Tidbits on July 14, 2015
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Wes Lavin's Panoramic Pictures of Bob Jensen's Flower Gardens in 2015
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/2015June/Set02Panoramic/2015Panorama.htm

 

Tidbits on July 14, 2015
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

Video:  Our unhealthy obsession with choice --- http://www.ted.com/talks/renata_salecl_our_unhealthy_obsession_with_choice

The Declaration of Independence Read by Thespians: Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Renee Zellweger & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/the-declaration-of-independence-read-by-thespians-morgan-freeman-kevin-spacey-renee-zellweger-more.html

Video:  New 300 ppi version -- Amazon Kindle Paperwhite ---
http://lisnews.org/new_300_ppi_version_amazon_kindle_paperwhite

The 11 biggest box-office bombs of 2015 so far ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-box-office-bombs-2015-first-half-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3fbmc6bit

 

Beautiful Things Going Unnoticed in the Back Yard ---  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQiszdkOwuU&hd=1&feature=iv&src_vid=xHkq1edcbk4&annotation_id=annotation_631148


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

Misty Copeland named first black female principal at ABT---
http://news.yahoo.com/misty-copeland-named-first-black-female-principal-abt-162920709.html

With Medieval Instruments, Band Performs Classic Songs by Deep Purple, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica & The Beatles ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/with-medieval-instruments-band-performs-classic-songs-by-deep-purple-red-hot-chili-peppers-metallica-the-beatles.html

Two Documentaries Introduce Delia Derbyshire, the Pioneer in Electronic Music ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/two-documentaries-introduce-delia-derbyshire-the-pioneer-in-electronic-music.html

Musicked Down the Mountain: How Oliver Sacks Saved His Own Life by Literature and Song ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/09/oliver-sacks-a-leg-to-stand-on/?mc_cid=1d542944af&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Lost in the 50s:  The Way it Was --- http://safeshare.tv/w/FEDEwZHZXu 

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

Pandora (my favorite online music station) --- www.pandora.com
TheRadio
(online music site) --- http://www.theradio.com/
Slacker (my second-favorite commercial-free online music site) --- http://www.slacker.com/

Gerald Trites likes this international radio site --- http://www.e-radio.gr/
Songza:  Search for a song or band and play the selection --- http://songza.com/
Also try Jango --- http://www.jango.com/?r=342376581
Sometimes this old guy prefers the jukebox era (just let it play through) --- http://www.tropicalglen.com/
And I listen quite often to Soldiers Radio Live --- http://www.army.mil/fieldband/pages/listening/bandstand.html
Also note
U.S. Army Band recordings --- http://bands.army.mil/music/default.asp

Bob Jensen's threads on nearly all types of free music selections online ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm


Photographs and Art

See an Unprecedented Close-Up of Pluto's Surface ---
http://time.com/3954477/nasa-pluto-new-horizons-planet/?xid=newsletter-brief

178 Beautifully-Illustrated Letters from Artists: Kahlo, Calder, Man Ray & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/178-beautifully-illustrated-letters-from-artists.html

18 rare color photographs of the Russian Empire from over 100 years ago ---
 http://www.businessinsider.com/vintage-color-photos-of-the-russian-empire-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3fOlB5QBm

14 incredibly preserved historic villages and towns around the world --- 
http://www.businessinsider.com/unesco-historic-villages-and-towns-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3fVtTqv79

28 stunning aerial photos that will change the way you see the world ---
 http://www.businessinsider.com/aerial-photos-from-daily-overview-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3fVv65Du6

This stunning combat art reveals what aerial warfare was like during World War II ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-stunning-combat-art-reveals-what-aerial-warfare-was-like-during-world-war-ii-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3fVwbIP00

See Venice in Beautiful Color Images 125 Years Ago: The Rialto Bridge, St. Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/venice-in-beautiful-color-images-125-years-ago.html

Artist Turns 24-Volume Encyclopedia Britannica Set into a Beautifully Carved Landscape ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/artist-turns-24-volume-encyclopedia-britannica-set-into-a-beautifully-carved-landscape.html

18 NOPE Travel Adventures 17 Most Unique Homes From Around The World ---
http://www.swifty.com/lifestyle/15681/17-most-unique-homes-from-around-the-world#slide/0 

2,200 Radical Political Posters Digitized: A New Archive ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/2200-radical-political-posters-digitized-a-new-archive.html

There's an algorithm that can see whether a photo has been faked ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/verifeyed-czech-tech-startup-detects-fake-and-manipulated-images-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3elEzI5sM

25 Years of Hubble --- https://webcast.stsci.edu/webcast/detail.xhtml?talkid=4418&parent=1

The world's largest megacity already has more people than Canada, Argentina, or Australia ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-mega-city-has-more-people-than-canada-argentina-or-australia-2015-7#ixzz3fKIHYzWe

The Art of Restoring a 400-Year-Old Painting: A Five-Minute Primer ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/the-art-of-restoring-a-400-year-old-painting-a-five-minute-primer.html

Mr. Gauguin's Heart: The Beautiful and Bittersweet True Story of How Paul Gauguin Became an Artist ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/08/mr-gauguins-heart/?mc_cid=0bae3fff91&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

20 raw images from the streets of New York ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/photographer-andre-wagner-documents-the-streets-of-new-york-2015-7

23 incredible photos of fjords that will make you want to travel to Norway ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/pictures-of-norwegian-fjords-2015-6?op=1#ixzz3fbpZshAr

National Geographic: Atlas Explorer --- http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/map/atlas

National Geographic: Maps --- http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/maps

Crow riding on top of a bald eagle ---
http://www.grindtv.com/wildlife/rare-photo-shows-crow-riding-atop-a-flying-bald-eagle/#js4TX0XvQRJyBwo4.97
Jensen Comment
A golden eagle once landed exhausted in our front yard after being dived bombed in the air by five crows. The eagle rested for 20 minutes with its backside protected by the huge rock alongside my well head. The crows did not both the eagle when it was on the ground, but continued their aerial attack when it took off again toward the mountains.

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

New Archive Offers Free Access to 22,000 Literary Documents From Great British & American Writers ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/new-archive-offers-free-access-to-22000-literary-documents-from-great-british-american-writers.html

The Millions (essays, etc.) --- http://www.themillions.com

Slate's Audio Book Club ---  http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_audio_book_club.html

Amanda Palmer Reads Polish Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska’s Poem “Life While-You-Wait” ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/02/amanda-palmer-reads-wislawa-szymborska/?mc_cid=2e1e781938&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Mr. Gauguin's Heart: The Beautiful and Bittersweet True Story of How Paul Gauguin Became an Artist ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/08/mr-gauguins-heart/?mc_cid=0bae3fff91&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

The Invention of Clouds: Goethe's Poems for the Skies and His Heartfelt Homage to the Young Scientist Who Classified Clouds ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/07/the-invention-of-clouds-luke-howard-hamblyn/?mc_cid=0bae3fff91&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

The Magic Box: A Whimsical Vintage Children’s Book for Grownups About Life, Death, and How To Be More Alive Every Day ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/02/the-magic-box-pintauro-laliberte/?mc_cid=2e1e781938&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

The 321 Books in David Foster Wallace’s Personal Library: From Blood Meridian to Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/the-321-books-in-david-foster-wallaces-personal-library.html

Free Electronic Literature --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI




Now in Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on July 14, 2015
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2015/TidbitsQuotations071415.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




Free TechSmith Smart Player for Office --- https://www.techsmith.com/techsmith-smart-player-for-office.html
Thank you Richard Campbell for the heads up

With TechSmith Smart Player for Office, you can seamlessly integrate interactive content made with TechSmith products like Camtasia and Snagit into your PowerPoint and Excel documents right from OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online. To truly make your content measurable and collaborative, you can also add quiz and survey questions at any point in your video to make your content a two way communication tool.

Then use our preview version of TechSmith Results to see your quiz and survey results and measure how well your message is received. Instead of back and forth questions via email and meetings, clarify document expectations or instructions with visual communication.

Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm


Why Siri sucked — and what's coming next --- http://www.businessinsider.com/why-siri-sucked-2015-7#ixzz3fbnQ0RoH

. . .

But Siri has improved considerably since its early days to better match Google Now. Siri can now identify songs playing nearby, give you sports scores, movie times, and stock comparisons. It can find songs and albums in Apple Music, find nearby restaurants and book reservations, tell you haiku and stories, and find apps in the App Store for you.

As for the next evolution of Siri, Apple wants you to search less and have more information find you instead. Soon, Siri will suggest applications to use based on your habits, so if you like listening to music in the morning, or playing Candy Crush, Siri will show you an icon in the bottom of your screen to quickly activate those apps.

You'll be able to use Siri to search within applications as well. So if you're looking for a specific lasagna recipe, Siri can point you to relevant content within the various apps on your phone, and also give you direct links to the web, with easy back-links, too.

. . .

Microsoft has Cortana, and Google has Google Now, which is better than Siri at listening and comprehension. Google's new product called "Now On Tap" can read anything on your phone's screen and instantly show you more information about what you're looking at.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-siri-sucked-2015-7#ixzz3fbnnKjlT

 


Kurtosis --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurtosis

W. S. Gosset (Student) provided this useful aid to help us remember the difference between platykurtic and leptokurtic distributions ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/07/student-on-kurtosis.html


Parallel Computing --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_computing

From Econometrics Beat by David Gilles on July 8, 2015 ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/07/parallel-computing-for-data-science.html

Parallel Computing for Data Science

http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/07/parallel-computing-for-data-science.html
Hot off the press, Norman Matloff's bookParallel Computing for Data Science: With Examples in R, C++ and CUDA  (Chapman and Hall/ CRC Press, 2015) should appeal to a lot of the readers of this blog.
 
The book's coverage is clear from the following chapter titles:

1. Introduction to Parallel Processing in R
2. Performance Issues: General
3. Principles of Parallel Loop Scheduling
4. The Message Passing Paradigm
5. The Shared Memory Paradigm
6. Parallelism through Accelerator Chips
7. An Inherently Statistical Approach to Parallelization: Subset Methods
8. Distributed Computation
9. Parallel Sorting, Filtering and Prefix Scan
10. Parallel Linear Algebra
Appendix - Review of Matrix Algebra 

Question
How can you present a question about econometrics or statistics in general to an expert?

Answer
New Forum from David Gilles, Econometrics Beat ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/06/readers-forum-page.html

Jensen Comment
Can you imagine that accountics scientists might set up a similar forum for questions about the mathematical models that appear in virtually all articles in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, The British Accounting Review, Abacus, etc.?

I cannot imagine such a forum since there is not one accountics scientist in the world even willing to manage a blog?

The AAA Commons is a perfect place for an accountics science forum ---
http://commons.aaahq.org/pages/home
But the Commons never caught on with accountics scientists
http://commons.aaahq.org/search?find=Lease

How Accountics Scientists Should Change: 
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm

Jensen Question
Is it the Commons blocking just me or are there other members of the AAA who cannot sign into the Commons by clicking on "Sign in" at
http://commons.aaahq.org/pages/home


The sad state of the Firefox browser and its recovery efforts
Rust Never Sleeps: How Mozilla Could Become Cool Again ---
http://readwrite.com/2015/07/02/mozilla-rust-programming-language-potential

Jensen Comment
I use Firefox as my primary browser, but there are problems on my system. For me, Firefox has never worked well for Flash videos. When I encounter a Flash video I want to watch I copy the URL and open up Chrome. Even worse Firefox crashes more often with a simple recovery button that pops up like Mozilla knows that recent crashings are a problem.


