Tidbits on June 30, 2014
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
Set 4
Photographs of the Lupine
Festival in Sugar Hill
And Other Pictures Taken With My New Camera---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Lupine/Set04/LupineSet04.htm
Tidbits on June 30,, 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/
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
Discover the Lost Films of Orson Welles ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/06/discover-the-lost-films-of-orson-welles.html
Historic Paul Harvey Broadcast (50 years ago) ---
http://stg.do/9LDc
Connect With English ---
http://www.learner.org/series/cwe/
Confidence: The (Animation) Cartoon That Helped America Get
Through the Great Depression (1933) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/06/confidence-great-depression.html
Free music downloads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
"Amazon Prime Subscriber? You Just Got Free
Streaming Music," by Becky Worley, Yahoo Tech, June 12, 2014 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/amazon-is-announcing-a-streaming-music-service-for-88570937834.html
Join A Nationwide Performance Of The National
Anthem ---
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2014/06/13/321696397/join-a-nationwide-performance-of-the-national-anthem
A Rhythm That Has Waltzed Away With Hearts ---
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2014/06/18/322930952/a-rhythm-thats-waltzed-away-with-hearts
Eliot Fisk And Paco Peña: Tiny Desk Concert ---
http://www.npr.org/event/music/321681133/eliot-fisk-and-paco-pe-a-tiny-desk-concert
Horace Silver RIP ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Silver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXkZMnOhgME
Mavis Staples and The Band Sing “The Weight” In
Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz (1978) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/06/mavis-staples-and-the-band-sing-the-weight.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
Bob Jensen's threads on nearly all types of free
music selections online ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm
Photographs and Art
National Museum of the American Indian: Classroom Lessons ---
http://nmai.si.edu/explore/foreducatorsstudents/classroomlessons/
Colossal (Art History) ---
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/
MoMA: Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010 ---
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/polke/
Abby Williams Hill Collection ---
http://digitalcollections.pugetsound.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/abbyhill
Taft Museum of Art (early European and American collections)
---
http://www.taftmuseum.org/
Amazing Pictures Show What Iraq Was Like Before The Country's
Decades Of Chaos ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazing-pictures-of-peaceful-iraq-2014-6
East Hampton's Great Estates Were Even More Majestic A Century
Ago [PHOTOS] ---
http://www.businessinsider.com#ixzz34tUtDmDX
20 Amazing Photos Shot With an iPhone ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/20-amazing-photos-shot-with-an-iphone-89766533399.html
2014 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest Part 2---
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/06/2014-national-geographic-traveler-photo-contest-part-ii/100764/
The 50 Best US Tourist Attractions You've Never Heard Of ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-lesser-known-tourist-attractions-in-america-2014-6
American Museum of Natural History: Educators ---
http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/educators
Acquired Tastes (Art History, Boston) ---
https://www.bostonathenaeum.org/about/publications/selections-acquired-tastes
A Rare Peek Inside Amazon’s Massive
Wish-Fulfilling Machine ---
http://www.wired.com/2014/06/inside-amazon-warehouse/
Jensen Comment
Keep in mind that many of our Amazon orders are not filled at Amazon warehouses.
First there are the used-item choices (I often save by ordering used item like
used books). Second there are those orders that are re-directed to vendors for
shipment. However, in both instances Amazon guarantees delivery and return
privileges.
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
Community Texts (enormous open sharing of ancient classic
texts) ---
https://archive.org/details/opensource
Audio and Podcasts: The Poetry Foundation ---
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audiolanding
Hawthorne in Salem ---
http://hawthorneinsalem.org/
Everything You Need to Enjoy Reading James Joyce’s Ulysses on
Bloomsday ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/06/everything-you-need-to-enjoy-reading-james-joyces-ulysses.html
Free Electronic Literature ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Now in Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on June 30, 2014
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2014/TidbitsQuotations063014.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/
GAO: Fiscal Outlook & The Debt ---
http://www.gao.gov/fiscal_outlook/overview
Bob Jensen's threads on entitlements ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm
Bob Jensen's health care messaging updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
A New Class of Russian Mobile Malware (for Android) Steals Banking
Information
"Malware on the Move," MIT's Technology Review, June 25, 2014 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/graphiti/528306/malware-on-the-move/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20140625
Note the worrisome graphic
Malwarebytes Details the Biggest Threats of 2013 in Their End-of-Year
Report ---
http://www.howtogeek.com/177399/malwarebytes-details-the-biggest-threats-of-2013-in-their-end-of-year-report/
Bob Jensen's threads on computer and networking security ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#SpecialSection
Google Is Offering Free Coding Lessons To Women And Minorities ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-free-coding-lessons-to-women-2014-6#ixzz35qMerq6C
Jensen Comment
I think any women and minorities can apply, including college graduates, K-12
teachers, and professors.
Bob Jensen's threads on thousands other free learning alternatives from
prestigious universities around the world ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
How to Mislead With Statistics
"How Well Do Teen Test Scores Predict Adult Income?" by Phillip Cohen,
Sociological Images, May 13, 2014 ---
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/05/13/how-well-do-teen-test-scores-predict-adult-income/
Jensen Comment
This is a good lesson in regression from sophomores to Ph.D. seminars ---
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/05/13/how-well-do-teen-test-scores-predict-adult-income/
This is an illustration of the enormity of the problem of missing variables
in regression. Sadly in accountics research missing variables are the rule
rather than the exception.
Let's Call it the 186 Club of Tax Avoiders
A new law allows Americans to
pay minimal or no taxes if they live on the island for at least 183 days a
year, and unlike with a move to Singapore or Bermuda, Americans don't have to
turn in their passports.---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-26/puerto-rico-tax-haven-for-americas-super-rich?campaign_id=DN062614
Historically Black Colleges and Universities ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBCU
"Historically Black Colleges Are Becoming More White," by Sarah
Butrymowicz, Time Magazine, June 27, 2014 ---
http://time.com/2907332/historically-black-colleges-increasingly-serve-white-students/?xid=newsletter-brief
An average of one in four students at traditionally
black schools in the U.S. is a different race than the one the college was
intended to serve
When junior Brandon Kirby brought home an award
from a national biomedical conference, it was a nice boost for his small
college in a dying coal town in the heart of Appalachia. More It’s Time to
Write LGBT History into the TextbooksWhy Pediatricians Are Prescribing
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It also seemed incongruous, given that the
conference was for minorities, the college is historically black — and Kirby
is white. Popular Among Subscribers Eat Butter Fat Time Magazine Cover
Ending the War on Fat Subscribe The End of Iraq How Many People Watched
Orange Is the New Black? No One Knows
So are 82 percent of the students at West
Virginia’s Bluefield State College, which nonetheless qualifies for a share
of the more than a quarter of a billion dollars a year in special funding
the
federal
government set
aside for historically black colleges and
universities in 2011, the last year for which figures are available. These
schools, known as HBCUs, can also apply for federal loans through the
Historically Black College and University Capital Financing Program.
Last year, they got $303 million from that program, on
top of $1.1 billion in previously approved loans.
The HBCU designation was created by Congress in
1965 to refer to any accredited school “established prior to 1964, whose
principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans.”
HBCU’s have always enrolled students of all races,
but they are increasingly becoming less black. At some, like Bluefield,
blacks now comprise less than half of the student body. At Lincoln
University in Missouri, African-Americans account for 40 percent of
enrollment while at Alabama’s Gadsden State Community College, 71 percent of
the students are white and just 21 percent are black. The enrollment at St.
Philip’s College in Texas is half Hispanic and 13 percent black, according
to 2011 enrollment data from the U.S. Department of Education. Nationwide,
an average of one in four HBCU students is a different race than the one the
school was intended to serve, according to research conducted at the
University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
Many HBCUs were started under segregation to
provide African-Americans with higher education opportunities. After
integration, they became seen as places for black students to overcome
economic and educational inequities. Indeed, HBCUs have been instrumental in
developing the black middle class, graduating substantial numbers of
teachers, engineers and other professionals. But as schools that had been
predominantly white opened their doors to other races, black students became
scarcer at historically black colleges. To survive, the universities have
had to market themselves to all students.
But George Cooper, the executive director of the
White House Initiative on HBCUs, says such wild demographic swings are a
testament to the modern-day flexibility of HBCUs. These schools still are,
and always will be, legally considered historically black, he said.
“The definition is a federal definition,” Cooper
says. “They’re living up to it.”
Congress has never stipulated whether an
institution could continue to be considered historically black if it became
mostly white. The legislation that gives the schools their largest pool of
money says only that they have “contributed significantly to the effort to
attain equal opportunity through postsecondary education for black,
low-income, and educationally disadvantaged Americans.”
Not everyone agrees. Economist Richard Vedder
favors eliminating special funding for HBCU’s on the grounds that all
schools should receive money based on present realities, not historic
mission. “If you’re going to give subsidies for institutions, you shouldn’t
give it on the basis of some sort of historical [legacy],” says Vedder,
director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.
At Bluefield, officials and students contend they
haven’t strayed from their original mission for the same reason Kirby and
his classmates are allowed to participate in the biomedical conference.
“We’re all considered minorities because we’re in a
poverty state,” Kirby says, referring to West Virginia.
The university primarily draws rural students from
Appalachia, many of them low income and the first in their families to
attend college. “The students that we serve would not necessarily have other
options for higher education,” Bluefield State President Marsha Krotseng
says.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
"Former Law Student Brings Federal Lawsuit Over D Grade in Contracts,"
by Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog, June 25, 2014 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/06/former-law-student-.html
Jensen Comment
This lawsuit is a warning to teachers regarding following the exact wording in
their syllabus regarding matters that affect grades.
I don't think the student will be successful in getting a higher grade in the
course. Precedents of courts assigning grades would open the floodgates of
potential grade-change lawsuits. The student could possibly get permission to
retake the course and re-admission and/oror monetary damages.
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Beginning to Shine a Light on the Opaque Derivatives Market: Defining
Dealers and Major Participants in the Cross-Border Context
DEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar
Junr 25, 2014
http://www.sec.gov/News/Speech/Detail/Speech/1370542163686#.U6sihrEzNQ5
Thank you Neal Hannon for the Heads Up
Here's a crib note sheet for your next economics examination ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/table-different-schools-of-economics-2014-6
"Why Paying Off a Mortgage Early Isn't Always The Right Move," by Len
Penzo. Business Insider, June 26, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-paying-off-a-mortgage-early-isnt-always-the-right-move-2014-6
Jensen Comment
When I retired in 2006 I could have paid cash for our retirement cottage and
acreage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Instead I took out a jumbo
mortgage. I could have paid it off anytime since then, but instead I refinanced
twice to get a lower interest rate and will be nearly 100 years of age when the
mortgage is paid off. I might refinance again and again and again when interest
rates decline even if each refinancing adds more years to the maturity date.
Every homeowner faces unique circumstances such that I do not want you to
think that my situation applies to any other home owner. For me in retirement I
need the tax shelter of mortgage interest payments more than ever. It makes more
sense for me to keep a large balance in a Vanguard tax-exempt mutual fund (where
there's value risk that does not concern me but maybe would concern you) that is
highly liquid --- I can write checks on it anytime I want make an immediate
withdrawal from the fund. I like this liquidity that I would not get in a fully
paid-off home.
The tax-exempt mutual fund is my version of nursing home insurance for myself
and my wife should, God forbid, one or both of us have to go to a nursing home.
Medicare does not pay nursing home costs such that all USA retirees need savings
for nursing home care. Nursing home insurance is, in my viewpoint, a lousy and
costly alternative.
Some retired home owners may prefer to pay off their mortgages. When they are
short of cash, such as when nursing home care is needed, they can then get a
reverse mortgage. However, I view reverse mortgages like I view nursing home
insurance --- both are too costly for my circumstances. But then my
circumstances are not like any other home owners' circumstances.
Please do not rely upon what I think is best for me without getting
outside advice from a better expert than me.
The above discussion applies only to when and if to pay off a home mortgage.
