Tidbits on April 26, 2015
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Set 2 of Bob Jensen's Maple Sugaring Photographs
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Trees/MapleSugar/02/02.htm

 

Tidbits on April 26, 2015
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2015/tidbits042615.htm 
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

The Artist Project (video tracks of well-known artists) --- http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/


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

Carnegie Hall Live: Jordi Savall And Le Concert Des Nations ---
http://www.npr.org/event/music/347126561/carnegie-hall-live-jordi-savall-and-le-concert-des-nations

American Archive of Public Broadcasting (PBS) ---  http://americanarchive.org/

Web outfits like Pandora, Foneshow, Stitcher, and Slacker broadcast portable and mobile content that makes Sirius look overpriced and stodgy ---
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090327_877363.htm?link_position=link2

From the Scout Report on April 17, 2015

The Infinite Jukebox --- http://labs.echonest.com/Uploader/index.html

For readers who love listening to their favorite songs again and again, The Infinite Jukebox may come as somewhat of a revelation. For an introduction, readers may go to the site and click on a few of the popular tunes listed on the homepage. For instance, selecting Superstition by Stevie Wonder kicks off the 1972 hit in the way you've always heard it. But then The Infinite Jukebox takes over, matching beats and rhythmic patterns to create intelligent patterns for where the song can go next. No simple loop here. Instead the song plays for as long as the listener would like, but with seemingly infinite variety. Once users understand the basic principle, they can upload their own MP3s for free and let The Infinite Jukebox reorganize them into epic soundtracks for their working day.

From the Scout Report on October 9, 2009

RadioSure 2.0 --- http://www.radiosure.com/ 

Are you looking for pop music from Senegal? The latest news from Romania? It's a fairly safe bet that you can use RadioSure to locate radio stations that will fit the bill. With this program, users can search over 12,000 radio stations, and even use a record button to save audio segments for later use. The stations are categorized by style of programming, city, and language. This version is compatible with computers running Windows 2003 and newer.

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

The Artist Project (video tracks of well-known artists) --- http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/

200 Ansel Adams Photographs Expose the Rigors of Life in Japanese Internment Camps During WW II ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/200-ansel-adams-photographs-expose-the-rigors-of-life-in-japanese-internment-camps-during-ww-ii.html

11 images that capture the incredible vastness of space --- http://www.vox.com/2015/4/17/8432733/space-maps

Hirshhorn: Current Exhibitions --- http://www.hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/home/#collection=current-exhibitions 

Resplendent and Unusual Flowers --- http://www.ba-bamail.com/content_12741/Resplendent_and_Unusual_Flowers.aspx

Why You Need to Go to Myanmar in 15 Photos ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2015-04-13/why-you-need-to-go-to-myanmar-in-15-photos?cmpid=BBD041315

More: Features Airlines Airplanes Transportation Check out these incredible photos from where jumbo jets ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-victorville-california-airplane-boneyard-2015-4?op=1#ixzz3XfGhqvNa

15 wonderful children's books celebrating great artists and scientists, Cheryl Strayed's no-nonsense advice to writers, and more ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/04/13/picture-book-biographies/?mc_cid=e72ade79a1&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Milton Glaser Draws Shakespeare & Explains Why Drawing is the Key to Understanding Life ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/designer-milton-glaser-explains-why-drawing-is-the-key-to-understanding-life.html

Pictures from Railroad Jack ---
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blast_of_the_past/

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

The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies (science fiction) ---
 http://iat.iupui.edu/bradburycenter/page/welcome-center-ray-bradbury-studies

Hear Ursula K. Le Guin’s Pioneering Sci-Fi Novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, as a BBC Radio Play ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/hear-ursula-k-le-guins-pioneering-sci-fi-novel-the-left-hand-of-darkness-as-a-bbc-radio-play.html

15 wonderful children's books celebrating great artists and scientists, Cheryl Strayed's no-nonsense advice to writers, and more ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/04/13/picture-book-biographies/?mc_cid=e72ade79a1&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Library of Congress Launches New Online Poetry Archive, Featuring 75 Years of Classic Poetry Readings ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/library-of-congress-launches-new-online-poetry-archive.html

Milton Glaser Draws Shakespeare & Explains Why Drawing is the Key to Understanding Life ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/designer-milton-glaser-explains-why-drawing-is-the-key-to-understanding-life.html

Hear Orson Welles Read Edgar Allan Poe on a Cult Classic Album by The Alan Parsons Project ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/hear-orson-welles-read-edgar-allan-poe-on-a-album-by-the-alan-parsons-project.html

Discover Haruki Murakami’s Advertorial Short Stories: Rare Short-Short Fiction from the 1980s ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/discover-haruki-murakamis-advertorial-short-stories.html

National Poetry Month --- http://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/home

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 April 26, 2015
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2015/TidbitsQuotations042615.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




What is the Price of College? Total, Net, and Out-of-Pocket Prices by Type of Institution in 2011-12 ---
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2015165

This report describes three measures of the price of undergraduate education in the 2011–12 academic year: total price of attendance (tuition and living expenses), net price of attendance after all grants, and out-of-pocket net price after all financial aid. It is based on the 2011–12 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:12), a nationally representative study of students enrolled in postsecondary institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Students are grouped into four institution types: public 2-year institutions, public 4-year institutions, private nonprofit 4-year institutions, and for-profit institutions at all levels (less-than-2-year, 2-year, and 4-year).

Jensen Comment
Understandably there are wide margins of error. For example, many institutions now offer multiple sections of the same course --- some onsite sections, some online sections, and some hybrid sections with both online and onsite components. Various universities charge the same for all sections. Some charge less for the online sections. Some charge more for the online sections, because due to higher demand the online sections are cash cows.

Although the numbers are still small some universities like the University of Wisconsin and the University of Akron are now offering less expensive competency-based credits where students no longer have to take courses.

And there are wide ranging alternatives for room and board. Almost all campuses now offer various meal plan options that vary in price, choice, and quantities. Students often live off campus at widely varying housing and meal costs.  Even on campus there may be varying room and apartment costs.

And financial aid deals are sometimes so complicated that I'm not certain how financial aid could be factored into this study. For example, colleges vary with respect to work study alternatives. Education in free at the University of the Ozarks but all students must work at least 15 hours per week. Most other colleges have work study for some but not all students.

More and more Ivy League-type universities are charging zero tuition for students from families earning less than $125,000 per year. Hence the cost varies considerably based upon family income.

Some students receive financial aid covering all or part of their room and board costs.

But the data in this study are interesting as broad guidelines of college costs in the USA. College is free in some other countries, but in those nations only a small proportion of students are admitted into the colleges. For example, in Germany taxpayer costs are controlled by only admitting less than 25% of the the students into the German universities.  There's an enormous tradeoff between providing free higher education of great quality (as in Germany) versus free or nearly-free higher education of lesser quality to the masses (as in the USA).

I think the USA is unique in that initiatives are underway in some states like Tennessee to provide universal college education for at least two years. California has had to back down somewhat from its nearly-free community college tuition.

The most misleading statistics in the USA are those that conclude that going to college greatly increases lifetime income. Of course there are numerous and obvious  instances where this is true, especially in lucrative professions where only college graduates are admitted. But the studies that imply going to college increase income for most everybody are highly misleading. The main problem is that such studies confuse correlation with causation. They also confound ability, work ethic, and college degrees.

Many college graduates would earn more income than high school graduates even if those college graduates did earn college degrees. The reason is ability and work ethic combined, in many instances, with family support. Many families have the finances to help their children become entrepreneurs or get job skills such as becoming master mechanics, plumbers, and electricians. For many students college is only a transition period before returning to join the family business such as taking over the family farm or dealership.

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


How to Mislead With Statistics

"Here's how much money doctors actually make," by Lauren F Friedman, Business Insider, April 21, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-salary-does-a-doctor-make-2015-4 

Jensen Comment
It's hardly surprising that some of the highest-paid physicians are also those that have the highest malpractice insurance expenses, e.g., orthopods and gas passers (Anesthesiologists).  It's almost impossible to make meaningful comparisons of after-expense physician income since things like malpractice insurance, office rental, etc. vary so much with location in cities and states. For example, malpractice insurance costs in Texas are very low due to a constitutional amendment that caps punitive damages. This is not the case in other states where punitive damages can go through the roof.

My guess is that in the above  study the incomes of a whole lot of emergency roomn physicians were net of malpractice insurance expenses paid by hospitals and clinics versus orthopod incomes before deducting malpractice insurance premiums.

