Tidbits on February 26 2014
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
Set 5 of My
All Time Favorite Snow Photographs
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Snow/Set05/SnowSet05.htm
Tidbits on February26, 2014
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
"A Scrapbook on What's Wrong with the Past, Present and Future of Accountics
Science"
Bob Jensen
February 19, 2014
SSRN Download:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2398296
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ---
http://plato.stanford.edu/
Old Barns ---
http://www.youtube.com/embed/J8Ioa1gVVeA?showinfo=0&rel=0
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
How Wolves Change Ecosystems ---
http://twistedsifter.com/videos/how-wolves-changed-an-ecosystem-trophic-cascade/
AT&T Tech Channel (exciting future of technology) ---
http://techchannel.att.com/showpage.cfm?ATT-Archives
How the Economic Machine Works ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-06/charlie-rose-talks-to-bridgewaters-ray-dalio
Featured Videos: Urban Land Institute ---
http://uli.org/publications/featured-videos/
Florida Citrus Industry Oral Histories ---
http://guides.lib.usf.edu/content.php?pid=49131&sid=364819
Jorge Luis Borges Chats with William F. Buckley on Firing Line
(1977) ---
https://mail.google.com/_/scs/mail-static/_/js/k=gmail.main.en.sG1zGE-7pzM.O/m=m_i,t,it/am=OCsOJvn39kIx5i_0RbX__rLdp2Infq_uj3QCUGCn-m_2_4B7gBuUH2c/rt=h/d=1/rs=AItRSTM6-_eWQavCiB6pLkqrU2Rfi91x6w
Everybody needs a hole to hide in:
The hawk versus the squirrel ---
https://www.youtube.com/v/XBEyCr5AoIs
I don't know this could possibly be filmed.
Amazing Antique Desk ---
http://www.youtube.com/embed/MKikHxKeodA?rel=0
Ken Burns (PBS American History) ---
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ken-burns/id723854283?mt=8
A Middle East Memorial Wall (warning this is patriotic) ---
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WEPBQGu74oo
Free music downloads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Riverwalk Jazz --- (vast collection of jazz
recordings and links) ---
http://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/home
Chicago Jazz ---
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/cja/jazzmaps/ctlframe.htm
John Falter's Jazz Portraits ---
http://nebraskahistory.org/exhibits/john_falter_jazz/in
Wynton Marsalis (History of Jazz With Great Samples) ---
http://joy2learn.com/jazz/index.html
Bluegrass in Space ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/a-bluegrass-version-of-elton-johns-1972-hit-rocket-man.html
Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a Medley of Male
Pain, Selected By Collective Cadenza ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/celebrate-valentines-day-with-a-medley-of-male-pain-selected-by-collective-cadenza.html
Crime Jazz: How Miles Davis, Count Basie & Other
Jazz Legends Provided the Soundtrack for Noir Films & TV ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/crime-jazz.html
Web outfits like
Pandora, Foneshow, Stitcher, and Slacker broadcast portable and mobile content
that makes Sirius look overpriced and stodgy ---
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090327_877363.htm?link_position=link2
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
The Conductor (even though
the music bad) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7W3ICpONVs
Bob Jensen's threads on nearly all types of free
music selections online ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm
Photographs and Art
21 Photos From The President Of Ukraine's Incredible Compound
---
http://www.businessinsider.com#ixzz2u9HkmwnF
19 Striking Photos Show What Nevada Brothels Are Really Like
---
http://www.businessinsider.com/marc-mcandrews-photos-of-nevadas-legal-brothels-2014-2?op=1#ixzz2u9IJcWBq
All the quality control inspector jobs are filled.
Actually this is a depressing set of photographs.
China's Biggest Ghost City ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-ordos-ghost-city-pictures-2014-2
Luxury glass house from 80s cult classic Ferris Bueller’s Day
Off finally sells for $1.25 million after FOUR years on the market ---
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2564971/Luxury-glass-house-cult-classic-Ferris-Bueller-finally-sells-FOUR-years-market.html
A Chinese Artist Has Done Something Incredible With Paper ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-artist-paper-classic-sculptures-2014-2
Century 21 Digital Collection (1,200 photographs
from the 1962 Chicago World's Fair) ---
http://cdm15015.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15015coll3
Paul Revere Collection at the American
Antiquarian Society (art history) ---
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Inventories/Revere/
Isa Genzken Retrospective (Sculpture Exhibition
at the MOMA) ---
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2013/isagenzken/
Sporting Sketches by Henry Thomas Alken ---
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=science&col_id=150
Stunning Combat Artwork Reveals WWII Fighting That Will Never Be Seen Again
---
http://www.businessinsider.com/wwii-combat-artwork-2014-2
The 58 Most Mesmerizing Photos From The Winter Olympics ---
http://www.businessinsider.com#ixzz2tzrnGq4e
Legendary Lands ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/17/legendary-lands-umberto-eco/
Winter in Russia ---
Click Here
https://www.google.ca/search?q="Winter+in+Russia"&lr=&as_qdr=all&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=RUACU5-bKqW8yAHgyIDoAg&ved=0CCgQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=497
The 10 Most Expensive Paintings On Public Display
---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-expensive-paintings-on-public-display-2014-2
President Barack Obama Visual Iconography (photographs of
political history) ---
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/obama/
Georgians Revealed (The Georgian Era in England)
---
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/georgiansrevealed/index.html
Painters Painting: The Definitive Documentary
Portrait of the New York Art World (1940-1970) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/painters-painting.html
The Haunting Final Portrait of Philip Seymour
Hoffman, Part of Victoria Will’s Civil War-Era Photo Collection ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/the-haunting-last-portrait-of-philip-seymour-hoffman.html
An Online Gallery of 30,000 Items from The
British Library, Including Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks And Mozart’s Diary ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/an-online-gallery-of-30000-items-from-the-british-library-including-leonardo-da-vincis-notebooks-and-mozarts-diary.html
Museum of Science & Industry: Education ---
http://www.msichicago.org/education/
University of Oklahoma: History of Science Collections ---
http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/homescience.php
Browse The Magical Worlds of Harry Houdini’s
Scrapbooks ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/browse-magical-worlds-harry-houdinis-scrapbooks.html
The Postcards That Picasso Illustrated and Sent
to Jean Cocteau, Apollinaire & Gertrude Stein ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/picasso-postcards.html
New photos of bighorn lamb born north of Tucson
released ---
http://azstarnet.com/news/new-photos-of-bighorn-lamb-born-north-of-tucson-released/article_c54ef9e6-9b30-11e3-8252-0019bb2963f4.html
Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various
types electronic literature available free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Harvard Presents Two Free Online Courses on the Old Testament ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/harvard-presents-two-free-online-courses-on-the-old-testament.html
Watch Langston Hughes Read Poetry from His First Collection,
The Weary Blues (1958) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/hear-langston-hughes-read-two-poems-from-the-weary-blues.html
An Online Gallery of 30,000 Items from The British Library,
Including Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks And Mozart’s Diary ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/an-online-gallery-of-30000-items-from-the-british-library-including-leonardo-da-vincis-notebooks-and-mozarts-diary.html
Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life: The Oscar-Winning Film
About Kafka Writing The Metamorphosis ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/franz-kafkas-its-a-wonderful-life.html
The Little Prince as a Pop-Up
Book ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/12/little-prince-pop-up-book/
Legendary Lands ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/17/legendary-lands-umberto-eco/
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 February 26, 2014
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2014/TidbitsQuotations022614.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
David Johnstone asked me to write a paper on the following:
"A Scrapbook on What's Wrong with the Past, Present and Future of Accountics
Science"
Bob Jensen
February 19, 2014
SSRN Download:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2398296
Abstract
For operational convenience I define accountics science as
research that features equations and/or statistical inference. Historically,
there was a heated debate in the 1920s as to whether the main research
journal of academic accounting, The Accounting Review (TAR) that
commenced in 1926, should be an accountics journal with articles that mostly
featured equations. Practitioners and teachers of college accounting won
that debate.
TAR articles and accountancy doctoral dissertations prior to
the 1970s seldom had equations. For reasons summarized below, doctoral
programs and TAR evolved to where in the 1990s there where having equations
became virtually a necessary condition for a doctoral dissertation and
acceptance of a TAR article. Qualitative normative and case method
methodologies disappeared from doctoral programs.
What’s really meant by “featured
equations” in doctoral programs is merely symbolic of the fact that North
American accounting doctoral programs pushed out most of the accounting to
make way for econometrics and statistics that are now keys to the kingdom
for promotion and tenure in accounting schools ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
The purpose of this paper is to make a case that the accountics science
monopoly of our doctoral programs and published research is seriously
flawed, especially its lack of concern about replication and focus on
simplified artificial worlds that differ too much from reality to creatively
discover findings of greater relevance to teachers of accounting and
practitioners of accounting. Accountics scientists themselves became a Cargo
Cult.
I'm really not an fan of motivational and inspirational books, presentations,
and films --- they get to be a lot alike and boring.
I was fascinated and inspired by the upbeat writings and videos of Randy
Paush in his dying days ---
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/tidbits/2008/tidbits080415.htm
In particular I compared my tough football coach (Tony Gazowski) with
Randy's Coach Graham ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#Randy
There's a saying that goes something like this:
"Success if failure turned inside out."
This does not apply to me mostly because of my risk aversions. I avoided risks
my entire life. My life has never been one of extreme failure or extreme success
even though I'm somewhat proud of being my high school Valedictorian and
graduating Summa Cum Laude in college, but it was a very small farm town
graduating high school class of 78 students, and I worked like a drudge
(memorized a lot) night and day in college for grades in college. My success was
driven by fear of disappointing my parents who, because of deep love, never
would really would have been disappointed if I got a B or even a C.
I was turned down by Stanford University for my first year of college but was
later given a full-ride fellowship for six years in a new accounting Ph.D.
program at Stanford. I did pass all four parts of the CPA exam while I was in my
last term of an undergraduate program, but I destroyed a lot of week ends
memorizing for that set of examinations. Whatever success I achieved in life was
never easy for me.
9 Lessons to Learn From Failure: Nine Stanford GSB alumni including
Chip Conley (MBA ’84) of Joie de Vivre Hotels and Beth Cross (MBA ’88) of Ariat
International open up about failure and how to move forward after difficult
times. ---
Click Here
http://stanfordbusiness.tumblr.com/post/75273351576/9-lessons-to-learn-from-failure?utm_source=Stanford+Business+Re%3AThink&utm_campaign=47b440d404-Stanford_Business_Re_Think_Issue_32_2_23_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b5214e34b-47b440d404-70265733&ct=t%28Stanford_Business_Re_Think_Issue_32_2_23_2014%29
My good friend Joe Hoyle sent me a copy of his new book.
Stack the Odds in Your Favor: Don't Just Dream About Success
by Joe Ben Hoyle
2013
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Just-Dream-About-Success/dp/1493581651/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393247532&sr=1-1&keywords=stack+the+odds+in+your+favor
I suspect Joe and I have a lot in common in terms of risk aversion and work
ethic. As a professor
his professionalism is more focused on teaching. Before retirement
my focus was
more on research than teaching, although I had to do both to make a living.
No doubt Joe is more of an inspiration to his students. It took years following
graduation before my students stopped using an adjective (that I won't repeat)
in front of my name.
Joe's book to many people will be worth much more than the $8 price and the
short time it takes to read this thin book. What impressed me the most is the
many celebrities like Derek Jeter that are featured in the book. The book is a
lot about how to monitor and reassess your progress toward Level 3 goals. It's a
lot like those time management books that advise not wasting time optimizing
Level 1 and Level 2 goals at the expense of never digging deep to make progress
toward Level 3 goals. And there's a lot about not deluding yourself about
progress toward those Level 3 goals and setting tough goals that take a lot of
blood, sweat, and tears to achieve.
Joe spent 23+ years of his life deeply involved in coaching classes for
students trying to pass the CPA exam and is still helping pass this examination
in his college accounting courses and in his updates to free helper materials.
This is not an easy exam. In my day the first-time failure rate was about
85%, and I think it still not gone much below 70% in spite of the much more
intense multimedia pay-to-pass coaching courses that evolved long after the year
the year I took the CPA examination. All I studied were recent copies of CPA
examinations. Because it's possible to retake failed parts of the examination,
eventual passage rates approach 50%. It's a tough exam relative to the BAR
examination where more than 50% (sometimes higher than 90%) of the graduates
from most law schools pass the examination.
Joe's hypothesis is that the most important thing for CPA wannabes is
building up confidence that they can pass the CPA examination. His advice
is to "stop (merely) yearning for success and start achieving it." He also talks
about the "benefits of failure" that make you dig in harder to not give up being
all that you really can become.
What I like toward the end of the book is the appeal to students to
procrastinate less and less in courses. Procrastination becomes a bad habit that
carries over into life's many projects between now and death. If something hard
and maybe boring needs to be done, get it done as soon as possible and move on.
Stop looking for excuses!
Joe's book is much more than mere advice about passing the CPA examination.
The CPA examination is mostly an example to focus upon in the book. Joe also
provides free helpers to pass technical parts of the CPA examination at a
Website. However, my advice is that if you can afford it it may be better to pay
the fees for more intense multimedia coaching courses since these are more
complete and more up to date on new accounting, auditing, systems, ethics, and
tax rules.
Alternative helpers to pass the CPA examination, including Joe's free
helpers, are linked at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#010303CPAExam
The Ideal Career for the Very Few
Hi Len,
I was fortunate in life. Aside from preparing for classes and teaching
five hours per week in two "teaching days," I either drove to campus at 5:00
am (to beat traffic) or stayed home to spend the day in my home office or
tending to my yard if I just felt like being outdoors.
Unlike a physician or most every other working professional or day
laborer or full-time student, upon awakening in the morning I could
generally ask myself: "What do I feel like doing today?" Of course there
were constraints. I had to worry about keeping up with my discipline so that
I did not begin to teach year after year on cruise control. I had to worry
about annual performance reports where the most important line item on the
form was: "What and where did you publish research (not books for money)
this year and make presentations off campus on your research.?"
I had to work on building an international reputation as a scholar, but I
could do that on my own time and terms. Since I enjoyed that part the most,
I actually spent about 60 hours a week on average doing just that --- but
only because I enjoyed it the most (and the applause after making
presentations on campuses around the world) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Resume.htm#Presentations
Each day was virtually mine. I owned the day unless my wife took
ownership of that particular day.
I did not have an appointment book full of patients to see, clients to
tend to every day, or employees to supervise. I did not have to milk cows
morning and night seven days each week or tend crops from sunrise to sunset.
My work, aside from teaching, was not routine. I could pick and choose my
reading, my research topics, my research approaches, and how I wrote up my
notes and papers.
My life was better than a full time researcher on projects that dictated
when and how I worked or supervise others on research teams like chemists
working for Dupont on assigned projects with assigned duties.
My life was better than having to solve problems that clients or patients
wanted solved. I picked the problems to solve and when and where to solve
them or when to shelve them permanently because they were too difficult or
no longer interested me and me alone.
If that sounds like an ideal career it's because it is an ideal career as
long as you enjoy becoming a better and better scholar in the your chosen
discipline for teaching and research.
The majority of workers in the world probably would not enjoy having to
become a better and better scholar on the head of a pin because the job is
too difficult. Most of them would rather have routine jobs. If they are
professors they prefer to teaching more than research and get their rewards
directly from students like physicians get rewards from serving their
patients.
Researchers work for the occasional, sometimes very infrequent, applause
of their peers. The work is not fun when those supervising your work base
their evaluations on the number of papers you published last year in JAR,
TAR, and JAE even if you were only one of twelve coauthors on those three
papers.
Respectfully,
Bob Jensen
"What Is the Secret to College Success? A smart roommate, says new
research," by Sharique Hasan, Stanford Graduate School of Business, February
2014 ---
Click Here
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/sharique-hasan-why-smart-roommate-maybe-key-college-success?utm_source=Stanford+Business+Re%3AThink&utm_campaign=47b440d404-Stanford_Business_Re_Think_Issue_32_2_23_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b5214e34b-47b440d404-70265733&ct=t%28Stanford_Business_Re_Think_Issue_32_2_23_2014%29
Jensen Comment
Personally I did not much like having a roommate in college although there were
some years where I had at least one roommate or several housemates including a
year that I lived (not very happily) in a sort-of Mickey Mouse national
fraternity house before I changed universities. In my college days having a coed
for a roommate was not an option unless you got married. Women were locked away
in vaults after 10:00 p.m.
Roommates are both good and bad distractions even when they are good
roommates. You can both teach to and learn from roommates. Roommates can teach
you how to share both things and feelings. Roommates can be a bother if they're
always wanting to borrow something like money or your car or beg you to
essentially do their homework.
The important thing about having housemates is saying no when other things
like studying and sleeping are more important. My fraternity house had one or
more bridge tables going at almost any time of the day. I played a lot of bridge
(sometimes poker) but carefully controlled my study and sleep time. I think some
of my fraternity brothers flunked out of college because they mostly played
cards and did social things (read that partying) most every day of every week.
Of course in some cases those things may just have been excuses for young men
who were going to flunk out of college no matter what stood between them and
academic success.
One year five of us at Stanford shared a house in Palo Alto. That became a
pain in the butt trying to prepare meals and keep the kitchen and family room
and bathrooms clean. I preferred a private room in a dormitory where men and
women (in separate wings) shared a central dining room with meals that I did not
have to help prepare or clean up. Life was also easier when you could simply
walk to other parts of the campus and not have to drive your car unless you had
a hot date.
When you spend 11 full time years in college there are all sorts of things
that become anecdotes to talk about in terms of roommates, fraternity brothers,
dorm friends, classes, teachers, romances, and trips to the mountains, lakes,
wineries, oceans, casinos, cities like San Francisco, farms, ranches, etc. In so
many ways life is more full if you went to college rather than get married a few
days after high school graduation and commenced working on a farm. Maybe this is
why retired or semi-retired farmers are more inclined to have motor homes and
bucket lists of things to see and do --- sometimes with new roommates.
Those of us that lived fuller lives when young are now content sitting at the
computer in retirement communicating our memories on listservs.
In so many ways those of us who became professors never really ceased being
students on campus. Spouses become roommates, and for most of us that's been
good.
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
"People will come!"
Field of Dreams ---
http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/field-of-dreams/people-will-come
Put this example in your managerial accounting/economics course.
I think most ghost towns in the USA were close to being fully depreciated before
they were abandoned. There are several ghost towns in the forests of New
Hampshire that were turned over to ghosts when the virgin timber played out. But
I don't know of any that were turned over to ghosts before they ever occupied.
This ghost city built for over a million people in China is unbelievable.
China's Biggest Ghost City ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-ordos-ghost-city-pictures-2014-2
"Loop Payment Fob Lets You Swipe Your Phone Instead of a Credit Card,"
by David Pogue, Yahoo Tech, February 20, 2014 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/loop-payment-fob-lets-you-swipe-your-phone-instead-of-a-77259827533.html
Maybe you’ve
heard: Big technology companies are frantically trying to get rid of credit
cards.
It’s a worthy goal, actually. Many people carry
around purses or wallets that are bloated and bursting with plastic cards.
And for what? Each sheet of hard plastic exists solely to bear a magnetic
strip that you can run through card readers at checkout.
The dream is to let you pay for things, quickly and
easily, with the swipe of your phone. Or, someday, your watch. Fast,
convenient, secure — and cardless.
It’s not going so well, though. The world’s shops,
gas stations and restaurants already have all the equipment they care to
install: standard credit-card readers. They’re not interested in buying
something new just to accommodate, for example, Android phones that are
compatible with Google’s Wallet payment system.
But now there’s something new called the Loop,
which began life as a successful Kickstarter project. It’s instantly
compatible with those hundreds of millions of existing credit-card readers.
But it still lets you pay for stuff without ever extracting any plastic from
your wallet or purse.
It does that by
sending out a magnetic signal that tricks the credit-card reader
into thinking that you’ve actually swiped a card through it.
I’ll wait here
while you read that again.
This is the part that’s hard to believe. You wave
the Loop near the card-reader slot, up to a couple of inches away, and —
beep! — you’ve just paid. (Inside the Loop, there’s an inductive
magnetic loop of wire that generates an alternating current. Hence the
name.)
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on gadgets are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#Technology
"Samsung Has Two New Smart Watches Launching In April — Here's Everything
They Can Do," by Steve Kovach, Business Insider, February 22, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-gear-2-2014-2
. . .
Here's a quick breakdown of the new features in the
Gear 2/Gear 2 Neo:
- The new
Gears will include a universal remote control app and built-in infrared
sensor that will let you control your TV from the watch.
- There's a
music player app that lets you listen to your songs, even if the device
isn't paired to a smartphone.
- The watches
double as fitness trackers, and can monitor your heart rate, sleeping
habits, and steps taken. The data syncs with Samsung's S Health app,
which comes preinstalled in Samsung phones like the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy
Note 3.
- Both models
are slightly thinner and lighter than the original Galaxy Gear, but the
Gear 2 is a bit heftier than the Gear 2 neo.
- Both models have a
1.63-inch color touchscreen and the wristbands and watch faces come in a
variety of color options.
Other than that, the
new Gears will mimic the functions of last year's model. The Gear pairs with
your Samsung Galaxy phone via Bluetooth using a special Galaxy Gear app.
After the pairing, you can use Gear to check incoming texts, calls, emails,
tweets, etc. without having to pull out your phone. You can also make calls
from the watch using a built-in speaker and microphone.
The Gear also has an
app store, which includes some big-name apps like Evernote and the mobile
social network Path. However, other big names like Facebook and Twitter are
still missing.
"Pebble Steel: Best Smartwatch So Far," by David Pogue, Yahoo Tech,
February 13, 2014 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/pebble-steel-best-smartwatch-so-far-76486495620.html
There’s nothing about the success of the new Pebble
Steel smartwatch that you couldn’t have predicted by studying tech history.
Over and over again, gadgets become insanely
successful when they do a few things very well. (See: PalmPilot, iPod, iPad.)
And over and over again, gadgets flop when they are freighted with the wrong
collection of features in a hopeless mass (Zune, ultramobile PCs and the
Nokia N-Gage — a combination game console/cellphone).
