In 2017 my Website was migrated to the clouds and reduced in size.
Hence some links below are broken.
One thing to try if a “www” link is broken is to substitute “faculty” for “www”
For example a broken link
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
can be changed to corrected link http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

However in some cases files had to be removed to reduce the size of my Website
Contact me at 
rjensen@trinity.edu if you really need to file that is missing

Tidbits on February 15, 2016
Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

Set 3 of Bob Jensen's Favorite Barn Photographs
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Barns/Set03/BarnsSet03.htm
 

 

Tidbits on Februdisabary 15, 2016 Bob Jensen Bob Jensen's Tidbits --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm 
For earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm 
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm  
Bookmarks for the World's Library --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm 
Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm 
Bob Jensen's Home Page is at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ 
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm 




Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
 

Watch a trained eagle take out a drone in mid-air ---
http://qz.com/608410/watch-a-trained-eagle-take-out-a-drone-in-mid-air/

The Wisdom & Advice of Maurice Ashley, the First African-American Chess Grandmaster ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/the-wisdom-advice-of-maurice-ashley-the-first-african-american-chess-grandmaster.html

Animation:  Here's how the map of the United States has changed in 200 years ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-map-of-200-years-us-border-territory-changes-2016-1

Stephen Hawking’s Lectures on Black Holes Now Fully Animated with Chalkboard Illustrations ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/stephen-hawkings-lectures-on-black-holes-now-fully-animated-with-chalkboard-illustrations.html

Watch the Destruction of Pompeii by Mount Vesuvius, Re-Created with Computer Animation (79 AD)  ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/watch-the-destruction-of-pompeii-by-mount-vesuvius-re-created-with-computer-animation-79-ad.html

Amazing 3-D Art https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TE8Z4Mu9DgY?rel=0&showinfo=0

RANKED: The 10 worst movies to win the best picture Oscar — and what should have won ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-best-picture-winners-ranked-2016-2

Unlikely goat and tiger friendship tragically ends in fight  ---
http://news.yahoo.com/unlikely-goat-tiger-friendship-tragically-161915313.html

Claymation Recreates Historic Chess Match Immortalized in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/claymation-recreates-historic-chess-match-immortalized-in-kubricks-2001-a-space-odyssey.html

Lake Okiboji Classic Cars Video ---
https://www.youtube.com/embed/HdUTNJkTAVU?feature=player_embedded

Hi Paula,

I grew up less than an hour on Lake Okiboji and its connecting Spirit Lake (larger and less deep). My parents rented vacation cabins on these lakes when I was a little kid.

When I was in high school I took dates to the big band dance hall in Arnold's Park known as the Roof Garden overlooking Lake Okiboji.

Those were the days my friend ...

Thanks,
Bob Jensen

 


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

Lady Gaga kills it in perfect pitch while singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/lady-gaga-killed-it-while-singing-the-national-anthem-during-the-super-bowl-2016-2
You may have to hunt for this to hear the performance. I found it on YouTube.

André Rieu - España cañi 2015 --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzgRw6V252s

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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm


Photographs and Art

Download Free Coloring Books from World-Class Libraries & Museums: The New York Public Library, Bodleian, Smithsonian & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/download-free-coloring-books-from-world-class-libraries-museums.html

Discover Europeana Collections, a Portal of 48,796,394 Artworks, Books, Videos, Artifacts & Sounds from Across Europe ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/01/europeana-collections-a-portal-of-48796394-artworks-books-videos.html

Trove (History of Australia) --- http://trove.nla.gov.au

Download 2,000 Magnificent Turn-of-the-Century Art Posters, Courtesy of the New York Public Library ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/download-2000-magnificent-turn-of-the-century-art-posters.html

These incredible photos of America's most iconic jets will leave you mesmerized ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/blair-bunting-photos-sr-71-2016-1

Something unusual seen on the Mars surface ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/curiosity-mars-rover-sand-dune-selfies-2016-2

China Released Stunning Pictures of the Moon's Surface ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-releases-hd-photos-of-moon-2016-2

The 10 best US destinations to visit this year, according to Lonely Planet ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/lonely-planets-best-us-destinations-2016-2

Photos Linked to Detainee Abuse Released By U.S. Military ---
http://time.com/4210386/pentagon-detainee-military-iraq-afghanistan-aclu/?xid=newsletter-brief

15 of the Most Expensive Projects Abandoned by the US Military ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/some-of-the-militarys-most-expensive-sunk-cost-projects-2016-1

India Illustrated --- http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/p15195coll29

Indian Memory Project (India history) ---  http://www.indianmemoryproject.com

Baby bandicoot found napping in a duckling nest ---
http://news.yahoo.com/baby-bandicoot-found-napping-duckling-071111757.html

The Cleveland Memory Project (history of Cleveland, Ohio) --- http://www.clevelandmemory.org/

Download Hundreds of Van Gogh Paintings, Sketches & Letters in High Resolution ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/download-hundreds-of-van-gogh-paintings-sketches-letters-in-high-resolution.html

See How Football Uniforms Have Changed Over a Century ---
http://time.com/4202906/football-uniforms-evolution/?xid=newsletter-brief

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

Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://faculty.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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

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

Hear Gabriel García Márquez’s Extraordinary Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, “The Solitude Of Latin America,” in English & Spanish (1982) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/gabriel-garcia-marquezs-extraordinary-nobel-prize-acceptance-speech.html

An Animated Introduction to Goethe, Germany’s “Renaissance Man”  ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/01/an-animated-introduction-to-goethe-germanys-renaissance-man.html

Hear James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake Read Unabridged & Set to Music By 17 Different Artists ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/finnegans-wake-read-by-17-artists.html
 

Gandhi Writes Letters to Hitler: “We Have Found in Non-Violence a Force Which Can Match the Most Violent Forces in the World” (1939/40) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/gandhi-writes-letters-to-hitler.html  

The strange poetry of searching for romance online ---
http://qz.com/612651/the-strange-poetry-of-searching-for-romance-online/

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




Now in Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on February 15, 2016
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2016/TidbitsQuotations021516.htm       

U.S. National Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Also see http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

National debt just reached a record $19 trillion (plus over $100 trillion in unbooked entitlements burdening future generations in the USA)
Martin Matishak and Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times, February 2016
http://www.businessinsider.com/national-debt-reaches-record-19-trillion-2016-2
 

Entitlements are two-thirds of the federal budget. Entitlement spending has grown 100-fold over the past 50 years. Half of all American households now rely on government handouts. When we hear statistics like that, most of us shake our heads and mutter some sort of expletive. That’s because nobody thinks they’re the problem. Nobody ever wants to think they’re the problem. But that’s not the truth. The truth is, as long as we continue to think of the rising entitlement culture in America as someone else’s problem, someone else’s fault, we’ll never truly understand it and we’ll have absolutely zero chance...
Steve Tobak ---
http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2013/02/07/truth-behind-our-entitlement-culture/?intcmp=sem_outloud

Peter G. Peterson Website on Deficit/Debt Solutions ---
http://www.pgpf.org/

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

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




Amazon Echo --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Echo

Amazon Echo is a sleeper hit, and the rest of America is about to find out about it for the first time ---
http://qz.com/611026/amazon-echo-is-a-sleeper-hit-and-the-rest-of-america-is-about-find-out-about-it-for-the-first-time/


How to Mislead With Statistics
A college professor offered students 2 options for skipping a final exam — and stumbled upon the most effective way to motivate people ---

http://www.businessinsider.com/a-college-professor-offered-students-2-options-for-skipping-a-final-exam-and-stumbled-upon-the-most-effective-way-to-motivate-people-2016-2

Jensen Comment
In statistical analysis there are many sources of possible error. Leading sources are missing variables. What is missing in this article is how the outcomes will vary with the grading policies of the professor. For example, if everybody in the class gets the same grade the outcomes of this research are likely to be very misleading relative to a class having a high standard deviation of course grades..

I looked up this marketing professor on RateMyProfessor.com. Although the respondents at RMP are self-selecting and usually only a small percentage of all students in any class, the outcomes were a bit weird for this professor. Although the workload of the course is rated fairly high, all respondents reported getting A+ course grades.

My gut reaction is that I do not trust the conclusions of this study if this instruct truly tends to give almost all A or A+ grades. However, the subjective comments tend to reveal that this instructor is a good teacher. However, different alternatives for grading hardly mean much if the grade is the same under any alternative

February 7, 2016 reply from Jagdish Gangolly

Bob,

The second alternative (losing the right to the optional final if performance on quizzes is poor) was what my college at the University of Bombay used. The college administered what was called "preliminary examination" a few months prior to the university finals. If you performed poorly on the preliminary exam, you could NOT sit for the university final and automatically flunked out for a year. In a sense it happened to me. Because my attendance in my sophomore year was atrociously low (something like 12 percent of classes), the college refused to allow me to take the preliminary exam. I fought the ruling tooth and nail and finally won. If I had not, today I would be flipping hamburgers or shining shoes.

It is important that in preparing our syllabi laying out rules we recognize that young people make many stupid mistakes. Some overgrow them, others do not. Syllabi are not places we should try to discover our smarts. I would never include in my syllabi any bargains for my students.