Artificial Intelligence --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence

Deep Learning --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_learning

"IBM is combining different AI techniques, including deep learning, in the commercial version of Watson," by Will Knight, MIT's Technology Review, July 9, 2015 --- Click Here
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539226/ibm-pushes-deep-learning-with-a-watson-upgrade/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150710


Leslie’s Law shows how startups can own their markets.
"In Technology, Small Fish (Almost Always) Eat Big Fish (Like IBM)," by Mark Leslie, Stanford Graduate School of Business, July 8, 2015 ---
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/technology-small-fish-almost-always-eat-big-fish

For decades it was inconceivable that anyone could compete against IBM’s absolute dominance of the computing industry. It owned 65% of the market, with the rest divvied up between what were then known as the “BUNCH” companies — Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell. They each had their own proprietary hardware and software stacks and kept to themselves. Everyone was fat, dumb, and happy.

They were so happy, in fact, that they didn’t even blink when, in 1959, Digital Equipment developed and delivered the PDP-1 — a new breed of mini-computer with standard memory of 4K, 18 bit words, and a 200K clock speed. At the time, this seemed trivial compared to an IBM mainframe. But 30 years later, Digital Equipment had annual revenue topping $14 billion and had given birth to a new industry, seeding companies like HP, Data General, Prime, Varian and a host of others.

Coinciding with the shift in hardware, the UNIX operating system — developed by AT&T in the late 1960s and early 70s — entered the mix, eating away more of IBM’s domain and opening the door to microprocessor-based systems hosting UNIX, such as those from Sun Microsystems, which became the primary computing platform of the 1990s.

By the end of the decade, these companies had vanquished king IBM, relegating it to its shrinking yet still profitable mainframe business. For the last half of the 20th century, it was almost impossible to find any business or industry article on the IT industry that didn’t mention IBM. Now you’d be hard-pressed to find any article mentioning them at all — except to describe their descent.

Eventually, and inevitably, these “small” entrants eat their way up the food chain into the market, capturing a larger and larger share, until the behemoths of the sector are forced to retreat back into a narrowing market niche.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The article leaves many unanswered questions like how Apple became and still is the largest cash cow in the world. When will the small parasites shrivel the Apple? True, Apple never was and still is not a dominant player in terms of computers and operating systems. But it is certainly king of the hill in mobile phones and emerging products like music players and television.

Microsoft is an other unanswered question. While Apple garners all the headlines Microsoft's generations of new Windows operating systems are still dominant in terms of operating system cash cows. The next test will be Windows 10 that from all accounts will be another winner standing out among the loser products  that Microsoft introduced other than Windows and MS Office.

Windows certainly is not a winner in terms of quality and reliability and hacking security. Computer scientists generally despise Windows. But Bill Gates' marketing strategy made the world's organizations (homes, businesses, government agencies, etc.) so familiar with Windows applications that no other software has toppled its dominance in the PC market place. For example, accountants worldwide virtually  all prefer Excel to other spreadsheet startups. Computer users in general do not want to relearn their sometimes fabulous skills in using Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.

My point is that small entrants (fish) don't always do so well when their products require enormous re-training time and costs in homes, businesses, government agencies, etc. Startups  do better when training is relatively simple like learning to use a mobile phone or Netflix relative to learning to word process and graphing creatively in Excel.

Microsoft and Apple remain viable. But stagnation and decay certainly has taken its toll on giants like IBM, AT&T, Motorola, HP, Nokia, Blackberry, etc.


Moodle Unveils Free Cloud Hosting for Educators ---
http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/07/06/moodle-launches-free-cloud-hosting-for-educators.aspx


Why Economics is Not a Science:  When Bad Politics = Smart Economics

"Does Jeb Bush Understand Economics?
 
No says Kurt Eichenwald, Newsweek, July 10, 2015 ---
http://www.newsweek.com/jeb-bush-its-stupid-economy-352232

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush set off a firestorm this week by appearing to say in a newspaper interview that Americans should work longer hours. Democrats pounced, even as the Bush campaign said his comments were taken out of context.

But everyone is missing the real story. Whether Bush’s comment was a criticism of American workers or a lament about a weakened job market, his words demonstrated such a lack of knowledge of economics that it’s virtually impossible to understand what was the context of his words.

Bush’s full statement was: “My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4% growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families.”

Continued in article

 

Yes Says Ben Casselman
Nate Silver's Blog 5:38 Blog, July 9, 2015
Jeb Bush Was Right: Americans Need To Work Longer Hours
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/jeb-bush-was-right-americans-need-to-work-longer-hours/

.  .  .

But rather than focusing just on one controversial phrase, it’s worth looking at Bush’s whole statement. Bush is highlighting one of the most basic formulas in macroeconomics: In its most simplified form, a country’s economic output is the product of its number of workers times how many hours they work times how much they can produce in an hour. If you want the economy to grow faster, you have to get at least one of those three factors — workers, hours or productivity — to accelerate.

Right now, as Bush says, the U.S. is struggling in all three areas. Start with the number of workers: Labor force participation — the share of the adult population that’s working or actively looking for work — has been falling for 15 years and is at its lowest level since 1977.

The drop in labor force participation is being driven in significant part by a demographic trend that’s beyond the control of any president: The retirement of the baby-boom generation. But as I’ve discussed at greater length in the past, aging boomers can’t explain the entire decline. Even among Americans in their prime working years, participation is declining, for reasons that remain hotly debated by economists.

On hours — the issue that got Bush in trouble — the story is a bit more complicated. The length of the average workweek dropped sharply during the recession but has since rebounded. Over the longer term, working hours have fallen since the 1970s but have held fairly steady over the past 15 years at a bit more than 34 hours a week. (Pre-2006 data is available only for nonmanagers.) Those numbers are based on data from employers; workers themselves report longer hours, but surveys show the same steady trend.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
If Bush is correct then one naive conclusion is that the USA should open its borders to tens of millions of more hard working immigrants so that the USA can be more productive without having our existing workers work more hours.

But there's a huge difference between between long-term versus short term labor economics in the era of robotics. Over the long term there's little doubt that technology (think ever more "intelligent" robots) will be causing longer unemployment lines at nearly all skill levels. Having more workers in the USA will eventually translate into longer unemployment lines due to capital (e.g., for robots) replacing labor. And robots do not need such benefits as health insurance for themselves and their families, retirement contributions, free college tuition, subsidized child care, subsidized union dues, etc. And robots don't go on strike for higher pay and sue for billions fraudulently for back aches and mental distress.

A related  problem with economics is that what seems to be true in some instances turns up false in other instances
"Get a life," The Economist, September 24, 2015 ---
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/09/working-hours

.  .  .

Some research shows that higher pay does not, on net, lead workers to do more. Rather, they may work less. A famous study by Colin Camerer and colleagues, which looked at taxi drivers, reached a controversial conclusion. The authors suggested that taxi drivers had a daily income "target", and that:

When wages are high, drivers will reach their target more quickly and quit early; on low-wage days they will drive longer hours to reach the target.

Continued in article


"Student Loans May Be Driving the Tuition Explosion," by Janet Loren, Bloomberg, July 9, 2015 ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-09/why-is-college-tuition-rising-blame-student-loans-fed-says?cmpid=BBD070915_BIZ

The surging cost of U.S. college tuition has an unlikely culprit: the generosity of the government’s student-aid program, a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said.

Increases in federal loans, meant to help students cope with rising costs, are quickly eaten up by schools in higher prices, wrote David O. Lucca, Karen Shen and Taylor Nadauld.

Private colleges raise their tuition 65 cents for every dollar increase in federal subsidized loans and 55 cents for Pell grants given to low-income students, according to the report. College tuition has outstripped U.S. inflation for decades.

 

“The subsidized loan effect on tuition is most pronounced for expensive, private institutions that are somewhat, but not among the most, selective,” they wrote in a paper released this month.

The premise, raised in 1987 by former Education Secretary William Bennett, is more pronounced today as the sticker price of college has increased to $65,000 annually at some private schools. About two-thirds of undergraduates take out loans to fund their education. Outstanding student debt is now more than $1.36 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank. Government loans account for the bulk, almost $1.2 trillion.

The government has made significant changes to the loan program since it began in 1965, such as giving parents access to federal loans and increasing annual borrowing limits for undergraduates.

Students took out $120 billion in education loans in 2012, up from $53 billion in 2001, with 90 percent of the borrowings backed by the government, according to the paper.

Tuition rose 46 percent in the period on average, “resembling the twin house price and mortgage balance booms,” Lucca and Shen of the Federal Reserve and Nadauld of Brigham Young University, said in the report.

Continued in article

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


Collateral --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_%28finance%29

The CFO, eventual felon Andy Fastow, of Enron had over 3,000 SPEs doing the same thing --- using Enron's stock as collateral for Enron's loans
That's a bit like putting on a few more pounds so you can borrow more money using  more of yourself as collateral.
The USA courts banned corporations from using their own stock as collateral or otherwise profiting from their own stock following the great railroad frauds of the 1800s.
When the price of Enron's shares crashed so did Andy's SPEs for which there were lousy accounting rules before the Enron implosion ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/speOverview.htm

"This Is Why So Many Chinese Companies Are Suspended," by Tracey Alloway, Bloomberg Business, July 8, 2015 ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-08/this-is-why-so-many-chinese-companies-are-suspended?cmpid=BBD070815_BIZ

At least 1,331 companies have halted trading on China's mainland exchanges, freezing $2.6 trillion of shares, or about 40 percent of the country’s market value, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 5.9 percent on Wednesday. It's now about 32 percent below the peak of 5,166 it reached on June 12. The unwinding of margin loans is adding fuel to the fire. Individual investors in China, as we all know by now, have used generous margin financing terms to enter the stock market and then build up their portfolios. Less-known is that Chinese companies have been doing the same thing by using their own corporate stock to secure loans from banks.

This means that they stand to lose a lot when those share prices start trending dramatically lower.

Continued in article

The Enron Fraud Was Much More Complicated Than the Above Chinese Corporate Frauds
Testimony of Frank Partnoy
Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Hearings before the United States Senate
Committee on Governmental Affairs, January 24, 2002
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraudEnron.htm

. . .

The critical piece of this puzzle, the element that made it all work, was a derivatives transaction – called a “price swap derivative” – between Enron and Raptor.  In this price swap, Enron committed to give stock to Raptor if Raptor’s assets declined in value.  The more Raptor’s assets declined, the more of its own stock Enron was required to post.  Because Enron had committed to maintain Raptor’s value at $1.2 billion, if Enron’s stock declined in value, Enron would need to give Raptor even more stock.  This derivatives transaction carried the risk of diluting the ownership of Enron’s shareholders if either Enron’s stock or the technology stocks Raptor held declined in price.  Enron also apparently entered into options transactions with Raptor and/or LJM1.