Which brings us to smartwatches. A smartwatch, of
course, is a wristwatch that connects wirelessly with the phone in your
pocket. It can display incoming text messages right on your wrist. It can
vibrate to let you know when a call comes in, even when you wouldn’t have
heard your phone. It can pass along alerts — new email, Facebook messages,
stock-market crashes — right to your wrist.
There are some advantages to having this
information close at hand. It’s a lot less tacky to glance at your wrist
during a meeting than to pull out your phone. When you’re riding a bike,
it’s safer to get your next-turn GPS instructions by glancing at your wrist
than it is to fumble for your phone. When your arms are full of packages or
groceries … well, you get the idea.
There are lots of smartwatches available, but you
probably have very few friends who own one. That’s because they’re all
pretty terrible (the watches, not your friends).
The best-known one, the Samsung Gear watch, costs
$300, works with only three Samsung phone models, has a camera on the
watchband, lets you make phone calls by holding the watch up to your head —
and looks like an HDTV strapped to your arm.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
As far as touch screen goes I give smart watches the big finger.
Bob Jensen's threads on gadgets ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#Technology
MOOC ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOOCs
180 MOOCs to Start the 2014 New Year (Is This the Crest of the Wave?) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/01/180-moocs-to-start-the-new-year.html
800 Free MOOCs from Great Universities ---
http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses
MOOC FAQ ---
http://www.openculture.com/mooc_faq
Harvard Presents Two Free Online Courses on the Old Testament ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/harvard-presents-two-free-online-courses-on-the-old-testament.html
"Harvard and MIT Release Visualization Tools for Trove of MOOC Data,"
Chronicle of Higher Education, February 20, 2014 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/harvard-and-mit-release-visualization-tools-for-trove-of-mooc-data/50631?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology have released a set of open-source visualization tools for
working with a rich trove of data from more than a million people registered
for 17 of the two institutions’ massive open online courses, which are
offered through their edX platform.
The tools let users see and work with “near
real-time” information about course registrants—minus personally identifying
details—from 193 countries. A Harvard news release says the tools “showcase
the potential promise” of data generated by MOOCs. The aggregated data sets
that the tools use can be also downloaded.
The suite of tools, named Insights, was created by Sergiy
Nesterko, a research fellow in HarvardX, the university’s
instructional-technology office, and Daniel Seaton, a postdoctoral research
fellow at MIT’s Office of Digital Learning. Mr. Nesterko said the tools “can
help to guide instruction while courses are running and deepen our
understanding of the impact of courses after they are complete.”
The Harvard tools are
here, while those for MIT are
here.
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs and open sharing learning materials in
general ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Visualization of Multivariate Data (including faces) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm
"The Monty Hall Problem: There's A Right Answer But Even Genius Math Geeks
Get It Wrong, by Sara Silverstein and Matt Johnston, Business
Insider, February 20, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-monty-hall-math-problem-2014-2
Monty Hall Problem ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem
Sources of confusion
When first presented with the Monty Hall problem an
overwhelming majority of people assume that each door has an equal
probability and conclude that switching does not matter (Mueser and Granberg,
1999). Out of 228 subjects in one study, only 13% chose to switch (Granberg
and Brown, 1995:713). In her book The Power of Logical Thinking, vos Savant
(1996, p. 15) quotes cognitive psychologist Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini as
saying "... no other statistical puzzle comes so close to fooling all the
people all the time" and "that even Nobel physicists systematically give the
wrong answer, and that they insist on it, and they are ready to berate in
print those who propose the right answer." Interestingly, pigeons make
mistakes and learn from mistakes, and experiments show that they rapidly
learn to always switch, unlike humans (Herbranson and Schroeder, 2010).
Most statements of the problem, notably the one in
Parade Magazine, do not match the rules of the actual game show (Krauss and
Wang, 2003:9), and do not fully specify the host's behavior or that the
car's location is randomly selected (Granberg and Brown, 1995:712). Krauss
and Wang (2003:10) conjecture that people make the standard assumptions even
if they are not explicitly stated. (From the point of view of subjective
probability, the standard assumptions can be derived from the problem
statement: they follow from our total lack of information about how the car
is hidden, how the player initially chooses a door, and how the host chooses
a door to open if there's a choice.)
Although these issues are mathematically
significant, even when controlling for these factors nearly all people still
think each of the two unopened doors has an equal probability and conclude
switching does not matter (Mueser and Granberg, 1999). This "equal
probability" assumption is a deeply rooted intuition (Falk 1992:202). People
strongly tend to think probability is evenly distributed across as many
unknowns as are present, whether it is or not (Fox and Levav, 2004:637).
Indeed, if a player believes that sticking and switching are equally
successful and therefore equally often decides to switch as to stay, they
will win 50% of the time, reinforcing their original belief. Missing the
unequal chances of those two doors, and in not considering that (1/3+2/3) /
2 gives a chance of 50%, similar to "the little green woman" example (Marc
C. Steinbach, 2000).
The problem continues to attract the attention of
cognitive psychologists. The typical behaviour of the majority, i.e., not
switching, may be explained by phenomena known in the psychological
literature as: 1) the endowment effect (Kahneman et al., 1991); people tend
to overvalue the winning probability of the already chosen – already "owned"
– door; 2) the status quo bias (Samuelson and Zeckhauser, 1988); people
prefer to stick with the choice of door they have already made. Experimental
evidence confirms that these are plausible explanations which do not depend
on probability intuition (Morone and Fiore, 2007). Criticism of the simple
solutions
As already remarked, most sources in the field of
probability, including many introductory probability textbooks, solve the
problem by showing the conditional probabilities the car is behind door 1
and door 2 are 1/3 and 2/3 (not 1/2 and 1/2) given the contestant initially
picks door 1 and the host opens door 3; various ways to derive and
understand this result were given in the previous subsections. Among these
sources are several that explicitly criticize the popularly presented
"simple" solutions, saying these solutions are "correct but ... shaky"
(Rosenthal 2005a), or do not "address the problem posed" (Gillman 1992), or
are "incomplete" (Lucas et al. 2009), or are "unconvincing and misleading" (Eisenhauer
2001) or are (most bluntly) "false" (Morgan et al. 1991). Some say that
these solutions answer a slightly different question – one phrasing is "you
have to announce before a door has been opened whether you plan to switch"
(Gillman 1992, emphasis in the original).
The simple solutions show in various ways that a
contestant who is determined to switch will win the car with probability
2/3, and hence that switching is the winning strategy, if the player has to
choose in advance between "always switching", and "always staying". However,
the probability of winning by always switching is a logically distinct
concept from the probability of winning by switching given the player has
picked door 1 and the host has opened door 3. As one source says, "the
distinction between [these questions] seems to confound many" (Morgan et al.
1991). This fact that these are different can be shown by varying the
problem so that these two probabilities have different numeric values. For
example, assume the contestant knows that Monty does not pick the second
door randomly among all legal alternatives but instead, when given an
opportunity to pick between two losing doors, Monty will open the one on the
right. In this situation the following two questions have different answers:
What is the probability of winning the car by
always switching? What is the probability of winning the car given the
player has picked door 1 and the host has opened door 3?
The answer to the first question is 2/3, as is
correctly shown by the "simple" solutions. But the answer to the second
question is now different: the conditional probability the car is behind
door 1 or door 2 given the host has opened door 3 (the door on the right) is
1/2. This is because Monty's preference for rightmost doors means he opens
door 3 if the car is behind door 1 (which it is originally with probability
1/3) or if the car is behind door 2 (also originally with probability 1/3).
For this variation, the two questions yield different answers. However as
long as the initial probability the car is behind each door is 1/3, it is
never to the contestant's disadvantage to switch, as the conditional
probability of winning by switching is always at least 1/2. (Morgan et al.
1991)
There is disagreement in the literature regarding
whether vos Savant's formulation of the problem, as presented in Parade
magazine, is asking the first or second question, and whether this
difference is significant (Rosenhouse 2009). Behrends (2008) concludes that
"One must consider the matter with care to see that both analyses are
correct"; which is not to say that they are the same. One analysis for one
question, another analysis for the other question. Several discussants of
the paper by (Morgan et al. 1991), whose contributions were published
alongside the original paper, strongly criticized the authors for altering
vos Savant's wording and misinterpreting her intention (Rosenhouse 2009).
One discussant (William Bell) considered it a matter of taste whether or not
one explicitly mentions that (under the standard conditions), which door is
opened by the host is independent of whether or not one should want to
switch.
Among the simple solutions, the "combined doors
solution" comes closest to a conditional solution, as we saw in the
discussion of approaches using the concept of odds and Bayes theorem. It is
based on the deeply rooted intuition that revealing information that is
already known does not affect probabilities. But knowing the host can open
one of the two unchosen doors to show a goat does not mean that opening a
specific door would not affect the probability that the car is behind the
initially chosen door. The point is, though we know in advance that the host
will open a door and reveal a goat, we do not know which door he will open.
If the host chooses uniformly at random between doors hiding a goat (as is
the case in the standard interpretation) this probability indeed remains
unchanged, but if the host can choose non-randomly between such doors then
the specific door that the host opens reveals additional information. The
host can always open a door revealing a goat and (in the standard
interpretation of the problem) the probability that the car is behind the
initially chosen door does not change, but it is not because of the former
that the latter is true. Solutions based on the assertion that the host's
actions cannot affect the probability that the car is behind the initially
chosen appear persuasive, but the assertion is simply untrue unless each of
the host's two choices are equally likely, if he has a choice (Falk
1992:207,213). The assertion therefore needs to be justified; without
justification being given, the solution is at best incomplete. The answer
can be correct but the reasoning used to justify it is defective.
Some of the confusion in the literature undoubtedly
arises because the writers are using different concepts of probability, in
particular, Bayesian versus frequentist probability. For the Bayesian,
probability represents knowledge. For us and for the player, the car is
initially equally likely to be behind each of the three doors because we
know absolutely nothing about how the organizers of the show decided where
to place it. For us and for the player, the host is equally likely to make
either choice (when he has one) because we know absolutely nothing about how
he makes his choice. These "equally likely" probability assignments are
determined by symmetries in the problem. The same symmetry can be used to
argue in advance that specific door numbers are irrelevant, as we saw above.
Decisive Moments in Teaching and Learning
"THE DECISIVE MOMENT," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, February 23, 2014 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-decisive-moment.html
Professional photographers sometimes talk about the
“decisive moment.” It is that one essential point in time when the photo
needs to be taken to capture the true essence of the events that are taking
place and the people that are involved.
I strongly believe that there are decisive moments
in teaching and learning. If you make the most of those decisive moments,
the students can learn much and learn deeply. If you miss those moments,
learning becomes more of a superficial affair.
Continued in article
"CONVERSATION WITH BOB JENSEN," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, October
8, 2013 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2013/10/conversation-with-bob-jensen.html
"The 2008 FOMC Laugh Track: Gallows Humor at the Federal Reserve,"
The Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2014 ---
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/02/21/the-2008-fomc-laugh-track-gallows-humor-at-the-federal-reserve/
Federal Reserve policy meetings
typically feature 19 central bank officials sitting around a table for a day
or two, discussing the state of the economy at great length. They’re
important gatherings, but they also can be long and dull affairs. So it’s
only natural for officials to crack a joke or two.
The Fed’s transcripts include a convenient
[Laughter] tag to mark when central bank officials acted amused by
a colleague’s comment — whether it was intended as a joke or not. We’ve been
compiling them for years in our coverage of Federal Open Market Committee
transcripts (read
last year’s edition off the 2007 transcripts).
Here are some of the best – and worst – jokes from the
2008 Fed meetings as
officials moved out of and then back into a crisis mentality.
(Note: FOMC meetings can run on for days, and
except for these jokes they’re almost entirely serious. Read our
comprehensive coverage of the serious discussions here on Real Time
Economics.)
- Compiled by Eric Morath, Sarah Portlock,
Sudeep Reddy and Jeffrey Sparshott
* * *
January 2008
St. Louis Fed President William Poole,
at his final committee meeting (his 81st, according to Chairman
Ben Bernanke), referenced the fact that his term
spanned from the solid economic growth of the late 1990s to early 2008 when
the economy was sluggish:
Mr. Poole: I came here 10 years
ago with a boom. I’m going out with a pause. [Laughter]
During a discussion about the economy,
Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser said it was
“hard to put a good face” on recent readings.
Mr. Plosser: You know, listening
to the staff discussion I have certainly come to understand why everyone
continues to believe that economics is a dismal science. [Laughter] It is
quite a dismal picture.
Fed Governor Frederic Mishkin
pointed to housing as one of the most significant downside risks that
worried him – and that he was “stupidly” in the midst of buying a house.
Mr. Mishkin: As somebody who
stupidly is just going to contract on a new house because I have to please
my wife, I actually thought exactly along these lines and was thinking about
pulling out but then decided that my marriage was more important.
Minneapolis Fed President Gary Stern: It was close.
[Laughter]
Mr. Mishkin: By the way, if you know my wife, no it wasn’t
close.
* * *
March 2008
Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher,
in a soliloquy about the philosophy of central banking, offered this
metaphor: “I liken the fed funds rate to a good single malt whiskey—it
takes time to have its ameliorative or stimulative effect.” [Laughter]
Officials were discussing the merits of various
programs they’d initiated, including the Term Auction Facility, Term
Securities Lending Facility and Primary Dealer Credit Facility.
Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser:
I am very concerned about the developments in the financial markets. I’ve
been supportive of the steps we’ve taken to enhance liquidity in the markets
through the TAF, the TSLF, the PDCF, or whatever.
Mr. Bernanke: AEIOU.
New York Fed President Tim Geithner: Don’t say IOU.
[Laughter]
The day marked Richard Fisher’s 59th birthday,
which gave officials a chance to reference a classic Fed metaphor: the punch
bowl.
Mr. Fisher: I can’t think of a
better group of people to spend it with—or a less happy time to do it.
Fed Governor Randall Kroszner: We sure know how to take the
punch bowl away from this party. [Laughter]
Mr. Fisher: Well, listen, I know we are suffering because
our Deputy Secretary here sitting to your right, Mr. Chairman, just gave me
a candle and had me blow it out with no cake attached. [Laughter]
San Francisco Fed President Janet
Yellen offers a rather dire rundown of her economic outlook:
As a final anecdote, a banker in my District who
lends to wineries noted that high-end boutique producers face a distinctly
softening market for their products, although sales of cheap wine are
soaring. [Laughter]
* * *
April 2008
Mr. Mishkin: Also, if you ask
people what TV shows they are watching, they will tell you that they are
watching PBS and something classy, but you know they are watching “Desperate
Housewives.” [Laughter]
Chairman Bernanke: What is wrong
with “Desperate Housewives”? [Laughter]
Fed officials discussed a request from members
of Congress, including former Sen.
Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), to expand the
collateral in the emergency Term Securities Lending Facility to include
student loans, auto loans and other consumer credit.
Chairman Bernanke: On the one
hand, we would get, I would call it for short, a Wall Street Journal
editorial that the Federal Reserve is once again the craven cur and the
spineless—boy, I am getting good at this—[laughter] lackey of the Congress
by accommodating this request… On the other side, I suppose that there
would be what I could call the USA Today editorial, which is, “Why won’t the
Fed, which is bailing out Wall Street left and right, include asset-backed
paper in their facilities, even though it is consistent with all of their
other practices and they take it in all of their other facilities?” and so
on. So I think there are PR and political risks on both sides of this.
Continued in article
Global recession? What global recession?
Hilarious Transcripts of Fed Minutes Reveal Completely Clueless Fed ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2014/02/22/hilarious-transcripts-of-fed-minutes-reveal-completely-clueless-fed-n1798911
"Which macroeconomists missed the Global Financial Collapse and when did
they miss it," by Karl Smith, Financial Times Alphaville, February
18, 2014 ---
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2014/02/18/1774262/which-macroeconomists-missed-the-global-financial-collapse-and-when-did-they-miss-it/
Jensen Comment
Also read the comments. Macroeconomists are still groping about in the dark.
Bob Jensen's threads on the global recession, the bailout, and the largest
fraud, according the The Nation magazine, in human history ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm
"Five Really Dumb Money Moves Retirees Make: How to Avoid Ever
Having to Say 'I Lost the Nest Egg'," by Tom Lauricella, The Wall Street
Journal, February 23, 2014 ---
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303775504579394930456252714
After decades of saving for retirement, you never
want to end up saying, "I lost the nest egg."
For most people, retirement savings will need to be
carefully tended if they are to last two or three decades, a typical life
span after collecting one's final full-time paycheck.
But there are plenty of mistakes that can be made.
Some can deplete that nest egg in one fell swoop, while others can result in
a slow bleed that becomes apparent only over time.
Some missteps to avoid:
1. Big purchases.
It's a natural instinct for new retirees to want to
kick back and treat themselves following decades of hard work.
Ronald Myers, an adviser at Associated Financial
Consultants in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., talks about clients who see some of
their retirement funds as their "YOLO money"—You Only Live Once.
"I'm the first guy to say go out and enjoy yourself
early on—you aren't going to get any healthier," says Mr. Myers. But it's
crucial, he says, to avoid blowing a hole in a retirement plan at the
get-go. And given the uncertainty of the market, the depth of that hole may
not become apparent until much later in life.
He points to example of a retiree who plans to
withdraw $25,000 a year from a $500,000 nest egg starting off by taking
$50,000 to buy a boat—two years of income.
Should that big withdrawal be followed by a market
decline, the result could be many years shaved off the time those savings
will last.
2. No cushion.
In retirement, a major, unexpected expense can
quickly send a financial plan off the rails. But that doesn't have to
happen.
"I see a lot of people cutting it really close and
living paycheck to paycheck, even though they are really paying themselves"
out of their savings, says Blair duQuesnay, director of investments at
ThirtyNorth Investments in New Orleans.
The problem comes when an emergency crops up that
requires laying out extra cash on short notice. If that outlay requires
selling investments in the middle of a market downturn, the retiree could be
locking in losses that can't be recovered.
"It takes planning ahead," says Ms. duQuesnay. Her
firm advises clients to keep six months to one year's worth of cash on hand
for replenishing that stockpile.
3. Forgetting common
sense.
Remember: "There's no such thing as a free lunch."
That's especially the case with investments
promising big payoffs with low risk.
People "have a unique ability to suspend common
sense, believing that strangers want to let us in on deals that are too good
to be true, which of course, are," says Alan Roth, a financial planner in
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Mr. Roth says there are often telltale signs it's
time to hang up the phone on a sales pitch. They include: a sense of urgency
("The deal is only good today!"), using a church or fraternal organization
to vouch for its credibility or a play on emotions.
4. Reaching for yield.
The "no free lunch" risk to a nest egg also applies
to investors who have cut back on holdings of relatively safe but
low-yielding government bonds and bulked up on riskier investments that
offer meatier yields—like high-yielding junk bonds, bank-loan funds or
dividend-paying stocks.
"When you substitute a fixed-income, low-volatility
investment for a higher-volatility investment, the risk of a loss of
principal in a down market is much higher," says Ms. duQuesnay.
A simple litmus test for how well that
higher-yielding investment will act are returns from during the financial
crisis. Bank-loan funds, for example, lost an average of 29.7% in 2008.
5. Letting emotions rule.
"Acting emotionally in a down market could be
mistake No. 1" when it comes to wrecking a nest egg, says Mr. Myers.
He acknowledges that retirees who need their
savings to help pay the bills will feel the pull of reacting to short-term
losses. "During retirement, it's behavioral economics on steroids," he says.
Retirees should build a portfolio that meets their
long-term goals and one where they can withstand watching the inevitable
downs in the markets that come with the ups.
To put it another way, says Mr. Roth: "It's dumb to
buy high and sell low."
Frontline broadcast on "The Retirement
Gamble,"April 23, 2013 ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement-gamble/
For details see
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/retirement-gamble/the-retirement-gamble-facing-us-all/
If you’ve
been watching any commercial
television lately, you are well
aware that the financial services
industry is very busy running
expensive ads imploring us to worry
about our retirement futures. Open a
new account today, they say.
They are
not wrong that we should be doing
something: America is facing a
retirement crisis. One in three
Americans has no retirement savings
at all. One in two reports that they
can’t save enough. On top of that,
we are living longer, and health
care costs, as we all know, are
increasing.
But, as I
found when investigating the
retirement planning and mutual funds
industries in The Retirement Gamble,
which airs tonight on FRONTLINE,
those advertisements are imploring
us to start saving for one simple
reason. Retirement is big business —
and very profitable. It doesn’t take
a genius to figure out that the more
we save into the industry’s
financial products, the more money
they make in fees and commissions
trading our hard-earned cash. And as
long as they don’t run away with our
money or invest it in a Ponzi
scheme, they have little in the way
of accountability to us when
something goes wrong. And even then
it can be hard to fight back.
Big banks,
brokerages, insurance companies and
other financial service providers
operate under something called a
suitability standard — which says
they don’t have to give you the best
advice, just advice that isn’t too
egregiously terrible.
Let’s say
you sit down with an adviser at your
brokerage or bank and ask for some
advice on how you should allocate
your retirement savings, or which
funds you might want to choose for
your IRA.
You’ll get
lots of advice, but chances are it
won’t be worth much. Eighty five
percent of all financial advisers
and financial planners are really
just brokers or salesman. Their
incentive is to sell you a product
that makes them a higher commission,
not necessarily a product that
maximizes your chances of saving
more. Only 15 percent of advisers
are “fiduciaries” — advisers who by
law must operate with your best
interests in mind.
Last year,
the Obama administration proposed a
rule to mandate that all financial
advisers, financial planners and
other assorted financial wizards
would have to adopt a fiduciary
standard when it came to employee
retirement accounts such as your
401(k) or IRA account. The financial
services industry, which today
manages something upwards of $10
trillion of our retirement nest
eggs, thought this was a bad idea
and pushed back hard. Scores of
their protest letters poured into
the U.S. Labor Department, the
branch of our government responsible
for regulating employee retirement
accounts.
Congress,
too, was hit with a furious lobbying
campaign. This would be way too
expensive, the industry said; if we
have to provide such a standard of
service, we will either have to pack
up and find another business line,
or have to pass the increased costs
on to our customers. The Obama
administration pulled their proposal
last fall.
How would a
new fiduciary rule change things?
Chances are you would be sold less
expensive products, not only in your
IRA accounts but inside your company
401(k) as well. It’s all about fees.