Regards,

Jagdish


Report Finds Black Students Tend to Choose Non-lucrative Majors ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/02/09/report-finds-black-students-nonlucrative-majors?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8bca58981a-DNU20160209&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8bca58981a-197565045

The book is reviewed at
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/12/02/new-book-says-elite-black-students-dont-try-high-paying-jobs 

One problem is that a disproportionate percentage of blacks opt out of majors having tough post-graduate licensing examinations like law, medicine, pharmacy, accounting, law, etc.


Due to government cutbacks|
The University of Copenhagen announced that it is cutting more than 500 teaching, research, service and administrative jobs -- 7 percent of its total staff -- in response to government cuts to its budget.

Jensen Comment
So how does a nation with free higher education cope with cutbacks in college education budgets?
Unlike Bernie Sanders, no nation on earth offers free education to everybody. Education is only offered to a relatively small percentage of elite applicants.

In Denmark over 60% of the Tier 2 graduates receive free college degree and training certificate programs.

With government budget cuts even fewer Tier 2 graduates receive free tertiary education and training.

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

This is a list of countries by 25- to 34-year-olds having a tertiary education degree as published by the OECD. It includes some non-OECD members.

Tertiary education is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including universities as well as institutions that teach specific capacities of higher learning such as colleges, technical training institutes, community colleges, nursing schools, research laboratories, centers of excellence, and distance learning centers.

OECD 2011 Tertiary Education Percentages of Tier 2 Graduates Going Into Tier 3

 

Whereas nations like Finland, Denmark, 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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
 

Some academics graduate that a m 18 year old Tier 2 graduate in Denmark is equivalent to a 22 year old Tier 3 college graduate in the USA. That may be true for some lower quality colleges in the USA, but Denmark is a much smaller nation with much less ethnic and racial turmoil in the USA. A Tier 2 graduate in Europe is not equivalent to a flagship university graduate in the USA.

If Denmark offered free college education to everybody, budget cutbacks that entail laying off hundreds or thousands of teachers would be much more difficult if the colleges could not cut back on the inflow of students seeking a free diploma. As it stands Denmark's colleges can tighten the inflow of new students by raising the bar on admissions.


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

Snopes Service on Phishing Scams ---
http://www.snopes.com/irs-scam-season/


The Bloomberg Job Skills Report 2016: What Recruiters Want ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-job-skills-report/?cmpid=BBD020916_BIZ

Jobs With the Best (and Worst) Job Security ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/02/11/jobs-with-the-highest-and-lowest-unemployment-rates/2/

Jensen Comment
Not surprisingly, dishwashers have the lowest job security, but the rankings are misleading. They are based on unemployment rates without factoring voluntary versus involuntary unemployment. Dishwashers have high unemployment rates due largely to voluntary unemployment decisions. Dentists have the highest job security, but this is misleading since dentists mostly work for themselves like entrepreneurs.

The study misleads with respect to the well-known job security of tenured professors. The reason is that unemployment rates for professors do not distinguish between unemployed professors who cannot find jobs versus tenured professors who probably have the most secure jobs in the USA.

Bob Jensen's threads on careers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#careers


Steve Balmer --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer

Steve Ballmer talks about the current state of Microsoft, his Twitter investment, and how sports tech can help the Clippers ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-ballmer-talks-microsoft-twitter-clippers-2016-2

Steve Ballmer stepped down as the CEO of Microsoft two years ago, handing over the reins to Satya Nadella.

Microsoft has made some notable changes since his departure, in practice and rhetoric, including an enthusiastic embrace of cloud computing and a more cooperative stance toward computing platforms from other companies. The market seems to like the change: The stock price has gone up around 40% in the last two years even as earnings have stayed relatively flat.

Ballmer, meanwhile, has carved a new life for himself as the owner of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, where he shows his enthusiasm from the sidelines at many home and away games.

We caught up with Ballmer to ask him about his life after Microsoft and his thoughts on technology and the game of hoops.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
In addition to owning the Clippers, Steve Ballmer now teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford University.


Beyond Books: Why Some Libraries Now Lend Tools, Toys and More ---
http://lisnews.org/node/44119/


"US professors aren’t getting any more accepting of online learning—but students definitely are," by Amy X. Wang, Quartz, February 10, 2016 ---
http://qz.com/612592/us-professors-arent-getting-any-more-accepting-of-online-learning-but-students-definitely-are/

300+ MOOCs Getting Started in February
http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses

Take a Free Online Course on Making Animations from Pixar & Khan Academy ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/take-a-free-online-course-on-making-animations-from-pixar-khan-academy.html

Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs and Other Free Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


"10 Ways to Fail When Creating an Online Program," by Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed, February 10, 2016 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/10-ways-fail-when-creating-online-program

Jensen Comment
Beware of absolutes. Some of the 10 Commandments of The Bible have allowable exceptions in the law.

 

And the dire warnings of "You Will Fail" in the above article have exceptions in virtually all of the top distance education programs of the world and especially in the USA. For example, if your only main goal is to make money you may well succeed when you add a cash cow distance education program to your curriculum. For example, the main goal of the Starbucks distance education program at Arizona State University may well be to make money where Starbucks pays the tuition for all of its employees who choose to take advantage of the program. Similarly, Strayer University primarily intends to make profits on Wal-Mart employees who enroll because Wal-Mart will pay their tuition.

 

In general, I think further study will find exceptions to the 10 "You Will Fail" commandments in all of the top US News distance education programs linked below:

 

US News:  2015 Best Online Bachelor's Programs ---
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

 

US News:  2015 Best Online MBA Programs
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba

 

The research questions to be asked is what the above highest-quality distance education programs and courses are doing better than their own residential programs.

 

Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm


Windows 10 Versus Windows 7 for Bob Jensen

I'm finding little frustrations with Windows 10. It won't let me install the Chrome browser, which in turn, is frustrating because Firefox will not run my Gmail account (due to what it says is problems with cookies). Fortunately my Gmail account runs in IE and Edge.

What it boils down to is that I open Edge, Firefox, and IE to do different things that can be done on any one of my browsers on my Windows 7 laptop.

My biggest frustration is that Windows Explorer is really fussy about what files it will copy and paste. My solution is to transfer the external hard drive to my Windows 7 laptop when I need to do some extensive file transfers between drives.

I really miss the old Control Panel even though a version of it can be brought up with a lot of trouble in Windows 10.

At the moment the Windows 10 bads exceed the goods for me relative to Windows 7. But then again I don't use most of the new features in Windows 10. I'm an old fashioned (read that just old) guy.


Question
In a mall what does an Amazon bookstore have that was lacking in Borders bookstores?
Borders closed its remaining bookstores in 2011.Note that when Sears closed many of its stores (certainly not all) and opened order stores the inventory was and still is largely display inventory such that orders are sent on and eventually delivered from centralized warehouses. Amazon's mall stores, however, apparently intend to carry quite a lot of store inventory for in-store sales. This means more store employees, need for inventory space, shoplifting losses, and need for more store employees.

Note that when Sears closed many of its stores (certainly not all) and opened order stores the inventory was and still is largely display inventory such that orders are sent on and eventually delivered from centralized warehouses. Amazon's mall stores, however, apparently intend to carry quite a lot of store inventory for in-store sales. This means more store employees, need for inventory space, shoplifting losses, and need for more store employees.

Answer
My only answer is
that the primary cause of the failure of Borders was the online Amazon bookstore. It's not clear to me how with the decline in mall shoppers how Amazon brick and mortar stores will pay the rent and labor and small-inventory handling and carrying costs in its mall stores. Amazon thinks it found the answer in its Seattle experiment. But most of the USA is not like Seattle.

"Amazon Plans Hundreds of Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores, Mall CEO Says," by Greg Bensinger, The Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2016 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-plans-hundreds-of-brick-and-mortar-bookstores-mall-ceo-says-1454449475?mod=djemCFO_h

February 3, 2016 reply from Patricia Walters

Maybe, they just want to drive B&N out of business. Then it will have the entire market (other than diehard local specialty bookstores) of online sales and can close its brick and mortar stores. What an impoverished world we'll have when that happens.

Now that Walmart has driven many local supermarkets and specialty stores out of business, it's closing its stores in rural and unprofitable areas, leaving those people with less than they had before. (This is my story and I'm sticking with it.)

Pat

 


How to mislead with scientific claims
101 things you thought were true, but have actually been debunked by science ---

http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-science-health-myths-2016-1

Jensen Comment
Some claims in this article nobody thinks are literally true. It would be dumb to literally think that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Some answers given as being "debunked in science" are not totally debunked. For example, scientists do not really claim that milk is not good for most people. Some claims about milk are controversial and questionable, but milk is a food item that can be good for you in moderation.

In fact my gut feeling is that many of the "debunking claims" in this article are overstated.


Jensen Comment
Note that the following article has enormous implications for what is taught in most Ph.D. programs in the social sciences, business, accounting, finance, and other academic disciplines.  Regression analysis has become the key to the kingdom of academic research, a Ph.D. diploma, journal article publication, tenure, and performance rewards in the Academy. Now the sky is falling, and soon researchers skilled mostly at performing regression analysis are faced with the problem of having to learn how to do real research.

Regression Analysis --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_analysis

Richard Nisbett --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Nisbett


"The Crusade Against Multiple Regression Analysis A Conversation With Richard Nisbett," Edge, January 21, 2016 ---
http://edge.org/conversation/richard_nisbett-the-crusade-against-multiple-regression-analysis

A huge range of science projects are done with multiple regression analysis. The results are often somewhere between meaningless and quite damaging. ...                             