                Because the securities Raptor issued were backed by Enron’s promise to deliver more shares, investors in Raptor essentially were buying Enron’s debt, not the stock of a start-up telecommunications company.  In fact, the performance of Rhythms Net Connections was irrelevant to these investors in Raptor.  Enron got the best of both worlds in accounting terms: it recognized its gain on the technology stocks by recognizing the value of the Raptor loan right away, and it avoided recognizing on an interim basis any future losses on the technology stocks, were such losses to occur.

                It is painfully obvious how this story ends: the dot.com bubble burst and by 2001 shares of Rhythms Net Communications were worthless.  Enron had to deliver more shares to “make whole” the investors in Raptor and other similar deals.  In all, Enron had derivative instruments on 54.8 million shares of Enron common stock at an average price of $67.92 per share, or $3.7 billion in all.  In other words, at the start of these deals, Enron’s obligation amounted to seven percent of all of its outstanding shares.  As Enron’s share price declined, that obligation increased and Enron’s shareholders were substantially diluted.  And here is the key point: even as Raptor’s assets and Enron’s shares declined in value, Enron did not reflect those declines in its quarterly financial statements.

                B.                Using Derivatives to Hide Debts Incurred by Unprofitable Businesses
                A second example involved Enron using derivatives with two special purpose entities to hide huge debts incurred to finance unprofitable new businesses.  Essentially, some very complicated and unclear accounting rules allowed Enron to avoid disclosing certain assets and liabilities.

                These two special purpose entities were Joint Energy Development Investments Limited Partnership (JEDI) and Chewco Investments, L.P. (Chewco).  Enron owned only 50 percent of JEDI, and therefore – under applicable accounting rules – could (and did) report JEDI as an unconsolidated equity affiliate.  If Enron had owned 51 percent of JEDI, accounting rules would have required Enron to include all of JEDI’s financial results in its financial statements.  But at 50 percent, Enron did not.

                JEDI, in turn, was subject to the same rules.  JEDI could issue equity and debt securities, and as long as there was an outside investor with at least 50 percent of the equity – in other words, with real economic exposure to the risks of Chewco – JEDI would not need to consolidate Chewco.

                One way to minimize the applicability of this “50 percent rule” would be for a company to create a special purpose entity with mostly debt and only a tiny sliver of equity, say $1 worth, for which the company easily could find an outside investor.  Such a transaction would be an obvious sham, and one might expect to find a pronouncement by the accounting regulators that it would not conform to Generally Acceptable Accounting Principles.  Unfortunately, there are no such accounting regulators, and there was no such pronouncement.  The Financial Accounting Standards Board, a private entity that sets most accounting rules and advises the Securities and Exchange Commission, had not – and still has not – answered the key accounting question: what constitutes sufficient capital from an independent source, so that a special purpose entity need not be consolidated?

Since 1982, Financial Accounting Standard No. 57, Related Party Disclosures, has contained a general requirement that
companies disclose the nature of relationships they have with related parties, and describe transactions with them.  Accountants might debate whether Enron’s impenetrable footnote disclosure satisfies FAS No. 57, but clearly the disclosures currently made are not optimal.  Members of the SEC staff have been urging the FASB to revise No. 57, but it has not responded.  In 1998, FASB adopted FAS No. 133, which includes new accounting rules for derivatives.  Now at 800-plus pages, FAS No. 133’s instructions are an incredibly detailed – but ultimately unhelpful – attempt to rationalize other accounting rules for derivatives.

                As a result, even after two decades, there is no clear answer to the question about related parties.  Instead, some early guidance (developed in the context of leases) has been grafted onto modern special purpose entities.  This guidance is a 1991 letter from the
Acting Chief Accountant of the SEC in 1991, stating: “The initial substantive residual equity investment should be comparable to that expected for a substantive business involved in similar [leasing] transactions with similar risks and rewards.  The SEC staff understands from discussions with Working Group members that those members believe that 3 percent is the minimum acceptable investment.  The SEC staff believes a greater investment may be necessary depending on the facts and circumstances, including the credit risk associated with the lessee and the market risk factors associated with the leased property.” 

Based on this letter, and on opinions from auditors and lawyers, companies have been pushing debt off their balance sheets into unconsolidated special purpose entities so long as (1) the company does not have more than 50 percent of the equity of the special purpose entity, and (2) the equity of the special purpose entity is at least 3 percent of its the total capital.  As more companies have done such deals, more debt has moved off balance-sheet, to the point that, today, it is difficult for investors to know if they have an accurate picture of a company’s debts.  Even if Enron had not tripped up and violated the letter of these rules, it still would have been able to borrow 97 percent of the capital of its special purpose entities without recognizing those debts on its balance sheet. 

Transactions designed to exploit these accounting rules have polluted the financial statements of many U.S. companies.  Enron is not alone.  For example, Kmart Corporation – which was on the verge of bankruptcy as of January 21, 2002, and clearly was affected by Enron’s collapse – held 49 percent interests in several unconsolidated equity affiliates.  I believe this Committee should take a hard look at these widespread practices.

                In short, derivatives enabled Enron to avoid consolidating these special purpose entities.  Enron entered into a derivatives transaction with Chewco similar to the one it entered into with Raptor, effectively guaranteeing repayment to Chewco’s outside investor.  (The investor’s sliver of equity ownership in Chewco was not really equity from an economic perspective, because the investor had nothing – other than Enron’s credit – at risk.)  In its financial statements, Enron takes the position that although it provides guarantees to unconsolidated subsidiaries, those guarantees do not have a readily determinable fair value, and management does not consider it likely that Enron would be required to perform or otherwise incur losses associated with guarantees.  That position enabled Enron to avoid recording its guarantees.  Even the guarantees listed in the footnotes are recorded at only 10 percent of their nominal value.  (At least this amount is closer to the truth than the amount listed as debt for unconsolidated subsidiaries: zero.)

                Apparently, Arthur Andersen either did not discover this derivatives transaction or decided that the transaction did not require a finding that Enron controlled Chewco.  In any event, the Enron derivatives transaction meant that Enron – not the 50 percent “investor” in Chewco – had the real exposure to Chewco’s assets.  The ownership daisy chain unraveled once Enron was deemed to own Chewco.  JEDI was forced to consolidate Chewco, and Enron was forced to consolidate both limited partnerships – and all of their losses – in its financial statements.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on the Enron and WorldCom sagas ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraudEnron.htm


Faking Credentials
Another Cherokee Wannabee That Brings Back Memories of Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HypocrisyChurchill.htm

 "Fake Cherokee?" by Scott Jaschik, Inside HIgher Ed, July 6, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/07/06/scholar-who-has-made-name-cherokee-accused-not-having-native-american-roots

When the scandal broke last month over Rachel Dolezal, the Spokane, Wash., NAACP leader and adjunct instructor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University who apparently faked being African-American, there was widespread discussion in academe. But Dolezal was not a major player in African-American studies.

The focus on Dolezal has renewed scrutiny of Andrea Smith, associate professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside, who is being accused of faking a Cherokee heritage that many say she lacks. Smith, unlike Dolezal, is a prominent scholar. Her books are considered significant in Native American studies, and her writing and public appearances have routinely included references to her having Cherokee roots.

Smith's ethnicity also played a role in a tenure dispute. In 2008, the women's studies department at the University of Michigan (one of two departments in which Smith worked) voted against Smith's tenure bid there, but the American culture program (the other department in which she worked) backed the bid. Lack of backing from both divisions doomed her chances. In the ensuing protest, graduate students and others who supported Smith accused the women's studies program of abandoning a talented minority scholar. Some say that Smith has since admitted to not being Cherokee (while the record on that is in dispute). But when her job was threatened, she allowed her defenders to point to her Cherokee status as a reason Michigan should have promoted her.

Continued in article


"When College Is Free, or Free(ish)," by Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 8, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/When-College-Is-Free-or/231421/

The "free college" idea is back in the headlines. Last week Oregon lawmakers passed legislation similar to Tennessee’s to make community college free. And on Wednesday in the U.S. Congress, several Democratic lawmakers and the U.S. secretary of education, Arne Duncan, are expected to unveil the America’s College Promise Act of 2015, a federal proposal to make two years of community college free.

But actually those are just a few of the ways students can attend college free, or at little cost — call it "Free(ish) College." Although those free(ish) paths still account for just a small proportion of American college students, the paths are growing bigger by the day.

. . .

Those developments aren’t all universally welcomed, particularly when promoted as part of the so-called DIY College movement. The Association of American Colleges and Universities, among others, maintains that higher education — including lower-level, general-education curricula — shouldn’t just be a hodgepodge of MOOCs, free courses, and low-cost community-college classes that students cobble together.

Mindful of that concern, many providers of those courses say they see themselves as a partial alternative to college, not a replacement.

Here are some of the most prominent free and free(ish) options:

University of the People

This all-online institution calls itself the world’s first nonprofit, tuition-free university "dedicated to opening the gates to higher education for all individuals." The university, which opened in 2009, now enrolls about 2,000 students, who pay nothing to attend, $50 to apply, and just $100 per course for an end-of-year examination, if they have the money.

Continued in article

"Bernie Sanders's Charming, Perfectly Awful Plan to Save Higher Education," by Kevin Carey, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 6, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Bernie-Sanderss-Charming/231387/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist senator, Internet hero, and apparent front-runner in the race for second place in the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign, has ideas about higher-education reform. Like the man himself, they are bold, charmingly utopian, kind of weird, and most important for how they might eventually move the boundaries of mainstream political culture.

Sanders wants every student in America to be able to attend a public college or university without paying tuition. Legislation he proposed to that effect a few weeks ago includes a reasonably plausible mechanism of multibillion-dollar federal subsidies and new regulation of state spending. The current Congress, it is safe to say, will not soon be passing such a bill.

But in trying to define a new fiscal federalism for American higher education, Sanders has sparked a conversation that is likely to expand. Without something like the Sanders plan, the disgraceful dismantling of public higher education, underway in many states, will certainly continue.

Continued in article

Book Review
College or Not
By Chad Grills
Price on Amazon:  $6.95 or Free on Kindle,
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/aaronbandler/2015/07/05/book-review-college-or-not-n2019237?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=


Video:  New 300 ppi version -- Amazon Kindle Paperwhite ---
http://lisnews.org/new_300_ppi_version_amazon_kindle_paperwhite


The History of Economics & Economic Theory Explained with Comics, Starting with Adam Smith ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/the-history-of-economics-economic-theory-explained-with-comics.html
This is not a free download ---
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810988399/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0810988399&linkCode=as2&tag=openculture-20

. . .

The book covers two (plus) centuries of economic history. It starts with the Physiocrats, Adam Smith and theoretical development of capitalism, and then steams ahead into the 19th century, covering the Industrial Revolution, the rise of big business and big finance. Next comes the action packed 20th century: the Great Depression, the New Deal, the threat from Communism during the Cold War, the tax reforms of the Reagan era, and eventually the crash of 2008 and Occupy Wall Street. Along the way, Goodwin and the illustrator Dan E. Burr demystify the economic theories of figures like Ricardo, Marx, Malthus, Keynes, Friedman and Hayek — all in a substantive but approachable way.

As with most treatments of modern economics, the book starts with Adam Smith. To get a feel for Goodwin’s approach, you can dive into the first chapter of Economix, which grapples with Smith’s theories about the free market, division of labor and the Invisible Hand. Economix can be purchased online here.

