Tidbits on October 12, 2015
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Set 9 of Bob Jensen's Foliage Pictures (2015)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Foliage/Set18/FoliageSet09.htm

 

Tidbits on October 12, 2015
Bob Jensen

Bob Jensen's Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

For earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 
Bookmarks for the World's Library --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm 


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

Updates from WebMD --- Click Here




Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio

The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps Podcast, Now at 239 Episodes, Expands into Eastern Philosophy ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/09/the-history-of-philosophy-without-any-gaps-podcast-now-at-239-episodes-expands-into-eastern-philosophy.html

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

Stream 100+ Free Movies from Paramount Pictures on YouTube ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/stream-100-free-movies-from-paramount-pictures-on-youtube.html

The Film Space (history of video) --- http://www.thefilmspace.org
Bob Jensen's threads on the history of film --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Film

NOVA: Dawn of Humanity --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/dawn-of-humanity.html

How a Virus Invades Your Body: An Eye-Popping, Animated Look ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/how-a-virus-invades-your-body-an-eye-popping-animated-look.html

Microbe World: Podcasts and Videos --- http://www.microbeworld.org/podcasts

Future of the Internet of Things
http://stanford.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ce785d9b9016cd35fb68e83b7&id=eaa28e8c81&e=56c82883d2

Human: The Movie Features Interviews with 2,020 People from 60 Countries on What It Means to Be Human ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/09/human-the-movie.html

Harvard’s Debate Team Loses Competition to Inmates in New York Prison, Thanks to the Bard Prison Initiative ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/harvards-debate-team-loses-competition-to-inmates-in-new-york-prison-thanks-to-the-bard-prison-initiative.html
Jensen Comment
I wonder how many of the prison debaters were investment bankers who graduated from Harvard.

A Short, Powerful Animation on Addiction: Watch Andreas Hykade’s Nuggets ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/a-short-powerful-animation-on-addiction-watch-andreas-hykades-nuggets.html


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

A Rare American Oratorio At Carnegie Hall  ---
http://www.npr.org/2014/05/02/308967757/live-friday-a-rare-american-oratorio-at-carnegie-hall?autoplay=true

Honky Tonk Dancing (West Coast Swing) --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7XfKf46iZY

My Favorite Boogie Woogie
For Boogie Woogie Piano Dancers (GREAT!) --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QQzbCmlZM4
More free Boogie Woogie by Sylvan Zingg (in concert) --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDJv9FnaQys
Others --- Search for "Sylvan Zingg" on YouTube --- https://www.youtube.com/
Other Boogie Woogie Sites (including free lesson sites) --- http://www.boogiewoogiepiano.net/piano-jukebox/other-web-sites/other-websites.html

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

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

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

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


Photographs and Art

Free: The Guggenheim Puts Online 1600 Great Works of Modern Art from 575 Artists ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/free-the-guggenheim-puts-online-1600-great-works-of-modern-art-from-575-artists.html

8,400 Stunning High-Res Photos From the Apollo Moon Missions Are Now Online ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/8400-stunning-high-res-photos-from-the-apollo-moon-missions-are-now-online.html

The B-29 Superfortress debuted 73 years ago today — relive it's legacy in photos ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-the-b-29-superfortress-2015-9

226 Ansel Adams Photographs of Great American National Parks Are Now Online ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/226-ansel-adams-photographs-of-great-american-national-parks-are-now-online.html

Oberlin College Archives (one of the USA college to have female dormitories) --- http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/

18 stunning supermoon eclipse photos from around the world ---
http://www.techinsider.io/incredible-total-lunar-eclipse-photos-around-world-2015-9

21 stunning Instagram photos that show the true beauty of Asia ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-photos-asia-2015-9

The 10 most Instagrammed travel destinations in the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-instagrammed-travel-destinations-in-the-world-2015-9

DevArt: Art made with code --- https://devart.withgoogle.com/ 

8 of the most incredible waterfalls in the US ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-incredible-waterfalls-in-the-us-2015-9

20 photos of artwork painted entirely with coffee ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/20-photos-of-artwork-painted-entirely-with-coffee-2015-9

A photographer traveled to remote parts of Vietnam and took these incredible pictures ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/rhahn-croquevielle-vietnam-photos-2015-9

Aubrey Beardsley’s Macabre Illustrations of Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories (1894) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/09/aubrey-beardsleys-macabre-illustrations-of-edgar-allan-poes-short-stories-1894.html

26 sexist ads that companies wish we'd forget they ever made ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/sexist-vintage-ads-2015-9

London Transport Museum: Poster Collection --- http://www.ltmcollection.org/posters/index.html

Bauhaus: Workshops for Modernity (history of avant-garde movements) --- http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/bauhaus/Main.html

Bob Jensen's threads on art history ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#ArtHistory

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

NBC University Theater Adapts Great Novels to Radio & Gives Listeners College Credit : Hear 110 Episodes from a 1940s eLearning Experiment ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/nbc-university-theater-adapts-great-novels-to-radio-gives-listeners-college-credit-hear-110-episodes-from-a-1940s-elearning-experiment.html

Aubrey Beardsley’s Macabre Illustrations of Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories (1894) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/09/aubrey-beardsleys-macabre-illustrations-of-edgar-allan-poes-short-stories-1894.html

Between Awakening and Surrender: John O'Donohue on Beauty, the Enchantment of Falling in Love, and the Vortex of Desire ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/09/21/john-odonohue-beauty-love-desire/?mc_cid=128eb45d74&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe’s Death: 19 Theories on What Caused the Poet’s Demise 166 Years Ago Today ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/the-mystery-of-edgar-allan-poes-death-19-theories-on-what-caused-the-poets-demise-166-years-ago-today.html

Toronto Poetry Map --- http://www.torontopoetry.ca/
Bob Jensen's threads on poetry --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/electronicLiterature.htm#OnlinePoemFinders

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read --- http://www.ala.org/bbooks/bannedbooksweek
Bob Jensen's threads on banned books --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/electronicLiterature.htm#Banned

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 October 12, 2015
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2015/TidbitsQuotations101215.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 update
 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm




"Almost half of American households don't pay federal income tax," by Martin Matishak,  The Fiscal Times via Business Insider, October 9, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/almost-half-of-american-households-dont-pay-federal-income-tax-2015-10

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, did irreparable damage to his campaign when he asserted that the 47 percent of Americans dependent on government who don’t pay federal income taxes would back President Obama “no matter what.”

A few years later, that estimate needs to be revised.

On Tuesday, The Tax Policy Center, a joint effort by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, said the number of households that don’t pay federal income taxes fell to 45.3 percent. But that figure is still roughly 5 percentage points higher than the center’s 2013 estimate of 40.4 percent.

The uptick doesn’t mean more folks have moved off the tax rolls. Rather, the surge from 2013 is largely thanks to better data tracking tools, according to the Center's Roberton Williams. “Those additional non-payers were there all the time -- we just failed to count them,” he said in a blog post.

That said, the Center still projects that the percentage of non-payers will fall over time, just more gradually than previously thought.

“We now estimate that 40 percent of tax units won’t pay tax in 2025, higher than our previous projection of about one-third,” Williams said.

While the Center, the Treasury Department and the Joint Committee on Taxation all try their best to give a proper estimate of the amount of non-payers, their figures shouldn’t be accepted as gospel truth, in part because some people don’t file returns or may have had taxes withheld during the calendar year.

Williams stressed that just because people don’t pay federal income taxes doesn’t mean they don’t contribute in some way. In fact, a majority of them work and therefore are on the hook for payroll taxes. They also pay local sales tax and state taxes.

Jensen Comment The drop in the percentage of households not paying any income tax is due mostly to the drop in unemployment rates rather than tightening of tax laws. The biggest single item taking away tax obligations is the earned income tax credit for lower income families. Since it is a payout credit many of these taxpayers take home cash like in a negative income tax system advocated by conservative economist Milton Freedman years ago.

Since many states peg their state income tax obligation to the federal income tax paid, the taxpayers are usually off the hook as well for state income taxes. Of course there can be some exceptions.


Illustrating Spurious Regressions by David Giles
Econometrics Beat, September 22, 2015
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/10/illustrating-spurious-regressions.html


MacArthur Fellows Program --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Fellows_Program

MacArthur Foundation --- https://www.macfound.org/programs/fellows/

Meet the 24 MacArthur 'geniuses' who were each awarded $625,000 to change the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/2015-macarthur-grant-fellows-2015-9

Jensen Comment
These grants usually go to folks who usually need the money to do better work. We should not, however, overlook the often more important contributions of people who do not particularly need the money like the work Google employees are doing to bring scholarship and education to the developing world.