I hope that in the future, if I’m successful in communicating with people about this, that there’ll be a kind of upfront warning in New York Times articles: These data are based on multiple regression analysis. This would be a sign that you probably shouldn’t read the article because you’re quite likely to get non-information or misinformation. RICHARD NISBETT is a professor of psychology and co-director of the Culture and Cognition Program at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Mindware: Tools for Smart Thinking; and The Geography of Thought. Richard Nisbett's Edge Bio Page.

THE CRUSADE AGAINST MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS
The thing I’m most interested in right now has become a kind of crusade against correlational statistical analysis—in particular, what’s called multiple regression analysis. Say you want to find out whether taking Vitamin E is associated with lower prostate cancer risk. You look at the correlational evidence and indeed it turns out that men who take Vitamin E have lower risk for prostate cancer. Then someone says, "Well, let’s see if we do the actual experiment, what happens." And what happens when you do the experiment is that Vitamin E contributes to the likelihood of prostate cancer. How could there be differences? These happen a lot. The correlational—the observational—evidence tells you one thing, the experimental evidence tells you something completely different.

The thing I’m most interested in right now has become a kind of crusade against correlational statistical analysis—in particular, what’s called multiple regression analysis. Say you want to find out whether taking Vitamin E is associated with lower prostate cancer risk. You look at the correlational evidence and indeed it turns out that men who take Vitamin E have lower risk for prostate cancer. Then someone says, "Well, let’s see if we do the actual experiment, what happens." And what happens when you do the experiment is that Vitamin E contributes to the likelihood of prostate cancer. How could there be differences? These happen a lot. The correlational—the observational—evidence tells you one thing, the experimental evidence tells you something completely different.

In the case of health data, the big problem is something that’s come to be called the healthy user bias, because the guy who’s taking Vitamin E is also doing everything else right. A doctor or an article has told him to take Vitamin E, so he does that, but he’s also the guy who’s watching his weight and his cholesterol, gets plenty of exercise, drinks alcohol in moderation, doesn’t smoke, has a high level of education, and a high income. All of these things are likely to make you live longer, to make you less subject to morbidity and mortality risks of all kinds. You pull one thing out of that correlate and it’s going to look like Vitamin E is terrific because it’s dragging all these other good things along with it.

This is not, by any means, limited to health issues. A while back, I read a government report in The New York Times on the safety of automobiles. The measure that they used was the deaths per million drivers of each of these autos. It turns out that, for example, there are enormously more deaths per million drivers who drive Ford F150 pickups than for people who drive Volvo station wagons. Most people’s reaction, and certainly my initial reaction to it was, "Well, it sort of figures—everybody knows that Volvos are safe."

Continued in article

Drawing Inferences From Very Large Data-Sets

David Johnstone wrote the following:

Indeed if you hold H0 the same and keep changing the model, you will eventually (generally soon) get a significant result, allowing "rejection of H0 at 5%", not because H0 is necessarily false but because you have built upon a false model (of which there are zillions, obviously).

"Drawing Inferences From Very Large Data-Sets,"   by David Giles, Econometrics Beat:  Dave Giles� Blog, University of Victoria, April 26, 2013 ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.ca/2011/04/drawing-inferences-from-very-large-data.html

. . .

Granger (1998; 2003has reminded us that if the sample size is sufficiently large, then it's virtually impossible not to reject almost any hypothesis. So, if the sample is very large and the p-values associated with the estimated coefficients in a regression model are of the order of, say, 0.10 or even 0.05, then this really bad news. Much, much, smaller p-values are needed before we get all excited about 'statistically significant' results when the sample size is in the thousands, or even bigger. So, the p-values reported above are mostly pretty marginal, as far as significance is concerned. When you work out the p-values for the other 6 models I mentioned, they range from  to 0.005 to 0.460. I've been generous in the models I selected.

Here's another set of  results taken from a second, really nice, paper by
Ciecieriski et al. (2011) in the same issue of Health Economics:

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
My research suggest that over 90% of the recent papers published in The Accounting Review use purchased databases that provide enormous sample sizes in those papers. Their accountics science authors keep reporting those meaningless levels of statistical significance.

What is even worse is when meaningless statistical significance tests are used to support decisions.

"Statistical Significance - Again " by David Giles, Econometrics Beat:  Dave Giles� Blog, University of Victoria, December 28, 2013 ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2013/12/statistical-significance-again.html

Statistical Significance - Again

 
With all of this emphasis on "Big Data", I was pleased to see this post on the Big Data Econometrics blog, today.

 
When you have a sample that runs to the thousands (billions?), the conventional significance levels of 10%, 5%, 1% are completely inappropriate. You need to be thinking in terms of tiny significance levels.

 
I discussed this in some detail back in April of 2011, in a post titled, "Drawing Inferences From Very Large Data-Sets". If you're of those (many) applied researchers who uses large cross-sections of data, and then sprinkles the results tables with asterisks to signal "significance" at the 5%, 10% levels, etc., then I urge you read that earlier post.

 
It's sad to encounter so many papers and seminar presentations in which the results, in reality, are totally insignificant!

 

How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives, by Stephen T. Ziliak and Deirdre N. McCloskey (Ann Arbor:  University of Michigan Press, ISBN-13: 978-472-05007-9, 2007)
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm

Page 206
Like scientists today in medical and economic and other sizeless sciences, Pearson mistook a large sample size for the definite, substantive significance---evidence s Hayek put it, of "wholes." But it was as Hayek said "just an illusion." Pearson's columns of sparkling asterisks, though quantitative in appearance and as appealing a is the simple truth of the sky, signified nothing.

 

pp. 250-251
The textbooks are wrong. The teaching is wrong. The seminar you just attended is wrong. The most prestigious journal in your scientific field is wrong.

You are searching, we know, for ways to avoid being wrong. Science, as Jeffreys said, is mainly a series of approximations to discovering the sources of error. Science is a systematic way of reducing wrongs or can be. Perhaps you feel frustrated by the random epistemology of the mainstream and don't know what to do. Perhaps you've been sedated by significance and lulled into silence. Perhaps you sense that the power of a Roghamsted test against a plausible Dublin alternative is statistically speaking low but you feel oppressed by the instrumental variable one should dare not to wield. Perhaps you feel frazzled by what Morris Altman (2004) called the "social psychology rhetoric of fear," the deeply embedded path dependency that keeps the abuse of significance in circulation. You want to come out of it. But perhaps you are cowed by the prestige of Fisherian dogma. Or, worse thought, perhaps you are cynically willing to be corrupted if it will keep a nice job

 

Bob Jensen's threads on the often way analysts, particularly accountics scientists, often cheer for statistical significance of large sample outcomes that praise statistical significance of insignificant results such as R2 values of .0001 ---
The Cult of Statistical Significance: How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm

Those of you interested in tracking The Accounting Review's  trends in submissions, refereeing, and acceptances'rejections should be interested in current senior editor Mark L. DeFond's annual report at
http://aaajournals.org/doi/full/10.2308/accr-10477
This has become a huge process involving 18 editors and hundreds of referees. TAR is still the leading accountics science journal of the American Accounting Association. However, there are so many new specialty journals readers are apt to find quality research in other AAA journals. TAR seemingly still does not publish commentaries and articles without equations and has not yet caught on the the intitiatives of the Pathways Commission for more diversification in research in the leading AAA research journal. Virtually all TAR editors still worship p-values in empirical submissions.

"Not Even Scientists Can Easily Explain P-values," by Christie Aschwanden, Nate Silver's 5:38 Blog, November 30, 2015 ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/not-even-scientists-can-easily-explain-p-values/

P-values have taken quite a beating lately. These widely used and commonly misapplied statistics have been blamed for giving a veneer of legitimacy to dodgy study results, encouraging bad research practices and promoting false-positive study results.

But after writing about p-values again and again, and recently issuing a correction on a nearly year-old story over some erroneous information regarding a study’s p-value (which I’d taken from the scientists themselves and their report), I’ve come to think that the most fundamental problem with p-values is that no one can really say what they are.

Last week, I attended the inaugural METRICS conference at Stanford, which brought together some of the world’s leading experts on meta-science, or the study of studies. I figured that if anyone could explain p-values in plain English, these folks could. I was wrong.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Why all the fuss? Accountics scientists have a perfectly logical explanation. P-values are numbers that are pumped out of statistical analysis software (mostly multiple regression software) that accounting research journal editors think indicate the degree of causality or at least suggest the degree of causality to readers. But the joke is on the editors, because there aren't any readers.

November 30, 2015 reply from David Johnstone

Dear Bob, thankyou for this interesting stuff.

 

A big part of the acceptance of P-values is that they easily give the look of something having been found. So it’s an agency problem, where the researchers do what makes their research outcomes easier and better looking.

 

There is a lot more to it of course. I note with young staff that they face enough hurdles in the need to get papers written and published without thinking that the very techniques that they are trying to emulate might be flawed. Rightfully, they say, “it’s not my job to question everything that I have been shown and to get nowhere as a result”, nor can most believe that something so established and revered can be wrong, that is just too unthinkable and depressing. So the bandwagon goes on, and, as Bob says, no one cares outside as no one much reads it.

