Tidbits on December 31, 2015
Bob Jensen
at
Trinity University
Part 2 of the Homestead
Inn Pictorial History (featuring the interior) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Hotels/Homestead/Set02/Set02.htm
Tidbits on December 31, 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
Blue Christmas: Feed Your Seasonal Depression with Holiday Masterpieces ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/blue-christmas-feed-your-seasonal-depression-with-holiday-masterpieces.html
The Fantastic Earth ---
https://player.vimeo.com/video/41225777?badge=0
Paramount Now Streaming 175 Free Movies Online,
Including Westerns, Thrillers & Crime Pictures ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/paramount-now-streaming-175-free-movies-online.html
A 68 Hour Playlist of Shakespeare’s Plays Being
Performed by Great Actors: Gielgud, McKellen & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/a-68-hour-playlist-of-shakespeares-plays-being-performed-by-great-actors.html
Coca Cola: A Bridge for Santa ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/151cca45646e4e13?projector=1
I miss the Clydesdales ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clydesdale_horse
It's impossible to appreciate how vast the
universe is. But this video will help ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/1/26/7915359/andromeda-galaxy-video
The High School Football Coach Who Never Punts
---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-high-school-football-coach-who-never-punts/
Watch Astronauts Arrive at the International
Space Station ---
http://www.newsweek.com/watch-astronauts-arrive-international-space-station-405282
This animated map shows how religion spread
across the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-map-shows-religion-spread-around-world-christianity-islam-2015-12
Watch the Navy's new $1.8 billion destroyer hit
the water ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-the-navys-new-18-billion-destroyer-hit-the-water-2015-12
Time Lapse Video of Alaska's Meddenhall Glacer
Melting
http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/wonder/timelapse-of-alaskas-mendenhall-glacier-melting/vi-BBnxHLJ?ocid=spartandhp
Poo-Pouri Santa Commercial ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9TTz3R5SmI
John Cleese's Advice to Young Artists: “Steal
Anything You Think Is Really Good” ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/john-cleeses-advice-to-young-artists.html
Probably Not Worth Stealing
The 7 worst 'Shark Tank' pitches of 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worst-shark-tank-pitches-of-2015-2015-12
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
Jimi Hendrix plays Delta Blues on a 12-string
acoustic guitar ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/11/jimi-hendrix-play-the-delta-blues-on-a-12-string-acoustic-guitar.html
Wes Lavin forwarded the following link ---
http://crosstowntorrents.org/archive/index.php/t-4444.html
Mozart - Symphony No. 36 in C, K. 425 [complete]
(Linz) ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwxNp-LzDYo
Frank Sinatra's Merry Federal Holiday Songs (you
are no longer supposed to say Merry Christmas) ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxhdo4mFE2E
The ‘Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ Dancers
You Most Want To Party With ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-a-charlie-brown-christmas-special-dancers-you-most-want-to-party-with/
Watch HD Versions of The Beatles’ Pioneering
Music Videos: “Hey Jude,” “Penny Lane,” “Revolution” & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/watch-hd-versions-of-the-beatles-pioneering-music-videos.html
Also see
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/13-beatles-albums-4-compilations-now-streaming-free-on-spotify.html
Religious Songs That Secular People
Can Love: Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash & Your Favorites ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/religious-songs-that-secular-people-love.html
Here’s What Beethoven Did When He
Lost His Hearing ---
http://time.com/4152023/beethoven-birthday/?xid=newsletter-brief
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
Friendship of Tiger and Goat Tugs Russia's Heartstrings ---
http://news.yahoo.com/tiger-goat-forge-unlikely-friendship-russian-zoo-100959231.html
The "lion lays down with the lamb" sort of
Reindeer ---
http://www.weather.com/travel/news/places-to-see-reindeer
The Fantastic Earth ---
https://player.vimeo.com/video/41225777?badge=0
These vintage American Christmas cards have
survived generations ---
http://qz.com/581461/christmas-cards-you-cant-just-throw-away/
The British Museum ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/the-british-museum-is-now-open-to-everyone-take-a-virtual-tour.html
ArtDaily ---
http://artdaily.com/
artnet News ---
http://news.artnet.com
Time Magazine: The Top 100 Photos of 2015 ---
http://time.com/4124895/top-100-photos-of-2015/?xid=newsletter-brief
Time Magazine: The Best Space
Photos of 2015 ---
http://time.com/4130093/best-space-photos-2015/?xid=newsletter-brief
Christmas Full Moon ---
http://www.bustle.com/articles/131934-photos-of-the-christmas-full-moon-show-a-rare-beautiful-lunar-event
These photos elevate the funny
animal picture to an art form ---
http://qz.com/577665/these-photos-elevate-the-funny-animal-picture-to-an-art-form/
The 25 Most Beautiful Places in the World ---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/the-25-most-beautiful-places-in-the-world/ss-AAg2c6i?ocid=spartanntp
85 Pictures That Will Make You Fall
in Love With Earth All Over Again ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/pictures-of-earth-2015-4
The 22 Best Small Towns to Visit in Your Lifetime ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/charming-small-towns-around-the-world-2015-12
Here's what people eat for
Christmas in 23 countries around the globe ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/-traditional-christmas-meals-around-world-2015-12
10 amazing ancient forests around
the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-forests-around-the-world-2015-12
Grand Canyon ---
http://www.humfer.net/gcanyon/index.html
The days of the jumbo jet are coming to an end — here's a look
back at its glory years ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-days-of-the-jumbo-jet-are-coming-to-an-end-heres-a-look-back-at-its-glory-years-2015-12
Haunting photos of dead and deserted Sears stores as experts
warn the end is 'very near' ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-deserted-sears-stores-2015-12
These striking images show just how
overcrowded China's population really is ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-show-overcrowded-china-2015-11
These planes have changed the
military aircraft game over the past 15 years ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/21st-century-military-plane-innovation-aircraft-2015-12
11 incredible spy gadgets from CIA
history ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/cia-museums-spy-gadgets-2015-11
The Rockefeller Family
Archives ---
http://www.rockarch.org/collections/family/
Railroad History, An
Overview of the Past ---
http://www.american-rails.com/railroad-history.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
Free eBooks, Audio Books, Online Courses & More
---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/fill-your-new-kindle-ipad-iphone-ereader-with-free-ebooks-audio-books-movies-online-courses-more.html
BBC Bitesize: GCSE English Literature
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/zckw2hv
Shmoop is an online study guide for English Literature, Poetry and American
history ---
http://www.shmoop.com/
Jane Austen Writes a Letter to Her Sister While
Hung Over: “I Believe I Drank Too Much Wine Last Night” ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/jane-austen-writes-a-letter-to-her-sister-while-hung-over.html
Dylan Thomas, 1952: A Child's Christmas in
Wales, A Story - Recorded at Steinway Hall, NY ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4-sgFw3Go
Anthony Hopkins
Reads Dylan Thomas ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/05/anthony_hopkins_reads_dylan_thomas.html
Edgar Allan Poe's textbook on seashells was his
only bestseller ---
http://www.slate.com/content/slate/blogs/the_vault/2015/12/14/edgar_allan_poe_s_textbook_on_seashells_was_his_only_bestseller.html
The Franklin Mystery: Life and Death in the
Arctic ---
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/franklin/home/homeIntro_en.htm
Hamlet: Curriculum Guide
http://pages.simonandschuster.com/images/ckfinder/26/pdfs/Folger
Curriculum Guides/Guides-Apr2012/Folger_Hamlet.pdf
From the Scout Report on April 27, 2014
Celebrating Shakespeare's 450th birthday
Is Today Shakespeare's 450th Birthday? Maybe
http://time.com/73579/shakespeare-450-birthday-april-23/
Shakespeare's Birthday
http://www.shakespearesbirthday.org.uk/
William Shakespeare's 450th birthday: 50 everyday phrases that came from
the Bard
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/william-shakespeares-450th-birthday-50-everyday-phrases-that-came-from-the-bard-9275254.html
How to talk like Shakespeare on his 450th birthday
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/parenting/chi-celebrate-shakespeare-birthday,0,2679515.story
45 Hamlets for Shakespeare's 450th birthday - in pictures
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2014/apr/23/45-hamlets-shakespeares-450th-birthday-in-pictures
Folger Shakespeare Library
http://www.folger.edu/index.cfm
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 December 31, 2015
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2015/TidbitsQuotations123115.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
Cato Institute: Social Security
http://www.cato.org/research/social-security
Bob Jensen's threads on entitlements ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm
Bob Jensen's health care messaging updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
Please give to Wikipedia ---
https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:FundraiserLandingPage&country=US&uselang=en&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_source=donate&utm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org
You take so much from Wikipedia and it asks
for so little in return ---
http://qz.com/582465/saudi-arabia-is-paying-a-huge-price-for-its-war-on-shale-oil/
Jensen Comment
No matter what I give to Wikipedia financially each year it will never be
enough. It's utterly fantastic.
50 Education Technology Tools Every Teacher
Should Know About ---
https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/50-education-technology-tools-every-teacher-should-know-about
Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Thomas Edison's Amazing 100-Year predictions
in 1911 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/thomas-edison-predicts-what-the-world-will-look-like-in-2011.html
Feldman of the Harvard Law School: Do Christians, Muslims And Jews Worship
The Same God? ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/12/feldman-do-christians-muslims-and-jews-worship-the-same-god.html
This animated map shows how religion spread
across the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-map-shows-religion-spread-around-world-christianity-islam-2015-12
How to Mislead With Statistics
"The 11 most expensive countries for a
university education," by Lianna Brinded, Business Insider, December
28, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/expert-market-11-countries-where-parents-spend-the-most-money-on-university-tuition-fees-2015-10
Jensen Comment
This has to be one of the most misleading articles that I have ever read. It's
not at all clear how the data is collected and aggregated, but it overlooks how
complicated it is to compute "tuition cost," especially in the USA. Firstly,
virtually all of the top state supported universities in all 50 states have
excellent academic reputations such as UC Berkeley, University of Washington,
University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois, University of Texas, Texas A&M,
University of Michigan, etc. Tuition costs vary greatly between what in-state
students are charged versus out-of-state students. In-state students get a
relatively good deal for both onsite and online degrees.
Secondly, the study seems to ignore the high
proportion of need-based financial support from both the top-ranked
state-supported and private universities. Education is virtually free for top
students coming from households having less than $35,000 in annual income plus
social benefits like Food Stamps and free Medicaid.
Thirdly, for students of lesser ability wanting
to go to college the USA has a fantastic network of state-supported
universitiess, community colleges, and branch campuses that are relatively low
cost and not anywhere close to the median tuition costs reported in the above
article. Online degree alternatives have exploded from these institutions which
enables many students (especially young parents) to live at home and not have to
pay room and board costs on a campus.
In the U.K., open university has hundreds of
thousands of students who pay less than £5,000, over 60,000 of them pay almost
nothing. There are many other universities in the U.K. that are similarly low
cost.
I have only one comment left about the above
article --- HOGWASH!
The problem is not the cost of higher
education in the USA.
The problem is that the diplomas mean less and less due to grade inflation.
They are not a good deal due to the high cost of tuition. They are becoming a
worse and worse deal because of grade inflation that renders the education more
and more meaningless.
December 28, 2015 reply from Robin Alexander
I agree with Bob on this
one. The article didn’t give a hint on how it derived its numbers, and in
Hungary’s case, they didn’t seem to take the "free tuition if stay in
country 10 years" into account when making it #1 in percent of income eaten
by tuition. Totally undependable. But it gives rise to several points:
1. I do think that gross tuition (not taking into account loans, grants,
scholarships, etc.) is rising faster than median income as are crucial
services such as health care. This can cause problems for some qualified and
motivated students.
2. I agree that grade inflation is a huge problem. I graduated with
around a 2.8 (I was a late bloomer) that was considered good but not great
in my day. Towards the end of my teaching career, anybody with less than a
3.5 was barely considered hirable! I think the trend to grade inflation
really took off when “student evaluations” began to be used unscientifically
for raises and promotion at universities. Whatever the cause, at my
university there was tremendous pressure from deans on up to pass more
students and not give the the grade they had earned. One of my colleagues
stuck to her guns and gave grades that the students deserved and for this
she was hounded out of the U.
3. I believe one of the worst things one can do to a young person is to
encourage an unable and unmotivated student to go to college. They will gain
little of benefit from the experience and will drag down the experience of
those who really want to be there.
There’s more, but this will do for now.
Robin Alexander
Ten Elite Schools Where Middle-Class Kids
Don't Pay Tuition ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-01/ten-elite-schools-where-middle-class-kids-don-t-pay-tuition?cmpid=BBWGP122315_BIZ
Children from poor families may also get deals on room, board, and other fees.
The trick is to be accepted in a very competitive admissions process that is
even more competitive for whites. These are not the only heavily endowed
universities offering free tuition and other financial aid to the middle-class
and poor students. This tends to offset the decline in merit-based financial aid
that is independent of family income.
Students who are not admitted to elite
universities or otherwise cannot attend may get windows to thousands of elite
university courses available as MOOCs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Increasingly academic credit can also be obtained from MOOCs by paying greatly
reduced fees relative to tuition for onsite courses. There are all sorts of
opportunities worldwide for inexpensive online credit and even more
opportunities for learning without obtaining transcript credit. For example,
thousands of tutorials in math, science, and other disciplines are now available
free from Khan Academy. The point is that students who merely want to learn can
become greater experts than students who graduate from elite universities. The
key is motivation to learn by whatever means possible where the materials
available for learning are free.
The scandal in higher education is grade
inflation.
Virtually all USA universities and especially the elite universities have moved
median course grades from C in the 1940s to A- in the 21st Century such that
graduating high grades no longer means as much. The coin of an education is
badly cheapened by grade inflation where students receive high grades without
much real learning ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
Grade inflation also exists in other nations,
but many other nations are different from the USA (where slow learners can
always be admitted to some college) in that only the intellectually elite
are allowed to go to college ---
OECD Study Published in 2014: List of
countries by 25- to 34-year-olds having a tertiary education degree ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_25-_to_34-year-olds_having_a_tertiary_education_degree
Whereas nations like Finland and Germany only
admit elite and motivated learners into colleges, what Bernie Sanders intends is
that virtually anybody who wants to can be admitted to college for free. Sanders
most likely hopes that the unmotivated and low-aptitude admissions will not
graduate, but there are not many such academic standards in this era of grade
inflation ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
In my opinion college diplomas will
mean less and less as the 21st Century unfolds even though taxpayers will be
shelling out billions for degrees not worth the sheepskin they're printed
on.
December 25, 2015 reply from Amy Haas
In my experience , College
for all turns college into high school. Students enter my urban community
college classroom with weak academic skills expecting college to be a
continuation of high school. Show up earn a C, do a little work get an A.
Many of them never earn a degree. College for all has resulted in a dumbing
down of the academic curriculum and consequently the value of the college
degree. Students exit with lots of debt and a degree that does not open
doors that it once did.
Amy Haas
KBCC
Brooklyn, NY
"As Graduation Rates Rise, Experts Fear Diplomas Come Up Short," by
Motoko Rich, The New York Times, December 26, 2015 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/us/as-graduation-rates-rise-experts-fear-standards-have-fallen.html?hpw&rref=education&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
. . .
It is a pattern repeated in other school districts across the state and
country — urban, suburban and rural — where the
number of students earning high
school diplomas has risen to historic peaks, yet measures of academic
readiness for college or jobs are much lower.