Has anybody seen a study of the fruitions of previous MacArthur awards?
Award winners since 1981 are listed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Fellows_Program


Why the Set-top Box is Not Obsolete
"TiVo Bolt: Speed, More Speed, and Instant Ad Skipping," by David Pogue, Yahoo Tech, September 29, 2015 ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/tivo-bolt-speed-more-speed-and-instant-ad-035716017.html

. . .

Right now, the Bolt can search and play back shows from Netflix, Vudu, Amazon, Comcast or Cox on demand (if you have it), and, of course, whatever TV channels you get. It can also play music from Spotify, Pandora, Plex, and IHeartRadio. There are apps for YouTube, AOL On, Yahoo Screen, and others.

Hulu is coming soon, says TiVo, and it’s working to get the on-demand services of other cable companies. Don’t count in seeing the online movie stores from Apple or Google showing up, though.

Continued in article


The model minority is losing patience:  Asian-Americans are the United States’ most successful minority, but they are complaining ever more vigorously about discrimination, especially in academia
The Economist, October 3, 2015
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21669595-asian-americans-are-united-states-most-successful-minority-they-are-complaining-ever


Instead of p-values, the journal will require “strong descriptive statistics, including effect size.
"Science Isn’t Broken:  It’s just a hell of a lot harder than we give it credit for." by Christie Aschwanden, Nate Silver's 5:38 Blog, August 19, 2015 ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/science-isnt-broken/ 

If you follow the headlines, your confidence in science may have taken a hit lately.

. . .

Taken together, headlines like these might suggest that science is a shady enterprise that spits out a bunch of dressed-up nonsense. But I’ve spent months investigating the problems hounding science, and I’ve learned that the headline-grabbing cases of misconduct and fraud are mere distractions. The state of our science is strong, but it’s plagued by a universal problem: Science is hard — really fucking hard.

If we’re going to rely on science as a means for reaching the truth — and it’s still the best tool we have — it’s important that we understand and respect just how difficult it is to get a rigorous result. I could pontificate about all the reasons why science is arduous, but instead I’m going to let you experience one of them for yourself. Welcome to the wild world of p-hacking.

. . .

f you tweaked the variables until you proved that Democrats are good for the economy, congrats; go vote for Hillary Clinton with a sense of purpose. But don’t go bragging about that to your friends. You could have proved the same for Republicans.

The data in our interactive tool can be narrowed and expanded (p-hacked) to make either hypothesis appear correct. That’s because answering even a simple scientific question — which party is correlated with economic success — requires lots of choices that can shape the results. This doesn’t mean that science is unreliable. It just means that it’s more challenging than we sometimes give it credit for.

Which political party is best for the economy seems like a pretty straightforward question. But as you saw, it’s much easier to get a result than it is to get an answer. The variables in the data sets you used to test your hypothesis had 1,800 possible combinations. Of these, 1,078 yielded a publishable p-value,1 but that doesn’t mean they showed that which party was in office had a strong effect on the economy. Most of them didn’t.

The p-value reveals almost nothing about the strength of the evidence, yet a p-value of 0.05 has become the ticket to get into many journals. “The dominant method used [to evaluate evidence] is the p-value,” said Michael Evans, a statistician at the University of Toronto, “and the p-value is well known not to work very well.”

Scientists’ overreliance on p-values has led at least one journal to decide it has had enough of them. In February, Basic and Applied Social Psychology announced that it will no longer publish p-values. “We believe that the p < .05 bar is too easy to pass and sometimes serves as an excuse for lower quality research,” the editors wrote in their announcement. Instead of p-values, the journal will require “strong descriptive statistics, including effect sizes.”

Continued in article

The limits of mathematical and statistical analysis and Social Engineering
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on April 18, 2014

The limits of social engineering
Writing in
 MIT Technology Review, tech reporter Nicholas Carr pulls from a new book by one of MIT’s noted data scientists to explain why he thinks Big Data has its limits, especially when applied to understanding society. Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, in his book “Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread – The Lessons from a New Science,” sees a mathematical modeling of society made possible by new technologies and sensors and Big Data processing power. Once data measurement confirms “the innate tractability of human beings,” scientists may be able to develop models to predict a person’s behavior. Mr. Carr sees overreach on the part of Mr. Pentland. “Politics is messy because society is messy, not the other way around,” Mr. Carr writes, and any statistical model likely to come from such research would ignore the history, politics, class and messy parts associated with humanity. “What big data can’t account for is what’s most unpredictable, and most interesting, about us,” he concludes.

Jensen Comment
The sad state of accountancy and many doctoral programs in the 21st Century is that virtually all of them in North America only teach the methodology and technique of analyzing enormous archived databases  with statistical tools or the analytical modeling of artificial worlds based on dubious assumptions to simplify reality ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

The Pathways Commission sponsored by the American Accounting Association strongly proposes adding non-quantitative alternatives to doctoral programs but I see zero evidence of any progress in that direction. The main problem is that it's just much easier to avoid having to collect data by beating purchased databases with econometric sticks until something, usually an irrelevant something, falls out of the big data piñata.

"A Scrapbook on What's Wrong with the Past, Present and Future of Accountics Science"
Bob Jensen Jensen
February 19, 2014
SSRN Download:  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2398296 

 

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

Bob Jensen's threads on replication and critical commentary ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm


 Myers-Briggs Personality Test --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator

How to Mislead With Statistics
"Why the Myers-Briggs test is totally meaningless," by Joseph Stromberg and Estelle Caswell, Vox, October 8, 2015 ---
http://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless 

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is probably the most widely used personality test in the world.

About 2 million people take it annually, at the behest of corporate HR departments, colleges, and even government agencies. The company that produces and markets the test makes around $20 million off it each year.

The only problem? The test is completely meaningless.

"There's just no evidence behind it," says Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania who's written about the shortcomings of the Myers-Briggs previously. "The characteristics measured by the test have almost no predictive power on how happy you'll be in a situation, how you'll perform at your job, or how happy you'll be in your marriage."

The test claims that, based on 93 questions, it can group all the people of the world into 16 different discrete "types" — and in doing so, serve as "a powerful framework for building better relationships, driving positive change, harnessing innovation, and achieving excellence." Most of the faithful think of it primarily as a tool for telling you your proper career choice.

But the test was developed in the 1940s based off the totally untested theories of Carl Jung and is now thoroughly disregarded by the psychology community. Even Jung warned that his personality "types" were just rough tendencies he'd observed, rather than strict classifications. Several analyses have shown the test is totally ineffective at predicting people's success in various jobs, and that about half of the people who take it twice get different results each time.

Yet you've probably heard people telling you that they're an ENFJ (extraverted intuitive feeling judging), an INTP (introverted intuitive thinking perceiving), or another one of the 16 types drawn from his work, and you may have even been given this test in a professional setting. Here's an explanation of why these labels are so meaningless — and why no organization in the 21st century should rely on the test for anything.

Continued in article

 


"The Complete History Of The NFL," by Reuben Fischer-Baum and Nate Silver, 5:38 Blog, October 6, 2015 ---
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/complete-history-of-the-nfl/#


September 25, 2015 message from Glen Gray

During the summer, I listened to the audio version of:

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

The book provided a very comprehensive history of computing and computer evolution. Interesting stories about key characters in the evolution, going back more than 100 years. Finally, I understand Al Gore's actual contribution to the Internet--and it's more than just the butt of joke. I have recommended the book to others. First, I purchased the audio version. I like it so much, I then purchased the electron version so I could look up specific stories and quotes in the future.

Glen L. Gray, PhD, CPA
Dept. of Accounting & Information Systems
David Nazarian College of Business & Economics
California State University, Northridge
Northridge, CA 91330-8372

http://www.csun.edu/~vcact00f 


Those of us off campus need some way to break through the campus fire wall to add to and edit files on campus servers. For years I've been using VPN. Trinity also just installed a version of VDI.

VPN --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network

VDI --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirtualBox#Virtual_Disk_Image

VDI is No Substitute for VPN

I installed Trinity's version of VDI thinking it might eliminate the need for VPN.. It does not take the place of VPN. VPN continued to be my only way of updating my Web files in the Web server.

The problem with VDI is that it blocks out all htm, pdf, graphics, and other files that I create on my client server drives, including Drive C.

It only lets you create files in the limited set of VDI software, and you can't even save those files after you log out of VDI.

VDI would be great if it linked to files on a client server. But I suspect for security reasons it will not link to those files.