 

I do however get annoyed every time I hear decision makers carry on about “evidence based” policy, as if no one can have a clue or form a vision or strategy without first having the backing of some junk science by a sociologist or educationist or accounting researcher who was just twisting the world whichever way to get significant p-values and a good “story”. This kind of cargo-culting, which is everywhere, does great harm to good or sincere science, as it makes it hard for an outsider to tell the difference.

 

One thing that does not get much of a hearing is that the statisticians themselves must take a lot of blame. They had the chance to vote off P values decades ago when they had to choose between frequentist and Bayesian logic. They split into two camps with the frequentists in the great majority but holding the weakest ground intellectually. The numbers are moving now, as people that were not born when de Finetti, Savage, Lindley, Kadane and others first said that p-values were ill-conceived logically. Accounting, of course, being largely ignorant of there being any issue, and ultimately just political, will not be leading the battle of ideas.

January 28, 2016 reply from Paul Williams

Bob,

Thank you for this. In accounting the problem is even worse because at least in other fields it is plausible that one can have "scientific" concepts and categories. Archival research in accounting can only deal with interpretive concepts and the "scientific" categories are often constructed for the one study in question. We make a lot of s... up so that the results are consistent with the narrative (always a neoclassical economic one) that informs the study. Measurement? Doesn't exist. How can one seriously believe they are engaged in scientific research when their "measurements" are the result of GAAP? Abe Briloff described our most prestigious research (which Greg Waymire claimed in his AAA presidential white paper "...threatens the discipline with extinction."). as simply "low level financial statement analysis." Any research activity that is reduced to a template (in JAE the table numbers are nearly the same from paper to paper) you know you are in trouble. What is the scientific value of 50 control variables, two focus independent variables (correlated with the controls), and one dependent variable that is always different from study to study? This one variable at a time approach can go on into infinity with the only result being a huge pile of anecdotes that no one can organize into any coherent explanation of what is going on. As you have so eloquently and relentlessly pointed out accountants never replicate anything. In archival research it is not even possible to replicate since the researcher is unable to provide (like any good scientist in physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) a log book providing the detailed recipe it would take to actually replicate what the researcher has done. Without the ability to independently replicate the exact study, the status of that study is merely an anecdote. Given the Hunton affair, perhaps we should not be so sanguine about trusting our colleagues. This is particularly so since the leading U.S. journals have a clear ideological bias -- if your results aren't consistent with the received wisdom they won't be published.

Paul

 

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

"A Scrapbook on What’s Wrong with the Past, Present a nd Future of Accountics Science," by Bob Jensen, Working Paper 450.06, Date Fluid ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsWorkingPaper450.06.pdf

The purpose of this paper is to make a case that the accountics science monopoly of our doctoral programs and publish ed research is seriously flawed, especially its lack of concern about replication and focus on simplified arti ficial worlds that differ too much from reality to creatively discover findings of greater relevance to teachers of accounting and practitioners of accounting. Accountics scientists themselves became a Cargo Cult.

Gaming for Tenure as an Accounting Professor ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTenure.htm
(with a reply about tenure publication point systems from Linda Kidwell)


Free and Still-Relevant Econometrics Books ---
|http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2016/01/legally-free-books.html

There are several Econometrics books, and comprehensive sets of lecture notes, that can be accessed for free. These include a number of excellent books by world-class econometricians.

Here a few that will get you started:

 
Thanks to Donsker Class for supplying several of these links.

If you know of others I'd love to hear about them.

From Econometrics Beat Blog by David Giles on August 11, 2014 ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-trio-of-texts.html

A Trio of Texts refers to three, free, econometrics e-texts made available by Francis Diebold, at U. Penn. Francis blogs at No Hesitations.
 
The three books on question are 
Accompanying slides, data, and code are also available, and the material is updated regularly.
 
The material is of an extremely high quality, and I strongly recommend all three books.

Bob Jensen's neglected threads on free textbooks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

Tens of millions of free books in general ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Free books from Amazon ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#AmazonFree

Free learning materials in a wide range of academic disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm


Lynda.com charges users between $250 to $375 a year to access content hosted on the platform ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynda_Weinman#Lynda.com

"Lynda.com Announces $186 Million Investment," Inside Higher Ed,  January 15, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/01/15/lyndacom-announces-186-million-investment

The online learning platform Lynda.com has set an early tone for the ed-tech venture capital and equity market in 2015 with a $186 million investment. The private equity company TPG Capital led the investment, while firms Accel Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and Spectrum Equity -- as well as some of Lynda.com's earlier investors -- also participated. Lynda.com charges users between $250 to $375 a year to access content hosted on the platform, and will use the investment for acquisitions and growth, the company said in a press release.

Lynda.com has became a huge learning site with over 500 instructors --- http://www.lynda.com/

Jensen Comment
Because of the high price for each student (in addition to textbook prices) I would look first to see if there are good free tutorials for what you need such as in the tens of thousands of tutorials in hundreds of learning channels now on YouTube, the thousands of free tutorials at the Khan Academy, and the hundreds of thousands of free learning tutorials linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

Open Campus is a large provider of learning certificates. This site also has a substantial amount of free learning resources ---
http://www.greycampus.com/opencampus

Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm


The Law School (Low Enrollment) Crisis Is Spreading ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/01/the-law-school-crisis-is-spreading.html


Donations to U. of Missouri Fall After Football Team Boycott ---
https://philanthropy.com/article/Donations-to-U-of-Missouri/235394?elqTrackId=50e87ae576df41168ddd47148bd74a5e&elq=42ab4b946f4840ee8870f9dc3c08c84c&elqaid=8001&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2506


This $14-billion (French) machine is set to usher in a new era of nuclear fusion power ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-the-iter-nuclear-fusion-plant-and-why-is-it-important-2016-2

Scientists in Germany today switched on a new kind of nuclear reactor, the latest experiment in the quest to produce clean, sustainable power from controlled nuclear fusion ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600712/experimental-fusion-reactor-switched-on-in-germany/#/set/id/600713/
Jensen Comment
Ir will give me great joy the day fusion power renders bird-killing wind power turbinesobsolete.

MIT:  Ten Breakthrough Technologies 2016 ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/technologies/2016/#/set/id/600869/

MIT:  Current Recommended Reads on Robotics and AI ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545501/recommended-reads-on-the-robot-and-ai-beat-this-week/

MIT:  Seven Must-Read Stories (Week ending January 23, 2016) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/545751/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-january-23-2016/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-robotics&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20160127

MIT: 

MIT: 
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/546101/recommended-from-around-the-web-week-ending-january-30-2016/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20160129

MIT: 
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/546106/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-january-30-2016/

MIT: 
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600728/the-best-of-the-web-this-week/


"Chess is Too Easy:  Forget about Big Blue vs. Kasparov–the best test of artificial intelligence is to ask a computer to write a story. Meet Brutus.1, a software agent that creates short tales of betrayal,self-deception, and evil worthy of a human creator," by Selmer Brinsjord, MIT's Technology Review, March 1, 1998 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/400154/chess-is-too-easy/


Madness and Genius: Cosmologist Janna Levin on the Vitalizing Power of Obsessiveness, from Newton to Einstein ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/01/janna-levin-how-the-universe-got-its-spots-madness/?mc_cid=f64ee7b86f&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Jensen Comment
I have two brilliant mathematician friends who were undoubtedly both obsessed the challenges of making discoveries in their specialties, obsessions that in some ways drove them "mad." One who had two young children and a beautiful wife became mad literally. He became so angry with some of his colleagues, students, and nearly everything in life that his superiors said he must get professional counseling for his anger or lose his tenure. He later left his post at our university. His senior colleague with a successful textbook retired with emeritus honors but took on strange behavior later in retirement. One time his wife of many years stopped over with her dog in our cottage in New Hampshire. She said that her husband's behavior had become so abnormal and angered that she was leaving him and was headed alone for Canada. The court actually had a restraining order for them to stop seeing each other. Later they somehow reconciled due mostly to the efforts of their adult children who kept me on the telephone a lot when she was visiting us in our cottage.


The Scholarly Kitchen (for academic publishing) --- http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/


"The Language Barrier Is About to Fall: Within 10 years, earpieces will whisper nearly simultaneous translations—and help knit the world closer together," by Alec Ross, The Wall Street Journal, January 29, 2016 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-language-barrier-is-about-to-fall-1454077968

Today’s translation tools were developed by computing more than a billion translations a day for over 200 million people. With the exponential growth in data, that number of translations will soon be made in an afternoon, then in an hour. The machines will grow exponentially more accurate and be able to parse the smallest detail. Whenever the machine translations get it wrong, users can flag the error—and that data, too, will be incorporated into future attempts.It is just a matter of more data, more computing power and better software. These will come with the passage of time and will fill in the communication gaps in areas including pronunciation and interpreting a spoken response.

The most interesting innovations will come with the hardware development for the human interface. In 10 years, a small earpiece will whisper what is being said to you in your native language nearly simultaneously as a foreign language is being spoken. The lag time will be the speed of sound.

Nor will the voice in your ear be a computer voice, a la Siri. Because of advances in bioacoustic engineering measuring the frequency, wavelength, sound intensity and other properties of the voice, the software in the cloud connected to the earpiece in your ear will re-create the voice of the speaker, but speaking your native language. When you respond, your language will be translated into the language of your counterpart, either through his or her own earpiece or amplified by a speaker on your phone, watch or whatever the personal device of 2025 is.

