Tidbits on August 11, 2015
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

My Favorite Birch Tree Photographs ---
www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits//Trees/Birch/Birches01.htm

 

Tidbits on August 11, 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

Here’s How 5 Legendary Talk Show Hosts Said Goodbye ---
http://time.com/3982859/tv-hosts-last-shows/?xid=newsletter-brief

30 movies that will inspire you to travel around the world ---
 http://www.businessinsider.com/movies-that-will-inspire-you-to-travel-2015-6?op=1#ixzz3h6IEvY2P

Philosophy TV --- http://www.philostv.com/

Neil Gaiman’s Philosophical Dream, in a Whimsical Animation Narrated by Amanda Palmer ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/30/behind-the-trees-neil-gaiman-dream-amanda-palmer/?mc_cid=06d956e795&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

What is Love? BBC Philosophy Animations Feature Sartre, Freud, Aristophanes, Dawkins & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/what-is-love-bbc-philosophy-animations-feature-sartre.html

The Women of the Avant-Garde: An Introduction Featuring Audio by Gertrude Stein, Kathy Acker, Patti Smith & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/the-women-of-the-avant-garde.html

An Animated Intro to G.W.F. Hegel, and Everything Else You Wanted to Know About the Daunting German Philosopher ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/an-animated-intro-to-g-w-f-hegel.html

Audrey Hepburn’s Moving Screen Test for Roman Holiday (1953) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/audrey-hepburns-moving-screen-test-for-roman-holiday-1953.html


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

Hear All of Mozart in a Free 127-Hour Playlist ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/14ecf6daff614c60

An old codger dances to Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdcj3rG7IWk&feature=youtu.be t

Jerry Garcia --- http://jerrygarcia.com/

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

Unique historic photographic collection online from Mount Holyoke College ---
http://lisnews.org/unique_historic_photographic_collection_online_from_mount_holyoke_college

Digital.Bodleian (over 115,000 images books in  history) ---  http://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

Louis Prang and Chromolithography --- http://www.americanantiquarian.org/prang /

Grimm's Fairytales (from National Geographic) --- http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/

The Most Beautiful Illustrations from 200 Years of Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/20/best-brothers-grimm-illustrations/?mc_cid=702ce5340a&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

The U.S. Coast Guard is 225 Year Old (33 action pictures) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-coast-guard-225-birthday-2015-8

New Technology for Measuring Methane Pollution
Burp by Burp, Fighting Emissions from Cows ---
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150803-cows-burp-methane-climate-science/
Thanks to Bob Blystone for the heads up.
Jensen Comment
We could ask whether the hookups work on either end, but that's asking a lot from technology.

New Photos from North Korea --- http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-from-inside-north-korea-2015-8

Gorgeous photos of the US Thunderbirds flying over Niagara Falls ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/gorgeous-photos-of-the-us-thunderbirds-flying-over-niagara-falls-2015-7#ixzz3h6HgF2ph

The B-17 'Flying Fortress' debuted 80 years ago today — here's its legacy ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-b-17-flying-fortress-debuted-80-years-ago-today-here-is-its-legacy-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3hBf5mKuo

These amazing colorized photographs bring World War I to life ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/world-war-i-color-photos-to-life-2014-8?op=1#ixzz3hDF3N34j

10 breathtaking views of mountains from Business Insider readers ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/business-insider-instagram-contest-mountain-winners-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3hIMnj7zv

Here are stunning pictures of the wreck of one of America's first aircraft carriers ---
http://www.argunners.com/wreck-of-the-uss-saratoga-cv-3/#ixzz3hPEqv5XS

There's a giant, underground ocean hidden in the middle of this Chinese desert ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-discover-a-massive-underground-lake-in-china-2015-7#ixzz3hYqfKvoR

Profiles in Science: Visual Culture and Health Posters --- http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Collection/CID/VC

Stunning pictures expose the clash between modern life and native culture in Greenland ---
 http://www.businessinsider.com/stunning-photos-of-modern-life-in-greenland-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3hl6Y8MDB

Big, beautiful photos of Russia's tram of the future ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-russias-futuristic-new-tram-2015-1#ixzz3hgZNtota

Why no one wants to travel to Naples ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-one-wants-to-travel-to-naples-2015-7#ixzz3hPGbmXNV
Jensen Comment
Good and bad things about travel in cities is quite relative, and much depends on your budget. For example, if crime is a worry I think Mexico City is more dangerous and more polluted.

There’s a massive World War II bomber at the bottom of a lake in Nevada ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/massive-world-war-ii-bomber-at-the-bottom-of-lake-mead-nevada-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3hYrWW6CL

Community Service Society Photographs --- http://css.cul.columbia.edu/

LIFE magazine photo essay, “Country Doctor” — seen here, in its entirety, followed by several unpublished photographs from the shoot  ---
http://time.com/3456085/w-eugene-smiths-landmark-photo-essay-country-doctor/

21 rare and weird facts about World War II ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/21-rare-and-weird-facts-about-world-war-2-2015-8#ixzz3iJeW3HcS

 

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

Bob Jensen's threads on libraries --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---Libraries

Orson Welles Reads Moby-Dick: The Great American Director Takes on the Great American Novel ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/orson-welles-reads-moby-dick-the-great-american-director-takes-on-the-great-american-novel.html

Vladimir Nabokov’s Hand-Drawn Sketches of Mind-Bending Chess Problems ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/vladimir-nabokovs-hand-drawn-sketches-of-mind-bending-chess-problems.html

Newly Discovered F. Scott Fitzgerald Story Published ---
http://time.com/3980487/new-f-scott-fitzgerald-temperature/?xid=newsletter-brief

The Women of the Avant-Garde: An Introduction Featuring Audio by Gertrude Stein, Kathy Acker, Patti Smith & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/the-women-of-the-avant-garde.html

Iggy Pop Reads Edgar Allan Poe’s Classic Horror Story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/iggy-pop-reads-edgar-allan-poes-classic-horror-story-the-tell-tale-heart.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 August 11, 2015
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2015/TidbitsQuotations081115.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




Editing Wikipedia Content via Screen Reader: Easier Interaction with ARIA ---
http://giove.isti.cnr.it/attachments/publications/2009-A0-058.pdf


A new study "proves" that you can check if a battery still has a charge by dropping it ---
http://www.techinsider.io/how-to-tell-if-a-battery-is-fully-charged-2015-8#ixzz3iDsTUwzS

Jensen Comment
Outside the realms of mathematics and logic I recommend not using the words "proves" or "proof." In this case "confirms" seems to be a better verb.


"Tech’s Enduring Great-Man Myth," by Amanda Schaffer, MIT's Technology Review, August 4, 2015 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/review/539861/techs-enduring-great-man-myth/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-business&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150807

Jensen Comment
I think this is a misleading article. Firstly, it ignores some truly great tech innovators like Alan Turing, Tim Berners-Lee, and others in history. It focuses in leaders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk. Bill Gates was a great innovator in marketing rather than the invention of technology he purchased from IBM. Similarly, Steve Jobs was an innovator in product development rather than original technology discovery.

However, in the Academy it is true that very few, if any, discoveries are truly seminal. Typically detailed historical research into "seminal discoveries" uncovers how they too were built upon earlier ideas and findings. For example, without earlier innovative and dogged science of by Friedrich Miescher, William Astbury,  Rosalind Franklin. Maurice Wilkins, Linus Pauling, etc. Watson and Crick would never have derived the DNA structure.


Since the late 1960s, universities have considered it their mission to teach students what rather than how to think. Students soon internalize the catechism, summed up in the Twitter hashtag #whiteprivilege, meaning: Western civilization thrived on white, Christian, Euro-centric aggression against Others; Western literature and art are the patriarchy’s handmaidens; the university’s mission is to further a just society and empower the wretched of the Earth; objective “knowledge” is a tool for one dominant race, gender and sexuality to oppress the powerless; reason is but one “way of knowing”; any opposition to identity politics and multiculturalism is racism; there are no hierarchies in cultural values — in matters of gender, art and family, all manifestations are equally valid; and most insidiously, acknowledging and rewarding objective merit is considered an “institutionalized form of racism and classism.”
Barbara Kay --- http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/11/barbara-kay-universities-are-teaching-students-what-to-think-not-how-to-think/

History and Meaning of "Political Correctness" --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Correctness

What is the difference between education and indoctrination? 
"Noam Chomsky Spells Out the Purpose of Education," by Josh Jones, Open Culture, November 2012 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/noam_chomsky_spells_out_the_purpose_of_education.html

"The Suicide of the Liberal Arts:  Indoctrinating students isn’t the same as teaching them. Homer and Shakespeare have much to tell us about how to think and how to live," by John Agresto, The Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-suicide-of-the-liberal-arts-1438987258

. . .

To restore the liberal arts, those of us who teach should begin by thinking about students. Almost all of them have serious questions about major issues, and all of them are looking for answers. What is right? What is love? What do I owe others? What do others owe me? In too many places these are not questions for examination but issues for indoctrination. Instead of guiding young men and women by encouraging them to read history, biography, philosophy and literature, we’d rather debunk the past, deconstruct the authors and dethrone our finest minds and statesmen.

