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://faculty.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 March 15, 2016
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

 Set 2 of Rocks in New Hampshire

http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Rocks/Set02/02.htm

 

Tidbits on March 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

Updates from WebMD --- Click Here




Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
 

Budweiser Clydesdales.--- http://www.youtube.com/embed/PU92XeqhRSA

Brian Greene Breaks Down Einstein’s Theory of Gravitational Waves for Stephen Colbert ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/brian-greene-breaks-down-einsteins-theory-of-gravitational-waves-for-stephen-colbert.html

Watch the doll's eyes as he writes with pen and paper ---
http://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton
Thank you Bob Overn for the heads up


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 

Music and Pictures from My Youth ---
http://nethugs.com/interesting/memories-of-the-1950s/#xBiaK1gChMVywClz.0clz.o
Click on the arrow
Also go to http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm#JukeBox

Buddy Holly http://nethugs.com/interesting/memories-of-the-1950s/#xBiaK1gChMVywClz.0clz.o
Also go to http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm#JukeBox 

Hear the Unique, Original Compositions of George Martin, Beloved Beatles Producer (RIP) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/the-unique-original-compositions-of-george-martin.html

1,000 Hours of Early Jazz Recordings Now Online: Archive Features Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington & Much More  ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/vast-archive-presents-1000-hours-of-early-jazz-recordings-a-great-resource-for-jazz-novices-aficionados.html

The History of Electronic Music in 476 Tracks (1937-2001) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/the-history-of-electronic-music-in-476-tracks-1937-2001.html

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

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

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

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


Photographs and Art

Music and Pictures from My Youth ---
http://nethugs.com/interesting/memories-of-the-1950s/#xBiaK1gChMVywClz.0clz.o
Click on the arrow

Amazing Photos of the Sahara Desert's Lost Libraries ---
https://weather.com/travel/news/huniewicz-lost-libraries-sahara-desert

Earth View from Google --- https://earthview.withgoogle.com/ 

Science Captured as Beautiful Works of Art ---
http://qz.com/634928/photos-science-captured-as-beautiful-works-of-art/

Street View, Then & Now: New York's Fifth Avenue (photographic history) --- http://publicdomain.nypl.org/fifth-avenue/

Scott Kelly's Photographs From a Year on the Space Station ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/astronaut-scott-kelly-instagram-2016-3

Download 1800 Fin de Siècle French Posters & Prints in High-Resolution: Iconic Works by Toulouse-Lautrec & Many More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/download-1800-fin-de-siecle-french-posters-prints-in-high-resolution.html

Smithsonian's Staggering Photo Competition ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2016-02-29/see-the-world-through-smithsonian-s-staggering-photo-competition

Brooklyn Street Art --- http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/ 

See the First Image of the Air Force’s New Long Range Bomber ---
http://time.com/4240055/air-force-bomber-b-21/?xid=newsletter-brief

Download All 36 of Jan Vermeer’s Beautifully Rare Paintings (Most in Stunning High Resolution) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/download-all-36-of-jan-vermeers-beautifully-rare-paintings-many-in-stunning-high-resolution.html

10 haunting photos of Idaho's Atomic City, 30 years after nuclear disaster drove everyone away ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-atomic-city-nuclear-disaster-30-years-later-2016-3

Mongolian Cowboys ---
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/mongolian-cowboys-slideshow/monogolian-cowboys-photo-1456677202915.html

Gorgeous color photos from the Great Depression show life in one of America's darkest times  ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/color-photos-of-great-depression-america-2016-3

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

The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics --- http://www.econlib.org/library/CEE.html
Don't forget that most of the terminology can be found in greater detail in Wikipedia

11 Essential Feminist Books: A New Reading List by The New York Public Library ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/essential-feminist-books.html

Revisiting John Williams, Novelist and Editor (Collection of Shorter Poems) ---
http://daily.jstor.org/john-williams-novelist-editor/

Gardening and the Secret of Happiness ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/29/robin-wall-kimmerer-braiding-sweetgrass/?mc_cid=d58c766e05&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Glossary of Poetic Terms --- http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-terms

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 March 15, 2016
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2016/TidbitsQuotations031516.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
http://www.businessinsider.com/national-debt-reaches-record-19-trillion-2016-2
Bob Jensen's threads on entitlements
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

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




P-Value --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-value

ASA = American Statistical Association
The ASA's statement on p-values: context, process, and purpose ---
http://amstat.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00031305.2016.1154108

David Johnstone from Australia gave me permission to broadcast his reply to the AECM with respect to the attached paper from the American Statistical Association.

The ground is shaking beneath the accountics science foundations upon which all accounting doctoral programs and the prestigious accounting research journals are built. My guess is, however, that the accountics scientists are sleeping through the tremors or feigning sleep because, if they admit to waking up, their nightmares will become real!
"A Scrapbook on What's Wrong with the Past, Present and Future of Accountics Science"
 by Bob Jensen
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccounticsWorkingPaper450.pdf

Bob Jensen

*************************************************************************

Dear Sudipta and Bob, thanks for sending this Sudipta, it was actually written up in the local newspaper (Sydney Morning Herald) the other day. There has also been a series of articles on economic modelling that starts with the conclusion and works back to the argument. People are waking up to rorts slowly but inevitably, it seems.

There are multi-million dollar industries (e.g. “accounting research”) that depend on p-levels and would need a big clean out and recanting/retraining if the tide were to turn. I think that the funding bodies (e.g. taxpayers) are starting to smell rats, so life is going to be different for younger researchers in 10 years I suspect. Much more scepticism about supposed “research”.

I have been toying with writing a book on the P-level problem. I used to be excited about this stuff, I thought it was deeply interesting and other people would also find it interesting. I didn’t realize that most researchers are not intrinsically interested in the techniques they use, and I also didn’t realize that most will resist bitterly anything that makes their lives less glamorous and their self-image less wonderful. This is what I see as the “positive theory of accounting researchers”.

Great to have a couple of old fashioned academics to talk to on this.

By the way, all the young statisticians schooled in Bayesian theory know about the issues with P-levels, and they are breeding up in computer science and elsewhere.

Tom Dyckman’s paper on P-levels is coming out in Abacus 2nd issue 2016. In that same issue is an excellent survey paper by Jeremy Bertomeu on cost of capital etc, which will give that issue further credibility and hopefully prompt some extra readers to see Tom’s paper.

David Johnstone

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)


Apple gets smacked by $450-million e-book price-fixing fine ---
http://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-gets-smacked-by-450-million-e-book-price-fixing-fine/

Publishers are also unhappy with the Supreme Court's decision. At Amazon headquarters, however, they're probably popping open the champagne.

The Supreme Court of the United States has declined to hear Apple's appeal of a lower court decision that it conspired with five publishers to increase e-book prices. Apple must now pay $450 million as part of its anti-trust e-book settlement. Amazon, however, is probably grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

Continued in article


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

Next Ransomware virus target is you car ---
http://readwrite.com/2016/03/08/car-hack-ransomware-part-two

Jensen Comment
I was at a New Years Eve dinner party when our host lamented that he'd been hit by Ransomware on his PC. One of the guests, an enthusiastic advocate of Apple computers, bragged that Apple computers were immune from Ransomware.

Hackers Target Apple Users With Ransomware --- http://www.newsweek.com/hackers-apple-users-ransomware-433906

Jensen Comment
Apple quickly reacted to block this virus, but it does reveal that kidnappers of data know Apple's vulnerability as well as Windows much worse vulnerability.



Nine tips for Microsoft Powerpoint for Chartered Accountants ---
https://www.icas.com/ca-today-news/top-tips-for-microsoft-powerpoint


Is this extreme grade inflation or what?
"Bill Gates Never Attended Any Classes He Signed up for at Harvard --- But He Got As Anyway," by Megan Willett, Tech Insider via Business Insider, March 9, 2016 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-never-attended-class-at-harvard-2016-3

Bob Jensen's threads on the grade inflation scandal across the USA ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#RateMyProfessor

 


Smart Watch and Other Device Cheating

Eye Openers.