Today’s translation tools also tend to move only between two languages. Try to engage in any sort of machine translation exercise involving three languages, and it is an incoherent mess. In the future, the number of languages being spoken won’t matter. You could host a dinner party with eight people at the table speaking eight different languages, and the voice in your ear will always be whispering the one language you want to hear.

The research and commercialization for these breakthroughs are coming from the intersection of the private sector and the defense and intelligence communities. Siri has its roots in a DARPA-funded artificial-intelligence project. Its speech-recognition engine was developed by Nuance Communications, which quietly provides speech software to 70% of the Fortune 100 and spends more than $300 million a year on research and development in voice biometrics.

The U.S. National Security Agency and the Israeli National Sigint Unit massively invest in basic research in voice biometrics and translation, spurred on in no small measure by how encryption is making digital communications more difficult to analyze. Much of the intelligence-community research goes into accounting for the local dialects, inflections and nuance that professional translators say make it too complex to be sorted algorithmically. As Israelis involved in this work conclude their full-time military service and as U.S. government employees in Maryland and Virginia answer the call of private-sector salaries, these innovations will cross over into the public domain.

Universal machine translation should accelerate the world’s growing interconnectedness. While the current stage of globalization was propelled in no small part by the adoption of English as the lingua franca for business—to the point that there are now twice as many nonnative English speakers as native speakers—the next wave will open up communication even more broadly by removing the need for a shared language. Currently, when Korean-speaking businesspeople speak with Mandarin-speaking executives at a conference in Brazil, they converse in English. There will no longer be this need, opening the door of global business for nonelites and a massive number of non-English speakers.

Nor will these be the only language barriers brought down by the new technology. Machines will also reduce the social isolation of tens of millions of people around the world who have severe hearing and speech impairments. While I was traveling recently in Ukraine, a group of engineering students showed me a shiny black-and-blue robot glove called Enable Talk that uses flex sensors in the fingers to recognize sign language and to translate it to text on a smartphone via Bluetooth. The text is then converted to speech, allowing the deaf and mute person to “speak” and be heard in real time. Before long, the language spoken could be one of dozens chosen from a drop-down menu on the phone.

The economic benefits of this new technology should be obvious. Machine translation will take markets that are now viewed as being too difficult to navigate and open them up. Consider a place like Indonesia. There are plenty of English, Mandarin and French speakers in Jakarta and Bali, but very few of them on most of the other 6,000 inhabited islands. If one doesn’t need to be fluent in Javanese (or any of the 700 other languages spoken in Indonesia) to do business in those other provinces, then they are immediately more accessible and outside capital is in turn more accessible to them.

Continued in article


"Winners and Losers in Shifting Grad Education," by Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Education, February 23, 2016 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/23/purdue-increasing-graduate-student-stipends-it-cuts-graduate-enrollment?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=de86d60543-DNU20160223&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-de86d60543-197565045

Purdue is cutting grad enrollments to boost pay of those it enrolls -- and is pushing professors to teach more intro courses. Will the approach provide focus? Or is it another attack on English that could leave undergrads without enough instructors?

Pay for graduate teaching assistants in the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University is among the lowest in the Big Ten -- a little less than $14,000 a year, before taxes. So the college’s recent announcement that it’s raising graduate pay to $15,000 or more next year was good news -- to some. Others say that while they applaud the college’s attention to an important issue, the modest pay bump doesn’t begin to make up for what Purdue is proposing in exchange: namely, a redistribution of college resources that includes major cuts to some of the largest graduate programs, and future cuts to overall graduate student enrollment.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The same thing happened in accounting Ph.D. programs in the 1980s, but accountancy is not at all like English when it comes to doctoral programs. Accounting Ph.D. graduates have always been in short supply whereas English Ph.D. graduates have been in oversupply relative to tenure track jobs for as long as I can remember.

"Exploring Accounting Doctoral Program Decline:  Variation and the Search for Antecedents," by Timothy J. Fogarty and Anthony D. Holder, Issues in Accounting Education, May 2012 ---
Not yet posted on June 18, 2012

ABSTRACT
The inadequate supply of new terminally qualified accounting faculty poses a great concern for many accounting faculty and administrators. Although the general downward trajectory has been well observed, more specific information would offer potential insights about causes and continuation. This paper examines change in accounting doctoral student production in the U.S. since 1989 through the use of five-year moving verges. Aggregated on this basis, the downward movement predominates, notwithstanding the schools that began new programs or increased doctoral student production during this time. The results show that larger declines occurred for middle prestige schools, for larger universities, and for public schools. Schools that periodically successfully compete in M.B.A.. program rankings also more likely have diminished in size. of their accounting Ph.D. programs. Despite a recent increase in graduations, data on the population of current doctoral students suggest the continuation of the problems associated with the supply and demand imbalance that exists in this sector of the U.S. academy

This shortage has made new accounting Ph.D. graduates among the highest paid in new hires in top research universities in North America. But the result is that most business schools have shortages of accounting Ph.D.s and have had to supplement teaching staff with adjuncts and in the case of tax accounting lawyers are put in tenure track positions. Whereas Purdue will struggle for graduate assistants in the English Department Purdue will struggle with having more adjuncts in the business school, especially in accounting. Some universities like the University of Houston now has over a dozen "clinical" accounting faculty but an adjunct by any other name is still an adjunct.

Bob Jensen's threads on the sad state of North American accounting doctoral programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms


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

Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990

"Harvard Accessibility Lawsuit Moves Forward," Inside Higher Education, February 23, 2016  ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/02/23/harvard-accessibility-lawsuit-moves-forward?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=de86d60543-DNU20160223&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-de86d60543-197565045

"Harvard and MIT Are Sued Over Closed Captioning for Online Materials," by Andy Thomason, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 12, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/harvard-and-mit-are-sued-over-closed-captioning-for-online-materials?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

A new lawsuit accuses Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of failing to provide closed captioning in online teaching materials, in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws, The New York Times reports. The lawsuits were filed by the National Association of the Deaf, and seek an injunction requiring that closed captioning be provided for all online materials.

Both colleges provide extensive educational resources free online, including through their membership in edX, which offers dozens of MOOCs to students around the world.

Advocates for the deaf on Thursday filed a federal class action against Harvard and M.I.T., saying both universities violate antidiscrimination laws by failing to provide closed captioning in their online lectures, courses, podcasts and other educational materials.

Bob Jensen's links to free learning materials, videos, tutorials, and complete courses provided free ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

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

Bob Jensen's threads on technology aids for handicapped learners including the hearing impaired ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped


The Price of Campbell's Tomato Soup Since 1897 ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/01/28/updated-the-price-of-campbells-tomato-soup-since-1897-n2110891?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl


15 Most Corrupt Nations in the World ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/01/27/the-most-corrupt-countries-in-the-world-3/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=JAN282016A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter

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


"The World’s Favorite New Tax Haven Is the United States:  Moving money out of the usual offshore secrecy havens and into the U.S. is a brisk new business," Jesse Drucker, Bloomberg, January 27, 2016 ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-27/the-world-s-favorite-new-tax-haven-is-the-united-states

Last September, at a law firm overlooking San Francisco Bay, Andrew Penney, a managing director at Rothschild & Co., gave a talk on how the world’s wealthy elite can avoid paying taxes.

His message was clear: You can help your clients move their fortunes to the United States, free of taxes and hidden from their governments.

Some are calling it the new Switzerland.

After years of lambasting other countries for helping rich Americans hide their money offshore, the U.S. is emerging as a leading tax and secrecy haven for rich foreigners. By resisting new global disclosure standards, the U.S. is creating a hot new market, becoming the go-to place to stash foreign wealth. Everyone from London lawyers to Swiss trust companies is getting in on the act, helping the world’s rich move accounts from places like the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands to Nevada, Wyoming, and South Dakota.

“How ironic—no, how perverse—that the USA, which has been so sanctimonious in its condemnation of Swiss banks, has become the banking secrecy jurisdiction du jour,” wrote Peter A. Cotorceanu, a lawyer at Anaford AG, a Zurich law firm, in a recent legal journal. “That ‘giant sucking sound’ you hear? It is the sound of money rushing to the USA.”

Rothschild, the centuries-old European financial institution, has opened a trust company in Reno, Nev., a few blocks from the Harrah’s and Eldorado casinos. It is now moving the fortunes of wealthy foreign clients out of offshore havens such as Bermuda, subject to the new international disclosure requirements, and into Rothschild-run trusts in Nevada, which are exempt.

The U.S. “is effectively the biggest tax haven in the world” —Andrew Penney, Rothschild & Co.

The firm says its Reno operation caters to international families attracted to the stability of the U.S. and that customers must prove they comply with their home countries’ tax laws. Its trusts, moreover, have “not been set up with a view to exploiting that the U.S. has not signed up” for international reporting standards, said Rothschild spokeswoman Emma Rees.

Others are also jumping in: Geneva-based Cisa Trust Co. SA, which advises wealthy Latin Americans, is applying to open in Pierre, S.D., to “serve the needs of our foreign clients,” said John J. Ryan Jr., Cisa’s president.

Trident Trust Co., one of the world’s biggest providers of offshore trusts, moved dozens of accounts out of Switzerland, Grand Cayman, and other locales and into Sioux Falls, S.D., in December, ahead of a Jan. 1 disclosure deadline.