But why would any student spend tens of thousands of dollars and, rather than see the world in all its aspects, instead spend his time being indoctrinated and immersed in the prejudices of the current culture and the opinions of his tendentious professors? The job of teachers is to liberate minds, not capture them.

Reform at the university level will require brave work by deans and presidents. A hundred-course set of “distribution requirements” with minimally guided choice fosters intellectual randomness. Instead, the best faculty should put together a coherent program of core studies to introduce students to the finest books, to alternative answers to the most compelling questions, to great literature and art and pivotal historical events. Contemporary political issues of race, class and gender do not define what’s truly important. That’s the greatest fallacy of higher education today.

Second, find ways to increase interaction with departments of business, engineering, pre-med and the like. Most students will properly go on to work in various vocational, professional or technical fields. They should be offered our civilization’s best work and its broadest vision—but humanities teachers should not begin with the notion that business and law will be “improved” by the humanities. The benefits flow both ways.

Finally, a word to secondary schools and their teachers: You may be the last hope many of your students will have to think broadly and seriously about literature, science, math and history. If they don’t read Homer or Shakespeare, or marvel at the working of the universe, or read and understand the Constitution, they never will. The hope of liberal learning rests on your shoulders. Please don’t shrug.

Continued in article

The Political Correctness Debate
"Halting the Race to the Bottom," by John Sexton, Inside Higher Ed, September 18, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/09/18/sexton

The Politically Correct Fracture in Academe ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectnessFracture
 


Alexa Voice Service (AVS) ... may be Amazon’s best hardware product since its Kindle e-reader
"Amazon's Awesome Alexa Voice Tech Reaches Out To Other Devices:  The Alexa Voice Service goes into developer preview." by Adriana Lee, ReadWriteWeb, July 31, 2015 ---
http://readwrite.com/2015/07/31/amazon-alexa-voice-service-developer-preview-echo

Alexa, the chatty personality that makes the Amazon Echo smart speaker so fun and handy, wants to join more devices. The company announced Friday the launch of its free Alexa Voice Service (AVS) developer preview.

AVS was born out of the company’s work on the Echo, which may be Amazon’s best hardware product since its Kindle e-reader. The device is a voice-controlled cylindrical appliance that can tell you the weather, give you traffic conditions on your commute, play music, control connected lights and other appliances, and—of course—buy things from Amazon. 

See also: Amazon Echo’s Ready To Chat Up Everyone Now—Except Developers

Voice features may seem rather dime-a-dozen these days, but Echo’s accuracy and grasp of natural language could be among the best to date. Although it’s not perfect either, it does largely succeed in living up to the promise of understanding organic speech. Users can talk to it easily, without learning a rigid lexicon of verbal commands.

Now hardware makers, both professional and hobbyists, can see what those language powers can bring to their projects.

Here's the caveat!

Continued in article

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


"Triaging Textbook Costs, by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed, August 4, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/04/era-400-college-textbook-affordability-initiatives-take-utilitarian-approach


No, Windows 10 Won’t Require a Subscription: Here’s How Microsoft Plans on Making Money Instead ---
http://www.howtogeek.com/220957/no-windows-10-won%E2%80%99t-require-a-subscription-heres-how-microsoft-plans-on-making-money-instead/

Microsoft’s Windows 10 message hasn’t always been clear. They’ve declared the Windows 10 upgrade will be free for the first year and that going forward they’ll be pushing “Windows 10 as a service.

Some rumors going around say Windows 10 will require a paid subscription or a fee in the future if you want to continue using it or receiving updates. But Microsoft has said that won’t happen.

Windows 10 is available for free to most computers out there. Assuming your computer runs either Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or Windows 8.1, you’ll see a “Get Windows 10″ pop-up as long as you have Windows Update enabled. This allows you to reserve that free upgrade.

. . .

Free For “The Supported Lifetime of Your Device”

Microsoft doesn’t say that your PC will continue getting free updates forever. Instead, they say that those feature updates and security updates will continue “for the supported lifetime of your device.”

Microsoft hasn’t actually explained what this phrase means, but it has a bit of an obvious explanation to it. Windows can’t continue to support old hardware forever — Windows 10 won’t run on PCs from 20 years ago. Whatever version of Windows exists twenty years from now probably won’t support today’s Windows 10 PCs. Microsoft gets to draw the line of when they want to stop supporting old hardware with future updates.

So How Does Microsoft Plan on Making Money?

Microsoft still plans on charging for Windows licenses. When you buy a new PC, the manufacturer will still have to pay MIcrosoft for that license. If you build your own PC, you’ll need to pay $119 for a Windows license. Businesses will still need to pay for volume licenses — Enterprise versions of Windows 7 and 8.1 don’t get the free upgrade offer.

Yes, Microsoft is losing upgrade revenue — people won’t pay to upgrade Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs to Windows 10. But very few people actually go out and buy a boxed copy of Windows to upgrade those old computers, anyway.

Windows 10 includes many of Microsoft’s applications and services. Windows 10 itself isn’t a service, but it does encourage you to pay for other things, including:

Jensen Comment
Windows 10 is not a come on to get you to buy Windows 11 --- not for five years at least.

Of course, Microsoft could change tactics in the future, releasing WIndows 11 in five years and declaring that older devices are no longer within their “supported lifetime.” But this is clearly Microsoft’s plan right now — you shouldn’t worry about having to spend money for an existing Windows 10 install in the future. It’s free.

 


Google Plus = Google+ = Google Failure --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B

"Inside the failure of Google+, a very expensive attempt to unseat Facebook," by Seth Fiegerman, Mashable, August 2, 2015 ---
 ---
http://mashable.com/2015/08/02/google-plus-history/

. . .

The rise and fall of Google+

Google's effort to build a social network to rival Facebook began with a bold, company-wide yell. Now Google appears to be winding down Google+ with barely a whimper.

This week, four years and one month after launching Google+ with the stated mission to "fix" online sharing, Google announced it would eliminate a much-criticized requirement to use a Google+ account when signing on to other Google services like YouTube. The move is the clearest indication yet that Google is ditching its playbook of trying to push everyone in the world use its social network.

Google earlier this year began to spin out the service's most popular features, like Photos and Hangouts. What's left is being re-worked (or pivoted, as Google+ chief Bradley Horowitz said in his latest blog post) to find a salvageable kernel of a social experience that might still be built up to appeal to a large audience. Google+ launched with big aspirations but no well-defined purpose for users; now, very belatedly, Google is trying find some purpose for the social network as those aspirations shrink.

Google+ has become a favorite punchline in the technology industry, but the objective was deadly serious. Interviews with more than a dozen Google insiders and analysts in recent months, many speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, paint the Google of 2010-2011 as increasingly fearful of Facebook snatching away users, employees and advertisers. Google tried to mobilize itself quickly, but approached the task with all the clumsiness of a giant trying to dance with a younger, nimble startup.

Google launched Plus without a clear plan to differentiate the service from Facebook. It bet on a charismatic leader with a flawed vision, ignored troubling indications about the social network's traction (or lack thereof) with users and continued throwing features at the wall long after many had written Google+ off for dead.

The slow demise of Google+ sheds light on how a large technology company tries and often fails to innovate when it feels threatened. The Google+ project did lead to inventive new services and created a more cohesive user identity that continues to benefit Google, but the social network itself never truly beat back existing rivals. Facebook is now larger than ever, with 1.4 billion users and a market capitalization more than half of Google's. It continues to poach Google employees. Facebook and Twitter are also slowly chipping away at Google's dominance in display ad revenue.

Continued in article


Thomas Piketty --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty

Krugman Slams Piketty's 'New' Book On Inequality ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/08/krugman-slams-pikettys-new-book-on-inequality.html

Jensen Comment
Stanford University had a professor of management in the 1960s who made a lot of money selling his textbook. In tiny fonts it was typed  on very large index cards in a clever way where he could get a new edition by merely shuffling the deck for each chapter and then re-arranging the chapters.


Wheeling Jesuit University will pay the federal government $2.3 million to settle claims that the West Virginia institution misspent research grant funds over nearly a decade ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/08/04/wheeling-jesuit-pay-23m-settle-grant-fraud-claims

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


Disabilities --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability

Jensen Question
Are there any HTML processors that automatically code for sight and hearing impaired readers?
Are there any Web browsers that will read text aloud? See the Jaws Screen Reader cited below.

There is software available for captioning video for the hearing impaired but it is purportedly tedious to use for authors. Increasingly learning videos are captioned for the hearing impaired.

"The Challenges of Surfing While Blind:  My seeing-eye dog can’t help me with your website. Please code it for accessibility," by Deann Elliott, The Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-challenges-of-surfing-while-blind-1437950347?tesla=y

. . .

A well-designed website that conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) permits use by people of all abilities. In my case, text labels that identify the buttons and graphical features allow me to “see” what’s on the screen. The code is hidden and need not interfere with the way the website works for sighted customers. But without these features, a site that works beautifully with a mouse is useless to me.