Incomes of physicians are also hard to compare since so many of them are part of and sometimes even own medical clinics. My occasional neighbor up here in the mountains owns a cardiology clinic in Boston. His "income" arises from his own medical services plus the services of other cardiologists who in his clinic.

It's extremely common for obstetricians (Ob/Gyn) to work for hospitals and clinics for a number of reasons, malpractice insurance being the biggest reason. Also obstetricians, like emergency room doctors, often prefer regular hours rather than being on constant call from their patients or have babies at any time on any day of the week.

"Canadian Malpractice Insurance Takes Profit Out Of Coverage," by Jane Akre, Injury Board, July 28, 2009 ---
Click Here
http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/canadian-malpractice-insurance-takes-profit-out-of-coverage.aspx?googleid=267890  

The St. Petersburg Times takes a look at the cost of insurance in Canada for health care providers.

A neurosurgeon in Miami pays about $237,000 for medical malpractice insurance. The same professional in Toronto pays about $29,200, reports Susan Taylor Martin.

A Canadian orthopedic surgeon pays just over $10,000 for coverage that costs a Miami physician $140,000. An obstetrician in Canada pays $36,353 for insurance, while a Tampa Bay obstetrician pays $98,000 for medical malpractice insurance.

Why the difference?

In the U.S., private for-profit insurance companies extend medical malpractice coverage to doctors.

In Canada, physicians are covered through membership in a nonprofit. The Canadian Medical Protective Association offers substantially reduced fees for the same coverage, especially considering that their payout is limited by caps in Canada just as in some U.S. states.

In 1978, the Canadian Supreme Court limited pain and suffering awards to just over $300,000, circumventing the opportunity for a jury to decide on an award depending on the case before them.

Canadian Medical Protective Association

Here’s how it works.

Fees for membership vary depending on the region of the country in which the doctor works and their specialty. All neurosurgeons in Ontario will pay the same, for example. The number of claims they have faced for medical malpractice does not figure into their premium

"We don't adjust our fees based on individual experience; it's the experience of the group,'' says Dr. John Gray, the executive director, "That's what the mutual approach is all about, and it helps keep the fees down for everyone,” he tells the St. Petersburg Times.

If a doctor is sued, the group pays the claim and provides legal counsel.

In the U.S., the push has been on for limiting claims, no matter how egregious the medical malpractice. President Obama was booed in June when, before the American Medical Association, he said he would not limit a malpractice jury award.

"We got a crazy situation where Obama is talking about the cost of medicine but he said, 'I don't believe in caps,' " complains Dr. Dennis Agliano, past president of the Florida Medical Association. "If you don't have caps, the sky's the limit and there's no way to curtail those costs.''

But the importance of limiting jury awards may not play into the big picture on health care reform.

Malpractice lawsuits amount to less than one percent of both the Canadian and the U.S. healthcare system, meanwhile between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year due to medical errors in hospitals alone, while 16 times as many suffer injuries without receiving any compensation, reports the group Americans for Insurance Reform.

Major Difference

In Canada, an injured patient is often required to pay for the initial investigation into his case. In the U.S. the contingency fee basis, usually in the range of 30 percent, allows the injured party to proceed without a financial downside.

In both the U.S. and Canada, the definition of medical negligence is that a duty of care was owed to the patient by the physician, there was a breach h of the standard of care and the patient suffered harm by the physician’s failure to meet that standard of care.

A bad outcome in itself is not the basis of a lawsuit.

The Canadian Medical Protective Association insures virtually all of the country’s 76,000 doctors, as opposed to the U.S. where private for-profit insurance companies cover physicians for medical malpractice.

In Canada, the median damaged paid in 2007 was $91,999 and judgments favored patients 25 times, doctors 70 times.

In the U.S., many physician groups are requiring patients to waive their rights to a jury trial, even though malpractice litigation accounts for just 0.6 percent of healthcare costs.

Public Citizen, the consumer group, charges that the facts don’t warrant the “politically charged hysteria surrounding medical malpractice litigation.”

For the third straight year, medical malpractice payments were at record lows finds the group in a study released this month. The decline, however, is likely due to fewer injured patients receiving compensation, not improved health safety.

2008 saw the lowest number of medical malpractice payments since the federal government’s National Practitioner Data Bank began compiling malpractice statistics. In 2008, payments were 30.7 percent lower than averages recorded in all previous years.

In the report titled, The 0.6 Percent Bogeyman, the nonprofit watchdog group states, “between three and seven Americans die from medical errors for every 1 who receives a payment for any type of malpractice claim.”

Public Citizen previously reported that about five percent of doctors are responsible for half of the medical malpractice in the U.S. that can result in permanent injury or death. #



Read more:
http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/canadian-malpractice-insurance-takes-profit-out-of-coverage.aspx?googleid=267890#ixzz0W0Z71JOP

"Tech Innovators 2015," Chronicle of Higher Education, April 21, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/section/The-Digital-Campus/875/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Jensen Comment
The above link is about innovations and well as innovators in higher education.


Nine States Running Out of Water ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2015/04/22/9-states-running-out-of-water/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=APRIL222015A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter

Jensen Comment
Obviously, the drought problems vary greatly between these states. For example, Texas is an enormous state with greatly varying problems in eastern, central, western, northern and southern regions. West Texas has an enormous problem now and historically compared to eastern parts of the states that get relief whenever a Gulf hurricane blows ashore. Has Nevada ever not had rain shortages that are now exacerbated by the drying up of the Colorado River? Californians are hoping the heated blob moving toward its shores will end the drought. We hope and pray that this is true.

States not mentioned are also in deep trouble such as Nebraska where the huge Ogallala Aquifer is drying up in Nebraska on into Texas. Declining water is a problem in the entire western USA.


"Shifts in Computer Science Interest," by Kaitlin Mulhere, Inside Higher Ed, April 21, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/21/study-measures-causes-gender-gap-computer-science

Efforts to shrink the gender gap in computer science would benefit from a better understanding of who pursues computer science and why.

That’s the basis of a paper, “Anatomy of an Enduring Gender Gap: The Evolution of Women’s Participation in Computer Science,” which analyzed students' interest in computer science over a 40-year period. The paper was presented Monday at the American Educational Research Association's 2015 annual meeting.

The authors found wide fluctuations in students’ interest in computer science between 1971 and 2011 but a steady underrepresentation of women. To help combat that, the paper recommends focusing on ways that computer science can lead to careers that are creative and have positive effects on communities, because women with artistic or social activist leanings haven't perceived computer science as complementary to those interests.

One of the paper’s other key findings is the shrinking salience of math confidence as a predictor of majoring in computer science.

Continued in article


Affirmative Action Favors Women, Blacks and Latinos Over Whites and Asian Males  in Science Tenure Track Hiring

"Advantage Women,," by Colleen Flaherty," National Academy of Sciences via Inside Higher Ed, April 14, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/14/study-suggests-stem-faculty-hiring-favors-women-over-men

Many studies suggest that women scientists aspiring to careers in academe face roadblocks, including bias -- implicit or overt -- in hiring. But a new study is throwing a curveball into the literature, suggesting that women candidates are favored 2 to 1 over men for tenure-track positions in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. Could it be that STEM gender diversity and bias awareness efforts are working, or even creating a preference for female candidates -- or is something more nuanced going on? Experts say it’s probably both.

Wendy M. Williams, professor of human development at Cornell University, and Stephen Ceci, the Helen L. Carr Professor of Developmental Psychology at Cornell, are no strangers to complicating research on gender bias in STEM. In a 2010 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, for example, they argued that women’s life choices, whether voluntary or constrained, better explain women’s underrepresentation in STEM than the usual suspects of discrimination in journal and grant reviewing and hiring. (They argued such biases were things of the past, and that efforts to address them missed the real source of the problem.)

Continued in article

38 Percent Of Women Earn More Than Their Husbands," by Mona Chalabi, NPR via Nate Silver's 5:38 Blog, February 8, 2015 ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/38-percent-of-women-earn-more-than-their-husbands/

Bob Jensen's threads on affirmative action in academe ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#AffirmativeAction


Believe it or Not

Jima Ngei: “I had this unrelenting fear that this miracle of free access might evaporate soon.
"250 MOOCs and Counting: One Man’s Educational Journey," Chronicle of Higher Education, April 20, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/250-MOOCsCounting-One/229397/?cid=wb

If the MOOC movement has faded, nobody told Jima Ngei. Mr. Ngei, who lives in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, has completed and passed 250 MOOCs, all through Coursera, since September 2012. His self-styled education has included courses in English common law and Chinese history, data science and Latin American culture, social epidemiology and the life of Thomas Jefferson, to name a few. (Nikki Garcia, a spokeswoman for Coursera, confirms that he has passed 248 courses, 83 of them with distinction, and Mr. Ngei says he just passed two more.)