The rent versus buy decision is an entirely different matter. Generally renting
is better when you want to keep your short-term options open about where to
live. Much depends upon the the real estate market. In the USA most real estate
is harder to sell in the 21st Century than in the roaring 1990s. There are vast
differences in the real estate market. Today I would rather be selling an Iowa
farm than a California farm or a New Hampshire home.
If I sold our New Hampshire property (or most any other northern New England
property) today I would lose quite a lot of money. But I hope to live here and
owe on my mortgage until the day I die.
IRS ADMITS LEAKING CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION Used Against Mitt Romney in
2012 Elections ---
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/06/irs-admits-leaking-confidential-information-used-against-mitt-romney-in-2012-elections/
The IRS admitted this week to leaking the National
Organization for Marriage‘s confidential information to far left groups. The
IRS will pay the National Organization for Marriage $50,000.
The conservative group National Organization of
Marriage accused the IRS of leaking documents to the Obama Campaign in 2012.
A top Obama campaign official Joe Solomese used the information to attack
Mitt Romney during the 2012 election. The Huffington Post used the leaked
documents in a story questioning former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s
support for traditional marriage. The document showed Romney donated $10,000
to NOM.
Continued in article
Jim Carrey Commencement Speech: It’s Better to Fail at What You Love Than
Fail at What You Don’t ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/06/jim-carrey-its-better-to-fail-at-what-you-love-than-at-what-you-dont.html
Jensen Comment
Obviously virtually every one-line piece of advice is controversial. If Jim
Carrey was universally correct we would fewer lousy accountants, marines, food
servers, Wal-Mart workers, charity fund raisers, telephone solicitors, and
possibly even incompetent general practitioner medical doctors. We do many
things very poorly that are not particularly enjoyable out of need to make a
living and/or because we feel it is our duty to make sacrifices as best we can
for the welfare of others --- so we can say we tried.
At some point we must also admit that we are wasting time trying to be good
at something for which we just do not have talent. I live next to a golf course
and love golf but do not play golf because years ago I admitted to myself that I
have no talent for golf. Trying year after year to be good at golf would be a
waste of my time. It's better to put in time on things that I don't particularly
like like pulling weeds out of my flower gardens even though my wife says I'm a
lousy weeder. She would rather have me pulling weeds than playing golf any day.
Weeds really thrive up here because of the rain and long summer days.
Even if a Wal-Mart worker is not particularly good at the job it's
better to feed the family than to spend a lot of time loving and losing at golf
and poker ten hours a day.
"Replication Crisis in Psychology Research Turns Ugly and Odd," by Tom
Bartlett, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 23, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Replication-Crisis-in/147301/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
In a blog post published last week, Timothy D.
Wilson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the
author of
Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change,
declared that "the field has become preoccupied
with prevention and error detection—negative psychology—at the expense of
exploration and discovery."
The evidence that psychology is beset with false
positives is weak, according to Mr. Wilson, and he pointed instead to the
danger of inept replications that serve only to damage "the reputation of
the original researcher and the progression of science." While he called for
finding common ground, Mr. Wilson pretty firmly sided with those who fear
that psychology’s growing replication movement, which aims to challenge what
some critics see as a tsunami of suspicious science, is more destructive
than corrective.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Accounting researchers probably like Timothy Wilson's paper since replication in
accounting research is the rare exception rather than the rule. Academic
accounting research journals like TAR will not publish replications or even
commentaries about published articles that are supposed to be accepted as truth
because two or three referees let the article be published ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
The social sciences, accounting, finance, and business research in general
should be no different than the physical sciences where nothing is true until
replicated except in the case where analytics where the assumptions rather than
the derivations are less controversial than the assumptions underlying the
derivations.
In terms of social science empirical research I think that the social
scientists should be faced with the same replication hurdles as the physical
sciences ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
Social science findings are often less stable than physical science
discoveries.
For example, when an astronomer makes a discovery about the magnetic field of a
star the star does not change its magnetic field just because of the discovery.
When a psychologist makes a discovery about the eating habits of a person that
person may change behavior because of the discovery. Such is stationarity
problem of the social sciences, accounting, finance, and business research.
But this does not justify not publishing results of replications and
commentaries about published articles. If we are seeking truth replication is
essential.
For example on the AECM listserv I called attention to the following
discovery in an emprical accounting research study:
"Finally, we predict and find lower EPS
forecast accuracy for U.K. firms when reporting under the full fair value
model of IFRS, in which unrealized fair value gains and losses are included
in net income."
"The Effect of Fair Value versus Historical Cost Reporting Model on
Analyst Forecast Accuracy," by Lihong Liang and Edward J. Riedl,
The Accounting Review (TAR),: May 2014, Vol. 89, No. 3, pp. 1151-1177 ---
http://aaajournals.org/doi/full/10.2308/accr-50687 (Not Free)
TAR readers will have to accept the above finding as truth since TAR will not
encourage or publish a replication study of that finding or even publish a
commentary about that finding. This is wrong in our Academy.
"Chrome Alone: Why Google’s (cheaper and in the cloud) OS Is Both Better
and Worse Than Windows or Mac," by Dan Tynan, Yahoo Tech, June 23,
2014 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/chrome-alone-why-googles-os-is-both-better-and-worse-89177871144.html
Question
What was the optimal game theory strategy for the USA and Germany in
the World's Cup?
Hint:
Ignore any laws, penalties, costly bad publicity, and ethics standards regarding
fixing of outcomes. Also ignore the real difficulties of trying to fix outcomes
when multiple players are involved --- fixing a soccer match is much more
complicated than fixing a prize fight or a tennis match.
"According To Game Theory, Germany And The US Should Collude To Get A Draw
In Their Next World Cup Match," by Andy Kiersz, Business Insider,
June 23, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-germany-stag-hunt-2014-6#ixzz35Ysd9LQQ
. . .
This situation is actually an example of a classic
problem in game theory:
the stag hunt. The problem, originally formulated
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, involves two hunters who can choose between
hunting stags or hunting rabbits. If the hunters team up, they can take down
a stag, and eat like kings. If only one hunter tries to hunt a stag, and the
other just goes for rabbits, the stag hunter is out of luck and goes home
hungry, and the rabbit hunter gets a rabbit. If both hunters go for rabbits,
they both get rabbits.
The issue is similar to whether or not the U.S. and
Germany should play to win or just run ninety minutes of passing drills.
While it would be better for both overall to cooperate, it's safer for a
team or hunter to defect. Both hunters going for a stag will get more meat,
but a hunter going for rabbits is guaranteed to get a rabbit.
It's helpful to put this situation into numerical
terms. If both teams collude and don't try to win on Thursday, let's say
each get 3 utility points, representing a safe path to the next round. If
one team is not trying, and the other team defects and plays to win, the
defecting team gets 2 points, and the now-betrayed cooperating team gets 0
points, representing the advantage the defecting team gets over the
surprised cooperating team. If both teams defect and play to win, each gets
1 point, representing a normal soccer game.
Continued in article
Question
What USA state has the worst job market?
Hint
It's not California, Illinois, or Vermont, all of which are trying to tax away
economic growth.
"Rhode Island Has the Country’s Worst Job Market," by Ben Casselman,
Nate Silver's 5:38," June 23, 2014 ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/rhode-island-has-the-countrys-worst-job-market/
Jensen Comment
But that does not make Rhode Island the worst (or best) state to become
unemployed. These are the best and the worst states if you are choosing where to
become temporarily unemployed ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/06/24/the-best-and-worst-states-to-be-unemployed/5/
If you're seeking permanent unemployment on welfare you should pack your HDTV
television sets into a U-Haul and move to Vermont. Maine is not a bad second
choice, but don't get lost in New Hampshire along the way. In Maine or Vermont
look for an old mill town where many of the houses are still vacant and rent is
really, really cheap. A lot of Somali immigrants chose the old Lewiston, Maine
mill town. Given Maine's recent efforts to cut their welfare, they may have been
smarter to have picked Vermont.
It can be costly to heat in northern New England, but it's pretty easy to
steal firewood from the big timber companies if you cut and haul your own.
"Amazon Prime Subscriber? You Just Got Free Streaming Music," by Becky
Worley, Yahoo Tech, June 12, 2014 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/amazon-is-announcing-a-streaming-music-service-for-88570937834.html
Link if You Are a Paid-up Prime Member ---
http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=8335758011&refTag=nav_yr_prime_robin
Jensen Comment
Requires Adobe Flash
I'm finding this awkward to use and often "unable to download --- try again
later"
Maybe the site is being overwhelmed
Think I will stick to free Pandora
Tough Major When Done Correctly
"Is There a Crisis in Computer-Science Education?" by Jonah Newman,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 23, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/data/2014/06/23/is-there-a-crisis-in-computer-science-education/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
Another complication is that accounting, law, and finance majors may have a
higher (albeit still low) probability of rising into top management and
attainment of partnerships. In addition those wanting K-12 education jobs that
are more friendly to parenthood (sue to frequent holidays and summers off) may
do better by majoring in education, mathematics, biology, social studies, etc.
Western Governors University ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University
"In Boost to Competency Model, Western Governors U. Gets Top Marks in
Teacher Ed," by Dan Barrett, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 17,
2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/In-Boost-to-Competency-Model/147179/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based college credit ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Reading less in a day than time wasted watching dumb commercials in one hour
of television
"You Won’t Believe How Little Americans Read," by Bijan Stephen, Time
Magazine, June 23, 2014 ---
http://time.com/2909743/americans-reading/?xid=newsletter-brief
A paltry 19 minutes a day
Since the arrival of Gutenberg’s printing press in
1450, the primacy of the written word — as a means of distributing
information, for delivering pleasure — has been mostly unquestioned. But
with the rise of radio, television, and now the Internet, print’s reign has
come under fire, and is perhaps approaching an end.
A recent study from the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics has found that the average American spends only
19 minutes a day reading; young people read less
than ever, apparently, with people ages 25 to 34 reading eight minutes a day
on weekends and holidays, while those 20 to 24 average around 10. This, of
course, is a decline: a report from Common Sense Media found that 45% of
17-year-olds admit only reading for pleasure a few times a year — up from
19% in 1984.
The causes implicated were obvious, naturally
having to do with the ubiquitous presence of screens in our lives. Is this
progress? It’s hard to say. Vox has some
pretty charts that’ll help you decide for
yourself.
Jensen Comment
And a lot of that 19 minutes per day is spent reading forwarded email jokes and
other non-educational email /text messages.
Most of the young people and their parents today have never been to a nearby
public library.
Most families, even poor families, have more than one television set to ease
fighting over the remote control.
Diploma Spelling Error by Northwestern's Medill School ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/06/23/diploma-spelling-error-northwesterns-medill-school#sthash.SQRHzjqO.dpbs
One year Trinity University made a more expensive printing error. The thick
bulletin and course catalog cover read "Trinty University." All those books had
to be destroyed and reprinted.
The French Economy Goes From Bad to Worse Under High Taxation
"It's Bad In France," by Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider, June 25, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/france-economy-2014-6
Note the tables and charts
Meanwhile Spain Lowers Taxes on Individuals and Business Firms
Question
What happened to the Keynesians in Spain?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics
Hint:
They're probably not Laffering ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve
"Spain Unveils Sweeping Cuts on Income, Corporate Taxes Budget Minister
Says Cuts Will Stimulate Investment, Jobs and Competitiveness," by David
Roma, The Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2014 ---
http://online.wsj.com/articles/spain-unveils-large-scale-cuts-on-income-corporate-taxes-1403267923
MADRID—Spanish leaders who broke their no-new-taxes
pledge after taking office 2½ years ago announced sweeping tax cuts on
Friday, saying it was time to compensate a recession-battered populace for
its sacrifices and boost a nascent recovery.
Budget Minister Cristóbal Montoro, announcing the
government's main economic initiative of the year, said the planned
reductions of income and corporate taxes will stimulate investment, creating
jobs and making Spanish companies more competitive abroad.