While reporting on retirement plans
for FRONTLINE, nothing has been more
surprising to me than the corrosive
effect of fees on our retirement
savings.
It’s this
simple: Fund fees can erode as much
as half or more of your prospective
gains.
For the
sake of dramatizing the point, John
Bogle, founder of Vanguard, the
world’s largest mutual fund company
and pioneer of low-cost index funds,
gave me a startling example while we
were filming. Assume you are
invested in a mutual fund, he says,
with a gross return of 7 percent,
but that the mutual fund charges you
an annual fee of 2 percent.
Over a
50-year investing lifetime, that
little 2 percent fee will erode 63
percent of what you would have had.
As Bogle puts it, “the tyranny of
compounding costs” is overwhelming.
In short,
fees matter. So what can you do? You
aren’t going to find a fund that
invests your money for free, but
experts say you can come close by
buying index funds. Their fees can
be a tenth of what the average
mutual funds charges. And over time,
in bull and bear markets, on
average, index funds perform better
than their more expensive actively
managed fund cousins. This is no
secret to anyone who is paying
attention.
So why
aren’t our trusted financial
advisers and those ads telling us to
buy index funds? Why do some 401(k)
plans not even offer them on their
menus?
It’s
because even though an index fund
might be a better option for you and
me, a broker operating under a
suitability standard has no
incentive to sell it to us. He or
she will make higher commissions
from options that have higher fees.
Sadly, a
recent AARP study reported that 70
percent of mutual fund savers were
not even aware that they were paying
any fees at all.
Continued in article
Dan
Stone's summary of the above Frontline
show:
Enjoyed it though didn't find much
new here. Basic messages:
1. index funds are cheaper and, in
the long run, preferred (Jack Bogle)
2. managed funds are a scam to
generate fees for the mutual fund
industry
(which some would certainly debate)
3. most Americans don't have enough
for retirement
4. mutual funds make it hard to
determine their fees
5. the financial services industry,
through massive donations, prevents
any
attempts to increase transparency in
the financial services industry.
I've bought Pound Foolish, after
hearing an interview with its
author, but haven't
started reading it yet
(http://www.amazon.com/Pound-Foolish-Exposing-
Personal-Industry/dp/1591844894)
Dan
Stone
Jensen Comment
It's hard to advise future retirees
without knowing what they really do
enjoy. For example, I think it's dumb to
invest in retirement businesses unless
you really, really enjoy retirement
businesses or really, really need the
income from retirement businesses. For
example, a widow purchased a three-story
house just down the road when she was a
widow over 60 years of age. For a while
making jewelry to pay for her mortgage
payments seemed like a good idea. Now
taking her truck and camper all alone to
out-of-state jewelry shows has become a
drag, but she needs the income in part
because revaluations of her home have
really clobbered her with higher
property taxes in a down market (at
least up here). Tax appraisers care more
about village and school expenses than
what property will realistically sell
for up here in the remote White
Mountains.
It's probably a good idea that she invested in her jewelry business, but at
her present age it's become more depressing. I don't think she's enjoying her
"retirement," especially since she must do most of the house maintenance by
herself. Last summer she was on a huge 40-foot extension ladder scraping and
painting by herself almost every sunny day.
She also splits her own wood to heat that big house. What was her mistake? It
was probably a mistake to purchase such a big house without the annual cash flow
to cushion the expenses of taxes and maintenance while thinking she would
forever enjoy making jewelry and traveling to shows.
There's also a couple that I know who both retired from the military and
invested $2 million in a bed and breakfast (mostly financed with three
mortgages). Running a B&B sounded like fun until the reality of cooking
breakfast for guests seven days a week became a drag year after year after year.
Even with hired maid service, there are endless days of maintaining the grounds,
keeping the plumbing working in 26 bathrooms, painting and papering 24 rooms,
washing windows, fixing roof leaks, patching an ancient heating system,
operating the front desk, dealing with happy and not-so-happy happy guests, and
on and on and on. Retirement? What's that? They were more retired while on
active duty.
Then there's a retiree friend down on the highway who purchased a $180,000
motor home hoping to entice a woman friend into marrying him and touring all
over North America. She considered the idea for 20 minutes and then said no way.
The motor home with less than 500 miles on the odometer sat in his front yard
with a "For Sale" sign for over five years (he lives on a state highway where
drivers passing by could see the thing year after year). At long last he sold
the thing, but I don't want to embarrass him by asking how much he lost on this
dream (beside losing his would-be bride). He had 12 nice cabins and land out
back that our village took over due to defaulted property tax payments.
I paid too much for a retirement acreage, but I do enjoy this type isolated
rural living. It would be a risk if my health failed and I had to hire
everything done around here. However, I'm fortunate to have the retirement cash
flow to do so if I must eventually hire everything done. And the outdoor work
winter and summer is currently much more enjoyable than boring exercise routines
in a gym. If and when I become gaga and have to go into a nursing home my estate
will take a huge hit because it's impossible to recover much more than half of
what I paid for this property in an up market before the real estate crash.
However, in spite of contentment with my own retirement, it's important to
note that many of those things you dreamed about all your working years may
change over the course of your retirement. Firstly, you may lose some of your
good health. Secondly, you may lose your spouse that was part of your retirement
dreams all those years. And yet at age 65 when you're both in good health it
probably would be a bummer moving into an assisted living apartment too soon.
You both might quickly become depressed and bored to death in a small apartment
if you have good health for the next 10-25 years.
My own parents started their marriage in the Great Depression and never
really got over feeling that saving was much, much more important than
consumption. Being an only child I eventually inherited their life savings. But
all the while they were retired I argued in vain that they should spend more to
enjoy their retirement. But then again if they were spending more to enjoy
their retirement they would probably would not have enjoyed their retirement.
They were more happy living a very modest life beneath what they could well have
afforded. Unlike me they did not enjoy expensive restaurants and hotels. They
ordered the cheapest things on menus in small farm town restaurants and
pretended those were the selections they enjoyed the most as long as there was a
salad bar.
My mother always said: "If you're going to buy big, buy black dirt."
She remembers when the investments and markets crashed in the Great Depression
an her father raised navy beans and potatoes on the farm to feed his family and
half the starving folks in the small town of Swea City Iowa.
Bob Jensen's personal finance helpers
(but not his advice which is free and
not worth the money) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers
Question
Why do we whip the "1%" in the media for becoming so much richer when it's
mostly the 0.01%?
"The Rise (and Rise and Rise) of the 0.01 Percent in America The average 1
percenter is quite rich. But she lives in a state of relative poverty compared
to the astronomical wealth of "the 1 percent of the 1 percent."
by Derek Thompson
The Atlantic
February 13, 2014
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/the-rise-and-rise-and-rise-of-the-001-percent-in-america/283793/
. . .
Who even are these people—the 1 percent of the 1
percent?
As Tim Noah explained, they're mostly executives
and bankers. A 2010 study of the top 0.1 percent found that 61 percent of
this group is either a banker or an executive/manager another big
corporation. The rest are mostly lawyers (7 percent), doctors (6 percent),
and real estate people (4 percent).
How'd they all get so rich? It wasn't
the way the rest of us get rich. It wasn't their wages. It was something
else.
The richer you are, the more likely your
riches come from stocks, not salary. For the three groups graphed above—1
percent, 0.1 percent, and 0.01 percent—capital gains account for 22, 33 and
42 percent (respectively) of their average income. At the very tippy-top of
the economy, the
400 richest tax returns analyzed by the IRS take
home about 50 percent of their income from capital gains.
Practically all the growth in average
income at the top comes from stocks. Between 1992 and 2007, the average
salary of a top-400 tax return doubled, but average capital gains haul
increased 13X. Wages are for normal people. The richest get richer
from their investments.
As Matt O'Brien
explained, the incomes of top-earners ride a
roller coaster, and that roller coaster is the stock and bond market. Just
look at top incomes compared with gyrations in the S&P 500.
Continued in article
Also see
https://medium.com/the-nib/700c51a43a4
"The Myth of Excess Enrollments in College-Becker," by Nobel Laureate
Gary Becker, The Becker-Posner Blog, February 17, 2014 ---
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2014/02/the-myth-of-excess-enrollments-in-college-becker.html
"
"Excess Enrollments in College? Could Be," Judge Richard Posner, The
Becker-Posner Blog, February 17, 2014 ---
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2014/02/excess-enrollments-in-college-could-be-posner.html
Jensen Comment
Shame on Gary Becker. He fails to warn that correlation is not causation. In
particular, college graduates probably would have higher average earnings if
they did not go to college. Firstly, they are often the most motivated students
with high work ethic while still in high school. On average they have higher
intelligence and aptitude however measured.
Secondly, many of them come from higher income families that can give a boost
to income success, including helping them start small businesses.
Thirdly, some of the highest paying professions make college graduation (and
often graduate degrees) necessary entry-level conditions. Even the worst
colleges may not prevent a graduate from having a high GMAT, MCAT, or LSAT score
that overcomes a lousy college education for great self-learners.
Judge Posner raises some other objections.
"Prospective Adult Students Miss Key Data on College Options, Report
Says," by Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education,
November 4, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Prospective-Adult-Students/142815/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Most adults who are
considering college—either completing a degree or starting one
for the first time—aren't tapping into the wealth of information
about costs, graduation rates, and job prospects, and as a
result they aren't finding the right fit, according to a report
released on Monday by Public Agenda, a nonprofit research group.
The
report, "Is College Worth It for Me?
How Adults Without Degrees Think About Going (Back) to School,"
says that most prospective adult students worry about the cost
of college and how to balance studies with families and careers.
They're looking for colleges with practical programs that will
help them land jobs, as well as personalized support from caring
faculty members and advisers.
The report,
which was financially supported by the Kresge Foundation, was
based on a survey this past spring of 803 adults, ages 18 to 55,
who lack college degrees but expect to start earning a
certificate or degree in the next two years. The group, which
excludes students coming straight from high school, accounts for
about a third of first-time college students in the United
States, according to the report.
The survey found
that adults ages 25 to 55 have more doubts about going to
college and are less likely to have concrete plans. Those under
25 worry more about whether they can succeed at college and land
a job afterward.
Continued in article
Personal Note
We have a son and his wife that went deeply in debt to graduate from college (he
in business and she in law enforcement). They did this at a time when both
became unemployed. They had high grades, but when they struggled to find
employment they both ended up in jobs that do not require any college education.
In Germany only about 25% of the population is allowed into college. Germany
takes great pride in the economic opportunities for people in the skilled
trades. In the USA there's a shortage of workers in the skilled trades because
your a nobody unless you learn to read after graduating from high school and go
on to college.
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
"How to Explore Cause and Effect Like a Data Scientist," by Thomas C.
Redman, Harvard Business Review Blog, February 19, 2014 ---
Click Here
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/02/how-to-explore-cause-and-effect-like-a-data-scientist/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29&cm_ite=DailyAlert-022014+%281%29&cm_lm=sp%3Arjensen%40trinity.edu&cm_ven=Spop-Email
Jensen Comment
This is the way analysts mislead readers about studies that imply if you get a
college degree your chances (as one person) are increased for substantially
higher income. That is true if you become licensed in one of the professions
that require college degrees such as law, medicine, and the CPA profession that
now requires 150 credits of college.
But it is not necessarily true in general. How the analysts mislead is that
they imply college is the cause of higher lifetime earnings. Actually the
college degrees are correlated with income generating attributes such a work
ethic, motivation, intelligence, family financial support (say to start a
business). and lots of serendipity and luck. Those are the underlying causal
factors of success that are correlated with college performance. In research, to
find causal factors we have to drill down deeper that what big data can provide
in the way of underlying causes.
Question
How extensive was the University of North Carolina athletics phony course and
grade change cheating scandal?
Answer
Even though I made tidbits about this scandal early on, including that about 10%
of the athletes could not read at a third-grade level. I guess it never sunk in
how many years UNC officials were aware of the cheating and how many athletes
were part of this scandal.
. . . since the 1990s Nang' Oris' department
offered hundreds of fake "paper classes" that never actually met. Some
500 grades had been changed without authorization . . .
"UNC officials apologize for a huge sports scandal, while attacking the
woman who brought it to light," Bloomberg Businessweek, February 3-9,
2014 ---
After trying for years to minimize an
academic corruption scandal on its prestigious Chapel Hill campus, the
University of North Carolina has abruptly switched strategies---form
obfuscation to mea culpa. The apologia comes with a bitter footnote, though
in the form of vilification of a campus whistle-blower.
. . .
UNC called the police after an internal
university inquiry concluded that that since
the 1990s Nang' Oris' department offered hundreds of fake "paper classes"
that never actually met. Some 500 grades had been changed without
authorization, . . .
Also see
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-27/university-of-north-carolina-apologizes-for-fake-classes-promises-real-change
Bob Jensen's threads on academic scandals in higher education athletics
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Athletics
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the
staff at MIT Technology Review.
Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending February 14, 2014) ---
Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/524696/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-february-14-2014/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20140217
Jensen Comment
This includes a link to the reasons why Oakland built a wall to keep out Google
employees and other highly paid tech workers. Reminds me a bit of the famous
story (fiction) about how France boarded up windows of houses to keep out the
sunlight (to preserve the jobs of candle workers).
In this case Oakland wants to have a city of the poor, for the poor, and
welfare and food stamp preservation. Those villages, towns, and cities that want
prosperous taxpayers can move somewhere other than Oakland. It must upset
Oakland greatly to be unable to stop itself from becoming a commuting suburb for
prospering San Francisco. But prospering commuters under the Bay on BART are
probably not enrolling their children in the lousy Oakland public schools. Lousy
schools are prices paid for wanting to be a city of the poor and for the poor.
Actually some of those commuters from Oakland are like newly-hired graduates
working for San Francisco accounting firms --- newly hired staff accountants who
are unable to afford the San Francisco gold-plated rental leases. Many of them
do not have kids, and by the time they marry and have kids they will have grown
tired of commuting under the Bay and will have moved on to places like Des
Moines.
Largest University of Florida gift ever is dedicated to the previously-named Warrington College of Business
"Warrington gives record $75 million gift to UF," by Jeff Schweers,
Gainsville.com, February 21, 2014 ---
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20140221/ARTICLES/140229882/1002/news01?Title=Warrington-gives-record-75-million-gift-to-UF
l and Judy Warrington have just become the
University of Florida’s biggest Gator boosters.
Their $75 million pledge to Al Warrington’s
namesake — the Warrington College of Business Administration — is the
largest gift in UF’s history, Tom Mitchell, vice president of Development
and Alumni Affairs, announced Friday.
It also makes Warrington — at age 78 — UF’s first
$100 million donor, Mitchell said.
“Their unprecedented and relentless commitment to
quality and excellence … is a testimony and endorsement to not only the
university but the Warrington College of Business,” Mitchell said, noting
that people who make such significant gifts have long, deep ties to the
university.
The Warringtons have a 40-year-long track record of
giving their time, their energy and their money to the university — not only
in the business college but in other areas including athletics, stadium
expansion, scholarships and research.
Thirty-eight years after Al Warrington graduated
from the College of Business Administration in 1958, he became its
benefactor and namesake after he created a $12 million endowment for the
college in 1996.
In 2009, he pledged another $16 million to endow
four professorships in the business college. The latest gift will be added
to that endowment available to all business college faculty expenses,
support for summer graduate students and research expenses, said Dean John
Kraft of the business college.
“This is something the state doesn’t provide, and
we have to provide in other ways,” Kraft said.
Continued in article
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on February 21, 2014
USPS CFO on the future of the Post Office
USPS Chief Financial Officer Joe Corbett
tells FierceGovernment
about how the Postal Service is
adapting to a changing environment. “We’re in the process of putting all new
handheld scanners in the field,” Mr. Corbett says. “At the end of the day
there’ll be 250,000 or so of those and they’ll enable various new
applications for us in terms of package redirect, package pickup,
notification, communication with our mail carriers so they can do real time
type of work as well as just real-time delivery scans.” Mr. Corbett notes
some of the partnerships with private industry, including FedEx and UPS. “We
deliver a ton of their packages last mile,” he says. “And at the same time
FedEx and UPS fly a lot of our mail, primarily Priority Mail, and that’s a
very large contract also with each of those.”
From WebMD
February 18, 2014
Talking' Medical Devices, Apps Continue to Evolve
Jensen Comment
Wouldn't it be neat if such devices could also talk back to students about
assignments, quiz questions, as well as test for ignorance.
Bitcoin Virtual Currency ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
"The First US Bitcoin ATMs Will Open Soon In Seattle And Austin," by
Phil Wahba, Reuters via Business Insider, February 18, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-first-us-bitcoin-atms-will-soon-open-in-seattle-and-austin-2014-2
"Can You Tell the Difference Between Poetry Written by a Computer and a
Human?" by Rob Walker, Yahoo Tech, February 14, 2014 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/who-wrote-the-poem-eat-when-you-feel-sad-76630383667.html
Or go directly to
http://www.botpoet.com/
David Foster Wallace ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace
David Foster Wallace’s Surprising List of His 10 Favorite Books, from C.S.
Lewis to Tom Clancy ---
www.openculture.com/2014/02/david-foster-wallaces-surprising-list-of-his-10-favorite-books.html
"Microfinance Has Been A Huge Disappointment Around The World The
Conversation Kamal Munir," University of Cambridge
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/microfinance-has-been-a-huge-disappointment-around-the-world-2014-2#ixzz2tgNKlCBC
. . .
Painting all the women in the world as heroic
entrepreneurs doesn’t actually make them so. They are heroic all right,
given the struggle they lead against brutal poverty – but entrepreneurial
ventures have always had a high mortality rate. And there aren’t that many
which can deliver the kind of returns one requires to be able to pay back
interest rates in excess of 40%. Given that much of the loaned money is
actually used for consumption, the chances of getting into debt are always
high.
Realising that poverty alleviation was an
unsustainable and unachievable goal, the micro-credit industry shifted the
goal posts. “Financial inclusion” was the new aspiration, which in practice
meant access to credit, insurance and other financial products. This was
based on the old Milton Friedman claim that the only difference between the
poor and the rich was access to capital.
The term micro-credit became microfinance and
poverty alleviation quietly moved out of the spotlight. The fact that most
borrowers were using the loans for consumption rather than production was
not taken as a failure to achieve the original goal either. Instead, this
“consumption smoothing” was celebrated as another achievement.
Microfinance then had two different realities. One
was the global celebration of this market-based model for poverty
alleviation. The other was the cruel reality of many borrowers caught up in
debt cycles and struggling against an oppressive neoliberal world order
where the proportion of incomes spent on health, education and food kept
going up.
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/microfinance-has-been-a-huge-disappointment-around-the-world-2014-2#ixzz2tgNvkHQn
Jensen Comment
Corruption at all levels of government merely adds more pain to misery built
upon a foundation of over population.
"Harvard Professor Attacking Google Thrives as Web Sheriff," by John
Hechinger, Bloomberg Businessweek, February 14, 2014 ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-14/harvard-professor-attacking-google-thrives-as-web-sheriff.html
. . .
Edelman, a 33-year-old associate professor, mixes
scholarship, lucrative consulting and a digital version of the 1960s-style
activism of his family, including his aunt, Marian Wright Edelman, the
civil-rights and children’s advocate. While he ferrets out misdeeds on the
Internet, his multiple roles have put his own work under scrutiny.
“The Internet is what we make of it,” said Edelman,
who arrived at his Ivy League office in jeans and sneakers this week after
commuting by bicycle through Boston’s snowy streets. “We can shape it
through diligence, by exposing the folks who are making it less good than it
ought to be, like the neighborhood watch, or the busybody neighbor who yells
at you when you throw your cigarette butt on the street.”
Paid Crusades
Unlike bloggers who have long formed a volunteer
police force on the Internet, Edelman embarks on paid crusades that raise
questions about whether he can remain objective in his academic roles as
scholar and teacher.
In a move that elevated his profile in the stock
market and prompted a dispute about his financial disclosures, he published
a blog on Jan. 28 that accused Internet video and advertising purveyor
Blinkx Plc of using hidden software to inflate traffic counts. His posting
caused Blinkx shares to fall the most in the company’s history.
Blinkx responded to Edelman’s broadside with a
statement saying the company “strongly refutes” his assertions and
conclusions. Harvard pressed Edelman to say more about his clients,
prompting him to disclose that they included two U.S. investors. Their names
still aren’t known.
While taking on some giants, such as Google Inc.
and Facebook Inc., Edelman has worked for others, including Microsoft Corp.
Google has said that he’s biased and hasn’t been forthright enough in
disclosing that he’s a paid consultant to Microsoft.
FTC Crackdown
Edelman earns more from his outside activities than
from his salary as a professor, which isn’t unusual among business school
faculty, he said. His work has influenced the Federal Trade Commission and
New York Attorney General’s Office, among other regulators, in their
crackdown on companies.
“He’s part academic and part cyber sleuth,” said
Ken Dreifach, former chief of the Internet bureau
of the New York Attorney General’s Office, whose prosecutors tracked
Edelman’s blog posts as they filed cases against companies using malicious
software.
Edelman is expected to come up for tenure,
academia’s guarantee of job security, at the end of 2015. While his
credentials include a law degree and economics doctorate, both from Harvard,
his attacks on companies are unusual at the business school, an institution
better known for case studies celebrating successes.
Critical Letter
When he was considered for promotion to associate
professor from assistant a few years ago, Edelman said an outside reviewer
contacted by the school wrote a critical letter: “Ben seems not to like
businesses. I thought this was a business school.” He was promoted anyway.
Edelman’s outside consulting work has been
encouraged by Harvard and is helping make the Internet a better place, said
Brian Kenny, Harvard Business School’s chief
marketing and communications officer.
Since his Blinkx post, entitled “The Darker Side of
Blinkx,” the shares have declined 37 percent. After its initial statement
reacting on Jan. 30, the company has declined to comment.
Edelman initially wrote that he prepared the
research for an unnamed client.
Harvard Business School said that disclosure
wasn’t enough under its conflict-of-interest rules, which require professors
to disclose paid and unpaid outside activities related to work available to
the public. Harvard asked Edelman to say more.
Revised Disclosure
In his enhanced disclosure, Edelman said last week
he was paid by two U.S. investors that jointly hired him. He didn’t name
them, say how much he was paid or whether they were betting against, or
shorting, the stock.