Mr. Ngei, who went to college but didn’t graduate, says he has worked as an artist, a secretary to a tribal king, and an occasional consultant and producer of school-management software for elementary and secondary schools. Now unemployed, he volunteers as a community teaching assistant for Coursera courses.

MOOCs, he says, have given him a high-quality education that he never could have imagined, and a new outlook on life. Mr. Ngei discussed his experiences via email with Carolyn Mooney; here is an edited version of their conversation.

How did you happen to take your first MOOC, and what was it?

My love for MOOCs began when I started accessing materials from MIT OpenCourseWare. Then, two and a half years ago, I attended a social event and tried to join in a conversation but discovered I could barely understand what people were talking about. I realized I had to get re-educated fast — and soon. I also perceived my lower socioeconomic status more glaringly than ever.

I enrolled in two edX courses: "Circuits and Electronics" and "CS50x: Intro to Computer Science." But I couldn’t complete either, because of the high bandwidth demands. Next I took a Udacity course, but I found the complete absence of deadlines and social space difficult to work with. Then I discovered Coursera and completed "Introduction to Operations Management" and "Organizational Analysis" during the fall of 2012.

You managed to complete well over 200 MOOCs, and you earned statements of accomplishment, which many Coursera courses award those who meet the course requirements, for 233 of them. What inspired you to keep going?

Taking MOOCs through Coursera was the only way I could get a high-quality education, and I had this unrelenting fear that this miracle of free access might evaporate soon.

Continued in a long article

This Harvard Course is Free
Harvard MOOC:  edX: Introduction to Computer Science
---
 https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x

Bob Jensen's threads on other free MOOC courses from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Findings of a PwC Audit
"Business School That Chased Rankings Ran Up a Deficit, Audit Finds," by Charles Huckabee, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 19, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/business-school-that-chased-rankings-ran-up-a-deficit-audit-finds?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The University of Missouri at Kansas City allowed its business school to run up an operating deficit of nearly $11 million as it pursued a national and global reputation, since tarnished by a rankings scandal, The Kansas City Star reports.

Continued in article


FM Radio --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_broadcasting

Norway to Become First Country to Switch Off FM Radio in 2017 ---
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/norway-first-country-end-fm-790131


Alumni Magazines Reporting on Classmates Having Organ Transplants

Last night I scanned the alumni magazine from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (GSB). I'm most interested to the MBA classes that I socialized with and in some cases lived with while I was in the GSB's new accounting doctoral program in the 1960s. I lived on or near the Stanford campus for five years while I was a slow learner in this Ph.D. program. There were only two other students in this program at the time (Jay Smith and Les Livingston), and both of them were married with children. Hence I socialized with four MBA classes until I got married in my final (dissertation) year of the program. I lived with 24 co-ed chasing MBA students on campus in what was then known as the bougainvillea-covered Manzanita Lodge. It was great that this lodge was only a stone's throw from the women's dormitories.

Last night while reading the alumni section for the four MBA classes of greatest interest to me I was surprised to discover the number of my former MBA-carouser classmates who recently had organ transplants, particularly kidney and liver transplants. Come to think of it, the liver transplants don't surprise me much.

This led me to reflect upon the phases of alumni reporting for each graduating  class in the GSB's  alumni magazine.

  1. The First Decade  Following Graduation
    In the first ten years the graduates who were successful in landing jobs that pleased them reported back on where they were working and to whom they got married.

     
  2. The Second Decade
    There are slightly reduced numbers of alumni reporting back, but those that report back generally report their job changes and/or promotions. This is an active period of reporting world travels, especially a surprising number of accidental or intentional overseas encounters with former classmates.  Not many alums reported their divorces, but since some announced their remarriages it's assumed that there were also expensive divorces.

     
  3. The Third Decade
    This is usually the decade of reporting the peaks in alumni careers. Among Stanford MBAs there are quite a few announcements of promotions to CEO and CFO status. Some started their own hedge funds. Quite of few were successful entrepreneurs in their own business firms. All were making much more money than this lowly bookkeeping professor.

     
  4. The Fourth Decade
    There were  considerably fewer classmates reporting back through the alumni magazine. Most who reported back disclosed their retirements and moves to exotic locales like Hawaii or Myrtle Beach.  There are more reports about surviving heart attacks and cancer treatments.

     
  5. The Fifth  Decade
    It surprised me last night to read about the organ transplants, particularly kidneys and livers. Of course the needs for such transplants can arise at any age, but those in their 70s seem to have a greater need. Across the USA transplants and other advances extending life are clobbering Medicare.

     
  6. The Sixth and Higher Decades
    My readings of the alumni magazine have not yet taken me into this phase of alumni reporting. There will certainly be more reports of life's endings. And scanning ahead I note that the modules for each class get smaller and smaller until they vanish completely from the alumni magazine. This prevents alumni magazines from growing as thick as a Los Angeles  telephone directory.

"For the Humanities, Some Good News Is Mixed With the Bad," by Madeline Will, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 13, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/For-the-Humanities-Some-Good/229291/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en


Infotopia (search engine for homeschoolers) --- http://www.infotopia.info/

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_%28search_engine%29

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) is a multi-disciplinary search engine to scholarly internet resources, created by Bielefeld University Library in Bielefeld, Germany. It is based on search technology provided by Fast Search & Transfer (FAST), a Norwegian company. It harvests OAI metadata from scientific digital repositories that implement the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), and are indexed using FAST's software. In addition to OAI metadata, the library indexes selected web sites and local data collections, all of which can be searched via a single search interface.

It allows those who use the search engine to search metadata, when available, as well as conducting full text searches. It contrasts with commercial search engines in multiple ways, including in the types and kinds of resources it searches and the information it offers about the results it finds. Where available, bibliographic data is provided, and the results may be sorted by multiple fields, such as by author or year of publication.

 

Conduct a BASE Search --- http://www.base-search.net/
For example, conduct a search in "Interest Rate Swaps"

Jensen Comment
This could be useful for searches of international academic literature.

Bob Jensen's search helpers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm


Research News at Vanderbilt --- http://news.vanderbilt.edu/research/


"How Sweet Briar Can Save Itself," by Peter T. Mitchell, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 21, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2015/04/20/how-sweet-briar-can-save-itself/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

. . .

Sports are expensive and add nothing to academic excellence. Many high-school students dislike sports; Sweet Briar and colleges like it would do well to direct their appeals to those students — the ones who participate in band or choir, act in plays, or find meaning in community service. Sweet Briar should recruit serious and shy students, because they would blossom there. Wellness programs, rather than sports, should create the foundation of a healthy lifestyle.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment

As much as it pains me, I cannot agree that:  "Sports are expensive and add nothing to academic excellence." Sports are indeed expensive, but they can do a great deal to add to "academic excellence." I recall asking the parents (two business professors at the University of Missouri) of a high-honors chemistry graduate headed for a Ph.D. at Cal Tech why their daughter chose Trinity University when she was admitted to two Ivy League universities. They said it was a phone call from a soccer coach who pointed out her chance to be a star player on a NCAA Division 3 team. In an Ivy League NCAA  Division 1 university she might otherwise sit on the bench.

Schools like Trinity University and its football-rival University of Chicago feel like it's necessary to have Division 3 athletics to recruit scholar athletes who would otherwise go to universities where they can participate in varsity sports that compete with other university teams.

NCAA Division 1 is more problematic.
The Ivy League justification is that competing with other Ivy League competitors is very important to alumni relations and fund raising. The system works as long as the athletes recruited are Ivy League caliber students academically. Where Division 1 gets corrupted is when the athletes recruited are low-quality students who would not be admitted and retained if they were not star athletes, including star swimmers, tennis players, and baseball players.

Perhaps Sweet Briar in the recovery cannot afford athletics programs. But many universities that can afford Division 1 or Division 3 athletics add a great deal to the academic excellence. Life is not always how faculty members and administrators would like to redesign life.

 


Farmers Bear Brunt of Climate Impacts ---
http://newsroom.unfccc.int/action-to-adapt/fao-famers-bear-brunt-of-climate-impacts/


Question
What airlines are worrying the FAA the most these days?