Robot Wisdom and How Jorn Barger Invented Blogging ---
http://firstsiteguide.com/robot-wisdom-and-jorn-barger/

How to Start & Create a Blog Today: Step-by-Step ---
http://www.onblastblog.com/

How to Start a Blog ---
http://www.setupablogtoday.com/

Blogging --- http://firstsiteguide.com/

Bob Jensen's threads on listservs and blogs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/listservRoles.htm


Recruits will have to do without University of Phoenix funded rock bands on military bases
"Defense Department Suspends U. of Phoenix From Its Tuition Assistance Program," by Andy Thomason, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 8, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/defense-department-suspends-u-of-phoenix-from-its-tuition-assistance-program/105697?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=cbb14bf5e15e412181f925cb759e031e&elqCampaignId=1571&elqaid=6489&elqat=1&elqTrackId=9270826283dd45b880f7f88ac605f6d2
Jensen Comment
Actually it's only probation with both further investigations and chances of getting back into the payola program.

What recruits really need to ask is what transcript credits are worth from any for-profit university. In many (most?) instances the transcripts are worthless in terms of transfer credit, careers, and graduate school.

Why not instead choose a top-ranked distance education alternative from a non-profit university?

  • From US News in 2014
    Best Online Degree Programs (ranked)
    ---
    http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education

    Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees --- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
    Central Michigan is the big winner

    Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs --- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
    Indiana University is the big winner

    Best Online Graduate Education Programs --- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
    Northern Illinois is the big winner

    Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs --- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
    Columbia University is the big winner

    Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
    http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
    The University of Southern California is the big winner

    Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs --- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
    St. Xavier University is the big winner

    US News Degree Finder --- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
    This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders

    US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they don't seem to want to provide the data.

    U.S. News College Compass Details of 1,800 Colleges and Universities ($29.95 Annual Database Subscription Fee) ---
    http://www.usnews.com/usnews/store/college_compass.htm
     


    Just half of college alumni “strongly agree” that their education was worth what they paid for it
    "Not Worth It?" by Jake New,  Inside Higher Ed, September 29, 2015 ---
    https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/29/half-college-graduates-say-college-not-worth-cost-survey-finds?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=d5e1f64676-DNU20150929&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-d5e1f64676-197565045

     Jensen Comment
    This study concludes that alumni who had experiential opportunities such as internships are more apt to rate their college experience higher. Fortunately nearly all accounting programs in AACSB-accredited universities now have internship opportunities due to the extensive participation of large CPA firms and large companies in accounting internship programs.

    Surveys like this can be highly misleading in that there are so many things other than academics that are usually obtained in college, especially residential colleges. For example, a student who graduated with little respect for the faculty may have had great other experiences such as the meeting of his or her spouse on campus.

    Student opinion on academics may be fixated on a single good or bad factor that outweighs the other combined good and bad experiences. I once gave an F to a student who I suspect still despises me but is now a business partner with one of my (now-retired) faculty colleagues who gave him top grades. I wonder which of the faculty will dominate in that former student's evaluation of his alma mater?


    You Should Have Gone to Rice, Says Feds' Post-College Salary Data ---
    http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/you-should-have-gone-to-rice-says-feds-post-college-salary-data-7590111
    Thank you Carl Hubbard for the heads up.


    T.H.E Journal’s Professional Resources

    ·  What Would a 3D Printer Mean for Your Campus?
    Sponsored by Stratasys
    3D printing is transforming education by fueling limitless creativity. Complete two quick and easy steps for your chance to win a state-of-the-art 3D printer and a $5k grant for your campus! Enter to win!

    ·  THE Journal's Grant Listings

    ·  THE Journal's News Archive

    ·  Flipped Classrooms & Blended Learning

    ·  Gaming & Gamification

    ·  E-Learning & LMS

    ·  STEM-Related Articles

    ·  Administrative & Business Articles

    ·  Classroom Technology

    ·  Energy Efficiency & Green Schools

    ·  Collaboration

    ·  THE Journal's RSS Feeds

    ·  Sponsored Webinars

    ·  Sponsored White Papers

    More Sponsored Resources

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


    Questions
    What's the costliest city in North America?
    Who or what is to blame?

    Answer
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-06/in-north-america-s-costliest-city-rich-chinese-face-backlash?cmpid=BBD100715_BIZ


    National Geographic:  Nobel Laureates Who Were Not Always Noble ---
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151005-nobel-laureates-forget-racist-sexist-science/

    Jensen Comment
    Nobody would dare mention those that were suspiciously affirmative action winners, especially some of those in literature that are mostly ignored or forgotten. The most notorious oversight is sometimes thought to be John Steinbeck ---
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature#Controversies_about_Nobel_Laureate_selections

    There were others that were good like Al Gore but not necessarily better than the competition such as those overlooked for the Nobel Peace Prize ---
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize

    The article avoids some of the most controversial winners such as those that were suspiciously corrupt such as Yasser Arafat who is suspected of stealing from his own people.


    "The Harvard Contest That’s Trying to Improve Health Care Delivery," Harvard Business Review, October 2, 2015 ---
    https://hbr.org/2015/10/the-harvard-contest-thats-trying-to-improve-health-care-delivery

    . . .

    Altogether there were 19,965 visitors to the Challenge website who wrote 2,671 comments and provided 478 applications. These applications came from 29 different countries and 43 U.S. states. Approximately 60% were from for-profit companies, while the remaining 40% were from not-for-profit organizations.

    More than three-quarters of the applicants were focused on provider-facing innovations, as opposed to those that directly addressed payors or patients. Of the provider innovations, 38% were aimed at acute care or hospitals, 14% on self-care, 10% on physician offices, 10% on telemedicine, 8% on home health care, and 20% on multiple or other settings.To narrow down the 478 applications to 18 semi-finalists, we assembled a panel of 50 judges with wide experience in the field. The judges evaluated the applications based on potential impact, evidence of success, and the strength of the dissemination plan. Four finalists were ultimately selected. A winner will be selected in April 2016. (Click here to receive updates about this competition and the next Health Acceleration Challenge, which will begin in the spring.)

    The four finalists represent a mix of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, provider- and patient-facing innovations, and clinical and operational solutions. Each addresses a different problem in the health-care-delivery value chain and offers a unique approach that has been tested in the marketplace.

    Bloodbuy. This Dallas-based company offers technologies that connect hospitals and blood centers nationwide to ensure the efficient flow of lifesaving blood products to patients in need. By providing on-demand access to a diversified base of premier blood centers, Bloodbuy ensures that hospitals avoid overpaying for blood products or encountering supply shortages. At the same time, Bloodbuy enables blood centers to reach and serve a broader base of hospitals and blood centers across the country, thereby increasing inventory turns, eliminating waste, and accelerating growth.

    Continued in article

    Bob Jensen's universal health care messaging --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm


    Students Are Not Very Good at Personal Finance and Budgeting:  Their Credit Cards Can be WMDs
    Back to School: Budgeting 101 --- http://blog.aicpa.org/2015/09/back-to-school-budgeting-101.html#sthash.NX7wuVk6.EFrytz66.dpbs

    College is often the first time many people make financial decisions on their own. While these same students spend years studying for and taking proficiency and competency exams, many are never taught simple financial literacy skills. This leaves even the brightest and most responsible vulnerable to overspending, money mismanagement, and failing to develop a solid financial plan. What can be done to encourage college students to take charge of their finances and develop sound budget practices?

    Continued in article

    Jensen Comment
    I will avoid the temptation of relating how for one of our sons and one of our daughters their first terms in college became financial disasters. For one of them debt rather than student debt continues to be a disaster long after graduation. Let's not go into the topic of credit scores.

    Bob Jensen's Personal Finance Helpers ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers


    "Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation to Newark public schools failed miserably — here's where it went wrong," by Abby Jackson, Business Insider, September 25, 2015 ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerbergs-failed-100-million-donation-to-newark-public-schools-2015-9


    Medical Costs Can Add Up in Retirement
    Two Big Reasons You Need Added Savings in Retirement ---
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleaebeling/2015/09/25/two-big-reasons-you-need-more-retirement-savings/

    Think Medicare will cover you when it comes to all your health-related expenses in retirement? Not even close. Sure Medicare is the cornerstone of coverage, but it covers approximately 60% of health care expenses, and it does not cover long-term care expenses. That leaves retirees with major health care expenses (medical, dental, vision, prescription) and possibly long-term care expenses (home health care services or assisted living or nursing care) coming out of their retirement nest egg.

    Pre-retirees should take a two-pronged approach to planning for these health-related expenses in retirement and make health care part of their overall retirement plan, says Carol Goetsch, manager of advisory client services at U.S. Bancorp Investments in Minneapolis.

    “Having a plan allows you to determine where and how you want coverage and the role your family members will play; not having a plan becomes reactionary and creates dysfunction in the family.” Goestch says.