Technology has removed many of the barriers that people with disabilities face in the physical world, making life in the mainstream tantalizingly close. Can’t drive to the mall? There’s Amazon! Can’t read the electric bill? Bank online! As my guide dog and I contemplate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the landmark civil-rights law signed July 26, 1990, the gap between sight and blindness has never been narrower.

The ADA requires government websites to be accessible. Sadly, the law provides little guidance to the private sector on this point, since it was passed before the Internet became ubiquitous. It applies to a “place” of public accommodation—but is the Internet a place? That question has been wending its way through the courts.

Disability advocates have worked to broaden the law’s applicability, with some success. In April, Harvard University and M.I.T. announced plans to voluntarily make their edX website for online courses compliant with the WCAG after deaf advocates filed federal lawsuits alleging discrimination. In 2010 the Justice Department announced it would consider issuing Web-accessibility regulations under the ADA, though the rule-making process lumbers on. With the number of websites growing rapidly, change isn’t coming fast enough.

“More than 50 percent of the websites on the Internet are either inaccessible or unusable for people who use adaptive technology,” Brian Charlson, director of technology at the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass., told me in his office a few months back.

The consequences range from inconvenient to significant. When I can’t place an online order at my favorite Vietnamese noodle shop, I get Chinese instead. If a task is urgent, I pester family and friends for “favors.” When they hover over my screen to help me navigate around a virtual barrier, I’m keenly aware that my charge-card number and the details of my transaction are on display. At work, unequal access in an increasingly networked economy contributes to an unemployment rate that’s more than twice as high for people with disabilities—and that’s not counting many who have given up looking for work.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The above article is disappointing in that it does not mention most technologies and newer products that can be tried by the sight-impaired learners.

"For Bill on Disabled Access to Online Teaching Materials, the Devil’s in the Details," by Rebecca Koenig, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 30, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/for-bill-on-disabled-access-to-online-teaching-materials-the-devils-in-the-details/54651?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

User:Steinsky/Encyclopaedia for the blind --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Steinsky/Encyclopaedia_for_the_blind
Scroll down to Software for the Spoken Wikipedia

Free Monitor
I don't know anything about this free monitor or the open-source software for sight-impaired people, but it sounds wonderful
http://www.nvaccess.org/
Thank you Scott Bonacker for the heads up.

Jaws Screen Reader --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAWS_%28screen_reader%29

JAWS (Job Access With Speech) is a computer screen reader program for Microsoft Windows that allows blind and visually impaired users to read the screen either with a text-to-speech output or by a Refreshable Braille display.

JAWS is produced by the Blind and Low Vision Group of Freedom Scientific, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.

A May 2012 screen reader user survey by WebAIM, a web accessibility company, found JAWS to be the most popular screen reader worldwide; 49.1% of survey participants used it as a primary screen reader, while 63.7% of participants used it often.[1]

Continued in article

"Awesome FingerReader Gadget Lets the Blind Read Printed Text," Chris Smith, Yahoo Tech, April 18, 2014 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/awesome-fingerreader-gadget-lets-the-blind-read-printed-83091898650.html

Useful Products for the Blind --- http://acb.org/node/1644?gclid=CILy1Ymm-8YCFQeLaQodK74Iiw

Carroll Store Products for the Blind --- http://carroll.org/products-for-the-blind-specials/?gclid=CKuM0vKo-8YCFYsRHwodm-8D8g
Web Accessibility Services --- http://carroll.org/accessibility-services/web-accessibility-services/ 

World Access for the Blind --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Access_for_the_Blind

Royal Society for the Blind --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society_for_the_Blind

Bob Jensen's threads on learning technologies for people with disabilities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped


New York Times hit with age, gender discrimination suit ---
http://nypost.com/2015/08/07/nyt-hit-with-age-gender-discrimination-suit/

. . .

The most explosive claim in the suit is the allegation that Levien, in a downsizing that took place in September 2013, let go predominantly older and minority employees.

A Times spokeswoman pointed out the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has passed on taking action on Quitasol’s complaints and said, “We plan to mount a vigorous defense against this suit.”

Continued in article

Jensen Question
Are minority executives more difficult to fire simply because they are minorities?

 


Princeton Review's Top 10 Partying Universities ---
http://time.com/3982847/princeton-review-top-party-schools/?xid=newsletter-brief

1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2. University of Iowa
3. University of Wisconsin-Madison
4. Bucknell University
5. Syracuse University
6. University of California-Santa Barbara
7. West Virginia University
8. University of Georgia
9. Tulane University
10. Colgate University


"The U.S. Digs Itself Into a Hole on Vital Minerals," Senator Lisa Murkowski, The Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2015  --- http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-s-digs-itself-into-a-hole-on-vital-minerals-1438642855?tesla=y 

The United States is turning the tables on the global oil market, going from one of the largest importers of crude oil to a country that could and should export it, thanks to an energy renaissance that has made America the largest oil producer in the world.

But when it comes to the minerals that fuel so much else in modern life—from smartphones to flat-screen TVs to wind turbines—we are still stuck in the Dark Ages, highly dependent on other countries as we sit on valuable resources that could be meeting national needs.

The U.S. relies on foreign suppliers for 100% of 19 minerals and at least half of our supply for some 24 more. The list includes everything from rare-earth elements used in F-35s (and electric car batteries) and computer hard drives to extremely rare metals like rhenium, a key component of alloys for industrial gas turbines and petroleum refining.

America’s foreign dependence has grown significantly since 1978 and seems to deepen each year as federal mineral policies become more obsolete. At stake is the future of U.S. manufacturing and the country’s international competitiveness—as illustrated by a September 2014 Edelman Berland survey of 400 manufacturing executives that found that more than 90% worry about mineral supply disruptions outside their control.

Continued in article


The EPA is Waving Goodbye to Every Mine in the USA, not just coal mines
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 3, 2015

Coal miner Alpha to seek chapter 11.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/alpha-natural-resources-to-seek-chapter-11-1438557901?mod=djemCFO_h
Alpha Natural Resources Inc
. is expected to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early Monday to cut its more than $3 billion debt load. The Bristol, Va., company, one of the largest U.S. coal producers, hasn’t completed the terms of a restructuring plan but will likely sell some of its best mines or turn them over to creditors and close others during its trip through bankruptcy court, according to people familiar with the matter.

The EPA is creating rules that defeat even environmentalists ---
http://reason.com/archives/2015/07/29/zealots-at-the-epa
EPA zealots want to close every mine in the USA, including those essential to the economy


Avoid Foreign Currency Transaction Fees for Credit Card Purchases
Why You Need a No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card ---
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/money-finance/credit/why-you-need-a-no-foreign-transaction-fee-credit-card?utm_source=MG20150730&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=moneygirl#sthash.euDKtSwd.dpuf


From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 3, 2015

For New York Times, a gamble on giveaways
http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-new-york-times-a-gamble-on-giveaways-1438556347?mod=djemCFO_h
New York Times Co.
has been experimenting with making its content available free across a multitude of platforms. It wants to boost its Web and mobile audience to help ad sales—but without undermining a steadily growing digital-subscription business.


Woman Who Alleged Rape by 3 Oregon Athletes Will Get $800,000 Settlement (plus a free education) ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/woman-who-alleged-rape-by-3-oregon-athletes-will-get-800000-settlement/102765?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en


Idaho State Distances Itself From Accountant / Hunter ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/08/05/idaho-state-distances-itself-accountant-hunter


The Trouble with Lawyers
by Deborah L. Rhode
Oxford University Press
2015 --- Click Here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0190217227/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0190217227&linkCode=as2&tag=lawproblo-20&linkId=QMAEC7UH2BRGV4B7

Reviewed by Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog, August 6, 2015 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/08/rhode-the-trouble-with-lawyersstrong.html

. . .

Deborah Rhode's The Trouble with Lawyers is a comprehensive account of the challenges facing the American bar. She examines how the problems have affected (and originated within) law schools, firms, and governance institutions like bar associations; the impact on the justice system and access to lawyers for the poor; and the profession's underlying difficulties with diversity. She uncovers the structural problems, from the tyranny of law school rankings and billable hours to the lack of accountability and innovation built into legal governance-all of which do a disservice to lawyers, their clients, and the public.

The Trouble with Lawyers is a clear call to fix a profession that has gone badly off the rails, and a source of innovative responses.


Brian Leiter (University of Chicago) : American Legal Education: The First 150 Years ---
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-leiter/american-legal-education-_b_4581672.html


What good is the study of ethics if it doesn't make us more ethical? It breaks down strictures and transports us to wild, unpredictable places.
"Cheeseburger Ethics," by Eric Schwitzgebel, AEON, 2015 ---
http://aeon.co/magazine/philosophy/how-often-do-ethics-professors-call-their-mothers/

. . .

