For example, what about two cups of decaf. coffee in place of two glasses of water in the morning? What about a two cups of decaf. coffee 30 minutes before eating lunch or dinner? What about two scotches and water before dinner?

I don't think wine is a water substitute. I don't know about beer since beer is mostly water, but I doubt that beer is a water substitute. If I have beer or wine with lunch I might as well plan on going to bed after lunch.

In general sodas (especially diet sodas) are not water substitutes since, unlike water, they give you a craving for more and more calories.

Drinking Coke with aspirin is no substitute drinking Coke with rum ---
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/aspirin.asp

Heart Attack Systems (True) ---
http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/heartattack.asp


 




A Bit of Humor

Forwarded by Gene and Joan

Complete versus Finished

No English dictionary has been able to adequately explain the difference between these two words.

In a recently held linguistic competition held in London and attended by supposedly the best in the world, Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese man, was the clear winner with a standing ovation which lasted over 5 minutes.

The final question was:.. How do you explain the difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED in a way that is easy to understand.

Some people say there is NO difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED.

Here is his astute answer……..

When you marry the right woman, you are COMPLETE. When you marry the wrong woman, you are FINISHED, and when the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are COMPLETELY FINISHED!!

He won a trip to travel the world in style and a case of 25 year old rum.

 


Forwarded by Eliott

 If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch,
  'Who's on First?' might have turned out something like this:

  COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT
 
  ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
 
  COSTELLO: Thanks I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking
  about buying a computer.
 
  ABBOTT: Mac?
 
  COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
 
  ABBOTT: Your computer?
 
  COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
 
  ABBOTT: Mac?
 
  COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
 
  ABBOTT: What about Windows?
 
  COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
 
  ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
 
  COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
 
  ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
 
  COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
 
  ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
 
  COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write
  proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
 
  ABBOTT: Office.
 
  COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
 
  ABBOTT: I just did.
 
  COSTELLO: You just did what?
 
  ABBOTT: Recommend something.
 
  COSTELLO: You recommended something?
 
  ABBOTT: Yes.
 
  COSTELLO: For my office?
 
  ABBOTT: Yes.
 
  COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
 
  ABBOTT: Office.
 
  COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
 
  ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
 
  COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm
  sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
 
  ABBOTT: Word.
 
  COSTELLO: What word?
 
  ABBOTT: Word in Office.
 
  COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
 
  ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
 
  COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
 
  ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue 'W'.
 
  COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue 'W' if you don't start with some
  straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? Do you have anything
  I can track my money with?
 
  ABBOTT: Money.
 
  COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
 
  ABBOTT: Money.
 
  COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
 
  ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
 
  COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
 
  ABBOTT: Money.
 
  COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
 
  ABBOTT: Yes. At no extra charge.
 
  COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
 
  ABBOTT: One copy.
 
  COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
 
  ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
 
  COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
 
  ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!
 
  (A few days later)
 
  ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
  COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
  ABBOTT: Click on 'START.'
 


"Life Is Short. Live It To The Fullest. It Has An Expiration Date" by John Grosskopf

What deep thinkers men are... I mowed the lawn today, and after doing so I sat down and had a cold beer. The day was really quite beautiful, and the drink facilitated some deep thinking. My wife walked by and asked me what I was doing and I said 'nothing'. The reason I said that instead of saying 'just thinking' is because she would have said 'about what'. At that point I would have to explain that men are deep thinkers about various topics which would lead to other questions. Finally I thought about an age old question: Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the nuts? Women always maintain that giving birth is way more painful than a guy getting kicked in the nuts.

Well, after another beer, and some heavy deductive thinking, I have come up with the answer to that question. Getting kicked in the nuts is more painful than having a baby; and here is the reason for my conclusion. A year or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, "It might be nice to have another child." On the other hand, you never hear a guy say, "You know, I think I would like another kick in the nuts." I rest my case.

Time for another beer.

 

 




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