In interviews, Edelman said his contract prohibited
him from disclosing that information. Harvard is satisfied with his revised
disclosure, Kenny said.
Continued in article
"The Shadowy World of Wikipedia's Editing Bots," MIT's Technology
Review, February 13, 2014 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/524751/the-shadowy-world-of-wikipedias-editing-bots/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20140214
Much of the editing work on Wikipedia is too
mind-numbingly repetitive for humans, so automated bots do it instead. But
keeping track of automated editing has always been hard … until now.
In a little over a decade, Wikipedia has evolved
from an Internet experiment into a global crowdsourcing phenomenon. Today,
this online encyclopedia provides free access to more than 30 million
articles in 287 languages.
Less well known is Wikidata, an information
repository designed to share basic facts for use on different language
versions of Wikipedia. Wikidata therefore plays a crucial role in
lubricating the flow of information between these online communities.
Maintaining all this data is a difficult job. It
requires significant editing and polishing, mostly involving mindless,
repetitive tasks such as formatting links and sources but also adding basic
facts.
So much of this kind of work is automated. Behind
the scenes, automated bots scan Wikipedia and Wikidata pages continually
polishing the content for human consumption.
But that raises an important question. How much bot
activity is there? What are these bots doing and how does it compare to
human activity?
Today, we get an answer thanks to the work of
Thomas Steiner at Google’s German operation in Hamburg. Steiner has created
an application that monitors editing activity across all 287 language
versions of Wikipedia and on Wikidata. And he
publishes the results in real time online so that
anybody can see exactly how many bots and humans are editing any of these
sites at any instant.
For example, at the time of writing, across all
language version of Wikipedia there are 10,407 edits being carried out by
Bots and 11,148 by human Wikipedians. So that’s a 49/51 split between bots
and humans.
But a closer look at the data reveals some
interesting variations. For example, only 5 percent of the edits to the
English language version of Wikipedia are being done by bots right now. By
contrast, 94 percent of the edits to the Vietnamese version are by bots.
And on Wikidata, 77 percent of the 15,000 edits are
being done by bots.
Steiner’s page also lists the most active bots.
Wikipedia and Wikidata have long recognized the damage that bots can do and
so have strict guidelines about their behavior. Wikidata even
lists bots with approved tasks.
What’s curious about the automated edits on
Wikidata is that the most active bots are not on this list. For example, at
the time of writing a bot called Succubot is making 5797 edits to Wikidata
entries and yet appears to be unknown to Wikidata. What is this bot doing?
Steiner’s page will give administrators a useful
window into this seemingly shadowy behavior. In truth, any nefarious
activity is usually spotted quickly and the perpetrator blocked. But this
kind of oversight will still be hugely useful.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on Google and other search engines ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm
"The Crushingly Expensive Mistake Killing Your Retirement:
401(k) fees are costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime,"
by Matthew O'Brien, The Atlantic, February 15, 2014 ---
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/the-crushingly-expensive-mistake-killing-your-retirement/283866/
Jensen Comment
Investors should probably question whether they need to pay a financial advisor
on top of the unavoidable expenses of managing a mutual fund. Investors should
also seek out lower cost fund management funds such as Fidelity, Vanguard, and
TIAA/CREF. Most of the more expensive funds are delivering addedreturns that
justify the added costs unless they have taken you into financial risks you
don't understand.
The big funds offer a lot of free advising services that you should
investigate before running down to a personal advisor in a glitzy office
building.
Bob Jensen's personal finance helpers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers
"An Innovation Stifler?" by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed,
February 17, 2014 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/17/u-people-earns-accreditation-challenging-view-agencies-stifle-innovation
An accrediting agency just approved a free, online
university with a largely volunteer faculty. Is accreditation really the
squelcher of experimentation it is made out to be?
Jensen Comment
I think accreditation became somewhat of a joke when for-profit universities
commenced to buy up small, remote, and bankrupt colleges for no reason other
than to buy the accreditations of those bankrupt colleges. Then the for-profit
universities declared that their massive online education programs were also
"accredited."
Accreditation does indeed stifle some "innovation." When a diploma mill does
"innovate" and let you buy a baccalaureate degree in two weeks or even a year
lack of accreditation is stifling such "innovation."
The gray zone is indeed the serious University of the Free People. What would
help to lend credibility is to publish the resumes of faculty, syllabi, and
grading distributions (or at least median course grades). Not all prestigious
universities meet these criteria, but when you are doing something truly
innovative like the University of the Free People you have to try harder to
prove your case.
Personally, I don't have a lot of hope for the long-term of a university
comprised of volunteer faculty. It will be really tough to sustain a core
faculty for the long term. And with faculty coming and going through a revolving
door it will be very hard to maintain academic standards and reputation. A
college's reputation is built upon its faculty and student admissions criteria.
A revolving door faculty with open admi8ssions will be very hard to sustain, and
reliance on a few huge donors creates problems of independence, especially when
in terms of academic standards when the donors favor certain types of
applicants.
Another problem will be to have a balanced curriculum. For example, it may be
possible to have some great volunteer faculty in the humanities, but when it
comes down to faculty of the professions like computer science, information
technology, systems engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering,
accounting, premed, etc. it may be very tough to recruit volunteer faculty
having great employment opportunities in traditional colleges and universities.
At some point, it would seem that taxpayers or student tuition funding will
eventually have to provide steady employment opportunities. The days of church
support are numbered except for seminaries and some colleges with a very long
history of support from a church. And most of those church-supported colleges
are no longer tuition free for all students. Some states are now seriously
trying to make community colleges tuition free, but these colleges are taxpayer
funded.
And I hate to sound arrogant, but volunteer universities also have to beware
of offering false hopes. Universities having low admissions standards that
promise careers in the professions can mislead students. For example, suppose
such a university has a a premed program for low SAT students. If those students
graduate and have MCAT scores too low for medical school, a college is
misleading those students. Some colleges have accounting programs that rarely,
if ever, have CPA alumni. Some law schools that offer promising careers in law
have less than 50% passage rates on the BAR exam due in large measure to low
admission standards.
Bob Jensen's threads on accreditation issues are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#AccreditationIssues
An Innovation Stifler
"Professor Told to Remove Blow-Up Dolls From Office," Inside Higher Ed,
February 17. 2014 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/02/17/professor-told-remove-blow-dolls-office
"Why It Makes Sense for Students to Grade One Another’s Papers," by
Barry Peddycord, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 12, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/future/2014/02/12/why-it-makes-sense-for-students-to-grade-one-anothers-papers/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
By the time this post appears, the first
peer-graded assignment in Cathy Davidson’s Coursera MOOC,
“History and Future of
(Mostly) Higher Education,” will have come and
gone, and students will be well into the second. Unlike programming
projects, algebra exercises, and multiple-choice questions that can all be
reliably graded by a computer, Coursera offloads the task of evaluating
essays to students. After the deadline for an assignment has passed,
students have a week to evaluate five of their classmates’ essays using a
rubric developed by the teaching staff. A student who fails to evaluate his
or her classmates does not get a grade for the assignment, and in our course
will not be able to achieve the statement of accomplishment “with
distinction.” Whether students see that as a chore, duty, or opportunity,
the necessary assessment is eventually done—for better or for worse.
Peer grading can be a
controversial proposition. When students’
scholarships and internships are riding on their grades, it isn’t surprising
that they hesitate to allow their classmates—who know as much as they do
about the course material—to have any effect on their final assessment.
Instructors scoff at the idea that students can be left to evaluate one
another,
certain that they will collude so that everyone
will receive an A without doing any of the work. In its worst incarnation,
peer grading can be a scheme for lazy professors to offload on students the
boring work of assessment.
With all of those concerns, one might wonder why we
would ever want to try peer grading, but from a logistical point of view, it
makes plenty of sense. The major benefit is that it provides quick feedback.
Feedback that isn’t timely is next to useless, and even in a traditional
classroom, the time it takes an instructor to produce and return feedback to
students can vary widely, depending on the instructor’s workload. When it
takes one or two weeks to return feedback, a system in which students go
through multiple rounds of drafts and revisions simply isn’t feasible.
Peer grading has been used in software systems like
SWoRD and
Expertiza (developed by my Ph.D. co-adviser), so
that students can go through multiple rounds of revisions interleaved with
rapid feedback cycles, encouraging higher-quality final submissions that
scale with the size of the class. Students get more reviews, more
rapidly, from more points of view. Not only are the reviewees getting
extra feedback; the act of reviewing itself has metacognitive benefits
because students get to see other submissions of varying quality and have to
articulate in their feedback what the other students are doing wrong.
Critics have questioned whether student-assigned
grades can be consistent or valid, but numerous studies have found that such
concerns are unlikely to be an issue in practice. While it is true that
students lack the nuance that an expert grader can provide, most
student-assigned scores hover around the scores given by experts on the
same
papers. Some students may be harsher or easier
graders than others, but they often apply those biases consistently enough
for them to be normalized (of course, such biases apply to instructors as
well).
Daphne Koller, a co-founder of Coursera, presented
some of the exploratory results of the first peer-reviewed Coursera
assignments when she spoke at Duke in the fall of 2012. At a glance, the
findings appeared to replicate those earlier studies, hinting that the
results are consistent even on a massive scale (though I haven’t seen
anything published on it yet).
Peer grading isn’t a silver bullet and doesn’t work
by magic. Research shows that successful peer grading arises only from a
well-articulated grading philosophy, training for the would-be reviewers,
and high-quality rubrics that very clearly show what’s right, what’s wrong,
and why that is. Without careful planning and scaffolding, it comes across
as a half-hearted attempt to reduce the tedium of grading. Peer grading
already starts at a disadvantage from having to compete with the
internalized expectations of how authority in the classroom should be
distributed.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
There are of course ranges of peer grading assignments ranging from grading of
homework to term papers. I cannot imagine peer grading of examinations, although
panels of students might participate in oral examinations where the course
instructor also is present.
Aside from saving instructors from some of the tedium of grading, the main
pedagogical advantage is that grading and even teaching assignments can be
extremely beneficial to learning.
One disadvantage is that problem answers, take-home essays, and term papers
need to be screened these days for plagiarism.
Peer grading should probably be anonymous to avoid pallsywellsies.
When I taught AIS the Murthy and Groomer online textbook also had online
customized quizzes that were graded by the Murthy and Groomer online system for
each chapter. All of my students were full-time and on-campus students. What I
needed to verify is that each student took her or his own quiz on line and that
the student did not cheat by using the textbook or course notes while taking the
quiz.
Each week I changed partners where one student was assigned to "attest to"
the quiz of another student. The attest form that I used is at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5342/attest.htm
"How to Tell if Someone Is Lying," by David DeSteno, Harvard
Business Review Blog, February 12, 2014 ---
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/02/how-to-tell-if-someone-is-lying/
Researchers in the academic, business, and military
communities have spent years trying to uncover a few simple methods for
detecting trustworthiness but, despite their best efforts, continue to come
up short. All those books promising to teach you how to spot liars through
body language? None has empirical support.
The temptation, of course, is to look for one
“tell” that indicates someone can’t be trusted. Is it a false smile? Shifty
eyes? The reality, though, is that any single cue is ambiguous. If someone
touches her face, she might subconsciously be trying to hide something — or
she might have an itch.
To accurately infer another’s intentions, you need
to look for a set of cues — gestures that together can more accurately
predict or reveal motivation. Here’s how my colleagues and I identified the
four key ones (with the help of a robot, of course):
Watch the video
Jensen Comment
The problems with these systems is that they are all like lie detector machines.
They work for many people, but there are too many outliers who give false
negative or false positive outcomes. As a result they can be very misleading at
times when need for reliability is greatest.
For example, probably the hardest thing to detect is lying by sociopaths and
psychopaths that typically become experts at deceiving even the most
professionally trained investigators and psychiatrists.
Video: Inside Cornell: Analyzing the words of psychopaths ---
http://www.cornell.edu/video/inside-cornell-analyzing-the-words-of-psychopaths
Thank you Dennis Huber for the heads up.
Yesterday on February 19 I had my annual physical in a doctor's office in the
Littleton Regional Hospital. He's a talker and usually loses track of time. One
story he related is about filing his tax returns himself using Turbo Tax. Last
year when his electronic filing was rejected because the IRS claimed somebody
had already filed a 2012 tax return using his social security number. No details
were revealed to him, but chances are high that the data in the ID thief's tax
return were phony and the IRS paid out an enormous refund to that thief.
The IRS did accept my doctor's mailed in tax return and cashed his check for
taxes due. To date he's not heard another word from the IRS.
The IRS has an Identity Theft Web Page at
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Identity-Protection
"IRS is overwhelmed by identity theft fraud: Billions wrongly
paid out as scammers find agency an easy target," by Michael Kranish,
Boston Globe, February 16, 2014 ---
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/02/16/identity-theft-taxpayer-information-major-problem-for-irs/7SC0BarZMDvy07bbhDXwvN/story.html
Rashia Wilson bought a $92,000 Audi, proclaimed
herself a millionaire, and announced on her Facebook page that she was “the
queen of IRS tax fraud,” as prosecutors told the story.
But even more than her flamboyance, it was the
seeming ease of her crime that was most stunning: She and an accomplice were
alleged to have hijacked the identities of other taxpayers to get fraudulent
refunds. They used stolen Social Security numbers, a computer, and basic
knowledge of how to file a tax return, according to the government.
After the Florida mother of three was caught and
pleaded guilty last year to crimes totaling at least $3 million, her defense
attorney, Mark O’Brien, made his own plea. He said in court that he hoped
the “IRS will figure out a way to prevent this from happening in the future,
so someone with a sixth-grade education can’t defraud them so easily.”
cross the country, the theft of
taxpayer identities has taken off, while receiving far less attention than
the loss of credit card information. Even some drug dealers, always with an
eye out for easy profits, have turned to taxpayer identity theft after
hearing how uncomplicated it was to scam the IRS. A medical assistant at a
nursing home stole the identities of hundreds of patients. A prison guard
stole the identities of inmates and filed false returns under their names.
All told, in just the first six months of last
year, 1.6 million taxpayers were affected by identity theft, compared with
271,000 for all of 2010, according to a recent audit by the Treasury
Department’s inspector general. While the IRS said it discovered many of the
incidents, the cumulative thefts have resulted in billions of dollars in
potentially fraudulent refunds, according to an array of government reports.
“I’ve had a police chief tell me ‘street crime is
down because everybody is now filing false IRS returns,’ ” IRS Commissioner
John Koskinen,who took office last month, said in an interview.
While Koskinen stressed that the IRS uses a series
of “filters” that are increasingly successful in catching identity thefts
before refunds are paid, he acknowledged that “this problem has exploded’’
and that the agency is in a constant race to keep its detection techniques a
step ahead of the thieves. “It is,’’ he said, “a little like ‘Whac-a-Mole,’
knock them down here and they come up over there.”
Kathryn Keneally, US Assistant Attorney General for
the tax division, said her office has an increasing number of prosecutions
of taxpayer identity theft underway. She listed one heart-wrenching case
after another: military personnel who had their identities stolen while
deployed, and parents who learned that their recently deceased child’s
identity had been pilfered.
“We have seen drug dealers go into this because it
is easy access to money. Gangs go into this because it is easy access to
money. Or at least they perceive it that way,” Keneally said, while adding:
“Please, if you quote me on saying ‘It is easy access to money,’ include:
‘We are changing that equation and we are adding risk to that.’ ” The
average prison sentence for taxpayer identity theft last year was more than
three years, and the longest was 26 years.
The problem is that even as prosecutions increase
and the IRS improves its ability to stop many false tax returns up front,
identity thieves also are increasing their efforts.
“What the identity thieves do is play on volume,”
Keneally said. “So if they file 10 returns and 9 are stopped, the 10th one
went through and they got the money.”
In case after case, court records show criminals
have used tax-filing software to obtain refunds that are in the thousands of
dollars, often receiving the funds paid via the US Treasury on debit cards
or by direct deposit.
Prisoners at jails across the country have obtained
stolen Social Security numbers and filed thousands of false returns.
Criminals in foreign locales have pilfered the personal information of
Americans and received refunds. Thieves have even stolen the Social Security
numbers of thousands of children, as well as tens of thousands of dead
people, to obtain fraudulent tax refunds.
A US Treasury audit released last September said
that “billions of dollars in potentially fraudulent refunds continue to be
paid” as a result of identity theft. If the problem is not stopped, the IRS
could issue $21 billion in fraudulent refunds in the next five years,
according to testimony by the Treasury Department’s inspector general for
tax policy, J. Russell George.
The IRS has disputed that estimate, saying it has
improved its ability to detect identity theft. But a spokesman said the
agency doesn’t have enough information to provide its own estimate of how
much has been paid so far in fraudulent refunds.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
I used to wait until April to file my tax returns. Not anymore! For the past two
years I filed a soon as the IRS will accept electronic filings. I hope to beat
the bad guys who might want a phony tax refund using my ID information.
IRS ID theft is one of those frauds that will probably forever be a major
problem. The problem is that there is so much of this fraud that our prisons
cannot hold all the crooks, and most of the crooks are so poor that fines are a
sick joke. Many of them are not even citizens of the USA. Deport them one day,
and they're back in the USA the next day.
Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Just in Time to File for Illegal Tax Refunds
"Hackers Make Off With 300,000 Personnel Records at U. of Maryland,"
Chronicle of Higher Education, February 20, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/hackers-make-off-with-300000-personnel-records-at-u-of-maryland/73213?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Not Necessarily "All" --- But This is a Good Listing
"Here Are All The Things You Can't Deduct On Your Taxes," Robert E. Flach,
Business Insider, February 20, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/non-deductable-items-taxes-2014-2
If you teach about valuation, you might want to add this to your teaching
notes.
"The Chart That Shows WhatsApp Was A Bargain At $19 Billion"
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/price-per-user-for-whatsapp-2014-2#ixzz2ttINByKq
Bob Jensen's threads on valuation the old fashioned way ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/roi.htm
"'Dirty Dozen' tax scam list now includes telephone scams," by
Alistair M. Nevius, Journal of Accountancy, February 19, 2014 ---
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/News/20149633.htm
The IRS also warns that some telephone scams target
recent immigrants, who are threatened with arrest or deportation if they do not
pay up promptly. The IRS asks that taxpayers who think they are being targeted
by phone scammers to contact the Service at 800-829-1040, the Treasury Inspector
General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484, and the Federal Trade Commission
using the FTC Complaint Assistant at FTC.gov.
The rest of the “Dirty Dozen” is similar to last year’s
list:
- Identity theft;
- Phishing;
- False promises of free money from inflated
refunds;
- Tax return preparer fraud;
- Hiding income offshore;
- Charitable organization impersonation;
- False income, expenses, or exemptions;
- Frivolous arguments;
- Falsely claiming zero wages or using a false Form
1099;
- Abusive tax structures; and
- Misuse of trusts.
Bob Jensen's tax helpers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#010304Taxation
How to Mislead With Statistics
From the 24/7 Wall Street Newsletter on February 17, 2014
Although a little late this year, due largely to
the federal government’s 17-day shutdown in 2013, tax season is here. And,
according to a new report, what you owe in taxes could be largely determined
by where you live. The report, released by the Office of Revenue Analysis of
the government of the District of Columbia, reviewed the estimated property,
sales, auto and income taxes for a hypothetical family at various income
levels in 2012 in the largest city within each state. City tax burdens vary
widely. A family of three earning $75,000 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, paid just
$3,475, or 4.6% of its income, in state and local taxes. In Bridgeport,
Connecticut, a family of three earning $75,000 paid $16,333, or 21.8% of its
income -- a total that does not even include federal taxes.
These are the cities with the highest (and lowest) taxes ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/02/14/cities-paying-the-most-and-least-in-taxes/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FEB172014A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter
We have tracked the composition of, and major
changes to, the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio.
Meet the 2014 Warren Buffett stocks.
Jensen Comment
Be careful of how tax burdens are computed in this analysis. For example the
parameters are based heavily on $25,000 versus $150,000 family income
parameters. Trying to live on $150,000 in Manhattan is like trying to live on a
poverty wage. Those families well above the $150,000 parameter such as those in
Manhattan earning well above the median get clobbered with much higher city
taxes than those above the median in Bridgeport, Connecticut because high
incomes in Manhattan are so much higher for multimillionaires living in
Manhattan as opposed to Bridgeport.
Medians and means can be very misleading when the data are extremely bimodal
such as having a lot of lower income people combined with a lot of extremely
high income people paying city income taxes and property taxes. In
Manhattan the two modes are so extreme that the median family income number is
virtual nonsense. High income people that choose to live in Manhattan in very
expensive housing pay a very dear price in terms of taxes imposed by the city on
top of the income taxes of the state and federal governments. This is one of
the main reasons high income people working in Manhattan elect to live outside
Manhattan --- often in villages towns that do not impose income taxes on
top of state and federal income taxes.
In other words, Manhattan looks like a good tax deal only because the
parameter of $150,000 is so low for Manhattan.
Living on $150,000 in Manhattan would be relatively lousy living in small,
dingy, and possibly rat-infested brownstone apartment where children are warned
not to venture out at night. If this study was revised by replacing the $150,000
parameter with a $500,000 parameter that is reasonable for Manhattan, San
Francisco, and Honolulu the rankings towns and city tax burdens would be totally
different. Goodbye Bridgetown and hello Manhattan, San Francisco, and Honolulu.
This is just one of those many ways that "figures
don't lie but liars figure."
Competency-Based Learning ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
"Competency-Based Degrees: Coming Soon to a Campus Near You," by Joel
Shapiro, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 17, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Competency-Based-Degrees-/144769/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
Has distance education significantly affected the
business and teaching models of higher education? Certainly. Is it today’s
biggest disrupter of the higher-education industry? Not quite. In fact, the
greatest risk to traditional higher education as we know it may be posed by
competency-based education models.
Competency-based programs allow students to gain
academic credit by demonstrating academic competence through a combination
of assessment and documentation of experience. The model is already used by
institutions including Western Governors University, Southern New Hampshire
University, Excelsior College, and others, and is a recent addition to the
University of Wisconsin system.
Traditional educators often find competency
programs alarming—and understandably so. Earning college credit by virtue of
life experience runs afoul of classroom experience, which many educators
believe to be sacred. As a colleague recently said, "Life is not college.