They will also put more money in the pockets of
consumers as the ruling, conservative Popular Party moves toward elections,
which are expected as early as the end of next year.
Spain's corporate tax rate would drop from 30% to
25% by 2016. People earning more than €300,000 ($408,000) a year would see
their personal income-tax rate fall from 52%, one of the highest in Europe,
to 45% in 2016.
Those earning less than €12,450 a year would pay
19% in 2016, compared with 24.75% now.
Some individuals in the middle—those earning
between €100,000 and €150,000 a year—would see their tax bills go up, Mr.
Montoro said, because the number of tax brackets is being reduced. But
overall, he said, income-tax rates will drop by 12.5% over the next two
years.
Officials say the economy is growing fast enough
that tax revenue will continue to rise even as tax rates fall. The
International Monetary Fund said last month that Spain's economy, which
emerged from recession last summer and is forecast to grow 1.2% this year,
had "turned the corner" and has room to cut corporate taxes.
Some independent economists questioned that
assumption. They said the government had failed for years to meet its annual
revenue projections and now risks a decline in tax revenue and a reversal of
three years of advances in trimming the budget deficit.
"It's not clear to me why they hiked taxes soon
after taking office, if their argument is now that the way to increase
revenue is tax cuts," said José Carlos Díez, a Madrid-based economist.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy inherited a severe
economic crisis when he assumed office in December 2011. Within months, he
raised income and sales taxes, saying they were needed to narrow the budget
deficit.
He apologized for breaking a campaign pledge and
said some of the tax increases were temporary.
Mr. Montoro said it was now possible to reverse
course because Spain's modest growth is increasing tax revenue. He said tax
receipts in the first five months of the year were 5% higher than the same
period of 2013. He said Spain's tax revenue is about 38% of gross domestic
product, one of the lowest in the euro zone, but growing.
The cuts announced Friday would by 2016 bring
income-tax rates back to their pre-2012 levels for high-income earners and
lower them slightly for low-income earners. Sales taxes wouldn't come down.
The plan is subject to modification but is assured of passage because Mr.
Rajoy's party controls parliament.
"College Libraries Push Back as Publishers Raise Some E-Book
Prices," by Avi Wolfman-Arent, Chronicle of Higher Education,
June 16, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/College-Libraries-Push-Back-as/147085/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Big increases leave librarians at
liberal-arts institutions feeling ambushed.
"A Gamble on E-Book Pricing," by Avi Wolfman-Arent,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 16, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Gamble-on-E-Book-Pricing/147121/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Surprisingly Routledge (publisher of expensive, often low-volume specialty
academic books) is making 6,000 titles free in electronic format ---
http://www.routledge.com/catalogs/century_of_knowledge_business_and_economics/?utm_source=adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sbu1_bah_3rf_8cm_3eco_00000_ckn
Some of the books that are now available for free are not so old. My guess is
that these were mostly poor sellers --- which does not mean they were bad books.
In some cases it means that they were too narrow and specialized to have much
demand at all. Scholars taking advantage of these free downloads are most likely
to be history buffs.
The available free books in accounting and finance are at
http://www.routledge.com/catalogs/century_of_knowledge_business_and_economics/1/1/
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on June 26, 2014
Barnes & Noble to split in two
Barnes & Noble Inc. is splitting in two, separating its
unprofitable Nook digital business from its consumer bookstores, an
acknowledgment of the difficulties the retailer faces in the e-book and
hardware sector, the
WSJ’s Jeffrey A. Trachtenerg reports.
The split, expected to occur by March, will make Nook
Media a separate public company housing both Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-book
and e-reader business as well as its college stores.
Jensen Comment
That still does not overcome the problem of trying to stay in business with
bookstores on the streets in the era of pricing competition and the nearly
infinite availability of hard copy and electronic books online with a few
keystrokes. There is a huge cost in small bookstores for labor and inventory
costs plus the costs of rent and utilities.
One day Barnes and Noble may have to spit its business once again between its
online and onsite bookstores while trying to find a buyer for the onsite
bookstore part of the business.
Erika and I were recently in the relatively large Concord Mall in Concord,
NH. It seemed dark from the loss of lights in all the closed stores, including
the closed bookstores, clothing stores, food court stores, and whatever else
that used to be open between the three anchor stores of Sears, JC Penney, and
Bon Ton. And cashiers were mostly idle in the three
anchor stores. Shopping in the Concord Mall is a lonely adventure. Bring your
own sandwiches.
In San Antonio the large two-story mall where Erika and I used to shop was
purchased in bankruptcy by the school district that now has lots of elbow room
for school administrators in their assortment of 10,000 square foot offices.
Incidental Note About Bon Ton
According to Wikipedia Bon Ton is a chain of 275 up-scale department stores in
the USA. In Australia, Bon Ton is a chain of brothels ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Ton_%28brothel%29
Bon Ton is a French word for "good taste."
The 275 Bon Ton department stores in the USA would be much more profitable if
they added brothel departments alongside the lingerie departments.
The brothel business is one that is not subjected to much online competition.
How did I wander on to this topic?
Jensen Comment
Even though the Amazon Kindle displays books and runs streaming videos into its
own screen or television screens (a feature that I use for one movie per day),
it's not a tablet computer. Erin Templeton, however, shows how to load PDF
files for on-the-road and classroom presentations.
"A Quick ProfHack: Kindling the Presentation," by Erin Templeton,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 20, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-quick-profhack-kindling-the-presentation/57285?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
June 20, 2014 reply from Ruth Bender
I don’t
understand this – why did he need to do it that way? I have a lot of pdfs
on my kindle – Kindle provides a unique email address to which I can email a
pdf, and then it automatically downloads onto the machine.
Bob Jensen's threads on Tricks and Tools of the Trade ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
MOOC for English Language Learners and Teachers
The following MOOC may be of interest to English language learners. Note that as
a rule MOOCs are not very good for introductory courses, but the MOOC below may
be an exception since English language learners are often very motivated. In
general MOOCs work better for advanced learners, including those who already
have PhD degrees in the subject matter.
"Oregon State U (in partnership with Stanford U) To Offer MOOC for K-12
Educators," by Leila Meye, T.H.E. Journal, June 17, 2014 ---
http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/06/17/oregon-state-u-offers-mooc-for-k12-educators.aspx#Ke9xT4FFbmecu8yf.99
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Graphic from the New York Times via Barry Ritholtz: Change in
private manufacturing jobs, by county in the USA
This graphic shows why there is such a lousy future in manufacturing jobs. There
are many causes, especially the slow economic recovery and reduced government
spending for such things as military equipment, but the increasing
displacements are causes by robotics and automation that increasingly replace
manufacturing workers in ways that were not imagined 20 ago. Will the last
person leaving an automated factory turn out the lights ---
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/06/change-in-private-manufacturing-jobs-by-county/
Apple's Siri ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri
"11 Tips to Get the Most out of Siri," by Dan Graziano, Yahoo
Tech, June 21, 2014 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/siri-is-capable-of-doing-more-than-you-realize-89384102394.html
Microsoft's Cortana ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Cortana
Video: Siri versus Cortana
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HJodK56EsU
Also see
https://www.google.ca/search?as_q=&as_epq=Siri+versus+Cortana&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=&as_occt=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=&gws_rd=ssl#as_qdr=all&lr=&q=%22Siri+vs+Cortana%22&spell=1
How Southwest Airlines garnered the worst on-time record among the major
airlines --- the fixes that didn't work
"Southwest Is Trying to Fix a Problem With Late Flights," by Justin Bachman,
Bloomberg Businessweek, June 19, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-19/southwest-is-trying-to-fix-a-problem-with-late-flights?campaign_id=DN062014
. . .
Then the law of unintended consequences struck:
That schedule, and an improving U.S. economy, produced more customers than
the company anticipated and more-crowded planes, just as Southwest was
learning how to operate a larger model in its network, the 175-seat 737-800.
That model typically takes longer to load than the 143-seat 737s Southwest
has traditionally flown. Add to this the cascading effects of a late
aircraft in the type of nonhub network the airline operates, along with the
winter storms that struck in December and January, and you wind up with only
about two-thirds of Southwest’s flights landing on time. In the fourth
quarter of 2013, just 71.8 percent of its flights were on time—dead
last (PDF) in the industry.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
To add pain to misery, full airplanes leave no slack in the system when delayed
flights cause passengers to miss connections. Simply adding more late-night
flights at the end of the day to move stranded passengers does not exactly leave
them overjoyed when getting to destinations hours late. It's a real challenge
accommodating full airplanes when most passengers miss their connecting flights.
Weather is often the problem, but Southwest cannot blame all of its troubles
on weather. Having more non-stop connections between more cities and fewer
passengers running to catch connections at busy hubs would help a lot more. It's
far better to arrive an hour late at a final destination than to miss a
connecting flight due to late arrival at a hub.
Having said this, Southwest is still my favorite domestic airline. I would
like it even better if Southwest would make reservations even further ahead of
planned travel.
I think all airlines should tighten up on the amount of carry-on luggage.
Some flight delays are caused by problems of stowing and retrieving large
amounts of carry-on baggage. I suggest giving discount future-travel vouchers to
passengers who do not use overhead compartments.
Clayton M. Christensen is a Well-Known Harvard Business School Professor ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Christensen
"Clayton Christensen: The New Yorker's Attack On My Theory Of Disruption
Is 'A Criminal Act Of Dishonesty'," by Richard Feloni, Business Insider,
June 20, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/clayton-christensen-responds-to-new-yorker-2014-6#ixzz35CYnwRWB
The New Yorker's Jill Lepore
caused a stir in the entrepreneurial community earlier
this week when her article, "The
Disruption Machine," was published.
It's a lengthy takedown of Harvard Business School
professor Clayton Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation, which
contends that industries progress when small upstarts topple powerful
mainstays by figuring out a way to do something more efficiently.
Lepore thinks the business world's celebration of
disruption, especially in Silicon Valley, has gotten out of control, and
that the theory has failed as an effective predictive model. Some, like New
York Times columnist Paul Krugman, praised her for criticizing such a
celebrated theory, while others, like legendary investor Marc Andreesen,
were quick to point out her argument's flaws.
Christensen also saw the article, and he's not
happy.
He told
Bloomberg Businessweek that he agrees with Lepore's opening point that
the word "disruption" has been overused to explain what any
entrepreneur wants to do. But he thinks that she is
guilty of cherry-picking facts and short-sightedness, the same thing she
accuses him of doing in his 1997 book "The
Innovator's Dilemma." He ultimately accuses Lepore
— a historian at Harvard — of lazy journalism:
[S]he starts instead to
try to discredit Clay Christensen, in a really mean way. And mean is fine,
but in order to discredit me Jill had to break all of the rules of
scholarship that she accused me of breaking—in just egregious ways, truly
egregious ways. In fact, every one—every one—of those points that she
attempted to make [about The Innovator’s Dilemma] has been addressed in a
subsequent book or article. Every one! And if she was truly a scholar as she
pretends, she would have read [those].
I hope you can understand why I am mad that a woman of her stature could
perform such a criminal act of dishonesty—at Harvard, of all places.
One of Lepore's main examples of how the theory of
disruptive innovation is misleading is the case of US Steel in the 1980s.
She says that smaller manufacturers who utilized "minimills" were not the
cause of US Steel's problems, and were instead the result of its unionized
workers going on labor strikes. And anyway, she says, US Steel is today the
No. 1 manufacturer of steel in the country.
Christensen says this critique is a good example of
Lepore's thorough misunderstanding of his theory. He tells
Bloomberg Businessweek:
So what do [US Steel]
make? Steel sheet at the high end of the market. The fact is that they make
steel sheet at the high end of the market, but have been driven out
everywhere else. This is a process, not an event.