What’s more, abstract doctrines lack specific content if they aren’t tacked down in a range of concrete examples. Consider the doctrine ‘treat everyone as moral equals who are worthy of respect’. What counts as adhering to this norm, and what constitutes a violation of it? Only when we understand how norms play out across examples do we really understand them. Living our norms, or trying to live them, forces a maximally concrete confrontation with examples. Does your ethical vision really require that you free the slaves on which your lifestyle crucially depends? Does it require giving away your salary and never again enjoying an expensive dessert? Does it require drinking the hemlock if your fellow citizens unjustly demand that you do so?

Few professional ethicists really are cheeseburger ethicists, I think, when they stop to consider it. We do want our ethical reflections to improve us morally, a little bit. But here’s the catch: we aim only to become a little morally better. We cut ourselves slack when we look at others around us. We grade ourselves on a curve and aim for B+ rather than A. And at the same time, we excel at rationalisation and excuse-making – maybe more so, the more ethical theories we have ready to hand. So we end, on average, about where we began, behaving more or less the same as others of our social group.

Continued in article

 


"Law Students Sue Their Law Schools for Deceptive Employment Reporting Practices," by Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog, March 11, 2014 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/03/law-students-.html


The Law School Bubble Bursts
"Pop Goes the Law," by Steven J. Harper, Chronicle of Higher Education's Chronicle Review, March 11, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Pop-Goes-the-Law/137717/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

The Law School Admission Council recently reported that applications were heading toward a 30-year low, reflecting, as a New York Times article put it, "increased concern over soaring tuition, crushing student debt, and diminishing prospects of lucrative employment upon graduation." Since 2004 the number of law-school applicants has dropped from almost 100,000 to 54,000.

Good thing, too. That loud pop you're hearing is the bursting of the law bubble—firms, schools, and disillusioned lawyers paying for decades of greed and grandiosity. The bubble grew from a combination of U.S. News-driven ranking mania, law schools' insatiable hunger for growth, and huge law firms' obsession with profit above all else. Like the dot-com, real-estate, and financial bubbles that preceded it, the law bubble is bursting painfully. But now is the time to consider the causes, take steps to soften the impact, and figure out how to keep it from happening again.

The popular explanation for the recent application plummet is that information about the profession's darker side, including the recession's exacerbation of the attorney glut, has finally started reaching prospective law students. Let's hope so. Marginal candidates and those choosing law school by default might be opting out, and the law-school market may finally be heading toward self-correction.

Still, the bubble has been huge, and the correction will need to be, too. There were 68,000 applicants to the fall of 2012 entering class, while the total number of new, full-time jobs requiring a law degree is 25,000 a year and falling. The onset of the recession drove more students to consider law school as a place to wait out the economic collapse. The number of June 2009 and 2010 admissions tests had surged to almost 33,000. To put that in historical perspective, the June 1987 testing session drew just under 19,000 students. The reduction in the number of LSAT takers in the summer of 2011 to 27,000 merely brought it back to 2008 levels.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on law schools ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#OverstuffedLawSchools


"NY Fed: Federal Aid For College Has Jacked Up Tuition (Especially In Graduate Schools)," by Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog, August 4, 2015 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/08/ny-fed-federal-aid-for-college-has-jacked-up-tuition-especially-in-graduate-schools.html

When students fund their education through loans, changes in student borrowing and tuition are interlinked. Higher tuition costs raise loan demand, but loan supply also affects equilibrium tuition costs—for example, by relaxing students’ funding constraints. To resolve this simultaneity problem, we exploit detailed student-level financial data and changes in federal student aid programs to identify the impact of increased student loan funding on tuition. We find that institutions more exposed to changes in the subsidized federal loan program increased their tuition disproportionately around these policy changes, with a sizable pass-through effect on tuition of about 65 percent. We also find that Pell Grant aid and the unsubsidized federal loan program have pass-through effects on tuition, although these are economically and statistically not as strong. The subsidized loan effect on tuition is most pronounced for expensive, private institutions that are somewhat, but not among the most, selective.

Wall Street Journal, Federal Aid’s Role in Driving Up Tuitions Gains Credence:

"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 on student loans and government aid has contributed to tuition rises well in excess of inflation rates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#LoansDriveDuition


RANKED: The economies of all 50 US states and DC from worst to best ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/state-economy-ranking-july-2015-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3hkycMMnY

Jensen Comment
Some of the top-ranked economies are low-tax states including New Hampshire, Florida, Texas, Washington, and North Dakota at Rank 1. Some like New York, California, and Taxachusetts tax everything under the sun. Those states benefit from the tech industry concentrations and top universities.

Some of the top-ranked states are in very deep trouble with underfunded public pensions and high energy costs, including New York and California. Go figure!

The worst state economies are traditionally the worst state economies like Mississippi, West Virginia, and Arkansas. These states cannot seem to overcome the plague of poverty. West Virginia is probably in the worst shape given that the EPA is Hell-bent to end all mining in the USA.

The EPA is creating rules that defeat even environmentalists ---
http://reason.com/archives/2015/07/29/zealots-at-the-epa
EPA zealots want to close every mine in the USA, including those essential to the economy

The EPA is Waving Goodbye to Every Mine in the USA, not just coal mines
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 3, 2015

Coal miner Alpha to seek chapter 11.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/alpha-natural-resources-to-seek-chapter-11-1438557901?mod=djemCFO_h
Alpha Natural Resources Inc
. is expected to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early Monday to cut its more than $3 billion debt load. The Bristol, Va., company, one of the largest U.S. coal producers, hasn’t completed the terms of a restructuring plan but will likely sell some of its best mines or turn them over to creditors and close others during its trip through bankruptcy court, according to people familiar with the matter.

 


MIT:  Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending August 8, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/539996/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-august-8-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150807

MIT:  Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending August 8, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/539991/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-august-8-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150807

MIT  Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending August 1, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/539776/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-august-1-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150731

MIT:  Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending August 1, 2015) ---
 http://www.technologyreview.com/view/539771/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-august-1-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150731

MIT  Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending July 25, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/539601/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-july-25-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-robotics&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150729

MIT:  Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending July 25, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/539596/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-july-25-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-robotics&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150729


How to Mislead With Statistics and Visualization

"I'm Business Insider's math reporter, and these 10 everyday things drive me insane, by Andy Kiersz, Business Insider, August 2, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/things-annoying-for-a-quant-reporter-2015-4 

Bob Jensen's threads on common statistical analysis and reporting mistakes ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsScienceStatisticalMistakes.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on multivariate data visualization ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm 


From Econometrics Beat by David Giles on August 4, 2015 ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/08/august-reading.html

August reading

 
Here's my (slightly delayed) August reading list:
  • Ahelegbey, A. F., 2015. The econometrics of networks: A review. Working Paper  2015/13, Department of Economics, University of Venice.
  • Clemens, M. A., 2015. The meaning of failed replications: A review and proposal. IZA Discussion Paper No.9000.
  • Fair, R. C., 2015. Information limits of aggregate data. Discussion Paper No. 2011, Cowles Foundation, Yale University.
  • Phillips, P. C. B., 2015. Inference in near singular regression. Discussion Paper No. 2009, Cowles Foundation, Yale University.
  • Stock, J. H. and M. W. Watson, 2015. Core inflation and trend inflation. NBER Working Paper 21282.
  • Ullah, A. and X. Zhang, 2015. Grouped model averaging for finite sample size. Working paper, Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside.

Blackboard Learn --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Learn

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

Why Colleges Love to Hate Blackboard (and love Moodle?)
"Even Though Colleges Love to Hate Blackboard, It Might Sell for $3 Billion," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 30, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Even-Though-Colleges-Love-to/232007/?cid=wc

Blackboard knows it has an image problem. Though it started out as an innovator — helping invent course-management systems — its core products have become a Frankenstein-like creation of acquired companies and legacy software. That’s why, just last week, Blackboard announced at its annual conference that it was significantly retooling its products.

Even so, Blackboard is reportedly seeking a buyer willing to pay up to $3.4 billion, according to a report on Tuesday by Reuters, and experts say that at a time when investment in education technology is at an all-time high, it might just get that price.

Exactly what a sale would mean for colleges — and for the professors and students who regularly use Blackboard software to turn in assignments, hold online class discussions, and the like — depends on who buys the company. But with that kind of price tag, the list of potential buyers is pretty short, say some who watch the education-technology market.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
One of the main reasons many colleges moved away (totally or partially) from Blackboard is that it became expensive relative to cheaper alternatives.

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


Texas Tech Is Investigating Business Professor’s Grade-Tampering Claim ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/texas-tech-is-investigating-professors-grade-tampering-claim/102621?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en


The New York Times found some of the most 'loathed' college dorms in the country — here's what they look like ---
 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-loathed-college-dorms-2015-7?op=1#ixzz3hP7pV9SV

Jensen Comment
I think this article missed a few. The Jester Center at the University of Texas takes up one square block and has two zip codes for over 3,000 residents ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester_Center
One of the drawbacks of such a large complex is that it's noisy 24/7 due to rude students making noise at all hours. There are also a lot of what seem like non-student pot smokers  hanging around all the time, often on roller skates.

My daughter instead opted for a nearby private dorm (Dolby). Actually it was a sky rise tower (silo) that made life miserable for students above the third floor because the elevators did not work over half the time making some students climb up and down over 20 flights of stairs day and night. Fortunately Lisl lived on the third floor.