This has led educators to question the real value of a high school diploma
and whether graduation requirements are too easy.
Continued in article
"Teacher assails practice of giving passing grades to failing students,"
by Jay Mathews, The Washington Post, May 17, 2014 ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teacher-assails-practice-of-giving-passing-grades-to-failing-students/2015/05/17/f38f88ae-f9ab-11e4-9030-b4732caefe81_story.html
Caleb Stewart Rossiter, a college professor and
policy analyst, decided to try teaching math in the D.C. schools. He was
given a pre-calculus class with 38 seniors at H.D. Woodson High School. When
he discovered that half of them could not handle even second-grade problems,
he sought out the teachers who had awarded the passing grades of D in
Algebra II, a course that they needed to take his high-level class.
There are many bewildering stories like this in
Rossiter’s new book, “Ain’t
Nobody Be Learnin’ Nothin’: The Fraud and the Fix for High-Poverty Schools,”
the best account of public education in the nation’s
capital I have ever read. It will take me three columns to do justice to his
revelations about what is being done to the District’s most distracted and
least productive students.
Teachers will tell you it is a no-no to ask other
teachers why they committed grading malpractice. Rossiter didn’t care. Three
of the five teachers he sought had left the high-turnover D.C. system, but
the two he found were so candid I still can’t get their words out of my
mind.
The first, an African immigrant who had taught
special education, was stunned to see one student’s name on Rossiter’s list.
“Huh!” Rossiter quoted the teacher as saying. “That boy can’t add two plus
two and doesn’t care! What’s he doing in pre-calculus? Yes of course I
passed him — that’s a gentleman’s D. Everybody knows that a D for a special
education student means nothing but that he came in once in a while.”
Continued in article
The scandal of grade inflation in high schools and colleges ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
Everybody gets a blue ribbon. Bernie Sanders wants to give them a
meaningless free college diploma.
Mossberg: Seven Tech Trends From 2015 ---
http://recode.net/2015/12/23/mossberg-seven-tech-trends-from-2015/
Jensen Comment
Before he retired from the WSJ, Walt Mossberg was my favorite tech commentator.
Chronicle of Higher Education: 2015 Top
Reads ---
http://chronicle.com/specialreport/Top-Reads-of-2015/25?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elq=3418c6e2d3b44be99a0168916e94cf32&elqCampaignId=2133&elqaid=7344&elqat=1&elqTrackId=11991449ff894afdaaec8c460c4cbca5
Brain Pickings: The 15 Best Books of
2015 ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/21/best-books-2015/?mc_cid=773f043fba&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
Brain Pickings: The Best Science Books of 2015 ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/11/best-science-books-2015/?mc_cid=4dfe385514&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
The Economist: Our 2015 Top Ten Stories
---
http://www.economist.com/news/christmas/21684051-our-ten-most-popular-articles-2015
Emmie Martin: 20 best nonfiction books
of 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-best-nonfiction-books-of-2015-2015-12
H Is for Hawk (mental health and all things
wild) ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/16/h-is-for-hawk/?mc_cid=60eab78aa3&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
Brain Pickings: The Best Children’s
Books of 2015 ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/15/best-childrens-books-2015/?mc_cid=60eab78aa3&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
Business Insider Ranking: The Most
Successful 50 Movies of 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ranked-the-50-most-successful-movies-of-2015-2015-12
Success in ticket sales means produce kids' entertainment stuff
- Furious 7
- Jurassic World
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Inside Out
- Minions
- The Martian
- Mission Impossible --- Rogue Nation
- Spectre
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Time Magazine: The Top 10 Movies of
2015 ---
http://time.com/4134913/top-10-best-movies/?xid=newsletter-brief
Mostly social issues that are not entertainment for kids
- Spotlife
- Phoenix
- I'll See You in My Dreams
- Clouds of Sills Maria
- Iris
- Mustang
- Tangerine
- Creed
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E
Time Magazine: Best TV Shows of 2015
---
http://time.com/4130167/top-10-tv-shows-2/?xid=newsletter-brief
NPR: Our 10 Favorite Classical Music
Albums for 2015 ---
http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/12/17/459871725/our-10-favorite-classical-albums-of-2015
RANKED: The worst and best tech IPOs for
investors in 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/2015-tech-ipo-report-2015-12
And the winner is GoDaddy
Bloomberg: The 38 Best Stories in 2015
That We Didn’t Write ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-jealousy-list/
Dave Barry’s 2015 Year in Review ---
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article51119880.html
Not quite as good as the old Dave Barry
US News: 2015 Best Colleges and
Universities ---
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges
Frequently Asked Questions about US News Rankings ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
. . .
19. How does
U.S. News handle for-profits in the rankings?
All regionally accredited for-profit institutions are included in U.S.
News' data collection efforts. Among them are many schools that have large online
bachelor's degree programs.
Any for-profit college or university that grants
bachelor's degrees, is regionally accredited and meets the specific U.S.
News ranking criteria to be included in the Best Colleges rankings can be
ranked. However, as a result of the U.S. News eligibility standards, almost
all of the for-profit institutions have been grouped with the unranked
schools.
Why? Their bachelor's degree candidates are largely nontraditional
students in degree completion programs, for example, or they don't use SAT
or ACT test scores in admissions decisions – both of which are factors U.S.
News uses to decide if a school is eligible to be ranked.
20. How does U.S. News handle schools that refuse to respond to
the U.S. News annual statistical survey, given that many of them are still
included in the rankings?
Nonresponders are still included in the rankings if they are eligible to
be ranked. For schools that were eligible to be ranked but refused to fill
out the U.S. News statistical survey in the spring and summer of 2015, we
have made extensive use of the statistical data those institutions were
required to report to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for
Education Statistics. That includes such factors as SAT and ACT scores,
acceptance rates, number of faculty, and graduation and retention rates. We
also use data from other sources, such as the Council for Aid to Education
(for alumni giving rates) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(for graduation rates).
How to Use the Rankings
1. What is the best way for students and their parents to use the
rankings?
Students can use the rankings to create an initial list of schools to
consider, to narrow down that list and to compare overall academic quality.
Students can also use the data underlying the rankings to identify schools
with specific characteristics that they value.
However, the editors of U.S. News believe rankings are only one of many
criteria students should consider in choosing a college. Simply because a
school is top in its category does not mean it is the top choice for
everyone. The rankings should not be used as the sole basis to choose one
school over another.
A prospective student's academic and professional ambitions, personal
preferences, financial resources and scholastic record, as well as a
school's size, cost, programs, atmosphere and location, should play major
roles in determining a college choice.
Moreover, it is crucial to remember that schools separated by only a few
places in the rankings are extremely close in academic quality.
[Get more information on
how to use the rankings.]
2. How can I find the rank
of a particular school?
U.S. News publishes the rankings in two places: in a college guidebook,
"Best Colleges 2016,'' and on this website, which also offers the
U.S. News College Compass – home to the most
complete rankings and data. The guidebook is available for purchase at
newsstands, by calling 1-800-836-6397 or by visiting the
U.S. News store. For discounts on bulk orders of
50 or more copies, please contact
booksales@usnews.com.
Continued at
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
US News: 2015 Best
Online Bachelor's Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
- Penn State University World Campus
- Daytona State College
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Western Kentucky University
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University—Worldwide
- Oregon State University
- Colorado State University Global Campus
- Arizona State University
- Ohio State University --- Columbus
- Pace University
- Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
US News: 2015 Best
Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
1. University of
Houston
2 .Florida State University
3. Northern Illinois University
4. Penn State University World Campus
5. Central Michigan University
Graceland University
University of Nebraska --- Lincoln
8. Auburn University
Ball State University
George Washington University
11. Creighton Unversity
Emporia State University
Michigan State University
Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
US
News: 2015 Best Online MBA Programs
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba
1. Indiana University
(Kelly)
Temple (Fox)
University of North Carolina ---
Chapel Hill
4. Arizona State University (Carey)
University of Florida (Hough)
6 . University of Texas --- Dallas
7. Carnegie-Mellon University (Tepper)
Penn State University World
Campus
9. North Carolina State University (Jenkins)
10. Auburn University
US News: 2015
Online Higher Education Search Engine ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Bob Jensen's threads on Rankings Controversies
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HIGHerEdControversies2.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings
David Pogue:
7 Terrific Holiday Gifts You’ve Probably Never Heard of ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/pogues-picks-seven-terrific-holiday-gifts-that-161307755.html
David Pogue: 7 Tech Trends to Be
Thankful for Today ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/7-tech-trends-to-be-thankful-for-today-185519525.html
David Pogue: Siri vs Cortana, Google
Now, and Alexa: Which Voice Assistant Will Win? ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/battle-of-the-voice-assistants-siri-cortana-211625975.html
The 14 worst Christmas movies of all time
---
http://www.techinsider.io/worst-christmas-movies-2015-12
MIT: Best 2015 Biomedicine Stories ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/544891/2015-in-biomedicine-baby-engineering-spray-on-gmos-and-cancer-cures/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151228
MIT: Seven Must-Read Stories (Week
ending December 26, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/544951/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-december-26-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151225
MIT: Seven Must-Read Stories (Week
ending December 26, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/544956/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-december-26-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151225
MIT: The Six Best Happenings in Virtual
Reality in 2015 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/544866/the-6-most-important-things-that-happened-in-virtual-reality-in-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151221
MIT: Seven Must-Read Stories (Week
ending December 13, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/544301/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-december-13-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-robotics&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151216
MIT: Recommended from Around the Web
(Week ending December 13, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/544296/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-december-13-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-robotics&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151216
MIT: Recommended from Around the Web
(Week ending December 20, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/544756/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-december-20-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151218
MIT: Seven Must-Read Stories (Week
ending December 20, 2015) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/544761/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-december-20-2015/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151221
One thing is clear from
this graphical representation of diversity at America’s top colleges: the best
schools tend to be more racially and ethnically diverse.
"Diversity At Top Colleges: Here's The Proof," by Matt SchfiFrin,
Forbes, December 20, 2015 ---
http://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2015/12/20/diversity-at-top-colleges-heres-the-proof/
"Gretl Update," by David Giles,
Econometrics Blog, December 26, 2015 ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2015/12/gretl-update.html
The
Gretl econometrics package is a great resource
that I've blogged about from time to time. It's free to all users, but
of a very high quality.
Recently, I heard from
Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti - one of the principals
of Gretl. He wrote:
"In the past, you had some nice words on Gretl, and we are grateful for
that.
Your recent post on HEGY made me realise that you may not be totally
aware of the recent developments in the gretl ecosystem: we now have a
reasonably rich and growing array of "addons". Of course, being a much
smaller project than, say, R, you shouldn't expect anything as rich and
diverse as CRAN, but we, the core team, are quite pleased of the
way things have been shaping up."
The HEGY post that
Jack is referring to is
here, and he's quite right - I haven't been
keeping up sufficiently with some of the developments at the Gretl
project.
There are now around
100 published Gretl "addons", of
"function packages". You can find a
list of those currently supported
here. By way of example, these packages
include ones as diverse as Heteroskedastic I.V. Probit; VECM for I(2)
Analysis; and the Moving Blocks Bootstrap for Linear Panels.
If you go to
this link you'll be able to download the
Gretl Function Package Guide. This will tell you everything you want
to know about using function packages in Gretl, and it also provides the
information that you need if you're thinking of writing and contributing
a package yourself.
Congratulations to
Jack and to
Allin Cottrell for their continuing excellent
work in making Grelt available to all of us!
How to Mislead With Statistics
"This graph shows how much money you can earn
from each college major," by Abby Jackson, Business Insider, December
24, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/earning-potential-by-college-major-2015-12
Jensen Comment
This graph is a great illustration of an interactive graphs, although you have
to play around with it some to get the hang of it. For example, if you want to
see the graphs for just "Accounting" click off the box for "All," click the box
for "Accounting," and then scroll down and click on "Apply."
By now many of you are weary of my warnings
about such things as definitions, averages without standard deviations, skewness
(kurtosis), etc. For example, means or medians for "accounting" can be
misleading without knowing how accounting is defined. For example, there's a big
difference between what lowly bookkeepers make versus CPA firm partners and
executives in major corporations. There's a huge difference between what
accounting Ph.D. graduates make in struggling small private colleges versus what
they make at Ivy League universities. Also there's a huge difference in fringe
benefits such as housing subsidies, research stipends, summer pay, and fringe
benefits such as contributions to TIAA/CREF. Also Ph.D. graduates tend to have
opportunities for outside income in book writing and consulting. At a
prestigious university like Harvard, a professor's Harvard salary is likely to
be only a small part of total income.
In general, the biggest problem is in career
tracking combined with income standard deviations. Comparing the lifetime
earnings of a cost accountant in General Electric cannot really be compared with
the lifetime earnings of a partner in a small local public accounting firm
really cannot be compared because some of these partners may top out at $50,000
or more per year whereas others top out at $500,000 per year after their
retirement buyouts are factored into compensation.
A top accounting graduate typically goes to work
for 5-10 years with a large public accounting firm or the government. However,
80% or more of those graduates leave (most never intended to stay in public
accounting or government employment) and go to work for in private industry such
as when an IRS agent goes to work at a high level in a corporate tax department.
At such time they often make much more than others who stay in public accounting
or government. The problem is that in studies like the one cited above these
"former" accountants are no longer classified as
accountants such as when a public accountant becomes the CFO or CEO of a
large or small corporation. Hence in studies like the one above a former
accountant is excluded from the 20-year survey of "accountants."
The same problem arises when examining
accountants who only have "associates" degrees. Typically these accounting
graduates are no longer "accountants" ten or 20 years out. Some may be CEOs of
their own companies and some might earn over $200,000 per year in stores or
plumbing companies that they own. Hence, I'm extremely
suspicious of graphs that compare the benefits of getting a Ph.D. versus an
associates degree in accounting. The problem is that most associates
or bachelors degree holders either dropped out of the labor market (such as to
have babies) or became entrepreneurs who are no longer classified as
"accountants."
Problems like those mentioned above become
exacerbated when comparing types of degrees such as accounting versus culinary
arts versus creative writing.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that studies like this are so misleading and dangerous that I
wish they did not get published.
Bob Jensen's threads on careers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#careers
Quantitative Easing ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing
Federal Reserve will pay banks $12 billion in
2016 ---
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/federal-reserve-will-pay-banks--12-billion-in-2016-165253054.html#
In 2016, the Federal
Reserve will pay at least $12.2 billion to U.S. and foreign banks to keep
the money created via its quantitative easing programs out of the economy.
If the Fed raises rates as expected next year, the amount nearly doubles to
$23.1 billion. From 2008 to 2015, the Fed
purchased over $4 trillion worth of bonds to stimulate growth in the
economy. Risk markets responded, as is
demonstrated by the close correlation between the S&P 500 and growth of the
Fed's balance sheet through its bond purchases.
Continued in article
"A More Practical Model for Law Schools,"
by Alice Armitage and Robin Feldman, Harvard Business Review, December
24, 2015 ---
https://hbr.org/2015/12/a-more-practical-model-for-law-schools
The JD is no longer the
ticket it once was to a stable career and high earnings. With skyrocketing
levels of student debt and limited job opportunities, potential law students
are foregoing legal careers. And with depleted budgets and enrollment at a
40-year low, law schools are scrambling to remain relevant.