Continued in article
"Smart People Go to College, and Other Twists in Measuring the Value of a
Degree," by Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 19,
2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Smart-People-Go-to-College/147235/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
It is well established that, on average, people
with college degrees earn quite a bit more over the course of their careers
than do those without. That earnings premium is one of higher education’s
major selling points. A slew of studies—especially recently—have sought to
quantify the return on investment, examining annual or lifetime earnings by
attainment level or subject studied.
But people who go to college or not aren’t
otherwise identical. And even those who do go self-select into different
majors.
In a
new paper on the college payoff, Douglas Webber,
an assistant professor of economics at Temple University, tries to take all
of that into account. Mr. Webber spoke with The Chronicle about how
prospective students and policy makers should think about the value of a
degree. What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation.
Q. You look at the lifetime-earnings
premium a little bit differently than some others have. For one, you try to
eliminate selection bias. Why is that important?
A. There are two main reasons that
people who go to college earn more than everyone else. One is that they are
hopefully learning something in college that is going to help them in their
future careers. Another is that smarter people tend to go to college, and
they were going to be more productive regardless.
So when you’re trying to measure the college
premium, you have to look a little deeper than just saying, How much do
people who go to college make versus how much do people who don’t go to
college make? It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.
Let’s say college graduates make 40 percent more
than high-school graduates. If we were to
randomly pick a high-school graduate to receive a college degree, we
wouldn’t expect that person to actually get 40 percent more in earnings.
There’s also selection into majors. On average,
smarter people tend to major in certain fields over others. Doctors tend to
be smarter than the rest of us, and they also tend to earn more money. They
probably majored in some science field as undergrads. So is the reason
they’re earning more money because they’re smarter, is it because of the
training they got, or is it some combination?
Q. So how did you account for selection
bias?
A. I use data from the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which has detailed information on
individuals—everything from their standardized-test scores to noncognitive
skills (like, say, self-esteem or locus of control, which is how much you
think your actions have an impact on your life).
These things wouldn’t be captured in a standard IQ
test, but they’re probably very important for determining whether you go to
college—and also your future wages. If you’re kind of fatalistic, and you
don’t think what you do is going to make any difference, then you’re
probably not going to invest heavily in your education.
The NLSY allows me to control for a very wide range
of characteristics, and I can follow people over time.
Q. Did any of the findings surprise you?
A. I was a little surprised at
how, even after controlling for as wide a range of selection biases as
possible, there were still such big differences in lifetime earnings across
majors. I definitely expected some differences, but I didn’t expect them to
be as big as they were.
Q. What implications do you see here for
prospective students?
A. They should absolutely take
into account the big differences in lifetime earnings. That said, it should
be only part of the puzzle. They shouldn’t make all of their decisions based
solely on which major has the highest potential earnings. They have to take
into account things like what they enjoy, what they’re good at. Those all
matter a lot in terms of lifetime satisfaction. Money isn’t everything. But
money is important.
Q. What implications do you see for policy
makers?
A. Universities and policy makers
should make it known to 18-year-olds—who may not know how to find these
data, who may not even be thinking about their market prospects later
on—that decisions you’re making when you’re 18 can have a big impact.
I am absolutely not saying that universities should
cut, I really hate to pick out any major, but let’s say art history. But
there should be at least some attention paid to graduates in these fields.
Are they able to make a good living when they graduate?
Q. On the broader conversation going on
about whether college is worth it, do you think the traditional ways
economists tackle that question provide good answers?
A. There’s a big piece of the
puzzle that many studies and many articles in the popular press miss. Not
all colleges are created equal. There’s a big difference if you’re talking
about going to Harvard or to a random college no one’s ever heard of. And
people also miss that less than 60 percent of 18-year-olds starting college
full time are actually going to earn a degree within six years.
Now everything I’m talking about, I’m using average
returns. When I said that higher-ability people tend to go into certain
majors, I’m saying that on average. So there are many, many absolutely
brilliant people who major in art history, and there are many
not-so-brilliant people who major in engineering.
A lot of times people put too much weight on
outliers. They see someone who is really successful, and they think that’s a
good path to take. But if you are an average person, then you should be
looking at the average return.
Mick Jagger—and the world—would be much worse off
if he had stayed at the London School of Economics and gotten an econ degree
instead of dropping out to hang out with Keith Richards. But you know, he’s
an extreme outlier.
Q. So we
shouldn’t all drop out of school and start a band.
A. Exactly.
Jensen Comment
One of our sons left home for Hollywood to start a rock band after he graduated
from high school. After sleeping about 10 nights on Huntington Beach he returned
home very, very hungry.
He and his wife now have four young children in northern California. The both
went deeply in debt to obtain college degrees from Chapman University. His is in
business and hers is in criminology. Neither of them can find jobs requiring
college degrees. They are now in laboring jobs and struggling to make payments
on their student loans --- payments that will continued for many more years.
At long last he's been offered a promotion by his employer to an office job
that requires a college degree. He's currently a "piston sleeve inspector"
(whatever that is) for a large Caterpillar heavy equipment dealer. This is a
labor job, and he's in a machinist union. He's been offered a job in the office.
But if he takes the office job he has no union protections and no overtime
income. In the past few years he's been taking home a lot of overtime pay.
He's still getting a lot of overtime which gives him considerably more income
that starting out in the office job.
Moral of Story
Even if you get your college degree and eventually have an opportunity to be
promoted from blue collar work to white collar work, the white collar
opportunity may not be such a great deal relative to the blue collar job. White
collar opportunities are not ipso facto better opportunities especially
when compared to skilled trades.
PS
The "new paper" mentioned above may cost you $35 ---
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537114000281
Question
Where are the shortages of PhDs in academe more severe than the shortage of
accounting PhDs?
"Believe It or Not, in Some Fields Colleges Can’t Find Anybody to Hire,"
by Sara Jerde, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 18, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Believe-It-or-Not-in-Some/147207/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
The above article neglected the shortage of accounting PhDs where only about 130
are graduated in North America each year. They are typically the highest paid
new assistant professors. Demand exceeds supply by over ten to one.
The shortage of accounting professors and professors in accounting and some
other business disciplines is so great that the AACSB accrediting agency
commenced a "Bridge Program" to bridge holders of PhDs in other disciplines like
history and engineering to bridge into accounting, finance, and other business
programs. The bridge program is less successful in accounting because the are so
many required prerequisite accounting courses.
We all complain about the delays
associated with the academic publishing process. The referees
can be very slow in reaching their recommendations; the
revisions sometimes seem to be interminable; and then the
accepted paper sits in a long queue awaiting its grand entry
onto the world stage.
Occasionally - very occasionally - we
encounter an extreme outlier in this process. I seem to recall
that there was a paper by Paul Samuelson, written in the 1940's,
that eventually appeared in print some decades later.
Olav Bjerkholt has kindly drawn my
attention to an exceptional econometric example of delayed
publication, involving an important paper by one of our
founding fathers -
Trygve Haavelmo.
(Olav has written extensively and authoritatively on the early
history of econometrics, and I've mentioned some of his
contributions previously -
here, and
here.)
The paper in question is titled
"Structural Models and Econometrics", and it was presented at
the 16th European Meeting of the Econometric Society, held in
Uppsala in 1954. Never published previously, it is now "in
press" at the journal, Econometric Theory! Let me hasten
to note that this sixty-year time-lapse should not be seen to
reflect poorly on ET, which has an exemplary editorial
record.
The background description of this historically important paper,
and its origin, can be accessed
here.
Two related papers on causal modelling are also "in press" at
ET - one by James Heckman and Rodrigo Pinto (here);
and one by Judea Pearl (
here).
All of these papers will appear in print
next year, in a Trygve Haavelmo Memorial Issue of ET.
I guess the publication of Haavelmo's paper is one for the
(econometric) record books! I wonder what he would have made of
all of this?
Now, what about this publishing delay?
Jensen Comment
It might have been worse --- might have been a rejection letter after 50 years.
"Lessons Not Learned: Why is There Still a Crisis-Level Shortage of
Accounting Ph.D.s?" by R. David Plumlee and Philip M. J. Reckers,
Accounting Horizons, June 2014, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 313-330 ---
http://aaajournals.org/doi/full/10.2308/acch-50703 (not free)
SYNOPSIS:
In 2005, an ad hoc committee appointed by the
American Accounting Association (AAA) documented a crisis-level shortage of
accounting Ph.D.s and recommended significant structural changes to doctoral
programs (Kachelmeier, Madeo, Plumlee, Pratt, and Krull 2005). However,
subsequent studies show that the shortage continues and the cumulative costs
grow (e.g., Fogarty and Holder 2012; Brink, Glasscock, and Wier 2012). The
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) recently
called for renewed attention to the problem (AACSB 2013b). We contribute to
the literature by providing updated information regarding responses by
doctoral programs and, from the eyes of potential candidates, of continuing
impediments to solving the doctoral shortage. In this paper, we present
information gathered through surveys of program administrators and master's
and Accounting Doctoral Scholars Program (ADS) students. We explore (1) the
cumulative impact of the Ph.D. shortage as of 2013, including its impact on
accounting faculty composition, across different types of institutions, (2)
negative student perceptions of Ph.D. programs and academic accounting
careers, which discourage applicants from pursuing Ph.D. programs, and (3)
impediments facing institutions in expanding doctoral programs.
Keywords: faculty shortage, recruiting, accounting
Ph.D
Received: December 2013; Accepted: December 2013
;Published Online: January 2014
R. David Plumlee is a Professor at The University
of Utah, and Philip M. J. Reckers is a Professor at Arizona State
University. Corresponding author: R. David Plumlee. Email:
david.plumlee@business.utah.edu
INTRODUCTION
Despite recognition of a critical shortage in
accounting Ph.D.s and recommendations for structural changes to doctoral
programs (Kachelmeier et al. 2005), there is evidence that the shortage
continues (e.g., Fogarty and Holder 2012; Brink et al. 2012). The objective
of this commentary is to provide contemporaneous information from
administrators of doctoral programs, and the perceptions of potential
candidates on the major impediments to addressing the doctoral shortage.
We were mindful in the design of our study that,
potentially, two factors contribute to the current dilemma:
Insufficient numbers of qualified individuals are
applying for admission to doctoral programs, and The capacity of doctoral
programs has declined; thus, even if sufficient numbers of qualified
individuals are applying, schools are failing to admit enough candidates to
address the shortage.
In this paper, we present information gathered
through surveys of program administrators and master's and Accounting
Doctoral Scholars Program (ADS) students. We explore (1) the cumulative
impact of the Ph.D. shortage as of 2013, including its impact on accounting
faculty composition, across different types of institutions, (2) negative
student perceptions of Ph.D. programs and academic accounting careers, which
discourage applicants from pursuing Ph.D. programs, and (3) impediments to
growth in doctoral programs faced by institutions. While many authors (e.g.,
Gary, Dennison, and Bouillon 2011; Fogarty and Holder 2012) have examined
various causal elements for the shortage over the years, our purpose is to
provide a more comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the environment.
Prior research and commentary have addressed many
of the unintended negative consequences associated with the accounting
doctoral shortage. Exacerbating the problem is the growing demand for
collegiate accounting education. Leslie (2008) and Baysden (2013) report a
surge in undergraduate and graduate accounting enrollments in recent years
In 2011–2012, undergraduate accounting enrollments exceeded 240,000 students
(up another 6 percent from the 2009–2010 figures), with 61,334 B.S.
accounting degrees conferred and 20,843 master's accounting degrees
conferred—both record highs.
Some prior initiatives regarding the shortage of
Ph.D.-qualified accounting faculty have failed to sustain. The 2005 ad hoc
AAA committee recommended greater financial support for doctoral students.
The profession responded. The ADS program was kicked off in 2008 with
funding by CPA firms and state societies; it provided four years of
financial support each year for 30 doctoral students specializing in
auditing or tax. Unfortunately, the ADS program has expired, and its success
is hard to evaluate. Despite the initiative, Fogarty and Holder (2012, 374)
conclude that “(e)xtrapolating from the current population of doctoral
programs fails to support the prospects for a recovery over the near
future.”