Go to
https://www.bing.com/

Enter
"Smart Watch Cheating"

Especially note the Consumer Reports article

 


 

TechSmith Blog:  Learn Some Great Video Tricks and Tools of the Trade ---
http://blogs.techsmith.com/?utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=dnl77&utm_campaign=tsc&spMailingID=50885351&spUserID=Mzk1NjE2NTkyMTYS1&spJobID=881279152&spReportId=ODgxMjc5MTUyS0


 

United Airlines Passengers Will Soon Be More --- United
http://mashable.com/2016/03/09/united-adding-seats/#gUMR97cbjGqq


 

40% of government bonds in Europe now trade with negative interest rates ---
http://ritholtz.com/2016/03/negative-interest-rates-40-outstanding-european-government-bonds/
I think European universities need to upgrade the economics curriculum


 

Governor Cuomo wants to stop funding one-third of CUNY four-year colleges' budget. Where will the money come from? ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/11/new-fiscal-year-approaches-who-will-fund-cunys-senior-colleges?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b5d583b912-DNU20160311&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b5d583b912-197565045

The title is somewhat but not entirely misleading. The Governor wants to cut NY State support of New York City's CUNY colleges and have the funds replaced by other sources. However, the term "other sources" is not yet defined by the Governor. Seems like it's time to consult with creative accountants.


 

"Rethinking Gen Ed," by Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, March 10, 2016 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/10/undergraduate-curricular-reform-efforts-harvard-and-duke-suggest-theres-no-one-way?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=6ae1de344d-DNU20160310&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-6ae1de344d-197565045

Amid concerns that requirements may not mean much to students or professors, Harvard and Duke Universities both look to curricular changes to improve undergraduate education.

Jensen Comment
Amidst the turf wars where some academic disciplines low on numbers of majors depend upon including their basic courses in the Gen Ed core. Harvard led the way by making the Gen Ed core a smorgasbord of courses from nearly all academic disciplines. This, in turn, led to gamesmanship on the part of students to choose the easiest courses rather than traditional courses that traditionally part of gen ed. The closest that students may ever get to Shakespeare and calculus or civics may now be in high school.

What is sadly lacking in most core requirements or even alternatives in the gen ed core is financial literacy even though financial ignorance is probably the leading cause of too much consumer debt and divorce in the USA.



"The Trends Report: 10 Key Shifts in Higher Education," Chronicle of Higher Education Special Report, February 29, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/specialreport/The-Trends-Report-10-Key/32

Executive Summary ---
http://chronicle.com/article/An-Executive-Summary/235454?cid=cp32

Welcome to our second annual Trends Report. The past year has seen plenty of upheaval in higher education — student protests over racial inequality, controversies over free speech and so-called trigger warnings, rising complaints over the handling of campus sexual-assault cases, scandals involving academic research, questions about the value of a degree, and more. Look at some of the words that describe this year’s trends: "beware," "productivity," "reactive," "scrutiny," and "survive." If there’s a pattern here (or a meta-trend?), it’s that higher education continues to be on the defensive, under growing pressure to respond to critics on and off campus. To stay ahead of their critics, college leaders need to stay ahead of the curve. We hope The Trends Report can help.

Our coverage spells out 10 key shifts in higher education. We examine what’s working (and what’s not), and offer case studies, expert commentary, and resources you can use to start a conversation or a program on your own campuses. Think of it as a briefing on what informed college leaders need to know in 2016.

Meanwhile, the trends we identified last year haven’t exactly faded into oblivion. You’ll notice that several of them — most notably, challenges to free speech, an emphasis on helping students build careers, and the influence of social media — have evolved and taken on new forms for this year’s list.

Here are the 10 higher-education trends identified by our reporters and editors, with help from people whose jobs put them on the front lines of academe every day

A fresh wave of attacks on free speech, often coming from students.
Instructors (and even student debaters) are under pressure to provide students with trigger warnings, meant to warn them of potentially upsetting topics. Also contributing to the trend are student protests denouncing a hostile campus climate, and the emergence of watchdog groups that scrutinize campus speech for bias. Some colleges are fighting back.

■ Efforts by colleges to combat sexual assault by creating new cultural norms on the campus.
Under pressure to make sure their handling of sexual-assault cases will stand up under Title IX, some institutions are proactively educating students about the meaning of consent and the importance of intervening to prevent sexual violence.

■ The growing use of metrics to measure faculty productivity.
Colleges have new tools to see how their professors stack up, and they’re not afraid to use them. Faculty critics say the tools provide an incomplete and inaccurate picture of their jobs.

■ The need for college leaders to react quickly to events that could quickly spin out of control.
"Reactive" used to be seen as a negative label, but in the age of social media, when leaders can no longer control the campus agenda, the ability to react has become a survival skill.

■ Widespread attacks on shared governance.
The traditional model of shared governance is eroding as more governing boards make unilateral changes that ignore faculty opinion, such as appointing someone from outside academe as president. Boards are reacting to fiscal pressure, political heat, and complaints about the cost and value of a degree.

■ The outsourcing of services that are a core part of a college’s mission.
It’s not unusual for colleges to turn the operation of campus bookstores and cafeterias over to private companies, but now they’re also outsourcing some key academic services, like advising and even teaching.

■ Increased scrutiny of academic research.
Corporate influence and outright fraud have undermined the credibility of scientific research. Meanwhile, some fields have been tainted by research scandals involving fabrication and the inability to replicate results.

■ A movement to overhaul the college transcript.
Some colleges are adding new types of information to transcripts to better reflect what students have learned and accomplished. An expanded and digitized transcript may lead to "the quantified student," but it could also provide a powerful accountability metric that allows colleges to track graduates.

■ The rise of the instructional designer.
As online learning and new classroom technologies spread, the demand for instructional designers — who develop courses that others may teach — is growing.

■ A reliance on better marketing to survive enrollment challenges and create a stronger institutional identity.
The golden rule: Know who your students are, and figure out how best to serve them
.

We hope you find The Trends Report helpful. Let us know what you think at chronicle.com/trends.

The report is not free unless you subscribe to the Chronicle of Higher Education. It might be available from your campus library.

Jensen Comment
There are many trends not included above or included with a wide brush in the Executive Summary. I will comment more about this after viewing the report in more detail.

 

In particular I'm interested in how this Special Trends Report covers the trend toward thousands of MOOC courses and millions of MOOC students around the world ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
This includes non-credit and credit-seeking MOOC students.

 

I'm interested in the trends toward competency testing, including transcript credits given for competency rather than particular courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge

 

I'm interested in the trends of assessment in general ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm

 

I'm interested in trends for access by handicapped and disabled learners ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped

 

I'm interested in trends in teaching and learning tools of the trade ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

 

I'm interested in both the bright sides and dark sides of education technology trends ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm

 

I'm interested in efforts to combat the biggest disgrace in higher education, namely grade inflation where in North America the median higher education grades have trended from C or C+ in the 1940s to A or A- in the 21st Century ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#RateMyProfessor

 

I'm interested in trends in affirmative action where special treatment is given to faculty applicants, promotion and tenure, student applicants and enrolled students who are not white or Asian ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#AffirmativeAction

 

I'm interested in trends in athletics where special treatment is given to applicants and enrolled students who are varsity athletes ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#Athletics

 

I'm interested in treads in cheating by both faculty and students ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm

 

I'm interested in trends in listservs, blogs, and social media in higher education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/listservroles.htm

 

I'm interested in the squelching of conservative scholarship through biases in faculty highering, curriculum content, and journal contest as liberal bias takes over higher education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/higHerEdControversies.htm#LiberalBias

 

I'm interest in the trends of many other controversies in higher education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/higHerEdControversies.htm

 

I'm interested in the fall from grace of regression analysis and statistical significance testing in general in higher education:
 

"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

 

"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/

 

"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

 

"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

 

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


"The manuscript-editing marketplace:  A peer-to-peer website aims to disrupt the author-services industry," by Jeffrey M. Perkel,  Nature, March 1, 2016 ---
http://www.nature.com/news/the-manuscript-editing-marketplace-1.19457?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20160303&spMailingID=50825784&spUserID=MzEyMDU5NjE1OAS2&spJobID=880255771&spReportId=ODgwMjU1NzcxS0

As Sebastian Eggert prepared to submit a conference article, he realized he had a problem: neither he nor his research adviser were native English speakers, and neither had much experience in writing and publishing research papers. But Eggert, a master's student in mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, had heard of a website where he could purchase editing services from an expert: an online marketplace called Peerwith.