Life is what prepares you for college."
In fact, traditional educators should be alarmed.
If more institutions gravitate toward competency-based models, more and more
students will earn degrees from institutions at which they take few courses
and perhaps interact minimally with professors. Then what will a college
degree mean?
It may no longer mean that a student has taken
predetermined required and elective courses taught by approved faculty
members. Rather, it would mean that a student has demonstrated a defined set
of proficiencies and mastery of knowledge and content.
Competency models recognize the value of
experiential learning, in which students can develop and hone skill sets in
real-world contexts. For instance, a student with a background in web design
may be able to provide an institution with a portfolio that demonstrates
mastery of computer coding or digital design. If coding or digital design is
a discipline in which the institution gives credit, and the mastery
demonstrated is sufficiently similar to that achieved in the classroom, then
the institution may grant credit based on that portfolio.
The logic of competency-based credit is compelling.
After all, colleges and universities hire most people to teach so that
students learn. If students can achieve the desired learning in other ways,
then why not provide them with the same credential as those who sat in the
traditional classrooms with the traditional faculty members?
Additionally, the competency-based model, so often
cast aside by traditional institutions, already exists within their walls.
Not only do many colleges give credit for
real-world learning through
(sometimes mandatory) internships, but a version of the competency model has
long been part of traditional assessment practices.
Most professors grade students on the basis of
their performance on particular assignments, such as papers, tests, and
projects. If a student’s final paper reflects a sufficient degree of
sophistication and mastery, then the professor gives the student a passing
grade, thus conferring credit. But how much can the professor really know
about how the student learned the material? If the end is achieved, how much
do the means matter?
In primary and secondary education, much is made of
measuring students’ growth. A successful teacher moves a student from Point
A to Point B. The greater the difference between A and B, arguably, the more
effective the teacher. But in higher education, rarely is any effort made to
formally assess student growth. Rather, professors typically give grades
based on final performance, regardless of students’ starting point. In the
classroom, competency models rule, even at traditional institutions.
The primary weakness of competency models, however,
is that they can be only as good as the assessment mechanisms they employ,
and, unfortunately, no assessment can be a perfect proxy for deep and
meaningful learning. Certainly, great education isn’t just about content. It
challenges students to consider others’ viewpoints, provides conflicting
information, and forces students to reconcile, set priorities, and choose.
In the best cases, it engenders a growth of intellect and curiosity that is
not easily definable.
Higher-end learning remains the defining value
proposition of great teaching within a formal classroom setting. But because
it is exceedingly hard to assess, it cannot easily be incorporated into
competency models.
Nonetheless, competency models will make
significant headway at the growing number of institutions that offer
skill-based programs with clearly delineated and easily assessed learning
outcomes. They will also appeal to students who want to save time and money
by getting credit applied to past experience. Institutions that serve these
students will thus find competency models to be a competitive advantage.
Meanwhile, institutions that are unwilling or
unable to incorporate elements of a competency model will be forced to
defend the value of learning that cannot be easily assessed and
demonstrated. That will be a hard message to communicate and sell,
especially given that students with mastery of applied and technical skill
sets tend to be rewarded with jobs upon graduation. Additionally,
noncompetency tuition will almost certainly rise relative to
competency-based credit models, which require less instruction and thus can
be delivered at lower cost.
The marketplace rarely reacts well to perceived low
marginal benefit at high marginal price.
Continued in article
"The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Bullshit-Busting and
Critical Thinking," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, January 3, 2014
---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based assessment and assessment of deep
understanding:
Concept Knowledge and Assessment of Deep Understanding ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Because of Amazon
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on February 14, 2014
Words are cheap
Here it’s 2014 and the New
Yorker’s George Packer is writing about Amazon.com
Inc. and
its impact on… publishing? While few notice when Amazon prices an
electronics store out of business, he writes, the “influential,
self-conscious world” of book people keeps the e-commerce giant’s impact on
the clubby world of publishing front and center. Amazon has helped keep book
prices low, accelerated digitization and allowed more people to publish
their own stuff—for better or worse. But cheaper books don’t mean better
books. Publishers tell Packer that book advances are in decline, meaning
that true literary talent can’t afford to write. “Amazon has successfully
fostered the idea that a book is a thing of minimal value,” says one small
publisher. “It’s a widget.” Publishing’s best hope may be to play the
disintermediation game themselves. If the behemoth Penguin
Random House sold directly to customers, it would lose 30% of
sales, but be able to keep the 30% per copy handed over to Amazon, said
literary agent Andrew Wylie. “The industry thinks of itself as Procter &
Gamble. What gave publishers the idea that this was some big goddam
business?” he said. “It’s not—it’s a tiny little business, selling to a
bunch of odd people who read.”
"Book Review: 'The Value of the Humanities' by Helen Small Professors who
were eager to throw over the canon now find it difficult to defend their own job"
by Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2014 ---
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303650204579374740405172228?mod=djemMER_h
This Map Renames Each US State With A Country Generating The Same GDP
---
http://www.businessinsider.com/countries-vs-us-states-gdp-map-2014-2
Jensen Comment
I knew nothing about Belarus until I studied this chart. The GDP may be the same
as that of New Hampshire, but Belarus has over 7 times as many people.
Latvia has about the same GDP as Vermont with nearly three times as many
people.
Luxembourg with only s 500,000 population has about a third of the population
of Maine with roughly the same GDP.
New York has about the same GDP as Mexico, although Mexico probably does not
count one major industry --- narcotics. Also Mexico has nearly six times as many
people, many more of whom are now welcome with open arms to NYC under the new
mayor. I find this a little inconsistent since it is hard to be pro labor union
and pro illegal immigration at the same time.
Question
Should colleges wanting to avoid having to provide health insurance to adjunct
teachers rush to cap their total work hours to less than 30 hours per week in
order to avoid the requirements of the Affordable Health Care Act more commonly
known as Obamacare? There is considerable ambiguity about how many hours
adjuncts "work" outside of class for course preparation and for helping students
outside of class (e.g., via email).
"Caps Untouched," by Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed,
February 25, 2014 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/25/some-colleges-consider-changes-adjunct-caps-wake-irs-guidance
When the Internal Revenue Service offered guidance
earlier this month on how college and universities should count adjuncts’
hours in relations to the Affordable Care Act, the agency raised at least as
many questions as it answered.
Chief among them was whether the guidance would
make any real difference in the lives of adjuncts. Would colleges and
universities stop capping adjuncts’ workloads to prevent them from
qualifying as eligible for benefits under the law? Would institutions that
already had done so rethink their caps? And would administrators even follow
the guidance, which offers a “safe harbor” formula of 2.25 hours worked for
each classroom contact hour, but still allows them to count total hours
worked based on a decidedly ambiguous “reasonable” standard?
. . .
Starting about 18 months ago, colleges moved in
droves to
cap their adjuncts’ course loads ahead of the
health care law’s so-called “employer mandate” taking effect. Large
employers under the law must offer full-time employees – those who work 30
hours or more per week – health care benefits or face fines, so institutions
all over the country moved to lower their course load caps for adjuncts or
create them where they hadn’t existed before.
College associations warned institutions that they
may be acting too soon, without explicit guidance from the federal
government about how to count adjuncts’ total hours worked per week to
determine if they were benefits-eligible under the law. Since adjuncts work
outside of class to prepare for contact time with students, they said, it
was unclear how to count adjuncts’ hours. Different adjuncts groups, college
associations and unions proposed various formulas, but there was nothing
concrete.
Many of the institutions were working off a kind of
“worst case scenario” scenario formula, from the perspective of wanting to
provide as few adjuncts health care as possible. Under that formula, which
was supported by the American Federation of Teachers and some adjunct
groups, one hour of contact time equaled two hours of outside preparation
time, for a total of three hours. So Community College of Allegheny County,
followed by many other institutions, announced a 10-credit-per-semester cap.
It replaced a previous 12-credit cap, essentially meaning that most adjuncts
could now teach three courses (nine credits) instead of four per semester in
the fall and summer, for 27 hours per week total.
Allegheny did not respond to a request for comment
on whether it would rethink its policy in light of the IRS guidance. Various
institutions also are staying mum. A spokesman for the College of DuPage,
which last year created
some full-time positions for adjuncts while
capping other adjuncts’ workload at 27 credits per, said the guidance
wouldn’t change anything, and showed that the college’s policy is
“appropriate within the clarified guidelines.”
The Virginia Community College system, however, is
reviewing a course load cap it instituted last year for all adjuncts: 10
credits each in the fall and spring and 7 in the summer, a spokesman said.
That cap resulted in sections being taken away from or limited for about 25
percent of the system’s some 7,000 adjuncts at 23 campuses, and could change
based on a pending review of the IRS guidance and the Virginia
“Manpower Control Program.” The state policy
limits adjunct faculty at public institutions to 29 hours per week. Still,
at least one college within the system has announced that new course loads
of 12 credits and contact hourseach for the fall and spring, and 8 in the
summer, soon will be adopted, based on the relatively “relaxed” IRS
guidance, The
Washington Post reported. The college system
spokesman said that announcement was premature.
Josh Ulman, chief government relations officer for
the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources,
said he expected more and more colleges to follow the IRS model, to be in
compliance should the guidelines change going forward.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American
Federation of Teachers, said in email that whether or not colleges would
follow the guidelines was "simple." Employers that "embrace the sprit of the
[law] -- which is rooted in the idea that everyone deserves access to
high-quality and affordable healthcare -- will work with us to make it
happen. Those who oppose the law or put cutting costs above high-quality
education probably won't."
Indiana's Ivy Tech Community College, a large
community college system, won’t change the ACA-related course load caps it
instituted regardless of the guidance, President Tom Snyder said. Under the
new caps, adjuncts can work 12 credit hours per semester, or about 27 hours
total based on the IRS formula. Snyder, who recently offered Congressional
testimony on what he saw as the disproportionate impact of the new health
care law on community colleges, given their high rates of employment of
adjunct faculty, said he would continue to lobby for the possible exemption
of colleges from the law. Snyder said the law "penalizes" adjunct faculty
who want to teach more hours but must adhere to new course load caps, and
the "school misses out on a skilled adjunct." And providing health care to
all adjuncts teaching beyond the new caps would be prohibitively expensive,
at the cost of $10 million annually, he said. To do that, Ivy Tech would
have to downgrade health care plans for everyone else.
No college has yet announced it will offer more
adjuncts health insurance as a result of the guidance. That didn’t come as a
surprise to adjunct advocates, who often cite health insurance and other
benefits as a kind of “last nut” to be cracked in organizing and other
advocacy efforts that in many places already have led to better pay and job
security, for example.
Because many institutions still recognize adjuncts
as working only during contact classroom hours, Kezar said the guidelines
“certainly should make more adjuncts qualify.” But, she said, “Institutions
that are dead-set against providing them [with health insurance] will find
ways around it."
Baime noted that the guidelines offer flexibility
to colleges to offer "robust employment" of adjuncts without necessarily
providing health insurance. Weingarten said that adjuncts who don't get
insurance through their institutions are counting on expanded opportunities
for coverage elsewhere in the law.
Ulman said that at the very least, the IRS guidance
will make it clearer who might qualify for benefits so that institutions and
employees can have more “honest discussions” about coverage.
Maria Maisto, president of the New Faculty
Majority, said there was more work to be done to make sure that those kinds
of honest discussions were happening on campuses. And given the lack of
obvious enforcement mechanism in the guidance, she said, it’s up to adjuncts
to demand it.
Despite the tumult of the past 18 months for
adjuncts, advocates have said there’s a silver lining, to which the new IRS
guidance adds: It’s brought the contingent academic labor issue out of the
sector and into the broader policy debate.
Rhoades said the guidance is “official recognition
that adjunct faculty work outside the class, as part of contributing to a
quality education for the students, and that will create additional pressure
on institutions to not just acknowledge that, but to actually remunerate
these faculty for that work.”
Kezar agreed, saying, “the legislation and guidance
have been really instrumental in bringing adjuncts’ plight to light." She
noted Democratic Rep. George Miller’s
recent report on adjunct labor issues, which was
sparked by Maisto’s November testimony to the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce. “He learned all that through the [Affordable Care Act]
discussions.”
Ultimately, she said, the debate’s greatest impact
“may not be on health care but on drawing attention to the slew of problems
related to this work force model that has been grown beyond capacity to
serve higher education well.”
"(More) Clarity on Adjunct Hours (including healthcare insurance
guidance)," by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, February 11, 2014 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/11/irs-guidance-health-care-law-clarifies-formula-counting-adjunct-hours
The Obama administration on Monday
released its long-awaited final guidance on how
colleges should calculate the hours of adjunct instructors and student
workers for purposes of the new federal mandate that employers provide
health insurance to those who work more than 30 hours a week.
The upshot of the complicated regulation from the
Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service:
-
On adjuncts, colleges will be considered on
solid ground if they credit instructors for 1 ¼ hours of preparation
time for each hour they spend in the classroom, and instructors should
be credited for any time they spend in office hours or other required
meeting time.
-
On student workers, the IRS opted to exclude
work-study employment from any count of work hours, but the
administration declined to provide an exemption for student workers over
all. As a result, colleges and universities will be required to provide
health insurance to teaching and research assistants who work more than
30 hours a week.
Adjunct Hours
The issues of how to count the hours of part-time
instructors and student workers have consumed college officials and faculty
groups for much of the last 18 months, ever since it became clear that the
Affordable Care Act definition of a full-time employee as working 30 hours
or more a week was leading some colleges to
limit the hours of adjunct faculty members, so
they fell short of the 30-hour mark.
All that the government said in its
initial January 2013 guidance
about the employer mandate under the health care law was that colleges
needed to use "reasonable" methods to count adjuncts' hours.
In
federal testimony and at
conferences, college administrators and
faculty advocates have debated the appropriate
definition of "reasonable," with a focus on calculating the time that
instructors spend on their jobs beyond their actual hours in the classroom.
The American Council on Education, higher education's umbrella association
and main lobbying group, proposed a ratio of one hour of outside time for
each classroom hour, while many faculty advocates have pushed for a ratio of
2:1 or more.
In its new regulation, published as part of a
complex 227-page final rule in today's Federal Register, the
government said that it would be too complex to count actual hours, and it
rejected proposals to treat instructors as full time only if they were
assigned course loads equivalent or close to those of full-time instructors
at their institutions.
The administration continued to say that given the
"wide variation of work patterns, duties, and circumstances" at different
colleges, institutions should continue to have a good deal of flexibility in
defining what counts as "reasonable."
But in the "interest of predictability and ease of
administration in crediting hours of service for purposes" of the health
care law, the agencies said, the regulation establishes as "one (but not the
only)" reasonable definition a count of 2.25 hours of work for each
classroom hour taught. "[I]n addition to crediting an hour of service for
each hour teaching in the classroom, this method would credit an additional
1 ¼ hours service" for "related tasks such as class preparation and grading
of examinations or papers."
Separately, instructors should also be credited
with an hour of service for each additional hour they spend outside of the
classroom on duties they are "required to perform (such as required office
hours or required attendance at faculty meetings," the regulation states.
The guidance states that the ratio -- which would
essentially serve as a "safe harbor" under which institutions can qualify
under the law -- "may be relied upon at least through the end of 2015."
By choosing a ratio of 1 ¼ hours of additional
service for each classroom hour, the government comes slightly higher than
the 1:1 ratio that the higher education associations sought, and quite a bit
lower than the ratio of 2:1 or higher promoted by many faculty advocates.
David S. Baime, vice president for government
relations and research at the American Association of Community Colleges,
praised administration officials for paying "very close attention to the
institutional and financial realities that our colleges are facing." He said
community colleges appreciated both the continued flexibility and the
setting of a safe harbor under which, in the association's initial analysis,
"the vast majority of our adjunct faculty, under currernt teaching loads,
would not be qualifying" for health insurance, Baime said.
Maria Maisto, president and executive director of
New Faculty Majority, said she, too, appreciated that the administration had
left lots of room for flexibility, which she hoped would "force a lot of
really interesting conversations" on campuses. "I think most people would
agree that it is reasonable for employers to actually talk to and involve
employees in thinking about how those workers can, and do, perform their
work most effectively, and not to simply mandate from above how that work is
understood and performed," she added.
Maisto said she was also pleased that the
administration appeared to have set the floor for a "reasonable" ratio above
the lower 1:1 ratio that the college associations were suggesting.
She envisioned a good deal of confusion on the
provision granting an hour of time for all required non-teaching activities,
however, noting that her own contract at Cuyahoga Community College requires
her to participate in professional development and to respond to students'
questions and requests on an "as-needed basis." "How does this regulation
account for requirements like that?" she wondered.
Student Workers
The adjunct issue has received most of the higher
education-related attention about the employer mandate, but the final
regulations have significant implications for campuses that employ
significant numbers of undergraduate and graduate students, too.
Higher education groups had urged the
administration to exempt student workers altogether from the employer
mandate, given that many of them would be covered under the health care
law's policies governing student health plans and coverage for those up to
age 26 on their parents' policies. The groups also requested an exemption
for students involved in work study programs.
The updated guidance grants the latter exemption
for hours of work study, given, it states, that "the federal work study
program, as a federally subsidized financial aid program, is distinct from
traditional employment in that its primary purpose is to advance education."
But all other student work for an educational
organization must be counted as hours of service for purposes of the health
care mandate, Treasury and IRS said.
Steven Bloom, director of federal relations at the
American Council on Education, said higher ed groups thought it made sense
to exempt graduate student workers, given that their work as teaching
assistants and lab workers is generally treated as part of their education
under the Fair Labor Standards Act. He said the new guidance is likely to
force institutions that employ graduate students as TAs or research
assistants -- and don't currently offer them health insurance as part of
their graduate student packages -- to start counting their hours.
The guidance also includes a potentially
confounding approach to students who work as interns. The new regulation
exempts work conducted by interns as hours of service under the health care
employer mandate -- but only "to the extent that the student does not
receive, and is not entitled to, payment in connection with those hours."
Continued in article
Also see
http://info.ballardspahr.com/rs/vm.ashx?ct=24F7661FD7E00AEDC1D180A5D22E941DDDBE7BB3D38714DD4CF371647BF8D90DDD78034
Jensen Question
How should a university account for a doctoral student who happens to teach 33
hours one semester and works less than 30 hours in all other semesters of the
doctoral program? Is the university required to provide health coverage for
zero, one, or more years while the student is a full time student in the
doctoral program? I assume the university must provide health insurance for one
year, but I'm no authority on this issue.
There also is a huge difference in hours of work required for teaching. A
doctoral student who only teaches recitation sections under a professor who
provides the lecture sections, writes the syllabus, writes the examinations, and
essentially owns a course versus a doctoral student who owns only section of
governmental accounting with no supervision from a senior instructor.
When I was Chair of the Accounting Department at Florida State University,
the wife (Debbie) of one of our doctoral students (Chuck Mulford) had total
control of the lectures and 33 recitation sections of basic accounting each
semester where most of the recitation "instructors" were accounting doctoral
students. Debbie had her CPA license and a masters degree, but she was not a
doctoral student. She was very good at this job. The recitation instructors had
almost no preparation time and did not design or grade the examinations. They
did not own all 33 sections like Debbie owned all 33 sections. It would be a bit
unfair to give the recitation instructors as much pay for preparation as the
selected doctoral students who taught more advanced courses and essentially
owned those courses in terms of classroom preparation and examinations.
Bob Jensen's personal finance helpers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers
Bob Jensen's threads on controversies in higher education (including use
of adjuncts) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Some Questions Are Too Difficult to Answer
"Evaluating the Payoff of a College Degree: Is college worth it?"
by Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 24, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/bottomline/embargoed-till-10am-monday-evaluating-the-payoff-of-a-college-degree/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Is college worth it?
News articles raising that question, and reports
meant to answer it, are piling up at a steady clip.
And the answer has real consequences for anyone
advising a student about whether and where to go to college, and for policy
makers wondering if the country has too many degree holders, or too few.
A paper released on Monday by the Urban Institute
seeks to add context to the debate over whether college pays off. The paper,
“Higher Education Earnings Premium: Value, Variation, and Trends,”
was written by Sandy Baum, a senior fellow at the
research organization.
The paper’s main takeaway: “The payoff is high, and
rising,” Ms. Baum says. “But it’s not as simple as that.”
Calculating the payoff of a degree requires a
series of choices that lead to different results.
The earnings premium of a college degree looks
different depending on how the data are cut. For instance, the earnings gap
between workers with and without four-year college degrees will be larger in
a study that examines everyone in the labor force than in one that considers
only full-time workers. That’s because college graduates are more likely to
be employed and to work full time than people with less education.
Another choice is whether to look at the earnings
of recent graduates or to consider graduates’ whole working lives. The
earnings gap between workers with and without college degrees is higher for
older workers, so focusing on recent graduates paints an incomplete picture.
But looking at lifetime earnings also introduces a
problem: There’s no guarantee that the labor market will treat today’s young
workers in the same way it treated their predecessors.
If researchers are comparing workers with and
without bachelor’s degrees, they must also decide how to treat graduate
degrees. Including workers with advanced degrees will overstate the payoff
of a bachelor’s degree, the paper says. But excluding them will understate
it because bachelor’s degrees open the door to graduate school.
In the end, there’s “no one answer” for how to look
at this set of dilemmas, Ms. Baum says. But it is important to understand
the pros and cons of any approach.
Jensen Comment
To the extent that people who do not go to college are on average less
intelligent, less motivated, and do not have financial support of family for
careers such as starting a new business or carrying on with the family farm,
there's a huge problem of attributing cause from correlation outcomes
when comparing college graduates from those who only graduated from high school.
High school graduates who are on average more intelligent, more motivated,
and have financial support of family for careers such as starting a new business
or carrying on with the family farm are likely to do well in life even if they
did not go to college. In other words the causes of economic success may be more
fundamental than simply having a college diploma. Many college graduates would
have done well in life even if they had not gone to college.
Personal Note
We have a son and his wife that went deeply in debt to graduate from college (he
in business and she in law enforcement). They did this at a time when both
became unemployed. They had high grades, but when they struggled to find
employment they both ended up in jobs that do not require any college education.
In Germany only about 25% of the population is allowed into college. Germany
takes great pride in the economic opportunities for people in the skilled
trades. In the USA there's a shortage of workers in the skilled trades because
your a nobody unless you learn to read after graduating from high school and go
on to college.