    Here’s the overwhelming big picture. A couple at age 65 can expect to spend $395,000 in medical, dental, vision, hearing, premiums, co-pays and other out of pocket health care expenses in retirement–according to Healthview Services 2015 Retirement Health Care Cost Data Report. Long-term care expenses are separate, and will cost an average of $140,000 per person, although the averages can be misleading, meaning you might need a lot more, especially if you’re a woman.

    Here are some planning tips.

    Don’t count on health care cost averages. A Midwestern couple came to Goetsch when they were turning 60. They thought they could live off of $75,000 a year until their Bancorp advisor helped them run a health assessment that estimated their combined health care expenses would be $3,500 a month or $42,000 a year (one is a diabetic and one has heart issues). On average an individual needs $1,000 a month to cover basic medical expenses in retirement, but one mistake people make is looking at averages instead of what their circumstances project. “Certain impairments take more of a toll,” Goestch says. Gender, family history, and current life expectancy should all be taken into account. In this case, the couple decided to work a little longer and take advantage of workplace benefits–at least until they reached 65 and could go on Medicare. They cut back on lavish travel and supercharged retirement–and health care–savings.

    Continued in article

    Four Mistakes That Could Ruin Your Retirement ---
    http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/03/4-mistakes-that-could-ruin-your-retirement.htm

    Mistake: Boosting bond allocations at retirement
    It used to be a good ideal to shift from CREF to TIAA before retirement. Thanks to the Fed's virtually zero interest rate policies this may no longer be a good idea. Times change, however, so everything should be reconsidered if you won't be retiring soon.

    Mistake: Counting on Medicare to cover all health care costs
    Medicare is being torn apart by fraud and explosion of medical costs. Drastic revisions in the future almost certainly will entail making middle and upper income retirees bear much more of their medical costs than they currently are paying out when on Medicare.

    Mistake: Moving to a state for the low income taxes
    There are usually more important variables for choosing where to live in retirement than state income taxes. However, if plans include moving to another state both income and inheritance taxes should be considered. We have two grown children living in California and Maine. Taxes were a consideration when we chose New Hampshire with good tax deals relative to Maine and California, and New Hampshire is very close to Maine.

    Mistake: Not saving enough for retirement.
    This is a bigger problem since the Fed's zero interest rate policy destroyed most safe investment alternatives like certificates of deposit and low-risk bonds. Now investments for retirement must take on more risk like choosing all CREF versus having some TIAA. Of course taking on more financial risk entails taking more chances. Dah! Some investors take chances in real estate, but the real estate in my portfolio was only in the house I lived in and the land surrounding this house. I do not generally like rental property because of the headaches of being a landlord (including owning a farm). I do not like idle land investments because of the annual property taxes and insurance cash going out and no cash coming in.

    More of Bob Jensen's personal finance helpers ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers

     

    This is the research you should do before picking a credit card ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/sc/pick-the-right-credit-card-2015-8 

    AICPA:  Back-to-School: How to Pay for College ---
    http://blog.aicpa.org/2015/08/back-to-school-how-to-pay-for-college.html#sthash.gcYpuxSm.PSkI9cqt.dpbs

    The Upshot: Is It Better to Rent or Buy? (real estate calculator) ---  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html
    Jensen Comment
    My general advice for new faculty is not to buy a home until tenure is achieved except in hot markets where fast turnover profits are probable provided too much is paid initially. After tenure achievement the above calculator can be helpful.

    My priors were to invest as much as possible in long-term ownership of a house and the least possible in the long-term ownership of a very reliable car. 

    However, be careful where you buy real estate. Up in the White Mountains I advise mountain or lake views even though New Hampshire has a view tax.  There really aren't any gated neighborhoods up here, and nothing would be gained by having gated neighborhoods. In San Antonio I would not put big money into a house that's not in a gated neighborhood. Even if you're opposed philosophically to that concept, the fact is that expensive homes do not sell very well in San Antonio unless they are in gated neighborhoods with armed guards at the gates. I would have had much more capital gain on my big San Antonio house if it had been in a gated neighborhood. Sigh!

    http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/09/try-this-problem.html

    Bob Jensen's Personal Finance Helpers ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers


    The Internet of Things --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things

     "The “Wild West” of Innovation is Hotter Than Ever:  How to become part of the future of the Internet of Things," by  Theresa Johnston, Stanford Graduate School of Business, September 18, 2015 --- |
    The Future of the Internet of Things
    http://stanford.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ce785d9b9016cd35fb68e83b7&id=eaa28e8c81&e=56c82883d2

    While working as a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Trae Vassallo became fascinated by the marriage of everyday household objects with network connectivity, a phenomenon known as the Internet of Things. One of the successful ventures she funded, Dropcam, allowed people to keep tabs on their children and pets at home through Wi-Fi video-streaming cameras. Another new company, Nest Labs, promised to change the world through its sensor-driven, Wi-Fi–enabled thermostats.

    Today Vassallo, after working for 12 years at Kleiner Perkins, is an independent investor, those two startups are parts of Google, and the Internet of Things is hotter than ever. “It is the next frontier of innovation,” says Vassallo, a former IDEO product developer who earned her master’s degrees in business administration and mechanical engineering from Stanford. “The Internet of Things is the next new platform area: post the iPhone, the smartphone, and the tablet ecosystem.”

    Following a May 1 symposium sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Vassallo discussed how to be part of the future of the Internet of Things.

    See Text Equivalent

    Illustration by Tricia Seibold

    View Larger

    Reinvent Old Models

    People have been trying to connect their environments to the internet since it was created, Vassallo says. The difference today is in the hardware. Smartphone technology is now so cheap, and sensor technology so good, that smart devices can understand the context in which they operate, and then take action that makes people’s lives better. “Dropcam is a great example of this,” Vassallo says. The device allows people to catch robberies in action, or watch from across the country while their kids take their first steps. “It provides great new functionality, yet it fits very easily into this old paradigm of home security and wanting to keep an eye on things.”

    Package It with the Customer in Mind

    While many network-connected devices are tricky to install and use, these products are becoming increasingly user-friendly. Nest thermostats, for example, were designed by engineers who worked on the Apple iPhone. “The key is making sure that you not only have the right technology, but you have it packaged in the right way. It has to be easy for a customer to see the value, and then ultimately deploy it.”

    Continued in article


    MIT: 

    MIT:  Recommended from Around the Web (Week ending October 10, 2015) ---
    http://www.technologyreview.com/view/542266/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-october-10-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151009

    MIT:  Recommended Robot and AI Reads This Week ---
    http://www.technologyreview.com/view/542186/recommended-robot-and-ai-reads-this-week/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151007

    MIT:  Seven Must-Read Stories (Week ending October 3, 2015) ---
    http://www.technologyreview.com/view/541916/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-october-3-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151005

    MIT:  Recommended Reads on the Mobile Beat This Week ---
    http://www.technologyreview.com/view/541956/recommended-reads-on-the-mobile-beat-this-week/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151005

    MIT:  Recommended from Around the Web (Week ending October 3, 2015) ---
    http://www.technologyreview.com/view/541906/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-october-3-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151002

    Bob Jensen's Tidbits ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

    For earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
    For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 
    Bookmarks for the World's Library --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm 


    MIT's New Half-MOOC Masters Degree Models ---
    by Carl Straumsheim
    Inside Higher Ed, October 8, 2015
    https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/10/08/massachusetts-institute-technology-launch-half-mooc-half-person-masters-degree?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8e1f4e3f30-DNU20151008&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8e1f4e3f30-197565045

    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will next year launch the first of what could be several pilots to determine if pieces of what it has provided face-to-face can be delivered through massive open online courses.

    The institute on Wednesday announced an alternative path for students to enroll in its supply chain management program and earn a master’s of engineering in logistics degree. Instead of students being required to move to Cambridge, Mass., for the duration of the 10-month program, MIT will offer half of the program through MOOCs, saving students tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.

    Learners who complete the MOOCs but can’t afford or simply aren’t interested in finishing the degree won’t walk away empty-handed. MIT will offer those learners a new microcredential, called a MicroMaster’s, and is working with other organizations that offer supply chain management programs to ensure they will accept the credential toward degree completion.

    Continued in article

    Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs, SMOCS, Future Learn, iversity, and OKI Free Learning Alternatives Around the World
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


    Arizona State's Freshman Year MOOCs Open to All With Final Examinations for Inexpensive Credits

    "Arizona State and edX Will Offer an Online Freshman Year, Open to All," by Charles Huckabee, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 24, 2015 ---
    http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/arizona-state-and-edx-will-offer-an-online-freshman-year-open-to-all/97685?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

    Arizona State University is joining with the MOOC provider edX in a project that it says “reimagines the freshman year” and opens a new low-cost, low-risk path to a college degree for students anywhere in the world.