“Cayman was slammed in December, closing things that people were withdrawing,” said Alice Rokahr, the president of Trident in South Dakota, one of several states promoting low taxes and confidentiality in their trust laws. “I was surprised at how many were coming across that were formerly Swiss bank accounts, but they want out of Switzerland.” Why the Wealthy Are Moving Their Money Into the U.S.

Rokahr and other advisers said there is a legitimate need for secrecy. Confidential accounts that hide wealth, whether in the U.S., Switzerland, or elsewhere, protect against kidnappings or extortion in their owners’ home countries. The rich also often feel safer parking their money in the U.S. rather than some other location perceived as less-sure.

“I do not hear anybody saying, ‘I want to avoid taxes,’ ” Rokahr said. “These are people who are legitimately concerned with their own health and welfare.”

Continued in article

Jellum: Why The Treasury's (Tax Shelter) Anti-Abuse Regulation Is Unconstitutional ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/01/jellumwhy-the-treasurys-anti-abuse-regulation-is-unconstitutional.html

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


"FTC Sues DeVry Education, Alleging Deceptive Ads Agency says for-profit school overstated employment-success record, " by Josh Mitchell and Brent Kendall, The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2016 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ftc-files-deceptive-advertising-lawsuit-against-devry-1453916905

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


Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets ---
http://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/
Thank you Scott Bonacker for the heads up.


Wounded Warrior Project reportedly accused of wasting donor money (for the brass and fund raisers in luxury hotels, boozing parties, low payout percentage to victims, and you know the rest) ---
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/01/26/wounded-warrior-project-reportedly-accused-wasting-donor-money.html
Jensen Comment
I saw this on CBS News and wanted to throw up.

Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm


From the CPA News on February 1, 2016

Financial literacy education varies widely among states
The number of states requiring high-school students to take economics has decreased since 2014, down to 20 from 22, according to a survey by the Council for Economic Education. Seventeen states -- the same number as in 2014 -- require courses in personal finance. Overall, the survey shows financial-education standards vary widely among states. Visit the AICPA's financial literacy website for educational resources. CNBC (1/28) ---
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/28/us-schools-get-failing-grade-for-financial-literacy-education.html

Bob Jensen's threads on financial literacy ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers


 

"CalPERS is underfunded and unrealistic. Can it save itself?" by Ed Ring, LA Times, January 28, 2016 ---
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0128-ring-calpers-pension-reform-20160128-story.html

. . .

Two state laws are to blame for the system's financial struggles. Proposition 21, passed in 1984, allowed CalPERS fund managers to move its investments from safe and predictable bonds to risky and volatile stocks and hedge funds to try to generate a higher return. SB 400, passed in 1999, increased pension payouts by 50% for California Highway Patrol employees, a move quickly replicated at other state agencies and local governments.

In the midst of a bull market such as the late '90s tech bubble, perhaps that seemed fine. But it was irresponsible. At the top of a market cycle, a healthy pension system should be overfunded — and then should hold onto the excess to ride out bear markets. CalPERS didn't do that, and so market corrections suddenly become an existential threat.

CalPERS actuaries rely on earning a 7.5% annual return on investment to meet the current and future pension obligations to 1.8 million participants. But current stock market conditions make achieving that goal much harder — if not impossible — over the next several years. And that will leave taxpayers on the hook for billions.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
CalPERS is a victim of the Fed's zero-interest policy that destroyed the ability to earn a return on safe investments. The only way to earn a return is to take on financial risk.


Nearly half of Chicago's young black men are out of work, out of school ---
http://www.chicagonow.com/city-limits/2016/01/out-of-school-out-of-work-young-chicagos-jobs-crisis-hits-blacks-latinos-hardest/

Education Begins or Ends at Home

"Education Insanity," by Walter E. Williams, Townhall, January 27, 2016 ---
http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2016/01/27/education-insanity-n2109661?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Some credit Albert Einstein, others credit Benjamin Franklin, with the observation that "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing year after year and expecting different results." Whomever we credit, he was absolutely right. A perfect example of that insanity is education in general and particularly black education.

Education Next has recently published a series commemorating the 50th anniversary of James S. Coleman's groundbreaking 1965 report, "Equality of Educational Opportunity," popularly referred to as the "Coleman Report." In 1965, the average black 12th grader placed at the 13th percentile of the score distribution for whites in math and reading. That means 87 percent of white 12th graders scored higher than the average black 12th graders. Fifty years later there has been a slight narrowing of the math gap leaving the average black 12th-grade student at the 19th percentile of the white distribution; 81 percent of white 12th-grade students score higher. The black-white reading gap has narrowed such that the average black 12th-grader scores at the 22nd percentile of the white distribution, meaning 78 percent of white 12th-graders score higher.

Eric A. Hanushek is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His Education Next contribution is "What Matters for Student Achievement: Updating Coleman on the Influence of Families and Schools." Hanushek concludes, "After nearly a half century of supposed progress in race relations within the United States, the modest improvements in achievement gaps since 1965 can only be called a national embarrassment. Put differently, if we continue to close gaps at the same rate in the future, it will be roughly two and a half centuries before the black-white math gap closes and over one and a half centuries until the reading gap closes." I would like to know what American, particularly a black American, can be pleased with that kind of progress and the future it holds for black people.

. . .

The most crucial input for a child's education cannot be provided by schools, politicians and government. As such, continued calls for more school resources will produce disappointing results as they have in the past. There are certain minimum requirements that must be met for any child to do well in school. Someone must make the youngster do his homework, ensure that he gets eight to nine hours of sleep, feed him breakfast and make sure that he behaves in school and respects the teachers. If these minimum requirements are not met, and by the way they can be met even if a family is poor, all else is for naught.

What the education establishment can do is to prevent youngsters who are alien and hostile to the educational process from making education impossible for those who are equipped to learn. That is accomplished by removing students who pose disciplinary problems, but the Barack Obama administration is even restricting a school's power to do that. You might ask, "Williams, what are we going to do with those expelled students?" I do not know, but I do know one thing: Black people cannot afford to allow them to sabotage the education chances of everyone else.

Continued in article

 


"Pushback for Anti-Israel Academics: The American Historical Association recognized that its own credibility was on the line in a recent vote," by Cary Nelson, The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2016 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pushback-for-anti-israel-academics-1454022222?mod=djemMER

At their annual meeting in Atlanta earlier this month, members of the American Historical Association voted down a factually flawed resolution condemning Israel. It was a victory that may also point the way for academic fields in the humanities to regain their lost credibility and stature on campus.

The AHA consists of faculty and graduate students who teach and study history throughout the country. Up for debate and a vote at the January meeting was a resolution condemning Israel for its conduct affecting higher education in Gaza, Israel itself, and the West Bank. For instance, the resolution claimed that Israel refuses “to allow students from Gaza to travel in order to pursue higher education abroad.”

Opponents marshaled evidence to prove this was untrue. Egypt, not Israel, controls the “Rafah crossing” that Gaza students and faculty heading toward universities abroad have used for decades. Unlike the benighted English-department faculty members from Columbia and Wesleyan universities who proposed a similar resolution two years ago, AHA historians were interested in facts. They likely knew that after Egypt closed the Rafah crossing in October 2014, Israel increased the flow of students leaving Gaza through the Erez crossing into Israel to the north, and on to Jordan for flights abroad.

But Jordan, which once issued transit visas in 10 days, now takes several months or longer because of increased security concerns about students from Gaza. The Palestinian Authority doesn’t pass on requests for permits to Israel without the visa from Jordan. Fellowships and other opportunities expire as a result.

The resolution also condemned Israel for an air attack on the Islamic University of Gaza during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. But it failed to mention that the campus housed a weapons development and testing facility, a valid target under the laws of war.

All this was too much nuance and complication for Historians Against War, the group proposing the resolution. Yet an academic discipline that is supposedly a forum for disinterested scholarship and open debate was at risk of abandoning its traditions and intellectual integrity. In the end a strong majority of historians didn’t want to see their field turned into a propaganda machine (although a similar resolution is sure to return eventually).

Less was at stake for some academic organizations—such as the National Women’s Studies Association—that have endorsed anti-Israel resolutions. Born of political movements and forged with political agendas, they sacrificed little in terms of disinterested scholarship.

But history is one of the venerable humanities fields, and its loss to ideological politics would have wide and deeper implications. The humanities have been slowly defunded over decades. If the key humanities and interpretive social-science fields—from literature and languages to history and anthropology—become centers of anti-Israel indoctrination, they will not only be economically marginal; they will be discredited. Will parents, state legislators and, most important, universities feel any reason to replenish humanities resources?

On April 15, the 10,000-member American Anthropological Association will begin voting on an anti-Israel resolution endorsed at its annual meeting in November. While that meeting was dominated by zealots, the April vote may focus instead on hard evidence and on the damage the resolution would do to anthropology as a field. A battle over whether to boycott Israeli universities also will unfold this year in the 25,000-member Modern Language Association representing English and foreign-language faculty and graduate students.