Tertiary education ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_education
Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third
level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level
following the completion of a school providing a
secondary education. The
World
Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including universities
as well as institutions that teach specific capacities of higher learning
such as colleges, technical training institutes, community colleges, nursing
schools, research laboratories, centers of excellence, and distance learning
centers.[1]
Higher education is taken to include
undergraduate and
postgraduate education, while
vocational education and training beyond secondary education is known as
further education in the
United Kingdom, or
continuing education in the
United States.
Tertiary education generally culminates in the receipt of
certificates,
diplomas,
or
academic degrees.
Education by Country ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_education_articles_by_country
Education in Germany ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Germany
The Most Educated Countries in the World (in terms of "tertiary education")
---
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-most-educated-countries-in-the-world.html?page=all
- Canada
- Israel
- Japan
- United States
- New Zealand
- South Korea
- United Kingdom
- Finland
- Australia
- Ireland
Countries with the highest proportions of college graduates ---
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/22/countries-with-the-most-c_n_655393.html#s117378&title=Russian_Federation_54
- Russian Federation 54.0% (quality varies due to rampant cheating and
corruption where students can buy course grades and admission)
- Canada 48.3%
- Israel 43.6%
- Japan 41.0%
- New Zealand 41.0%
- United States 40.3% (colleges vary greatly in terms of admissions
standards and rigor for graduation)
- Finland 36.4%
- South Korea 34.3%
- Norway 34.2%
- Australia 33.7%
Germany is still under the OECD average in terms of proportions of college
graduates at 23.9% ---
http://andrewhammel.typepad.com/german_joys/2010/09/education-governments-should-expand-tertiary-studies-to-boost-jobs-and-tax-revenues.html
.
Jensen Comment
This tidbit was inspired by reference to the fact that tertiary education in
Germany was free and is now returning to virtually free. Note, however, that
getting into college in Germany is extremely competitive based mostly upon
examinations along the way in what we call K-12 schools ---
http://www.german-way.com/history-and-culture/education/
Note there's a huge difference between free tuition and free college
education covering tuition, room, board, transportation, computers, books, etc.
It's much more likely in the USA that students can both live at home and get
college degrees due to higher numbers of nearby college campuses all across the
USA and the increasing prevalence online college degree opportunities relative
to all of Europe, especially in Germany. Germans may get free tuition, but they
may have to leave home and pay for their own relatively expensive room and board
in large cities.
Germany has a smaller proportion of college graduates in large measure due
somewhat to both the status and the wages of people that elect to go into the
skilled trades rather than college where salaries may often be lower.
But the primary reason is the limited space in German universities and the
competitiveness of the qualifying examinations to get in. Unlike the USA, first
year German college students are good in reading, writing, and college-level
mathematics. In the USA colleges increasingly are faced with students needing
to have remedial courses in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Germany is still under the OECD average in terms of proportions of college
graduates at 23.9% ---
http://andrewhammel.typepad.com/german_joys/2010/09/education-governments-should-expand-tertiary-studies-to-boost-jobs-and-tax-revenues.html
.
The study's setting off the
usual alarm bells (g) in Germany. I
speculated on the cause of Germany's low
college-graduation rates a while ago, but I think one factor I forgot to
mention is cost. It's not that some German universities have introduced
tuition fees -- in international comparison, these tuition fees are
negligible. The problem is rather that Germany has a woefully inadequate
system for financing higher education. Germany does have a loan/grant scheme
for students (called Bafoeg), but it's
extremely complex and miserly (g). Not that I'm a
big fan of student loans, but a well-regulated system of affordable student
loans is much better than Germany's current system of measly scholarships,
half-time university posts, and help from relatives.
Even if simple, affordable loans were available, the
problem would remained that lots of young Germans are reluctant to face what
students in most other countries have long accepted: college costs money,
and that means debt. I'm consistently surprised to meet Germans who could
have gone to college but didn't, and instead decided to become hairdressers,
chimney sweeps, butchers, or machinists. There are ads all over my
university right now which advise university students who "don't like
studying" to drop out of college and train to become air-traffic
controllers.
The rationale behind people who choose these
professions is that "we'll always need" people to do these jobs, so they
offer steadier employment. I'm not so sure. In fact, something tells me that
15 years from now or so, we're going to need a
whole lot fewer human air-traffic controllers than
we do now...
In comparison say in the USA and Australia, the skilled trades may pay better
in many instances but the social status of college graduates is generally higher
relative to the status of skilled trades workers in Germany. Also in the USA
college graduates are less bounded due to the American Dream of reaching almost
unheard of salaries as physicians, veterinarians, corporate executives, etc.
relative to counterparts in Germany where white collar salaries are more bounded
by taxes and culture relative to living expenses (that are generally higher,
especially for big houses luxury condos, and acreages).
There is an increasing and long-delayed initiative to open up the German
education system to be more like the North American dreams.
Berlin's Gymnasium Lottery
In 2009 the Berlin Senate decided that Berlin's gymnasium schools should no
longer be allowed to pick all of their students. It was ruled that while
they would be able to pick 70% to 65% of their students, the other places
were to be allocated by lottery. Every child is able to enter the lottery,
no matter how he or she performed in primary school. It is hoped that this
policy will increase the number of working class students attending a
gymnasium. The Left proposed that Berlin gymnasiums should no longer be
allowed to expel students who perform poorly, so that students who won a
gymnasium place in the lottery have a higher chance of graduating from that
school. It is not clear yet whether Berlin's senate will decide in favor of
The Left's proposal.
"American High Schools Are A Complete Disaster," by Laurence
Steinberg, Slate via Business Insider, February 13, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/american-high-schools-are-a-disaster-2014-2
Every once in a while, education policy squeezes its
way onto President Obama's public agenda, as it did in during last month's
State of the Union address.
Lately, two issues have grabbed his (and just about everyone else's)
attention: early-childhood education and access to college.
But while these scholastic bookends are important, there is an awful lot of
room for improvement between them.
American high schools, in particular, are a disaster.
In international assessments, our elementary school
students generally score toward the top of the distribution, and our middle
school students usually place somewhat above the average. But our high
school students score well below the international average, and they fare
especially badly in math and science compared with our country's chief
economic rivals.
What's holding back our teenagers?
One clue comes from a little-known 2003 study based on OECD data that compares
the world’s 15-year-olds on two measures of student engagement:
participation and “belongingness.” The measure of participation was based on
how often students attended school, arrived on time, and showed up for
class. The measure of belongingness was based on how much students felt they
fit in to the student body, were liked by their schoolmates, and felt that
they had friends in school. We might think of the first measure as an index
of academic engagement and the second as a measure of social engagement.
On the measure of academic engagement, the U.S.
scored only at the international average, and far lower than our chief
economic rivals: China, Korea, Japan, and Germany. In these countries,
students show up for school and attend their classes more reliably than
almost anywhere else in the world. But on the measure of social engagement,
the United States topped China, Korea, and Japan.
In America, high
school is for socializing. It's a convenient
gathering place, where the really important activities are interrupted by
all those annoying classes. For all but the very best American students—the
ones in AP classes bound for the nation’s most selective colleges and
universities—high
school is tedious and unchallenging. Studies that
have tracked American adolescents’
moods over the course of the day find that levels
of boredom are highest during their time in school.
It's not just No Child Left Behind or Race to the
Top that has failed our adolescents—it's every single thing we have tried.
One might be tempted to write these findings off as
mere confirmation of the well-known fact that adolescents
find everything boring. In fact, a huge proportion of the world's high
school students say that school is boring. But
American high schools are even more boring than schools in nearly every
other country, according to OECD surveys. And
surveys of exchange students who have studied in America, as well as surveys
of American adolescents who have studied abroad, confirm this. More than
half of American high school students who have studied in another country
agree that our schools are easier. Objectively, they are probably correct: American
high school students spend far less time on schoolwork than
their counterparts in the rest of the world.
Trends in achievement within the U.S. reveal just
how bad our high schools are relative to our schools for younger students.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, administered by the U.S.
Department of Education, routinely tests three age groups: 9-year-olds,
13-year-olds, and 17-year-olds. Over the past 40 years, reading scores rose
by 6 percent among 9-year-olds and 3 percent among 13-year-olds. Math scores
rose by 11 percent among 9-year-olds and 7 percent among 13-year-olds.
By contrast, high school students haven’t made any
progress at all. Reading and math scores have remained flat among
17-year-olds, as have their scores on subject area tests in science,
writing, geography, and history. And by absolute, rather than relative,
standards, American high school students’ achievement is scandalous.
In other words, over the past 40 years, despite
endless debates about curricula, testing, teacher training, teachers’
salaries, and performance standards, and despite billions of dollars
invested in school reform, there has been no improvement—none—in the
academic proficiency of American high school students.
It's not just No Child Left Behind or Race to the
Top that has failed our adolescents—it's every single thing we have tried.
The list of unsuccessful experiments is long and dispiriting. Charter
high schools don’t perform any better than
standard public high schools, at least with respect to student achievement.
Students whose teachers “teach for America” don’t
achieve any more than those whose teachers came
out of conventional teacher certification programs.
Once one accounts for differences in the family backgrounds of students who
attend public and private high schools, there
is no advantage to going to private school,
either. Vouchers
make no difference in student outcomes. No wonder
school administrators and teachers from Atlanta to Chicago to my hometown of
Philadelphia have been caught fudging data on student performance. It's the
only education strategy that consistently gets results.
The especially poor showing of high schools in
America is perplexing. It has nothing to do with high schools having a more
ethnically diverse population than elementary schools. In fact, elementary
schools are more ethnically diverse than high schools, according to data
from the National Center for Education Statistics. Nor do high schools have
more poor students. Elementary schools in America are more
than twice as likelyto be classified as
“high-poverty” than secondary schools.
Salaries are about the same for secondary and elementary school teachers.
They have comparable years of education and similar years of experience.
Student-teacher ratios are the same in our elementary and high schools. So
are the amounts of time that students spend in the classroom. We don't
shortchange high schools financially either; American school districts
actually spend a little more per capita on high
school students thanelementary
school students.
Our high school classrooms are not understaffed,
underfunded, or underutilized, by international standards. According to a
2013 OECD report, only Luxembourg,
Norway, and Switzerland spend more per student.
Contrary to widespread belief, American
high school teachers’ salaries are comparable to
those in most European and Asian countries, as are American
class sizes and student-teacher ratios. And
American high school students actually spend
as many or more hours in the classroom each year
than their counterparts in other developed countries.
This underachievement is costly: One-fifth of
four-year college entrants and one-half of those entering community college
need remedial education, at a cost of $3 billion each year.
The president's call for expanding access to higher
education by making college more affordable, while laudable on the face of
it, is not going to solve our problem. The president and his education
advisers have misdiagnosed things. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of
college entry in the industrialized world.
Yet it is tied for last in the rate of college completion. More than
one-third of U.S. students who enter a full-time, two-year college program drop
out just after one year, as do about one fifth of
students who enter a four-year college. In other words, getting our
adolescents to go to college isn't the issue. It's getting them to graduate.
If this is what we hope to accomplish, we need to
rethink high school in America. It is true that providing high-quality
preschool to all children is an important component of comprehensive
education reform. But we can't just do this, cross our fingers, and hope for
the best. Early intervention is an investment, not an inoculation.
In recent years experts in early-child development
have called for programs designed to strengthen children's “non-cognitive”
skills, pointing to research that demonstrates that later scholastic success
hinges not only on conventional academic abilities but on capacities like
self-control. Research on the determinants of success in adolescence and
beyond has come to a similar conclusion: If we want our teenagers to thrive,
we need to help them develop the non-cognitive traits it takes to complete a
college degree—traits like determination, self-control, and grit.
This means classes that really challenge students to work hard—something
that fewer than one in six high school students report experiencing,
according to Diploma to Nowhere, a 2008 report published by Strong American
Schools. Unfortunately, our high schools demand so little of students that
these essential capacities aren’t nurtured. As a consequence, many high
school graduates, even those who have acquired the necessary academic skills
to pursue college coursework, lack the wherewithal to persevere in college.
Making college more affordable will not fix this problem, though we should
do that too.
Continued in article
In Canada
"Shift to Applied Research Triggers Protests," by Karen Birchard
and
Jennifer Lewington, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 9. 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Shift-to-Applied-Research/144659/
What is the purpose of university research?
Should it be driven by intellectual curiosity or focused on satisfying
immediate national needs? American higher education has long grappled with
those questions, and today it is a global debate. Academics worldwide are
becoming more vocal about their concerns.
Many agree that a proper balance can be struck
between research that has an immediate benefit to the economy and research
that opens the door for future discoveries. But for now, the balance may be
off. In the following collection of articles, read more about three
countries where scholars are taking steps to fight what they believe is a
troubling focus on short-term, economic gains:
Canada,
Germany, and
Britain.
Canada’s National
Research Council has long been the country’s premier scientific institution,
with its researchers helping to produce such inventions as the pacemaker and
the robotic arm used on the American space shuttle. But last year its
mission changed.
The Canadian government announced a transformation
of the 98-year-old agency, once focused largely on basic research, into a
one-stop "concierge service" to bolster historically weak technological
innovation by industry and generate high-quality jobs.
The move has set off a row over the future of
Canada’s capacity to carry out fundamental research, with university
scientists and academic organizations uncharacteristically vocal about the
government’s blunt preference to harness research for commercial needs.
"We are not sure the government appreciates the
role that basic research plays," says Kenneth Ragan, a McGill University
physicist and president of the Canadian Association of Physicists. "The real
question is: How does it view not-directed, nonindustrial,
curiosity-driven blue-sky research? I worry the view is that it is
irrelevant at best and that in many cases they actually dislike it."
The remodeling of the research council is one in a
series of policy changes that have generated fierce pushback by Canadian
academe in recent years. The Conservative government of Prime Minister
Stephen Harper is also under fire for
closing research libraries, shutting down research
facilities like the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area,
and restricting when government scientists can
speak publicly about their work.
Last year the Canadian Association of University
Teachers began a national campaign, "Get Science Right," with town-hall
meetings across the country to mobilize public opposition to the policies.
Scientists have even taken to the streets of several Canadian cities in
protest.
While the transformation of the National Research
Council has been criticized, the government as well as some science-policy
analysts say better connecting businesses with research is an important step
for Canada.
Having examined models in other countries, the
National Research Council chose to streamline its operations to act as "the
pivot between the two worlds" of industry and academics, with an eye toward
new products and innovations, says Charles Drouin, a spokesman for the
council. He says the agency has not moved away from support for fundamental
research, but wants to focus such efforts better. "There is basic research,
but it is directed as opposed to undirected as you would find it in
universities."
Another battleground for the future of basic
research has been the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, a
federal granting agency that serves as the first stop for support of
fundamental research by Canadian scientists.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
In the USA collegiate applied research varies greatly by discipline. Schools of
engineering, medicine, and law have invented countless things of keep interest
to the practicing professions. It is less so for schools of business and much,
much less so for schools of accounting.
The Pathways Commission makes a concerted effort for academic accounting
researchers to become more engaged in doing research of practitioner needs.
This, in my viewpoint, is less likely than growing coconut palm trees in New
Hampshire ten years from now.
I would like to challenge subscribers of the AECM to fill out the following
table:
This challenge is very easy for practitioner clinical applications in
medicine, natural science, social science, computer science, engineering, and
finance. It's not so easy to find where inventions/discoveries by accounting
professors made splashes in the practitioner pond. It might be questioned
whether Bob Kaplan invented all the components of the popular Balanced Scorecard
widely applied by corporations around the world. An earlier version in 1987 was
invented by a practitioner named Art Schneiderman. But I think Bob Kaplan
beginning in 1990 made so many seminal contributions to the scorecard that I
will give him credit for the invention that made a huge splash in the
practitioner pond.
When I was the 1986 Program Director for
NYC Annual
Meetings of American Accounting Association I posed this challenge to Joel
Demski to address in his plenary session (shared with Bob Kaplan). Joel
suggested the practitioner applications of Dollar-Value LIFO. Subsequently,
accounting historian Dale Flesher dug into this and discovered that DVL was
invented by Herbert T. McAnly who retired in 1964 as a partner at Ernst & Ernst
after 44 years with the firm
The Seminal Contributions to Accounting Literature Award of the American
Accounting Association are as follows ---
http://aaahq.org/awards/awrd2win.htm
2007 � "Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management
Accounting"
by H. Thomas Johnson and Robert S. Kaplan
Harvard Business School Press 1987
2004 � "Towards a Positive Theory of the Determination of
Accounting Standards"
by Ross L. Watts and Jerold L. Zimmerman
The Accounting Review (January) 1978
1994 � "Economic Incentives in budgetary Control Systems"
by Joel S. Demski and Gerald A. Feltham
The Accounting Review (April) 1978
1989 � "Information Content of Annual Earnings Announcements"
by William H. Beaver
Journal of Accounting Research 1968
1986 � "An Empirical Evaluation of Accounting Income Numbers"
by Ray Ball and Philip Brown
Journal of Accounting Research 1968
These are all tremendous contributions to the academic side of accountancy.
However, none of the inventions of Professors Demski and Feltham to my knowledge
made a splash in the practitioner pond. ABC costing focused upon by Johnson and
Kaplan made a splash in the practitioner pond, but ABC costing was invented by
cost accountants at John Deere.
The contributions of Watts, Zimmerman, Beaver, Ball, and Brown made splashes
of sorts in the practice pond, but I have difficulty calling them seminal
"inventions." In these instances the authors were extending into accounting
inventions attributed earlier to professors and practitioners in economics and
finance.
There are many other accounting professors who made seminal contributions to
the academic side of accountancy. For example, Yuji Ijiri is a Hall of Famer who
had many noteworthy accountancy inventions. However, to my knowledge Yuji did
not make a ripple in the practitioner pond except maybe for selected
practitioners trying to fend against the takeover of historical cost accounting
by fair value accounting. Many seminal inventions of Yuji, like the "Force,"
were just not deemed practical.
My own published research is best described as extensions and/or applications
invented by others ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Resume.htm#Published
To my knowledge none of my extensions made so much as a ripple in the
practitioner pond.
January 19, 2013 reply from Dan Stone
A great idea.... which would probably be better in
a research paper than on a list.
Anna Cianci and Bob Ashton published a paper a few
years ago demonstrating how the KPMG audit research support initiative led
to changes in auditor / audit firm practices.
So maybe:
idea: the application of cognitive biases and
decision aiding to audit practice Professors: a large cast many of whom got
their PhD at Univ. of Illinois in the 1960s and 1970s including Bob Ashton,
Bob Libby, Kathryn Kadous, and many, many others
idea: the risk based audit Professors: KPMG
monograph by Howard Thomas, Ira Solomon, Marc Peecher (along with many
others)
Dan Stone
January 20, 2013 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the added considerations.
Among other things, your post suggests that some "inventions" do not have
short names.
Some of your suggestions do need further research into where credit can be
given for the very first inventions of what eventually made a splash in the
practitioner pond.
For example, does anybody (Miklos?) on the AECM know of where the concept of
Risk-Based Auditing had its original starting point? I fear that it may be
like Dollar Based LIFO where accounting professors picked up on the seminal
idea of a practitioner. For example, did some employee of the Arthur
Andersen accounting firm, that took risk-based auditing to its own demise,
also invent the concept itself?
Robert Knechel (University of Florida) supposedly traced
the history of risk-based auditing, but I've not seen his paper in
this regard.
Respectfully,
Bob Jensen
"Academic Research With Mass Appeal," by Erin Zlome, Bloomberg
Business Week, January 28, 2013 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-28/academic-research-with-mass-appeal
Business professors are great at writing
jargon-filled, hard-to-digest research papers. But every once and a while,
they knock it out of the park with the general public. A small pool of
research achieved such blockbuster status in 2012 by becoming the most read,
most downloaded, or most written-about pieces authored by professors at top
business schools. Tax evasion, finding a job, and the benefits of teaching
employees Spanish are some of the topics that got non-students reading.
At
Harvard Business School, an
excerpt
from Clayton Christensen�s book How Will You
Measure Your Life? was the year�s most read preview of forthcoming
research. The passage uses the downfall of Blockbuster and the rise of
Netflix (NFLX)
as an analogy for how we may end up paying a high cost for small decisions.
Continued in article
January 31, 2013 reply from Dale Flesher
Bob:
Although they didn�t invent it, Johnson and Kaplan deserve credit for
rediscovering and popularizing Activity-Based Costing. As I recall,
Alexander Hamilton Church described ABC as early as 1908, but without
computers it wasn�t practical.
Also, James O. McKinsey, an accounting professor at the University of
Chicago and 1924 AAA president who later founded McKinsey & Co., is credited
with inventing the concept of business budgeting with the publication of his
1922 book on the subject. Previously, budgeting had been considered a
governmental topic. Industry accountants (such as Donaldson Brown at
General Motors, who had previously invented the DuPont Formula) applied
McKinsey�s concepts and developed them further. For example, GM (and also
Westinghouse) developed flexible budgeting by 1928, which was not considered
by McKinsey.
Dale
February 5, 2013 reply from Steve Zeff
In 1989, Nick Dopuch wrote, "Because of its
practical implications, audit judgement research is regarded as having had
the biggest impact on practice of any area of research in
accounting/auditing" - p. 54 in Frecka (editor), The State of Accounting
Research As We Enter the 1990's - Illinois PhD Jubilee 1939-1959 (University
of Illinois, 1989).
Steve.
February 6, 2013 reply from Bob Jensen
My problem, in terms of my table, is that virtually all judgment research
in accounting that I've encountered applies earlier inventions from other
disciplines. Another problem with judgment research is that except in rare
instances like Balanced Scorecard the practitioners applying judgment models
have no clue as to a link between an academic accounting researcher and
practice.
This shortage of academic seminal inventions seems to be unique to the
accounting profession. In nearly every other profession like engineering,
medicine, economics, finance, marketing, management, sociology, psychology,
education, etc. the table that I proposed filling could be filled in a New
York minute with names of academic professor inventions and inventors linked
to the practice of these professions.