Related Content:

An Introduction to Great Economists — Adam Smith, the Physiocrats & More — Presented in a Free Online Course

60-Second Adventures in Economics: An Animated Intro to The Invisible Hand and Other Economic Ideas

Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey (Free Course)

Jensen Comment
I ordered a used copy of this book from Amazon. This book is a most interesting way to learn the history of economics succinctly.

One surprise is that the book has a relatively good index. Another surprise is that the book has some small sections on my special interest --- derivative financial instruments and hedging, although these play a miniscule role in the comic book.

A few interesting quotations are shown below:

Page 17and Page 19
Enter Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), who became the finance minister of France in 1665. He thought money was wealth, end of story. ... French thinking on economics change. Maybe wealth wasn't a stockpile of silver like Colbert thought. Maybe wealth circulated, like blood circulates throughout a body. Laws, regulations, tariffs, subsidies, and so on would get in the way of that natural circulation.

Page 61
Marx's logic applied to the Ricardo model and we don't live in that model.
(Neither does Greece)

Page 22and Page 23
Bakers didn't work because some Bread Planner told them to, or because they were saints who wanted people to be well fed. They worked because it was good for them ... So in Smith's economy, competition kept everyone honest. Every baker --- saint or greedhead alike --- was led, "as if by an invisible hand," to sell bread at  fair price, high enough to pay for the baker costs and work, low enough that others didn't steal the customers.

Page 183
Way back in the 1920s, the Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) and Freederick Hayek (1899-1992) saw economic planning become political dictatorship in country after country. They saw that when people lose their economic liberty, they lose their political liberty. ... Haye especially was a formidable thinker; instead of assuming the market worked, which economists had be doing since Ricardo, Hayek looked to how it worked --- how interaction of small units (people) creates a complex intelligence (the market), which responds to shortages, changes in taste, or new technologies far better than any human planner can ("invisible brain" might be a better term than "invisible hand.") . . .  People who try to replace this brain with their own systems will fail, and in the process of failing, they'll do a lot of dmagbe.

Page 184
Like Hayek, Friedman stressed that concentrated power is  threat to freedom. But he didn't seem to see that power cn concentrate in more than one form.

Page 185
(Market failure) refers to how --- even textbook-perfect markets--- can give bad results. for instance, with externalities which are essentially side effects of economic transactions. Bad externalities are everywhere, because the people mking decisions aren't the ones getting hurt. (in mathematical models these externalities are sometimes called non-convexities).

Page 240
By the 1980s, the IMF was full of neoliberals. Strure adjustment came down to adopting neoliberalism. Structural adjustment was hard to refuse; The World Bank, private lenders, business, the US Treasury, even aid donors would all steer cler of a country that the IMF was unsound (say what?) Still, people hated structural adjustment, and the IMF knew it. So part of the program was protected democracy in which the economic program was protected from democracy.

Continued in a nice summary of Economix

Added Comment
If you want to learn more about controversial Keynesian economics you might start with this book.


From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on July 9, 2015

Corporate America could use more competition
http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-corporate-america-needs-competitive-spirit-1436384494?mod=djemCFO_h
A decline in competition as market power becomes concentrated in the hands of fewer companies is bad for innovation and consumers. But policy makers can reverse the trend, writes Greg Ip. The answer isn’t just tougher antitrust oversight, since mergers can be good for customers and innovation, but for policy makers to take into account how any new policy or rule helps or hurts new entrants to an industry.


"China’s Stock Plunge Is Scarier Than Greece:   There are four basic signs of a bubble, and the Chinese stock market is on the extreme end of all four," by Ruchir Sharma, The Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-stock-plunge-is-scarier-than-greecechinas-stock-plunge-is-scarier-than-greece-1436309780?tesla=y

. . .

When China’s economy slowed following the 2008 global financial crisis, Beijing pumped massive amounts of liquidity into the system. First that money went into the property market, later into the various debt-related products sold through the shadow banking system. But when property slumped and the shadow banks started to pose systemic risks, China had only one major market left to flood—stocks.

Funneling some of China’s $20 trillion in savings into stocks was a last-ditch effort to revive flagging economic growth by giving the country’s debt-laden companies a new source of financing. The aim was to trigger a slow and steady bull run, but the somnolent stock market exploded into one of the biggest bubbles in history.

There are four basic signs of a bubble: prices disconnected from underlying economic fundamentals, high levels of debt for stock purchases, overtrading by retail investors, and exorbitant valuations. The Chinese stock market is at the extreme end on all four metrics, which is rare.

The sharp equity rally took place despite sputtering economic growth and shrinking profits. By official count, margin debt on the Chinese stock market has tripled since June 2014. As a share of tradable stocks, margin debt is now nearly 9%, the highest in any market in history. At the leading brokerages, 80% of margin finance has been going to retail investors, many of them new and inexperienced.

Today China’s 90 million retail investors outnumber the 88 million members of its Communist Party. Two thirds of new investors lack a high school diploma. In rural villages, farmers have set up mini stock exchanges, and some say they spend more time trading than working in the fields.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
With all the headlines glaring at us readers often fail to realize that Greece is a relatively small nation with only 11 million people. That's less than half the population of Shanghai. China has a populace of nearly 1.5 billion people. Naturally almost every economic disaster in China will dwarf such disasters in other nations.


This article gives a very short  summary of each first-year course in the Harvard MBA Program

"The most mind-blowing things I learned in my first year at Harvard Business School," by Ellen Chisa, Business Insider, May 26, 2015 ---
https://medium.com/thelist/what-s-one-thing-you-ve-learned-at-harvard-business-school-that-blew-your-mind-fdea346a0422#ixzz3evdpK4Gw
For example, the Financial Reporting and Control (FRC) course is quoted below:

. . .

FRC: Create an Entrepreneurial Gap.

FRC is the “accounting” class at HBS. We did also learn accounting mechanics, but we also learned a lot about motivation and compensation.

My favorite was the idea of “span of accountability” — what an employee is responsible for vs. “span of control” — what the employee can dictate based on their job. For instance, a PM has a lot of accountability (shipping the product), but relatively little control (no direct reports).

When an employee has more accountability than control, this is considered an “entrepreneurial gap.” It’s typically created via an incentive system that encourages the employee to go beyond their span of control. The key thing is to get the incentive system right. What behaviors will it encourage? What levers can employees pull to move the metric?

Before I wanted to hire smart people and pay them “fairly.” Now I want to hire smart people, and give them an entrepreneurial gap with an incentive system that works well for them and for the company. It’s more fair that way.

Recommended Case: Nordstrom.


Read more:
https://medium.com/thelist/what-s-one-thing-you-ve-learned-at-harvard-business-school-that-blew-your-mind-fdea346a0422#ixzz3evdRnguD
 

 

Jensen Comment
Students usually do not go into a MBA program to become specialists like CPAs. MBA programs such as the Harvard MBA program do not offer enough specialty courses to sit for licensing examinations such as those in accounting, information technology, computer science, internal auditing, fraud examination, etc. MBA programs are very general, and the best two-year programs are designed for students who did not take business courses as undergraduates.

My point is that when studying things like accountancy at the HBS the curriculum ignores most of the gory technical details. Students do not go to the HBS to become professional accountants and accounting firms do not recruit accountants at prestigious MBA universities unless those universities also have other tracks for accounting majors such as the accounting major track at Cornell.

The prestigious Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania goes a lot further in open sharing where each MBA core course can be taken free (not for credit)  as a MOOC ---
https://www.coursera.org/specialization/whartonfoundations/38

Note that the following are not MOOCs since they are not free and enrollment is competitive
"Harvard Business School hopes to fundamentally change online education with its new $1,500 pre-MBA program," by Richard Feloni, Business Insider, February 27, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-business-school-hbx-1500-online-program-2015-2

This week, Harvard Business School launched an innovative new online education program to the public that it thinks is so far ahead of free online courses that it's worthy of a $1,500 price tag.

The 11-week pre-MBA program called CORe accepts about 500 students and is taught in the school's signature case-study method. The first official session started on Feb. 25, and applications are open for spring and summer sessions.

CORe is the flagship offering from HBS's new digital platform, HBX, which aims to become a full-fledged branch of the school rather than a place to dump video recordings of classroom lectures.

CORe is made up of three courses — economics for managers, business analytics, and financial accounting — and primarily targets young professionals with liberal arts backgrounds who aspire to rise to management or are considering getting an MBA.

Students who pass the program receive a certificate that carries the weight of one from HBS's executive education program.

HBX chair Bharat Anand tells Business Insider that most online course offerings are still in their infancy, where long video lectures posted alongside multiple choice questions is the norm.

Conversely, HBX CORe is built on a proprietary platform that uses the case-study technique that distinguishes HBS. "This has some very interesting and exciting potential for education," Anand says.

It started as a way to find an online tool to address the "non trivial" 20% to 30% of students accepted to HBS's MBA program who lacked the necessary background in "the language of business": accounting, economics, and data analysis. These students always had access to a two-week primer before matriculating in the fall, but Anand says the short time was insufficient for achieving a thorough understanding, and traveling to HBS's campus before the school year officially starts could be an inconvenience for many students.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-business-school-hbx-1500-online-program-2015-2#ixzz3T3D8uxau

 


From T.H.E. Journal's Resources
Network Readiness Guide for Schools (including a flipped classroom guide) --- Click Here
http://thejournal.com/whitepapers/2015/06/cisco-network-readiness-guide-062515.aspx?&pc=E5130E01&utm_source=webmktg&utm_medium=E-Mail&utm_campaign=E5130E01

Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm


Retraction Watch (cheating in research) --- http://retractionwatch.com

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


Retraction Watch (cheating in research) --- http://retractionwatch.com

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

Jim Hunton appears to have become the Scarlet Letter Professor of Accounting Research. Once a professor becomes known as a cheat his or her entire body of research may be retracted. To my knowledge no accounting researcher attempted to replicate Jim's research. It should be noted, however, that replication cannot prevent cheating in research. Fiction can, and sometimes is, repeated in real life.

The American Accounting Associated brought the total number of Jim's retractions up to 25 retractions to 25 plus a section of an article ---
http://aaahq.org/Portals/0/documents/Website-FinalListofRetractedArticles-6-25-15.pdf
A list of the retractions is provided.

It is extremely rare to detect an accounting professor who cheated.
Bob Jensen's threads on the Jim Hunton saga plus a listing of professors in other disciplines who cheated ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize

June 28, 2015 reply from Bob Jensen

I'm not sure how to formulate my question. What about the other authors on these retracted papers? It's difficult for me to believe that Hunton controlled all of this research in such a way that it's all suspect.

Thoughts?

Pat

June 28, reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Patricia,

In the first article retracted by TAR the co-author from Canada claimed she had no knowledge that the data collected by Jim was fabricated. Bentley did some investigation of this and found that, in this one case, the co-author appeared to be innocent. Jim kept may have kept his cheating secret from co-authors on other papers, although I'm suspicious that this may not have been the case in 27+ papers and counting. It's not clear, however, that there was even cheating in all retracted papers. It may be that some papers were retracted simply because they were tainted with Jim Hunton's name and cheating reputation.