Alternative means of supplying accounting faculty
have also been suggested. For example, Trapnell, Mero, Williams, and Krull
(2009) propose structural changes to reduce the time frame for the degree to
four years. Additionally, they suggest an executive-type program where
students do not leave their employment to pursue a Ph.D. In this model,
students would draw on their experience, supplemented by coursework in
research methods, to develop a research project. Few schools have responded
and adopted this model, and acceptance of their graduates has yet to be
tested. Another proposed alternative is to take advantage of international
accounting doctoral scholars willing to relocate to the United States, who
would participate in a ten-week postdoctoral program and thereby become
eligible to serve as accounting faculty in the United States (HassabElnaby,
Dobrzykowski, and Tran 2012). Our survey addresses whether schools have
actually substantially changed their doctoral programs along these lines or
the composition of their student bodies.
In the remainder of this paper, we report on
surveys conducted to address these and other relevant issues. First, we
focus on costs of the shortage and, specifically, the changes in hiring that
have been made, in part because of the Ph.D. shortage. Then we spotlight
structural changes in accounting Ph.D. programs. Finally, we consider what
might be discouraging more student applications; to address these issues, we
surveyed 388 M.Acc. students from various programs across the country,
requesting their perceptions of accounting Ph.D. programs and the academic
accounting profession. We also surveyed 84 current Ph.D. students in the ADS
program to compare the perceptions of a group who have chosen to get a Ph.D.
with those of potential applicants. In the final section, we discuss our
findings and offer recommendations for recruiting qualified students to
accounting Ph.D. programs.
SURVEY OF ADMINISTRATORS OF ACCOUNTING PROGRAMS
Changes in Faculty Composition
Since the AAA ad hoc committee's report on the
accounting Ph.D. shortage in 2005, studies have documented various aspects
of the shortage, using data sources such as Hasselback's Accounting
Directory (Brink et al. 2012; Fogarty and Holder 2012), surveys of
accounting faculty (Hunt, Eaton, and Reinstein 2009), and surveys of
accounting Ph.D. students (Deloitte 2007), but none have asked accounting
program administrators directly about the impact of the shortage on their
programs. To examine how accounting departments have responded to the Ph.D.
shortage, we surveyed 754 accounting program administrators listed in the
Hasselback directory and received 204 completed responses (a 27 percent
response rate). The schools in the sample included 73 percent that had
separate AACSB accounting accreditation. Of responding schools, 69 percent
graduated fewer than 100 undergraduate accounting majors each year, and 69
percent of schools with Master's of Accounting programs graduated 50 or
fewer each year. When asked about their teaching mission, 20 percent
responded that they had only an undergraduate accounting program, 61 percent
had both accounting undergraduate and master's programs, and the remaining
19 percent had a Ph.D. program in accounting, in addition to bachelor's and
master's programs.
. . .
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Over 70 percent of responding accounting program
administrators believe that their programs have been harmed by the
accounting Ph.D. shortage. While the impact of broader economic factors is
undeniable, the shortage is certainly contributing to larger class sizes,
reduced elective offerings, and a significant change in the composition of
accounting faculties. Nearly every category of school reports an increasing
number of classes taught by clinical faculty, lecturers, and part-time
instructors. It is also clear from our data that accounting Ph.D. programs
have not been responsive to the calls of the AAA (Kachelmeier et al. 2005),
AACSB (2013b), and others for significant structural change.
Whether the change in faculty composition is seen
as a serious problem depends on one's perspective regarding the learning
goals and objectives of collegiate accounting education. Some opine (e.g.,
AACSB 2003, 2013b) that less exposure of accounting students to doctorally
qualified faculty will result in reduced attention to the economic and
social roles of accounting in society, and less exposure to the rigorous
forms of inquiry and analysis associated with the scientific method (and its
attendant skepticism). On the other hand, the shortage is less troubling if
the role of accounting faculty is perceived to be primarily to instruct and
train students in technical accounting, auditing, and tax topics, and
thereby instill those skills demanded to enter the accounting profession.
There is a continuing controversy about when and where students are best
“educated,” in the classroom or on the job, with clearly different
traditions in different parts of the world.
There is also the issue of the value of accounting
research, as well as the quantity of research needed. A root issue is the
value one places on the role of accounting faculty in contributing to
questions fundamental to accounting as a discipline. Advocates for a greater
research role might ask questions such as, “Would the propriety of fair
value as a measure of asset values or the option value of stock as a measure
of compensation be as thoroughly embedded in the accounting discipline today
without the contribution of rigorously trained accounting scholars?” The
relative contribution of scholars both in the classroom, as well as through
their contribution to fundamental knowledge and timely analyses of societal
issues of importance, is a value of doctoral education that must be
recognized and appreciated. Certainly, the AACSB (2013b) Report of the
International Doctoral Education Task Force: The Promise of Business
Doctoral Education foresees a much-expanded role for doctorally qualified
faculty.
That AACSB (2013b) report also argues the time is
now for business schools to embrace innovation, experimentation, and
opportunity, and come to grips with economic realities by exploring
innovations in doctoral education to enhance values and constrain costs to
the individual and the institution. While M.Acc. students represent a large
potential population of Ph.D. students, converting that opportunity into
reality has been and will continue to be a challenge. Dogmatic intransience
to change has not served our community well, any more than it has served
politicians in Washington well. Honest, serious discourse is crucial if a
way forward is to emerge. Financial constraints, including the length of
programs, must not only be acknowledged, they must be solved. Our data are
clear. Current accounting Ph.D. program models are not attractive to
domestic doctoral program candidates.
The authors' personal beliefs represent two voices
out of many. We do not purport to have the solutions. Certainly, we believe
that a critical mass of accounting scholars is necessary for accounting to
continue to serve its crucial role in society. Nonetheless, we are concerned
that little appears to be happening to address our current dilemma. We are
certainly mindful of the recommendations made nine years ago by the AAA's ad
hoc committee (Kachelmeier et al. 2005), but that is nearly a decade past.
Sustainable solutions have yet to manifest, and few signs of active
commitment to find solutions appear on the horizon. Can we continue to wait
on individual schools to change, or must a major collective initiative be
forthcoming? Foremost, our results suggest that active recruiting of
potential accounting Ph.D. students is critical, but unlikely to be
successful without significant institutional changes.
Our survey of M.Acc. students also finds that there
is a significant knowledge gap. Overcoming this knowledge gap requires a
collective effort. This may be within the purview of the AAA or the AACSB or
both. And this initiative, in our judgment, needs to rise above the level of
a one-year plan.
The group of M.Acc. students who expressed the
highest likelihood of applying to Ph.D. programs is those who see value in
and express an affinity for teaching and research. In professions such as
engineering and medicine, the leap from the academic content found in
master's programs and those found in doctoral programs is not huge. However,
in accounting, the disparity between the content of master's programs and
Ph.D. programs is enormous. As a result, Master's of Accounting students are
not acquainted with accounting research. Can this condition be remediated?
How do we go about this? While cost constraints are important to everyone,
it is well known that accounting academics are not motivated solely by money
matters. Arguably, one way is to incorporate academic research that
addresses issues of professional and/or societal importance into master's,
if not undergraduate, courses. This is something individual accounting
academics can do. This end might also be achieved through focused
undergraduate honors theses, or by embedding distinct research courses into
master's programs. While incentives for schools to adopt these strategies
and Ph.D. programs to accept the academic credit do not appear to exist at
present, such an approach might serve to reduce the length of Ph.D.
programs.
The ad hoc committee of 2005 also urged leaders of
accounting programs to consider “Ph.D. tracks” in their master's programs.
These tracks should not be thought of narrowly. Courses in the track could
be fashioned to allow students to get a head start on a Ph.D. program by
including foundational topics such as economics, mathematics, or statistical
methods.2 Accounting programs without a Ph.D. program might develop some
sort of articulation agreement, where certain courses in their “Ph.D. track”
would count toward the Ph.D. at the doctoral granting school. Our M.Acc.
survey finds that even those inclined to apply to an accounting Ph.D.
program see five years or more in a Ph.D. program as too much to sacrifice
for an academic career. Any method of shortening the process without
diluting the quality would be a welcome innovation.
A prior positive teaching experience also appears
to be related to pursuit of an academic career. We cannot definitively
resolve, based on our findings, whether those interested in Ph.D. programs
seek teaching opportunities or whether teaching sparks interest in Ph.D.
programs. Nonetheless, opportunities exist for more accounting students to
teach in some manner, or tutor. Whatever the venue, teaching opportunities
for students could be the catalyst for pursuit of an academic accounting
career.
In summary, the shortage of accounting Ph.D.
graduates continues, with several clearly identifiable negative
consequences. Many recommendations have been forthcoming in the past with
the goal of remediating the problem, but few recommendations have been
adopted. Champions of sustained new initiatives have not stepped forward,
with the exception of the ADS program, and the output of Ph.D. programs
continues to be inadequate.
M.Acc. students offer a large potential recruiting
pool, and a significant number of master's students show early interest in
academic careers. Unfortunately, a host of impediments thwart our progress
toward a robust Ph.D. pool. We identify and discuss the major impediments.
We observe that significant M.Acc. student recruitment efforts are needed,
where there are virtually none today. We suggest that waiting for this
problem to solve itself is folly; that well-considered, significant, and
sustained initiatives are required; and that there exists an opportunity for
the AAA, and its sections, to take the lead. Individual accounting
departments and schools can also make a difference. Waiting for others to
solve the problem has not led to a solution to date. Continuing on our same
path and expecting different outcomes is likely unrealistic.
Jensen Comment
This is an important update to an ever-increasing problem in our Academy. It
surveys students, doctoral program coordinators, and accounting department heads
with outcomes that provide some detailed insights into large and small issues.
One enormous issue is the decline in capacity for admission of applicants
into accounitng doctoral programs in North America. That is best reflected in
the well-known table generated by Jim Hasselback each year for many years
showing the number of graduating doctoral students in each doctoral program over
time ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoct/XDocChrt.pdf
At the moment the table shown in the above link only goes back to 1995. However,
I've saved copies of this table from earlier years Consider the University of
Illinois for example. Between 1939 and 1995 the University of Illinois graduated
an average of six accounting PhDs per year. The data are skewed. There were only
a few graduates in the early years of the program whereas during the1960-1980
period Illinois was graduating 10-20 accounting PhDs per year.
Between 1996 and 2013 Illinois only graduated an average of two accounitng
PhDs per year. Similar outcomes happened in the other accounting doctoral mills
of Texas and Arkansas where there were similarly severe declines in the number
of annual graduates since 1995. There have been some new doctoral programs such
as the newer program at the University of Texas in San Antonio, but the numbers
graduated each year from those programs are small.
My poi9nt is that the decline in output in the larger mills since 1995 has
not been offset by increased output in other programs. Hence in North America
we see a decline in the annual output from nearly 300 accounting PhD graduates
per year to 140.4 per yer between 1996 and2013.
Plumly and Reckers avoided some of the most controversial questions in their
surveys. Before 1985 accounting doctoral programs admitted accountants without
mathematical and statistical backgrounds and permitted accounting dissertations
without equations such as accounting history disserations without equations. Now
having equations in dissertations is required even in accounting history
disserations.
In virtually all accounting doctoral programs in North America, new doctoral
students cannot matriculate without meeting advanced mathematics and statistics
prerequisites. Most of the accounting courses have been taken out of the
curricula and are replaced by econometrics and psychometrics courses. The
programs are essecntially sophisticated programs on how to mine data.
Most accounting faculty in an accounting program do not have the quantitative
skill sets to teach in the accounting doctoral programs or if they have some
quantitative skills they do not want to teach ecnonometrics and psychometrics
and data mining course or supervise accountics science dissertations.. This is a
major reason why the the number of doctoral students that can be handled in most
accounting doctoral programs have declined so dramatically.