Launched in October 2015 and still in beta testing, Peerwith is a forum through which researchers can find and negotiate with service providers such as editors, translators, statisticians and illustrators to improve their research papers. The site boasts “hundreds of experts”, most of them with expertise in the social sciences and humanities. Users post a job request detailing the subject area of the document, its length and the desired turnaround time. Experts then bid for the job, and both experts and users rate each other afterwards. Peerwith's business model is akin to freelance marketplaces such as Upwork, says co-founder Joris van Rossum, who left the journal publisher Elsevier to start his firm, except with a strictly academic focus.

A market for author services on research papers already exists; van Rossum estimates it at hundreds of million of dollars annually. It includes both large editing companies such as American Journal Experts (AJE), Edanz, Editage and Macmillan Science Communication (MSC, which is owned by Nature's parent company), and freelancers. But a peer-to-peer online marketplace, van Rossum says, makes services more affordable by cutting out the middleman and efficiently matching buyers and sellers. (Peerwith receives a cut of 10–20% for each transaction; the other firms would not comment on their margins). At the site, authors can review the experts who bid for work to identify the best fit, and can check to see how others have rated them.

Val Kidd, an editor and translator based in the United Kingdom, earned €200 (US$223) on Peerwith to translate a presentation for Emanuel Rutten, a philosopher at the Free University, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. The process, from job posting to completed document, took less than two weeks, Rutten says. “It's really smooth.” For her part, Kidd says that the interaction with her client improved the final product. At most author-services companies Kidd works with, she says, editors and translators cannot contact the author should they have questions — the client interacts with the service, which identifies a freelancer to handle the job.

Peerwith doesn't vet its service providers, says Anna Sharman, founder of Cofactor, a London-based author-services consultancy. So, unlike her own and other such companies, there is no guarantee that the 'experts' really are qualified. Editors at Cofactor undergo a rigorous recruitment process, Sharman says, and she double-checks their work before it is returned to the client.

Continued in article

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



The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics
--- http://www.econlib.org/library/CEE.html
Don't forget that most of the terminology can befound in greater detail in Wikipedia



Michel Foucault saw Europe’s current refugee crisis coming 40 years ago
---
http://qz.com/631842/michel-foucault-saw-europes-current-refugee-crisis-coming-40-years-ago/



Adams State University --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams_State_University

"Adams State U. Changes Policies in Response to ‘Chronicle’ Investigation," by Andy Thomason, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 15, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/adams-state-u-changes-policies-in-response-to-chronicle-investigation/92341?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Adams State University has frozen enrollment in its print-based correspondence courses in response to an investigation by The Chronicle detailing how a former coach helped athletes across the country cheat to become eligible to compete, according to a statement on the university’s website. Adams State has also commissioned an outside review of its student-verification process and canceled a mathematics course mentioned in the Chronicle article.

The article states that the former coach, identified only as “Mr. White,” helped multiple students at Adams State cheat by impersonating them online and completing work for them. In recent years, Adams State has enacted policies to step up the security of the classes. Adams State’s president, David P. Svaldi, said in the statement that the new review would “help us further assure academic integrity.”

 

"Adams State’s President Says Her University Is Accreditor’s ‘Whipping Boy’," by Eric Kelderman, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 8, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Adams-State-s-President-Says/235628?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=be3a600df3374c5497343f3e9954ff7f&elq=513f84f25e13430d876213dfe8c25d3f&elqaid=8178&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2623


Jensen Comment
Distance education courses can become especially problematic when colleges and universities commence to treat them as cash cows. Sometimes it's difficult to arm twist regular faculty to teach distance education sections such that cheaper adjuncts with lesser teaching experience are hired for the online sections. Online instructors may be learning as they go and not properly tutored for online teaching. When sections of a course are taught both online and onsite students in the online courses may pay higher (cash cow) tuition even when the online sections have lower marginal costs.

Adams State illustrates how more tuition revenue can be generated by marketing online courses to marginal students like varsity athletes in other universities.

Adams State illustrates how oversite of online courses may become lax with poor quality controls.


"Narcissistic Students Get Better Grades from Narcissistic Professors," by Nicole Torres, Harvard Business Review, March 4, 2016 ---
https://hbr.org/2016/03/narcissistic-students-get-better-grades-from-narcissistic-professors

 

Jensen Comment
The above research won't mean much until it is successfully replicated.

 


"Can Science’s Reproducibility Crisis Be Reproduced?," by Paul Basken, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 3, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Can-Science-s/235582?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=00007892b7d44a308a34645f63b6464b&elq=1bba946be0e647438f1c8bf3d0d86e3a&elqaid=8136&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2593 

Broad fears over reproducibility were stoked by a 2005 article in PLOS Medicine by John P.A. Ioannidis, a professor of health research and policy at Stanford University, contending that most published research findings are false. Last year a team of hundreds of researchers raised further alarm. After working over three years to faithfully repeat 100 studies that had been published in psychology journals, the team reported that it could not replicate most of the original results.

Now, two new studies, published on Thursday in Science magazine, are pushing back. One, a Harvard-led critique of the project that repeated 100 psychology studies, suggests that that ambitious effort overlooked some critical factors. The other, an attempt to repeat 18 studies in leading economics journals, found that 61 percent of them replicated successfully.

 

"Our results were pretty encouraging," said the lead author of the economics study, Colin F. Camerer, a professor of behavioral economics at the California Institute of Technology.

Together, the two papers this week should help calm the widespread worries about the reliability of science fanned by Mr. Ioannidis, said the lead author of the psychology critique, Daniel T. Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard.

"It’s very easy to come to the wrong conclusion when you try to replicate other people’s research," Mr. Gilbert said.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
In accounting research replication efforts are rare. There's almost no incentive to conduct exacting replication studies since there's no outlet for publication of replication efforts or even commentaries on research published in the six leading academic accounting research journals. It is not so much that the journals will not publish commentaries. A leading former editor (Steve Kachelmeir) of The Accounting Review writes that his 574 referees had zero interest in accepting commentaries for publication.
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTar.htm

We might argue that argue that accountants simply trust each other to only publish truth in accounting. But more to the point is that in terms of the leading top six academic accounting journals (that only publish articles with equations) there is virtually zero interest among accountants in the findings of the esoteric "accountics" articles published in those journals.
“An Analysis of the Evolution of Research Contributions by The Accounting Review: 1926-2005,” (with Jean Heck), Accounting Historians Journal, Volume 34, No. 2, December 2007, pp. 109-142.

. . .

Practitioner membership in the AAA faded along with their interest in journals published by the AAA [Bricker and Previts, 1990]. The exodus of practitioners became even more pronounced in the 1990s when leadership in the large accounting firms was changing toward professional managers overseeing global operations. Rayburn [2006, p. 4] notes that practitioner membership is now less than 10 percent of AAA members, and many practitioner members join more for public relations and student recruitment reasons rather than interest in AAA research. Practitioner authorship in TAR plunged to nearly zero over recent decades, as reflected in Figure 2.

 

To my knowledge there has only been one noteworthy cheating scandal causing retraction of research papers in the leading academic journals. Those papers had cheater James Hunton as a co-author, but none of Professor Hunton's research cheating was detected by replication efforts. Hence it's safe to say that in accounting research there's been no cheating or serious error detection revelations except where the authors themselves later detected their own errors and apologized in public. You can read about Professor Hunton's cheating at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize

There have been instances where cheating, usually plagiarism, was detected that did not lead to formal retractions in the accounting research journals. I mention one such case at where a friend of mine at a Big 10 university plagiarized parts of a student's Ph.D. dissertation and was embarrassed when the cheating was detected after the student, also a close friend of mine, was recalled to testify at that university ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm

But professorial cheating never, to my knowledge, was detected in replication efforts in the discipline of accounting. There are instances in the physical and social sciences where replication efforts led to the detection of cheating and/or serious unintended research mistakes ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm

The biggest reason for encouraging replication research is to either detect research error or to detect intentional fabrication of data. In the leading accounting research journals fabrication of data is less likely because most accounting researchers, at least those in financial accounting, reply on purchased databases like Compustat. Those researchers seldom collect their own data, and hence data fabrication is less likely. But in the case of James Hunton there was allegedly data fabrication.