Answer
http://fortune.com/2015/04/10/united-airlines-faa/?xid=newsletter-brief


It Has Never Been Easier to Get Into Law School ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/14cc1e4a624fdd1e

The Rise and Fall of Law Schools and the Legal Profession ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#OverstuffedLawSchools

"The Anemic Law Jobs Recovery," by Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog, February 25, 2015 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/02/the-anemic-.html

"Where Are All the Law School Applicants?" by Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog, September 13, 2014 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/09/where-are-all.html


 To cut credit-card fraud, issuers are embedding chips; merchants say they can’t get card readers fast enough.

"Chip-Card Rollout Has Banks, Retailers Scrambling," by Robin Sidel, The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/chip-card-rollout-has-banks-retailers-scrambling-1429568104?mod=djemCFO_h

. . .

Some 575 million of the new cards—representing about three-quarters of U.S. credit cards and about 40% of debit cards—are expected to be in the wallets of American consumers by year-end, making it the biggest rollout of new cards in decades.

Chip cards, which have been used throughout Europe, Asia and Canada for years, are coming to the U.S. after delays from banks that issue cards and the merchants who accept them.

But challenges remain: Even though tens of millions of new cards have already been shipped to customers, only Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and a few other large retailers so far have upgraded their payment terminals to accept the new plastic. Target Corp. , which had a massive breach in late 2013, has upgraded its terminals and plans to start accepting chip cards in the late spring, according to a spokesman.

Continued in article


"What Harvard Business School Has Learned About Online Collaboration," by Bharat Anand and Jan Hammond and V.G. Narayanan, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 16, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/what-harvard-business-school-has-learned-about-online-collaboration

. . .

Online collaboration can overcome certain biases and behaviors that arise in face-to-face environments. Clearly there are advantages in face-to-face interaction. You can engage more; it’s personal; it’s real. However, online collaboration also offers certain advantages. The lack of face-to-face interaction might help overcome certain biases and behaviors that arise — often unintentionally — in our traditional classrooms.

One of the salient differences we discovered concerned gender. In our first cohort of participants, women were more likely to both ask questions of others and to answer others’ questions — nearly twice as likely as men. Higher female participation online is the opposite of what we typically encounter in our residential classrooms. These outcomes merit a far deeper exploration of what drives these differences, and biases, and even whether they persist in different settings.

So what are the results of the first HBX CORe program? Completion rates, student satisfaction, and engagement are the most common metrics used to evaluate online courses. In these respects, the results were notable. The completion rate — typically in single digits for MOOCs — was just over 85% for HBX CORe. Satisfaction scores were high too: 80-90% of participants rated the program content and teaching either a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale. Engagement with course materials and with peers was extremely high — all participants completing the program regularly submitted analyses and reflections via required participation, and a majority of participants participated in content discussions with peers. Similar numbers are being seen in follow-on versions of the CORe program offered by HBX.

These were some of the most important things we’ve learned and discovered in our first HBX CORe program. There were others too. Make it fun, for example. And, make the groups as diverse as possible, because diversity creates the conditions for students to listen more carefully to others (perhaps there’s something you don’t know that others will) and fosters a greater willingness to learn. We are exploring these differences, and others, in ongoing programs through HBX.

As we continue to experiment and explore the potential of online learning, HBX has made a conscious decision to embrace social learning as one of the principles to anchor its online programs around. Online education in general has not yet recognized the great potential of social, collaborative learning. But it should.

Jensen Comment
I only provided a short quotation above. If you want to save the article content paste the article  into your private archives now.

"The Future of Higher Education:  Shaking Up the Status Quo,"  Chronicle of Higher Education, October 4, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/section/NEXT-The-Future-of-Higher/751/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

. . .

3 Big Ideas on Campuses

The Student 'Swirl'

Today's students often attend multiple institutions and mix learning experiences. But is academe ready for them?

Reinventing the Academic Calendar

Colleges are offering many new options to encourage flexibility.

Competency-Based Degrees in the Mainstream

The University of Wisconsin's new flexible-degree option is being watched closely.

Continued in article

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

Bob Jensen's threads on education technology ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm

 


Question
Where do athletes suspended for sexual assault end up?

Answer
If they don't go to jail they end up on teams in other colleges, even in the case of being suspended two times for sexual assault.

All 3 Oregon Basketball Players Suspended Over Sexual Assault Find New Teams  ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/04/16/all-3-oregon-basketball-players-suspended-over-sexual-assault-find-new-teams

Jensen Comment
A Scarlet A is a much different if the "A: stands for "athlete."


"What I’m Reading: Articles on the Ph.D. Job Market," by John P. Holcomb, Jr.," Chronicle of Higher Education, April 15, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-I-m-Reading-Articles/229267/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Two articles I read recently offered insights into the difficult situation created by an oversupply of Ph.D. graduates seeking tenure-track positions at universities. An NPR story, "A Glut of Ph.D.’s Means Long Odds of Getting Jobs," described the bleak job prospects for those seeking tenure-track faculty positions. This corresponds with my own experience in hiring for positions in mathematics, with openings drawing hundreds of applications. It saddens me that many intelligent and hard-working students are dedicating years of study to obtain a credential that is unlikely to be in high demand.

On the bright side, a Wall Street Journal article, "Big Data’s High-Priests of Algorithms," reports that many Ph.D. graduates are working in the new field of data science, which draws on their skills in statistics. Data scientists are in high demand, and the jobs offer desirable salaries.

Continued in article


From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on April 16, 2015

 “Search bias” at heart of (EU) Google case
http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-is-at-the-heart-of-complaint-against-google-1429112645?mod=djemCFO_h
At the heart of the antitrust complaint against Google Inc. is the search giant’s alleged practice of highlighting its own shopping services, ahead of links to rival services. But European regulators also opened a second front in their antitrust probe of the Web giant, launching a formal investigation of whether the company used its position as the maker of Android to favor other Google apps and services. A husband-and-wife team that set up price comparison-shopping website Foundem is the unlikely instigator of Google’s antitrust woes.


"4 Top Tips for Navigating Google Maps," by David Pogue, Yahoo Tech, April 17, 2015 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/4-top-tips-for-navigating-google-maps-ill-come-116579188954.html

. . .

So today, I offer you a crash course in Google Maps app — a guide to navigating the navigation app.

Tip 1: It’s a galactic Yellow Pages (huge database of knowledge about the world)

Tip 2: Google Maps knows the neighborhood.

Tip 3: When you need directions, tap the blue buttons.

Tip 4: Play with the map.

For example, You can drag the green road instructions leftward to see what turns Google plans to have you take next:

There's a lot of detail in the article

Google Maps --- https://www.google.com/maps

Also go to Google Advanced Search and enter the phrase "Google Maps Search" ---
http://www.google.ca/advanced_search


"How Apple Pay revolutionizes payments security and what it means for the payments industry," by John Heggestuen, Business Insider, April 15, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-apple-pay-revolutionizes-payments-security-and-what-it-means-for-the-payments-industry-2015-4

Apple Pay promises to bring mobile payments into the mainstream and is widely lauded for its ease of use. What's garnered less attention — perhaps because of its complexity — is the innovative security framework the feature uses to prevent fraudulent transactions and data theft. When mobile payments methods employing security standards like Apple Pay's become more mainstream, fraud as it is conducted today will be greatly reduced. 

In a new research from BI Intelligence we give a step-by-step breakdown of how Apple Pay works and the implications for the payments ecosystem as Apple Pay and similar technologies become ubiquitous. 

Access The Research And Downloadable Infographics By Signing Up For A Trial Membership Today >>

Here are some of the key takeaways:

To access the full report from BI Intelligence, sign up for a 14-day trial here. Members also gain access to new in-depth reportshundreds of charts and datasets, as well as daily newsletters on the digital industry.


Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-apple-pay-revolutionizes-payments-security-and-what-it-means-for-the-payments-industry-2015-4#ixzz3Xlk5kLzN
 

 

"Apple Pay Is Just a Big Giveaway to Credit Card Companies," by Juan Pablo Vazquez Sampere, Harvard Business Review Blog, April 14, 2015 ---
https://hbr.org/2015/04/apple-pay-is-just-a-big-giveaway-to-credit-card-companies?utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date&cm_lm=rjensen%40trinity.edu&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&referral=00563&cm_ven=Spop-Email&cm_ite=DailyAlert-041515+%281%29

It’s easy to assume Apple Pay is one in a long line of disruptive innovations from the master of serial disruption. But this time that’s not the case. Apple isn’t behaving as a disruptor here; it’s acting as a reseller.