Legal education needs a radical change. To do this, it is imperative that
we rethink the standard law school model — a series of required classes,
some of which have little connection to the work most students will actually
do as lawyers. There is a need for scalable, affordable experiences that
connect students to firms and the practice of law — similar to medical
school residency programs.
Even President Obama has suggested that it is worth discussing the merits
of a law degree program that entirely replaces the third year of course work
with a medical school residency–style program in which students would rotate
through several practice areas.
But revolutionizing legal education need not be confined to a single
class for select students. The Startup Legal Garage at the University of
California, Hastings College of the Law is one program reenergizing legal
education, immersing
more students in real-world experiences,
capitalizing on the best that traditional law school pedagogy has to offer,
and remaining cost-effective for law school budgets.
The Startup Legal Garage is structured in a unique way. Professors guide
students by teaching soft skills and doctrinal classes, and they set up
fieldwork projects by matching students and early-stage tech startups with
partners at top law firms. The practicing attorney supervises student work
on basic legal needs such as employee contracts, privacy policies, and
entity formation — and the student is placed at the center of real-world law
practice.
Summer internships have always provided real world experience, of course,
but they are based on the notion that everything can be learned on the job.
The Startup Legal Garage model marries the best of what law schools can
offer with the best of what such summer apprenticeships can offer. Tenured
faculty teach the underlying doctrines in the classroom; students then bring
sanitized versions of the deals they are working on into the classroom,
where the professors can slow down the action, walk through it step-by-step,
and show how the doctrines are working in context. There is little time for
this type of education in the fast-paced world of modern practice, and there
is little real world content in the glacially-paced traditional law school
classroom.
Over 100 students have gone through the program in the last two years,
reorienting their legal education to hone the skills they need before their
first day on the job. One recent graduate of the program, now practicing at
a major law firm in Silicon Valley, said, “I can honestly say [the Startup
Legal Garage] did more to prepare me for the work that I’m doing on a
day-to-day basis than any other class in law school.”
Other law schools are also working with the private sector to give
students a better chance at a promising legal career. Lewis and Clark Law
School, in Portland, Oregon, offers a legal practicum course that places
students in the legal departments of local corporations. This in-house
experience is combined with a seminar focusing on the legal matters they are
likely to face as corporate counsel. The University of Chicago Law School,
partnering with the firm of Kirkland & Ellis, has created the Kirkland &
Ellis Corporate Lab program, coupling a classroom component with a
competition in which students engage in a series of corporate legal
challenges based on real-world scenarios.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment 1
Immersing students in real-world experiences apart from traditional case study
courses does not fit well into the traditional law school business model that
had a very high student/faculty ratio and large classes. Wealthy universities
might experiment with this models, but most law schools that are struggling
financially and laying off faculty will find it harder to immerse students in
real world experiences.
Jensen Comment 2
Given the Pathways Commission findings that accounting doctoral students are too
isolated from problems of the practicing profession and conduct research of
little interest to the profession, this recommendation may also apply to
accountancy doctoral students
--- immersing more students in
real-world experiences,
Many of our accountancy doctoral students
have weak backgrounds in accounting since these programs shifted admission
priorities to mathematics, econometrics, and computer science majors. Immersing
these student in real-world accounting experiences is a great ideal given the
initiatives of the Pathways Commission.
Plenary Session Video:
Building Bridges from the Academy to the Business Community
Stanford University Professor Charles M. C. Lee
American Accounting Association 2015 Annual Meetings
http://commons.aaahq.org/posts/79da0665ee
I suspect this video is available only to subscribers to the AAA Commons that is
free only to members of the American Accounting Association
Jensen Comment
Actually this video is quite good about how academic accounting researchers
should get closer to the real-world profession, a profession that he defines
more broadly than the accounting profession. Much of the video is focused on the
the profession of finance and its real world decision makers.
The best quote in the video is a borrowed quote from Mark Wolfson.
"Risky research is doing research that everybody else is doing."
To this I might add "using tools, like some variation of regression research,
that everybody else is using."|
To this I might add is "using purchased databases that everybody else is doing."
My limited study of this is that over 90% of the recent research in The
Accounting Review entails using purchased databases that enable the accounting
researcher to avoid having to creatively invent ways of collecting data. ---
"A Scrapbook on What's Wrong with the Past, Present and Future of Accountics
Science"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsWorkingPaper450.06.pdf
Teacher, Scholar, Mother: Re-Envisioning
Motherhood In The Academy ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/12/teacher-scholar-mother-re-envisioning-motherhood-in-the-academy.html
Gender Equality Data and Statistics ---
http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/
Bob Jensen's threads on women ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Women
Are you your zip code?
http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/ziptapestry
Jensen Comment
My zip code profile says that I'm not likely to be a frequent user of the
Internet. Yeah right!
Television is mostly commercial advertisements --- I hate it.
I fall asleep reading books.
Calories turn immediately into you know what.
My hips now hurt when climbing mountains.
My bones cannot take the risks of downhill skiing.
Cross country skiing just wears me out thinking about it.
My testosterone is barely hanging in there --- to Erika's relief.
There's not much snow to blow this winter --- an inch now and then is just not
enough to justify cranking up the tractor.
Hey the Internet is the best alternative in my zip code and the thank you notes
for my blogging make it all worthwhile.
MOOC for Credit and Noncredit Updates
EdX (edX) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EdX
Coursera ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
Arizona State University (ASU) ---
http://www.asu.edu/
Global Freshman Academy at ASU ---
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/23/three-questions-for-the-asuedx-global-freshman-academy-online-program/#.mdnza8b:OlFh
Jensen Comment
Arizona State University is one of the most innovative, if not the most
innovative, large and respected universities in the USA. Innovation is so
rapid and so complex at ASU that it must be an administrative nightmare.
Academe was shocked when
Starbucks
Corporation announced a free undergraduate degree distance education fringe
benefit to be administered by ASU. Originally, only employees who had a prior
two years of college were eligible, but now virtually all full-time Starbucks
employees are eligible to study online for four years from ASU for an
undergraduate degree. This Starbucks fringe benefit is part of ASU's innovative
online distance education program that is a fee-based program instead of a free
MOOC program. For Starbucks employees their employer pays the tuition.
The University also has an innovative MOOC
sports program that the NCAA repackages via Coursera for third parties ---
http://blogs.wpcarey.asu.edu/knowit/what-lurks-beneath-the-tip-of-the-mooc-iceberg/
ASU first joined the MOOC window into courses
with a
journalism course and then expanded MOOC windows into other courses. ASU
also commenced a MOOC program as well that is a free video window into its
freshman general education core. Anybody in the world may view freshman courses
through this window and study alongside ASU campus students taking these core
courses. Initially the MOOC viewers could not get academic credit.
Global Freshman Academy at ASU
Now ASU is experimenting with making academic credit available to MOOC viewers
through edX. MOOCs can be viewed for free but academic credit is fee-based.
Bob Jensen's threads on thousands of MOOCs
from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"Less Than 1%," by Carl Straumsheim,
Inside Higher Ed, December 21, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/21/323-learners-eligible-credit-moocs-arizona-state-u?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=162e714d50-DNU20151221&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-162e714d50-197565045
ASU has not shared how many
credit-seeking MOOC learners it hopes to enroll -- if such a goal exists.
Speaking to Inside Higher Ed in April, Philip Regier, university
dean for educational initiatives, said there were “a lot of uncertainties”
around that number. He added that he expected “maybe 25,000” to register for
some of the MOOCs. The astronomy MOOC, the largest of the first three,
attracted 13,423 registrants.
A spokesperson for the
university, in response to whether the results are satisfactory, said,
“ASU’s goal is reaching learners who want access to high-quality
college-level education. The Global Freshman Academy charts a new path in
access to higher education, and the results of the inaugural courses are a
positive first step for the GFA.”
Low completion rates are
nothing new to MOOCs. In fact, a completion rate in the low double digits --
even in the high teens -- can be seen as a success.
MOOC researchers, however,
have argued that completion rates don’t matter as much as they do in
traditional online and face-to-face courses. The open structure of MOOCs,
they say, allows learners to register for a course but only focus on a
handful of units. In other words, a low completion rate can mask the fact
that many learners got something out of the MOOC, even if they didn’t finish
it.
“In open online learning,
completion numbers provide only one small perspective on people's learning
experiences,” Justin Reich, executive director of MIT’s Teaching Systems
Lab, said in an email. “It would also be worth learning more about the
experiences of the 3,300 or the 34,000. Did they have good learning
experiences? Are they more familiar with ASU and its faculty? What public
interests or institutional interests were served by offering the course?”
Reich has
previously explored the demographics of the
learners who registered for MOOCs offered by Harvard University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- the two institutions behind edX.
His
recent research, which appeared earlier this month
in Science, found MOOCs “can exacerbate rather than reduce
disparities in educational outcomes related to socioeconomic status.” The
results build on earlier findings about MOOCs, which have suggested MOOCs
cater more to older learners with previously earned degrees instead of the
learners ASU is targeting -- high school students, international students
and students considering community college, among others.
“I'm not surprised that few
people took advantage of the credit option in the first run -- that's been
common across certificate experiments in MOOCs,” Reich wrote. “A trajectory
over time will be more useful than a snapshot. If these numbers stay very
low, it will be harder to justify continuing the program than if they grow
quickly and if the program gets more accepted and recognized.
Continued in article
"Nearly 4,000 Starbucks Employees Apply to
Arizona State (online)," Inside Higher Ed, September 3, 2014 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/09/03/nearly-4000-starbucks-employees-apply-arizona-state
Following Starbucks employee education benefits
with Arizona State University,
Anthem Blue Cross offers education benefits with the University of Southern New
Hampshire
"An Increasingly Popular Job Perk: Online
Education," by Mary Ellen McIntire, Chronicle of Higher Education,
June 2, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/an-increasingly-popular-job-perk-online-education/56771?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Wal-Mart subsidizes an entire undergraduate
degree.
"Fiat Chrysler Offers Degrees to Employee
Families (including families of dealer employees) ," Inside Higher Ed,
November 23, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/11/23/fiat-chrysler-offers-degrees-employee-families?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b3c3eb755f-DNU20151123&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b3c3eb755f-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based
distance education ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free online
education (most of which still offers free learning without college credits) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance
education alternatives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"The 12 Most Popular Free Online Courses (MOOCs) For Professionals,"
by Maggie Zhang, Business Insider, July 8, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7
12. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health's "Data
Analysis"
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7#ixzz37LiJgQ57
Update
2015: The 10 most popular free online
courses for professionals ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-coursera-courses-of-2015-2015-12
Bob Jensen's links to free course materials,
videos, and entire courses from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Hyatt Hotels attacked with payment-card stealing malware ---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/hyatt-hotels-attacked-with-payment-card-stealing-malware/ar-BBnS6rG?ocid=spartanntp
. . .
"Customers should review their payment-card account statements closely
and report any unauthorized charges to their card issuer immediately," she
said.
Hyatt, controlled by the billionaire Pritzker family, is the
fourth major hotel operator to warn of a breach since
October.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Note that you need not have stayed in a Hyatt Hotel recently to have your credit
card number on file with Hyatt compromised.
See How Well Your Neighbors Have Recovered
From the Recession (an interactive USA Census map) ---
http://time.com/4143468/recession-census-income/?xid=newsletter-brief
Click on a county pictured in the map. Then
click on Zoom Out to restore the full map of the USA.
Note that household income may have more than
one income provider in the home.
My retirement home is in Grafton County.
Grafton County, New Hampshire had a median household income of $57,960 in 2009
and $55,045 in 2014 after adjusting for inflation. That's a 5.0% decrease since
the recession.
Median household income is relatively high in Grafton County due to the
thousands of high income households in the vicinity of Dartmouth College and the
renowned Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Grafton County has roughly 89,000 people.
For 24 years I lived in the densely populated
Bexar County in San Antonio.
Bexar County, Texas had a median household income of $50,256 in 2009 and $50,867
in 2014 after adjusting for inflation. That's a 1.2 % increase since the
recession.
Bexar County has over 1.7 million people plus quite a lot of undocumented
residents that are not counted in the USA Census. Because of an especially huge
underground cash-only economy median county household income is subject to a
wide range of error in Texas.
Question
Why can't professional sports heroes hang on to their millions?
Answer
Sometimes it's hedonistic living with mansions, absurdly expensive cars, wild
women, gambling, and drugs, but for some its just financial ignorance that makes
these nouveau riche suckers for fraudsters.
A former NFL player who made $40 million over
his career just filed for bankruptcy ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/financial-advisor-insights-december-23-2015-2015-12
Former NFL running
back Clinton Portis has filed for bankruptcy just five years after retiring
from the league. Portis, who made $40 million over the course of his
nine-year career, has a long list of creditors, including the MGM Grand
Hotel in Las Vegas ($287,178.56), the IRS ($458,619.79), his mother
($500,000), and others.
According to NBC Sports, bad investments led to Portis' downfall, as he
lost $8 million on a failed casino and another $2 million to a Ponzi scheme.
Portis had nearly 12,000 all-purpose yards and 80 touchdowns playing for the
Denver Broncos and Washington Redskins.
Continued in article
Barnes & Noble is
dying. Waterstones in the U.K. is thriving.
Big-Box Bookstores Don’t Have to Die ---
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2015/12/barnes_noble_is_dying_waterstones_in_the_u_k_is_thriving.single.html
Harvard Business Review: 8 Tech Trends
to Watch in 2016 (they're not all good news) ---
https://hbr.org/2015/12/8-tech-trends-to-watch-in-2016
Brain Pickings: The Best Science Books of 2015 ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/11/best-science-books-2015/?mc_cid=4dfe385514&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
"The History of the Black-Scholes Formula,"
Priceonomics, December 15, 2015
http://priceonomics.com/the-history-of-the-black-scholes-formula/
There is a section in the above document on how
the Black-Scholes formula was implemented by two Nobel Economists (including
Myron Scholes), their doctoral students, and a key friend into an index
fund called Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) that very nearly caused the
entire collapse of Wall Street due to an overlooked assumption of the Formula
that that failed during an extremely unlikely collapse of the Asian securities
market. Big Wall Street firms quietly paid for the scandal to go away.
A particularly good video produced by PBS Nova
explains the Black-Scholes Formula and how it let to the demise of LTCM in a
"Trillion Dollar Bet."
The Trillion Dollar
Bet transcripts are free ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2704stockmarket.html
However, you really have to watch the graphics in the video to
appreciate this educational video ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stockmarket/
"Trillion Dollar Bet"
Nobel Prize Winners (Myron Scholes from Stanford, Robert Merton from
Harvard) Must Pay Millions Due to Tax Fraud
"Judge's Ruling In LTCM Case May
Resonate," by Diya Gullapalli and Henny Sender, The Wall Street
Journal, . August 30, 2004; Page C1
A
federal judge Friday ruled against a defunct hedge fund whose
name has become synonymous with the concept of "systemic risk,"
in a decision that singled out a Nobel Prize winner for
criticism and that could have implications for other hedge funds
seeking to avoid taxes.
Judge
Janet Bond Arterton denied Long-Term Capital Management's
attempt to reclaim $40 million in taxes, ending a monthlong
civil trial involving the fund that was wound down in 1998. Her
ruling upheld an Internal Revenue Service claim that the fund
had filed improper deductions.
In a
nearly 200-page opinion from her bench in New Haven, Conn.,
Judge Arterton outlined why she believed tax shelters employed
by LTCM lacked the business purpose required to make them legal.
