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&region=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

  1. Furious 7
  2. Jurassic World
  3. Avengers: Age of Ultron
  4. Inside Out
  5. Minions
  6. The Martian
  7. Mission Impossible --- Rogue Nation
  8. Spectre
  9. 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

  1. Spotlife
  2. Phoenix
  3. I'll See You in My Dreams
  4. Clouds of Sills Maria
  5. Iris
  6. Mustang
  7. Tangerine
  8. Creed
  9. 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 Compasshome 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

  1. Penn State University World Campus
  2. Daytona State College
  3. University of Illinois Chicago
  4. Western Kentucky University
  5. Embry-​Riddle Aeronautical University—​Worldwide
  6. Oregon State University
  7. Colorado State University Global Campus
  8. Arizona State University
  9. Ohio State University --- Columbus
  10. Pace University
  11. 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

01. Wesleyan University's "Social Psychology"

02. University of Maryland's "Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems"

03. Duke University's "Think Again: How to Reason and Argue"

04. Duke University's "A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior"

05. University of Toronto's "Learn to Program: The Fundamentals"

06. Stanford University's "Startup Engineering"

07. Yale University's "Financial Markets"

08. The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School's "An Introduction to Financial Accounting"

09. University of Washington's "Introduction to Public Speaking"

10. University of Michigan's "Introduction to Finance"

11. The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School's "An Introduction to Marketing"

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

    1. NY Times: Microaggression In The Gym — Millennial Men Struggle To Dress In Health Club Locker Rooms
    2. The IRS Scandal, Day 943
    3. Harvard Law Students Issue 7-Page List Of Demands In Wake Of Racial Unrest
    4. The IRS Scandal, Day 944
    5. College And University President Salaries, 2013
    6. Christians: Understanding The Accidental American — Tina's Story
    7. Will Technology Create More Legal Jobs Than It Destroys?
    8. Congress Orders IRS To Use Private Debt Collection Companies
    9. Christian University President: This Is Not A Day Care, 1 Corinthians 13 Is Not A Microaggression
    10. 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

    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