This seems like an easy distinction to spot, but that’s not always so. Like disruptors, resellers can enter an industry with a different business model and target customers unattractive to established firms. But they extend an industry’s distribution structure rather than disrupt it. So for instance, independent insurance agents (who, unlike an insurance company’s own agents, can direct customers to a wide variety of insurers in search of the best deal), act as an additional sales channel for the industry, particularly at the price-conscious margins, not as an disruptive alternative. They would be disruptive if they were selling insurance from a company new to the industry using an independent, low-cost distribution channel, such as direct to the customer, either by phone or online.

. . .

Why does this matter? By launching Apple Pay as a reseller instead of as a disruptor, Apple is helping to perpetuate a credit card payment system that is obsolete, overly expensive, and absolutely unnecessary in the present day.  The banks already have a money-transfer system, which they use to transfer funds from one bank’s customers to another. For historical reasons, the credit card companies have created a second, expensive, system just to process credit transactions. They fund that system through charges to merchants (as well as to a lesser extent through fees and interest payments from customers). But there are millions of small to mid-sized businesses in the world that cannot afford those credit card charges.

Continued in article


Most Hack Successes at Some Point Require Insiders

Iowa Man Accused of Hacking Lottery to Win $14.3 Million Ticket ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/an-iowa-man-is-accused-of-hacking-the-lottery-to-116386493569.html

Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


Jacques Derrida --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Derrida

Teacher Calls Jacques Derrida’s College Admission Essay on Shakespeare “Quite Incomprehensible” (1951) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/derridas-college-admission-essay-on-shakespeare-quite-incomprehensible-1951.html


The Shortest-Known Paper Published in a Serious Math Journal: Two Succinct Sentences ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/shortest-known-paper-in-a-serious-math-journal.html


"Coursera’s Andrew Ng: How MOOCs Are Taking Local Knowledge Global," by Andrew Ng, Knowledge@Wharton, April 17, 2015 ---
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-moocs-are-taking-local-knowledge-global/

Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng is widely considered a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence. Along with Daphne Koller, he is the co-founder of Coursera, the massive open online course (MOOC) platform, in April 2012. In just a little more than three years, Coursera has over nine million users enrolled in 750 courses from more than a hundred institutions worldwide. Ng taught at Stanford University and is the director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab. He works on deep learning algorithms, which Ng says are loosely inspired by how the brain learns. He worked on one of the most ambitious artificial intelligence systems at Google called Google Brain. The system analyzed millions of photos taken from YouTube videos and learned to recognize objects, including human and cat faces, without additional human guidance.

Continued in article
You may want to paste this article in your personal archives before it disappears from the Web.

"How ‘Elite’ Universities Are Using Online Education," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 10, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/How-Elite-Universities/229233/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

How Business Higher Education and Training are Changing

"Coming to a Business School Near You: Disruption (Part 2)," by Margaret Andrews, Inside Higher Ed, April 13, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/stratedgy/coming-business-school-near-you-disruption-part-2

. . .

New Entrants With New Offerings

A wide array of players are entering the executive education and corporate training market and here are some recent developments:

University and Business Schools are Innovating, too

That’s not to say that universities and business schools are not innovating, too.  For example:

Low-Cost MBA Alternatives

From Kigali, Rwanda, one woman is piecing together the equivalent of an MBA by taking a series of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from different providers. For less than $1000 US she’s taken courses from some of the top business schools in the world and her No-Pay MBA website offers information to help others do the same.

Students can now take a variety of courses from various providers in a “cafeteria style” like the example above.  While this buffet of courses doesn’t (yet) add up to a degree, at some point some organization is going to figure out how to assign/award credit for these disparate classes – and accredit the program of study.  Then students will be able to bundle together their own degrees and certificates, choosing the best courses from the best schools and building their own All-Star MBA  (or some other degree or certification) program.

In a recent Financial Times article, Rich Lyons, dean of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, reiterated his belief that 50% of business schools could be out of business within the next ten years, stating:

There are over 10,000 business schools in the world so when you start thinking about that group from 1,000 to 10,000, I think curated MOOC content and better ways of credentialing students is going to be a heck of a threat to a lot of those players.”

Jensen Comment
I think there's increasing accountability required in both the education and training markets. In particular, for-profit-universities of questionable quality are hurting badly or shutting down entirely. Innovative programs more closely tied to respected traditional universities (think Coursera) or top private sector companies like McKinsey and Cisco  are rising up.

We are in a transition period where degrees and diplomas still matter, but badges and certificates of competency are on the rise ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm#Badges

Scenarios of Higher Education for Year 2020 ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU3FjxY2uQ
The above great video, among other things, discusses how "badges" of academic education and training accomplishment may become more important in the job market than tradition transcript credits awarded by colleges. Universities may teach the courses (such as free MOOCs) whereas private sector companies may award the "badges" or "credits" or "certificates." The new term for such awards is a
"microcredential."

Competency-Based Learning --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge

"If B.A.’s Can’t Lead Graduates to Jobs, Can Badges Do the Trick?" by Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 2, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/If-BA-s-Can-t-Lead/228073/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Employers say they are sick of encountering new college graduates who lack job skills. And colleges are sick of hearing that their young alumni aren’t employable.

Could a new experiment to design employer-approved "badges" leave everyone a little less frustrated?

Employers and a diverse set of more than a half-dozen universities in the Washington area are about to find out, through a project that they hope will become a national model for workplace badges.

The effort builds on the burgeoning national movement for badges and other forms of "micro­credentials." It also pricks at much broader questions about the purpose and value of a college degree in an era when nearly nine out of 10 students say their top reason for going to college is to get a good job.

The "21st Century Skills Badging Challenge" kicks off with a meeting on Thursday. For the next nine months, teams from the universities, along with employers and outside experts, will try to pinpoint the elements that underlie skills like leadership, effective storytelling, and the entrepreneurial mind-set. They’ll then try to find ways to assess students’ proficiency in those elements and identify outside organizations to validate those skills with badges that carry weight with employers.

The badges are meant to incorporate the traits most sought by employers, often referred to as "the four C’s": critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration.

"We want this to become currency on the job market," says Kathleen deLaski, founder of the Education Design Lab, a nonprofit consulting organization that is coordinating the project.

No organizations have yet been selected or agreed to provide validations. But design-challenge participants say there’s a clear vision: Perhaps an organization like TED issues a badge in storytelling. Or a company like Pixar, or IDEO, the design and consulting firm, offers a badge in creativity.

If those badges gain national acceptance, Ms. deLaski says, they could bring more employment opportunities to students at non-elite colleges, which rarely attract the same attention from recruiters as the Ivies, other selective private colleges, or public flagships. "I’m most excited about it as an access tool," she says.

‘Celebrating’ and ‘Translating’

The very idea of badges may suggest that the college degree itself isn’t so valuable—at least not to employers.

Badge backers prefer a different perspective. They say there’s room for both badges and degrees. And if anything, the changing job market demands both.

Through their diplomas and transcripts, "students try to signal, and they have the means to signal, their academic accomplishments," says Angel Cabrera, president of George Mason University, which is involved in the project. "They just don’t have the same alternative for the other skills that employers say they want."

Nor is the badging effort a step toward vocationalizing the college degree, participants say. As Ms. deLaski puts it: "It’s celebrating what you learn in the academic setting and translating it for the work force."

Yet as she and others acknowledge, badges by themselves won’t necessarily satisfy employers who now think graduates don’t cut it.

That’s clear from how employer organizations that may work on the project regard badges. "We’re presuming that there is an additional skill set that needs to be taught," says Michael Caplin, president of the Tysons Partnership, a Northern Virginia economic-development organization. "It’s not just a packaging issue."

In other words, while a move toward badges could require colleges to rethink what they teach, it would certainly cause them to re-examine how they teach it. At least some university partners in the badging venture say they’re on board with that.

"Some of what we should be doing is reimagining some disciplinary content," says Randall Bass, vice provost for education at Georgetown University, another participant in the project.

Mr. Bass, who also oversees the "Designing the Future(s) of the University" project at Georgetown, says many smart curricular changes that are worth pursuing, no matter what, could also lend themselves to the goals of the badging effort. (At the master’s-degree level, for example, Georgetown has already begun offering a one-credit courses in grant writing.)

"We should make academic work more like work," with team-based approaches, peer learning, and iterative exercises, he says. "People would be ready for the work force as well as getting an engagement with intellectual ideas."