Also accountants who have been practicing accounting for 5-10 years wound
prefer accounting doctoral programs rather than accountics science doctoral
programs. One reason the number of foreign students has been increasing in North
American Accounting Doctoral Programs is that students are admitted on the basis
of their mathematics and statistics skills rather than accounting knowledge (and
even interest in accounting).
This is why so many of the graduates from our
accounting doctoral programs in the 21st Century are not prepared to teach
accounting courses in the undergraduate and masters programs. All
they can teach are the doctoral program courses. The teaching of accounting is
being shifted to adjunct professors who are better prepared to teach accounting,
auditing, and taxation.
Plumlee and Reckers indirectly recognize this problem and suggest that there
be more curriculum tracks in accounting doctoral programs. The Pathways
Commission is even more blunt. It recommends that doctoral programs allow
doctoral dissertations without equations --- like in the good old days when we
had more accounting doctoral program graduates.
A huge limitation of the Plumlee and Reckers paper above is that it ignores
the Pathways Commission recommendations.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/31/updating-accounting-curriculums-expanding-and-diversifying-field
The (Pathways Commission) report includes seven
recommendations. Three are shown below:
- Integrate accounting research, education
and practice for students, practitioners and educators by bringing
professionally oriented faculty more fully into education programs.
- Promote accessibility of doctoral education
by allowing for flexible content and structure in doctoral programs and
developing multiple pathways for degrees. The current path to an
accounting Ph.D. includes lengthy, full-time residential programs and
research training that is for the most part confined to quantitative
rather than qualitative methods. More flexible programs -- that might be
part-time, focus on applied research and emphasize training in teaching
methods and curriculum development -- would appeal to graduate students
with professional experience and candidates with families, according to
the report.
- Increase recognition and support for
high-quality teaching and connect faculty review, promotion and tenure
processes with teaching quality so that teaching is respected as a
critical component in achieving each institution's mission. According to
the report, accounting programs must balance recognition for work and
accomplishments -- fed by increasing competition among institutions and
programs -- along with recognition for teaching excellence.
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs in North America ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
"Un-Fathom-able: The Hidden History of Ed-Tech #CETIS14," by Audrey
Watters, Hacked Education, June 18, 2014 ---
http://www.hackeducation.com/2014/06/18/unfathomable-cetis2014/
Jensen and Sandlin Book entitled Electronic Teaching and
Learning: Trends in Adapting to Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Networks in Higher
Education
(both the 1994 and 1997 Updated Versions)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245cont.htm
Ten Cars Americans Don’t Want to Buy ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/06/18/ten-cars-americans-dont-want-to-buy/
Jensen Comment
There does not seem to be a single top reason. Reputation for quality seems to
be a huge factor, although this can be confounded with pricing.
Until range is extended for electric cars (especially in colder weather)
traditional fuel cars will still dominate the USA roadways.
"More Millennial Mothers Are Single Than Married," by Belinda Luscombe,
Time Magazine, June 17, 2014 ---
http://time.com/2889816/more-millennial-mothers-are-single-than-married/
Despite the
anxiety society still feels about single mothers,
most American women aged 26 to 31 who have children are not married. And the
number of these millennial single mothers is increasing. In fact, in a study
just released by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, only about a third
of all mothers in their late twenties were married.
The less education the young women have the higher
the probability that they became a mom before they got married. Conversely,
the married moms of that generation probably have a college degree. “It is
now unusual for non-college graduates who have children in their teens and
20s to have all of them within marriage,” says Andrew Cherlin, one of the
authors of the study “Changing
Fertility Regimes and the Transition to Adulthood: Evidence from a Recent
Cohort.”
Sociologists such as Cherlin have been tracking the
decline of marriage as one of the milestones or
goals of an individual’s life—the whole “first comes love, the comes
marriage, then comes the baby with the baby carriage” paradigm. And it’s
clear that an increasing number of young people are just not putting a ring
on it. “The lofty place that marriage once held among the markers of
adulthood is in serious question,” says Cherlin.
Motherhood is beginning to show the fissures along
income and education lines that have already appeared in other aspects of
U.S. society, with a small cluster of wealthy well educated people at one
end (married with kids), a large cluster of struggling people at the other
(kids, not married) and a thinning middle. While many children
raised by single parents are fine, the
advantages of a two parent family have been quite
exhaustively documented. Some of these advantages can be tied to financial
resources, but not all.
Among people with kids between the ages of 26 to 31
who didn’t graduate from college, 74% of the mothers and 70% of the fathers
had at least one child outside of marriage, Cherlin found. And, 81% of
births reported by women and 87 % of births reported by men had occurred to
non-college graduates.
The chart below, using data from the National
Longitude Study of people born in 1997, shows all the births reported by
women who didn’t get through high school, how old they were when their kids
were born and whether they were married. Only a quarter of these young moms
were married, slightly more than a third were living with someone, not
necessarily the child’s father, and almost 40% had no partner at all.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on the history of women in the professions, including
the CPA profession, are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#Women
Jensen Comment
Studies also show that USA women are delaying having their first child much
longer than their own mothers and grandmothers and great grandmothers.
Teen pregnancies are at their lowest rates in years.
Unaccompanied children are pouring into the USA at unprecedented levels ---
over 400 per day, although this number will probably decline if more and more of
these children are returned to their parents in Latin America. President Obama
assigned the task of stemming the tide to his Vice President Joe Biden. The tide
will probably increase if more and more of these inflowing children are aided in
seeking the American Dream.
Another One Percent Club
"Here Are The Staggering Odds Of Getting A Job At Starbucks," by Ashley
Lutz, Business Insider, June 16, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/odds-of-getting-a-job-at-starbucks-2014-6
Jensen Comment
These days there are also a staggering number of rejections in virtually all
retail companies like Wal-Mart that require drug tests. I'm not certain if
Starbucks requires drug testing.
"Why Thousands Of People Who Work At A Starbucks Won't Be Eligible For
Free College," by Ashley Lutz, Business Insider, June 16, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/licensed-starbucks-workers-college-plan-2014-6#ixzz34tZadXSl
Starbucks workers across the country
will receive free college tuition through a new
program. But thousands of baristas who wear
Starbucks aprons won't be eligible for free college.
The tuition reimbursement program only applies to
Starbucks workers at company-owned stores. Workers at licensed stores, such
as the ones in grocery stores, aren't entitled to company benefits.
Licensed stores make up a significant part of
Starbucks' American business.
The coffee chain
has 5,415 licensed stores, compared with 8,078
that are owned by the company.
Jensen Comment
Also I think the Starbucks tuition deal only applies to students already
having completed the first two years of college.
"Starbucks Will Send (Online) Thousands of Employees to Arizona State for
Degrees," by Goldie Blumensty, Chronicle of Higher Education, June
16, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Starbucks-Will-Send-Thousands/147151/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Starbucks is teaming up with Arizona State
University on an exclusive program that could send thousands of its
baristas, store managers, and other employees
to ASU Online for their undergraduate degrees, with the coffee company
picking up about three-quarters of the tuition tab.
The unusual program, the Starbucks College
Achievement Plan, will be available to more than 100,000 of its employees,
as long as they enroll as full-time students. The partnership, which could
cost Starbucks hundreds of millions of dollars a year, is likely to add
luster to the company’s reputation for corporate social responsibility. It
could also be a welcome enrollment jolt to ASU Online, which has about
10,000 distance-education students and aspires to enroll 10 times that many.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
There are quite a few other companies that fund, at least in part, employee
degree programs. The most noteworthy is Wal-Mart. The good news about the
Wal-Mart program is that the free online education program is available to
employees who do not already have two years of college. The bad news is that the
"Wal-Mart University" degree is not as prestigious as an ASU diploma and may not
be entirely free (depending on the program selected.)
"Wal-Mart Employees Get New College Program—Online," by Marc Parry,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 3, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Wal-Mart-Employees-Get-New/24504/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The American Public
University System
has been described as a higher-education version
of Wal-Mart: a publicly traded corporation that mass-markets moderately priced
degrees in many fields.
Now it's more than an
analogy. Under a deal
announced today, the for-profit online university
will offer Wal-Mart workers discounted tuition and credit for job experience.
Such alliances are
nothing new; see these materials from
Strayer and
Capella for other examples. But Wal-Mart is the
country's largest retailer. And the company is pledging to spend $50-million
over three years to help employees cover the cost of tuition and books beyond
the discounted rate, according to the
Associated Press.
"What's most significant
about this is that, given that APU is very small, this is a deal that has the
potential to drive enrollments that are above what investors are already
expecting from them," Trace A. Urdan, an analyst with Signal Hill Capital Group,
told Wired Campus. "Which is why the stock is up."
Wal-Mart workers will be
able to receive credit—without having to pay for it—for job training in subjects
like ethics and retail inventory management, according to the AP.
Wal-Mart employs 1.4
million people in the U.S. Roughly half of them have a high-school diploma but
no college degree, according to
The New York Times. A department-level
manager would end up paying about $7,900 for an associate degree, factoring in
the work credits and tuition discount, the newspaper reported.
“If 10 to 15 percent of
employees take advantage of this, that’s like graduating three Ohio State
Universities,” Sara Martinez Tucker, a former under secretary of education who
is now on Wal-Mart’s external advisory council, told the Times.
Jensen Comment
There were 2.2 million Wal-Mart employees in 2013
"Starbucks Plan Shines a Light on the Profits in Online Education
Starbucks Plan Shines a Light on the Profits in Online Education: That
Arizona State U. can afford to offer such big discounts to employees of the
coffee company suggests just how much higher-education institutions earn from
distance learning," by Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education,
June 27, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Starbucks-Plan-Shines-a-Light/147395/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
Without mentioning it, Goldie has hit on what we teach in managerial accounting
as "Cost-Profit-Volume (CPV)" analysis. The contribution margin is price minus
variable costs. Such margins apply first to recovering fixed costs and then go
to operating profits. Higher volume (sales) means that it's possible to make
lower contribution margins profitable by lowering prices ceteris paribus.
Key to CPV analysis is management of variable and fixed costs. The Starbucks
plan is ingeniously designed to reduce costs. Firstly it applies only to the
continuance of the last two years of college education. This avoids much of the
cost associated with students in their first two years. Firstly, it avoids the
need for so much remedial work since students that pass the first two years are
less likely to need added remedial education. Secondly, such students are less
likely to waste resources by dropping out. Thirdly, most of them will have had
previous distance education such that they do not have to be initially trained
on how to take distance education courses.
Actually many universities are finding distance education courses more
profitable than onsite courses. One reason is the demand function. Onsite
courses often are quite sensitive to tuition pricing because students have to
consider other costs such as commuting costs, child care costs, and maybe even
boarding costs. Online students often avoid such costs and therefore are
somewhat less sensitive to slightly higher online pricing.
There are many other things that case writers could build into the "Starbucks
Case." These include such factors as operating leverage, sales mix analysis, and
demand elasticity analysis. Also increasing employee benefits sometimes means
that employees will work for lower cash wages.
In any case, I think it would make sense for managerial accounting teachers
to assign student teams to write up cases and solutions to the "Starbucks Case"
and other real-world instances of distance education.
Teaching Case on CPV Analysis
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on January 6,
2012
Starbucks to Raise Prices
by:
Annie Gasparro
Jan 04, 2012
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
Click here to view the video on WSJ.com
TOPICS: Commitments, Cost Accounting, Cost Management, Managerial
Accounting, Product strategy
SUMMARY: Starbucks Corp. "said Tuesday it is raising prices an
average of about 1% in the Northeast and Sunbelt regions...." Price
increases will be posted for some but not all sizes of its brewed coffee
products; the company "...isn't raising prices for packaged coffee sold at
its cafes or at grocery stores." The article comments on pricing strategy,
cost control, and profit margins. The related video discusses the company's
purchase of a long term contract for coffee at high prices just before
coffee prices fell overall.
CLASSROOM APPLICATION: The article is useful to introduce
manufacturing cost components and cost behavior with a simple product with
which most students should be familiar.
QUESTIONS:
1. (Introductory) Why is Starbucks raising the price of some of its
locations for some of its products?