After the first year  she shared apartments off campus. Although she had her own car, parking on campus was impossible such she had to deal with a shuttle bus service that covers most of Austin but takes up a lot of what would otherwise be free time.

There are of course private universities that compete in terms of luxurious dorms. But there's a catch. The total cost of attending full time and living in one of these dorms costs more than $50,000 per year.

I never much liked sharing apartments or houses because meals and cleaning such things as bathrooms became such a hassle. I'm not fussy about food such that I did not mind campus dining halls. Living in a fraternity turned into Mickey Mouse --- one year of that was too much. Dorms were better places for playing bridge and getting dates.


Vladimir Nabokov’s Hand-Drawn Sketches of Mind-Bending Chess Problems ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/vladimir-nabokovs-hand-drawn-sketches-of-mind-bending-chess-problems.html

Bob Jensen's threads on edutainment ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm


"The enemy within Rogue employees can wreak more damage on a company than competitors," The Economist, July 25, 2015 ---
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21659776-rogue-employees-can-wreak-more-damage-company-competitors-enemy-within

. . .

The most familiar type of enemy within is the fraudster. The Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister organisation of The Economist, conducts a regular poll of senior executives on the subject of fraud committed by insiders. In 2013 the poll discovered that about 70% of companies had suffered from at least one instance of fraud, up from 61% in the previous survey. Fraud is often petty: a survey of British employees for YouGov in 2010 found that a quarter of staff eligible for expenses admitted to inflating claims. But fraud can also be more audacious and more harmful: think of former employees setting up rivals using stolen technology and purloined client lists.

Even more dangerous than the fraudster is the vandal. Thieves at least have a rational motive. Vandals are driven by a desire for revenge that can know no limits. David Robertson of K2 Intelligence, a company that specialises in corporate investigation, recounts the story of a British manufacturing company that was undergoing restructuring. A member of the information-technology department discovered that his name was on the list of people whose services would no longer be required. He built a “backdoor” into the company’s IT system from his home computer and set about wreaking damage—deleting files, publishing the chief executive’s e-mails and distributing pornographic pictures.

Some enemies-within start out as star employees. A striking number of the worst corporate scandals in recent years have been the work of high-flyers who bend and then break the rules in order to please their bosses. Barings, a collapsed British investment bank, showered Nick Leeson with rewards before it discovered that he had produced his outsized results because he took outsized (and unauthorised) risks.

Other enemies-within are the very opposite of high-flyers. The HSBC execution squad are only the latest example of low-level employees who have either wittingly or unwittingly used the power of the internet to blacken their employer’s reputation. In April 2009 two employees of Domino’s, a fast-food chain, posted videos of themselves “abusing takeaway food”. And in July 2012 a Burger King employee posted photos of himself online which showed him standing in a tub of lettuce in filthy shoes along with the caption “This is the lettuce you eat at Burger King”.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
If employees do not get greedy and limit themselves to relatively small damages to the company they are almost impossible to detect --- such as those that pad expense accounts, use business vehicles for personal use, take home office supplies, etc. The greater the greed the greater the risk.

Probably the most effective way to detect employee misdeeds is to reward or at least encourage whistle blowing. This of course is no panacea "if everybody is doing it." For example, if a lot of professors are attending phony research conferences in Europe in order to partly fund family vacations it becomes less likely that they will rat on each other.

Almost everything boils down to having internal controls. Universities are notorious for lack of controls on most everything concerning faculty behavior and performance. Professors do not check up on each other to see of data is faked. Administrators generally do not inspect submitted receipts with a magnifying glass. We pride ourselves on trust even though, as accounting professors, we preach otherwise when it comes to internal controls that we teach to our students.

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

Bob Jensen's threads on managerial accounting and controls ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory02.htm#ManagementAccounting


Trump's Higher Ed Fraud:  No Accreditations, No Degrees, and No Trump in the Fake Trump University
"Trump University: How Donald Trump persuaded students to pay $35,000 to become just like him,"  by Libby Nelson, Vox, July 29, 2015  ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/7/29/9067429/trump-university

From 2005 to 2010, Trump offered what he called "Trump University," which was supposed to offer instruction on becoming a real estate investor.

This was a generous — and, New York officials claim, illegal — use of the term "university." Trump's institution wasn't chartered as a university; he later renamed it the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative. New York's attorney general sued Trump in 2013, saying the operation was a fraud, and former students have filed a class-action suit asking for their money back.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
This gets more and more bizarre as you read deeper into the article.

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


"Nokia launches virtual reality camera," Reuters, July 29, 2015 ---
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/29/us-nokia-virtualreality-idUSKCN0Q30R720150729

Finland's Nokia, once the world's largest phone maker, has unveiled a spherical camera designed for making 3D movies and games that can be watched and played with virtual reality headsets.

The device, showcased at an event in Los Angeles, takes video and audio in 360 degrees with eight sensors and microphones, and is the first from Nokia's digital media solutions business -- one of its new focuses for future growth.

Nokia is going through restructuring after selling its mobile phone business to Microsoft last year and following that up with a proposed 15.6 billion euro ($17.2 billion) acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, which is set to boost its main network equipment business.

Continued in article

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


"Remedial Educators Warn of Misconceptions Fueling a Reform Movement," by Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Remedial-Educators-Warn-of/231937/?cid=at

. . .

1. If you graduated from high school, you’re ready for college-level classes. Nearly 70 percent of the students entering community colleges are assigned to remedial coursework, according to the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Many of those students could probably do just fine if they took college-level classes, researchers there have concluded, and most developmental educators agree.

. . .

2. Developmental education is the same thing as taking remedial classes. Catch-up, or remedial, classes are one component of a broader approach that includes tutoring, time management, study skills, and other supports.

"Developmental education is about treating students holistically and realizing that they’re not just students taking courses but people who are parenting and working, many of whom are struggling to manage their finances and their time," says Hunter R. Boylan, director of the National Center for Developmental Education.

"The focus of many of the remedial-reform efforts appears to be on getting students through courses as quickly and cheaply as possible," he adds, and that often requires a heavy reliance on online support courses where minority and underprepared students are more likely to struggle.

3. Eliminating remedial-course requirements will help more students graduate. Early evidence from Florida indicates that students who are given the option to skip remedial classes will do so, and that many unprepared students who jump into college-level classes will struggle.

"The mission of developmental education is to give students the skills they need to succeed in their first college courses," says D. Patrick Saxon, an associate professor of educational leadership at Sam Houston State University, in Texas. "When you take away those supports, you’re essentially returning to the revolving door of the 1960s, when anyone could attend college, but once there, it was sink or swim."

4. Co-requisite remediation will work for nearly everyone needing extra help. That’s a message that Stan Jones, president of Complete College America, sought to convey at the meeting here and in an interview this week.

"The evidence is pretty overwhelming, as we scale across states, that even at the lowest levels, students perform better in co-requisite courses than if they had been in traditional stand-alone remediation," he says. His nonprofit group, which is heavily supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been pushing states to carry out its "game-changing" strategies, including co-requisite remediation, performance-based funding, and highly structured schedules.

About 30 percent of the students who place into a remedial class never show up for it, Mr. Jones contends, often because they’re embarrassed or frustrated. He’d favor eliminating all stand-alone remedial classes as long as options like an intensive boot camp right before classes start, co-requisite remediation, and math requirements that are tied to what students actually need are in place.

Robin Ozz, the association’s president-elect, is director of developmental education at Phoenix College, a community college in Arizona. She’s been teaching co-requisite classes for seven years, and says the approach works well for many, but not so well for those with the greatest needs.

"These students get all excited thinking they’ll be able to finish their college class in one semester," she says, "but then some struggle and drop out, which is terrible on their self-esteem."

5. Remedial educators resist change. Rebecca Goosen, associate vice chancellor for college preparatory at San Jacinto College, in Texas, doesn’t buy that.

"I have found that developmental educators are the most innovative and adaptable faculty that respond to mandates," she says. In addition, "they are the first to initiate and adopt practices that improve student success and are the closest to understanding the needs and ability of students they serve."

Jensen Comment
Many (most?) of those students most in need of remedial education have some form of learning disability such as dyslexia. It's important to recognize such disabilities and perhaps use some of the evolving technologies for disabled learners ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped


"Black Students Are Among the Least-Prepared for College, Report Says," by Andy Thomason, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 27, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/black-students-are-among-the-least-prepared-for-college-report-finds/102435?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

African-American students’ college readiness is lagging compared with that of other underrepresented students, according to a new report released on Monday by ACT and the United Negro College Fund. Sixty-two percent of African-American students who graduated from high school in 2014 and took the ACT met none of the organization’s four benchmarks that measure college readiness, which was twice the rate for all students.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The report stresses the need to improve K-12 education of African Americans. The report itself lists the following:

Using This Report
This report is designed to help inform the following questions driving national efforts to strengthen P–16 education.

Education only can go so far in circumstances of poverty at home, single-parent homes, a drug-addicted parent, and gang-dominated schools that lure students with opportunities  in drug peddling and prostitution. Worst of all is probably the culture of fear and intimidation.