    The project, called the Global Freshman Academy, will offer a set of eight courses designed to fulfill the general-education requirements of a freshman year at Arizona State at a fraction of the cost students typically pay, and students can begin taking courses without going through the traditional application process, the university said in a news release on Wednesday. Because the classes are offered as massive open online courses, or MOOCs, there is no limit on how many students can enroll.

    . . .

    The courses to be offered through the Global Freshman Academy are being designed and will be taught by leading scholars at Arizona State. “These courses are developed to their rigorous standards,” Adrian Sannier, chief academic officer for EdPlus at ASU, said in the release. “Course faculty are committed to ensuring their students understand college-level material so that they can be prepared to successfully complete college.”

    Students who pass a final examination in a course will have the option of paying a fee of no more than $200 per credit hour to get college credit for it.

    Mr. Agarwal and Mr. Crow are scheduled to formally announce the project at a conference in Washington on Thursday.

     

    Jensen Comments and Questions
    The real test is how well these credits are accepted by other universities for transfer credit. It probably will not be an issue for graduate school admission since there are three more years of more traditional onsite or online credits. But it could be a huge issue for example when a student takes the first year of ASU MOOC credits and then tries to have these credits accepted by other universities (such as TCU) that still resist accepting any online courses for transfer credit.

    Question
    What are the main differences between MOOC online credits and traditional online credits such as those documented at the following site?
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm

    For example, at many universities these days there are multiple sections of a course where some sections are onsite and some are online. Often they are taught by the same instructor. The online sections are usually as small or even smaller than the onsite sections because online instructors often have more student interactions such as in instant messaging not available to onsite students ---
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging

    Answer
    These are the following obvious differences between MOOC online credits and traditional online credits.

    The bottom line is that it appears that the ASU freshman year MOOC course credits will be little more than competency-based credits. This will be controversial since many faculty in higher education feel like credits in general education core  courses should  entail class participation, including first-year core courses. For example, at Trinity University there is a first-year seminar that all new students take in very small classes that require a lot of class participation in discussions of assigned readings and the writing of term papers. I think some sections of this seminar don't even have examinations. I did not have examinations when I taught a section of this seminar for two years.

    In traditional large lectures courses on campus students typically are broken out into accompanying recitation sections intended for class participation and interactions with a recitation instructor

    Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs, SMOCS, Future Learn, iversity, and OKI Free Learning Alternatives Around the World
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


    Illustrating Spurious Regressions by David Giles
    Econometrics Beat, September 22, 2015
    http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/10/illustrating-spurious-regressions.html


    Econometrics Sample Problem and Solution from David Giles
    Econometrics Beat, September 22, 2015
    http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/09/try-this-problem.htm l

    Try This Problem

    Here's a little exercise for you to work on:

    We know from the Gauss-Markhov Theorem that within the class of linear and unbiased estimators, the OLS estimator is most efficient. Because it is unbiased, it therefore has the smallest possible Mean Squared Error (MSE) within the linear and unbiased class of estimators. However, there are many linear estimators which, although biased, have a smaller MSE than the OLS estimator. You might then think of asking:

    “Why don’t I try and find the linear estimator that has the smallest possible MSE?”

    (a) Show that attempting to do this yields an “estimator” that can’t actually be used in practice.

    (You can do this using the simple linear regression model without an intercept, although the result generalizes to the usual multiple linear regression model.)

    (b) Now, for the simple regression model with no intercept,

    yi = β xi + εi ; εi ~ i.i.d. [0 , σ2] ,

    find the linear estimator, β* , that minimizes the quantity:

    h[Var.(β*) / σ2] + (1 - h)[Bias(β*)/ β]2 , for 0 < h < 1.

    Is β* a legitimate estimator, in the sense that it can actually be applied in practice?

    The answer will follow in a subsequent post.

    Solution --- http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-solution.html


    Send letters via carrier pigeon to anywhere in the contiguous United States from your browser ---
    https://flypigeon.co/
    Jensen Comment
    I'm not quite sure about how authentic this service is in terms of old versus new technology. Are you supposed to lock up the kitty and leave birdseed beside your outdoor mailbox?


    College Resources for Students with Disabilities Guidebook --- http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/resources-for-students-with-disabilities

    Bob Jensen's threads on technology helpers for disabled students ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped


    In the USA 2014 was the least violent year in decades following a steady decline in violent crimes
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/29/2014-was-the-least-violent-year-in-decades/
    Jensen Comment
    It's difficult or impossible to rank what factors caused the most decline. Economic recovery is probably a major helper in reducing crime. Technology certainly played a role, especially video surveillance everywhere. The Freakonomics conclusion that increasing abortion rates among poverty women had an eventual payoff in lowering violent crime rates. Gun enthusiasts like to claim that pistol-packing is a preventative. Much of the violent crime is domestic-abuse crime, and there's no explanation of why that is down other than the impact of a better economy and reduced unemployment. Most certainly steady improvements in DNA testing and forensic science in general contributed heavily to the long-term decline in violent crime.


    Southern Methodist University has broken serious National Collegiate Athletic Association rules -- yet again
    "The Incorrigible Institution," by Jake New, Inside Higher Ed, September 30, 2015 ---
    https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/30/ncaa-bans-smu-basketball-postseason-suspends-coach-9-games?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=702caaa7b5-DNU20150930&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-702caaa7b5-197565045

    Southern Methodist University has broken serious National Collegiate Athletic Association rules -- yet again.

    The association on Tuesday suspended SMU’s head men's basketball coach for nine games and banned the team from postseason play after concluding that the coach ignored an instance of academic fraud in which an administrative assistant completed course work for a basketball player.

    This is the third NCAA infractions case involving the coach, Larry Brown, whose programs at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Kansas also violated association rules, including offering improper financial aid and committing academic fraud. And it is at least the 10th major NCAA infractions case for SMU, which retains the distinction of being the last Division I institution to be given the NCAA’s “death penalty” for violations in the 1980s.

    “The fact that this institution has been before the NCAA so many times was an aggravating factor,” Michael Adams, chancellor of Pepperdine University and chief hearing officer in the case, said. “On one hand the institution had made some efforts to comply, and yet at the same time a fairly large number of individuals were at least making individual decisions that were unethical.”

    Those individuals include Brown and a former administrative assistant for the basketball program, as well as the former head men’s golf coach and a former compliance director -- in NCAA parlance, the chief official responsible for ensuring that the sports program follows the rule. Only Brown still remains employed by the university.

    In Brown’s case, the NCAA said the head coach was unaware of any misconduct as it was occurring, but he failed to “promote an atmosphere of compliance” when he later learned of the academic fraud and chose not to inform SMU or the NCAA. He later lied to enforcement officials about what he knew, according to the NCAA’s infractions report.

    Continued in article

    Bob Jensen's threads on athletics scandals in higher education ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HIGHerEdControversies2.htm#Athletics


    How to Mislead With Statistics
    "The ‘Wage Gap’ Myth That Won’t Die:  You have to ignore many variables to think women are paid less than men. California is happy to try," by Sarah Ketterer, The Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2015 ---
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wage-gap-myth-that-wont-die-1443654408?mod=djemMER

    When it comes to economically foolish laws, California is second to none. A good example is the California Fair Pay Act, which Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign in coming days.

    This bill, which the California senate unanimously passed in August, is a state version of the Paycheck Fairness Act that the U.S. Congress rejected in 2014. Like its national counterpart, it is an aggressive attempt to eradicate a wage gap between men and women that is allegedly due to discrimination in the workplace. But this wage gap is illusory, and the legislation will have unintended consequences, including for women.

    The Fair Pay Act will prohibit employers from paying men and women different wages for “substantially similar work.” At first glance, this prohibition might appear reasonable: Government data for 2014 show that women in California earn, on average, 84 cents for every dollar earned by men. (Nationally, women earn about 79 cents for every dollar earned by men.)

    But a closer look reveals a different picture. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) notes that its analysis of wages by gender does “not control for many factors that can be significant in explaining earnings differences.”

    What factors? Start with hours worked. Full-time employment is technically defined as more than 35 hours. This raises an obvious problem: A simple side-by-side comparison of all men and all women includes people who work 35 hours a week, and others who work 45. Men are significantly more likely than women to work longer hours, according to the BLS. And if we compare only people who work 40 hours a week, BLS data show that women then earn on average 90 cents for every dollar earned by men.