She ruled that the fund engaged in at least nine complex leasing
transactions that didn't have economic substance and were
instead designed mainly to create losses of $106 million to
offset LTCM's tax burden.
The
transactions, with acronyms such as CHIPS for Computer Hardware
Investment Portfolio, and TRIPS, for Trucking Investment
Portfolios, began in 1996 when LTCM swapped a stake in the fund
for preferred stock of five U.S. companies.
That
stock was owned by Onslow Trading & Commercial LLC, an entity
based in the United Kingdom that acquired the preferred stock in
exchange for what are known as lease-stripping and
sale-lease-back transactions.
Judge
Arterton's ruling means LTCM must pay roughly $16 million in IRS
penalties, or 40% of the $40 million LTCM had been trying to
reclaim. Because the U.S. tax code is enforced through civil
litigation, no criminal charges are anticipated against the LTCM
partners, who include high-profile finance whizzes such as John
Meriwether, the ex-Salomon Brothers bond boss who started the
fund and Nobel Prize winner Robert Merton.
A
lawyer for LTCM didn't return calls seeking comment.
The
tax-shelter strategies at LTCM were run mainly by Myron Scholes,
who shared the Nobel Prize with Mr. Merton. Dr. Scholes worked
on option pricing captured in the Black-Scholes model widely
used on Wall Street.
Dr.
Scholes was cast in a harsh light in Judge Arterton's opinion.
The
judge wrote that Dr. Scholes and Larry Noe, a tax director at
LTCM, were "well aware of the tax requirements of economic
substance and business purpose and discussed the need therefore
to figure out a reason independent of taxes for Long Term to
engage in a transaction."
Dr.
Scholes couldn't be reached to comment.
"This
ruling sends a message that cannot be mistaken that the
government means business when cracking down on tax shelters,"
says Itzhak Shirav, an accounting professor at Columbia Business
School in New York. "This was a clear-cut case where lame
excuses were offered and totally rejected."
Judge
Arterton's ruling is the latest criticism of tax shelters and
part of the government's broader effort to crack down on such
schemes.
Both
the IRS and Treasury Department have issued notices criticizing
transactions in which advisers used offshore insurance companies
to create tax shelters for hedge-fund investments.
Some
experts say the ruling could also provide ammunition for critics
to demand more disclosure on how often-secretive hedge funds
generate returns.
Judge
Arterton's ruling was as a sober footnote to the saga of LTCM,
which opened for business in February of 1994 with more than $1
billion in equity capital, $150 million of which came from 12
founding partners.
Those
partners included the best and the brightest of the then Salomon
Brothers bond-trading desk, led by Mr. Meriwether and Messrs.
Merton and Scholes. Within several years, the fund's capital had
swelled to $5 billion, making it bigger -- and more profitable
-- than Salomon.
LTCM
seemed to have delivered on its promise to produce stellar
returns with low risk. In 1995, its first full year of
operation, it returned almost 59%. By 1997, however, returns
were down to about 20%, as the price discrepancies the fund
looked to exploit were fast disappearing, and the Asian
financial crisis was unfolding.
To
compensate, the fund began using more borrowed money -- a
strategy that exacerbated the impact of the fund's collapse in
1998.
By
then, LTCM had assets of $100 billion but $1 trillion worth of
total exposure.
Then
came the Russian debt crisis, triggering a loss in the value of
LTCM's leveraged positions world-wide and raising the
possibility that the fund's problems could trigger a chain of
losses.
That
led the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to orchestrate an
orderly liquidation of its trades to prevent the so-called
global systemic risk.
Today,
Mr. Scholes is an emeritus professor at Stanford University's
Graduate School of Business in Palo Alto, Calif., while Mr.
Merton is on the faculty of Harvard University's Graduate School
of Business Administration.
Mr.
Meriwether is a principal and co-founder of JWM Partners LLC, an
investment firm in Connecticut.
Video:
Nobel laureate and Stanford Professor Myron S. Scholes says some
countries are likely to leave the euro so they can become more
competitive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwGHcrjs3iE&utm_source=Stanford+Business+Re%3AThink&utm_campaign=1451d355ee-RTIssue2&utm_medium=email
Myron Scholes is also one of two Nobel laureates brought down by the
largest hedge fund failure in history (what PBS Nova called The
Trillion Dollar Bet) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#LTCM
Jensen Question
Can the same theory apply to having California leave the dollar
zone? |
Bob Jensen's threads on the LTCM scandal ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRottenPart2.htm#LTCM
Before I retired I put three "big ones that got
away" on my Website --- three papers that were rejected by journals for
publication ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default4.htm#BigOnes
One in particular was entitled
Working
Paper 149
Does a Ross Economy Lunch Really Cost as Much as Hirshleifer Cuisine Complete
With Sigma Squared for Dessert?
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/149wp/149wp.htm
2015: The 10 most popular free online
courses for professionals ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-coursera-courses-of-2015-2015-12
Bob Jensen's links to free course materials,
videos, and entire courses from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"Kyoto U Bans All Watches During Exams,"
Inside Higher Ed, December 15, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/12/15/kyoto-u-bans-all-watches-during-exams?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2dc9d50965-DNU20151215&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2dc9d50965-197565045
Kyoto University has
become the first national university in Japan to ban all watches during
exams,
The Wall Street Journal reported. Officials
cited the proliferation of smartwatches and said that they couldn't quickly
determine which watches could be used for cheating and which could not.
Bob Jensen's threads on cheating ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm
There is a lot of media hype and government
funding to attract top students into STEM disciplines. It naively follows that
among the STEM disciplines, biomedicine should be a good choice.
But wait --- this may not be the case!
The Glut of Postdocs in BioMedicine
"How Staff Scientists, Long Invisible, Could Save Biomedicine," by Paul
Voosen, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 13, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/How-Staff-Scientists-Long/234586?cid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en&elq=649fcb50ae454f5eaa767b593b196c1d&elqCampaignId=2060&elqaid=7218&elqat=1&elqTrackId=a36a33c8c4144b9996339e5bf4db9733
Jensen Comment
This begs the question of why there are too many Ph.D. graduates in STEM
disciplines and too few in business disciplines, especially accounting that has
only seen a slight rise to about 170 graduates a year across the USA?
In STEM disciplines, there's overcapacity for
generating Ph.D. graduates in large measure due to government research grants
and senior faculty in need of research assistants.
In accounting there's actually a shortage of
capacity as the big mills like the University of Illinois, Texas, Michigan,
Indiana, Florida, Arkansas and Washington that used to churn out over 100 per
year (just from those few universities) now generate less that 25 per year in
total from those same universities. For example, the University of Illinois in
the 1960s used to crank out about 20 Ph.D. accounting graduates per year. Now
Illinois cranks out maybe two graduates per year. The entire USA cranks out less
than half of the accounting Ph.D. graduates these days.
Part of the reason is funding. Accountancy is
not eligible for government research funding, and business firms have little
interest in the kind of research taking place in accounting doctoral programs.
Most accounting doctoral programs live on handouts from undergraduate and
masters program.
There are of course other complicated reasons
for so few accounting doctoral graduates (relative to demand) that are discussed
at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
2015’s dirty dozen tax scams ---
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2015/feb/dirty-dozen-tax-scams-201511766.html
Phone scams, phishing, and
identity theft topped this year’s IRS list of the “dirty dozen” tax scams,
which the IRS has been releasing, one scam at a time, since Jan. 22. The
one-scam-a-day approach allowed the IRS to explore each one in more detail.
Here is the complete list:
1.Phone scams.
2.Phishing.
3.Identity theft.
4.Return preparer fraud.
5.Hiding income offshore.
6.Inflated refund claims.
7.Fake charities.
8.Filing false documents to hide income.
9.Participating in abusive tax shelters.
10.Falsifying income to claim tax credits.
11.Excessive claims for fuel tax credits.
12.Frivolous tax arguments.
According to the IRS,
the most serious scams this year are phone scams, in which criminals call
intended victims impersonating the IRS. Many times, the callers disguise the
number they are calling to look like an IRS number and may threaten the
target of the scam with arrest, deportation, or license revocation. -
See more at:
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2015/feb/dirty-dozen-tax-scams-201511766.html#sthash.v7MxZXEX.dpuf
"Assisting Clients With Tax-Related Identity
Theft," by Jennifer Primrose and Amanda Ward, The Tax Advisor,
December 1, 2015 ---
http://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2015/dec/assisting-clients-with-tax-related-identity-theft.html#sthash.oeaRsC0x.dpuf
My name is Pat and I am emailing you to highlight a number of useful
resources on the topic of fraud, you might like to share these with your
visitors:
• http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/InvestmentScams
• http://altinvesthq.com/investment-scams/
• http://www.fraud.org/learn/older-adult-fraud
Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Bob Jensen's helpers on scam reporting ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm
"What Makes a Good Teacher?" by A.C.
Grayling, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 6, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Makes-a-Good-Teacher-/234422?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=04706651349e46a5b2a06f2061252738&elqCampaignId=2057&elqaid=7213&elqat=1&elqTrackId=50d60b523205416cb0bb8f8251254dcb
Grayling's answers are pretty much the same
as previous answers by award-winning accounting professor Joe Hoyle at the
University of Richmond ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2015/04/fourteen-characteristics-of-great.html
Jensen Comment
When asked by Joe Hoyle about what makes a good teacher I repeatedly answer that
great teaching varies with circumstances. In the lower division courses I pretty
much agree with Professors Hoyle and Grayling. However, when we get into the
advanced-levels the importance of expertise takes on greater importance. Even
when teachers intentionally avoid making it too easy by giving out answers too
soon, it's extremely important for teachers to know the answers or where to find
those answers. In the lower division courses this is not such a big deal, but in
the upper division courses I think expertise trumps almost everything else other
than interest in increasing the expertise of their advanced-level students.
When the subject matter becomes extremely
technical teachers are not always what we admire in lower-level teaching.
Typically an advanced-level student must bear a greater load in learning the
advanced-level stuff that is difficult for anybody to teach. This is where
underlying student talent really commences to show. The really talented students
can adjust to the quirks, peculiarities, and limitations of most experts
assigned to teach at the advanced levels.
But just being an expert is not enough. My point
here is that it's very hard to generalize what it takes to be a great teacher at
the advanced levels. I'm constantly reminded of decades a ago at Stanford
University when the most highly reputed mathematician in the Mathematics
Department was avoided by all students because that professor was so
ill-prepared for class. In spite of his brilliance he constantly screwed things
up in every course and had a really bad temperament for thinking his way out of
his lack of preparation. Being an expert is a necessary but not necessarily
sufficient condition for teaching at advanced levels.
On the other hand, the most inspirational
teachers in the Mathematics Department do not have the requisite expertise for
some of the really esoteric subjects in mathematics. Even the best universities
cannot have experts in all things. This is why even great universities sometimes
tap adjuncts or visiting professors to cover the most esoteric subject matter.
How to Mislead With Statistics
"Is Law School a Better Investment Than Med School?" by Casey Sullivan,
FindLaw, December 4, 2015 ---
http://blogs.findlaw.com/greedy_associates/2015/12/is-law-school-a-better-investment-than-med-school.html
. . .
Lawyers have a median student debt of $89,926, 90
percent of their median salary ($100K), whereas doctors have a median debt
of $130,641, 98 percent of their median salary ($133K). Furthermore, the
average starting salary of lawyers in the private sector is $84K, compared
to the $55K doctors make in residency.
Continued in article
Reply from Paul Caron on December 10, 2015---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/12/is-law-school-a-better-investment-than-medical-school.html#more
. . .
The news
comes from Credible, an online student loan
refinancing company. Credible looked at its data
for lawyers, doctors, teachers, and other
professions, to find out which degrees had the
highest return on investment. That data suggests
that a J.D. has a better ROI than an M.D.
According to Credible:
Lawyers have a median student debt of $89,926,
90 percent of their median salary ($100K),
whereas doctors have a median debt of $130,641,
98 percent of their median salary ($133K).
Furthermore, the average starting salary of
lawyers in the private sector is $84K, compared
to the $55K doctors make in residency.
So, congrats, lawyers. We're financial geniuses!
There are, of course, a few caveats.
... According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
doctors might make a bit more than Credible
reports. The annual mean wage for doctors
generally is
about $195,000 a year. For pediatricians,
the median annual wage is $163,000. For
surgeons, the
mean is $240,440. (We know,
mean isn't the same as median, but many
doctor salaries are so high that the BLS doesn't
bother reporting median wages.) That would make
doctor debt a much smaller percentage of income
than lawyers'.
Jensen Comment
The article is far more misleading than just for things mentioned by Paul Caron.
Firstly, the analysis is based upon mean averages without an analysis of
distributions. Means are especially misleading because they are impacted by
outliers. Secondly, the analysis fails to compare differences in how lawyers and
doctors are compensated. Lawyers tend to receive relatively low maintenance
salaries with much greater contingency awards depending upon lawsuit successes
and rewards for drawing in clients. Physicians tend to have less trouble
attracting patients and are paid on the basis of procedures and volume of
patients. General practitioners get compensated better for high patient volume.
Surgeon rewards come for the procedures where brain surgeons and organ
transplant surgeons are paid much more for procedures than general surgeons.
There's also great variation in compensation based upon opportunity for
overtime and utilization of that opportunity. I recall a Stanford University
study that concluded male physicians tended to make more due to the lower
propensity of many females to take on overtime. For example, female physicians
often prefer to be emergency room specialists where there are fixed hours per
week with little or no obligation for patient follow up in hospitals. Of course
there are wide variations in such conclusions as evidenced by the many female
pediatricians who have considerable opportunities for and obligations for
overtime.
In truth the averaging analysis combines too many unlike things such as
averaging compensation for general practitioners and the many, many specialty
physicians having great variations in compensation and costs of becoming
specialists. The same can be said of lawyers who have greatly varying
compensation depending upon specializations.
Averages across specialties are more misleading than helpful.
PBS: The Five Pillars of Islam: Lesson Plan ---
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/islam08.socst.world.glob.lppillars/the-five-pillars-of-islam/
Western Illinois University is state-supported
with roughly 12,000 students) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Illinois_University
One problem is that the State of Illinois is among the most financially-troubled
and fraud-ridden states in the USA and has two former governors in prison. The
flagship University of Illinois fares better due to an endowment of over $3
billion and a lucrative program for admitting thousands of students from China.
50 Faculty Jobs Will Be Eliminated at Western
Illinois ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/12/14/50-faculty-jobs-will-be-eliminated-western-illinois?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=06f09dc32e-DNU20151214&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-06f09dc32e-197565045
Since it has over 2,500 faculty the cuts are proportionally small but
nevertheless reflective of troubled enrollments and reduced state support.
The Accounting Program at WIU ---
http://www.wiu.edu/academics/majors/business_and_technology/accountancy.php
Back in 2000, the CIA made 8 predictions on what life would be like in 2015 —
here's what it got right (and really wrong) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/cia-predictions-for-2015-coming-true-from-2000-2015-12
Counterfactuals Are Topics of Research from Mathematics to History
Counterfactual Conditionals ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfactual_conditional
Countierfactual History ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfactual_history
What if historians started taking the ‘what if’ seriously? ---
https://aeon.co/essays/what-if-historians-started-taking-the-what-if-seriously
One reason professional historians disdain
counterfactuals is that they swing so free from the evidence. The work of
academic historical writing depends on the marshalling of primary and
secondary sources, and the historian is judged on her interpretations of the
evidence that’s available. Did she try hard enough to find the kind of
evidence that would answer her questions? Does she extrapolate too much
meaning from a scanty partial archive? Does she misunderstand the meaning of
the evidence, in historical context? Or should she have taken another
related group of sources into account? For the professional historian, these
sources are not incidental to interpreting history; they are the lifeblood
of doing so. In a counterfactual speculation, the usual standards for the
use of evidence are upended, and the writer can find herself far afield from
the record – a distance that leaves too much room for fancy and
interpretation, making a supposedly historical argument sound more and more
like fiction.