For example, eigenvector scaling of paired-comparison decision alternatives
is somewhat widely applied in business. Those practitioners applying it most
likely recall the seminal contributions of mathematician Tom Saaty to what
is now termed the Analytical Hierarchy Process (Tom's terminology) of
business judgment. But those of us who applied AHP in accounting judgment
research are long forgotten --- search for "eigenvector" at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Resume.htm#Published
Analytic Hierarchy Process ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_hierarchy_process
I'm probably stretching it to add a third name to the table below:
Bob Jensen's threads on how accountics scientists need to change ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
"University of Leeds Plans to Capture 50,000 Hours of Video Annually With
Mediasite," by Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology, February 10, 2014 ---
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/02/10/university-of-leeds-plans-to-capture-50000-hours-of-video-annually-with-mediasite.aspx?=ct21
The
University of Leeds in the United Kingdom is
deploying
Sonic Foundry's Mediasite Enterprise Video
Platform for lecture capture and multimedia management. The Mediasite system
automates the capture, management, delivery and search of live and on-demand
videos and rich media.
"This is a significant investment which will
transform teaching and learning here at Leeds," said Neil Morris, director
of digital learning at the university, in a prepared statement. "Not only
can we capture all our audio and video assets, but Mediasite will allow us
to store, manage and publish content across multiple channels."
While the university had previously captured
lectures on a limited scale, it wanted to scale up its efforts with a single
video platform that integrates with its Blackboard learning management
system. Expecting to capture about 50,000 hours of content annually, the
school plans to record lectures and other teaching activities to give
students a flexible and personalized approach to learning. All content will
be searchable, secure and managed in one place via Mediasite.
"We know our students learn in different ways, so
as well as attending lectures, this gives them the opportunity to engage
with the materials wherever they may be and at their own pace," continued
Morris. "Whether that's going over topics that are particularly complex or
using recordings to help with revision, this new system will provide over
30,000 students with outstanding resources to support their learning."
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's video helpers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Video
Also note that BYU teaches the first two accounting courses almost
entirely on video with only infrequent classroom meetings ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#BYUvideo
The Trillion Dollar Farm Bill's Lifeline to the 1% (many of whom don't even
live on the farm or even in the USA)
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303973704579353064008442176?mod=djemMER_h
"New Data Shows Fewer Farms, Richer Farmers," by Andrew Martin,
Bloomberg Businessweek, February 20, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-20/u-dot-s-dot-agriculture-by-the-numbers-fewer-farms-richer-farmers?campaign_id=DN022114
What's Not to Love About Agribusiness Pork
"A Farm Bill Only a Lobbyist Could Love," by Alan Bjerga and Julie
Bykowicz, Bloomberg Businessweek, January 30m 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-30/farm-bill-draws-lobbyist-horde
"Strassel: So God Made a Farm Bill: A famous speech about those who toil
in the fields gets an update," by Kimberly A. Strassel, The Wall Street
Journal, January 3, 2014 ---
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303973704579353064008442176?mod=djemMER_h
Bootstrapping ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping_%28statistics%29
In statistics, bootstrapping is a method for
assigning measures of accuracy (defined in terms of bias, variance,
confidence intervals, prediction error or some other such measure) to sample
estimates. This technique allows estimation of the sampling distribution of
almost any statistic using only very simple methods.Generally, it falls in
the broader class of
resampling methods.
Bootstrapping is the practice of estimating
properties of an estimator (such as its variance) by measuring those
properties when sampling from an approximating distribution. One standard
choice for an approximating distribution is the empirical distribution of
the observed data. In the case where a set of observations can be assumed to
be from an
independent and identically distributed population,
this can be implemented by constructing a number of
resamples of the observed dataset (and of equal
size to the observed dataset), each of which is obtained by
random sampling with replacement from the original
dataset.
It may also be used for constructing hypothesis
tests. It is often used as an alternative to inference based on parametric
assumptions when those assumptions are in doubt, or where parametric
inference is impossible or requires very complicated formulas for the
calculation of standard errors.
The bootstrap was introduced in 1979 by
Bradley Efron. It was inspired by earlier work
on the
jackknife. Improved estimates of the variance were
developed later. A Bayesian extension was developed in 1981.
The ABC procedure was developed in 1992[
and the BCA procedure in 1996.
Bradley Efron ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Efron
Video: Interview Brad Efron ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l9V1sINzhE&feature=youtu.be
Professors Correcting Grammar May Be Racist
"Poorly educated and lied to, Blacks at UCLA call correcting their grammar
and punctuation racist," by Kevin Collins, Coach is Right, February 10, 2014
---
http://www.coachisright.com/poorly-educated-lied-blacks-ucla-call-correcting-grammar-punctuation-racist/
It’s hard to
figure out what to make of the people in this story. Should these people be
laughed at or pitied?
Recently a group
of 25 self-described “Students of Color” held a sit-in to support poor
English writing skills. They whined about the “racism” of being offered
constructive criticism of their lack of grammar, spelling and punctuation
abilities.
As products of
dysfunctional government schools, many if not all of them have little or no
writing skill. Many of them don’t know they have no writing skills. They
have been lied to and had their heads patted so often by paternalistic
liberals they can no longer recognize the truth about their shortcomings.
We can expect
little else from students who have never been dealt with honestly.
What makes this
situation still more ridiculous is that the target of their protest was a
professor of Education and Information. Apparently the poorly educated
students who registered for this course expected more lies and head pats
rather than actual instruction. Claiming to be, “aggrieved minority
students,” these spoiled brats proved they haven’t enough brains to realize
the value of authentic education.
Using the
psycho-babble phrase “micro-aggression” to characterize the professor’s
“insulting” act, the Black spoiled brats issued a statement which was likely
written by someone who was not offended by being taught how to construct a
few sentences in standard American English. Reading their childishly
injected “big” words certainly makes the point that most of them don’t get
it.
They said, “A
hostile campus climate has been the norm for Students of Color in this class
throughout the quarter as our epistemological and methodological commitments
have been repeatedly questioned by our classmates and our instructor. The
barrage of questions by white colleagues and the grammar ‘lessons’ by the
professor have contributed to a hostile class climate.”
Continued in article
Source:
http://downtrend.com/71superb/professor-called-racist-for-correcting-black-students-grammar-and-punctuation/?utm_source=Outbrain
Will the government just give up on antitrust efforts on our behalf?
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on February 13, 2014
The
takeover battle for Time
Warner Cable is finally over.
Comcast has
agreed to buy TWC for $45 billion in stock, in a deal that would combine the
nation’s two biggest cable operators,
the WSJ reports. Time
Warner Cable shareholders will receive $158.82 a share in stock for their
shares, about $23 a share above where TWC has been trading. News of the deal
comes just a couple of days after
Charter Communications
ratcheted up the pressure on TWC by nominating a group of 13 people as
candidates for TWC’s board. But Time Warner Cable had long seen Comcast as a
preferred partner. Last year, Time Warner Cable approached Comcast about a
deal, hoping to ward off Charter. And the two companies had talks off and
on. But until a week ago there were signs that Comcast was leaning toward
striking a deal with Charter instead.
That’s when Comcast approached TWC with an offer to buy the entire company
at about $150 a share, the Journal reports—close to the $160 a share TWC was
looking for. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts at times negotiated with top Time
Warner Cable brass including CEO Rob Marcus and CFO Artie Minson on the
phone from Sochi, where Mr. Roberts has been visiting for the Winter
Olympics.
The deal still
needs approval from the FCC and the DOJ, which hasn’t been shy about
bringing antitrust enforcement actions against would-be mergers that it
thinks will harm competition. But the deal may benefit from the perception
of some regulators that cable is a natural monopoly whose primary
competition comes from satellite providers and telephone companies like
Verizon and AT&T.
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on February 13, 2014
For Venezuela, bonds create a bind
Venezuela pays its overseas bondholders right on time. But the cash-strapped
government is in hock to the tune of $50 billion to the private companies
that service its economy, causing widespread shortages of basic goods,
the WSJ reports. “They've
forgone paying private companies because they feel the cost of not doing so
is manageable, but they’ve continued paying the bonds,” said Asdrubal
Oliveros, head of consultancy Ecoanalitica. He refers to it as a selective
default. “The people suffer consequences of the shortages,” Mr. Oliveros
added. The overdue tab to private companies includes $14 billion owed to
partners and contractors in the oil industry, $9 billion to importers and
more than $4 billion to services companies like airlines. There also are
more than $10 billion in profits that foreign companies have wanted to
convert from bolívares to dollars but have been unable to since 2008.
Jensen Comment
Venezuela sits on the largest pool of oil reserves in the world. Think of
how well off the poorest people in Venezuela would be if the political
leaders had thought
more
like Chile and less like Cuba. One difference between Venezuela and Cuba
is that violent crime is rampant in Venezuela where the prisoners run the
prisons to a point where prisoners come and go and carry guns in prisons
filled with wine, women, and song.
"David Foster Wallace on Leadership, Illustrated and Read by Debbie
Millman, Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, February 17, 2014 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/17/dfw-leadership-debbie-millman/
"8th Circuit Oral Argument in Unsuccessful Faculty Candidate's Suit
Claiming Discrimination by Iowa Law School Due to Her Conservative Views,"
by Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog, February 14, 2014 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/02/8th-circuit-oral-argument.html
Update on the Iowa University Law School Biased Hiring Lawsuit (after three
years of delay): 46 Democrats and One Republican
"Case of Faculty Discrimination Based on Politics Teresa Wagner was qualified
but anti-abortion. The law school at the University of Iowa denied her a job, so
she took them to court," by Peter Berkowitz, The Wall Street Journal,
February 7, 2014 ---
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304691904579346401360317462?mod=djemMER_h
On Feb. 13 in St. Paul, Minn., the Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals will hear arguments in Wagner v. Jones. The appeal is
procedurally complex. But the legal question at the heart of the original
case has potentially far-reaching implications for public and private legal
education. To wit, whether a state law-school may deny employment to faculty
candidates because of their political beliefs.
In a trial concluded 15 months ago, Teresa Wagner
accused the University of Iowa College of Law of violating her First
Amendment right of free expression and 14th Amendment right of equal
protection under the law when the school's dean, Carolyn Jones, refused to
hire her for its legal analysis, writing and research program.
Ms. Wagner was hired initially in August 2006 and
was serving on a part-time basis as the associate director of the law
school's writing center when two full-time positions for legal-writing
instructors opened up that fall. She became one of the two finalists for the
openings.
. . .
She had impressive qualifications. Ms. Wagner had
taught legal writing at George Mason University Law School in Virginia,
edited three books, practiced as a trial attorney in Iowa, and written
several legal briefs, including one in a U.S. Supreme Court case,
Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), which struck down a Nebraska law
criminalizing partial-birth abortions. The faculty-appointments committee at
the University of Iowa College of Law enthusiastically recommended her
appointment as a full-time instructor.
There was a catch, however. Teresa Wagner is a
pro-life conservative. Her résumé showed prior employment with the National
Right to Life Committee and the Family Research Council, both socially
conservative organizations in Washington, D.C.
The University of Iowa's law-school faculty, like
most law-school faculties, is overwhelmingly liberal. When Ms. Wagner was
considered for the job, the law school had only one Republican on its
50-member faculty, according to party registration records obtained from the
Iowa Secretary of State, and he had joined the faculty 25 years earlier.
. . .
She sued in federal court in January 2009. At the
trial three years later, the law school's principal defense was that Ms.
Wagner had "flunked" her interview when she refused to teach the "analysis"
component of the class, which involves methods of legal reasoning. Ms.
Wagner disputed the allegation. But the law school destroyed the videotape
of her job interview, as court testimony confirmed, within a month of its
decision not to hire her.
Faculty emails also contradicted the law school's
allegations about her poor interview. For example, shortly after Ms.
Wagner's job talk, Prof. Sheldon Kurtz, respected for his work on trusts and
estates, emailed Mark Janis, chairman of the faculty-appointments committee:
"Great. Lets [sic] hire her." Nevertheless, more than a dozen law
professors who took the stand supported the law school's story.
Ms. Wagner convinced the jury that her rights had
been violated. After the trial, on Nov. 20, 2012, the jury foreman told the
Des Moines Register, "Everyone in that jury room believed she had been
discriminated against." But after three days of deliberation, the jury could
not agree on whether to hold Dean Jones exclusively responsible.
Presiding Judge William Pratt and his magistrate,
Thomas Shields, phoned counsel to say the jury was hung and the case would
be retried. However, according to court records, after thanking and
discharging the jury, Mr. Shields, in an extraordinary move, called jurors
back from the coatroom. Despite the trial having ended, he instructed the
foreman to sign a verdict form that next to Count 1 had an "X," indicating
that Dean Jones was not liable for a First Amendment violation. Later, Judge
Pratt dismissed Count II, the 14th Amendment violation.
Now, with her appeal next week, Ms. Wagner is
asking the Eighth Circuit to grant her a new trial.
Since the lawsuit, the law school has hired at
least four faculty members who are Republicans, including former Congressman
James Leach and the Republican governor's chief legal counsel, Brenna
Findley, who was appointed as an adjunct professor. The hirings perhaps gave
the school cover from charges of ideological bias during the Wagner affair,
but taking such steps just perpetuates the idea that it's proper to subject
job candidates to a political litmus test.
Instead, state boards of regents and state
legislatures have a responsibility to ensure that their law-school faculties
do not discriminate on the basis of political persuasion. Procedural
transparency in hiring practices would be a help, beginning with the
retention for a reasonable period of all relevant documents, including video
recordings of interviews. Private university trustees should implement the
same safeguards at their institutions.
Hiring decisions should be based on candidates'
merits, including their ability to vigorously present in the classroom and
criticize conservative as well as progressive views. If the Eighth Circuit
protects Teresa Wagner's constitutional rights, the court will also bolster
legal education in America by promoting its depoliticization.
Continued in article
"U. of Iowa Staff Member Sues Law School for Discrimination," by Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 22, 2009 ---
Click Here
A staff member in the law-school
writing center at the University of Iowa has sued the school and its
dean, saying she was turned down for teaching positions because of
her conservative political views,
Iowa City Press-Citizen
reported.
Teresa Wagner filed the lawsuit
against the school and its dean, Carolyn Jones, on Tuesday in U.S.
District Court.
In the lawsuit, she states that in
2006, she applied for an advertised job as a full-time writing
instructor, and that later, she applied for a part-time adjunct
position teaching writing. She was rejected for both positions, even
though she had collegiate teaching experience and strong academic
credentials, the lawsuit says. She argues that affiliations listed
on her résumé, including stints with groups like the National Right
to Life Committee, did her in with a liberal-leaning faculty.
To bolster her case, the lawsuit
dissects the political affiliations of the approximately 50 faculty
members who vote on law-school faculty hires; 46 of them are
registered as Democrats and only one, hired 20 years ago, is a
Republican, the lawsuit states. Ms. Wagner also says that a
law-school associate dean suggested that she conceal her affiliation
with a conservative law school and later told her not to apply for
any more faculty positions.
Steve Parrott, a spokesman for the
University of Iowa, says the discrimination claim is “without
merit.” |
Liberal Bias in Academic Hiring ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#LiberalBias
Purportedly the best is Harvard University and the worst is Tilburg
University in The Netherlands
"The Best And Worst Business Schools, According To Alumni," by John
A. Byrne, Financial Times via Business Insider, February 10, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/alumni-review-best-and-worst-business-schools-2014-2
. . .
This year, some 10,986 alumni completed the survey
— a response rate of 47%. But The Financial Times says that it also added
the views of respondents from one or two preceding years when available. In
other words, these recommendations are the basis of tens of thousands of
alumni over several years.
Which schools consistently are most highly
recommended? Rather than look at one-year results, we crunched the numbers
on the last five years from 2014 to 2010 to give a far more reliable look at
the best and the worst. By taking that longer view, applicants can also see
schools that may be trending up or down in satisfaction. Yale University’s
School of Management is definitely doing better, improving its
recommendation rank to 17 this year from 23 in 2010. UCLA’s Anderson School
is going the other way, ranking 24th this year from 17 five years ago.
Surprisingly, though, there was remarkable
consistency for the best schools over the five-year period. Many schools
stayed within a range of two to three places over the entire span. This was
less true for the schools in the bottom 10% where MBA programs are far more
likely to pop in and out of the FT’s ranking of the Top 100 schools. It’s
relatively rare for a school near the bottom to have a full five-year data
set.
What we especially like about the results is that
they are intuitive which suggests a high degree of reliability. After all,
if a school like Hult International was ahead of a school like INSEAD you
would have to scratch your head. That’s certainly not the case here. In
fact, the top five schools scoring the best recommendations from their
alumni are all familiar prestige names: No. 1 Harvard Business School, which
has been ranked first for each of the past five years, No. 2 Stanford
Graduate School of Business, No. 3 UPenn’s Wharton School, No. 4 London
Business School, and No. 5 Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of
Management.
U.S. business schools dominate the top quartile of
these highly recommended schools, with 19 of the top 25 based in America.
Five European schools make the list. After London, it’s INSEAD in France and
Singapore, IMD in Switzerland, IESE Business School in Spain, and HEC Paris
in France. Only one Canadian school makes the cut: The University of
Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
And the schools at the bottom? They’re led by
Tilburg University in The Netherlands which this year was ranked dead last
in recommendations at 100th. Portugal’s Lisbon MBA is next, followed by
University College Dublin’s Smurfit School, Hult International, and the
University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School in the bottom 10%.
John Delaney, the dean of Katz, acknowledges the
disappointing survey results for his school but notes that he and his staff
have been working especially hard in the past two to three years to improve
things. The school has made a concerted effort to focus on processes that
make it easier for students to change courses and to get into high-demand
classes as well as processes related to careers and employment. He says that
Katz’s internal surveys show improvement in student satisfaction which he
expects to be reflected in future surveys of alumni.
To be fair, it’s worth pointing out that these
schools are among the top 1% in the world. Otherwise, they would even be
ranked among the top 100 by The Financial Times. So even those that are
scoring at the bottom of the recommendation file are very good programs.
Against this peer set, however, the competition is extremely tough and
unrelenting.
For the best of the bunch, we imposed one rule:
That each school received a recommendation rank in each of the five years
studied. That rule brings a greater degree of confidence that these MBA
programs are the most recommended in the world. For the group of schools in
the bottom 10%, we insured that every MBA program had at least two years
worth of rankings data. Obviously, these schools tend to move on and off the
FT’s radar screen, a natural consequence of being near the bottom of the
list.
Bob Jensen's threads on university rankings controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings
From the Scout Report on February 14, 2014
SumAll ---
https://sumall.com/
Interested in learning about your social media
reach? You may want to check out SumAll which is a rather nice way to do
just that. After signing up for the free version, visitors will receive a
daily digest of their social media influence on over a dozen platforms,
including LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and others. It's a powerful tool that
is compatible with all operating systems.
Vocabulary Notebook ---
https://www.vocabularynotebook.com/
If you're looking for a fine way to get your
vocabulary up to speed, you should definitely check out Vocabulary Notebook.
Teachers can use the program to study words with their students in the
classroom and individuals can use it to craft their own personalized
vocabulary lists for reviewing while on the go. This version is compatible
with all operating systems.
Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
It was 50 years ago today (or so), that the Beatles came to
play
The Beatles: 50 years after 'Ed Sullivan' they're everywhere, in everything
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2014/0209/The-Beatles-50-years-after-Ed-Sullivan-they-re-everywhere-in-everything-video
CBS's 'Grammy Salute' Belongs to McCartney and Starr
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/arts/television/cbs-grammy-salute-belongs-to-mccartney-and-starr.html?_r=0
The guy who brought The Beatles to America
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/09/opinion/greene-ed-sullivan-beatles/
A Rare Look at the Origins of Beatlemania: Watch the Throwback Footage
http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/09/beatles-50th-anniversary-ed-sullivan-show-beatlemania/
What the critics wrote about the Beatles in 1964
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-beatles-quotes-20140209,0,1146431.story#axzz2sxo48rHT
The Beatles "White Album:" The Untold Story
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbyowsinski/2014/02/09/the-beatles-white-album-the-untold-story/
From the Scout Report on February 21, 2014
Ken Burns ---
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ken-burns/id723854283?mt=8
Ken Burns is a popular documentarian and, as it
turns out, he is now a popular app, in a manner of speaking. This particular
app gives interested parties the ability to view scenes from his
documentaries (such as "Baseball" and "Jazz") in a variety of settings. The
latest version allows visitors to access the Innovation playlist absolutely
free while other playlists containing clips from his other programs are
available for a small fee. This version is compatible with all devices
running iOS 7.0 and newer.
World Weather ---
http://www.clicktorelease.com/code/weather/
What's going on in the world of weather? Are there
storms around Sri Lanka? What about the snows of Kilimanjaro? These can be
pressing questions, indeed, and the World Weather app is a great way to stay
in touch with weather patterns around the globe. Users will find that they
can just type in a city name to see the current weather and also zoom around
the globe as they see fit. It's a remarkable addition to the world of
existing weather tracking apps and is compatible with all operating systems.
Who exactly owns the moon?
Bigelow: Moon property rights would help create a lunar industry
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/02/bigelow-moon-property-create-lunar-industry/
Bigelow: Lunar private property rights covered by Outer Space Treaty
http://www.examiner.com/article/bigelow-lunar-private-property-rights-covered-by-outer-space-treaty
Moon Mining Rush Ahead?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131113-lunar-property-rights-bigelow-nasa/
No one owns the moon says scientist
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10563369/No-one-owns-the-moon-says-scientist.html
NASA: Earth's Moon
http://moon.nasa.gov/home.cfm
Moon facts
http://lro.gsfc.nasa.gov/moonfacts.html
Free online textbooks, cases, and tutorials in accounting, finance,
economics, and statistics ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Education Tutorials
AT&T Tech Channel (exciting future of technology) ---
http://techchannel.att.com/showpage.cfm?ATT-Archives
The Futures Channel (Science and Engineering) ---
http://www.thefutureschannel.com/index.php
Museum of Science & Industry: Education ---
http://www.msichicago.org/education/
University of Oklahoma: History of Science Collections ---
http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/homescience.php
Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in
the 21st Century ---
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13398
From the Scout Report on February 14, 2014
University of Central Florida Libraries: Research Guides
http://guides.ucf.edu/homepage
Many academic libraries pride themselves on their
online research guides on
a variety of interests, including comparative literature, chemistry, and
dozens of other subjects. The University of Central Florida Libraries has
just such a collection and it covers fourteen different topical areas,
including Engineering, Florida, and Public Affairs & Law. Each of these
areas contains additional subtopics, complete with detailed annotations and
references. The Florida section is a true gem as it covers topics such as
GLBTQ resources, cartography, and weather. Additionally, each heading also
includes specific references to other digital collections created by the
University of Central Florida Libraries.