Family environments are the main differences between Asians versus African Americans living in poverty. Charter schools in the worst ghettos show that the more hours students can be removed from home and street environments the better the chances of motivating African Americans to learn.

What is needed most is a change of attitude that it's really not cool to be ignorant outside of being street smart.


"India Loves MOOCs: In a country of rigid teaching styles and scarce university slots, students and professors are exploring what online learning can be," MIT's Technology Review, July 27, 2015 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539131/india-loves-moocs/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150727

 

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

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

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Meet the 'Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives' in America (July 2015) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-top-10-most-wanted-2015-4#ixzz3h6GgSHN7


Question
What are the 10 most-expensive and 10 least-expensive states to own a car in the USA?

Hint
An important factor is insurance pricint. The most surprising outcomes are the outliers where Hawaii is the least-expensive state and Michigan is the most expensive state. I would have put Alaska, California, and  Hawaii on top with Michigan, Texas, and Louisiana near the bottom. Shows what I know!

Most-expensive car ownership states:

Michigan (most expensive)
Mississippi
North Dakota
California
Maryland
West Virginia
Wyoming
Louisiana
Texas
Georgia

Least-expensive car ownership states:

Washington State
Illinois
Minnesota
North Carolina
Vermont
Idaho
Iowa
Ohio
Wisconsin
New Hampshire
Hawaii (least expensive)

Jensen Comment
One factor that seems to be ignored is depreciation cost. One only has to look at the rust trim on older cars to realize what salting the roads does in the snowbelt. Vehicle bodies last much longer in most southern states. You can usually get better buys on used cars that have never been near snow, ice,  or salty ocean breezes.

Another factor that's ignored is parking cost. For example I think (without checking the facts) almost half the people in New York live in New York City. Most people living in Manhattan, for example,  avoid car ownership because of the cost and other hassles of parking (such as trying to find a parking place on a crowded street).

Maintenance costs are ignored in the above rankings. The first time we rented a car in Alaska a long-time resident (Professor Tom Robinson) who met us at the airport warned us not to sign anything until we inspected the windows of the car we were about to rent. Look for cracks and ships. Since there are only three paved highways in Alaska there are a lot of broken windows arising from flying rocks on unpaved roads. It's not that you should refuse to rent a car with some damage to windows. That may even be a good thing if you catch my drift. The important thing is to note the prior damage on paper before you drive off in the car. Sure enough the car we rented had a small crack in the windshield before we drove off from the airport in Fairbanks.

Even though it's expensive I generally take all the insurance I can get on a rental car just to avoid any hassle with having to deal with the insurance policies on my own cars. It would seem that there is an added consideration of insurance coverage variations in states. For example, maybe it is smarter to pay for rental car insurance in Michigan and Mississippi than in New Hampshire and Hawaii. I also advise paying for the added insurance in Maine where native drivers are "Maniacs"  even if drunk driving laws are strictly enforced. Also pay the added insurance cost in Texas where drunk drivers roam free.

I might add that I've never had an insurance claim on a rental car. I did have a claim on my new Subaru when somebody took out two doors while we were having a meal in a Maine restaurant. Must have been one of those "Maniacs."

17 Most Unreliable Cars To Own --- http://www.trendingstories.net/es/95/page2/17-Most-Unreliable-Cars-To-Own 
Recall that in the 2008 Chrysler was taken over by Fiat. It seems that did not help Chrysler's reputation for manufacturing unreliable cars --- sort of like the blind leading the blind. However. there are other unreliable models from supposedly more reputable manufacturing companies.

Fiat 500L (the least reliable of all)
Volkswagen Beetle
Ford Fiesta
Audi RS6
Nissan Pathfinder
Mercedes-Benz CLA 250
Chevrolet Silverado
Ford Escape
Cheverolet Cruze
Dodge Dart
Volkswagen Passat
Ford C-MAX Energi
Infiniti Q50
Mercedes-Benz S-Class
Mini Cooper Countryman
Volkswagan Touran
Jeep Grand Cherokee


The Worst Heisman Winners to Ever Play in the NFL---
http://worthly.com/sports/worst-heisman-winners-ever-play-nfl/

Jensen Comment
Sink "Anchors Away" for the worst Heisman winner.


"Four-day week for Georgia public school district: Does it work?," by Shontee Pant, Yahoo News, July 31, 2015 ---
http://news.yahoo.com/four-day-week-georgia-public-school-district-does-151949233.html

Students will have each Monday off from school, saving the county $800,000.

. . .

In the state of Georgia, schools are required to have no less than a daily average of five and a half hours of daily “instructional time” based on a 180-school-day calendar, according to guidelines set forth by the Georgia Department of Education. Martin says that Chattooga High School is able to meet state requirements for the minimum hours by having longer, but fewer days; teens at Chattooga High School start their day at 7:40 am and the final bell for the day sounds at 3:45 pm.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Way back in the good old days when I was in K-12 schools in Iowa the school days started at 8:30 am and ended at 4:30 p.m. That's what made us so much smarter. We brought our own lunches. In elementary school there were two recesses, and in higher grades there was one physical education class per day except that varsity athletes were released at 3:30 pm each day for practices.

It seems to me that having three free days in a row each week all year long leaves a lot of wasted education time for most of our children. Think of how much smarter these kids will be with 2-3 days of home schooling added onto their four-days of school.

Did anybody think that the four-day work week gives education advantage to affluent families who can afford the added home schooling time created by having at ;east three days free from school all year long? The other kids will get more time to to watch cartoons and play basketball..


"The new millennial mystery: why young people with jobs are still living at home," by Emily Badger, The Washington Post, July 31, 2015 --- |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/07/31/this-new-millennial-mystery-is-terrible-news-for-ikea/

Several years ago, when the economy was still looking grisly, it was easy to explain the single most popular trope about millennials — that an unusually high number of them were still living in their parents' basements. Obviously, they didn't have jobs. Where were they supposed to go?

"The standard explanation was, 'it’s a crummy job market,'" says Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. He reasoned, as just about everyone did, that as the job market improved, Millennials would move out. A new Pew analysis this week muddles that picture: The unemployment rate has fallen significantly since the recession for 18-to-34-year-olds. But the number of them heading their own households has not budged at all.

"That expectation," Fry recalls of the old job-market hypothesis, "at least so far has proven wrong."

About 42 million 18-to-34-year-olds lived independently of their families on the eve of the recession. About 42 million of them live on their own today, even as the size of this age bracket has grown. That means a young adult is even more likely to live at home in 2015 than back in 2008.

So now we have a modest, more perplexing new trend: Millennials are finding work, but they still seem stuck at home.

That pattern raises some much tricker questions. For one: Why? And how long will this last? Is this a sign of financial savvy or gun-shy caution? And what are these people doing with their newfound income if they're not spending it on rent?

Some of this may be explained by student debt. But the Pew analysis, based on data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, suggests that young adults are less likely than at any point since the recession to live on their own, whether they have a college degree or just a high school diploma.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The slow growth in wages certainly has not helped these millennial wprlers beginning to carry the entitlements granted to the retiring baby boomers --- like the entitlement disasters of under-funded Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security benefits, and Social Security Disability benefits. The problem is not so much the benefits as it is Congressional stupidity in not adequately funding those benefits in advance of when the financial obligations come due. There's also the immense problem that all big government programs are piñatas for fraud.

Bob Jensen's threads on the entitlements disaster ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm


More Declines in in the Number of History Majors
The Future Of American History --- http://lisnews.org/the_future_of_american_history

Jensen Comment
I attribute much of added losses in humanities majors to the decline in opportunities for law school graduates. In the past many humanities tracked into law schools for careers. Now that only about half of the law school graduates are finding jobs in law, undergraduates are thinking more about majors leading to other careers, and many of those majors like accounting, nursing, pharmacy, engineering, education, and science entail earlier decisions about career tracks.


In my day kids could dig worms (especially the big night crawlers), put out a homemade sign,  and sell them to anglers going fishing.
"Cornwall lawyer offers to represent boys (kids) with worm-selling business Bylaw threatened to find the brothers $240 a day," by Kristy Cameron, CFRA. July 29, 2015 ---
http://www.cfra.com/news/2015/07/29/cornwall-lawyer-offers-to-represent-boys-with-wormselling-business

A Cornwall lawyer has stepped in to help two kids who were threatened with a fine for selling worms from their front porch.

A bylaw officer told Kristopher Cadieux,10,and his brother Clayton,8,they must take their operation inside their home and remove signage or they could face fines of $240 a day.

The controversial story made headlines and caught the attention of local lawyer, Andre Bourgon.

"As a Cornwallite, having sold worms as a kid, I reached out to them," says Bourgon. "They needed someone to in order to assist them and navigate through the process and I am certainly happy to do so."