. . .
Despite all these criticisms, a few historians have
recently been making persuasive arguments that counterfactualism can be good
– for readers, for students, and for writers. Historical speculation, they
say, can be a healthy exercise for historians looking to think hard about
their own motives and methods. Counterfactuals, if done well, can force a
super-meticulous look at the way historians use evidence. And
counterfactuals can encourage readers to think about the contingent nature
of history – an exercise that can help build empathy and diminish feelings
of national, cultural, and racial exceptionalism. Was the US always destined
(as its 19th-century ideologues believed) to occupy the middle swath of the
North American continent, from sea to shining sea? Or is its national
geography the result of a series of decisions and compromises – some of
which, if reversed, could have led to a different outcome? The latter view
leaves more space for analysis, more chance to examine how power worked
during expansion; it’s also the realm of counterfactuals.
Continued in article
Example of History Our Media Chooses to Overlook
What if President Carter had not closed the USA borders to Iranians and deported
Iranian students?
Would the USA have less of a case in 2016 for closing the borders to immigrants
from unfriendly nations?
Most Popular Tax Prof Blogs for the Week Ended December 13, 2015 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/12/this-.html
-
NY Times: Microaggression In The Gym — Millennial Men Struggle To Dress
In Health Club Locker Rooms
-
The IRS Scandal, Day 943
-
Harvard Law Students Issue 7-Page List Of Demands In Wake Of Racial
Unrest
-
The IRS Scandal, Day 944
-
College And University President Salaries, 2013
-
Christians: Understanding The Accidental American — Tina's Story
-
Will Technology Create More Legal Jobs Than It Destroys?
-
Congress Orders IRS To Use Private Debt Collection Companies
-
Christian University President: This Is Not A Day Care, 1 Corinthians 13
Is Not A Microaggression
-
Fleischer: Skadden As Tom Cruise — Yahoo’s Spinoff Plan Could Be Risky
Business
Question from Item 1 above
Do men and boys still swim nude in YMCA pools?
I recall visiting two such pools as a young boy when boys and men were all
swimming nude at the same time.
"Six strange (bizarre) Australian taxes," by Chris Sheedy, CAS,
November 2015 ---
https://www.icas.com/ca-today-news/six-strange-australian-taxes
Internet of Things ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things
"How the 'Internet of Things' will affect the
world,' By John Greenough and Jonathan Camhi, Business Insider,
December 19, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/internet-of-things-2015-forecasts-of-the-industrial-iot-connected-home-and-more-2015-10
From the Scout Report on December 18,
2015
The Science of Lie Detection
Analysis gives a glimpse of the extraordinary language of lying
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/culture-beaker/analysis-gives-glimpse-extraordinary-language-lying
To spot a liar, look at their hands
http://qz.com/572675/to-spot-a-liar-look-at-their-hands/
The 8 Biggest Myths About Lying According to the Best Human Lie Detector in
the World
http://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2015/06/08/the-8-biggest-myths-about-lying-according-to-the-best-human-lie-detector-in-the-world/
The Curious story of how the lie detector came to be
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22467640
The true history of lying
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-true-history-of-lying-1.2081531
10 of the Biggest Lies in History
http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/10-biggest-lies-in-history.htm
Hi Glen,
I was fascinated by the ACM link to the
following article:
"New lie-detecting software from U-M uses real court case data," by
Nicole Casal Moore, the University Record published by the University of
Michigan, December 31, 2015 ---
https://record.umich.edu/articles/new-lie-detecting-software-u-m-uses-real-court-case-data
Jensen Comment
This is an illustration of "newness timing" in social science research. Unlike
most natural science research, social science research faces the risk that
discovery alters behavior such that the discovery is no longer as important
before people learned about the discovery.
For example, lie-detecting software may work
better on people who are not aware of the details of this software and its
research discoveries. For example, if particular types of hand movements are
indicative of lying, a savvy person will no longer use those hand
movements when lying or, worse, will deceptively use hand movements to trick the
software. This of course is one of the main findings of years of research with
lie detection machines. Some experts can easily fool the machines.
Another example is when politicians or other
criminals learn that deleting email messages or other files on computers does
not necessarily mean that the deleted bad stuff cannot be recovered by technical
experts. As a result computers are no longer contain bad stuff or, as in the
case of
Adam Lanza, hard drives are destroyed beyond hope for recovering deleted
files.
Unlike a lie detector machine where the person
is always aware that the machine is trying to detect lies, the U-M lie-detection
software can be used unobtrusively when people are not aware that they are being
observed by special software to detect lying. This of course raises some ethics
questions. Use of the software on videos of a public trial are not as
controversial as use of the software on a video of a private job interview. I
think that a job applicant should be made aware and agree to the use of lie
detection software in a job interview. Use of the software in public places,
however, is less controversial in my opinion. However, I'm not always correct.
For example, the NFL fined the New England Patriots for filming and analyzing
the hand signals of the opposing team even though those hand signals could also
be filmed and analyzed by any fan in the stadium holding a cell phone camera
pointed at the coaches using hand signals. I've not investigated details of this
case, but there may have been NFL rules for teams doing what fans are free to do
in the stands.
This begs the question of ethics when auditors
film meetings with a client's employees. I suspect that those employees should
be made aware that the videos will be analyzed by lie detection software.
One of the problems with lie detection is that
emotions vary with respect to consequences of being discovered lying. Those
little white lies about eating a Whopper instead of a salad for lunch are less
emotional lies than a confrontation over having an extramarital affair, kiting
the accounts, or strangling of a victim in an assault. Much depends on the
seriousness of the consequences in being found out.
An even bigger problem is that people vary in
the skill of lying. Some people are just very, very good at lying and are also
shrewd about rarely telling lies. Other people are just not very skilled in this
regard or repeatedly lie so often that getting caught becomes inevitable.
Here are some threads copied from
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm
Questions
Has the art and science of reading faces ever been part of an auditing
curriculum?
Have there been any accountics studies of Ekman's theories as applied to
auditing behavioral experiments?
(I can imagine that some accounting doctoral students have not experimented
along these lines?)
Paul Ekman video on how to read faces and detect lying ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA8nYZg4VnI
This video runs for nearly one hour
Paul Ekman ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ekman
Ekman's work on facial expressions had its starting
point in the work of psychologist
Silvan Tomkins.[Ekman
showed that contrary to the belief of some
anthropologists including
Margaret Mead, facial expressions of emotion are
not culturally determined, but universal across human cultures and
thus
biological in origin. Expressions he found to be
universal included those indicating
anger,
disgust,
fear,
joy,
sadness, and
surprise. Findings on
contempt are less
clear, though there is at least some preliminary evidence that this emotion
and its expression are universally recognized.]
In a research project along with Dr. Maureen
O'Sullivan, called the
Wizards Project (previously named the
Diogenes Project), Ekman reported on facial "microexpressions"
which could be used to assist in lie detection. After testing a total of
15,000 [EDIT: This value conflicts with the 20,000 figure given in the
article on Microexpressions] people from all walks of life, he found only 50
people that had the ability to spot deception without any formal training.
These naturals are also known as "Truth Wizards", or wizards of
deception detection from demeanor.
He developed the
Facial Action Coding System (FACS) to taxonomize
every conceivable human facial expression. Ekman conducted and published
research on a wide variety of topics in the general area of non-verbal
behavior. His work on lying, for example, was not limited to the face, but
also to observation of the rest of the body.
In his profession he also uses verbal signs of
lying. When interviewed about the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he mentioned that
he could detect that former President
Bill Clinton was lying because he used
distancing language.
Ekman has contributed much to the study of social
aspects of lying, why we lie,
and why we are often unconcerned with detecting lies.
He is currently on the Editorial Board of Greater Good magazine,
published by the
Greater Good Science Center of the
University of California, Berkeley. His
contributions include the interpretation of scientific research into the
roots of compassion, altruism, and peaceful human relationships. Ekman is
also working with Computer Vision researcher
Dimitris Metaxas on designing a visual
lie-detector.
Research Papers Worth
Reading On Deceit, Body Language, Influence etc.. (with
links to pdfs)
Sixteen Enjoyable Emotions. – (2003)
Emotion Researcher, 18, 6-7. by Ekman, P
“Become Versed in Reading Faces”.
Entrepreneur, 26 March 2009. Ekman, P. (2009)
Intoduction: Expression Of Emotion - In RJ
Davidson, KR Scherer, & H.H. Goldsmith (Eds.) Handbook
of Afective Sciences. Pp. 411-414.Keltner, D. & Ekman, P
(2003)
Facial Expression Of Emotion. – In M.Lewis
and J Haviland-Jones (eds) Handbook of emotions, 2nd
edition. Pp. 236-249. New York: Guilford Publications,
Inc. Keltner, D. & Ekman, P. (2000)
Emotional And Conversational Nonverbal Signals.
– In L.Messing & R. Campbell (eds.) Gesture, Speech and
Sign. Pp. 45-55. London: Oxford University Press.
A Few Can Catch A Liar. - Psychological
Science, 10, 263-266. Ekman, P., O’Sullivan, M., Frank,
M. (1999)
Deception, Lying And Demeanor.- In States
of Mind: American and Post-Soviet Perspectives on
Contemporary Issues in Psychology . D.F. Halpern and
A.E.Voiskounsky (Eds.) Pp. 93-105. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Lying And Deception. – In N.L. Stein, P.A.
Ornstein, B. Tversky & C. Brainerd (Eds.) Memory for
everyday and emotional events. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, 333-347.
Lies That Fail.- In M. Lewis & C. Saarni
(Eds.) Lying and deception in everyday life. Pp.
184-200. New York: Guilford Press.
Who Can Catch A Liar. -American
Psychologist, 1991, 46, 913-120.
Hazards In Detecting Deceit. In D. Raskin,
(Ed.) Psychological Methods for Investigation and
Evidence. New York: Springer. 1989. (pp 297-332)
Self-Deception And Detection Of Misinformation.
In J.S. Lockhard & D. L. Paulhus (Eds.) Self-Deception:
An Adaptive Mechanism?. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1988. Pp. 229- 257.
Smiles When Lying. – Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 1988, 54, 414-420.
Felt- False- And Miserable Smiles.Ekman, P.
& Friesen, W.V.
Mistakes When Deceiving. Annals of the New
York Academy of Sciences. 1981, 364, 269-278.
Nonverbal Leakage And Clues To Deception
Psychiatry, 1969, 32, 88-105.
"You Can't Hide Your Lying Brain (or Can You?), by Tom Bartlett,
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 6, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/You-Cant-Hide-Your-Lying/23780/
Earlier this week Wired reported that a Brooklyn
lawyer wanted to use fMRI brain scans to prove that his client was telling
the truth. The case itself is an average employer-employee dispute, but
using brains scans to tell whether someone is lying—which a few, small
studies have suggested might be useful—would set a precedent for
neuroscience in the courtroom. Plus, I'm pretty sure they did something like
this on Star Trek once.
But why go to all the trouble of scanning someone's
brain when you can just count how many times the person blinks? A study
published this month in Psychology, Crime & Law found that when people were
lying they blinked significantly less than when they were telling the truth.
The authors suggest that lying requires more thinking and that this
increased cognitive load could account for the reduction in blinking.
For the study, 13 participants "stole" an exam
paper while 13 others did not. All 26 were questioned and the ones who had
committed the mock theft blinked less when questioned about it than when
questioned about other, unrelated issues. The innocent 13 didn't blink any
more or less. Incidentally, the blinking was measured by electrodes, not
observation.
But the authors aren't arguing that the blink
method should be used in the courtroom. In fact, they think it might not
work. Because the stakes in the study were low--no one was going to get into
any trouble--it's unclear whether the results would translate to, say, a
murder investigation. Maybe you blink less when being questioned about a
murder even if you're innocent, just because you would naturally be nervous.
Or maybe you're guilty but your contacts are bothering you. Who knows?
By the way, the lawyer's request to introduce the
brain scanning evidence in court was rejected, but lawyers in another case
plan to give it a shot later this month.
(The abstract of the study, conducted by Sharon
Leal and Aldert Vrij, can be found here. The company that administers the
lie-detection brain scans is called Cephos and their confident slogan is
"The Science Behind the Truth.")
"The New Face of Emoticons: Warping photos could help text-based
communications become more expressive," by Duncan Graham-Rowe, MIT's
Technology Review, March 27, 2007 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18438/
Computer scientists at the University of Pittsburgh
have developed a way to make e-mails, instant messaging, and texts just a
bit more personalized. Their software will allow people to use images of
their own faces instead of the more traditional emoticons to communicate
their mood. By automatically warping their facial features, people can use a
photo to depict any one of a range of different animated emotional
expressions, such as happy, sad, angry, or surprised.
All that is needed is a single photo of the person,
preferably with a neutral expression, says Xin Li, who developed the system,
called Face Alive Icons. "The user can upload the image from their camera
phone," he says. Then, by keying in familiar text symbols, such as ":)" for
a smile, the user automatically contorts the face to reflect his or her
desired expression.
"Already, people use avatars on message boards and
in other settings," says Sheryl Brahnam, an assistant professor of computer
information systems at MissouriStateUniversity, in Springfield. In many
respects, she says, this system bridges the gap between emoticons and
avatars.
This is not the first time that someone has tried
to use photos in this way, says Li, who now works for Google in New York
City. "But the traditional approach is to just send the image itself," he
says. "The problem is, the size will be too big, particularly for
low-bandwidth applications like PDAs and cell phones." Other approaches
involve having to capture a different photo of the person for each unique
emoticon, which only further increases the demand for bandwidth.
Li's solution is not to send the picture each time
it is used, but to store a profile of the face on the recipient device. This
profile consists of a decomposition of the original photo. Every time the
user sends an emoticon, the face is reassembled on the recipient's device in
such a way as to show the appropriate expression.
To make this possible, Li first created generic
computational models for each type of expression. Working with Shi-Kuo
Chang, a professor of computer science at the University of Pittsburgh, and
Chieh-Chih Chang, at the Industrial Technology Research Institute, in
Taiwan, Li created the models using a learning program to analyze the
expressions in a database of facial expressions and extract features unique
to each expression. Each of the resulting models acts like a set of
instructions telling the program how to warp, or animate, a neutral face
into each particular expression.
Once the photo has been captured, the user has to
click on key areas to help the program identify key features of the face.
The program can then decompose the image into sets of features that change
and those that will remain unaffected by the warping process.
Finally, these "pieces" make up a profile that,
although it has to be sent to each of a user's contacts, must only be sent
once. This approach means that an unlimited number of expressions can be
added to the system without increasing the file size or requiring any
additional pictures to be taken.