2. (Introductory) On which products will Starbucks raise prices? In
which locations? Why will the company's pricing vary by product and region?
3. (Advanced) According to one statement in the article about
Starbucks products, "...coffee represents a bigger portion of the cost of
its packaged goods than of brewed coffee." What are the other cost
components for a cup of brewed coffee that are not present in a package of
whole coffee beans for sale in a grocery store?
4. (Advanced) What was the impact of a contract for coffee
purchases on Starbucks's costs for its product?
5. (Advanced) Based on the discussion in the related online video,
how does Starbucks expect coffee purchase costs to even out over the long
term?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
"Starbucks to Raise Prices," by: Annie Gasparro, The Wall Street Journal,
January 4, 2012 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550304577138922045363052.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid
Starbucks Corp. is raising brewed-coffee prices in
some regions to offset its higher costs.
The Seattle chain said Tuesday it is raising prices
an average of about 1% in the Northeast and Sunbelt regions, including such
cities as Boston, New York, Washington, Atlanta, Dallas and Albuquerque,
N.M.
Starbucks didn't give details on all the areas
where prices will increase but said most southern states are included.
Prices won't rise in California and Florida.
Starbucks has raised prices in its cafes annually
since the recession began, though the company said its increases have been
"far less" than those of its rivals.
Starbucks will face higher commodity costs than
some of its competitors in the coming months. The chain made contracts to
buy coffee for the fiscal year that began in October because prices were
rising and Starbucks wanted to eliminate the volatility of buying on the
spot market. But the market for coffee soon fell, and Starbucks was stuck
paying more than it would have otherwise.
Over the past couple of years, Starbucks has topped
the industry in sales and been able to manage commodity inflation, "not with
pricing, but with a more efficient cost structure and strong traffic
growth," Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead said in November when the
company reported earnings.
Because the chain's high-end consumer base is less
sensitive to prices than that of some rivals, Starbucks has said it didn't
think increases would affect customer purchases, even in a struggling
economy. Some chains, especially fast-food restaurants that focus on low
prices, risk losing customers when prices rise.
Starbucks shares rose 43% last year. The stock fell
73 cents, or 1.6%, to $45.29 in 4 p.m. composite trading Tuesday on the
Nasdaq Stock Market.
The latest change, which was reported earlier by
Reuters news service, raises the cost of a "tall," or 12-ounce, coffee in
some New York City stores by 10 cents to $1.85. Not all sizes will see price
increases.
Starbucks isn't raising prices for packaged coffee
sold at its cafes or at grocery stores. That's where Starbucks faces the
greater pressure on profit margins, largely because coffee represents a
bigger portion of the cost of its packaged goods than of brewed coffee.
Continued in article
Jobs Are Still Scarce for New Law School Grads
A National Association for Law Placement report shows an employment rate for
recent law graduates well below the pre-financial crisis high
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-20/the-employment-rate-falls-again-for-recent-law-school-graduates
Jensen Comment
If you have a legal question ask your food server.
Amazon.com ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com
A Rare Peek Inside Amazon’s Massive Wish-Fulfilling Machine
---
http://www.wired.com/2014/06/inside-amazon-warehouse/
Jensen Comment
Keep in mind that many of our Amazon orders are not filled at Amazon warehouses.
First there are the used-item choices (I often save by ordering used item like
used books). Second there are those orders that are re-directed to vendors for
shipment. However, in both instances Amazon guarantees delivery and return
privileges.
From the Scout Report on June 20, 2014
Dayboard ---
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dayboard-new-tab-page/kimodcegbhclamjcbifgfaldeengbgij
Dayboard lets you take on five tasks a day, no
more, no less. It's a great extension that works with Google Chrome to keep
users focused. Visitors can insert their items at the start of each day and
then keep track of them via a system of tabs. This version is compatible
with all operating systems running Goole Chrome.
Slides --- http://slides.com/
If you're looking for a great way to create and
share beautiful presentations at no cost, you should give Slides a look. The
program gives visitors the ability to use the software on many devices, add
audio to each slide, import PDF files seamlessly, and much more.
Presentations will be publicly available, unless visitors elect for the paid
version, in which case they can be kept private. This version is compatible
with all operating systems
President Obama unveils long-term plan to create the world's
largestmarine sanctuary
Obama to create world's largest marine preserve in Pacific Ocean
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/06/17/kerry/WLI43Ni0fKsLJTretAi1xK/story.html
US Proposal Would Create World's Largest Marine Sanctuary
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-proposal-would-create-worlds-largest-marine-sanctuary/1938635.html
FACT SHEET: Leading at Home and Internationally to Protect Our Ocean and
Coasts
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/17/fact-sheet-leading-home-and-internationally-protect-our-ocean-and-coasts
Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument
http://www.fws.gov/pacificremoteislandsmarinemonument/
NOAA: National Marine Sanctuaries
http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/
Oceans and Law of the Sea
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm
From the Scout Report on June 27, 2014
CrowdtiltOpen ---
https://open.crowdtilt.com/
Are you interested in launching your own
crowdfunding page for a cause or a new initiative? You can do just that with
CrowdtiltOpen. On this site, visitors can learn how various organizations,
such as McSweeney's and AdBlock, funded their own new campaigns. Visitors
can use a template to easily get started. Additionally, the site offers a
helpful FAQ section along with an in-house blog. This version is compatible
with all operating systems.
Filament --- http://filament.io/
Filament is a collection of apps that can be
seamlessly added to websites to enhance the visitor experience. These free
apps include Ivy, which allows people to select text on the page and share
it via Twitter, Facebook, and so on, and Flare, which gives users the
ability to create a customizable social sharing bar to make sharing
materials a snap. These various apps are compatible with all operating
systems, including Linux.
Fecal Fossils Reveal Much About the Original Paleo Diet
The Neanderthal Meal: A New Perspective Using Faecal Biomarkers
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0101045
Did Neanderthals Eat Plants? The Proof May Be In The Poop
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/06/26/325813612/did-neanderthals-eat-plants-the-proof-may-be-in-the-poop
What Discovery of Oldest Human Poop Reveals About Neanderthals’ Diet
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140625-neanderthal-poop-diet-ancient-science-archaeology/
Ancient Poop Suggests Neanderthals Ate Way More Veggies Than We Thought
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/25/neanderthal-poop-vegetable-diet_n_5523040.html
The Real Paleo Diet
http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2014/06/25/neanderthal_feces_coprolite_study_shows_early_humans_ate_meat_and_vegetables.html
Ice Age Europe:Blog
http://www.ice-age-europe.eu/learn-and-discover/blog.html
Free online textbooks, cases, and tutorials in accounting, finance,
economics, and statistics ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Education Tutorials
Journal of e-Media Studies (from Dartmouth) ---
http://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/xmlpage/4/issue
Haverford Digital Libraries Projects (student technology projects) ---
http://library.haverford.edu/services/digital-scholarship/projects/
From Carleton College
References and Resources for Just-in-Time Teaching ---
http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/justintime/references.html
American Museum of Natural History: Educators ---
http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/educators
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Connect With English ---
http://www.learner.org/series/cwe/
Bob Jensen's bookmarks for multiple disciplines ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials
Biodiversity Heritage Library ---
https://archive.org/details/biodiversity
Interactivate: What's New (math and science) ---
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/whatsnew/
From Carleton College
References and Resources for Just-in-Time Teaching ---
http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/justintime/references.html
Global Forest Watch ---
http://www.globalforestwatch.org/
Mark F. Boyd Collection (tropical medicine and ecology) ---
http://merrick.library.miami.edu/specialCollections/asm0037/
The Global Health Chronicles ---
http://www.globalhealthchronicles.org/
Paris Architecture and Urbanism ---
http://pudl.princeton.edu/collections/paris
American Museum of Natural History: Educators ---
http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/educators
Acquired Tastes (Art History, Boston) ---
https://www.bostonathenaeum.org/about/publications/selections-acquired-tastes
From the Scout Report on June 20, 2014
President Obama unveils long-term plan to create the world's
largestmarine sanctuary
Obama to create world's largest marine preserve in Pacific Ocean
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/06/17/kerry/WLI43Ni0fKsLJTretAi1xK/story.html
US Proposal Would Create World's Largest Marine Sanctuary
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-proposal-would-create-worlds-largest-marine-sanctuary/1938635.html
FACT SHEET: Leading at Home and Internationally to Protect Our Ocean and
Coasts
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/17/fact-sheet-leading-home-and-internationally-protect-our-ocean-and-coasts
Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument
http://www.fws.gov/pacificremoteislandsmarinemonument/
NOAA: National Marine Sanctuaries
http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/
Oceans and Law of the Sea
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm
From the Scout Report on June 27, 2014
Fecal Fossils Reveal Much About the Original Paleo Diet
The Neanderthal Meal: A New Perspective Using Faecal Biomarkers
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0101045
Did Neanderthals Eat Plants? The Proof May Be In The Poop
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/06/26/325813612/did-neanderthals-eat-plants-the-proof-may-be-in-the-poop
What Discovery of Oldest Human Poop Reveals About Neanderthals’ Diet
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140625-neanderthal-poop-diet-ancient-science-archaeology/
Ancient Poop Suggests Neanderthals Ate Way More Veggies Than We Thought
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/25/neanderthal-poop-vegetable-diet_n_5523040.html
The Real Paleo Diet
http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2014/06/25/neanderthal_feces_coprolite_study_shows_early_humans_ate_meat_and_vegetables.html
Ice Age Europe:Blog
http://www.ice-age-europe.eu/learn-and-discover/blog.html
Bob Jensen's threads on free online science,
engineering, and medicine tutorials are at ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Social Science and Economics Tutorials
U.S. Department of Justice:Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention ---
http://www.ojjdp.gov/
Prosperity at a Crossroads: Targeting Drivers of Economic Growth for Greater
Kansas City ---
http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2014/06/13-prosperity-at-a-crossroads-kansas-city
MacArthur Foundation: Videos (art, culture, housing, human rights, etc.) ---
http://www.macfound.org/videos/
National Museum of the American Indian: Classroom Lessons ---
http://nmai.si.edu/explore/foreducatorsstudents/classroomlessons/
Interactivate: What's New (math and science) ---
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/whatsnew/
The United States and the Two Koreas, Part II: 1969-2010 ---
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB474
Journal of e-Media Studies (from Dartmouth) ---
http://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/xmlpage/4/issue
Many Paths, Many Voices: Oral Histories from the University of Washington
Special Collections (voices of the homeless) ---
http://content.lib.washington.edu/ohcweb/greaves.html
Boston Redevelopment Authority ---
http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/
The Global Health Chronicles ---
http://www.globalhealthchronicles.org/
Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and
Philosophy tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Law and Legal Studies
U.S. Department of Justice: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention ---
http://www.ojjdp.gov/
Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Math Tutorials
Interactivate: What's New (math and science) ---
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/whatsnew/
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
History Tutorials
Digital Humanities Now ---
http://digitalhumanitiesnow.org/
Community Texts (enormous open sharing of ancient classic texts) ---
https://archive.org/details/opensource
NOVA: Bombing Hitler’s Dams ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/bombing-hitler-dams.html
Taft Museum of Art (early European and American collections) ---
http://www.taftmuseum.org/
Abby Williams Hill Collection
http://digitalcollections.pugetsound.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/abbyhill
Colossal (Art History) ---
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/
MoMA: Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010 ---
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/polke/
Image Collections: Providence Public Library ---
http://www.provlib.org/image-collections
Audio and Podcasts: The Poetry Foundation ---
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audiolanding
Historic Paul Harvey Broadcast (50 years ago) ---
http://stg.do/9LDc
National Museum of the American Indian: Classroom Lessons ---
http://nmai.si.edu/explore/foreducatorsstudents/classroomlessons/
The United States and the Two Koreas, Part II: 1969-2010 ---
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB474
American Museum of Natural History: Educators ---
http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/educators
Hawthorne in Salem ---
http://hawthorneinsalem.org/
Acquired Tastes (Art History, Boston) ---
https://www.bostonathenaeum.org/about/publications/selections-acquired-tastes
Chicago Renaissance ---
http://digital.chipublib.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/cr
The Portal to Texas History ---
http://texashistory.unt.edu/
Global Forest Watch ---
http://www.globalforestwatch.org/
Discover the Lost Films of Orson Welles ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/06/discover-the-lost-films-of-orson-welles.html
MacArthur Foundation: Videos (art, culture, housing, human rights, etc.) ---
http://www.macfound.org/videos/
Building Colorado Story by Story: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps ---
http://libcudl.colorado.edu/sanborn/index.asp
Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Also see
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Language Tutorials
Connect With English ---
http://www.learner.org/series/cwe/
Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Music Tutorials
Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Writing Tutorials
Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Updates from WebMD ---
http://www.webmd.com/
June 16, 2014
June 17, 2014
June 19, 2014
June 20, 2014
June 21, 2014
June 23, 2014
June 24, 2014
June 25, 2014
June 26, 2014
June 28, 2014
The Global Health Chronicles ---
http://www.globalhealthchronicles.org/
Jane Pauley ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Pauley
. . .