How many taxpayers overpaid when challenged by this from the IRS?
Math Is Hard, IRS Addition
http://www.taxabletalk.com/2016/03/03/math-is-hard-irs-addition/

 

Jensen Comment
One of the problems with IRS errors is that computerized notices can counpound the errror over and over and over and over.

 

 


March 2016 Econometrics Reading List from David Giles ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2016/03/march-reading-list.html

 


From 2012 to 2015 the mean salary for a new accounting doctorate increased from $142,500 to $156,900. For a summary of the 2012 and 2015 reports see
 http://maaw.info/ArticleSummaries/ArtSumAACSB2013SalaryReports.htm

Jensen Comment
When it comes to salary data I prefer means to medians. Means in this case are pulled down greatly by low-paying AACSB universities that are chosen for reasons other than salary such as geographic location, spouse employment opportunities, etc. For example, there are quite few NYC universities that are not known for high salaries. But opportunities for spouses are hign in NYC. Also there are some financial incentives for outside consulting unique to the NYC metroplex.

Small religious universities have attractions other than salary.

Also mean salaries are not good for comparing the top R1 research universities in accounting. For example, some universities provide only small research slush funds for researchers, including new accounting faculty. Others purportedly go well above $20,000 for research slush funds controlled by accounting researchers. Also some universities like Harvard provide many more opportunities for lucrative consulting supplemental incomes.

"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

Jensen Comment
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.

Patricia Walters points out that there's a distinction between clinical full-time faculty and adjunct faculty who may or may not be full time. Clinical accounting faculty generally have Ph.D. credentials (not necessarily in accounting) and often receive compensation comparable to some, but not all, tenure-track faculty.  The big difference is that clinical faculty generally are not granted tenure and usually teach more sections than research faculty.

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


17 Disappearing Middle Class Jobs ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/03/01/17-disappearing-middle-class-jobs/2/
Includes bookkeeping jobs.

Jensen Comment
Even when the jobs do not disappear, the nature of the work is changing. One of my first tax return preparation jobs for Ernst & Young in Denver decades ago was for a restaurant that brought me rolled up cash register tapes. These days most restaurants have cash register apps that journalize and post the daily register receipts such that the submissions to tax preparers take a lot less time and effort and often feed directly into tax preparation software of an accounting firm. Retail stores now have point-of-sale software that automatically posts inventory accounts and even triggers inventory purchases directly into supplier computers. Sometimes supplier robots pick and package the orders and load them onto shipping docks. The humans in the process definitely are on the way out.


"As College-Run Bookstores Hang by a Thread, Chapel Hill Ponders Virtual Alternatives," by Corinne Ruff, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 25, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/As-College-Run-Bookstores-Hang/235466?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=336ef42127024ea989796064078f6928&elq=0a661b5040854aecab340a6fae5922e6&elqaid=8077&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2568 

Jensen Comment
Campus bookstores for years have not made sustainable profit on textbooks and opportunities are for doing so are declining because of online alternatives. Where profits are made is in sundry items like clothing, mugs, office supplies, tennis shoes, etc. The stores on campus probably are doing all right as long as there is not huge competition alongside the campus from stores that sell the same things like a University of XXXX sweatshirt and shorts. The campus that are hurting are probably those with nearby competition in the high markup items.

The controversial issue is how much the non-profit university subsidizes the campus stores with low rents and convenient parking. The competition sometimes raises questions on why they have to pay property taxes/rent when campus stores avoid such fees. How have the rules changed for such subsidies?


"Bringing Philosophy to Life," by Nakul Krishna," Chronicle of Higher Education, February 21, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Bringing-Philosophy-to-Life/235345?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=632d3c77d7a14bcc87124f42869a5948&elq=93ab1ebf84574eaf9e13c2052209b2f6&elqaid=8063&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2557 
Nakul Krishna is a lecturer in the faculty of philosophy at the University of Cambridge.

Jensen Recommendation
Also read the comments at the end of the article.

Bob Jensen's philosophy links are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social
Search for "philosophy"


History Corner
National Registry of Historic Homes (illustration from Oklahoma) --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Rogers_County,_Oklahoma

Sears Catalog Homes (1908-1940) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home

The Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans first appeared in 1908\ ---
https://expressmodular.com/sears-home-story/

For the first time, Sears sold complete houses, including the plans and instructions for construction of 22 different styles, announcing that the featured homes were “complete, ready for occupancy.” By 1911, Modern Homes catalogs included illustrations of house interiors, which provided homeowners with blueprints for furnishing the houses with Sears appliances and fixtures.

Over that time Sears designed 447 different housing styles, from the elaborate multistory Ivanhoe, with its elegant French doors and art glass windows, to the simpler Goldenrod, which served as a quaint, three-room and no-bath cottage for summer vacationers. (An outhouse could be purchased separately for Goldenrod and similar cottage dwellers.) Customers could choose a house to suit their individual tastes and budgets.

Individuals could even design their own homes and submit the blueprints to Sears, which would then ship off the appropriate precut and fitted materials, putting the home owner in full creative control. Modern Home customers had the freedom to build their own dream houses, and Sears helped realize these dreams through quality custom design and favorable financing.


"What’s the Best Way to Teach Financial Skills to Children? Our experts say start early, talk often—and look for teachable moments," by Veronica Dagher, The Wall Street Journal, February 2, 28, 2016 --- http://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-the-best-way-to-teach-financial-skills-to-children-1456715769

Jensen Comment
No matter how you introduce students to financial skills such as time value of money, I think it is essential to eventually teach Excel functions for such purposes.

Bob Jensen's threads on personal finance ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers


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

Is this academic cheating or worse"
Conflict Over Sociologist's Narrative Puts Spotlight on Ethnography ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Conflict-Over-Sociologists/230883?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=6cf1ab9ba37949f6a7d0209ec6e4a715&elq=93ab1ebf84574eaf9e13c2052209b2f6&elqaid=8063&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2557

Bob Jensen's threads on cheating in academia ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm


2016 PWC GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRIME SURVEY - THE UK: FRAUDSTERS AND FRAUD SCHEMES ARE MATURING ---
http://www.accountingeducation.com/index.cfm?page=newsdetails&id=153826&utm_source=MailerMailer&utm_medium=email&utm_content=news+story&utm_campaign=Double+Entries+22(04)  

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


"The Unbearable Asymmetry of Bullshit," by Brian D. Earp, Quillette, February 15, 2016 ---
http://quillette.com/2016/02/15/the-unbearable-asymmetry-of-bullshit/

Quiz Question
Why is asymmetry of bullshit more unbearable that when it's symmetrical?


From Mark Kappel on March 4, 2016

MoneyGeek.com has created a financial aid guide for online colleges. An interactive map offers readers financial aid resources based on state, degree level, school type and more. In addition, readers can explore federal student loans and grants specific to online schools.

Review the guide here: http://www.moneygeek.com/education/college/resources/financial-aid-for-online-colleges/

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


Inside Higher Ed: Community Colleges --- https://www.insidehighered.com/news/focus/community_colleges


 

"Eyeglasses That Can Focus Themselves Are on the Way," by Rachel Metz, MIT's Technology Review, March 9, 2016 ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600963/eyeglasses-that-can-focus-themselves-are-on-the-way/#/set/id/601014/

Jensen Comment
Because of astigmatism I carry corrective driving glasses in the car. However, for other times of my life I avoid eyeglasses that only slightly, very slightly, improve my vision. The reason is that experts tell me that frequent eyeglass use increases dependency upon those eyeglasses. Our eyes own focusing power weaken with frequent eyeglass use. People who see poorly without eyeglasses must bear this burden.

My concern is that eyeglasses that can focus themselves will further weaken the natural focusing power of eyes. However, I'm no expert on this matter, but it is a concern to raise with experts if you consider switching to eyeglasses that can focus themselves.


MIT:  Wind Power’s Next Hope: Blades as Long as Two Football Fields ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600881/wind-powers-next-hope-blades-as-long-as-two-football-fields/#/set/id/600902/

Jensen Comment
Perhaps we can not only kill more birds, maybe we can cool Texas as well by lowering the upper winds to ground level.