We may never know unless Jim writes a tell-all article or book about his cheating history. If done well, the book could probably have some decent sales in the academic market. However, he could be vulnerable to lawsuits if he rats on co-authors.

Sometimes cheaters do tell all out of conscience, greed (book sales and speaker fees), or revenge. I watched the show "American Greed" last night about Ponzi felon (20 years in Club Fed) and big-time Miami Hurricanes booster Nevin Shapiro ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevin_Shapiro 

Apparently out of revenge Shapiro ratted on Miami's coaches, administrators, and players who were lured into luxurious partying, gambling, and sex by the high-living Nevin Shapiro.

My point is that sometimes those who get caught drag others down with them --- often out of revenge. Eight players did get kicked off Miami's team, but they were not part of his Ponzi fraud. Dragging them down seems to be low meanness even for a scumbag like Shapiro.

Bob Jensen

June 28, 2015 reply from Dan Stone

Regarding Bob's post about the most retracted scientists
"Here are the most-retracted scientists in the world, ranked," by Julia Belluz, Vox, June 25, 2015 ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/24/8834405/scientists-most-retractions

Jim Hunton is moving up this list with 25 American Accounting Association retractions. And I'm betting that we haven't seen the last of the retracted Hunton papers.

Here's the AAA list:

http://aaahq.org/Portals/0/documents/Website-FinalListofRetractedArticles-6-25-15.pdf  

I have written an essay about this episode:

Dan N. Stone (2015) Post-Hunton: Reclaiming Our Integrity and Literature. Journal of Information Systems, In-Press.

which is available to AIS section members of the AAA:
http://aaajournals.org/doi/10.2308/isys-51094 

Abstract
A Bentley University investigation of allegations of data fabrication by Jim Hunton concludes that, "...The whole body of Dr. Hunton's extensive research while a faculty member at Bentley University must now be considered suspect (Malone 2014 p. 5)." Jim served as President of the Information Systems (IS) section of the American Accounting Association (AAA) in 2002-2003 and is the most cited author in the Journal of Information Systems (JIS) (Guffey and Harp 2013). This essay is a personal reflection on, with proposed lessons for the AIS community from, the Hunton fraud. These include developing skepticism, recognizing the limited usefulness of Cressey's fraud "stump" (formerly triangle), noting the dysfunctional implications of agency theory, and adopting contemplative practices designed to increase observational awareness.

Sincerely,

Dan Stone


 


1,400 India school teachers resign in fake degree probe ---
http://news.yahoo.com/1-400-india-school-teachers-resign-fake-degree-092737797.html


"Ariane David - Non-Positional Thinking," by Jim Martin, MAAW's Blog, July 8, 2015 ---
http://maaw.blogspot.com/2015/07/ariane-david-non-positional-thinking.html

Non-Positional Thinking is a very interesting concept or technique. It is a form of critical thinking, and seems to be closely related to systems thinking. The following notes are from a transcript of Ariane's presentation at the In2:In Thinking 2015 conference. For more see the links below.

Non-Positional Thinking: Thinking Beyond the Obvious.

Beneath every apparent problem is a condition that fosters the problem, complex and hard to see. Solving only the apparent problem (the symptom) leads to worse problems. The actual problem involves culture and people and how they think about the problem. Discovering what the actual problem is is the most important part of finding the solution! A new way of solving problems. Non-positional Problem Solving.

Continued in article


"Minority Accounting Students’ Socialization in AACSB-Accredited Minority Colleges of Business", by Reginald Wilson , SSRN, June 29, 2015 ---
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2624086



Journal of Finance and Accountancy, Volume 16 (September), pp. 4-14
 

Abstract:     
 
Nearly one-quarter of a century has elapsed since Williams et al. (1988, p. 62) pleaded for additional research concerning minorities and the accounting profession. Subsequently, a number of academic and practitioner research studies have been undertaken in an effort to recruit and retain minorities in the profession. One area that has not been addressed is the effectiveness of the socialization process on minority undergraduate accounting students. This research has tremendous implications, in that accounting programs which effectively socialize minority undergraduate accounting students to the norms of the profession may contribute to higher minority accountant new-hire retention rates, especially in public accounting.

The current research investigates whether the accounting curriculum in AACSB-accredited minority colleges of business effectively socialize senior minority undergraduate accounting students towards their responsibilities to the accounting profession. Clikeman and Henning’s (2000) survey methodology is adapted to conduct this research. The sampling frame consists of accounting majors and non-accounting business majors enrolled at a minority southeastern university in the United States. The results indicate that no statistically significant difference exists between senior and sophomore accounting students’ perceptions of their responsibilities to financial statements with respect to misstatements, disclosures, cost-benefits, and CPA responsibility. These results persist for students with high grade point averages. Likewise, no significant difference exists between senior accounting and non-accounting business majors’ perceptions of accountants’ responsibility to financial statement users.

Future research may investigate the degree to which faculty experience (i.e. Big “N” experience, industry experience, faculty research interests, etc.) influences the socialization process of senior minority undergraduate accounting majors.

 

Number of Pages in PDF File: 11


"The Accounting Faculty Shortage: Causes and Contemporary Solutions," Douglas M. Boyle, Brian W. Carpenter, and Dana R. Hermanson, Accounting Horizons, Volume 29, Issue 2 (June 2015), pp. 245-264 ---
http://aaajournals.org/doi/full/10.2308/acch-50967
Not a free download

Abstract
The shortage of doctorally qualified accounting faculty has been a concern for the accounting profession for many years (Plumlee, Kachelmeier, Madeo, Pratt, and Krull 2006; Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession [ACAP] 2008; Pathways Commission 2012; Plumlee and Reckers 2014). One potential strategy for mitigating the shortage is the expansion of more flexible doctoral programs that would allow interested practitioners the opportunity to pursue doctorates without completely exiting the labor market (Trapnell, Mero, Williams, and Krull 2009; Pathways Commission 2012; Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International [AACSB] 2013). The success of this solution will depend largely on the acceptance of the resulting candidates by the parties that would hire them. This study examines factors associated with the accounting faculty shortage in general, and more specifically with the perceived value of attracting practitioners into more flexible doctoral programs as a means of potentially reducing the shortage. Based on a survey of over 800 accounting faculty and administrators, the results suggest that the expected future shortage of doctorates will be more pronounced in smaller, public, and non-doctoral institutions. Overall, faculty and administrators value attracting practitioners into academia, but only moderately support the creation of more flexible doctoral programs for such individuals. The perceived value of attracting practitioners into academia and support for the creation of more flexible doctoral programs are stronger in smaller, non-doctoral institutions
. Overall, the results suggest that non-traditional doctoral programs may initially provide graduates primarily for smaller, non-doctoral institutions, where the future shortage of doctorates is expected to be most acute.

. . .

The survey results indicate that, overall, the participants perceive a relatively high degree of value in attracting practitioners into academia. Moderate support was expressed for the creation of AACSB-accredited doctoral programs that would allow these practitioners to pursue their degrees on a part-time basis. However, participants from doctoral-granting institutions and larger institutions placed less value on bringing practitioners into academia and were less supportive of flexible programs. These findings imply that acceptance of graduates from flexible programs is dependent upon the nature of the hiring institution, with smaller, non-doctoral-granting institutions likely being most accepting of such graduates. This is possibly in part because, as noted above, smaller, non-doctoral institutions reflect the segment of the market facing a more serious future faculty shortage. This segment of the market also is likely to be open to a broader range of faculty research contributions beyond top-tier basic research, which is the primary focus of traditional Ph.D. programs and the focus of tenure requirements at doctoral-granting institutions.

We also find that tenure-track faculty and administrators have less positive views of non-traditional doctoral education than lecturers. Thus, academic support for non-traditional doctoral education is strongest in the group that has the least power in the academic hierarchy, reflecting a potentially important barrier to change in doctoral education. Despite this challenge, non-traditional doctoral education appears to be gaining some momentum in the academic marketplace, as evidenced by the number of new programs being established.

The next section provides background information. The following sections address the methodology, results, and discussion and conclusion.

. . .

Specific support for such an expansion of non-traditional approaches to doctoral education was recently expressed by the Pathways Commission (2012), which also pointed to the important role of practitioners in accounting education. Several of the Commission's recommendations and objectives highlighted the value of integrating accounting practitioners into the learning process. Specifically, objective 1.1 calls for academia to “integrate professionally oriented faculty more fully into significant aspects of accounting education, programs, and research” (Pathways Commission 2012, 11). In addition, the Commission noted that the traditional full-time model for accounting doctoral education is currently the “only one real path” to a terminal degree. To address this issue, the Commission called for accounting educators to “develop mechanisms to meet future demand for faculty by unlocking doctoral education via flexible pedagogies in existing programs and by exploring alternative pathways to terminal degrees that align with institutional missions and accounting research goals” (Pathways Commission 2012, 31).

. . .

In terms of variations in perceptions across groups, two main patterns appear most notable. First, participants from larger institutions and those with doctoral programs are less supportive of alternative paths to a doctorate. However, this lower level of support from larger institutions and those with doctoral programs may not greatly impede the overall acceptance of alternative models, since the aggregate negative impact of the faculty shortage appears to most heavily reside with smaller institutions (Plumlee and Reckers 2014), consistent with our survey results. Thus, the potential solution of attracting practitioners into newly created part-time AACSB-accredited doctoral programs is more strongly supported by the institutions that are most negatively impacted by the shortage. Overall, while flexible doctoral education does not have strong, broad-based support, it does appear that there is a match between the institutions most exposed to the faculty shortage and those most supportive of non-traditional doctoral education—namely, smaller, non-doctoral institutions. Thus, it is reasonable to expect non-traditional programs, at least initially, to primarily serve the faculty needs of smaller, non-doctoral institutions.

Second, lecturers often have perceptions that are quite different from those of the other academic ranks. In particular, lecturers are much more supportive of alternative paths to a doctorate. This finding highlights an important potential barrier to change, specifically that the strongest proponents of flexibility in doctoral education are those with the least power and influence in the academic hierarchy.

These results also suggest that further research should be performed to better understand how the factors of faculty retirement and accreditation requirements might be addressed to further mitigate the growing shortage, as well as examining potential solutions for the opportunity costs and significant time commitments for even the more traditional pools of potential doctoral candidates. The highest-ranking solutions to the faculty shortage included increasing the compensation for doctorally qualified faculty, subsidizing the educational cost incurred by practitioners who transition to academia, and reducing pressure on doctorally qualified faculty to publish research. While compensation for newly hired doctorally qualified accounting faculty has been on the rise, further research is needed to examine and ensure the competitiveness of faculty compensation at all ranks compared to other options within the broader accounting profession. The ADS Program has provided sustainable funding for early stage practitioners interested in pursuing doctoral study in traditional full-time programs and focusing on audit or tax. The results of this effort should be further studied and potentially replicated for practitioners with higher levels of experience or in other areas of accounting that are facing shortages of faculty. Additionally, the pressure expressed by the participants to publish research warrants further investigation, as the study's results indicate that such pressure was perceived to be a significant contributing factor to the current shortage. Investigating potential implementation issues related to all of these possible solutions also provides a robust area for future research.