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Erika I watched an excellent albeit  tear-jerking Netflix streaming film called Still Mine produced in Canada ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_Mine

One focus of the film is about government costly red-tape regulations. It's not so much that the regulations are absurd. What is absurd is the not being able to enforce the regulations with reason because of the manias of bureaucrats. For example, one regulation in the film  is that local farmers must deliver strawberries to nearby markets in refrigerated trucks even iv the strawberries were freshly picked less than an hour earlier. The markets flatly refuse to accept any strawberries not arriving in refrigerated trucks.

 What would you rather have? Strawberries that were picked a week ago and refrigerated versus strawberries picked less than an hour earlier and delivered fresh off the plants?




From the Scout Report on July 31, 2015

RANDOM.ORG --- https://www.random.org/ 

Created by Dr. Mads Haahr of the School of Computer Sciences and Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, RANDOM.ORG has generated over two trillion truly random bits in its nearly two decade history. As the site notes, "true" randomness is not as easy to come by as one might think. In fact, most computers generate pseudo-random numbers using mathematical formulae. RANDOM.ORG, on the other hand, uses atmospheric noise to generate truly random numbers for anything from lottery drawings to coin flips to card shuffles. Many of the services on the website are free, though readers may also use the Third-Party Draw Service for a small fee. Readers may also like to explore the Learn About Randomness section, where they can learn about the history of randomness, read testimonials, and peruse quotations.  


Map Stack --- http://mapstack.stamen.com/ 

Map Stack allows educators, students, or anyone fascinated by maps to create exquisitely tailored cartographic images via a web-based click interface. The tool uses a system very close to the classic Photoshop platform of layers and palettes, allowing users to design their own maps without having to know any code, install software, or even do any typing. Layers are created using roads, labels, backgrounds, and even satellite imagery. In addition, the maps can be tweaked and fine-tuned with different colors, opacity, brightness, and other visuals. Best of all, the site makes sharing completed images via Pinterest and Tumblr quite easy. While learning the ins and outs of the site can take a little while, the results are more than worth it.

From the Scout Report on February 13, 2015

History: Maps of the World --- https://seungbin.wordpress.com 

This app, which is designed to be compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch (iOS 5.0+) features 178 historical maps from around the world, organized by category or era. The maps are interactive and intended to highlight geopolitical and geographic shifts over time. Perfect for history teachers, or anyone fascinated by history.  


The Benefits of Natural Spaces May Be Greater than We Think
How Trees Calm Us Down
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-is-a-tree-worth

New research suggests nature walks are good for your brain
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/06/29/fixating-or-brooding-on-things-take-a-walk-in-the-woods-for-real/

Neighborhood greenspace and health in a large urban center
http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150709/srep11610/full/srep11610.html

Alliance for Community Trees: Resources About Trees
http://actrees.org/resources/about-trees/

Walking
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1862/06/walking/304674/

Ralph Waldo Emerson - Texts:
http://www.emersoncentral.com/natureand.html


From the Scout Report on August 7, 2015

Asana --- https://asana.com/ 

Asana, a collaborative workplace management tool, has garnered positive reviews around the Internet, including recognition as an "Editor's Choice" at PC Magazine. The platform seeks to replace email for group projects, offering in its stead a holistic work environment, with deadlines, priority options, and seamless communication all built into a single system. The layout includes three basic areas: a left rail that displays a list of projects, a main window that features the current working project, and an information box on the right that provides more details on the current work. The platform is extremely fluid and malleable, which makes creative use of the service possible, but, as with any flexible, template-free service, can also produce frustration in the early stages of learning. The free version supports up to 15 team members. Most users will find that they do not need the premium version, though it offers some extra capabilities, such as unlimited guests, private teams, and more access to help desk features. Asana is designed for tech savvy teams that are looking for the next level of online synergy.  


 tricider --- http://www.tricider.com/ 

As promised, tricider really does make brainstorming and voting amazingly easy. In fact, by the end of the 87-second video on the site's homepage, most users will know everything they need to know about the service. The first step is to sign up with an email address or Facebook or Google account. From there, type in a question (for instance, "What should we have for dinner?"). Then share your question with friends through Facebook, Twitter, or other avenues. Friends can then add ideas ("pizza!"), add arguments for ideas ("everyone loves pizza!"), and vote on ideas. The result is simple, powerful, and efficient.


Wild Fires Wreak Havoc Across the West
Light rain brings little relief to Calif. wildfire
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/04/california-fire-jumps-containment-line/31093505/

Dry Days Bring Ferocious Start to Fire Season
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/us/dry-days-in-west-bring-ferocious-start-to-fire-season.html?_r=0

Fire and the U.S. Forest Service
http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/Policy/Fire/index.aspx

10 of the worst wildfires in U.S. history
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/10-of-the-worst-wildfires-in-us-history

Western Wildfires & Climate Change
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/impacts/infographic-wildfires-climate-change.html#.Vb-2pjBViko


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


Education Tutorials

Free Lesson Plans for Teachers (including technology modules), By Teachers --- http://lessonplanspage.com/

TeachingEnglish: Resources https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-resource

Scratch (kindergarten learning from the MIT Media Lab) --- https://scratch.mit.edu/

Teenagers in the Times (learning Blogs) --- http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/teens-in-the-times/

Annenberg Classroom: Resources for Excellent Civics Education --- http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/

Teachers & Writers Magazine --- http://www.teachersandwritersmagazine.org/

Climate Program Office: Outreach and Education --- http://cpo.noaa.gov/OutreachandEducation.aspx

Teaching Climate --- http://www.climate.gov/teaching

"India Loves MOOCs: In a country of rigid teaching styles and scarce university slots, students and professors are exploring what online learning can be," MIT's Technology Review, July 27, 2015 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539131/india-loves-moocs/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150727

An Animated Intro to G.W.F. Hegel, and Everything Else You Wanted to Know About the Daunting German Philosopher ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/an-animated-intro-to-g-w-f-hegel.html  

Philosophy TV --- http://www.philostv.com/

Neil Gaiman’s Philosophical Dream, in a Whimsical Animation Narrated by Amanda Palmer ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/30/behind-the-trees-neil-gaiman-dream-amanda-palmer/?mc_cid=06d956e795&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Beatrix Potter, Mycologist: The Beloved Children's Book Author's Little-Known Scientific Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/28/beatrix-potter-a-life-in-nature-botany-mycology-fungi/?mc_cid=06d956e795&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Two Tutorials From Khan Academy

Khan Academy:  Phases of Mitosis (How the Body Makes New Cells) --- Click Here
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/cellular-molecular-biology/mitosis/a/phases-of-mitosis?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Stuff You Might Like Test Cohort&utm_campaign=Highlighted Content 080215

 

Khan Academy:  How USA Presidents are Chosen --- Click Here
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/American civics/american-civics/v/primaries-and-caucuses?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Stuff You Might Like Test Cohort&utm_campaign=Highlighted Content 080215

Also see OpenSecrets (money and politics blog) --- https://www.opensecrets.org

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

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

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

 


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

GrantSpace --- http://grantspace.org/

Beatrix Potter, Mycologist: The Beloved Children's Book Author's Little-Known Scientific Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/28/beatrix-potter-a-life-in-nature-botany-mycology-fungi/?mc_cid=06d956e795&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Coastal Flood Risks --- http://www.fema.gov/coastal-flood-risks-achieving-resilience-together

Zoology --- http://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/zoology

The Blue Brain Project (building a virtual brain in a supercomputer) ---  http://bluebrain.epfl.ch
Bob ensen's threads on computing and networking --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---ComputerNetworking-IncludingInternet
Bob Jensen's threads on the brain and neuroscience --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#---Neuroscience

Louis Prang and Chromolithography --- http://www.americanantiquarian.org/prang /

Lousiana Digital Media Archive http://ladigitalmedia.org/

Louisiana Works Progress Administration (WPA) --- http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/LWP

Thomas H. and Joan W. Gandy Photograph Collection (Acadian culture in Louisiana) ---
http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/index.php?name=Thomas%20H.%20and%20Joan%20W.%20Gandy%20Photograph%20Collection

From Tulane University Natalie V. Scott Exhibit (Essays, New Orleans, Newspapers) ---
http://larc.tulane.edu/collections/dig_init/exhibits/nvs/

Archaeology for the Public: Resources for Educators --- http://www.saa.org/publicftp/public/resources/foredu.html

Top 10 archeological finds of all time
http://metro.co.uk/2013/02/04/top-10-archaeological-finds-of-all-time-3379570/

ScienceDaily: Engineering News --- http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/engineering/

Wright in Racine (architecture) --- https://wrightinracine.wordpress.com/

Climate Program Office: Outreach and Education --- http://cpo.noaa.gov/OutreachandEducation.aspx

Teaching Climate --- http://www.climate.gov/teaching 

Computer --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer

Computer Network --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network

Computer Science --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science

Computer Software --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_software

Communications of the ACM (computing machinery) ---  http://cacm.acm.org

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

From Google:  Made with Code --- https://www.madewithcode.com/

Aspen Institute: Skills for America's Future ---
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/economic-opportunities/skills-for-americas-future

Pew Research Center: Web IQ Quiz --- http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/web-iq-quiz/

National Center for Women & Information Technology --- https://www.ncwit.org

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

How Technology Changed the Medium
The Visionary Thought of Marshall McLuhan, Introduced and Demystified by Tom Wolfe ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/14c6fb9b32f00f0f

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

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

MIT Center for Civic Media --- https://civic.mit.edu/

CS Unplugged: Computer Science without a computer --- http://csunplugged.org/

Cross-Cultural Investigations: Technology and Development (Multicultural Online Education and Open Sharing) ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/anthropology/21a-801j-cross-cultural-investigations-technology-and-development-fall-2012/

Computing History
Numbers...Easy for the Machine --- http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/sgahistory/clips/numbers-easy-for-the-machine

In this clip from Who's Got the Action, a mafia boss describes his UNIVAC mainframe and how it keeps the records of his gambling business.