Pauley is known for revealing very little, if
anything, of her private life, which made the disclosure of her bipolar
disorder all the more unexpected. The timing of her announcement coincided
with the release of her autobiography,
Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue (2004)
and the launch of her daytime talk show.
. . .
Pauley is married to
Doonesbury cartoonist
Garry Trudeau, and they have three children.
Continued in article
"Jane Pauley's 5 Essential Reinvention Tips," by Nancy Collamer,
Forbes, January 16, 2014 ---
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2014/01/16/jane-pauleys-5-essential-reinvention-tips/
Back in the 1970’s, Jane Pauley and Tom Brokaw
brought us the news of the day as co-anchors of The Today Show. But last
night, the long-time friends, now ages 63 and 73 respectively, reunited at
the 92nd Street Y in New York City as Brokaw interviewed Pauley about her
new book, Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life.
. . .
Here are five of the key takeaways from the book
and Pauley’s New York City appearance:
1. Inspiration is everywhere, but you have
to be looking for it. Pauley writes the question
you may already be asking: “How do you look for something when you don’t
know what you’re looking for?”
Her answer: “Just look around, over the fence, over
the hedge, check it out. Things are going to grab your attention; pay
attention when they do.”
2. Don’t wait for the answer
before you act. Pauley cites Herminia Ibarra, author of Working
Identity and a noted reinvention expert, who says, “By far the biggest
mistake people make when trying to change careers is to delay taking the
first step until they have settled on a destination.”
Pauley used to think that self-discovery was the
prerequisite to a successful reinvention. But now she sees it the other way
around. “Self-discovery is not the prerequisite, it’s the payoff,” she
writes. “Self-discovery is the reward for taking a step towards
reinvention.”
3. Reinvention often takes much longer than
people would like. It rarely arrives as a singular epiphany or a
life-changing event.
Ibarra’s research found that the typical midcareer
transition takes roughly three years. Pauley’s took about four.
4. There is no one right way to reinvent yourself. “If
there is a secret to reinvention, it’s that there isn’t one, or rather,
there isn’t only one,” said Pauley.
For some people going back to school is the right
answer. For others, midlife support groups like The
Transition Network — a nonprofit group for women
over 50 with 12 chapters around the country that’s been featured
on Next Avenue — can be enormously helpful.
Each person needs to find his or her own
reinvention success formula.
5. There are golden clues hidden in your
past. “What fascinates me about ‘Your Life Calling’ stories is that
the twists and turns life takes are not as random as they seem,” wrote
Pauley. “Finding those clues and making connections that people have yet to
recognize for themselves is my favorite part of storytelling.”
Pauley urged the audience and her readers not to be
daunted by the magnitude of some of the reinventions in the book. As she
said last night: “Don’t be intimidated and feel like you need to start a
foundation. Find a way to be engaged and productive. Don’t worry whether it
is something grand or small — you’re entitled to discover your own
adventure.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts, and Hooks Us ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/146dd3baf2d43918
Jensen Comment
I drink one cup per day. Erika drinks the remainder of the 12-cup pot.
But I eat more hamburgers.
"Incredible Presentation From Wall Street Bank Shows How Sugar Is
Destroying The World," by Steven Perlberg, Business Insider, October
22, 2013 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-suisse-the-global-sugar-epidemic-2013-10?op=1#ixzz35YqjBoux
Bad Chompers & Bum Tickers: The Scary Link Between Poor Dental Hygiene and
Heart Problems [Discover] ---
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/bodyhorrors/2014/06/22/bad-chompers-bum-tickers-periodontitis/?utm_source=howtogeek&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter#.U6hj47EzNQ4
Adolescent Health and Development ---
http://ocw.jhsph.edu/index.cfm/go/viewCourse/course/AdolHealthDev/coursePage/index/
"Shining Light on Madness: Drugs for psychiatric illnesses aren’t
very effective. But new research is offering renewed hope for better medicines,"
by David Rodman, MIT's Technology Review, June 17, 2014 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/528146/shining-light-on-madness/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20140618
Jensen's Comment
Politicians keep saying that if we had detected the mentally ill people who did
bad things in schools and public places that we could get them on medications to
prevent those bad things. Turns out that drugs for mental illness are not all
that effective --- which is in large measure why our prisons are so full of
mentally ill people who were on medications. But now there is "renewed hope."
Lyme-Carrying Ticks Are Going To Be 'Gangbusters' This Summer ---
http://www.businessinsider.com#ixzz34tVNrUoQ
"Neuroscience’s New Toolbox: With the invention of optogenetics and
other technologies, researchers can investigate the source of emotions, memory,
and consciousness for the first time," by Steven S. Hall, MIT's
Technology Review, June 17, 2014 ---
Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/528226/neurosciences-new-toolbox/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20140617
The hypothalamus is a small structure deep in the
brain that, among other functions, coördinates sensory inputs—the appearance
of a rival, for example—with instinctual behavioral responses. Back in the
1920s, Walter Hess of the University of Zurich (who would win a Nobel in
1949) had shown that if you stuck an electrode into the brain of a cat and
electrically stimulated certain regions of the hypothalamus, you could turn
a purring feline into a furry blur of aggression. Several interesting
hypotheses tried to explain how and why that happened, but there was no way
to test them. Like a lot of fundamental questions in brain science, the
mystery of aggression didn’t go away over the past century—it just hit the
usual empirical roadblocks. We had good questions but no technology to get
at the answers.
By 2010, Anderson’s Caltech lab had begun to tease
apart the underlying mechanisms and neural circuitry of aggression in their
pugnacious mice. Armed with a series of new technologies that allowed them
to focus on individual clumps of cells within brain regions, they stumbled
onto a surprising anatomical discovery: the tiny part of the hypothalamus
that seemed correlated with aggressive behavior was intertwined with the
part associated with the impulse to mate. That small duchy of cells—the
technical name is the ventromedial hypothalamus—turned out to be an assembly
of roughly 5,000 neurons, all marbled together, some of them seemingly
connected to copulating and others to fighting.
“There’s no such thing as a generic neuron,” says
Anderson, who estimates that there may be up to 10,000 distinct classes of
neurons in the brain. Even tiny regions of the brain contain a mixture, he
says, and these neurons “often influence behavior in different, opposing
directions.” In the case of the hypothalamus, some of the neurons seemed to
become active during aggressive behavior, some of them during mating
behavior, and a small subset—about 20 percent—during both fighting and
mating.
That was a provocative discovery, but it was also a
relic of old-style neuroscience. Being active was not the same as causing
the behavior; it was just a correlation. How did the scientists know for
sure what was triggering the behavior? Could they provoke a mouse to pick a
fight simply by tickling a few cells in the hypothalamus?
A decade ago, that would have been technologically
impossible. But in the last 10 years, neuroscience has been transformed by a
remarkable new technology called optogenetics, invented by scientists at
Stanford University and first described in 2005. The Caltech researchers
were able to insert a genetically modified light-sensitive gene into
specific cells at particular locations in the brain of a living, breathing,
feisty, and occasionally canoodling male mouse. Using a hair-thin
fiber-optic thread inserted into that living brain, they could then turn the
neurons in the hypothalamus on and off with a burst of light.
Continued in article
A Bit of Humor
Top 13 wittiest remarks from a Florida judge ---
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/top-13-wittiest-remarks-from-a-florida-judge/2186252
Flight Attendant Makes The Most Hilariously Sassy Safety
Speech Ever ---
http://www.businessinsider.com#ixzz35HaJNsck
Answering Machine Message at an Australian School ---
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pwghabw4N80?rel=0
"Dumbest Burglar Ever Logs In to Facebook on Victim’s Home Computer, Forgets
to Log Out" ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/dumbest-burglar-ever-logs-in-to-facebook-on-victims-89779928159.html
This is dumb, but probably not the dumbest ever thief. Candidate 1 is the drunk
who tried to rob a bank but mistook it for the police station next door.
Candidate 2 is the bank robber who handed the robbery note to a teller with the
message written on the back of his personal deposit slip. There are many other
example of idiots who received Darwin Awards (nobody should breed with their
children) ---
http://www.darwinawards.com/
Forwarded by Auntie Bev
Three contractors
are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House.
One is from
Chicago , another is from Tennessee , and the third is from Montana
. All three go with a White House official to examine the fence.
The Montana contractor takes out a tape measure and does some
measuring, then works some figures with a pencil."Well," he says, "I
figure the job will run about $900.
That's $400 for
materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then
says, "I can do this job for $700.
That's $300 for
materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Chicago contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to
the White House official and whispers, "$2,700."
The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the
other guys. How did you come up with such a high figure?"
The Chicago
contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire
the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence."
"Done!" replies the government official.
And that, my friends, is how the Government Stimulus plan worked.
Forwarded by Paula
Jack decided to go skiing with his buddy, Bob. So
they loaded
up Jack's minivan
and headed north.
After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a
terrible blizzard.
They pulled into a nearby farm and asked the
attractive lady who answered
the door if they could spend the night.
'I realize its terrible weather out there and I have
this huge house all to myself,
but I'm recently widowed,' she explained. 'I'm afraid the neighbors will
talk if I let you
stay in my house.'
'Don't worry,' Jack said. 'We'll be
happy to sleep in
the barn, and if the weather
breaks, we'll be gone at first light. 'The lady
agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled
in for the night.
Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they
got on their way.
They enjoyed a great weekend of skiing.
But about nine months later,
Jack got an unexpected letter
from an attorney.
It took him a few minutes to figure
it out, but he finally determined that it was
from the attorney of that
attractive widow he had met on
the ski weekend.
He dropped in on his friend Bob and asked, 'Bob,
do you remember that good-looking widow from the farm we stayed
at on our ski holiday up north about 9 months ago?'
'Yes, I do.' said Bob
'Did you, er, happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to
the house and pay her a visit?'
'Well, um, yes!,' Bob said, a little embarrassed
about being found out, 'I have
to admit that I did.'
'And did you happen to give her my name instead of
telling her your name?'
Bob's face turned beet red and he said, 'Yeah, look,
I'm sorry, buddy, I'm afraid
I did.' 'Why do you ask?'
'She just died and left me everything.'
And you thought the ending would be different,
didn't you?...
Humor Between
June 1-31, 2014 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q2.htm#Humor063014
Humor Between
May 1-31, 2014 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q2.htm#Humor053114
Humor Between
April 1-30, 2014 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q2.htm#Humor043014
Humor Between March 1-31,
2014 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q1.htm#Humor033114
Humor Between February 1-28,
2014 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q1.htm#Humor022814
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#Humor03311
Tidbits Archives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Update in
2014
20-Year Sugar Hill Master Plan ---
http://www.nccouncil.org/images/NCC/file/wrkgdraftfeb142014.pdf
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