 

"The Tragic Necessity of Human Life: Willa Cather on Relationships and How Our Formative Family Dynamics Imprint Us," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, February 25, 2016 ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/25/willa-cather-relationships/?mc_cid=4559a30cf8&mc_eid=4d2bd13843


March 7, 2016 Message from Jagdish Gangolly

 

Read two fascinating articles and two books. If I were to teach any course where research is a component, these would be required reading.

Here they are:

 

1. 

Is Social Science Politically Biased?

​: ​

Political bias troubles the academy

By Michael Shermer

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-social-science-politically-biased/

 

​2.

Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals
By Jesse Singal

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/12/when-liberals-attack-social-science.html

 

​3.

Yanomamo: The Fierce People (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)

by Napoleon A. Chagnon

http://www.amazon.com/Yanomamo-Fierce-Studies-Cultural-Anthropology/dp/0030623286?tag=sciofus-20

 

​4.

Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists & Journalists Devastated the Amazon
by Patrick Tierney

http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Dorado-Scientists-Journalists-Devastated/dp/B00IJ0CNCG/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457299189&sr=1-3&keywords=darkness+in+el+dorado+how+scientists+and+journalists+devastated+the+amazon

 

5.

Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science 1St Edition
by Alice Dreger

http://www.amazon.com/Galileos-Middle-Finger-Heretics-Activists/dp/1594206082?tag=sciofus-20

 

I have read the first two, but will read the rest soon. The second gives two fascinating controversies that jeopardized the careers of two very good scientists, the first an anthropologist, and the second a psychologist (where ​Deidre McCloskey was an offending party).

 

​At the risk of painting a wrong picture of the controversies, I'll just quote the concluding paragraph of the second article:

 

"We should want researchers to poke around at the edges of “respectable” beliefs about gender and race and religion and sex and identity and trauma, and other issues that make us squirm. That’s why the scientific method was invented in the first place. If activists — any activists, regardless of their political orientation or the rightness of their cause — get to decide by fiat what is and isn’t an acceptable interpretation of the world, then science is pointless, and we should just throw the whole damn thing out."

​Regards to all,

 

Jagdish

 

 

March 7. 2016 reply from Bob Jensen

 

Thank you for this Jagdish. I do wish more subscribers to the AECM would suggest readings for us.

 

 

Here's my tidbit on the Shermer article.

 

 

"Is Social Science Politically Biased? Political bias troubles the academy," by Machel Shermer, Scientific American, March 1, 2016 ---
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-social-science-politically-biased/
Thank you Jagdish Gangolly for the heads up!

 

"Moving Further to the Left," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, October 24, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/24/survey-finds-professors-already-liberal-have-moved-further-left

Academics, on average, lean to the left. A survey being released today suggests that they are moving even more in that direction.


 

Among full-time faculty members at four-year colleges and universities, the percentage identifying as "far left" or liberal has increased notably in the last three years, while the percentage identifying in three other political categories has declined. The data come from the University of California at Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute, which surveys faculty members nationwide every three years on a range of attitudes.


 

Here are the data for the new survey and the prior survey:

 

2010-11

2007-8

Far left

12.4%

8.8%

Liberal

50.3%

47.0%

Middle of the road

25.4%

28.4%

Conservative

11.5%

15.2%

Far right

0.4%

0.7%


 

Gauging how gradual or abrupt this shift is complicated because of changes in the UCLA survey's methodology; before 2007-8, the survey included community college faculty members, who have been excluded since. But for those years, examining only four-year college and university faculty members, the numbers are similar to those of 2007-8. Going back further, one can see an evolution away from the center.


 

In the 1998-9 survey, more than 35 percent of faculty members identified themselves as middle of the road, and less than half (47.5 percent) identified as liberal or far left. In the new data, 62.7 percent identify as liberal or far left. (Most surveys that have included community college faculty members have found them to inhabit political space to the right of faculty members at four-year institutions.)


 

The new data differ from some recent studies by groups other than the UCLA center that have found that professors (while more likely to lean left than right) in fact were doing so from more of a centrist position. A major study in 2007, for example, found that professors were more likely to be centrist than liberal, and that many on the left identified themselves as "slightly liberal." (That study and the new one use different scales, making exact comparisons impossible.)


 

In looking at the new data, there is notable variation by sector. Private research universities are the most left-leaning, with 16.2 percent of faculty members identifying as far left, and 0.1 percent as far right. (If one combines far left and liberal, however, private, four-year, non-religious colleges top private universities, 58.6 percent to 57.7 percent.) The largest conservative contingent can be found at religious, non-Roman Catholic four-year colleges, where 23.0 percent identify as conservative and another 0.6 percent say that they are far right.


 

Professors' Political Identification, 2010-11, by Sector

 

Far left

Liberal

Middle of the Road

Conservative

Far right

Public universities

13.3%

52.4%

24.7%

9.2%

0.3%

Private universities

16.2%

51.5%

22.3%

9.8%

0.1%

Public, 4-year colleges

8.8%

47.1%

28.7%

14.7%

0.7%

Private, 4-year, nonsectarian

14.0%

54.6%

22.6%

8.6%

0.3%

Private, 4-year, Catholic

7.8%

48.0%

30.7%

13.3%

0.3%

Private, 4-year, other religious

7.4%

40.0%

29.1%

23.0%

0.6%


 

The study found some differences by gender, with women further to the left than men. Among women, 12.6 percent identified as far left and 54.9 percent as liberal. Among men, the figures were 12.2 percent and 47.2 percent, respectively.

Continued in article

There Goes the Neighborhood
"U. of Colorado Is in Search of a Scholar of Conservative Thought U. of Colorado Is in Search of a Scholar of Conservative Thought," by Sydni Dunn, Chronicle of Higher Education., February 26, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/U-of-Colorado-Is-in-Search-of/137567/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

 

Jensen Comment
The academy manifests leftist bias mainly when hiring faculty that in turn ripples out into the classroom, research, and the hiring of new colleagues. This begs the question of why there is such a leftist bias in hiring that probably arises in great measure due to the hiring pools where conservative scholars are in the minority.

"New View of Faculty Liberalism:  Why are professors liberal?" by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, January 18, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/18/liberal 

 

That question has led to many heated debates, particularly in recent years, over charges from some on the right that faculty members somehow discriminate against those who don't share a common political agenda with the left. A new paper attempts to shift the debate in a new direction. This study argues that certain characteristics of professors -- related to education and religion, among other factors -- explain a significant portion of the liberalism of faculty members relative to the American public at large.

 

Further, the paper argues that academe, because of the impact of these factors, may now be "politically typed" in a way that attracts more faculty members from the left than the right.

 

The research was done by Neil Gross, an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, and Ethan Fosse, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Harvard University. Gross has been the author of numerous studies of professorial politics, including a 2007 analysis that found faculty members, while liberal, may be more moderate than many believe. The new study may be found on his Web site.

 

In this analysis, Fosse and Gross do not dispute that faculty members are more liberal than the public at large. Rather, they make two main arguments. First they look at a range of characteristics that apply disproportionately to professors but are not unique to professors, and examine the political leanings associated with these characteristics -- finding that several of them explain a significant portion of the political gap between faculty members and others. Then, they offer what they call a new theory to explain why academe may attract more liberals, regardless of whether they have those characteristics.

 

The paper finds that 43 percent of the political gap can be explained because professors are more likely than others:

 

·        To have high levels of educational attainment.

·        To experience a disparity between their levels of educational attainment and income.

·        To be either Jewish, non-religious, or a member of a faith that is not theologically conservative Protestant.

·        To have a high tolerance for controversial ideas.

 

The analysis is based on data from the General Social Survey from 1974-2008. Beyond the items above, a smaller but significant impact also was found because professors are more likely than others to have lived in an urban area growing up and to have fewer children.

 

On the question of the education/income gap, Gross and Fosse say that their findings are consistent with the work of Pierre Bourdieu. "For Bourdieu, intellectuals are defined structurally by their possession of high levels of cultural capital and moderate levels of economic capital," they write. "This structural position, Bourdieu asserts, shapes their politics.... Deprived of economic success relative to those in the world of commerce, intellectuals are less likely to be invested in preserving the socioeconomic order, may turn toward redistributionist policies in hopes of reducing perceived status inconsistency, and may embrace unconventional social or political views in order to distinguish themselves culturally from the business classes."