The Blue Brain Project (building a virtual brain in a supercomputer) ---  http://bluebrain.epfl.ch
Bob ensen's threads on computing and networking --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---ComputerNetworking-IncludingInternet
Bob Jensen's threads on the brain and neuroscience --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#---Neuroscience

Critical Commons (tutorials on varied topics) --- http://www.criticalcommons.org/ 

Free Code Camp --- http://www.freecodecamp.com/

11 popular programming languages that can help you land a job ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/programming-languages-in-highest-demand-2015-6?op=1#ixzz3eIfM4fpC

Other comuting and networking links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---ComputerNetworking-IncludingInternet

Bob Jensen's threads on free online science, engineering, and medicine tutorials are at --http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Social Science and Economics Tutorials

GrantSpace --- http://grantspace.org/

Annenberg Classroom: Resources for Excellent Civics Education --- http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/

The Center on Congress at Indiana University (purpose and history of USA Congresess) ---  http://www.centeroncongress.org/

Election Information --- http://www.rockthevote.com/get-informed/elections/

The Protection Project (human trafficking) --- http://www.protectionproject.org/

Profiles in Science: Visual Culture and Health Posters --- http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Collection/CID/VC

Archaeology for the Public: Resources for Educators --- http://www.saa.org/publicftp/public/resources/foredu.html

Community Service Society Photographs --- http://css.cul.columbia.edu/

Top 10 archeological finds of all time
http://metro.co.uk/2013/02/04/top-10-archaeological-finds-of-all-time-3379570/

MIT Center for Civic Media --- https://civic.mit.edu/

Crime in the United States: 2013 --- https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013

Crime Solutions --- http://www.crimesolutions.gov/

OpenSecrets (money and politics blog) --- https://www.opensecrets.org

Community Service Society Photographs --- http://css.cul.columbia.edu/

Khan Academy:  How USA Presidents are Chosen --- Click Here
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/American civics/american-civics/v/primaries-and-caucuses?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Stuff You Might Like Test Cohort&utm_campaign=Highlighted Content 080215
Also see Also see
OpenSecrets (money and politics blog) --- https://www.opensecrets.org

Philosophy TV --- http://www.philostv.com/

The Avalon Project: The Middle East 1916-2001: A Documentary Record --- http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/mideast.asp

Neil Gaiman’s Philosophical Dream, in a Whimsical Animation Narrated by Amanda Palmer ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/30/behind-the-trees-neil-gaiman-dream-amanda-palmer/?mc_cid=06d956e795&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Coastal Flood Risks --- http://www.fema.gov/coastal-flood-risks-achieving-resilience-together

Edible Geography (food traditions) ---  http://www.ediblegeography.com/

Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Philosophy tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Law and Legal Studies

Crime in the United States: 2013 --- https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013

Crime Solutions --- http://www.crimesolutions.gov/

OpenSecrets (money and politics blog) --- https://www.opensecrets.org

Philosophy TV --- http://www.philostv.com/

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


Math Tutorials

Be an Actuary --- http://www.beanactuary.org/

Communications of the ACM (computing machinery) ---  http://cacm.acm.org

The Blue Brain Project (building a virtual brain in a supercomputer) ---  http://bluebrain.epfl.ch

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

From the Scout Report on July 31, 2015

RANDOM.ORG --- https://www.random.org/ 

Created by Dr. Mads Haahr of the School of Computer Sciences and Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, RANDOM.ORG has generated over two trillion truly random bits in its nearly two decade history. As the site notes, "true" randomness is not as easy to come by as one might think. In fact, most computers generate pseudo-random numbers using mathematical formulae. RANDOM.ORG, on the other hand, uses atmospheric noise to generate truly random numbers for anything from lottery drawings to coin flips to card shuffles. Many of the services on the website are free, though readers may also use the Third-Party Draw Service for a small fee. Readers may also like to explore the Learn About Randomness section, where they can learn about the history of randomness, read testimonials, and peruse quotations.  

 

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


History Tutorials

GrantSpace --- http://grantspace.org/

Unique historic photographic collection online from Mount Holyoke College ---
http://lisnews.org/unique_historic_photographic_collection_online_from_mount_holyoke_college

The Center on Congress at Indiana University (purpose and history of USA Congresess) ---  http://www.centeroncongress.org/

Digital.Bodleian (over 115,000 images books in  history) ---  http://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

Top 10 archeological finds of all time
http://metro.co.uk/2013/02/04/top-10-archaeological-finds-of-all-time-3379570/

Animated map shows how Christianity spread across the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-christianity-spread-around-world-animated-map-2015-7#ixzz3iJy3jnNU 
Christianity is currently the world's largest religion with over 2 billion followers. B

An Animated Intro to G.W.F. Hegel, and Everything Else You Wanted to Know About the Daunting German Philosopher ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/an-animated-intro-to-g-w-f-hegel.html

Khan Academy:  How USA Presidents are Chosen --- Click Here
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/American civics/american-civics/v/primaries-and-caucuses?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Stuff You Might Like Test Cohort&utm_campaign=Highlighted Content 080215

Teachers & Writers Magazine --- http://www.teachersandwritersmagazine.org

Archaeology for the Public: Resources for Educators --- http://www.saa.org/publicftp/public/resources/foredu.html

Edible Geography (food traditions) ---  http://www.ediblegeography.com/

Profiles in Science: Visual Culture and Health Posters --- http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Collection/CID/VC

Louis Prang and Chromolithography --- http://www.americanantiquarian.org/prang /

Wright in Racine (architecture) --- https://wrightinracine.wordpress.com/

Philosophy TV --- http://www.philostv.com/

The Avalon Project: The Middle East 1916-2001: A Documentary Record --- http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/mideast.asp

Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm  

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Language Tutorials

TeachingEnglish: Resources https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-resources

Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Languages


Music Tutorials

Hear All of Mozart in a Free 127-Hour Playlist ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/14ecf6daff614c60

The Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments --- http://imaginaryinstruments.org/

Jerry Garcia --- http://jerrygarcia.com/

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

Teachers & Writers Magazine --- http://www.teachersandwritersmagazine.org

Bukowski on Writing, True Art, and the Courage to Create Outside Society’s Forms of Approval ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/08/03/bukowski-on-writing/?mc_cid=702ce5340a&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

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/

July 28, 2015

July 29, 2015

July 30, 2015

July 31, 2015

August 1, 2015

August 3, 2015

August 4, 2015

August 5, 2015

August 6, 2015

August 7, 2015

August 8, 2015


Khan Academy:  Phases of Mitosis (How the Body Makes New Cells) --- Click Here
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/cellular-molecular-biology/mitosis/a/phases-of-mitosis?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Stuff You Might Like Test Cohort&utm_campaign=Highlighted Content 080215


New Study: Immersing Yourself in Art, Music & Nature Might Reduce Inflammation & Increase Life Expectancy ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/new-study-immersing-yourself-in-art-music-nature-might-reduce-inflammation-increase-life-expectancy.html

Jensen Comment
Life expectancy in the small (e.g., one person) is complicated by the many random factors in life that make it impossible to predict that a given person will live longer by composing music, painting pictures, or listening to classical recordings each and every day. For example, Mozart died at age 35.




A Bit of Humor

Here’s How 5 Legendary Talk Show Hosts Said Goodbye ---
http://time.com/3982859/tv-hosts-last-shows/?xid=newsletter-brief

Mystery pooper targeting holes of Norwegian golf course ---
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2015/07/24/Mystery-pooper-targeting-holes-of-Norwegian-golf-course/2881437763634/

Hump-Day Humor ---
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2015/07/29/Joe-Biden-Looming-Threat-Republican-Presidency

Jensen Comment
This guy just set a word's record in the number of holes-in-one.


Forwarded by Paula

An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Gurkha, a Latvian, a Turk, an Aussie, a German, a Yank, an Egyptian, a Korean, a Mexican, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Jordanian, a Kiwi, a Swede, a Finn, a Canadian, an Israeli, a Romanian, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Singaporean, an Italian, a Norwegian, an Argentinian, a Libyan and an African go to a night club. The bouncer says, "Sorry, I can't let you in without a Thai."




Humor July 1-31,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q3.htm#Humor073115

Humor June 1-30,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q2.htm#Humor043015

Humor May 1-31,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q2.htm#Humor043015

Humor April 1-30, 2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q2.htm#Humor043015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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