Li says that preliminary evaluations carried out on
eight subjects viewing hundreds of faces showed that the warped expressions
are easily identifiable. The results of the evaluations are published in the
current edition of the Journal of Visual Languages and Computing.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on visualization ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm
From the Scout Report on December 11, 2015
JustDelete.Me ---
http://justdelete.me/
Have you ever wanted to track down all the web apps
and online accounts that have your personal information and just remove
yourself? JustDelete.Me helps readers do just that. The service features a
giant list of the web's most popular apps and services with links so that
you can delete your account. In addition, the site categorizes services into
four categories by how difficult it is to remove yourself. Green means it's
easy, yellow signifies a service that requires a few additional steps, red
indicates that the account cannot be deleted without contacting customer
service, and the black code, which is thankfully rare, marks an account that
cannot be deleted. In addition, readers may install the associated Chrome
Extension, which alerts readers to when they are on a page that is listed on
the JustDelete.Me site and then takes readers through the deletion process.
The Noun Project --- https://thenounproject.com/
Icon lovers rejoice, the Noun Project, which is
easily searchable and visually pleasing, is a virtual repository for icons
of all kinds - over 100,000 of them and counting. A web-based service, it
was founded in Los Angeles in 2010 with $14,000 in Kickstarter donations and
a dream to "simplify communication, across borders and around the world."
Looking for the perfect representation of a tree? Browse the 2,098 possible
options. Do you need a phone booth image? There are 4,441 phone booth icons
from which you may choose. Icons are downloadable with a free membership, as
long as you credit the creator. Readers who would like to waive the
attribution requirement may pay $10 per month. Downloads are easy: simply
select the desired icon and choose either PNG or SVG file. The Noun Project
will do the rest.
A New Discovery Sheds Light On the Etruscans
Ancient Etruscan Tomb Found 'Undisturbed' In Italy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/etruscan-tomb-found_56650848e4b08e945fefe486
2,300-Year-Old Etruscan Tomb Discovered in Italy
http://www.archaeology.org/news/3982-151207-intact-etruscan-tomb
Oops! Etruscan Warrior Prince Really a Princess
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/etruscan-warrior-prince-really-a-princess-131021.htm
Ancient History Encyclopedia: Etruscan Civilization
http://www.ancient.eu/etruscan/
Khan Academy: The Etruscans
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/etruscan/a/the-etruscans-an-introduction
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Roman Art: A Resource for Educators
http://www.metmuseum.org/~/media/Files/Learn/For%20Educators/Publications%20for%20Educators/Roman.pdf
From the Scout Report on December 18,
2015
Buncee ---
https://www.edu.buncee.com/
Buncee is a web app that was
created for teachers who are looking for ways to integrate various
multimedia into a single program. Buncee's "digital canvas" is simple to
use. After signing up for a free account, readers may create a simple
profile, organize their dashboard, and then create lesson plans and
assignments for students. Buncee is 100 percent online; no downloads are
necessary to run the program. It interfaces easily with YouTube, SoundCloud,
Google Apps for Education, and other multimedia services. The free version
of Bunccee allows educators to create pages with up to two slides; include
custom text, drawings, and hyperlinks; upload photos; and invite up to ten
students. For $9.99 a month, users may create a page with infinite slides
and up to 250 participants. For educators looking to flip their classrooms,
Buncee might be a welcome support.
Awesome Screenshot
---
https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/
This free extension for
Google Chrome not only allows users to enact crystal clear screen captures,
they may also use the built-in graphics app to edit, annotate, and share
captured images. To install, simply select Add to Chrome from the Chrome Web
Store. From there, click on the icon from the browser toolbar. It will
present options to capture the visible part of the page, capture the
selected area, capture the entire page, capture the desktop, or select a
local image. After selecting an option, a newly captured image will appear
in a working screen, where readers may then annotate the image with text,
draw on it, rotate it, zoom in and out, and influence it in various other
ways before sharing it over email.
The Science of Lie Detection
Analysis gives a glimpse of the extraordinary language of lying
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/culture-beaker/analysis-gives-glimpse-extraordinary-language-lying
To spot a liar, look at their hands
http://qz.com/572675/to-spot-a-liar-look-at-their-hands/
The 8 Biggest Myths About Lying According to the Best Human Lie Detector in
the World
http://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2015/06/08/the-8-biggest-myths-about-lying-according-to-the-best-human-lie-detector-in-the-world/
The Curious story of how the lie detector came to be
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22467640
The true history of lying
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-true-history-of-lying-1.2081531
10 of the Biggest Lies in History
http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/10-biggest-lies-in-history.htm
Free Online Tutorials, Videos, and Cases in Various Academic
Disciplines
Education Tutorials
PBS: The Five Pillars of Islam: Lesson Plan ---
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/islam08.socst.world.glob.lppillars/the-five-pillars-of-islam/
NREL: Workforce Development & Education Programs
(K-12 teaching guides) ---
http://www.nrel.gov/education/educational_resources.html
Yummy Math (illustrations of math in the
real world, including forecasting) ---
http://www.yummymath.com
BBC Bitesize: GCSE English Literature
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/zckw2hv
Shmoop is an online study guide for English Literature, Poetry and American
history ---
http://www.shmoop.com/
Youngzine ---
http://www.youngzine.org/
Museum of Science, Boston: Museum Online ---
http://www.mos.org/museum-online
Ars Technica (technology magazine) ---
http://arstechnica.com/
Tech Insider (magazine) ---
http://www.techinsider.io/
/
ArtDaily ---
http://artdaily.com/
artnet News ---
http://news.artnet.com
National Education Association: Women's History Month for the Classroom ---
http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/womens-history-month.html
PE Central (physical education teachers) ---
http://www.pecentral.org/
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/
50 Education Technology Tools Every Teacher
Should Know About ---
https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/50-education-technology-tools-every-teacher-should-know-about
Case Method Learning: A Simple Plan: E.L. Trudeau, the Rabbit Island
Experiment, and Tuberculosis Treatment ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=669&id=669
A Case Study of Memory Loss in Mice (a teaching case) ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=194&id=194
Hamlet: Curriculum Guide
http://pages.simonandschuster.com/images/ckfinder/26/pdfs/Folger Curriculum Guides/Guides-Apr2012/Folger_Hamlet.pdf
From the Scout Report on April 27, 2014
Celebrating Shakespeare's 450th birthday
Is Today Shakespeare's 450th Birthday? Maybe
http://time.com/73579/shakespeare-450-birthday-april-23/
Shakespeare's Birthday
http://www.shakespearesbirthday.org.uk/
William Shakespeare's 450th birthday: 50 everyday phrases that came from
the Bard
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/william-shakespeares-450th-birthday-50-everyday-phrases-that-came-from-the-bard-9275254.html
How to talk like Shakespeare on his 450th birthday
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/parenting/chi-celebrate-shakespeare-birthday,0,2679515.story
45 Hamlets for Shakespeare's 450th birthday - in pictures
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2014/apr/23/45-hamlets-shakespeares-450th-birthday-in-pictures
Folger Shakespeare Library
http://www.folger.edu/index.cfm
Wonderpolis (a little like How Stuff Works) ---
http://wonderopolis.org/
How Stuff Works ---
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
Links to physics websites on
http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu :
•Physics 1050 - How Things Work I ---
http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/1050/2015/home.html
•Physics 1060 - How Things Work II ---
http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/1060/2015/home.html
Bob Jensen's threads on case method research and teaching ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Cases
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
Brain Pickings: The Best Science Books of 2015 ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/11/best-science-books-2015/?mc_cid=4dfe385514&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
China's lunar rover has discovered a new type of
moon rock ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-yutu-lunar-rover-discovered-a-new-type-of-moon-rock-2015-12
Time Magazine: The Best Space Photos of
2015 ---
http://time.com/4130093/best-space-photos-2015/?xid=newsletter-brief
It's impossible to appreciate how vast the
universe is. But this video will help ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/1/26/7915359/andromeda-galaxy-video
Physics: A Love Story ---
http://daily.jstor.org/i-heart-physics-love-story/
H Is for Hawk (mental health and all things
wild) ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/16/h-is-for-hawk/?mc_cid=60eab78aa3&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
EuroStemCell ---
http://www.eurostemcell.org/
NeuroLogica Blog (science and medicine,
including astronomy) ---
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/
Museum of Science, Boston: Museum Online ---
http://www.mos.org/museum-online
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/
Case Method Learning: A Simple Plan: E.L. Trudeau, the Rabbit Island
Experiment, and Tuberculosis Treatment ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=669&id=669
A Case Study of Memory Loss in Mice (a teaching case) ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=194&id=194
Bob Jensen's threads on case method research and teaching ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Cases
Evolutionary Biology Digital Dissection Collections
---
http://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/BIO001
Ars Technica (technology magazine) ---
http://arstechnica.com/
Tech Insider (magazine) ---
http://www.techinsider.io/
/
10 amazing ancient forests around the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-forests-around-the-world-2015-12
Links to physics websites on http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu :
•Physics 1050 - How Things Work I --- http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/1050/2015/home.html
•Physics 1060 - How Things Work II --- http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/1060/2015/home.html
How Stuff Works ---
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
Wonderpolis (a little like How Stuff Works) ---
http://wonderopolis.org/
National League for Nursing ---
http://www.nln.org/facultyprograms/teachingresources.htm
Geriatric Nursing Resources for Care of Older
Adults ---
http://consultgerirn.org/
National Institute of Nursing Research: Publications ---
http://www.ninr.nih.gov/newsandinformation/publications#.Uq4U1ChSFFI
National League for Nursing: Faculty Toolkits ---
http://www.nln.org/facultyprograms/facultytoolkits.htm
National Institute of Nursing Research: Publications ---
http://www.ninr.nih.gov/newsandinformation/publications#.Uq4U1ChSFFI
Pictures of Nursing - NLM Exhibition Program ---
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/picturesofnursing/index.html
University of New Mexico College of Nursing: Teaching and
Nursing Strategies ---
http://nursing.unm.edu/resources/teaching-and-learning-strategies.html
Teaching Videos: University of Exeter (science and medicine) ---
http://emps.exeter.ac.uk/medical-imaging/videos/
Science 360 News Service ---
http://news.science360.gov/files/
ScienceBlogs ---
http://scienceblogs.com/
102 new species described by the
California Academy of Sciences in 2015 ---
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151217111449.htm
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
Brain Pickings: The Best Science Books of 2015 ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/11/best-science-books-2015/?mc_cid=4dfe385514&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
Suicide Prevention Resource Center ---
http://www.sprc.org/
H Is for Hawk (mental health and all things
wild) ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/16/h-is-for-hawk/?mc_cid=60eab78aa3&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
North Dakota Studies ---
http://ndstudies.gov/
The Hindu: News Archives ---
http://www.thehindu.com/archive/
Holi Festival 2015 (Hindu Spring Festival) ---
http://www.holifestival.org
National Education Association: Women's History Month for the Classroom ---
http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/womens-history-month.html
C-Span First Ladies: Influence & Image ---
http://firstladies.c-span.org/
Garbology (garbage and environmental protection) ---
http://www.naturebridge.org/garbology.php
Digital Archive of the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (Endless
Civil War in Guatemala) ---
https://ahpn.lib.utexas.edu/
10 amazing ancient forests around the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-forests-around-the-world-2015-12
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
The 12 Most Controversial Facts in Mathematics
(not so much controversial as surprising) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-controversial-math-problems-2013-3
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics 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
History Tutorials
PBS: The Five Pillars of Islam: Lesson Plan ---
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/islam08.socst.world.glob.lppillars/the-five-pillars-of-islam/
This animated map shows how religion spread
across the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-map-shows-religion-spread-around-world-christianity-islam-2015-12
The British Museum ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/the-british-museum-is-now-open-to-everyone-take-a-virtual-tour.html
British Museum Channel ---
http://www.britishmuseum.org/channel.aspx
The British Museum: World of Money ---
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/worldofmoney/
British Museum: Explore: Time ---
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/themes/time/introduction.aspx
Railroad History, An Overview of the Past ---
http://www.american-rails.com/railroad-history.html
Ephemeral Films Project: National Socialism in Austria (Nazi Occupation) ---
http://efilms.ushmm.org/
Museum of Science, Boston: Museum Online ---
http://www.mos.org/museum-online
A 68 Hour Playlist of Shakespeare’s Plays Being
Performed by Great Actors: Gielgud, McKellen & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/a-68-hour-playlist-of-shakespeares-plays-being-performed-by-great-actors.html
The Reynolds Pamphlet, explained: Why Alexander
Hamilton printed his sex scandal's details ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/12/25/10662620/reynolds-pamphlet-hamilton
14 events that changed military history ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/events-that-changed-military-history-2015-12
The remarkable story of the World War II 'Ghost
Army' that duped Hitler ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ghost-army-that-the-us-used-against-hitler-2015-12
The Hindu: News Archives ---
http://www.thehindu.com/archive/
Holi Festival 2015 (Hindu Spring Festival) ---
http://www.holifestival.org
The Rockefeller Family Archives ---
http://www.rockarch.org/collections/family/
North Dakota Studies ---
http://ndstudies.gov/
Dylan Thomas, 1952: A Child's Christmas in
Wales, A Story - Recorded at Steinway Hall, NY ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4.com/2015/07/a-68-hour-playlist-of-shakespeares-plays-being-performed-by-great-actors.html
The Reynolds Pamphlet, explained: Why Alexander
Hamilton printed his sex scandal's details ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/12/25/10662620/reynolds-pamphlet-hamilton
14 events that changed military history ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/events-that-changed-military-history-2015-12
The remarkable story of the World War II 'Ghost
Army' that duped Hitler ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ghost-army-that-the-us-used-against-hitler-2015-12
The Hindu: News Archives ---
http://www.thehindu.com/archive/
Holi Festival 2015 (Hindu Spring Festival) ---
http://www.holifestival.org
The Rockefeller Family Archives ---
http://www.rockarch.org/collections/family/
North Dakota Studies ---
http://ndstudies.gov/
Dylan Thomas, 1952: A Child's Christmas in
Wales, A Story - Recorded at Steinway Hall, NY ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4.com/2015/07/a-68-hour-playlist-of-shakespeares-plays-being-performed-by-great-actors.html
The Reynolds Pamphlet, explained: Why Alexander
Hamilton printed his sex scandal's details ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/12/25/10662620/reynolds-pamphlet-hamilton
14 events that changed military history ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/events-that-changed-military-history-2015-12
The remarkable story of the World War II 'Ghost
Army' that duped Hitler ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ghost-army-that-the-us-used-against-hitler-2015-12
The Hindu: News Archivace="Times New Roman">North Dakota Studies ---
http://ndstudies.gov/
Dylan Thomas, 1952: A Child's Christmas in
Wales, A Story - Recorded at Steinway Hall, NY ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4-sgFw3Go
Anthony Hopkins
Reads Dylan Thomas ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/05/anthony_hopkins_reads_dylan_thomas.html
The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies ---
http://www.butlercenter.org
National Education Association: Women's History Month for the Classroom ---
http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/womens-history-month.html
C-Span First Ladies: Influence & Image ---
http://firstladies.c-span.org/
Digital Archive of the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (Endless
Civil War in Guatemala) ---
https://ahpn.lib.utexas.edu/
Knitting - Victoria and Albert Museum ---
http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/k/knitting/
TECHknitting (more than grandma knitting
sweaters) ---
http://techknitting.blogspot.com/
Knitting Together (yarn, lace, fabrics, cloth) ---
http://www.knittingtogether.org.uk/cat.asp?cat=599
Knitting Industry
http://www.knittingindustry.com/
Here's what people eat for Christmas in 23
countries around the globe ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/-traditional-christmas-meals-around-world-2015-12
Ravelry is a place for
knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, weavers and dyers to keep track
of their yarn, tools, project and pattern information, and look to others
for ideas and inspiration. The content here is all user- driven; we as a
community make the site what it is. Ravelry is a great place for you to keep
notes about your projects, see what other people are making, find the
perfect pattern and connect with people who love to play with yarn from all
over the world in our forums.
https://www.ravelry.com/
Thank you Patricia Walters for the heads up.