 

Political Types

After outlining their statistical case, the authors go on to suggest what they call a new theory to explain professorial politics that builds on the differences they identify in the first part of their paper. They note that the factors they focus on in the first part of their study explain a portion but only a portion of the political gap, suggesting that relying on class analysis alone would be inadequate.

 

"The theory we advance ... holds that the liberalism of professors is a function not primarily of class relations, but rather of the systematic sorting of young adults who are already liberally or conservatively inclined into and out of the academic professions," they write.

 

Gross and Fosse cite research by others about how some professions become "sex typed" such that they are associated with gender. Even if some men and women defy these patterns and there is nothing inherently gender-related to these patterns, these types have an impact on the aspirations of young men and women.

 

"We argue that the professoriate, along with a number of other knowledge work fields, has been 'politically typed' as appropriate and welcoming of people with broadly liberal sensibilities, and as inappropriate for conservatives," they write. "This reputation leads many more liberal than conservative students to aspire for the advanced educational credentials that make entry into knowledge work fields possible, and to put in the work necessary to translate those aspirations into reality."

 

The authors are careful to define limits to their theory. They state that they do not believe that young people place themselves into numerous socioeconomic and philosophical views to determine a choice of career. And they note that they doubt that most young people even understand their full range of options. Rather, they argue that for those with political sensibilities, "identity and the social psychology of identity" come into play.

 

"[W]e argue that for young people whose political identities are salient, liberalism and conservatism constrain horizons of educational and occupational possibility," they write. "Because these identities involve cognitive schemas and habitual patterns of thinking that filter experience ... most young adults who are committed liberals would never end up entertaining the idea that they might become police or correctional officers, just as it would never cross the minds of most who are committed conservatives that they might become professors, precisely because of the political reputations of these fields."

 

The theory might also, the authors write, explain political differences visible among different academic disciplines.

 

"[W]e theorize that, within the general constraint that more liberals than conservatives will aspire for advanced educational credentials and academic careers of any kind, liberal students will be far more inclined than conservatives to enter fields that have come to define themselves around left-valenced images of intellectual personhood," the paper says. "Over the course of its 20th century history, for example, sociology has increasingly defined itself as the study of race, class, and gender inequality -- a set of concerns especially important to liberals -- and this means that sociology will consistently recruit from a more liberal applicant pool than fields like mechanical engineering, and prove a more chilly home for those conservatives who manage to push through into graduate school or the academic ranks."

 

 

Bob Jensen's threads on the Liberal Bias of the Academy ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#LiberalBias


 




From the Scout Report February 26, 2016

Scoop.it! --- http://www.scoop.it 

Scoopt.it is an excellent service for readers who would like to curate their own content about a particular topic on the web. Conducting a web search for existing Scoop.it pages (The psychology Scoop.it, for instance, has been viewed over one million times and is updated multiple times per day.) provides a sense for what Scoop.it can do. Signing up for a free Scoop.it account (there are also premium accounts, at cost) requires an email, Twitter, or Facebook account. Once an account is created, the site will ask users for topics or keywords of interest, searching the Internet for scoopable content. Readers may also scoop content they come across themselves, gradually building a site of curated information on a favorite topic.  


Image Optimizer --- http://www.imageoptimizer.net/ 

The world of contemporary communication is a world of images. No blog post is complete without a snappy pic to exemplify a point. Business reports need graphics, Christmas letters need photos of smiling children, and of course we all know that a Facebook post without an image will have little chance of getting noticed. But how do we adapt our images to the perfect size, shape, and quality for the particular purpose we have in mind? Image Optimizer is built for just that. Using the service is simple. Just upload a an image file, and then optimize by Quality (minimum file size, very small file size, small file size, normal, high quality, and best quality), by Max width, and by Max height. Then optimize in seconds and download the file back to your computer.


Twenty Years After It's Publication, "Infinite Jest" Still Strikes a
Chord
Infinite Jest at 20: still a challenge, still brilliant
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/feb/15/infinite-jest-at-20-still-a-challenge-still-brilliant-emma-lee-moss

Everything About Everything: David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest' at 20
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/books/review/everything-about-everything-david-foster-wallaces-infinite-jest-at-20.html

Beyond "Infinite Jest"
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/beyond-infinite-jest?intcid=mod-latest

The David Foster Wallace Audio Project
http://www.dfwaudioproject.org/

The Alchemist's Retort: A multi-layered postmodern saga of damnation and
salvation
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/02/the-alchemists-retort/376533/

Divine Drudgery
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/05/12/divine-drudgery/
 

Jensen Comment
I'm not a David Foster Wallace fan. In spite of praises from many reviewers find his books too long, poorly constructed, and extremely boring from beginning to middle (I never could reach the end of any of his books).

 


From the Scout Report on March 4, 2016

FlashTabs --- http://flashtabs.co 

The idea behind FlashTabs is as simple as it is effective. Let's say you are studying for an anatomy exam, or a driver's test, or a learning a new language. How do you integrate the information and the studying process throughout the day? FlashTab has an answer. The Chrome browser extension lets you create digital flashcards that will appear every time you open a new tab. This way, learning is integrated into daily activities at work and/or at home. Adding the extension takes only a few clicks of your mouse. From there, create a deck of flashcards and activate. Then learn your targeted information as you browse the Internet

 

Flashcard Machine --- http://www.flashcardmachine.com/

A free service for creating web-based study flashcards that can be shared with others.

With over 109 million flash cards created to-date, Flashcard Machine is your premier online study tool.

For example, search for the word "accounting" at
http://www.flashcardmachine.com/flashcards/flashcards.cgi
There are over 3,000 hits

 




From the Scout Report on March 4, 2016

 

Earth View from Google --- https://earthview.withgoogle.com/ 

For readers looking for a break from the doldrums of the workday, Earth View offers a mesmerizing escape. Here readers will find a prodigious collection of dazzling landscapes from the seemingly endless archives of Google Earth. Whether readers are perusing the lakes of the Tibetan Plateau or the intricacies of a sky-based view of a French airport, these images are chosen to inspire wonder at the variety and allure of planet Earth. Besides scrolling through the thousands of images showcased here, readers may also add the program as a browser extension and, perhaps best of all, download any image as wallpaper for desktop or mobile devices.

 


FlashTabs --- http://flashtabs.co 

The idea behind FlashTabs is as simple as it is effective. Let's say you are studying for an anatomy exam, or a driver's test, or a learning a new language. How do you integrate the information and the studying process throughout the day? FlashTab has an answer. The Chrome browser extension lets you create digital flashcards that will appear every time you open a new tab. This way, learning is integrated into daily activities at work and/or at home. Adding the extension takes only a few clicks of your mouse. From there, create a deck of flashcards and activate. Then learn your targeted information as you browse the Internet

 


The Zika Virus
Zika virus: pregnant women warned against travel to affected areas
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/zika-virus-pregnant-women-warned-against-travel-to-affected-areas

Short Answers to Hard Questions About Zika Virus
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/health/what-is-zika-virus.html

Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Zika Virus
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/

Where did viruses come from?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-where-did-viruses-come-fr/

Viruses and Evolution
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/viruses-and-evolution

< i>Viruses, Plagues, & History: Past, Present, and Future</i>
http://www.academia.dk/BiologiskAntropologi/Mikrobiologi/PDF/Viruses_Plagues_and_History.pdf
 

 


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


Education Tutorials

 

Inside Higher Ed: Community Colleges --- https://www.insidehighered.com/news/focus/community_colleges

San Francisco Symphony: Keeping Score in the Classroom --- http://www.keepingscore.org/education/lessonplanlibrary

Mindful Teachers --- http://www.mindfulteachers.org

A Thousand Years of the Persian Book (literature) --- http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/thousand-years-of-the-persian-book/

Access Islam --- http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/accessislam/index.html

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

 Update on Learning to Code

Learn How to Code for Free: A DIY Guide for Learning HTML, Python, Javascript & More  ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/learn-how-to-code-for-free-a-diy-guide-for-learning-html-python-javascript-more.html

CS For All: Introduction to Computer Science and Python Programming ---
https://www.edx.org/course/cs-all-introduction-computer-science-harveymuddx-cs005x

Code.org (computer sciencighties, Perl excels at processing text, and developers like it because it's powerful and flexible. It was once famously described as "the duct tape of the web," because it's really great at holding websites together, but it's not the most elegant language. Perl: Originally developed by a NASA engineer in the late eighties, Perl excels at processing text, and developers like it because it's powerful and flexible. It was once famously described as "the duct tape of the web," because it's really great at holding websites together, but it's not the most elegant language. Wikimedia Commons

. . .