    Career choice is another factor. Research in 2013 by Anthony Carnevale, a Georgetown University economist, shows that women flock to college majors that lead to lower-paying careers. Of the 10 lowest-paying majors—such as “drama and theater arts” and “counseling psychology”—only one, “theology and religious vocations,” is majority male.

    Conversely, of the 10 highest-paying majors—including “mathematics and computer science” and “petroleum engineering”—only one, “pharmacy sciences and administration,” is majority female. Eight of the remaining nine are more than 70% male.

    Other factors that account for earnings differences include marriage and children, both of which cause many women to leave the workforce for years. June O’Neill, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, concluded in a 2005 study that “there is no gender gap in wages among men and women with similar family roles.” Time magazine reported in 2010 that in 98% of America’s largest 150 cities, including my hometown of Los Angeles, single women under 30 actually earned, on average, 8% more than their male counterparts.

    Ms. O’Neill and her husband concluded in their 2012 book, “The Declining Importance of Race and Gender in the Labor Market,” that once all these factors are taken into account, very little of the pay differential between men and women is due to actual discrimination, which is “unlikely to account for a differential of more than 5 percent but may not be present at all.”

    What California’s Fair Pay Act will do, however, is make the state, already notorious for regulation and red tape, a more difficult place to do business. Companies must now ensure that every penny of wage differential between the men and women they employ is attributable to bona-fide differences in education, training, experience, quantity or quality of work, and so on. Referring to the countless factors at play, Harvard economist Claudia Goldin has said “it’s not checkable.” Yet even attempting to do so will only add to companies’ already substantial regulatory-compliance budgets.

    Some of these factors—quality of work, for instance—are inevitably subjective, yet trial lawyers will swoop in to turn every conceivable pay difference into a lawsuit. Employers who cannot “prove” objectively that one employee’s work was better than another’s may face costly penalties. Many will surely pay to settle these lawsuits instead of taking them to court.

    Continued in article

    Jensen Comment
    It will be interesting to see how this law plays out in tenure decisions at the most prestigious universities in California. For example, my 2012/2013 version of the Hasselback Directory shows that 27% are women in Stanford's accounting program. The proportions appear to be no better or even worse in the other highly prestigious accounting programs in California universities.

    It will take years to track the impact of the Fair Pay Act in California's universities, but evidence may mount up more quickly in the outcomes of lawsuits in universities. This probably sounds sexist, but the tenured women I've worked with as a colleague in four universities across 40 years of my full-time faculty career tended to work as hard or harder than the men in the classroom but not as hard at research and publishing in accounting research journals. Of course times have changed in recent years. and we see a rise in the proportions of women authors in our top accounting research journals.

    The tenured women in very prestigious accounting programs tend to rival the men in research and publication even if they are more of a minority in those prestigious programs. I think that greater focus on teaching by tenured women comes in colleges and universities that are not in the Top 25 universities in the the US News rankings.

    My point is that the Fair Pay Act in California may impact how prestigious universities grant tenure and performance pay based upon tradeoffs between research versus teaching. In prestigious universities outstanding research performance is now a necessary condition for tenure. Litigation following the Fair Pay Act may make outstanding research less necessary for outstanding women teachers.

    Will I be in trouble for thinking like this? Almost certainly!

    Bob Jensen's threads on the history of women in the accounting profession are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#Women


    "Democratic Economists vs. Elizabeth Warren," by James Freeman, The Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2015 ---
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/democratic-economists-vs-elizabeth-warren-1443785001

    . . .

    At least some Democrats are resisting Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s purge of the liberal intelligentsia. This week Ms. Warren succeeded in forcing the resignation of respected scholar Robert Litan from the Brookings Institution after he revealed that a new Labor Department regulation could cost investors billions. Now five Democratic economists have authored a letter to protest Warren’s bullying. Robert Lawrence of Harvard’s Kennedy School and Bowman Cutter of the Roosevelt Institute are among those writing “to express our concern over our colleague Bob Litan’s treatment at the hands of the Brookings Institution and Senator Elizabeth Warren.” Also signing the letter are Everett Ehrlich, Joseph Minarik and Hal Singer.

    Continued in article


    Is the European Union falling apart?
    Europe's highest court just rejected the 'safe harbor' agreement used by American tech companies
    ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/european-court-of-justice-safe-harbor-ruling-2015-10

    EU Strikes Back Over Snowden Leaks, But the Elimination of the Safe Harbor Agreement Makes it Difficult for USA Companies to Do Business in Europe ---
    http://readwrite.com/2015/10/07/europe-eu-privacy-nsa-court

    Jensen Comment
    This is an illustration of how Snowden's good intentions paved the road to Hell.




    From the Scout Report on September 25, 2015

    AppsBar --- http://www.appsbar.com/ 

    For readers who would like to design simple apps for their small businesses, classrooms, nonprofits, or other groups, AppsBar can be a helpful service. Readers will want to begin by creating a free account. From there, it can be useful to explore the various templates and code libraries from which one may create a customized app. Typically, it takes three to four hours for first-time users to create an app using AppsBar. However, most users find that the second time around takes about half as much time. While the service is a little rigid, and some users report wanting more flexibility, for ease of use, AppsBar is hard to beat.


    Buffer: A Smarter Way to Share on Social Media --- https://buffer.com/ 

    For those readers who post consistently on various social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+, Buffer can add some much-needed organization. Put simply, Buffer automates the timing of social media posts so that a user can compose a slew of updates in a short period of time, and then add them to the Buffer queue. Forthwith, Buffer will check the overall reposting patterns of the various social media services, and post one's updates at what it deems to be appropriate times, thereby attempting to increase likes, reposts, and replies. When readers are skeptical of Buffer's suggestions, they may override and time posts themselves. For readers who take their social media presence seriously, Buffer can expedite the process


    Looking at Greece's Debt Crisis in Light of Another Syriza Victory
    Greece election: Alexis Tsipras hails 'victory of the people'
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34307795

    Greece's Debt Crisis Explained
    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/business/international/greece-debt-crisis-euro.html

    Alexis Tsipras
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/alexis-tsipras/

    How Greece's prime minister rose from high school activist to high politics
    http://www.businessinsider.com/profile-of-greek-prime-minister-alexis-tsipras-2015-7

    Eurozone vs. EU: What's the difference?
    http://money.cnn.com/video/news/economy/2015/04/23/eurozone-versus-european-union-explained.cnnmoney/

    Greece's Ex-Finance Minister Tells All
    http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/03/the-greek-warrior

     


    From the Scout Report on October 2, 2015

    Markdown Tutorial --- http://markdowntutorial.com 

    For those who find HTML to be excessively verbose, brittle to construct, and difficult to read, Markdown can provide a simpler alternative. In essence, it is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web content writers that is modeled on well-written email so it is both easy to read and easy to write. Users considering a switch to Markdown (plugins exist to use Markdown for a variety of content management software, including Drupal and Wordpress), will find this tutorial a great place to start. Each lesson begins by introducing a single Markdown concept and offers a sandbox for practice. Once the concept is mastered, users can proceed to the next (there are seven in total). For writers concerned more with content than design and who are looking to learn a simple formatting solution, this is a wonderful resource.  


    KeepVid --- http://keepvid.com/ 

    The premise of KeepVid could not be simpler. Just copy and paste a link from YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, DailyMotion, and other supported sites and select Download. The program then downloads the video or audio onto the user's computer free of charge. While KeepVid is safe and legal, readers will want to be careful about how they use their downloaded content. For instance, downloading the latest Taylor Swift video to one's computer is legal. However, using that video for profit or any public purpose is usually a violation of copywrite laws. Nevertheless, for readers who would like to download their favorite videos from YouTube and other sites, KeepVid is an excellent resource.

    From the Scout Report on August 7, 2009

    HardCopy Pro 3.0.11  --- http://www.desksoft.com/HardCopy.htm 

    HardCopyPro is a screen-capture tool, but it has some nice bells and whistles that make it worth a closer look. Visitors can use the tabbed dialog box interface to pick images or even capture images at set time intervals. Also, users can preset the program to capture a certain rectangle, window, full screen, or even the window located under the mouse cursor. This version is free for 30 days, and it is compatible with computers running Windows 95 and newer.

    Statement from the Company
     HardCopy Pro is the professional, easy to use screen capture utility for Windows. It can capture rectangular screen areas and whole windows. The captured images can be cropped very easily and the color depth can be changed to any desired value from monochrome to true color. Images can be printed, saved, copied to the clipboard, emailed, edited with any image editing program, etc. Many options allow the customization of all these actions to individual user needs.