Continued in article


With NFL Rams gone, St. Louis still stuck with stadium debt ---
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sports-nfl-stadiums-insight-idUSKCN0VC0EP

 




From the Scout Report on January 29, 2016

Jing --- https://www.techsmith.com/jing.html 

Jing, a free screen capture app, is the next generation in screen shot software. Not only is it tremendously easy to use and creates excellent screen shots, it also offers extra capabilities that other similar apps can't. For instance, Jing captures video. So if readers want to record a YouTube or Vimeo clip that is playing on their desktop, they can adjust the X and Y axes to include, capture for the amount of time they desire, and then save to their computer or share to social media. Users may also use Jing to capture exactly what is happening on their own monitor. This feature easily lets users build tutorials or show friends simple shots from their desktops. After signing up for a free account, Windows and Mac downloads are available from the site.
Jensen Note: 
For a relatively low price SnagIT is a somewhat better screen capture (video and image) alternative from Techsmith.
For a considerably higher price Camasia is a more extensive computer screen video capture alternative from Techsmith.


LiveBinders --- http://www.livebinders.com/ 

For educators and others looking for new ways to organize their digital resources, LiveBinders offers a free and savvy way to create portfolios, share class materials with students, and find educational resources for both students and teachers. Each created binder receives its own title, description, and tag, as well as an access key (for when users share the binder with others). Users may then gather resources like websites, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, Excel files, and others into their binders. Binders can also be placed on shelves, making organization streamlined and effective. Readers will likely benefit from watching the short introductory video that displays after creating the first binder. For further questions, the Help function can be very informative.


New Math Study Reveals the Probable Life Span of Conspiracy Theories
Maths study shows conspiracies 'prone to unravelling'
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35411684

On the Viability of Conspiratorial Beliefs
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147905

Enough Lying: New Photos of the Moon Landing
https://birdinflight.com/world/enough-lying-new-photos-of-the-moon-landing.html

Conspiracy Theories Hamper the Fight Against Climate Change
http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/conspiracy-theories-hamper-fight-against-climate-change

TIME looks at 10 of the world's most enduring conspiracy theories
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1860871,00.html

The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
http://conspiracypsychology.com


From the Scout Report on February 5, 2015

Popplet --- http://popplet.com/ 

Popplet bills itself as a tool for organizing ideas. The app, designed for both iPads and Web use, has been shaped for school and for work, though there is little significant difference between the two products. Put simply, Popplet allows users to make and connect text boxes (popples). The process is simple. Users double click to make a new popple. They may then type a word or short phrase into the popple, change the popple's color, manage font size, draw inside a popple, add an image to a popple, resize a popple, drag and drop a popple, and move the entire popple board to preferred locations on the screen. Each of these actions is accomplished with intuitive, point-and-click functions. Users must sign up for an account to use the app, but this process can be done within minutes. For educators and office workers looking for ways to present networks of ideas, Popplet can be a useful tool.


Diigo --- https://www.diigo.com/ 

Diigo is much, much more than just another bookmark app. Short for "Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff," this browser extension is a great way to collect, annotate, organize, and share web content. Available for Chrome, IE, and Firefox, users will need to create an account to get started. From there, Diigo may be used to bookmark a page (using the Save option), take a screenshot, highlight certain parts of the page that are of interest, add sticky notes, and even share with friends - all from a user friendly interface. With its functions as a bookmark app, an annotation app, and a new kind of social media, many readers will find Diigo to be a favorite new tool for web research.


Remembering the Challenger Tragedy, 30 Years Later
The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster, 30 Years Later
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/29/science/space/challenger-explosion-30-year-anniversary.html?_r=0

30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/28/464744781/30-years-after-disaster-challenger-engineer-still-blames-himself

30 years ago, NASA lost 7 astronauts in the Challenger explosion. Here's
how it moved forward.
http://qz.com/604712/30-years-ago-nasa-lost-7-astronauts-in-the-challenger-explosion-heres-how-it-moved-forward/

A Brief History of Space Exploration
http://www.aerospace.org/education/stem-outreach/space-primer/a-brief-history-of-space-exploration/

Archives Library Information Center: Space Exploration
http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/space-timeline.html

NASA: Human Space Flight
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html
 


Free Online Tutorials, Videos, Course Materials, and Learning Centers


Education Tutorials

Library of Congress: Themed Resources --- http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/

TeenDrive365: Educators (Toyota's site for teaching teens to drive safely) --- http://www.teendrive365inschool.com/educators

EU Lesson Plans and Teaching Material
http://www.euintheus.org/resources-learning/academic-resources/eu-lesson-plans-and-teaching-material/

Transformative Teachers ---  http://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/transformative-teachers/

Community College Daily --- http://www.ccdaily.com/

On Teaching and Learning Mathematics --- http://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/

Youngzine --- http://www.youngzine.org/

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

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

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

 


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

Scientists in Germany today switched on a new kind of nuclear reactor, the latest experiment in the quest to produce clean, sustainable power from controlled nuclear fusion ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600712/experimental-fusion-reactor-switched-on-in-germany/#/set/id/600713/
Jensen Comment
Ir will give me great joy the day fusion power renders wind power turbines obsolete.

Stephen Hawking’s Lectures on Black Holes Now Fully Animated with Chalkboard Illustrations ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/stephen-hawkings-lectures-on-black-holes-now-fully-animated-with-chalkboard-illustrations.html

Wired: Science Blogs --- http://www.wired.com/category/science/science-blogs/

Biotechnology Teachers Resources Online --- http://www.ncbiotech.org/educational-resources

Biodiversity in Focus --- http://www.biodiversityinfocus.com/blog/

BBC Future: Neurohacks (neuroscience and psychology of everyday life) --- http://www.bbc.com/future/columns/neurohacks

Headspace Daily (meditation guide) --- https://www.headspace.com/blog

Journal of Applied Fluid Mechanics --- https://doaj.org/toc/1735-3645

Residential Architect --- http://www.residentialarchitect.com/

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

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


Social Science and Economics Tutorials

NAMI: Infographics & Fact Sheets (mental illness) --- https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Fact-Sheet-Library

Mindfulness --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness
Psychology Today: Mindfulness --- https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/mindfulness

Madness and Genius: Cosmologist Janna Levin on the Vitalizing Power of Obsessiveness, from Newton to Einstein ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/01/janna-levin-how-the-universe-got-its-spots-madness/?mc_cid=f64ee7b86f&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Wired: Science Blogs --- http://www.wired.com/category/science/science-blogs/

Transformative Teachers ---  http://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/transformative-teachers/

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

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy --- http://plato.stanford.edu/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ludwig Wittgenstein --- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein

PhilSci-Archive (philosophy of science history) ---  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/

105 Animated Philosophy Videos from Wireless Philosophy: A Project Sponsored by Yale, MIT, Duke & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/105-animated-philosophy-videos-from-wireless-philosophy.html 

Roy  Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media --- http://chnm.gmu.edu

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

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

The Wisdom & Advice of Maurice Ashley, the First African-American Chess Grandmaster ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/the-wisdom-advice-of-maurice-ashley-the-first-african-american-chess-grandmaster.html

Histography: Timeline of History --- http://histography.io

Library of Congress: Themed Resources --- http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/

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

Reuters: Business News Headlines --- http://www.reuters.com/news/archive/businessNews?view=page

From the Scout Report on January 29, 2016

New Math Study Reveals the Probable Life Span of Conspiracy Theories
Maths study shows conspiracies 'prone to unravelling'
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35411684

On the Viability of Conspiratorial Beliefs
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147905

Enough Lying: New Photos of the Moon Landing
https://birdinflight.com/world/enough-lying-new-photos-of-the-moon-landing.html

Conspiracy Theories Hamper the Fight Against Climate Change
http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/conspiracy-theories-hamper-fight-against-climate-change

TIME looks at 10 of the world's most enduring conspiracy theories
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1860871,00.html

The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
http://conspiracypsychology.com

Bob Jensen's Links to the Social Sciences and Philosophy ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social

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


Law and Legal Studies

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


Math Tutorials

On Teaching and Learning Mathematics --- http://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/

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

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


History Tutorials

From How Stuff Works
Quiz on USA History ---
http://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/us-history-expert-quiz.htm?mkcpgn=i600001116&utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=U.S.History(desktop)&utm_term=57762&utm_content=How+Well+Do+You+Know+U.S.+History%3F+Take+This+Qui

Library of Congress: Themed Resources --- http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ludwig Wittgenstein --- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein

Download 2,000 Magnificent Turn-of-the-Century Art Posters, Courtesy of the New York Public Library ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/download-2000-magnificent-turn-of-the-century-art-posters.html

Histography: Timeline of History --- http://histography.io

Trove (History of Australia) --- http://trove.nla.gov.au

The National Archives: Archives Media Player (American History) --- http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

National Park Foundation: Trail Talk Blog --- http://www.nationalparks.org/connect/trail-talk

National Park Service: Travel Itinerary Series --- http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/

Mapping Occupation (African American History) --- http://mappingoccupation.org

Stanford University Libraries: African Collections --- http://library.stanford.edu/areas/african-collections

The Art Story (historical timelines) --- http://www.theartstory.org/

Download Hundreds of Van Gogh Paintings, Sketches & Letters in High Resolution ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/download-hundreds-of-van-gogh-paintings-sketches-letters-in-high-resolution.html

Animation:  Here's how the map of the United States has changed in 200 years ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-map-of-200-years-us-border-territory-changes-2016-1

Discover Europeana Collections, a Portal of 48,796,394 Artworks, Books, Videos, Artifacts & Sounds from Across Europe ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/01/europeana-collections-a-portal-of-48796394-artworks-books-videos.html