C:
One of the oldest programming languages still in common use, C was created in the early 1970s. In 1978, the language's legendary and still widely read manual, the 800-page "The C Programming Language," saw print for the first time. C: One of the oldest programming languages still in common use, C was created in the early 1970s. In 1978, the language's legendary and still widely read manual, the 800-page "The C Programming Language," saw print for the first time. Flickr

. . .

Objective-C:
The original C programming language was so influential that it inspired a lot of similarly named successors, all of which took their inspiration from the original but added features from other languages. Objective-C has grown in popularity as the standard language to build iPhone apps, though Apple's been pushing its own Swift language, too. Objective-C: The original C programming language was so influential that it inspired a lot of similarly named successors, all of which took their inspiration from the original but added features from other languages. Objective-C has grown in popularity as the standard language to build iPhone apps, though Apple's been pushing its own Swift language, too. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

. . .

JavaScript:
This is a super-popular programming language primarily used in web apps. But it doesn't have much to do with Java besides the name. JavaScript runs a lot of the modern web, but it also catches a lot of flak for slowing browsers down and sometimes exposing users to security vulnerabilities. JavaScript: This is a super-popular programming language primarily used in web apps. But it doesn't have much to do with Java besides the name. JavaScript runs a lot of the modern web, but it also catches a lot of flak for slowing browsers down and sometimes exposing users to security vulnerabilities. Dmitry Baranovskiy via Flickr

. . .

Visual Basic:
Microsoft's Visual Basic (and its successor, Visual Basic .NET) tries to make programming easier with a graphical element that lets you change portions of a program by dragging and dropping. It's old, and some think it's lacking features next to other languages, but with Microsoft's backing, it's still got its users out there. Visual Basic: Microsoft's Visual Basic (and its successor, Visual Basic .NET) tries to make programming easier with a graphical element that lets you change portions of a program by dragging and dropping. It's old, and some think it's lacking features next to other languages, but with Microsoft's backing, it's still got its users out there. Wikimedia Commons

. . . 

Ruby:
 Like Python, developers like this 24-year-old language because it's easy to read and write the code. Also popular is Rails, an add-on framework for Ruby that makes it really easy to use it to build web apps. The language's official motto is "A programmer's best friend." Ruby: Like Python, developers like this 24-year-old language because it's easy to read and write the code. Also popular is Rails, an add-on framework for Ruby that makes it really easy to use it to build web apps. The language's official motto is "A programmer's best friend." ©V&A images

Python:
This language traces back to 1989, and is loved by its fans for its highly readable code. Many programmers suggest it's the easiest language to get started with. Python: This language traces back to 1989, and is loved by its fans for its highly readable code. Many programmers suggest it's the easiest language to get started with. Flickr/nyuhuhuu CSS: Short for "Cascading Style Sheets," CSS is a programming language to design the format and layout of a website. A lot of website menus and mobile app menus are written with CSS, in conjunction with JavaScript and garden-variety HTML.

CSS:
Short for "Cascading Style Sheets," CSS is a programming language to design the format and layout of a website. A lot of website menus and mobile app menus are written with CSS, in conjunction with JavaScript and garden-variety HTML. Wikimedia Commons

. . .

R:
This is the programming language of choice for statisticians and anybody doing data analysis. Google has gone on record as a big fan of R, for the power it gives to its mathematicians.

Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/programming-languages-in-highest-demand-2015-6?op=1#ixzz3eIfsCJdR

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

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

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

Scott Kelly's Photographs From a Year on the Space Station ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/astronaut-scott-kelly-instagram-2016-3

Brian Greene Breaks Down Einstein’s Theory of Gravitational Waves for Stephen Colbert ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/brian-greene-breaks-down-einsteins-theory-of-gravitational-waves-for-stephen-colbert.html

Neuronline --- http://neuronline.sfn.org/

NSF: Let It Snow (weather and environoment) --- http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/snow/

From the Scout Report on March 4, 2016

The Zika Virus
Zika virus: pregnant women warned against travel to affected areas
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/zika-virus-pregnant-women-warned-against-travel-to-affected-areas

Short Answers to Hard Questions About Zika Virus
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/health/what-is-zika-virus.html

Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Zika Virus
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/

Where did viruses come from?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-where-did-viruses-come-fr/

Viruses and Evolution
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/viruses-and-evolution

< i>Viruses, Plagues, & History: Past, Present, and Future</i>
http://www.academia.dk/BiologiskAntropologi/Mikrobiologi/PDF/Viruses_Plagues_and_History.pdf
 

 

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

The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics --- http://www.econlib.org/library/CEE.html
Don't forget that most of the terminology can be found in greater detail in Wikipedia

New Rosa Parks Archive is Now Online: Features 7,500 Manuscripts & 2,500 Photographs, Courtesy of the Library of Congress ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/rosa-parks-archive-is-now-online.html

European Commission: Gender equality --- http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/

American Aviatrixes: Women with Wings
http://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/american-aviatrixes

Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Philosophy 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


Law and Legal Studies

ConSource: The Constitutional Sources Project --- http://www.consource.org/

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


Math Tutorials

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

Amazing Photos of the Sahara Desert's Lost Libraries ---
https://weather.com/travel/news/huniewicz-lost-libraries-sahara-desert

Download 1800 Fin de Siècle French Posters & Prints in High-Resolution: Iconic Works by Toulouse-Lautrec & Many More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/download-1800-fin-de-siecle-french-posters-prints-in-high-resolution.html

Cow Hampshire (a New Hampshire Histoyr Blog) ---
http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/

Wynken de Worde (books and libraries) --- http://sarahwerner.net/blog/

Street View, Then & Now: New York's Fifth Avenue (photographic history) --- http://publicdomain.nypl.org/fifth-avenue/

EDSITEment: Mapping Colonial New England http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/mapping-colonial-new-england-looking-landscape-new-england

A Thousand Years of the Persian Book (literature) --- http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/thousand-years-of-the-persian-book/

Access Islam --- http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/accessislam/index.html

Celebrating Women's History Month in New Hampshire, March 2016 ---
http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2016/02/28/celebrating-national-womens-history-month-in-2016/

Download All 36 of Jan Vermeer’s Beautifully Rare Paintings (Most in Stunning High Resolution) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/download-all-36-of-jan-vermeers-beautifully-rare-paintings-many-in-stunning-high-resolution.html

New Rosa Parks Archive is Now Online: Features 7,500 Manuscripts & 2,500 Photographs, Courtesy of the Library of Congress ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/rosa-parks-archive-is-now-online.html

American Aviatrixes: Women with Wings
http://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/american-aviatrixes
 

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

San Francisco Symphony: Keeping Score in the Classroom --- http://www.keepingscore.org/education/lessonplanlibrary

The History of Electronic Music in 476 Tracks (1937-2001) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/the-history-of-electronic-music-in-476-tracks-1937-2001.html

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


 Tutorials

Glossary of Poetic Terms --- http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-terms

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/

February 29, 2016

·        'Female Libido' Pill May Not Be Worth It: Report

·        Urinary Incontinence Risk Up After Vaginal Birth

·        More Americans Opting for Butt Implants, Lifts

·        Transgender Kids: Support Key to Emotional Health

·        Pregnant Travelers, Tough Choices on Zika Testing

·        4 Types of Pancreatic Cancer Identified: Study

·        Surgeons Perform First U.S. Uterus Transplant

·        Pot Habit Early in Life May Alter Brain

·        Are Women the Key to Unlocking Alzheimer’s?