    Jensen Comment
    I downloaded this (temporarily free) program by clicking on Downloads and then choosing HardCopy Pro. I first saved the zip file in a Temp folder and then unzipped the file under Program Files.
    The download link is at http://www.desksoft.com/HardCopy_Download.htm

    The free download version only lasts 30 days, but you can purchase the software for $20 such that there’s no big investment here if you like the program. After about 20 days of playing around with this I will probably buy the software for $20. The price may be slightly higher since 2009.

    I also Camtasia Producer  ( http://www.techsmith.com/  )  to capture video screens. But Camtasia is more expensive, has no timer, and I’ve never been able to get it to work for streaming video (YouTube) as opposed to video files such as mpg or wmv files. I am not, however, using the latest version of Camtasia.

    HardCopy Pro will not copy video screens and save them to picture files. Nor will it capture "rolling screens" that must be scrolled to see the full document or spreadsheet.

    I also use Camtasia SnagIt ( http://www.techsmith.com/  ) for screen captures. One advantage of SnagIt is that it will capture rolling screens such as a text document or spreadsheet that will not all fit on one screen. But I’ve not had any success using SnagIt to capture video of any kind. SnagIt seems to capture the screen but will not save it as a picture file that I can edit. However, I’m not running the latest version of SnagIt.

    Bob Jensen


    Commemorating 50 years of the National Endowment for the Arts and
    Humanities
    Cultural Capital: 50 Years of Investment in U.S. Arts and Humanities
    http://www.npr.org/2015/09/29/444527506/both-in-headlines-and-quiet-2-agencies-fuel-american-arts-for-decades

    See Early National Endowment for the Humanities Grants to Marlon Brando,
    Noam Chomsky, and Elie Wiesel
    http://time.com/4052064/neh-grants-1965/

    NEA 50th Anniversary
    http://arts.gov/50th

    Explore All NEH Projects
    http://www.neh.gov/explore/all

    Q&A with David Bromwich: 50 years of the National Endowment for the
    Humanities
    http://news.yale.edu/2015/09/29/qa-david-bromwich-50-years-national-endowment-humanities

    The Contest for American Culture: A Leadership Case Study on the NEA and
    NEH Funding Crisis
    http://www.upenn.edu/pnc/ptkoch.html

     

     




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


    Education Tutorials

    Work in Progress (for global education): The Hewlett Foundation Blog --- http://www.hewlett.org/blog

    DevArt: Art made with code --- https://devart.withgoogle.com/

    Facing History and Ourselves: Educator Resources --- https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources

    Civics Renewal Network: A Republic, If We Can Teach It --- http://www.civicsrenewalnetwork.org

    Cuban Missile Crisis: Tools for Teachers --- http://www.cubanmissilecrisis.org

    Probability Lesson Starters and Online Activities --- http://www.transum.org/Software/SW/Starter_of_the_day/Similar.asp?ID_Topic=3

    The Dana Foundation: Kids (study of the brain) --- http://www.dana.org/kids/ 0

    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

    NOVA: Dawn of Humanity --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/dawn-of-humanity.html

    Understanding the Cosmos ---
    http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/understanding-the-cosmos/

    Astronomy Education Review --- http://aer.aas.org/

    The Astronomical Journal --- http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881

    8,400 Stunning High-Res Photos From the Apollo Moon Missions Are Now Online ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/8400-stunning-high-res-photos-from-the-apollo-moon-missions-are-now-online.html

    National STEM Centre: Technology Resources --- http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/technology/ 

    All Your Supermoon Eclipse Questions Answered ---
    http://time.com/4051630/supermoon-eclipse-blood-moon-lunar-questions-pictures/?xid=newsletter-brief

    The Periodic Table of Elements Scaled to Show The Elements’ Actual Abundance on Earth ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/the-periodic-table-of-elements-scaled-to-show-the-elements-actual-abundance-on-earth.html

    Trailblazing Physicist David Bohm and Buddhist Monk Matthieu Ricard on How We Shape What We Call Reality ---
    https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/09/22/the-quantum-and-the-lotus-riccard-david-bohm-reality/?mc_cid=128eb45d74&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

    How a Virus Invades Your Body: An Eye-Popping, Animated Look ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/how-a-virus-invades-your-body-an-eye-popping-animated-look.html

    Microbe World: Podcasts and Videos --- http://www.microbeworld.org/podcasts

    The Dana Foundation: Kids (study of the brain) --- http://www.dana.org/kids/ 0

    Science Advances: Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet --- http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/8/e1500589

    Medical Dictionary: Comprehensive Medical Terminology Search --- http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php

    Earth Science --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_science

    Faultline: Earthquake History and Science | Exploratorium --- http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/

    The Big One: Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest --- http://www.burkemuseum.org/static/earthquakes/index.html

    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

    NOVA: Dawn of Humanity --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/dawn-of-humanity.html

    Global International Migration Flows --- http://www.global-migration.info/

    Planned Obsolescence (in scholarly communications) --- http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/

    Human: The Movie Features Interviews with 2,020 People from 60 Countries on What It Means to Be Human ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/09/human-the-movie.html

    The Big Roundtable: Publishing nonfiction short stories  --- http://www.thebigroundtable.com/

    Stream 100+ Free Movies from Paramount Pictures on YouTube ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/stream-100-free-movies-from-paramount-pictures-on-youtube.html

    The Film Space (history of video) --- http://www.thefilmspace.org
    Bob Jensen's threads on the history of film --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
    Scroll down to Film

    Bauhaus: Workshops for Modernity (history of avant-garde movements) --- http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/bauhaus/Main.html

    The New York Times: Transgender Resources --- http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/opinion/transgender-resources.html

    National Center for Transgender Equality --- http://transequality.org/

    Material on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Society
    University of South Florida Libraries: LGBT Collections --- University of South Florida Libraries: LGBT Collections
    http://www.lib.usf.edu/special-collections/lgbt-collections/

    Dallas Voice (a LGBT voice for Dallas, Homosexual) --- http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/DALVO/

    The Center for Science and Democracy --- http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy

    BBC World Service: The Fifth Floor (stories about current events around the world) ---  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00mt9k

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

    Embargo Watch (news censorship) ---  https://embargowatch.wordpress.com/

    Student Press Law Center --- http://www.splc.org/

    Civics Renewal Network: A Republic, If We Can Teach It --- http://www.civicsrenewalnetwork.org/

    Difference Between (about variations in science, economics, politics, etc.) --- http://www.differencebetween.net/

    On Being with Krista Tippett (society and social relationship futures) --- http://onbeing.org/

    A New Nation Votes --- http://elections.lib.tufts.edu/

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

    Cross-Over Gaming Primary Elections:  Voting for a Sure Loser Rather Than a Candidate That Might Win?
    Cross-Over Gaming Primary Elections:  Voting for a Sure Loser Rather Than a Candidate of Choice?
    Based upon a comment I heard on CBS News there are signs that the poll support and crowds supporting Donald Trump are largely members of the Democratic Party intent on messing up the Republican Party primary outcomes. These Trump supporters have no intent to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 general election if he should be nominated. Something similar may be happening among the supporters of Bernie Sanders who are really Republicans in sheeps' white wool.

    The USA system of selecting nominees in primary elections that precede general elections possibly are becoming a vicious game.
    Election Gaming "Fraud" in Primary Elections in the USA:  Making Sure Your General Election Opponent is a Real Loser
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudulentElections.htm

    FlackCheck.org --- http://www.flackcheck.org
    Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org offers resources that help students "recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular"

     

    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

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


    Math Tutorials

    Yummy Math (illustrations of math in the real world, including forecasting) --- http://www.yummymath.com

    Probability Lesson Starters and Online Activities --- http://www.transum.org/Software/SW/Starter_of_the_day/Similar.asp?ID_Topic=30

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

    Scroll down to Mathematics

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


    History Tutorials

    The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps Podcast, Now at 239 Episodes, Expands into Eastern Philosophy ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/09/the-history-of-philosophy-without-any-gaps-podcast-now-at-239-episodes-expands-into-eastern-philosophy.html

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

    The Film Space (history of video) --- http://www.thefilmspace.org
    Bob Jensen's threads on the history of film --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
    Scroll down to Film

    NOVA: Dawn of Humanity --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/dawn-of-humanity.html

    A Brief History of the Corporation: 1600 to 2100 by Venkatesh Rao ---
    http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/06/08/a-brief-history-of-the-corporation-1600-to-2100/
    Links to accounting history over the same time periods --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#AccountingHistory

    Free: The Guggenheim Puts Online 1600 Great Works of Modern Art from 575 Artists ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/free-the-guggenheim-puts-online-1600-great-works-of-modern-art-from-575-artists.html

    Global International Migration Flows --- http://www.global-migration.info/

    London Transport Museum: Poster Collection --- http://www.ltmcollection.org/posters/index.html