Jensen Comment
Note there are guides for research in business disciplines, including
"Accounting," But the coverage is weak to nonexistent. Accounting
researchers are better off with sites like those linked at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Threads.htm
This illustrates how librarian guides to research are often highly variable
in coverage.
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
How Wolves Change Ecosystems ---
http://twistedsifter.com/videos/how-wolves-changed-an-ecosystem-trophic-cascade/
AT&T Tech Channel (exciting future of technology) ---
http://techchannel.att.com/showpage.cfm?ATT-Archives
The Futures Channel (Science and Engineering) ---
http://www.thefutureschannel.com/index.php
Century 21 Digital Collection (1,200 photographs from the 1962 Chicago
World's Fair) ---
http://cdm15015.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15015coll3
The Physics Front: Technology Tool Archive ---
http://www.compadre.org/precollege/features/FeatureArchive.cfm?Type=TechTool&C=Precollege
Physics Education Research Central ---
http://www.compadre.org/per/
NSF: Physics Discoveries ---
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/index.jsp?prio_area=11
The Physics Front: Technology Tool Archive ---
http://www.compadre.org/precollege/features/FeatureArchive.cfm?Type=TechTool&C=Precollege
The Hagstromer Medico-Historical Library ---
http://www.hagstromerlibrary.ki.se/
Geology and Earth Science Educational Materials, Lesson Plans, and Other
Resources ---
http://www.geo.umass.edu/stategeologist/frame_edu.htm
USGS Publications Warehouse (Geology and Earth Science)
http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/
Adirondack Architectural Heritage ---
http://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16694coll9
The Digital Archaeological Record ---
http://www.tdar.org/
Society of Architectural Historians ---
http://www.sah.org/
Kindred Britain (ancestors, genetic history)
http://kindred.stanford.edu/
March to the Moon ---
http://tothemoon.ser.asu.edu
NASA’s Stunning Tour of the Moon ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/04/nasas_stunning_tour_of_the_moon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Video
The Moon Up Close in High Definition ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/the_moon_up_close_in_hd.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
From the Scout Report on February 21, 2014
World Weather ---
http://www.clicktorelease.com/code/weather/
What's going on in the world of weather? Are there
storms around Sri Lanka? What about the snows of Kilimanjaro? These can be
pressing questions, indeed, and the World Weather app is a great way to stay
in touch with weather patterns around the globe. Users will find that they
can just type in a city name to see the current weather and also zoom around
the globe as they see fit. It's a remarkable addition to the world of
existing weather tracking apps and is compatible with all operating systems.
Who exactly owns the moon?
Bigelow: Moon property rights would help create a lunar industry
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/02/bigelow-moon-property-create-lunar-industry/
Bigelow: Lunar private property rights covered by Outer Space Treaty
http://www.examiner.com/article/bigelow-lunar-private-property-rights-covered-by-outer-space-treaty
Moon Mining Rush Ahead?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131113-lunar-property-rights-bigelow-nasa/
No one owns the moon says scientist
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10563369/No-one-owns-the-moon-says-scientist.html
NASA: Earth's Moon
http://moon.nasa.gov/home.cfm
Moon facts
http://lro.gsfc.nasa.gov/moonfacts.html
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
Studs Terkel Interviews Bob Dylan, Shel Silverstein, Maya Angelou & More in
New Audio Trove ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/studs-terkel-interviews.html
How the Economic Machine Works ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-06/charlie-rose-talks-to-bridgewaters-ray-dalio
The New Role of Safety Nets in Africa (poverty alleviation) ---
http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/publication/the-new-role-of-safety-nets-in-africa
UN-Habitat: Best Practices Database (for urban centers) ---
http://www.unhabitat.org/bp/bp.list.aspx
Confronting Suburban Poverty ---
http://confrontingsuburbanpoverty.org/
Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in
the 21st Century ---
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13398
Featured Videos: Urban Land Institute ---
http://uli.org/publications/featured-videos/
The Avenue: The New Republic (Brookings, Urban Planning and
Policy) ---
http://www.tnr.com/blogs/the-avenue
President Barack Obama Visual Iconography (photographs of political history)
---
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/obama/
GO TO 2040 (Chicago) ---
http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/about/2040
Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and
Philosophy tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social
Law and Legal Studies
Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Law
Math Tutorials
Project Laboratory in Mathematics ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-821-project-laboratory-in-mathematics-spring-2013/
Math Bits ---
http://mathbits.com/
Get the Math (real world uses of math) ---
http://www.thirteen.org/get-the-math/
MathDL Mathematical Communication ---
http://mathcomm.org/
A Mathematical Way To Think About Biology ---
http://qbio.lookatphysics.com/
Plus Magazine (practical applications of mathematics) ---
http://plus.maths.org/content/
Pedagogy in Action: the SERC portal for Educators (Carleton
College's resources for science, engineering, and math Teachers) ---
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/studentresearch/index.html
Saylor.org: Free Education ---
http://www.saylor.org/
MAA: Curriculum Inspirations ---
http://www.maa.org/math-competitions/teachers/curriculum-inspirations
New Jersey Institute of Technology: OpenCourseWare ---
http://ocw.njit.edu/index.php
Mathematics Assessment: A Video Library ---
http://www.learner.org/resources/series31.html
A Gentle Introduction to Statistics Hosted by Harvard Geneticist Pardis
Sabet ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/01/a-gentle-introduction-to-statistics-hosted-by-harvard-geneticist.html
Statistics Explained Through Modern Dance: A New Way of
Teaching a Tough Subject ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/statistics-explained-with-modern-dance.html
Mathematical Association of America: Student Resources ---
http://www.maa.org/math-competitions/student-resources
Mathematics in Movies: Harvard Prof Curates 150+ Scenes
---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/11/mathematics_in_movies.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bates College Online Resources for Calculus and Linear Algebra
---
http://abacus.bates.edu/~etowne/mathresources.html
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm
Iowa State University: Center for Excellence in Science,
Mathematics and Engineering Education ---
http://www.cesmee.hs.iastate.edu/
Numberphile ---
http://www.youtube.com/numberphile
Carleton Quantitative Inquiry, Reasoning, and Knowledge
Initiative ---
http://serc.carleton.edu/quirk/index.html
Launchings (mathematics education happenings)) ---
http://launchings.blogspot.com/
Who's That Mathematician? Images from the Paul R. Halmos
Photograph Collection ---
http://www.maa.org/publications/periodicals/convergence/whos-that-mathematician-images-from-the-paul-r-halmos-photograph-collection
Mathematical Association of America: Reviews
http://www.maa.org/publications/maa-reviews
Georgians Revealed (The Georgian Era in England) ---
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/georgiansrevealed/index.html
Learning Geometry in Georgian England ---
http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/46/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=3930
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics
History Tutorials
Ken Burns (PBS American History) ---
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ken-burns/id723854283?mt=8
Paul Revere Collection at the American Antiquarian Society (art history) ---
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Inventories/Revere/
Museum of Science & Industry: Education ---
http://www.msichicago.org/education/
The Goldfinch (Iowa History Magazine)
http://ir.uiowa.edu/goldfinch/
The 10 worst stock market crashes in U.S. History ---
http://dprogram.net/2008/10/08/the-10-worst-stock-market-crashes-in-us-history/
The Daily Palette Digital Collection (Iowa Artists) ---
http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/dp/index.php
The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa ---
http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/uipress/bdi/
Poweshiek History Preservation Project (Iowa History) ---http://digital.grinnell.edu/drupal/content/about-phpp
Adirondack Architectural Heritage ---
http://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16694coll9
The Digital Archaeological Record ---
http://www.tdar.org/
Society of Architectural Historians ---
http://www.sah.org/
Iowa Folklife ---
http://www.uni.edu/iowaonline/folklife_v2/
2nd Avenue Online (Jewish History in NYC Theater) ---
http://2ndave.nyu.edu/
The Haunting Final Portrait of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Part of Victoria
Will’s Civil War-Era Photo Collection ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/the-haunting-last-portrait-of-philip-seymour-hoffman.html
The 10 Most Expensive Paintings On Public Display ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-expensive-paintings-on-public-display-2014-2
President Barack Obama Visual Iconography (photographs of political history)
---
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/obama/
Sporting Sketches by Henry Thomas Alken ---
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=science&col_id=150
An Online Gallery of 30,000 Items from The British Library, Including
Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks And Mozart’s Diary ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/an-online-gallery-of-30000-items-from-the-british-library-including-leonardo-da-vincis-notebooks-and-mozarts-diary.html
Watch Langston Hughes Read Poetry from His First Collection, The Weary Blues
(1958) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/hear-langston-hughes-read-two-poems-from-the-weary-blues.html
Florida Citrus Industry Oral Histories ---
http://guides.lib.usf.edu/content.php?pid=49131&sid=364819
The Hagstromer Medico-Historical Library ---
http://www.hagstromerlibrary.ki.se/
The Little Prince as a Pop-Up Book ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/12/little-prince-pop-up-book/
British History Online
(History of England, UK History) ---
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/
Georgians Revealed (The Georgian Era in England) ---
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/georgiansrevealed/index.html
Learning Geometry in Georgian England ---
http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/46/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=3930
Georgians Revealed (The Georgian Era in England) ---
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/georgiansrevealed/index.html
Ruskin at Walkley (English History Museum) ---
http://www.ruskinatwalkley.org/
History Extra (English History) ---
http://www.historyextra.com/podcasts
Canterbury and St. Albans: Treasures from Church and Cloister ---
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/canterbury/
Isa Genzken Retrospective (Sculpture Exhibition at the MOMA) ---
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2013/isagenzken/
Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Also see
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Language Tutorials
Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Languages
Music Tutorials
Riverwalk Jazz --- (vast collection of jazz recordings and links) ---
http://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/home
Chicago Jazz ---
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/cja/jazzmaps/ctlframe.htm
John Falter's Jazz Portraits ---
http://nebraskahistory.org/exhibits/john_falter_jazz/in
Wynton Marsalis (History of Jazz With Great Samples) ---
http://joy2learn.com/jazz/index.html
UCLA Library: James Arkatov Photograph Collection (music history and
profiles) ---
http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz001dzc12
The Story of the Bass: New Video Gives Us 500 Years of Music History in 8
Minutes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/11/the-story-of-the-bass.html
Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Music
From the Scout Report on February 14, 2014
It was 50 years ago today (or so), that the Beatles came to
play
The Beatles: 50 years after 'Ed Sullivan' they're everywhere, in everything
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2014/0209/The-Beatles-50-years-after-Ed-Sullivan-they-re-everywhere-in-everything-video
CBS's 'Grammy Salute' Belongs to McCartney and Starr
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/arts/television/cbs-grammy-salute-belongs-to-mccartney-and-starr.html?_r=0
The guy who brought The Beatles to America
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/09/opinion/greene-ed-sullivan-beatles/
A Rare Look at the Origins of Beatlemania: Watch the Throwback Footage
http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/09/beatles-50th-anniversary-ed-sullivan-show-beatlemania/
What the critics wrote about the Beatles in 1964
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-beatles-quotes-20140209,0,1146431.story#axzz2sxo48rHT
The Beatles "White Album:" The Untold Story
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbyowsinski/2014/02/09/the-beatles-white-album-the-untold-story/
Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Writing Tutorials
New “Hemingway” App Promises to Make Your Writing “Strong and Clear” ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/new-hemingway-app-promises-make-writing-strong-clear.html
From the Scout Report on February 14, 2014
Vocabulary Notebook ---
https://www.vocabularynotebook.com/
If you're looking for a fine way to get your
vocabulary up to speed, you should definitely check out Vocabulary Notebook.
Teachers can use the program to study words with their students in the
classroom and individuals can use it to craft their own personalized
vocabulary lists for reviewing while on the go. This version is compatible
with all operating systems.
Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Updates from WebMD ---
http://www.webmd.com/
February 15, 2014
February 17, 2014
February 18, 2014
Talking' Medical Devices, Apps Continue to Evolve
Kids With ADHD May Benefit From 'Brain Wave' Training in School: Study
Can Vitamin C Ward Off Stroke?
Sleep Apnea May Worsen Fatigue in MS Patients
Food Price Hikes and Type 2 Diabetes
Ovary Removal Might Raise Odds for Bone Loss
Supportive Mate a Good Match for Your Heart
Flu Hits Unvaccinated Hardest, Study Finds
Libraries Serve As Health Insurance Info Hubs
It’s Hot Springs Vs. Ski Slopes In Colorado Insurance Battle
Febryary 20, 2014
February 21, 2014
February 22, 2014
February 24, 2014
February 25, 2014
February 26, 2014
"A Simple Exercise to Increase Well-Being and Lower Depression from Martin
Seligman, Founding Father of Positive Psychology," by Maria Popova, Brain
Pickings, February 18, 2014 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/18/martin-seligman-gratitude-visit-three-blessings/
"UK Scientists Found The First Biomarker For Boys At Risk Of Major
Depression," by Kate Kelland, Business Insider, February 18, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/first-biomarker-for-boys-at-risk-of-major-depression-2014-2
A Bit of Humor
Yakov Smirnoff Remembers “The Soviet Department of Jokes” & Other Staples of
Communist Comedy ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/yakov-smirnoff-remembers-the-soviet-department-of-jokes.html
Bob Hope Entertaining the Troops ---
http://biggeekdad.com/2011/02/bob-hope-christmas/
A Bit of Humor
How To Piss Off A Texan ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-piss-off-a-texan-2014-2
The Conductor (even though the music bad) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7W3ICpONVs
19 Striking Photos Show What Nevada Brothels Are Really Like ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/marc-mcandrews-photos-of-nevadas-legal-brothels-2014-2?op=1#ixzz2u9IJcWBq
All the quality control inspector jobs are filled.
Actually this is a depressing set of photographs.
Forwarded by Dr. Wolff
Here are some little known, very interesting facts about Texas:
1. Port Arthur to El Paso: 889 miles. Port Arthur to Chicago: 770 miles.
2. Brownsville to Texline (north of Amarillo): 956 miles. Texline to Canada:
960 miles.
3. El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas.
4. World's first rodeo was in Pecos, Texas, July 4, 1883.
5. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built
over water. Destroyed by Hurricane Ike - 2008!
6. The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first
full-time coach at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
7. Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North
America.
8. Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America's only
remaining flock of whooping cranes.
9. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.
10. The worst natural disaster in US history was in 1900, caused by a
hurricane in which over 8,000 lives were lost on Galveston Island.
11. The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was "Houston", but
the Space Center was actually in Clear Lake City at the time.
12. The King Ranch in South Texas is larger than the state of Rhode Island.
13. Tropical Storm Claudette brought a US rainfall record of 43" in 24 hours
in and around Alvin in July of 1979.
14. Texas is the only state to enter the US by TREATY, (known as the
Constitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union) instead of by
annexation. This allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same height as the US Flag,
and Texas may choose to divide into 5 states.
15. A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.
16. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.
17. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr Pepper.
18. Texas has had six capital cities: Washington-on-the Brazos, Harrisburg,
Galveston, Velasco, West Columbia, and Austin.
19. The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the US which is taller
than the Capitol Building in Washington, DC (by 7 feet).
20. The San Jacinto Monument is the tallest free standing monument in the
world and it is taller than the Washington Monument.
21. The name 'Texas' comes from the Hasini Indian word 'tejas' meaning
"friends". Tejas is NOT Spanish for Texas.
22. The State Mascot is the Armadillo. An interesting bit of trivia about the
Armadillo is they always have four babies. They have one egg, which splits into
four, and they either have four males or four females.
23. The first domed stadium in the US was the Astrodome in Houston.
24. The Beck family ranch land grant is one days ride by horse (25 miles) in
each direction from the headquarters.
Humor Between January 1-31,
2014 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q1.htm#Humor013114
Humor Between December 1-31,
2013 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q4.htm#Humor123113
Humor Between November 1-30,
2013 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q4.htm#Humor113013
Humor Between October 1-31,
2013 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q4.htm#Humor103113
Humor Between September 1-30, 2013 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q3.htm#Humor093013
Humor Between July 1 and August 31,
2013 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q3.htm#Humor083113
Humor Between June 1-30, 2013
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q2.htm#Humor063013
Humor Between May 1-31, 2013
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q2.htm#Humor053113
Humor Between April 1-30, 2013
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q2.htm#Humor043013
Humor Between March 1-31, 2013
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book13q1.htm#Humor033113
Tidbits Archives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter ---
Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron"
enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and
other universities is at
http://www.searchedu.com/
Online Distance Education Training and Education ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray
Zone of Fraud (College, Inc.) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
-
With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review
(TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
- With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors
Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
- With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of
Accountancy Ignores TAR
- With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research
into Undergraduate Accounting Courses
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral
Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH
CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm
Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and
Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the
vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
World Clock ---
http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time --- http://www.worldometers.info/
Interesting Online Clock
and Calendar
---
http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones ---
http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) ---
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
Also see
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
Facts about population growth (video) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
Projected U.S. Population Growth ---
http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq ---
http://www.costofwar.com/
Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons ---
http://zipskinny.com/
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.
Free (updated) Basic Accounting Textbook --- search for Hoyle at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
CPA Examination ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
Free CPA Examination Review Course Courtesy of Joe Hoyle ---
http://cpareviewforfree.com/
Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at
http://iaed.wordpress.com/
Accounting News, Blogs, Listservs, and Social
Networking ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Online Books, Poems, References,
and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Some of Bob Jensen's Tutorials
Accounting program news items for colleges are posted at
http://www.accountingweb.com/news/college_news.html
Sometimes the news items provide links to teaching resources for accounting
educators.
Any college may post a news item.
Accounting and Taxation News Sites ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for
free) go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
AECM
(Educators)
http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
AECM is an email Listserv list which
provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software
which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the
college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and
peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets,
multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base
programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc.
Over the years the AECM has become the worldwide forum for
accounting educators on all issues of accountancy and accounting
education, including debates on accounting standards, managerial
accounting, careers, fraud, forensic accounting, auditing,
doctoral programs, and critical debates on academic (accountics)
research, publication, replication, and validity testing.
|
CPAS-L
(Practitioners)
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/ (Closed
Down)
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of
all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an
unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments,
ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed.
Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L
or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for
a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional
accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or
education. Others will be denied access. |
Yahoo (Practitioners)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA.
This can be anything from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ
initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA. |
AccountantsWorld
http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as
accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed
assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and
taxation. |
Business Valuation Group
BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag
[RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM] |
FEI's Financial Reporting Blog
Smart Stops on the Web, Journal of Accountancy, March 2008 ---
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2008/smart_stops.htm
FINANCIAL REPORTING PORTAL
www.financialexecutives.org/blog
Find news highlights from the SEC, FASB
and the International Accounting
Standards Board on this financial
reporting blog from Financial Executives
International. The site, updated daily,
compiles regulatory news, rulings and
statements, comment letters on
standards, and hot topics from the Web’s
largest business and accounting
publications and organizations. Look for
continuing coverage of SOX requirements,
fair value reporting and the Alternative
Minimum Tax, plus emerging issues such
as the subprime mortgage crisis,
international convergence, and rules for
tax return preparers. |
|
|
The CAlCPA Tax Listserv September 4, 2008 message from Scott Bonacker
[lister@bonackers.com]
Scott has been a long-time contributor to the AECM listserv (he's a techie as
well as a practicing CPA)
I found another listserve
that is exceptional -
CalCPA maintains
http://groups.yahoo.com/taxtalk/
and they let almost anyone join it.
Jim Counts, CPA is moderator.
There are several highly
capable people that make frequent answers to tax questions posted there, and
the answers are often in depth.
Scott
Scott forwarded the following message from Jim
Counts
Yes you may mention info on
your listserve about TaxTalk. As part of what you say please say [... any
CPA or attorney or a member of the Calif Society of CPAs may join. It is
possible to join without having a free Yahoo account but then they will not
have access to the files and other items posted.
Once signed in on their Yahoo account go to
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxTalk/ and I believe in
top right corner is Join Group. Click on it and answer the few questions and
in the comment box say you are a CPA or attorney, whichever you are and I
will get the request to join.
Be aware that we run on the average 30 or move emails per day. I encourage
people to set up a folder for just the emails from this listserve and then
via a rule or filter send them to that folder instead of having them be in
your inbox. Thus you can read them when you want and it will not fill up the
inbox when you are looking for client emails etc.
We currently have about 830 CPAs and attorneys nationwide but mainly in
California.... ]
Please encourage your members
to join our listserve.
If any questions let me know.
Jim Counts CPA.CITP CTFA
Hemet, CA
Moderator TaxTalk
|
Many useful accounting sites (scroll down) ---
http://www.iasplus.com/links/links.htm
Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Some
Accounting History Sites
Bob Jensen's
Accounting History in a Nutshell and Links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#AccountingHistory
Accounting
History Libraries at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) ---
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/libraries.html
The above libraries include international accounting history.
The above libraries include film and video historical collections.
MAAW Knowledge Portal for Management and Accounting ---
http://maaw.info/
Academy of Accounting Historians and the Accounting Historians Journal ---
http://www.accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aah/
Sage Accounting History ---
http://ach.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/11/3/269
A nice timeline on the development of U.S. standards and the evolution of
thinking about the income statement versus the balance sheet is provided at:
"The Evolution of U.S. GAAP: The Political Forces Behind Professional
Standards (1930-1973)," by Stephen A. Zeff, CPA Journal, January 2005
---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/105/infocus/p18.htm
Part II covering years 1974-2003 published in February 2005 ---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/205/index.htm
A nice
timeline of accounting history ---
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2187711/A-HISTORY-OF-ACCOUNTING
From Texas
A&M University
Accounting History Outline ---
http://acct.tamu.edu/giroux/history.html
Bob
Jensen's timeline of derivative financial instruments and hedge accounting ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds
History of
Fraud in America ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/415wp/AmericanHistoryOfFraud.htm
Also see
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm
Bob Jensen's
Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
All
my online pictures ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone: 603-823-8482
Email:
rjensen@trinity.edu