Employers’ gripes about recent college graduates are often hard to pin down. "It depends on who’s doing the whining," Mr. Bass quips. (The critique he does eventually summarize—that employers feel "they’re not getting students who are used to working"—is a common one.)

Where Graduates Fall Short

So one of the first challenges for the badging exercise is to better understand exactly what employers want and whether colleges are able to provide it—or whether they’re already doing so.

After all, notes Mr. Bass, many believe that colleges should produce job-ready graduates simply by teaching students to be agile thinkers who can adapt if their existing careers disappear. "That’s why I think ‘employers complain, dot dot dot,’ needs to be parsed," he says.

Mr. Caplin says his organization plans to poll its members to better understand where they see college graduates as falling short.

Continued in article


"Teaching Shakespeare Straight Up No ‘Shakespeare and Imperialism’ or ‘Shakespeare and Gender.’ Students like the real thing just fine," by Paula Marantz Cohen, The Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/teaching-shakespeare-straight-up-1429310444?tesla=y

Of all the courses I have taught over my 30 years as an English professor, the one that I enjoy teaching most and that students seem to enjoy taking most is “Shakespeare.”

That’s the title. Not “Shakespeare and the Elizabethan World” or “Shakespeare and Stagecraft”; not “Shakespeare and Imperialism,” “Shakespeare and Gender,” or “Shakespeare and Postmodern Theory.”

I don’t even title the course, as I once did, “Introduction to Shakespeare,” though it is open to all students and has no prerequisites. Appending “introduction to” would admittedly emphasize the fact that Shakespeare is a vast and deep terrain, but it would also suggest that the course leads to “Advanced Shakespeare.”

This is not the case. The Shakespeare course is not the first step in a graded ascent but an immersion in a world. I want it to be Shakespeare without addendum or dilution. My belief is that anyone at any level can derive benefit from this course, not because I teach it so well but because reading a certain number of Shakespeare’s plays with close attention is an end as well as a beginning. It can yield rudimentary insights but it can also yield highly advanced and sophisticated ones.

Continued in article


"Harvard’s Les Miserables Labor exploitation becomes a rallying cry in the academic Third World," The Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/harvards-les-miserables-1429311130?tesla=y

. . .

These aren’t the sans-culottes of late 18th-century France. We’re talking about the modern American university. Specifically, Harvard—at least if you believe the complaints by the graduate students trying to unionize there. They have a case, too, even if their solution isn’t the cure they think it is. Even taking into account the value of the tuition relief that grad students receive in exchange for the teaching and research they do, their low pay and limited benefits are all too real.

These grad students (and part-time adjuncts) carry much of the teaching load at universities for one reason: They are cheaper. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, at Harvard the average professor’s salary is $205,000. Grad students get a fraction of this, and the glut of Ph.D.s means most will never find the professorships they seek.

Public universities are covered by state labor laws, and some have unionized. Private universities come under the National Labor Relations Act. They have been able to resist unionization because the National Labor Relations Board ruled in 2004 in a case involving Brown University that grad students are “primarily students,” not employees.

That may change. President Obama’s NLRB is a wholly owned subsidiary of organized labor. Last month the board agreed to hear a petition by graduate students at Columbia University that challenges the 2004 decision. The Columbia students want to join the United Auto Workers, and they’re seeking an NLRB ruling like the one last year that Northwestern football players can unionize because they’re employees more than student-athletes.

The universities argue that unionization would make the nature of their relationship with students adversarial. They too have a case. Most of America’s top universities aren’t unionized. So the schools have valid concern about elevating union interests over academic merit. Meanwhile, NYU is a rare private university that has voluntarily recognized a grad-student union.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
One thing that will make unionization at Harvard easier is that the Boston area and Massachusetts as a whole is controlled by labor unions. For example, Wal-Mart will never be allowed to build new stores in Boston until Wal-Mart workers are unionized. If and when that happens will be a sad day for New Hampshire where folks in Mass. go to shop for cheaper prices (and no sales tax).

Most universities have some type of housing subsidies for graduate students as well as undergraduates. That is very important at Harvard and MIT since the Cambridge housing market is one of the highest priced markets in the USA. Providing housing is even more complicated and expensive for married students and families who cannot live in dormitories.


The Contributions of Women Philosophers Recovered by the New Project Vox Website ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/the-contributions-of-women-philosophers-recovered-by-the-new-project-vox-website.html

A philosophy candidate or feminist scholar venturing into Duke University’s new Project Vox website may experience a sensation akin to discovering King Tut’s tomb.

Such treasures! Not just a scrap here and a morsel there, but a serious trove of information about philosophy writ by females!

Lady Damaris Masham (1658-1708), Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673), Viscountess Anne Conway (1631-1679), and Émilie Du Châtelet were highly thought of in their day, and praised by male contemporaries including John Locke.

Project Vox seeks to resurrect their overlooked-to-the-point-of-undiscovered contributions by publishing their long out of print texts, some translated into English for the first time. Biographical information and secondary resources will provide a sense of each philosopher as well as her philosophy.

Eventually, the site will include a forum where teachers can share lesson plans and articles. Male philosophy doctorates currently outnumber their female counterparts by an overwhelming number, but that may change as young women begin to see themselves reflected in the curriculum.

Educators! Educate thyselves! Project Vox is the Guerrilla Girl of early modern philosophy!

Continued in article


"Hurry Up and Wait:  Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman’s Whimsical Children’s Book for Grownups about Presence in the Age of Productivity," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, April 7, 2015 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/04/07/hurry-up-and-wait-daniel-handler-maira-kalman/?mc_cid=9dbc27a359&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

“Hurrying and delaying are alike ways of trying to resist the present,” Alan Watts observed in his magnificent meditation on the art of timing half a century before our paradoxical modern mecca of ever-multiplying procrastination options amid a Productivity Rush in which we’re mining every last frontier of sanity and stillness for the tiniest nugget of precious efficiency. “Of all ridiculous things,” Kierkegaard wrote in contemplating our greatest source of unhappiness nearly two centuries earlier, “the most ridiculous seems to me, to be busy — to be a man who is brisk about his food and his work.” Somehow, even if we know that we habitually miss most of what is going on around us, we rarely break our busy gait on the hamster wheel of goal-chasing. And yet when we do pause — be it by will or, perhaps more commonly, by accident — the miraculous reveals itself in the mundane.

That’s what longtime collaborators Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler explore in the immensely wonderful children’s-book-for-grownups Hurry Up and Wait (public library) — the second installment in their collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, following their quirky Girls Standing on Lawns.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
One would think that in retirement older folks get more patient about standing in lines such as in checkout lines in supermarkets. I found this not to be the case in my retirement. However, in retirement it's easier to time when to shop. And now I'm much more thankful for Amazon.

I especially do not like long lines when checking into hotels and waiting to clear security checkpoints at airports. My solution to this is to resist traveling at all.

In retirement I have a feeling that my time is growing shorter in this life and want to minimize the time I spend uselessly waiting. Some might argue that waiting often leads to a better life such as waiting to get to a resort or a cruise. But I live everyday in what some would call a mountain resort. Visiting other resorts and going on cruises lost its appeal.

Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man, but I just don't feel all that grumpy. I just enjoy different things in retirement than I did in the hectic pace of working life.


Making Wood Without Trees ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-13/how-mushrooms-can-be-used-to-make-particle-board-less-toxic?cmpid=BBD041315


Pew Research About Changing Life and Cultures in the USA ---
http://www.pewresearch.org/
For example, fewer and fewer blacks living in the USA were born in the USA, the rising role of immigration (legal and otherwise) in the work force, the changing role of regligion in the USA, etc.


Maine police departments pay hackers to unlock computer ---
http://www.pressherald.com/2015/04/10/police-departments-pay-hackers-to-unlock-computer-system/

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and four towns that share a system say they paid $300 after the hackers claimed the 'ransomware' program would wipe the system clean.

Police departments in midcoast and northern Maine said they have paid ransom to hackers to keep their computer files from being destroyed, WCSH-TV reported Friday night.

The Portland station said the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and four towns paid $300 to the hackers after a virus, called a “megacode,” was downloaded on a computer system they share. Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Bracket said that the computer system was unusable until the fee was paid, and that the hackers claimed the program, called “ransomware,” would wipe the entire computer system clean if the fee wasn’t paid.

The creator of the virus gave the sheriff’s office a code to unlock the computer system after the money was received. The county paid in bitcoins, an online currency.