    Europe's 8 greatest military leaders of all time ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/europes-greatest-military-leaders-2015-5

    The Great War: Video Series Will Document How WWI Unfolded, Week-by-Week, for the Next 4 Years ---
    http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenCulture/~3/DHsCd4kJgMM/the-great-war-video-series-will-document-how-wwi-unfolded-week-by-week-for-the-next-4-years.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

    Interactive WWI Timeline --- https://theworldwar.org/explore/interactive-wwi-timeline

    Toronto Poetry Map --- http://www.torontopoetry.ca/
    Bob Jensen's threads on poetry --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/electronicLiterature.htm#OnlinePoemFinders

    Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read --- http://www.ala.org/bbooks/bannedbooksweek
    Bob Jensen's threads on banned books --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/electronicLiterature.htm#Banned

    Free Electronic Literature --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

     

    From the Scout Report on August 1, 2014

    The World War I Centennial
    Indiana University commemorating World War I centennial in 2014-15
    http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/indiana-university-commemorating-world-war-i-centennial-in-2014-15-1.8932785

    European Peace Walk commemorates WWI centennial
    http://www.today.com/travel/european-peace-walk-commemorates-wwi-centennial-1D79975858

    The Centennial of WWI
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/photos/centennial-wwi-24667190/image-wwi-centennial-recalls-terror-trenches-24667492

    Sarajevo Celebrates WWI Centennial With Joy And The Macabre
    http://www.npr.org/2014/06/28/326406767/sarajevo-celebrates-wwi-centennial-with-joy-and-the-macabre

    “One Century Later” panel to discuss enduring influence of Great War
    http://worldwar-1centennial.org/

    BBC: World War One Centenary
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww1

    The animals that served in the first world war:  in pictures ---
    http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2014/sep/03/the-animals-that-served-in-the-first-world-war-in-pictures?CMP=twt_gu

    Imperial War Museums --- http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections-research

    Animated Map Lets You Watch the Unfolding of Every Day of the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/animated-map-lets-you-watch-the-unfolding-of-every-day-of-the-u-s-civil-war-1861-1865.html

    The Big One: Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest --- http://www.burkemuseum.org/static/earthquakes/index.html

    NBC University Theater Adapts Great Novels to Radio & Gives Listeners College Credit : Hear 110 Episodes from a 1940s eLearning Experiment ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/nbc-university-theater-adapts-great-novels-to-radio-gives-listeners-college-credit-hear-110-episodes-from-a-1940s-elearning-experiment.html

    Aubrey Beardsley’s Macabre Illustrations of Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories (1894) ---

    Nikola Tesla’s Predictions for the 21st Century: The Rise of Smart Phones & Wireless, The Demise of Coffee, The Rule of Eugenics (1926/35) ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/09/nikola-teslas-predictions-for-the-21st-century.html

    The African Studies Collection --- http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/AfricanStudies/HaroldScheub

    Bauhaus: Workshops for Modernity (history of avant-garde movements) --- http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/bauhaus/Main.html

    Elephind (digital newspaper collection) --- https://www.elephind.com/

    Papyri.info --- http://www.papyri.info/
    I could not find anything of interest in terms of accounting and business history

    Google's Dead Sea Scrolls Project: Why Putting Parchment & Papyrus in the
    Cloud Matters to Civilization

    http://www.wired.com/cloudline/2011/09/googles-dead-sea-scrolls-project-why-putting-parchment-papyrus-in-the-cloud-matters-to-civilization/

    Encyclopedia Virginia ---  http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org

    Cuban Missile Crisis: Tools for Teachers --- http://www.cubanmissilecrisis.org

    A New Nation Votes --- http://elections.lib.tufts.edu/

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

    Cross-Over Gaming Primary Elections:  Voting for a Sure Loser Rather Than a Candidate That Might Win?
    Cross-Over Gaming Primary Elections:  Voting for a Sure Loser Rather Than a Candidate of Choice?
    Based upon a comment I heard on CBS News there are signs that the poll support and crowds supporting Donald Trump are largely members of the Democratic Party intent on messing up the Republican Party primary outcomes. These Trump supporters have no intent to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 general election if he should be nominated. Something similar may be happening among the supporters of Bernie Sanders who are really Republicans in sheeps' white wool.

    The USA system of selecting nominees in primary elections that precede general elections possibly are becoming a vicious game.
    Election Gaming "Fraud" in Primary Elections in the USA:  Making Sure Your General Election Opponent is a Real Loser
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudulentElections.htm

    FlackCheck.org --- http://www.flackcheck.org
    Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org offers resources that help students "recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular"

    Oberlin College Archives http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/

     

    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

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


    Music Tutorials

     

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

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


    Writing Tutorials

    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/

    September 26, 2015

    September 28, 2015

    September 29, 2015

    September 30, 2015

    October 1, 2015

    October 2, 2015

    October 3, 2015

    October 5, 2015

    October 6, 2015

    October 7, 2015

    October 8, 2015

    October 9, 2015

    October 10, 2015

     


    Medical Dictionary: Comprehensive Medical Terminology Search --- http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php


    "A New Attack on Parkinson’s Disease," by Jon Palfreman, The Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2015 ---
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-attack-on-parkinsons-disease-1443827360?mod=djemMER

    One promising approach could also help with other neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease.

    Walking in the east London neighborhood of Shoreditch in the early 1800s, the physician James Parkinson noticed certain individuals who moved differently from the crowd. In 1817 he articulated their symptoms, such as tremor, rigidity, slow movements and stooped gait. His “Essay on the Shaking Palsy” became the first description of what is now called Parkinson’s disease. Toward the end of this classic document, Parkinson remarked in passing, “there appears to be sufficient reason for hoping that some remedial process may ere long be discovered, by which, at least, the progress of the disease may be stopped.”

    Some 200 years later, the disease, which affects one million Americans and seven million people world-wide, still hasn’t been cured. While drugs such as L-dopa and surgeries such as deep brain stimulation can help manage the symptoms, all attempts to slow, stop or reverse the disease’s course have failed. Efforts to protect dopamine cells with drugs, to revive dopamine cells with special growth factors and, most controversially, to graft new dopamine-making cells derived from fetal tissue into the brains of Parkinson’s patients, have not panned out.

    Yet recent developments have given patients like myself hope that we may be on the verge of a breakthrough that could stop the disease as James Parkinson predicted.

    Continued in article


    Wound Glue Instead of Stitches ---
    She May Solve One of the Oldest Problems in Surgery ---
    http://time.com/4037531/maria-pereira/?xid=newsletter-brief


    A Short, Powerful Animation on Addiction: Watch Andreas Hykade’s Nuggets ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/a-short-powerful-animation-on-addiction-watch-andreas-hykades-nuggets.html


    Trucker News and Health --- http://www.truckersnews.com/




    Humor October 1-12, 2015

    Forwarded by Paula

    A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it. "Impossible!" says the doctor. "Show me."

    The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left wrist and screamed, then she pushed her elbow and screamed in even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream.

    The doctor said, "You're not really a redhead, are you?

    "Well, no" she said, "I'm actually a blonde."

    "I thought so," the doctor said. "Your finger is broken"

     


    Forwarded by Paula

    It got crowded in heaven, so, for one day it was decided only to accept people who had really had a bad day on the day they died. St. Peter was standing at the pearly gates and said to the first man, "Tell me about the day you died."

    The man said, "Oh, it was awful. I was sure my wife was having an affair, so I came home early to catch her with him. I searched all over the apartment but couldn't find him anywhere. So I went out onto the balcony, we live on the 25th floor, and found this man hanging over the edge by his fingertips. I went inside, got a hammer, and started hitting his hands. He fell, but landed in some bushes. So, I got the refrigerator and pushed it over the balcony and it crushed him. The strain of the act gave me a heart attack, and I died."

    St. Peter couldn't deny that this was a pretty bad day, and since it was a crime of passion, he let the man in.

    He then asked the next man in line about the day he died. "Well, sir, it was awful," said the second man. "I was doing aerobics on the balcony of my 26th floor apartment when I twisted my ankle and slipped over the edge. I managed to grab the balcony of the apartment below, but some maniac came out and started pounding on my fingers with a hammer. Luckily I landed in some bushes. But, then the guy dropped a refrigerator on me!"

    St. Peter chuckled, let him into heaven and decided he could really start to enjoy this job.

    "Tell me about the day you died?", he said to the third man in line.

    "OK, picture this, I'm naked, hiding inside a refrigerator...."

     




    Humor September 1-30,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q3.htm#Humor093015

    Humor August 1-31,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q3.htm#Humor081115

    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