December 21, 2015 reply from Barbara
Scofield
In Principles of
Managerial Accounting, I have my students produce Snuggles from Hugs for
Homeless Animals (
http://www.h4ha.org ). If you have run out of
people who appreciate your knitting, try giving snuggles to your local
animal shelter. My two classes contributed 35 this fall. (The students do
the finish work in class while we do job order costing and complete job
tickets for each snuggle.) There is a locator list at the site for your
nearest participating shelters.
December 21, 2015 reply from Amy Dunbar
What a great idea,
Barbara! Here’s a direct link to the snuggles project.
http://www.snugglesproject.org/
The Franklin Mystery: Life and Death in the
Arctic ---
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/franklin/home/homeIntro_en.htm
From the Scout Report on December 11,
2015
A New Discovery Sheds Light On the Etruscans
Ancient Etruscan Tomb Found 'Undisturbed' In Italy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/etruscan-tomb-found_56650848e4b08e945fefe486
2,300-Year-Old Etruscan Tomb Discovered in Italy
http://www.archaeology.org/news/3982-151207-intact-etruscan-tomb
Oops! Etruscan Warrior Prince Really a Princess
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/etruscan-warrior-prince-really-a-princess-131021.htm
Ancient History Encyclopedia: Etruscan Civilization
http://www.ancient.eu/etruscan/
Khan Academy: The Etruscans
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/etruscan/a/the-etruscans-an-introduction
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Roman Art: A Resource for Educators
http://www.metmuseum.org/~/media/Files/Learn/For%20Educators/Publications%20for%20Educators/Roman.pdf
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
Evolution of Dance ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg
The Aaron Copland
Centennial: NPR Archives ---
http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/copland/archives.html
America’s Music ---
http://americasmusic.tribecafilminstitute.org
Rock and Roll: An American Story ---
http://teachrock.org
Rock Critic Greil Marcus Picks 10
Unexpected Songs That Tell the Story of Rock ‘n’ Roll ---
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenCulture/~3/CXQZpywLZPw/greil-marcus-picks-10-songs-that-definte-rock-n-roll.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email
Rock Music Timeline ---
http://www.rockmusictimeline.com
Google Cultural Institute ---
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project
Here’s What
Beethoven Did When He Lost His Hearing ---
http://time.com/4152023/beethoven-birthday/?xid=newsletter-brief
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
Witnessing a Rule Change: Singular ‘They’ ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2015/12/16/witnessing-a-rule-change-singular-they/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elq=f18d420836db471e9839404edeac2004&elqCampaignId=2115&elqaid=7311&elqat=1&elqTrackId=37c6869b342148ef83a776e5bbba9c6c
Harvard Writing Project: Writing Guides ---
http://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/pages/writing-guides
The Writing Center at Harvard University ---
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/resources.html
ENGL Professional Writing Program (University of Maryland) ---
http://lib.guides.umd.edu/content.php?pid=379848&sid=3112046
Writing Center: Vassar College ---
http://ltrc.vassar.edu/writing-center/
University of Richmond: Writer's Web ---
http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb.html
University College Writing Centre ---
http://www.utoronto.ca/ucwriting/handouts.html
From the University of Chicago
Writing in College: A Short Guide to College Writing ---
http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/resources/collegewriting/
Willa Cather was against teaching college students how to write
creatively, instead of how to write “clear and correct English” ---
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/one-writer-s-message_822395.html?nopager=1
Grammar Conundrums
"Hard questions, not easy answers," The Economist, March
4, 2015 ---
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/03/johnson-grammar
From the Scout Report on November 7, 2014
1. National Novel Writing Month
http://nanowrimo.org
Freelance writer Chris Baty declared
November as National Novel Writing Month in the fall of 2000. Since
then, the number of participants has grown from 21 aspiring authors
hacking away at manuscripts to over 300,000. The project's "No Plot?
No problem" slogan tells it all. No perfectionistic haute culture
here. Participants are simply encouraged to put at least 50,000
words on paper between 12:00 am on November 1 and 11:59:59 on
November 30. Scout readers can explore this official website via
section subheadings such as, About, How It Works, Press Information,
and Testimonials to find out all about the process. Signing up to
participate in the challenge is easy and free, and the website will
help track your progress, link you to support in your geographical
area, and provide platforms to meet fellow writers in person and
online. NaNoWriMo, as it's called, is a great resource for
encouraging novice and veteran writers alike to work through their
writer's block and delve into their creativity. [CNH]
2. Writing and Publishing Solutions
http://www.novel-writing-help.com
Anyone who has ever tried to write a novel
will agree on at least one basic fact: it's deceptively difficult.
This site, from novelist Harvey Chapman, provides beginners with
helpful step-by-step advice. He lays it all out in simple,
digestible categories including, The Writing Process, Becoming a
Writer, Elements of Fiction, and How to Write. Each category
includes helpful, targeted articles designed to take some of the
sting out of putting words on screen or paper. For instance, How to
Write a Novel Step-by-Step breaks down the novel writing process
into eleven linear stages. Prose Writing 101, found under How to
Write, is another great feature of the site that details the
importance of writing with a clear, concise, and uncluttered style.
[CNH]
3. How Writers Write Fiction
http://courses.writinguniversity.org/course/how-writers-write-fiction
The International Writing Program at the
University of Iowa is often considered the best fiction writing
program in the United States. Not everyone can dedicate the blood,
sweat, and two years it takes to complete the program, but this new
MOOC series allows fiction writers to engages with the material over
a few short weeks. The course is free and the teachers are extremely
well known literary novelists. After signing up, access to videos,
transcripts, assignments, and tools will be at your fingertips.
Through video lectures and various writing assignments, the series
is a great way to learn about the writing process and interact with
other students/writers working on their craft. [CNH]
4. Fiction Writers Review
http://fictionwritersreview.com
If you want to write, read. And if you want
to read about fiction writing, a good place to start is the Fiction
Writers Review. Completely free and jam packed with writers writing
about writing, this continually updated online periodical will fill
you up with ideas and images. Start with the homepage, where you can
explore numerous Features, ranging from interviews to essays. Then
explore Popular Posts to see what other visitors have found
valuable. There is a lot of fantastic stuff on this site, and author
Philip Graham's praise is quite illuminating: "I no longer much
bother reading The New York Times Book Review, and your site is one
of the reasons- what great work you're doing for literature." [CNH]
5. The Official SCBWI Blog
http://scbwi.blogspot.com
There are many great resources for those
who want to write stories for adults. But what if your market is
more in the seven to twelve range? Well, then this site, the
official blog of the Society of Children's Book Writers and
Illustrators (SCBWI), is for you. Continually updated, blog entries
offer a variety of topics ranging from interviews with award winning
children's book authors, editors, and publishers to advice on
innovative marketing techniques, writing, and networking in
children's literature. It is a must for anyone looking to engage in
the wide world of writing and publishing for kids. [CNH]
===== Technical & Science Writing ===
6. Introduction to Technical Communication
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/writing-and-humanistic-studies/21w-732-5-introduction-to-technical-communication-explorations-in-scientific-and-technical-writing-fall-2006/
What if you could take a technical
communication class with a world class professor at a leading
university? What if it was all laid out for you - the readings, the
lectures, the assignments? And what if the only thing you had to pay
for was a couple of books? That's exactly what Dr. Donald N.S. Unger
and the MIT Open Courseware system are offering here. On this site,
viewers can browse the syllabus, have a look at the required
readings, and ponder the ten assignments that form the foundation of
this writing intensive class. Self-directed learners who want to
improve their technical and scientific writing need look no further
than this web-based adaptation of an MIT classic. [CNH]
7. The Purdue OWL: Conducting Research
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/8/
Good research and good writing go hand in
hand. This site from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) introduces
students to the principles of conducting good research. The clear
and helpful information on the site is divided into six digestible
categories: Research Overview, Conducting Primary Research,
Evaluating Sources of Information, Searching the World Wide Web,
Internet References, and Archival Research. Within each of these
categories are numerous informative subcategories, such as Research
Ethics and Searching with a Search Engine. This last area is a great
tool for students learning how to conduct better searches, including
information on Boolean operators. [CNH]
8. Scientific Reports - The Writing Center
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/scientific-reports/
Learning to write a good scientific report
is no easy task. Thank goodness this handout from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center provides you with
everything you need to get started. Beginning with Background and
Pre-Writing and proceeding with explanations of the Introduction,
Methods, Results, and Discussion sections of research reports, the
site answers such burning questions as, "What should I do before
drafting the lab report?" and "When should you use a figure?" In
all, students new to the art of technical science writing will be
much comforted by this detailed and user-friendly explanation of the
entire report writing process. Also of interest, the Other Resources
section links out to more useful resources around the web. [CNH]
9. National Association of Science Writers
http://www.nasw.org
Founded in 1934, the National Association
of Science Writers (NASW) has always sought to "encourage conditions
that promote good science writing." Today, the NASW boasts a roster
of over 2,000 members, almost 300 of them students. The site itself
is a panoply of bustling information. Featured articles (for
instance, "Coming soon to this planet: More of us") touch into
issues relevant to science writers and bloggers, but also will
appeal to anyone with an interest in empirical research. A Twitter
feed, ripe with science-y links and hashtags, is available on the
homepage and more than a dozen writer resources are on bold display.
If you think science writing might be in your future, look here for
the latest on how it's done. [CNH]
10. Sentence Structure of Technical Writing
http://web.mit.edu/me-ugoffice/communication/technical-writing.pdf
This visually clear treatise outlines "Good
Tech Writers Practice" in three pieces of sage advice: Plan your
project, understand good technical writing, and know that writing is
a habit that takes time to develop. Presented as lecture materials
and his times. Next, the Browse section
provides a list of Faulkner's recorded lectures and classes at UVA -
a rare and wonderful peek at a man from another era. Readers can
also search the site by Tapes & Transcripts and Rest of Archive.
Selected clips, organized by the author's novels, are also
available. [CNH]
14. The Official Site of Richard Feynman
http://www.richardfeynman.com
The video on the homepage of the Official
Site of Richard Feynman is reason enough to visit. It features
Feynman, the theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize winner, and best
selling author, lecturing to a group of undergraduates on the topic
of scientific and unscientific understandings of nature. The talk is
wildly entertaining, vivacious, and intellectually clear; viewers
are left with a vivid sense of who this man was and why he so deeply
impacted the popular imagination. A detailed About section provides
information on Feynman and his work, as well as quotes and a small
photo gallery. The Notable Works section lists his writings for
scientific and popular audiences, though, sadly, none of them are
available on the site. [CNH]
15. Charles Dickens at 200
http://www.themorgan.org/collection/Charles-Dickens-at-200
The Christmas Carol, which Dickens wrote in
the six weeks leading up to the Christmas of 1843, has continuously
been in print ever since, spawning adaptations into the forms of
plays, films, TV specials, mime performances, abstract performance
art, and opera. This online exhibition, hosted by the Morgan Library
& Museum in New York, features a leather bound manuscript of the
author's first draft, presented to his friend and debtor, Thomas
Mitton, just before it's publication. This excellent site allows
viewers to visit half a dozen pages of the original document,
replete with cross outs and scribbles, corrections and revisions.
The accompanying essays cover topics such as Dickens at Work, which
explains the sense of Dickens "writing at a fast pace, usually
enacting second thoughts and changes of mind in the heat of original
composition." [CNH]
16. Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No.
78, James Baldwin
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2994/the-art-of-fiction-no-78-james-baldwin
Born in Harlem in 1924, James Baldwin moved to France in the late
1950s because he didn't want to be read as "merely a Negro; or,
even, merely a Negro writer." He lived the rest of his life in Paris
and the French Riviera, publishing fiction and essays that deeply
influenced American literature from afar. This interview with
Baldwin, published in the Paris Review a few years before the
author's death, touches on such topics as his choice to permanently
leave the United States for Europe, his writing process, and his
thoughts on race and racial justice. It's a rare gift to find a
freely available window into this revered writer's thoughts and
feelings in his later years.
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/
December 14, 2015
December 15, 2015
December 16, 2015
December 17, 2015
December 18, 2015
December 19, 2015
December 21, 2015
December 22, 2015
December 24, 2015
December 28, 2015
David Pogue: Review: These Glasses for
Colorblindness Really Work ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/review-these-glasses-for-color-1328266717503542.html
Hello. My name is David, and
I’m colorblind.
That’s right: I’m among the 8 percent of all males (one in 12) who see
less red and green pigment than everyone else. (Technically speaking, red
and green “sensors” in our eyes overlap, making those colors tough to
distinguish.)
Here are some of the well-meaning but misguided questions colorblind
people get asked a lot: •“So does everything look like a black-and-white TV
to you?” (Answer: “Colorblind” doesn’t mean you see everything in black and
white; in most cases, it just means that you see less red and green. So it’s
hard to tell blue apart from purple, or to tell green apart from brown, or
to detect any color at all in very light shades.)
•“What color is the sky?” (Answer: Blue.)
•“How do you know when to go at a traffic light?” (Answer: To me, the
“green” light of a traffic light looks perfectly white — but it’s still
on the bottom, so, yes, I know when to go.)
If it’s any help, here’s what fall foliage looks like to a colorblind
person:
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
David Pogue is my favorite commentator on technology hardware and software. He's
a former technology columnist for The New York Times who is now on
Yahoo's payroll ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pogue
ISIS Sanctions Organ
Harvesting from Live Captives ---
http://www.newsweek.com/isis-islamic-state-organ-harvesting-islam-muslims-syria-iraq-christians-409023
Jensen Comment
One of the surprising things during my first walk in Hong Kong was watching the
selling of live animals (fish, chickens, snakes, dogs, etc.) by street vendors
selling these and other food items. Then it dawned on me that this is the way to
sell perishables when no refrigeration is available. This makes me wonder if
ISIS stores non-refrigerated live captives until an order comes in for a
harvested body part in the black market when efforts to collect ransoms fail. I
remember a movie where the kidnappers lower the price after
Bette
Midler's husband refuses to meet the kidnappers' price. Her question while
in captivity: "You mean I'm being discounted?"
Here's what people eat for Christmas in 23
countries around the globe ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/-traditional-christmas-meals-around-world-2015-12
50% Liquor Tax Increase = 25% Gonorrhea
Decrease ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/12/ny-times50-liquor-tax-increase-25-gonorrhea-decrease.html
Jensen Comment
And there were probably a lot fewer single-parent babies and (eventually)
reduced crime on the streets.
Jensen Comment
Why might the same solution not work for reducing gun ownership?
Possible Answer
Liquor and sex are every day (well almost every day except for retirees)
investments where taxes can substantially affect cash on hand. Gun purchases are
so infrequent that there is less likely to be an impact on daily cash on hand.
For example, my two guns that have never been fired will probably be the only
guns I will ever own for the rest of my life. But I would have purchased these
guns even with a 50% tax increase.