“We needed our programs to get back online,” said Damariscotta Police Chief Ron Young. “That was a choice we all discussed and took to get back online to get our information.”

Brackett told WCSH that the FBI tracked the payment to a Swiss bank account, but no further.

The Houlton Police Department told the station that it was hit with a similar virus early this week and its computer system was locked up until ransom was paid.

Last summer, the FBI, foreign governments and private security firms dismantled an operation, based in Russia, that commandeered as many as a million computers and drew money out of bank accounts, The Washington Post reported. The operation also included a ransomware scheme and officials said they had identified the 30-year-old Russian behind the operation but had not apprehended him.

Continued in article


Man found dead under manure, wife charged with murder ---
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/21/man-found-dead-wife-charged/26125341/
This might make a good commercial for Bismuth subsalicylate.




From the Scout Report on April 3, 2015

Ghostery --- https://www.ghostery.com/en/ 

Would you like to surf the web free of the prying eyes of advertisers? Ghostery provides an easy - if only partially effective - solution. Originally launched in 2009, the service is simple to install. From the above link, the site automatically recognizes which browser you are using and offers itself as an add on. Ghostery is available for desktop and mobile devices and is compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, Android, iOS, and Firefox Android. Once Ghostery has downloaded, it will appear as a ghost icon on your browser toolbar and launch an introduction page with further instructions. Every time you visit a page, it will show you the number of detected trackers in a number bubble. You can then block those trackers individually or by clicking categories such as "advertisers" or "analytics" (located under "options").


Drive --- by Jolicloud https://drive.jolicloud.com/welcome

The ever-developing Paris-based tech company Jolicloud has been producing web-based desktop tools since 2009. So the Drive app, which allows users to consolidate various cloud storage services, is built on five years of designing, redesigning, and integrating as customers' needs have adapted to the shifting ecology of the Internet. Many people these days have stored music, documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos, and other files on web-based services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. But what if you want to be able to access everything from a single, user-friendly platform? Enter Drive by Jolicloud. Drive allows 44GB of free storage (compare to the 2GB allowed on Dropbox) and provides a consistent, attractive interface where users can edit images, play music files, and watch videos. It connects with Evernote, Flickr, and other services for simple drag and drop functions. For users looking for a place to integrate all their web-based storage, Drive is a great program.


Nonnative Species Wreak Havoc in Florida
The Snake That's Eating Florida
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/us/the-burmese-python-snake-thats-eating-florida.html

What Happens When People Release Exotic Animals Into the Wild
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/what-happens-when-people-release-exotic-animals-into-the-wild/

Florida's exotic pet amnesty day means a chance to turn over nonnative
animals without blame
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/state/floridas-exotic-pet-amnesty-day-means-a-chance-to-turn-over-nonnative-animals-without-blame

'Super' Termite Hybrid May Wreak Havoc on Florida
http://www.livescience.com/50290-hybrid-termite-pests.html

Invasive Lionfish Beyond The Reach Of Divers Worry Researchers (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/invasive-lionfish_n_3603726.html

Florida's Exotic Fish and WIldlife
http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/


From the Scout Report on April 17, 2015

The Infinite Jukebox --- http://labs.echonest.com/Uploader/index.html

For readers who love listening to their favorite songs again and again, The Infinite Jukebox may come as somewhat of a revelation. For an introduction, readers may go to the site and click on a few of the popular tunes listed on the homepage. For instance, selecting Superstition by Stevie Wonder kicks off the 1972 hit in the way you've always heard it. But then The Infinite Jukebox takes over, matching beats and rhythmic patterns to create intelligent patterns for where the song can go next. No simple loop here. Instead the song plays for as long as the listener would like, but with seemingly infinite variety. Once users understand the basic principle, they can upload their own MP3s for free and let The Infinite Jukebox reorganize them into epic soundtracks for their working day.


Xmarks --- https://www.xmarks.com/ 

Often considered the number one bookmarks add-on on the market, Xmarks is built to be compatible with Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer. The program can be downloaded in seconds. From there readers may begin backing up and synchronizing bookmarks in an intuitive and friendly template. In addition, Xmarks will sync bookmarks across computers, and, if desired, across different web browsers. While Xmarks is free for personal computer use, a premium version ($1 per month) is necessary for readers who want to sync with their iPhones, Blackberries, and Androids. Xmarks is the most popular bookmark sync add-on for a reason: it's easy to use and convenient.


Are We Getting Closer to Finding Alien Life? NASA Chief Scientist Says
Yes
http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/signs-of-alien-life-by-2025-says-nasa-chief-scientist-150408.htm

http://www.businessinsider.com/where-were-most-likely-to-find-alien-life-in-the-space-2015-4

http://www.vox.com/2015/4/8/8371083/nasa-alien-life

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/are-we-getting-closer-to-finding-alien-life-bob-mcdonald-1.3027927

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/09/alien-size-big-polar-bears_n_7012162.html

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/13/opinions/urry-alien-life/
 

Aliens were in the news again recently when NASA's chief scientist, Ellen Stofan, made an unexpected announcement during a panel discussion. "I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years." Other panelists, somewhat amazingly, agreed. This revelation coincided with the publication of a paper by University of Barcelona cosmologist, Dr. Fergus Simpson, that claimed that if we do find intelligent alien life our new extraterrestrial friends might be as big as polar bears. Add to this the current news breaking about exoplanets (those planets most likely to support carbon-based life), and the buzz around aliens is vibrating at a higher frequency than usual.[CNH]

The first article, from Discovery News, offers a peek into Stofan's announcement, while Business Insider, featured second, moves beyond the panel discussion to probe questions around what alien life will look like if we find it. The third link, from Vox, provides a fascinating overview of where extraterrestrial life likely exists and how we're currently setting out to find it. Famous cosmology commentator Bob McDonald, wonders whether we're getting closer to alien life in his blog for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, featured fourth here, while the Huffington Post takes a look at the claim that intelligent alien life will be much bigger than previously expected. Lastly, Meg Urry at CNN asks when we will be able to actually talk to life beyond our planet.

 




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


Education Tutorials

Harvard MOOC:  edX: Introduction to Computer Science ---
 https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) --- http://www.base-search.net/

Bob Jensen's search helpers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm

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

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


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

Women in Science --- http://www.womeninscience.org/

Research News at Vanderbilt --- http://news.vanderbilt.edu/research/

The Untold History of Women in Science and Technology --- http://www.whitehouse.gov/women-in-stem

Solar Dynamics Observatory --- http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

China wants to build a solar power plant in space to solve its pollution problem ---
http://modernnotion.com/china-may-have-solar-panels-in-space-by-2020/#ixzz3XDPzWbRL

Farmers Bear Brunt of Climate Impacts --- http://newsroom.unfccc.int/action-to-adapt/fao-famers-bear-brunt-of-climate-impacts/

The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies (science fiction) ---
 http://iat.iupui.edu/bradburycenter/page/welcome-center-ray-bradbury-studies

From the Scout Report on April 3, 2015

Nonnative Species Wreak Havoc in Florida
The Snake That's Eating Florida
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/us/the-burmese-python-snake-thats-eating-florida.html

What Happens When People Release Exotic Animals Into the Wild
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/what-happens-when-people-release-exotic-animals-into-the-wild/

Florida's exotic pet amnesty day means a chance to turn over nonnative
animals without blame
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/state/floridas-exotic-pet-amnesty-day-means-a-chance-to-turn-over-nonnative-animals-without-blame

'Super' Termite Hybrid May Wreak Havoc on Florida
http://www.livescience.com/50290-hybrid-termite-pests.html

Invasive Lionfish Beyond The Reach Of Divers Worry Researchers (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/invasive-lionfish_n_3603726.html

Florida's Exotic Fish and WIldlife
http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/

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

Career One Stop: Green Careers ---  http://www.careeronestop.org/GreenCareers/GreenCareers.aspx

Chatham House: Social Movements and Civil Society (history of social movements) --- http://www.chathamhouse.org/research/topics/social-movements

Harvard University Press ---  http://www.hup.harvard.edu/

NPR: Code Switch: Frontiers of Race, Culture and Ethnicity---  http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/

Open Anthropology --- http://www.aaaopenanthro.org

Humans of New York (very human stories and incidents) --- http://www.humansofnewyork.com/
There are thousands of interesting quotations.