Other avenues for future research exist as well. The AACSB recently implemented new faculty-qualification criteria, moving from two categories (academically or professionally qualified) to four categories of faculty. Future research can examine any effects of this change on the faculty shortage or the remedies to the shortage. Also, research may examine any effects within the college of business if accounting departments move to hiring a larger number of non-traditional doctoral faculty, while other business disciplines do not.

The findings and implications of the study should be viewed in light of several limitations. First, while the sample size is nearly 900 participants, it represents 12.4 percent of the population and as such may not reflect the views of the entire population. A comparison of the characteristics of the sample to the population indicates that the sample appears to be similar to the population on several dimensions. In addition, we note that the response rate appears reasonable in light of prior research (e.g., Bailey et al. 2008). Second, those who elected to participate and complete the survey may represent individuals who are more sensitive to the accounting faculty shortage, and thus the results may reflect a heightened perception of the shortage and different views of potential solutions than may actually exist in the population. Third, participants were asked to indicate the likely quality of part-time doctoral programs in accounting, but these programs currently exist in a limited number. Thus, it is likely that the majority of the participants have not had any direct exposure to such programs and may be without a meaningful basis to make such an assessment of quality.

The accounting faculty shortage has been of concern for at least two decades. We hope that the insights provided in this study will be useful to practitioners, faculty, administrators, and other parties in better understanding and mitigating the shortage. The results of this study suggest that there is perceived value in attracting practitioners into academia and that there is a moderate support for the flexible programs that may be required to attract practitioners in numbers great enough to notably impact the current doctorate shortage, primarily at smaller, non-doctoral institutions.

Jensen Comment
I would be more supportive of traditional accounting doctoral programs if they were doing a better job. In truth they are generating accounting Ph.D.s who do not understand the limitations of their models.

First of all accountics scientists have almost zero interest in validating their findings ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

Second they don't seem to understand the limitations of their models
Common Accountics Science and Econometric Science Statistical Mistakes -
--
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsScienceStatisticalMistakes.htm

Third they don't seem to be aware of the limitations of their craft or the power of non-traditional (read that non-mathematical) methodologies of research
"A Scrapbook on What's Wrong with the Past, Present and Future of Accountics Science"
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccounticsWorkingPaper450.pdf
But at the moment all power for generating accounting Ph.D. graduates resides with accountics scientists

 


From the Econometrics Beat Blog by David Gilles on June 30, 2015 ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/06/july-reading.html

July Reading

 
Now that the (Northern) summer is here, you should have plenty of time for reading. Here are some recommendations:
 
  • Ahelegbey, D. F., 2015. The econometrics of networks: A review. Working Paper 13/WP/2015, Department of Economics, University of Venice.
  • Camba-Mendez, G., G. Kapetanios, F. Papailias, and M. R. Weale, 2015. An automatic leading indicator, variable reduction and variable selection methods using small and large datasets: Forecasting the industrial production growth for Euro area economies. Working Paper No. 1773, European Central Bank.
  • Cho, J. S., T-H. Kim, and Y. Shin, 2015. Quantile cointegration in the autoregressive distributed-lag modeling framework. Journal of Econometrics, 188, 281-300.
  • De Luca, G., J. R. Magnus, and F. Peracchi, 2015. On the ambiguous consequences of omitting variables. EIEF Working Paper 05/15.
  • Gozgor, G., 2015. Causal relation between economic growth and domestic credit in the economic globalization: Evidence from the Hatemi-J's test. Journal of International Trade and Economic Development,  24, 395-408.
  • Panhans, M. T. and J. D. Singleton, 2015. The empirical economist's toolkit: From models to methods. Working Paper 2015-03, Center for the History of Political Economy.
  • Sanderson. E and F. Windmeijer, 2015. A weak instrument F-test in linear IV models with multiple endogenous variables. Discussion Paper 15/644, Department of Economics, University of Bristol.

MIT:  Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending July 4, 2015)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review. ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/538766/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-july-4-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150703


Information Diffusion
"Why Wikipedia + Open Access = Revolution," MIT's Technology Review, July 2, 2015 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/539001/why-wikipedia-open-access-revolution/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150703


Sweet Briar College --- http://www.sbc.edu/

Only 250 students, less than half its enrollment in the most recent academic year, are expected to return this fall to Sweet Briar’s campus near Lynchburg, Virginia
Michael McDonald, Nate Silver's 5:38 Blog, July 1, 2015 ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-01/a-women-s-college-survives-death-only-to-lose-half-its-students

Jensen Comment
in steady state that leaves about 50+ student in each class to spread among 50 or so majors. Classes will be small even with some growth over the next few years.


From Money Girl
Three 3Real Estate FAQs for Buyers, Sellers, and Investors --- Click Here
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/money-finance/real-estate/3-real-estate-faqs-for-buyers-sellers-and-investors?utm_source=MG20150702&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=moneygirl#sthash.22xMboTd.dpuf

 Bob Jensen's personal finance helpers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers


"What's Blocking The $11 Trillion Internet Of Things Opportunity," by Matt Asay, ReadWroteWeb, June 29, 2015 ---
http://readwrite.com/2015/06/29/internet-of-things-11-trillion-obstacles-open-source


"Women are replacing men in the global workforce," by Lianna Brinded, Business Insider, July 1, 2015 --- 
http://www.businessinsider.com/barclays-women-replacing-men-in-labour-market-2015-7#ixzz3edw2uUhx

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


"How Not to Be Misled by Data:  Numbers can deceive just as surely as words—so here’s a guide to avoid being led astray," by Jordan Ellenberg, The Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-not-to-be-misled-by-data-1435258933

A number has a way of ending an argument. What can you say to it? There’s no nuance, no room for interpretation—it is what it is.

Unfortunately, numbers turn out to be a lot like words: powerful and illuminating but capable of being deployed to bad ends. Here’s a little manual of some of the most common ways that data, for all its precision, can take you down a wrong path.

Failure to compare. Last fall, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo crowed, “The news that our unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest since 2008 is proof that New York is on the move.” What Mr. Cuomo said about the unemployment rate was true: Only 6.2% of New Yorkers were unemployed in September 2014. But he didn’t mention another number: the overall U.S. unemployment rate, which stood at 5.9%—also the lowest since 2008. If New York is on the move, it is moving at the same speed as the country as a whole. A number by itself is often meaningless; it is the comparison between numbers that carries the force. (Gov. Cuomo’s office didn’t respond to a request to comment.)

My favorite example of this lapse came from the blogger Vani Hari (aka “Food Babe”), who warned her air-traveling readers in 2011, “The air that is pumped in [to an airplane cabin] isn’t pure oxygen either, it’s mixed with nitrogen, sometimes almost at 50%.” Almost 50% adulteration sounds terrible—until you remember that the natural proportion of nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere is 78%. (Yvette d’Entremont wrote about the mistake on Gawker; Ms. Hari has pulled down the offending post.)

Unrepresentative representative. Suppose you give college students around the world a values questionnaire, asking them (for instance) to agree or disagree with the statement, “Making a lot of money is a high priority for me.” Now suppose that 35% of American students strongly agree—the highest proportion in the developed world. Does this mean that American capitalism has soured our youth into nasty greedheads?

Maybe, maybe not. Questionnaires have lots of questions. Maybe this one also included items like, “Material comfort is more important than personal fulfillment” or “I would sedate children and sell their kidneys if it got me into a higher tax bracket,” on which the U.S. was in the middle of the pack.

When you’re telling a story, it’s natural to pick the most vivid and persuasive detail. In this case, it was the question on which the answers of U.S. students represented an extreme. But providing the impressive number without conceding the existence of the unimpressive ones is a kind of numerical malpractice.

Needle in the haystack. A closely related trick is to pull out the most exciting finding—the needle—from a scientific study that is mostly a big heap of hay. A 1998 study in New Zealand asked: Did a serious fall on the playground make children more fearful of heights later?

Continued in article


Hillary Was Too Expensive, So Her Daughter Spoke on Campus at University of Missouri-Kansas City for Only $65,000
"A college balks at Hillary Clinton’s fee, books Chelsea for $65,000 instead," by Philip Rucker and Rosalind S. Helderman, The Washington Post, June 30, 2015 ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-college-balks-at-hillary-clintons-fee-so-books-chelsea-for-65000-instead/2015/06/29/b1918e42-1e78-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html

Jensen Comment
Years ago I did an eight-hour  gig on this campus in 1995, but the honorarium for me was $0 --- just one of those humbling experiences in life. My audience of faculty and students was very cordial, and I learned a lot from them.

"Hypermedia Case Development," ," by Bob Jensen, An Eight-Hour Presentation at the Bloch School of Business, University of Missouri at Kansas City, December 20, 1995.

And yes the School of Business is named after Henry W. Block (i.e., of H&R Block fame and money) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%26R_Block


Here are the 5 best credit cards for cash back rewards ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/sc/5-best-credit-cards-for-cash-back-rewards-2015-6#ixzz3eN1m9wTO


"Obama’s Overtime Proposal Could Be Costly for Colleges," by Paul Basken, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 1, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Obama-s-Overtime-Proposal/231287/?cid=at

. . .

American institutions of higher education employ more than 3.8 million people, according to government data cited by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. That figure includes more than 1.5 million faculty members; 238,000 people in executive, administrative, or managerial positions; 800,000 in other professional positions; and more than 900,000 in other positions not exempted from federal overtime rules, the association said.

Many entry and midlevel professional positions — including many in student life, development, administration, and academic affairs — pay less than $50,440 per year, said Andy Brantley, the association’s president and chief executive officer.

An increase in the overtime threshold "was long overdue," Mr. Brantley said. "Unfortunately, a change of this magnitude will have a significant impact for every campus."

The effect will be most pronounced for colleges in parts of the country that have lower average wages and lack state laws that already set stricter rules on overtime pay, said Tara E. Daub, a partner at the law firm Nixon Peabody.

Colleges will have to absorb that cost in some way, such as cuts in services or tuition increases, said Shannon D. Farmer, a partner at Ballard Spahr, a law firm with clients in higher education. And the effect would linger, she said, as Mr. Obama’s proposal calls for automatic increases in the future tied to average incomes.

Worries About an ‘Ambush’

Even more concerning, Ms. Farmer said, is the possibility that the Department of Labor will end or revise the exemption for teaching positions. That exemption also applies to many doctors and lawyers, who, along with professors, are in positions that are either relatively well paid or involve wide fluctuations in numbers of hours worked each week, she said.

The administration’s proposed change does not explicitly suggest repealing the teaching exemption, she said, though it does invite comments on it. "So what people are concerned about is that there is going to be basically an ambush rule here," where the Department of Labor might endorse a change in the teaching exemption later in the process, she said.

That type of change — sought by many advocates of adjuncts as part of an overall campaign for improving pay and conditions for part-time, non-tenure-track faculty members — could perhaps happen some day, said Ms. Daub, a member of Nixon Peabody’s Labor and Employment group. But it won’t happen in the current rule-making process, she said, because revising the teaching exemption has not been included in the terms of the initial proposal.

"It would have to go through the whole notice-and-comment period," said Ms. Daub, who was scheduled to address the topic on Wednesday morning at the annual conference of the National Association of College and University Attorneys in Washington. "They can’t just slip that in at the end."