An Animated Introduction to Goethe, Germany’s “Renaissance Man”  ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/01/an-animated-introduction-to-goethe-germanys-renaissance-man.html

The Price of Campbell's Tomato Soup Since 1897 ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/01/28/updated-the-price-of-campbells-tomato-soup-since-1897-n2110891?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

The Cleveland Memory Project (history of Cleveland, Ohio) --- http://www.clevelandmemory.org/

American Profile (lives of lawmakers and journalists) --- http://www.c-span.org/series/?AmericanProfile

Colorado Virtual Library --- http://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/

A Tale of Two Plantations (slavery) --- http://www.twoplantations.com/

The Wisdom & Advice of Maurice Ashley, the First African-American Chess Grandmaster ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/the-wisdom-advice-of-maurice-ashley-the-first-african-american-chess-grandmaster.html

Indian Memory Project (India history) ---  http://www.indianmemoryproject.com

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

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


Language Tutorials

 

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


Music Tutorials

JazzWax (interviews with hundreds of jazz musicians) --- http://www.jazzwax.com/

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

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


Writing Tutorials

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



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

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

January 27, 2016

January 28, 2016

January 29, 2016

January 30, 2016

February 1, 2016

February 2, 2016

February 3, 2016

February 4, 2016

February 5, 2016

  • Obese' May Not Always Equal Unhealthy: Study
  • Bit of Chocolate in Pregnancy May Help Mom, Baby
  • Statins May Ease Macular Degeneration for Some
  • ADHD May Be Tied to Obesity Risk for Girls
  • New Therapy Might Cure Type 1 Diabetes
  • Insurers Accelerate Moves To Limit Health-Law Enrollment
  • Meditation May Ease Breast Biopsy Pain, Anxiety
  • Could IVF Raise Children's Odds for Blood Cancer?
  • Steroids May Help More Than Just Premature Babies
  • Anxiety Meds Won't Raise Seniors' Dementia Risk
  • February 6, 2016

    February 8, 2016

    February 9, 2016

    February 10, 2016

    February 11, 2016

     


    NAMI: Infographics & Fact Sheets (mental illness) --- https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Fact-Sheet-Library


    BBC Future: Neurohacks (neuroscience and psychology of everyday life) --- http://www.bbc.com/future/columns/neurohacks


    Headspace Daily (meditation guide) --- https://www.headspace.com/blog


    "Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause," Benedict Carey, The New York Times, January 27, 2016 ---
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/health/schizophrenia-cause-synaptic-pruning-brain-psychiatry.html?_r=0

    . . .

    The researchers pieced together the steps by which genes can increase a person’s risk of developing schizophrenia. That risk, they found, is tied to a natural process called synaptic pruning, in which the brain sheds weak or redundant connections between neurons as it matures. During adolescence and early adulthood, this activity takes place primarily in the section of the brain where thinking and planning skills are centered, known as the prefrontal cortex. People who carry genes that accelerate or intensify that pruning are at higher risk of developing schizophrenia than those who do not, the new study suggests.

    Some researchers had suspected that the pruning must somehow go awry in people with schizophrenia, because previous studies showed that their prefrontal areas tended to have a diminished number neural connections, compared with those of unaffected people. The new paper not only strongly supports that this is the case, but also describes how the pruning probably goes wrong and why, and identifies the genes responsible: People with schizophrenia have a gene variant that apparently facilitates aggressive “tagging” of connections for pruning, in effect accelerating the process.

    Some scientists warned that the history of biological psychiatry stands as a caution against premature optimism. “This work is extremely persuasive,” said Dr. Samuel Barondes, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, “but any step forward is not only rare and unusual, it’s just one step in a journey of a thousand miles” to improved treatments.

    The study, by scientists from Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital and the Broad Institute, a research center allied with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, provides a showcase of biomedical investigation at its highest level. The research team began by focusing on a location on the human genome, the MHC, which was most strongly associated with schizophrenia in previous genetic studies. On a bar graph — called a Manhattan plot because it looks like a cluster of skyscrapers — the MHC looms highest.

    Advertisement Continue reading the main story

    Advertisement Continue reading the main story

    “The MHC is the Freedom Tower” of the Manhattan plot, said Eric S. Lander, the director of the Broad Institute. “The question was, what’s in there?”

    The area is a notoriously dark warren in the genome known to contain genes that facilitate the body’s immune response, for example, by flagging invading bacteria to be destroyed. That property had given rise to speculation that schizophrenia might be a kind of autoimmune condition, in which the body attacked its own cells.

    But the research team, led by Steven McCarroll, an associate professor of genetics at Harvard, and by Aswin Sekar, one of his graduate students, found something different. Using advanced statistical methods, the team found that the MHC locus contained four common variants of a gene called C4, and that those variants produced two kinds of proteins, C4-A and C4-B.

    The team analyzed the genomes of more than 64,000 people and found that people with schizophrenia were more likely to have the over-active forms of C4-A than control subjects. “C4-A seemed to be the gene driving risk for schizophrenia,” Dr. McCarroll said, “but we had to be sure.”

    The researchers turned to Beth Stevens, an assistant professor of neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard, who in 2007 was an author of a study showing that the products of MHC genes were involved in synaptic pruning in normal developing brains. But how important was this C4 protein, exactly? Very important, it turned out: Mice bred without the genes that produce C4 showed clear signs that their synaptic pruning had gone awry, Dr. Stevens’s lab showed.

    Taken together, Dr. Stevens said in an interview, “the evidence strongly suggested that too much C4-A leads to inappropriate pruning during this critical phase of development.”

    In particular, the authors concluded, too much C4-A could mean too much pruning — which would explain not only the thinner prefrontal layers in schizophrenia, but also the reason that the disorder most often shows itself in people’s teenage years or early twenties. “The finding connects all these dots, all these disconnected observations about schizophrenia, and makes them make sense,” Dr. McCarroll said.

    Continued in article

     




    Humor February 1-15, 2016

    Hear 30 of the Greatest Standup Comedy Albums: A Playlist Chosen by Open Culture Readers ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/30-of-the-greatest-standup-comedy-albums.html

    The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy ---
    http://www.vulture.com/2016/01/100-jokes-shaped-modern-comedy-c-v-r.html

    André Rieu - España cañi 2015 --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzgRw6V252s

    Stephen Colbert Exposes Trump's Flip-Flops In Hilarious "Trump vs Trump" Debate ---
    http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2016/01/31/stephen-colbert-exposes-trumps-flipflops-in-hilarious-trump-vs-trump-debate-n2112526?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

    Bernie Sanders joined Larry David on SNL for a hilarious sketch aboard the Titanic ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-joins-larry-david-snl-saturday-night-live-2016-2


    Forwarded by Paula

    Stuff you didn't know you didn't know!

    Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better. ------------

    Coca-Cola was originally green. ------------ It is impossible to lick your elbow. --------- The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska ------------ The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this...) ------------ The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38% ------------ The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven:

    $ 16,400 ------------ The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000 ------------ Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.. ------------ The first novel ever written on a typewriter, Tom Sawyer. ------------ The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments. ------------ Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

    Spades - King David

    Hearts - Charlemagne

    Clubs -Alexander, the Great

    Diamonds - Julius Caesar ------------ 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321 ------------ If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died because of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes ------------ Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, John Hancock and Charles Thomson.Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. ------------ Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?

    A. Their birthplace ------------ Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?

    A. Obsession ------------ Q.. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'?

    A. One thousand ------------ Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers have in common?

    A. All were invented by women. ------------ Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?

    A. Honey ------------ Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?

    A. Father's Day ------------ In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight' ------------ It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his new son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon. ------------ In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.' . . .

    It's where we get the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's. ------------ Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill , they used the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice. ------------ At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow! ------------ YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2016 when...

    1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.

    2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

    3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

    4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

    5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

    6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries...

    7. Every commercial on television has a Web site at the bottom of the screen

    8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it !

    10. You get up in the morning and go on-line before getting your coffee.

    11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)

    12 You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

    13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

    14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

    15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

     




    Humor January 2016 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q1.htm#Humor013116

    Humor December 1-31,  2015 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q4.htm#Humor123115

    Humor November 1-30,  2015 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q4.htm#Humor113015

    Humor October 1-31,  2015 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q4.htm#Humor103115

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

     




    Tidbits Archives --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

    More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
    http://faculty.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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
    For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray Zone of Fraud  (College, Inc.) --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud

    Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
    http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

    • With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review (TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
    • With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
    • With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy Ignores TAR
    • With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into Undergraduate Accounting Courses

    The Cult of Statistical Significance: How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
    http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm

    How Accountics Scientists Should Change: 
    "Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review I just don't give a damn"
    http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
    One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
    http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm 

    What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?  ---
    http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong

    The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
    http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

    AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
    http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1

    Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory ---
    http://faculty.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://faculty.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://faculty.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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm

    Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm 
    Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
    Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
    Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://faculty.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://faculty.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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm

     

    For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for free) go to   http://faculty.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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
    Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
    Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
    Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

    Some Accounting History Sites

    Bob Jensen's Accounting History in a Nutshell and Links --- http://faculty.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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds

    History of Fraud in America --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/415wp/AmericanHistoryOfFraud.htm
    Also see http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm

    Bob Jensen's Threads ---
    http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

    More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
    http://faculty.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