GOOD Magazine (finding an interesting life) ---  http://magazine.good.is

Dan Cohen (interesting essays on literature, libraries, and history) --- http://www.dancohen.org/
Digital al Public Library --- http://dp.la/bookshelf?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Mystery#6528c50f9784d4792723b21aae169759

Research News at Vanderbilt --- http://news.vanderbilt.edu/research/

How Millenials today compare with their grandparents 50 years ago ---
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/03/19/how-millennials-compare-with-their-grandparents/

"Hurry Up and Wait:  Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman’s Whimsical Children’s Book for Grownups about Presence in the Age of Productivity," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, April 7, 2015 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/04/07/hurry-up-and-wait-daniel-handler-maira-kalman/?mc_cid=9dbc27a359&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Building a Land Ethic: A Blog for Our Thinking Community --- http://www.aldoleopold.org/blog/building-a-land-ethic/

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

Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm


Math Tutorials

Vox: Common Core math, explained in 3 minutes
http://www.vox.com/2015/4/9/8376937/common-core-math-why

Here's how to solve the 'simple' high-school math problem stumping everyone on the internet ---
http://uk.businessinsider.com/answer-to-singapore-high-school-math-problem-2015-4

Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm


History Tutorials

Chatham House: Social Movements and Civil Society (history of social movements) --- http://www.chathamhouse.org/research/topics/social-movements

The Contributions of Women Philosophers Recovered by the New Project Vox Website ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/the-contributions-of-women-philosophers-recovered-by-the-new-project-vox-website.html

American Archive of Public Broadcasting (PBS) ---  http://americanarchive.org/

Harvard University Press ---  http://www.hup.harvard.edu/

The Artist Project (video tracks of well-known artists) --- http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/

A Day in the Life: Artists' Diaries from the Archives of American Art --- http://www.aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/day-in-the-life-diaries

Spatial History Project (Stanford University) --- http://web.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/index.php

15 wonderful children's books celebrating great artists and scientists, Cheryl Strayed's no-nonsense advice to writers, and more ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/04/13/picture-book-biographies/?mc_cid=e72ade79a1&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Teacher Calls Jacques Derrida’s College Admission Essay on Shakespeare “Quite Incomprehensible” (1951) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/derridas-college-admission-essay-on-shakespeare-quite-incomprehensible-1951.html

Hirshhorn: Current Exhibitions --- http://www.hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/home/#collection=current-exhibitions

Civil War Studies --- http://civilwarstudies.org

Wet with Blood: The Investigation of Mary Todd Lincoln's Cloak
http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblood/

The first Medal of Honor was awarded for this incredible raid on a Confederate steam locomotive 153 years ago ---
 http://taskandpurpose.com/the-bold-civil-war-raid-that-led-to-the-first-ever-medal-of-honor/#ixzz3XDOygZN3

Boston College Subpoena --- https://bostoncollegesubpoena.wordpress.com/

Oklahoma Humanities Magazine --- http://www.okhumanities.org/publications

Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities --- http://www.neh.gov/humanities

Pictures from Railroad Jack ---
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blast_of_the_past/

Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home --- http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/

Research News at Vanderbilt --- http://news.vanderbilt.edu/research/

The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies (science fiction) ---
 http://iat.iupui.edu/bradburycenter/page/welcome-center-ray-bradbury-studies

Dan Cohen (interesting essays on literature, libraries, and history) --- http://www.dancohen.org/
Digital al Public Library --- http://dp.la/bookshelf?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Mystery#6528c50f9784d4792723b21aae169759

Library of Congress Launches New Online Poetry Archive, Featuring 75 Years of Classic Poetry Readings ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/library-of-congress-launches-new-online-poetry-archive.html

200 Ansel Adams Photographs Expose the Rigors of Life in Japanese Internment Camps During WW II ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/200-ansel-adams-photographs-expose-the-rigors-of-life-in-japanese-internment-camps-during-ww-ii.html

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

Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm


Music Tutorials

American Archive of Public Broadcasting (PBS) ---  http://americanarchive.org/

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/

April 13, 2015

April 14, 2015

April 15, 2015

April 16, 2015

April 17, 2015

April 18, 2015

April 20, 2015

April 21, 2015

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

April 23, 2015

April 24, 2015

April 25, 2015


Iced Tea Danger: How Much Is Too Much? --- Click Here
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com//health-fitness/medical-conditions/iced-tea-danger-how-much-is-too-much?utm_source=QDT20150417&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=quickanddirtytips

Also see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/iced-tea-kidney-failure_n_6993264.html


Mehmet Oz --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Oz

"The making of Dr. Oz:  How an award-winning doctor turned away from science and embraced fame," by Julia Belluz, Vox, April 16, 2015 ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/4/16/8412427/dr-oz-health-claims

"A group of doctors just asked Columbia to reconsider Dr. Oz's faculty appointment," by Julia Belluz, Vox, April 16, 2015 ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/4/16/8423867/dr-oz-letter-columbia
But Columbia University denied their request ---
http://www.newsweek.com/physicians-demand-removal-dr-oz-columbia-university-faculty-due-quack-323011

Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


Time Magazine:  Here's Which Weight Loss Diet Program Works Best ---
http://time.com/3772943/best-weight-loss-program/?xid=newsletter-brief

Time Magazine:  Here’s Your New Science-Backed Reason to Eat More Cheese ---
http://time.com/3819348/cheese-good-for-you/?xid=newsletter-brief

Americans have long been bewildered by the French paradox: that despite consuming a dream diet full of cheese, baguettes and red wine, people in France have generally low rates of coronary heart disease. By some estimates, the average French person eats 57 pounds of cheese each year—more than in any other country—while the average American eats a measly 34.

Scientists have yet to solve the puzzle. Some point to the resveratrol in red wine as one possibility; a more likely reason, say a growing number of experts, is that we were wrong—or at least partially wrong—to condemn saturated fat as a primary cause of heart disease. A small new study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggests yet another delicious possibility: cheese.

More research is needed, but in this paper—funded in part by Arla Foods (a Danish food company that produces dairy products) and the Danish Dairy Research Foundation—Danish scientists analyzed data from 15 healthy young men who ate three diets for two weeks. All of the diets had the same amount of calories and fat, but one was rich in 1.5% fat milk, another required eating 1.7 grams of cow cheese per day, and there was a third control diet. The researchers analyzed the men’s urine and feces to figure out how dairy is metabolized and what effect it had on markers of blood cholesterol levels.

When people gorged on dairy products—but especially cheese—their microflora seemed to change. In their feces, researchers saw some metabolites that they know are related to the metabolism of the microflora: short-chain fatty acids like butyrate and propionate both appeared at increased concentrations compared to the control diet. They also had lower levels than the control group of TMAO, a metabolite produced when the body metabolizes choline, which is found in many animal-derived foods, especially red meat. (Lower levels seem to be a good thing; other research has shown that TMAO may help transport cholesterol to the arteries and predicts mortality rates.)

The findings suggest that cheese and milk might help modify the gut bacteria to decrease production of TMAO, the authors write. “I was surprised,” says study co-author Morten Rahr Clausen, a postdoc in the department of food science at Aarhus University in Denmark. “I didn’t expect to find anything in the cheese that would change the microflora.

Continued in article




A Bit of Humor

Harvard Business Review cartoons are usually not all that clever. But the April 13, 2015 cartoons are quite good, especially the first one --- Click Here
https://hbr.org/2015/04/strategic-humor-cartoons-from-the-may-2015-issue?utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date&cm_lm=rjensen%40trinity.edu&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&referral=00563&cm_ven=Spop-Email&cm_ite=DailyAlert-041415+%281%29

Apparently No One Noticed What This Woman Was Staring at When They Chose Her for Their Label ---
http://magazine.good.is/articles/pasta-jar-accidentally-highlights-the-importance-of-art-history-knowledge

She's Ready (Hillary Dances) --- Click here: 2008

 




Humor Between March 1-31, 2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q1.htm#Humor033115

Humor Between February 1-28, 2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q1.htm#Humor022815

Humor Between January 1-31, 2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q1.htm#Humor013115

Humor Between December 1-31, 2014 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q4.htm#Humor123114

Humor Between November 1-30, 2014 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q4.htm#Humor113014

Humor Between October 1-31, 2014 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q4.htm#Humor103114

Humor Between September 1-30, 2014 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q3.htm#Humor093014

Humor Between August 1-31, 2014 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q3.htm#Humor083114

Humor Between July 1-31, 2014--- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q3.htm#Humor073114

Humor Between June 1-31, 2014 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book14q2.htm#Humor063014

Humor Between May 1-31, 2014, 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

 




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

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