Either way, at least one university doesn’t seem especially concerned. At the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, Mr. Obama’s scheduled visit on Thursday to outline the plan is largely a matter of celebration, given that it will be the first time a sitting U.S. president has ever visited the campus. It’s "an historic opportunity for our UW-L community," the chancellor, Joe D. Gow, said in a campuswide email.

Continued in article


"For-Profit Chain Settles with Feds for $13 Million," Inside Higher Ed, June 30, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/06/30/profit-chain-settles-feds-13-million

Education Affiliates, a for-profit chain with 50 campuses, has settled with the federal government over false-claim allegations, the U.S. Department of Justice said. The Maryland-based company agreed to pay $13 million in response to allegations that it received aid payments from unqualified students, some of whom the for-profit admitted by creating false or fraudulent high school diplomas. Education Affiliates also referred prospective students to diploma mills, according to the feds, and falsified students' federal aid applications.

The various cases that were settled here include numerous allegations of predatory conduct that victimized students and bilked taxpayers,” said Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell, in a written statement. “In particular, the settlement provides for repayment of $1.9 million in liabilities ordered by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that resulted from EA awarding federal financial aid to students at its Fortis-Miami campus based on invalid high school credentials issued by a diploma mill.

Continued in article

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


"Can a Longtime Fraud Help Fix Science? Diederik Stapel faked more than 50 studies in social psychology. What can we learn from his misdeeds?" by Tom Bartlett, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 22, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Can-a-Longtime-Fraud-Help-Fix/231061/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

. . .

You remain tortured by what you did.

True.

You understand why you did it.

True.

You’ve tamed your demons.

Yeah. They’re dead now.

You believe you’ve paid for your wrongdoing at this point.

True.

How do we prevent future Diederik Stapels and Michael LaCours?

I think focusing less on ego and individual scientists and focusing more on groups. Less focus on research output in the sense of numbers of publications and more on grants or interesting books. And also on other dimensions like education and team building. It’s an argument against perverse incentives. If you make incentives more complete and more complex, there’s less of a sense that you need to do this one thing to be successful.

Is redemption possible? What would it look like in your case?

I don’t understand the question because I’m not the one to judge. I guess I redeemed myself. In the end, that’s all I can do. The rest is not up to me. You can’t ask others for forgiveness. The only thing you can do is forgive yourself.

What is the thing that you want now?

I don’t know. Just to fit in somewhere. Make some money. Take care of my family. I don’t need to be visible. Survival, that would be nice. And moderately happy, so you don’t wake up every morning like, "Shit, what’s next?"

It is extremely rare to detect an accounting professor who cheated.
Bob Jensen's threads on the Jim Hunton saga plus a listing of professors in other disciplines who cheated ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize


Science Fraud Getting You Down
Who Can You Trust ---

http://www.wired.com/2015/06/follow-friday-science-fraud-watchdogs/


Video:  Our unhealthy obsession with choice --- http://www.ted.com/talks/renata_salecl_our_unhealthy_obsession_with_choice

Jensen Comment
Sadly, as we get older a "been-there-done-that" syndrome sets in to a point where habit becomes stronger and it's more difficult to mount efforts to try new adventures. For example, Erika and I used to look forward to travels to Germany, Holland, England Scandinavia, New Zealand, Canada, etc. Now the first thing that comes to mind is how awful it's become to fly  and how hotels do not offer the comforts of home even at $250+ per night.

Sometimes I dream up book titles such as:

  1. Do the Bananas Look Too Green?
  2. Lilacs Smell the Same in Canada
  3. The Sun is Just Too Hot on the Beach These Days
  4. The Tinier the Bikini the Less Interesting It Becomes
  5. Wiping Down a Dog Coming In Ten Times a Day From the Mud and Snow is Just Too Much Bother
  6. Drinks with Tiny Umbrellas Have Too Many Calories
  7. I'd Rather They Would Remember Us Like We Used to Look
  8. The Views Are Better From the Front and Back of Our Mountain Cottage
  9. I Prefer Mowing a Lush Lawn to Paying to Look at a Brown Golf Course
  10. Let's Stay Home --- the Security Might Go Off Due to a Weak Battery While We're Gone for Two Weeks
  11. I Prefer It When the Furnace Runs in July
     

"STUDENT EVALUATIONS -- MY SUGGESTIONS," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, July 6, 2015 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2015/07/student-evaluations-my-suggestions.html

Mr. Wieman hopes that adoption of his inventory will lead colleges to put far less weight on the end-of-semester ritual of course evaluations, when students get to anonymously judge their professors on a standardized form. In his paper, Mr. Wieman wrote that one of his goals was to free professors from "the capricious, frustrating, and sometimes quite mean-spirited tyranny of student evaluations."
"Everyone Complains About Evaluations. A Nobel Laureate Offers an Alternative." by Meg Bernhard, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 15, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Everyone-Complains-About/230885/?cid=at

Jensen Comment
I'm vehemently opposed to the present system of teaching evaluations because it is the leading cause (in my opinion) of dysfunctional grade inflation in the USA ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#RateMyProfessor

I prefer to go back to the old days where teaching evaluations are communicated only to the instructor. I don't think most students will ever give the time and attention to writing essays about their teacher in each and every course. Also I don't think they often appreciate the teacher that makes them sweat to learn on their own or the teacher that gives them a B- or below.
 
Of course, as long as RateMyProfessor.com exists there will always be self-selecting students who make their evaluations public.


From the Scout Report on July 3, 2015

Edmodo ---  https://www.edmodo.com 

Edmodo, which functions as a fully-loaded social network tool for the classroom, rivals popular platforms like Facebook in look and functionality while also designed with learning in mind. The site allows teachers to post lesson plans, information, assignments, and other content. Then students can post, have online conversations, collaborate, and work together or separately on quizzes, projects, and a number of other activities. Sign up is simple and free; all that is required is an email account. From there, it takes some time to set up the site to one's specifications, but teachers may find it worth the trouble.  


Off-the-Record Messaging --- https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/ 

Very few of our activities on the Internet are, strictly speaking, private. Nearly everything we do is logged somewhere, and our instant messaging is no exception. This is where Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging can help. For those who are chatting about confidential matters (e.g., medical histories) or those who simply want their privacy, OTR can help keep instant messaging secure. OTR uses standard and well-tested cryptographic algorithms to keep our conversations confidential and prevent impersonation of our correspondents (e.g., in the event of account hijacking). In fact, many messengers, including the popular Adium for Mac and IM+ for Android devices already have OTR built-in. On Windows, OTR can be added to the popular Pidgin messenger by using the "Primary download" link on the OTR homepage, then going to Tools > Plugins and activating the Off-the-Record Messaging plugin.


The Internet Has Survived the Leap Second, but Is It Necessary?
Leap Second Will Extend the Day, and Might Roil the Internet
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/science/leap-second-will-extend-the-day-and-might-roil-the-internet.html

‘Leap Second’: Why June 30 will have one extra second
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-june-30-leap-second-20150629-story.html

Leap second causes Internet hiccup overnight
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2942992/leap-second-causes-internet-hiccup-particularly-in-brazil.html

The origin of leap seconds, and why they should be abolished
http://qz.com/432787/the-origin-of-leap-seconds-and-why-they-should-be-abolished/

What Is a Leap Second Anyway, and Why Do We Use It?
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/leap-second-anyway-use/

World Will Gain a Leap Second on Tuesday: Here’s Why
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150629-leap-second-atomic-astronomical-time-earth-rotation-physics/


From the Scout Report on July 10, 2015

Google URL shortener --- http://goo.gl/ 

The Google URL shortener is as intuitive as it is powerful. Users may paste any web address into the appropriate text box, select Shorten URL, and a shorter, more manageable URL will appear. For instance, "https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/home," which is 49 characters long, becomes "goo.gl/8rrlvp," which is just 11 characters long. Though most users will most likely shorten URLs for Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms, these concise versions can also be helpful for business cards and presentations, among other possibilities. In addition, the Google URL shortener saves your activity and tracks the number of times the shortened URL is clicked, either in the past two hours, day, week, month, or all time.


Easel.ly --- http://www.easel.ly/ 

To date, 800,000 users have created over one million infographics on Easel.ly. The reason is clear: Easel.ly manages to make the usually tedious and time consuming process of creating engaging infographics relatively simple and efficient. The interface is fairly minimal and user-friendly. Most users will want to begin with a Vheme (template). From there, the site offers fresh options each step of the way, using drag and drop functions to fill out your targeted product. The results look surprisingly professional and can help users present even complex information in streamlined and attractive formats.


Aging, Anti-Aging, and the Quest to Stay Healthy in the Long Run
Study of 1,000 38-year-olds shows 'biological age' ranges from 30 to 60
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/07/07/study-of-1000-38-year-olds-shows-biological-age-ranges-from-30-to-60/

Ageing rates vary widely, says study
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33409604

Dan Belsky: Duke University
http://sites.duke.edu/danbelsky/

Researchers Study 3 Promising Anti-Aging Therapies
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/researchers-study-3-promising-anti-aging-therapies/

American Federation for Aging Research: Infoaging
http://www.afar.org/infoaging

What it's like to grow old, in different parts of the world
http://blog.ted.com/what-its-like-to-grow-old-in-different-parts-of-the-world/




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


Education Tutorials

MIT Video (150 channels and over 12,000 videos) --- http://video.mit.edu/ 

Code.org (computer science education and learning) --- http://code.org/

Free Computer Tutorials at GCFLearnFree --- http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computers

The Ultimate Student’s Guide to Search Engines --- http://alexmiller.com/the-students-guide-to-search-engines/
Bob Jensen's search helpers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm

Google, Yelp, and the Future of Search --- Click Here
http://ppr.li/r?src=paperli.email&trail=contributor%3Dtwitter%3A19778187&url=https%3A%2F%2Fhbr.org%2F2015%2F07%2Fgoogle-yelp-and-the-future-of-search&urlhash=bba3b245

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center --- http://nscresearchcenter.org/

The Poetry Foundation: Learning Lab: Teacher Specific Resources --- http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/resources#teacher

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

National Geographic: Atlas Explorer --- http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/map/atlas

National Geographic: Maps --- http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/maps

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


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

Teaching Structural Geology in the 21st Century: Visualizations ---
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/structure/visualizations.html

Retraction Watch (cheating in research) --- http://retractionwatch.com

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

Marie Curie’s Research Papers Are Still Radioactive 100+ Years Later ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/marie-curies-research-papers-are-still-radioactive-100-years-later.html

Botanical Society of America --- http://botany.org

25 Years of Hubble --- https://webcast.stsci.edu/webcast/detail.xhtml?talkid=4418&parent=1

The Invention of Clouds: Goethe's Poems for the Skies and His Heartfelt Homage to the Young Scientist Who Classified Clouds ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/07/the-invention-of-clouds-luke-howard-hamblyn/?mc_cid=0bae3fff91&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Finding and Using Health Statistics --- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm

Frontiers in Psychiatry --- http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/psychiatry

Mosaic: The Science of Life --- http://mosaicscience.com/

Women in Science and Mathematics (WiSM) --- http://www.eiu.edu/wism/index.php

Resources for Genealogists and Family Historians --- http://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/index.html

Free Computer Tutorials at GCFLearnFree --- http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computers