My point is that taxing morality has demand
elasticity limits.
How to Live to 100: Researchers Find New
Genetic Clues ---
http://time.com/4153835/live-longer-genetic-clues/?xid=newsletter-brief
Jensen Comment
I can't recall for sure, but I think it was a CBS Sixty Minutes module that
stressed the importance of being skinny before 90 and heavy after 90 if you want
to live to be 100. I most certainly don't want to live that long.
Silencing” the extra copy of chromosome 21
"A Change of Mind: Diana Bianchi championed tests that find Down
syndrome early in pregnancy. Now can she find a way to treat it?" by Bonnie
Rochman, MIT's Technology Review, December 16, 2015 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/544531/a-change-of-mind/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151216
There's a patch that could fix your allergy problem ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/dbv-technologies-launches-phase-3-trial-for-viaskin-2015-12
Suicide Prevention Resource Center ---
http://www.sprc.org/
Geriatric Nursing Resources for Care of Older
Adults ---
http://consultgerirn.org/
PE Central (physical education teachers) ---
http://www.pecentral.org/
Here’s What Beethoven Did When He Lost His
Hearing ---
http://time.com/4152023/beethoven-birthday/?xid=newsletter-brief
Humor December 15-31, 2015
Dave Barry’s 2015 Year in Review ---
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article51119880.html
Not quite as good as the old Dave Barry
Poo-Pouri Santa Commercial ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9TTz3R5SmI
John Cleese's Advice to Young Artists: “Steal
Anything You Think Is Really Good” ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/12/john-cleeses-advice-to-young-artists.html
The 7 worst 'Shark Tank' pitches of 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worst-shark-tank-pitches-of-2015-2015-12
Forwarded by Paula
A new business was opening, and one of the
owner’s friends sent flowers for the occasion. But when the owner read the card
with the flowers, it said “Rest in Peace”.
The owner was a little upset and called the
florist to complain. After he had told the florist about the obvious mistake,
the florist said, “Sir, I’m really sorry for the mistake, but rather than
getting angry, you should imagine this: Somewhere there is a funeral taking
place today, and they have flowers with a note saying, “Congratulations on your
new location.”
Forwarded by Paula
CHRISTMAS WITH
LOUISE
Written by
Jeff Foxworthy - 1996
As a joke, my brother used to hang a pair of panty hose over his fireplace
before Christmas. He said all he wanted was for Santa to fill them. What they
say about Santa checking the list twice must be true because every Christmas
morning, although Jay's kids' stockings were overflowed, his poor pantyhose hung
sadly empty.
One year I
decided to make his dream come true. I put on sunglasses and went in search of
an inflatable love doll. They don't sell those things at Walmart. I had to go to
an adult bookstore downtown.
If you've
never been in an X-rated store, don't go.
You'll only
confuse yourself. I was there an hour saying things like, "What does this do?
You're kidding me! Who would buy that?" Finally, I made it to the inflatable
doll section. I wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll that could also
substitute as a passenger in my truck so I could use the car pool lane during
rush hour. Finding what I wanted was difficult. Love Dolls come in many
different models. The top of the line, according to the side of the box, could
do things I'd only seen in a book on animal husbandry. I settled for Lovable
Louise. She was at the bottom of the price scale. To call Louise a doll took a
huge leap of imagination.
On Christmas
Eve and with the help of an old bicycle pump, Louise came to life. My
sister-in-law was in on the plan and let me in during the wee morning hours.
Long after Santa had come and gone, I filled the dangling pantyhose with
Louise's pliant legs and bottom. I also ate some cookies and drank what remained
of a glass of milk on a nearby tray. I went home, and giggled for a couple of
hours.
The next
morning my brother called to say that Santa had been to his house and left a
present that had made him VERY happy but had left the dog confused. She would
bark, start to walk away, then come back and bark some more.
We all agreed
that Louise should remain in her panty hose so the rest of the family could
admire her when they came over for the traditional Christmas dinner.
My
grandmother noticed Louise the moment she walked in the door. "What the hell is
that?" she asked.
My brother
quickly explained, "It's a doll."
"Who would
play with something like that?" Granny snapped.
I had several
candidates in mind, but kept my mouth shut.
"Where are
her clothes?" Granny continued.
"Boy, that
turkey sure smells nice Gran" Jay said, to steer her into the dining room.
But Granny
was relentless. "Why doesn't she have any teeth?"
Again, I
could have answered, but why would I? It was Christmas and no one wanted to ride
in the back of the ambulance saying, "Hang on Granny, hang on!"
My
grandfather, a delightful old man with poor eyesight, sidled up to me and said,
"Hey, who's the naked gal by the fireplace?"
I told him
she was Jay's friend. A few minutes later I noticed Grandpa by the mantel,
talking to Louise. Not just talking, but actually flirting. It was then that we
realized this might be Grandpa's last Christmas at home.
The dinner
went well. We made the usual small talk about who had died, who was dying, and
who should be killed, when suddenly Louise made a noise like my father in the
bathroom in the morning. Then she lurched from the panty hose, flew around the
room twice, and fell in a heap in front of the sofa. The cat screamed. I passed
cranberry sauce through my nose, and Grandpa ran across the room, fell to his
knees, and began administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. My brother fell
back over his chair and wet his pants. Granny threw down her napkin, stomped out
of the room, and sat in the car.
It was indeed
a Christmas to treasure and remember.
Later in my
brother's garage, we conducted a thorough examination to decide the cause of
Louise's collapse. We discovered that Louise had suffered from a hot ember to
the back of her right thigh. Fortunately, thanks to a wonder drug called duct
tape, we restored her to perfect health!
Forwarded by Paula
WISDOM - FROM MILITARY MANUALS
------------ --------- --------- --------- ------
'If the enemy is in range, so are you.'
Infantry Journal
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.'
U.S. Air Force Manual
----------- --------- --------- ---------
'Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered
automatic weapons.' General Mac Arthur
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me.' U.S. Marine Corp
Gunnery Sgt.
------ ------ --------- --------- ---------
'Tracers work both ways.' - U.S. Army Ordnance Book
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'Five second fuses only last three seconds.' - Infantry Journal
----------- - --- ------ --------- ---------
'Any ship can be a minesweeper. Once.'
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do.' - Unknown Marine
Recruit
------------ --------- --------- --------- ------
'If you see a bomb technician running, keep up with him.' - USAF Ammo Troop
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death , I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at
80,000 Feet and Climbing.'
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3.' - Paul F. Crickmore
(test pilot)
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.'
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter
-- and therefore, unsafe.'
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have just enough
power left to get you to the scene of the crash.'
------------ --------- ------- -- ---------
'Even with ammunition, the US Air Force is just another expensive flying club.'
----------- --------- --------- ---------
'What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot
screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up, .... The pilot dies.'
------------ --------- --------- --------- ---------
'Never trade luck for skill.'
------------ --------- --------- ---------
The three most common expressions (or famous last words), in aviation are:
'Why is it doing that?'
'Where are we?' And
'Oh S...!'
----------- --------- --------- ---------
'Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two of them are always needed to successfully
complete the flight.'
------------ --------- --------- --------- -
'Mankind has a perfect record in aviation;we have never left one up there!'
----------- --------- --------- ---------
'Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on
the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it.'
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill
you.'
Attributed to Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot)
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'There is absolutely no reason to ever fly through a thunderstorm during
peacetime.'
Sign over squadron operations desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to.'
------------ --------- --------- ---------
'You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to
taxi to the terminal.'
------------ --------- --------- ---------
As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the
wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives; the rescuer sees a
bloodied pilot and asks, 'What happened?'
The pilot's reply: 'I don't know, I just got here myself!'
Attributed to Ray Crandell (Lockheed test pilot)
Forwarded by Paula
An old geezer became very bored in retirement
and decided to open a medical clinic. He put a sign up outside that said: "Dr.Geezer's
clinic. Get your treatment for $500, if not cured, get back $1,000."
Doctor "Young," who was positive that this old
geezer didn't know beans about medicine, thought this would be a great
opportunity to get $1,000. So he went to Dr. Geezer's clinic.
Dr. Young: "Dr. Geezer, I have lost all taste in
my mouth. Can you please help me ??" Dr. Geezer: "Nurse, please bring medicine
from box 22 and put 3 drops in Dr. Young's mouth." Dr. Young: Aaagh !! -- "This
is Gasoline!" Dr. Geezer: "Congratulations! You've got your taste back. That
will be $500."
Dr. Young gets annoyed and goes back after a
couple of days figuring to recover his money. Dr. Young: "I have lost my memory,
I cannot remember anything." Dr. Geezer: "Nurse, please bring medicine from box
22 and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth." Dr. Young: "Oh, no you don't, --
that is Gasoline!" Dr. Geezer: "Congratulations! You've got your memory back.
That will be $500."
Dr. Young (after having lost $1000) leaves
angrily and comes back after several more days. Dr. Young: "My eyesight has
become weak ---I can hardly see anything!!!! Dr. Geezer: "Well, I don't have any
medicine for that so, Here's your $1000 back." (giving him a $10 bill) Dr.
Young: "But this is only $10! Dr. Geezer: "Congratulations! You got your vision
back!; That will be $500."
Moral of story -- Just because you're "Young"
doesn't mean that you can outsmart an "old Geezer"* Remember: Don't make old
people mad. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much
to piss us off.
Humor December 1-31, 2015
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q4.htm#Humor123115.htm.htm
Humor November 1-30, 2015
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q4.htm#Humor113015.htm
Humor October 1-31, 2015
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q4.htm#Humor103115
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
Tidbits Archives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Update in
2014
20-Year Sugar Hill Master Plan ---
http://www.nccouncil.org/images/NCC/file/wrkgdraftfeb142014.pdf
Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter ---
Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron"
enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and
other universities is at
http://www.searchedu.com/
Online Distance Education Training and Education ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray
Zone of Fraud (College, Inc.) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
-
With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review
(TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
- With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors
Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
- With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of
Accountancy Ignores TAR
- With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research
into Undergraduate Accounting Courses
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral
Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH
CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm
Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and
Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the
vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
World Clock ---
http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time ---
http://www.worldometers.info/
Interesting Online Clock
and Calendar
---
http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones ---
http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) ---
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
Also see
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
Facts about population growth (video) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
Projected U.S. Population Growth ---
http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq ---
http://www.costofwar.com/
Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons ---
http://zipskinny.com/
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.
Free (updated) Basic Accounting Textbook --- search for Hoyle at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
CPA Examination ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
Free CPA Examination Review Course Courtesy of Joe Hoyle ---
http://cpareviewforfree.com/
Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at
http://iaed.wordpress.com/
Accounting News, Blogs, Listservs, and Social
Networking ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Online Books, Poems, References,
and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Some of Bob Jensen's Tutorials
Accounting program news items for colleges are posted at
http://www.accountingweb.com/news/college_news.html
Sometimes the news items provide links to teaching resources for accounting
educators.
Any college may post a news item.
Accounting and Taxation News Sites ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for
free) go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
AECM
(Educators)
http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
AECM is an email Listserv list which
provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software
which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the
college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and
peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets,
multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base
programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc.
Over the years the AECM has become the worldwide forum for
accounting educators on all issues of accountancy and accounting
education, including debates on accounting standards, managerial
accounting, careers, fraud, forensic accounting, auditing,
doctoral programs, and critical debates on academic (accountics)
research, publication, replication, and validity testing.
|
CPAS-L
(Practitioners)
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/ (Closed
Down)
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of
all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an
unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments,
ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed.
Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L
or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for
a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional
accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or
education. Others will be denied access. |
Yahoo (Practitioners)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA.
This can be anything from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ
initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA. |
AccountantsWorld
http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as
accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed
assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and
taxation. |
Business Valuation Group
BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag
[RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM] |
FEI's Financial Reporting Blog
Smart Stops on the Web, Journal of Accountancy, March 2008 ---
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2008/smart_stops.htm
FINANCIAL REPORTING PORTAL
www.financialexecutives.org/blog
Find news highlights from the SEC, FASB
and the International Accounting
Standards Board on this financial
reporting blog from Financial Executives
International. The site, updated daily,
compiles regulatory news, rulings and
statements, comment letters on
standards, and hot topics from the Web’s
largest business and accounting
publications and organizations. Look for
continuing coverage of SOX requirements,
fair value reporting and the Alternative
Minimum Tax, plus emerging issues such
as the subprime mortgage crisis,
international convergence, and rules for
tax return preparers. |
|
|
The CAlCPA Tax Listserv
September 4, 2008 message from Scott Bonacker
[lister@bonackers.com]
Scott has been a long-time contributor to the AECM listserv (he's a techie as
well as a practicing CPA)
I found another listserve
that is exceptional -
CalCPA maintains
http://groups.yahoo.com/taxtalk/
and they let almost anyone join it.
Jim Counts, CPA is moderator.
There are several highly
capable people that make frequent answers to tax questions posted there, and
the answers are often in depth.
Scott
Scott forwarded the following message from Jim
Counts
Yes you may mention info on
your listserve about TaxTalk. As part of what you say please say [... any
CPA or attorney or a member of the Calif Society of CPAs may join. It is
possible to join without having a free Yahoo account but then they will not
have access to the files and other items posted.
Once signed in on their Yahoo account go to
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxTalk/ and I believe in
top right corner is Join Group. Click on it and answer the few questions and
in the comment box say you are a CPA or attorney, whichever you are and I
will get the request to join.
Be aware that we run on the average 30 or move emails per day. I encourage
people to set up a folder for just the emails from this listserve and then
via a rule or filter send them to that folder instead of having them be in
your inbox. Thus you can read them when you want and it will not fill up the
inbox when you are looking for client emails etc.
We currently have about 830 CPAs and attorneys nationwide but mainly in
California.... ]
Please encourage your members
to join our listserve.
If any questions let me know.
Jim Counts CPA.CITP CTFA
Hemet, CA
Moderator TaxTalk
|
Many useful accounting sites (scroll down) ---
http://www.iasplus.com/links/links.htm
Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Some
Accounting History Sites
Bob Jensen's
Accounting History in a Nutshell and Links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#AccountingHistory
Accounting
History Libraries at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) ---
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/libraries.html
The above libraries include international accounting history.
The above libraries include film and video historical collections.
MAAW Knowledge Portal for Management and Accounting ---
http://maaw.info/
Academy of Accounting Historians and the Accounting Historians Journal ---
http://www.accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aah/
Sage Accounting History ---
http://ach.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/11/3/269
A nice timeline on the development of U.S. standards and the evolution of
thinking about the income statement versus the balance sheet is provided at:
"The Evolution of U.S. GAAP: The Political Forces Behind Professional
Standards (1930-1973)," by Stephen A. Zeff, CPA Journal, January 2005
---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/105/infocus/p18.htm
Part II covering years 1974-2003 published in February 2005 ---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/205/index.htm
A nice
timeline of accounting history ---
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2187711/A-HISTORY-OF-ACCOUNTING
From Texas
A&M University
Accounting History Outline ---
http://acct.tamu.edu/giroux/history.html
Bob
Jensen's timeline of derivative financial instruments and hedge accounting ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds
History of
Fraud in America ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/415wp/AmericanHistoryOfFraud.htm
Also see
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm
Bob Jensen's
Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
All
my online pictures ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone: 603-823-8482
Email:
rjensen@trinity.edu