·        Zika's Effect on Fetus May Be Worse Than Thought

 

March 1, 2016

·        FDA Orders 'Black Box' Warning Label on Essure

·        'Female Libido' Pill May Not Be Worth It: Report

·        Daylight Saving Time Tied to Spike in Stroke Risk

·        Zika Virus Tied to Rare Disorder That Can Cause Paralysis

·        Urinary Incontinence Risk Up After Vaginal Birth

·        Surgeons Perform First U.S. Uterus Transplant

·        4 Types of Pancreatic Cancer Identified: Study

·        Pot Habit Early in Life May Alter Brain

·        Pregnant Travelers, Tough Choices on Zika Testing

·        More Americans Opting for Butt Implants, Lifts

 

March 2, 2016

·        A Daily Cup of Tea May Soothe Your Heart

·        Healthy Arteries After 80 May Lower Dementia Risk

·        Sleeplessness and Nighttime 'Light Pollution'

·        Scientists Report Finding 'Gray Hair' Gene

·        Young Athletes, Parental Pressure and 'Doping'

·        'Female Libido' Pill May Not Be Worth It: Report

·        FDA Orders 'Black Box' Warning Label on Essure

·        Daylight Saving Time Tied to Spike in Stroke Risk

·        Zika Tied to Disorder That Can Cause Paralysis

·        Sleep Apnea May Affect Your Mood, Thinking Skills

 

March 3, 2016

·        ADHD Meds Tied to Lower Bone Density in Kids

·        Inducing Labor May Not Boost C-Section Risk

·        One Drink Might Temporarily Bump Up Heart Risk

·        Lazy Weekends May Boost Body Fat

·        Ovarian Cancer Is More Than One Disease: Report

·        Link Between Many Moles, Melanoma Risk Questioned

·        Low Vitamin D May Mean Aggressive Prostate Cancer

·        A Daily Cup of Tea May Soothe Your Heart

·        Certain Jobs Hazardous to Your Heart Health

·        Type 1 Diabetes and Raised Risk of Certain Cancers

 

March 4, 2016

·        Overestimating Early Breast Cancer Return, Spread

·        Computer Use May Help Seniors' Memory Problems

·        Bridging Gap Between Medical, Mental Health Care

·        CDC: Hospitals Making Progress Against 'Superbugs'

·        ADHD Meds Tied to Lower Bone Density in Kids

·        Protein-Heavy Meals Make You Feel Fuller, Sooner

·        Raw Milk Blue Cheese Recalled by Whole Foods

·        Happiness Might Sometimes Harm Your Heart

·        Bacterial Infection Outbreak in WI: 18 Dead

·        Low-Dose Aspirin and Lower Risk of Some Cancers

 

March 5, 2016

·        After Hip Replacement, Therapy at Home May Suffice

·        Loose Helmets Tied to Worse Teen Concussions

·        This Therapy for Peanut Allergy Lasts, Study Finds

·        Hair Styling Can Cause Hair Loss for Black Women

·        Insights Into Zika Virus and Birth Defect Reported

·        Happiness Might Sometimes Harm Your Heart

·        Computer Use May Help Seniors' Memory Problems

·        Prostate Cancer Radiation Therapy May Carry Risks

·        Raw Milk Blue Cheese Recalled by Whole Foods

·        Overestimating Early Breast Cancer Return, Spread

 

March 7, 2016

·        Caring for Sick Spouse May Raise Stroke Risk

·        After Hip Replacement, Therapy at Home May Suffice

·        Loose Helmets Tied to Worse Teen Concussions

·        This Therapy for Peanut Allergy Lasts, Study Finds

·        Hair Styling Can Cause Hair Loss for Black Women

·        Insights Into Zika Virus and Birth Defect Reported

·        Happiness Might Sometimes Harm Your Heart

·        Computer Use May Help Seniors' Memory Problems

·        Prostate Cancer Radiation Therapy May Carry Risks

·        Raw Milk Blue Cheese Recalled by Whole Foods

 

 March 8, 2016

March 9, 2016

March 10, 2016

 

March 11, 2016

March 12, 2016

 


 

MIT:  Drugs for psychiatric illnesses aren’t very effective. But new research is offering renewed hope for better medicines ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/528146/shining-light-on-madness/


 

MIT:  Solving the Autism Puzzle ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/533501/solving-the-autism-puzzle/

 


How to Mislead With Statistics
Survey: Half of Community College Students Report Mental Health Problems
---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/03/02/survey-half-community-college-students-report-mental-health-problems?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2e5937c71d-DNU20160302&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2e5937c71d-197565045

Newly released results of a survey of community college students found that almost 50 percent of those surveyed had a current or recent mental health problem. The Wisconsin HOPE Lab, a research organization, surveyed 4,000 students at 10 community colleges across seven states. The resulting report found that 36 percent of respondents suffered from depression, and 29 percent had struggled with anxiety. Those rates are higher than those among students at four-year institutions, the lab reported. And mental health conditions also were more common among younger students at community colleges.

Fewer than half of the community college students with a mental health condition were receiving treatment, the report found. Roughly 88 percent of community colleges do not have a psychiatrist or other licensed prescriber on staff or contracted to provide services, according to the lab. And 57 percent do not provide suicide prevention resources.

Jensen Comment
When the respondents diagnosis themselves there can be widely varying responses in terms of subjective assessments of "depression" and "anxiety." At times virtually all college students have anxiety. Community college students, however, may have greater anxieties because they are more apt to be part-time students who are unemployed or greatly under-employed. Many may be stressed out by responsibilities for yount children while they are trying to earn college credits.


Why 1 in 3 Lawyers Are Problem Drinkers ---
http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202750792679/Why-1-innbsp3-Lawyers-Are-Problem-Drinkers#ixzz41s4Ud3hV


 

"Eyeglasses That Can Focus Themselves Are on the Way," by Rachel Metz, MIT's Technology Review, March 9, 2016 ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600963/eyeglasses-that-can-focus-themselves-are-on-the-way/#/set/id/601014/

Jensen Comment
Because of astigmatism I carry corrective driving glasses in the car. However, for other times of my life I avoid eyeglasses that only slightly, very slightly, improve my vision. The reason is that experts tell me that frequent eyeglass use increases dependency upon those eyeglasses. Our eyes own focusing power weaken with frequent eyeglass use. People who see poorly without eyeglasses must bear this burden.

My concern is that eyeglasses that can focus themselves will further weaken the natural focusing power of eyes. However, I'm no expert on this matter, but it is a concern to raise with experts if you consider switching to eyeglasses that can focus themselves.


 

 


Humor March 1-15 2015

The Speaker is a Weatherman ---
 https://www.youtube.com/embed/LR2qZ0A8vic?rel=0 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day Pub Lunch ---
http://www.jacquielawson.com/preview.asp?cont=1&hdn=0&pv=3153666&path=98301

Les Beaux Frères - Serviette (brief nudity) ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUr3XbROoA8
I had to wait a long time for a commercial for a new movie to end

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder --- https://www.youtube.com/embed/6oHBG3ABUJU

David Niven Presents an Oscar and Gets Interrupted by a Streaker (1974) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/david-niven-presents-an-oscar-and-gets-interrupted-by-a-streaker-1974.html

George Burns --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3c-WBn5cCg

Leave the Driving to the Bus Driver But Bring Your Own Depends ---
http://www.20min.ch/ro/videotv/?vid=339276

Cartoons from the April 2014 edition of the Harvard Business Review --- Click Here
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/02/strategic-humor-cartoons-from-the-april-2014-issue/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29&cm_ite=DailyAlert-030314+%281%29&cm_lm=sp%3Arjensen%40trinity.edu&cm_ven=Spop-Email

The Darwin Awards --- http://www.darwinawards.com/

 

 




Humor February  2016 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q1.htm#Humor022916.htm

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

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

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

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

·        Bob Jensen's Video Tutorials and Other Helpers --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideosSummary.htm 
(Includes video tutorials on Camtasia, MS Access, MS Excel, Managerial Accounting, and Accounting Theory)
 

·        Accounting for Derivative Financial Instruments --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm
 

·        Accounting for Fraud --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm
 

·        Accounting Theory --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory.htm
 

·        Electronic Commerce and Computing Security --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce.htm
 

·        XBRL and OLAP --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/XBRLandOLAP.htm
 

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