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

Retraction Watch (cheating in research) --- http://retractionwatch.com

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

Mosaic: The Science of Life --- http://mosaicscience.com/

Unmarried Women Now Drive America’s Fertility Trends, And They’re Having Fewer Kids ---
Neil Shah, http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/07/10/unmarried-women-now-drive-americas-fertility-trends-and-theyre-having-fewer-kids/

Frontiers in Psychiatry --- http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/psychiatry

Reporters Without Borders --- http://en.rsf.org/

It's No Laughing Matter: Analyzing Political Cartoons
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/activities/political-cartoon/resources.html

Perspectives on the Boston Massacre --- http://www.masshist.org/features/massacre

Farm Sanctuary (protecting farm animals from cruelty) --- http://www.farmsanctuary.org/

The Millions (essays, etc.) --- http://www.themillions.com

Humanitarian Tracker --- http://www.humanitariantracker.org/

Multiracial in America: Proud, Diverse and Growing in Numbers --- http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/06/11/multiracial-in-america/

Women in Science and Mathematics (WiSM) --- http://www.eiu.edu/wism/index.php

WASwondering.org (women in science) ---  http://www.iwaswondering.org/

When Woman Is Boss: Nikola Tesla on Gender Equality and How Technology Will Unleash Women's True Potential ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/10/nikola-tesla-when-woman-is-boss/?mc_cid=0bae3fff91&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Civil Rights Data Collection --- http://ocrdata.ed.gov/

The Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum --- http://www.rgm.lv/

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center --- http://nscresearchcenter.org/

Resources for Genealogists and Family Historians --- http://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/index.html

Finding and Using Health Statistics --- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm

Podcast Archives: Buddhist Geeks --- http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/category/podcast/

The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values --- http://thecenter.mit.edu/

Meditation 101: A Short, Animated Beginner’s Guide ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/meditation-101-a-short-animated-beginners-guide.html

Bob Jensen's threads on economic statistics and databases ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics

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

Farm Sanctuary (protecting farm animals from cruelty) --- http://www.farmsanctuary.org/

Humanitarian Tracker --- http://www.humanitariantracker.org/

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


Math and Statistics Tutorials

Finding and Using Health Statistics --- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm

Women in Science and Mathematics (WiSM) --- http://www.eiu.edu/wism/index.php

WASwondering.org (women in science) ---  http://www.iwaswondering.org/

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


History Tutorials

New Archive Offers Free Access to 22,000 Literary Documents From Great British & American Writers ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/new-archive-offers-free-access-to-22000-literary-documents-from-great-british-american-writers.html

Humanitarian Tracker --- http://www.humanitariantracker.org/

The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change --- http://www.thekingcenter.org/

The Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum --- http://www.rgm.lv/

An Experiment in Love: Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Six Pillars of Nonviolent Resistance and the Ancient Greek Notion of 'Agape' ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/01/martin-luther-king-jr-an-experiment-in-love/?mc_cid=2e1e781938&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

The Millions (essays, etc.) --- http://www.themillions.com

Amanda Palmer Reads Polish Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska’s Poem “Life While-You-Wait” ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/02/amanda-palmer-reads-wislawa-szymborska/?mc_cid=2e1e781938&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

The Invention of Clouds: Goethe's Poems for the Skies and His Heartfelt Homage to the Young Scientist Who Classified Clouds ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/07/the-invention-of-clouds-luke-howard-hamblyn/?mc_cid=0bae3fff91&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

The Declaration of Independence Read by Thespians: Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Renee Zellweger & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/the-declaration-of-independence-read-by-thespians-morgan-freeman-kevin-spacey-renee-zellweger-more.html

Knitting - Victoria and Albert Museum --- http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/k/knitting/

Mr. Gauguin's Heart: The Beautiful and Bittersweet True Story of How Paul Gauguin Became an Artist ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/08/mr-gauguins-heart/?mc_cid=0bae3fff91&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Westchester County: Digital Collections --- http://archives.westchestergov.com/digital-collections-main

MoEML: The Map of Early Modern London ---  https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/

18 rare color photographs of the Russian Empire from over 100 years ago ---
 http://www.businessinsider.com/vintage-color-photos-of-the-russian-empire-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3fOlB5QBm

The Art of Restoring a 400-Year-Old Painting: A Five-Minute Primer ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/the-art-of-restoring-a-400-year-old-painting-a-five-minute-primer.html

See Venice in Beautiful Color Images 125 Years Ago: The Rialto Bridge, St. Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/venice-in-beautiful-color-images-125-years-ago.html

Two Documentaries Introduce Delia Derbyshire, the Pioneer in Electronic Music ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/two-documentaries-introduce-delia-derbyshire-the-pioneer-in-electronic-music.html

2,200 Radical Political Posters Digitized: A New Archive ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/2200-radical-political-posters-digitized-a-new-archive.html

Marist: Archives & Special Collections: Poughkeepsie Regatta --- http://library.marist.edu/archives/regatta/

Women in Science and Mathematics (WiSM) --- http://www.eiu.edu/wism/index.php

WASwondering.org (women in science) ---  http://www.iwaswondering.org/

Multiracial in America: Proud, Diverse and Growing in Numbers --- http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/06/11/multiracial-in-america/

Resources for Genealogists and Family Historians --- http://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/index.html

When Woman Is Boss: Nikola Tesla on Gender Equality and How Technology Will Unleash Women's True Potential ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/10/nikola-tesla-when-woman-is-boss/?mc_cid=0bae3fff91&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Becoming Richard Pryor --- http://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria/

Slate's Audio Book Club ---  http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_audio_book_club.html

Perspectives on the Boston Massacre --- http://www.masshist.org/features/massacre

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-Part2.htm#Languages


Music Tutorials

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

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


Writing Tutorials

Roberto Bolaño’s 12 Tips on “the Art of Writing Short Stories” ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/roberto-bolanos-12-tips-on-the-art-of-writing-short-stories.html

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



Bob Jensen's threads on medicine ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Medicine

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

June 29, 2015

June 30, 2015

July 1, 2015

July 2, 2015

July 3, 2015

July 7, 2015

July 9, 2015

July 10, 2015

July 11, 2015

 

 


A nasty parasite is thriving in swimming pools ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/a-nasty-parasite-is-thriving-in-swimming-pools-2015-7

Also see
Yuck! What’s Really in Your Swimming Pool? ---
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20150701/yucky-pools

Jensen Comment
I owned two swimming pools in my life, one in Florida and one in Texas. One of the happiest days of my life was the day I no longer owned a swimming pool.


Finding and Using Health Statistics --- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on economic statistics and databases ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics


Meditation 101: A Short, Animated Beginner’s Guide ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/meditation-101-a-short-animated-beginners-guide.html

Podcast Archives: Buddhist Geeks --- http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/category/podcast/ 

The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values --- http://thecenter.mit.edu/


Forwarded by Steve Markoff on January 29, 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cris-rowan/10-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-be-banned_b_4899218.html

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Society of Pediatrics state infants aged 0-2 years should not have any exposure to technology, 3-5 years be restricted to one hour per day, and 6-18 years restricted to 2 hours per day (AAP 2001/13, CPS 2010). Children and youth use 4-5 times the recommended amount of technology, with serious and often life threatening consequences (Kaiser Foundation 2010, Active Healthy Kids Canada 2012). Handheld devices (cell phones, tablets, electronic games) have dramatically increased the accessibility and usage of technology, especially by very young children (Common Sense Media, 2013). As a pediatric occupational therapist, I'm calling on parents, teachers and governments to ban the use of all handheld devices for children under the age of 12 years. Following are 10 research-based reasons for this ban. Please visit zonein.ca to view the Zone'in Fact Sheet for referenced research

Jensen Comment

Decades ago when I grew up on an Iowa farm we had hand-held devices. But we only used them in secret in the outhouse.


From the Scout Report on July 10, 2015

Aging, Anti-Aging, and the Quest to Stay Healthy in the Long Run
Study of 1,000 38-year-olds shows 'biological age' ranges from 30 to 60
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/07/07/study-of-1000-38-year-olds-shows-biological-age-ranges-from-30-to-60/

Ageing rates vary widely, says study
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33409604

Dan Belsky: Duke University
http://sites.duke.edu/danbelsky/

Researchers Study 3 Promising Anti-Aging Therapies
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/researchers-study-3-promising-anti-aging-therapies/

American Federation for Aging Research: Infoaging
http://www.afar.org/infoaging

What it's like to grow old, in different parts of the world
http://blog.ted.com/what-its-like-to-grow-old-in-different-parts-of-the-world/




A Bit of Humor July 1-14, 2015

It's No Laughing Matter: Analyzing Political Cartoons
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/activities/political-cartoon/resources.html

A Redneck Love Song --- http://1funny.com/if-my-nose-was-running-money/

Man in wheelchair robs New York bank, gets away --- http://news.yahoo.com/man-wheelchair-robs-york-bank-gets-away-185021518.html

Becoming Richard Pryor --- http://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria/

Darwin Awards --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards
Nominated for a Darwin Award in July 2015
Devon Staples, 22, was killed in a bizarre incident that took place in a backyard as Staples and his friends were firing off fireworks. Investigators said Staples had placed the fireworks mortar tube on top of his head and set it off.
http://www.wgme.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/maine-police-say-1-man-killed-calais-fireworks-accident-28113.shtml


Oldies That Are Good for Another Round

 Tower: "TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45Degrees."
TWA 2341: "Center, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up
here?" 

Tower: "Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makeswhen it hits a 727?"
___________________________________________

O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is a
Fokker, one o'clock, three miles, Eastbound."

United 329: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this...I've got the little Fokker in sight." 
____________________________________________

A student became lost during a solo cross-country flight. While attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, ATC asked: "What was your last known position?" 

Student: "When I was number one for takeoff."
____________________________________________

A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down.

San Jose Tower Noted: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of
the runway, if you are able. If you are not able, take the Guadeloupe exit
off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."
___________________________________________________

Message from Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock, 6 miles!"
Delta 351: "Give us another hint! We have digital watches!"
__________________________________________

A Pan Am 727 flight, waiting for start clearance in Munich, overheard
the following: 

Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?"

Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English."

Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in
Germany.Why must I speak English?"

Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war!"
_______________________________________________

One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of
the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned
around, and taxied back past the Cherokee.

Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radioand said, "What
a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?"

The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real
zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll
have enough parts for another one."
________________________________________________

The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airportare renowned as a
short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking
location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was
with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following
exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call
sign Speedbird 206.

Speedbird 206: "Frankfurt,Speedbird 206 clear of active runway."

Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven."

The 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.

Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"

Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up our gate location now."

Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): "Speedbird 206, have you not been
to Frankfurt before?"

Speedbird 206 (coolly): "Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark -- And I didn't land." 
_________________________________________________

While taxiing at London's Gatwick Airport, the crew of a US Air flight
departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727. 


An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming:
"US Air 2771, where the hell are you going?! I told you to turn right onto
Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it's
difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!"

Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting
hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It'll takeforever to
sort this out! You stay right there and don't move till I tell you to! You
can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour, and I want
you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You
got that, USAir 2771?"

"Yes, ma'am," the humbled crew responded.

Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent
after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging
the irate ground controller in her current state of mind.Tension in every
cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high.

Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone,
asking: "Wasn't I married to you once?"

 

 




 




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