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 September 28, 2016
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
Wes Lavin's Photographs From
a Country Fair
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/TurbridgeFair/2016TurbridgeCountryFair.htm
Tidbits on September 28, 2016
Scroll Down This Page
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
Scholarpedia (a cross between Wikipedia and Google Scholar) ---
http://www.scholarpedia.org
Google Scholar ---
https://scholar.google.com/
Wikipedia ---
https://www.wikipedia.org/
Bob Jensen's search helpers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm
Bob Jensen's World Library ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
Inventor of a Wearable Parachute Takes a Flying Leap Off of the Eiffel
Tower in 1912, and It Doesn’t End Well ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/inventor-of-the-wearable-parachute-takes-a-flying-leap-off-the-eiffel-tower-in-1912.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
An Animated Aldous Huxley Identifies the Dystopian Threats to Our Freedom (1958)
---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/an-animated-aldous-huxley-identifies-the-dystopian-threats-to-our-freedom-1958.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Essence of Linear Algebra Explained With Animations ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/the-essence-of-linear-algebra-explained-with-animations.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
222 Classic Films Now in the Public Domain (free) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/watch-222-great-films-in-the-public-domain.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Pan Am Airlines Promotional Video (1958) ---
http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/six-and-a-half-magic-hours-1958/
The Art of Making Old-Fashioned, Hand-Printed Books ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/the-art-of-making-old-fashioned-hand-printed-books.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
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
1944 Instructional Video Teaches You the Lindy Hop, the Dance
That Originated in 1920’s Harlem Ballrooms ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/1944-instructional-video-teaches-you-the-lindy-hop-the-dance-that-originated-in-1920s-harlem-ballrooms.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Scroll down to the second video for the Lindy Hop at high speed
The History of Spiritual Jazz: Hear a Transcendent 12-Hour Mix
Featuring John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Herbie Hancock & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/the-history-of-spiritual-jazz.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Wynton Marsalis Takes Louis Armstrong’s Trumpet Out of the
Museum & Plays It Again ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/wynton-marsalis-takes-louis-armstrongs-trumpet-out-of-the-museum-plays-it-again.html
Ukulele Orchestra Performs Ennio Morricone’s Iconic Western
Theme Song, “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/ukulele-orchestra-performs-ennio-morricones-iconic-western-theme-song.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Love Songs With a Side of Theory ----
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Love-Songs-With-a-Side-of/237802?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=acc15470d7ae44d893ff6b96b6cd5f2e&elq=b6871985db7f4957a0ce96606e5b7d12&elqaid=10748&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4073
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
Incredible Rock Formations on Mars ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-curiosity-incredible-images-of-mars-2016-9
Pompeii ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/pictures-of-pompeii-italy-2016-9
Art History Today ---
http://www.arthistory.today
Phenakistoscopes (1833) ---
http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/phenakistoscopes-1833/
Richard Throssel Photographs ---
http://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu:8180/luna/servlet/ahc-throssel~1~1
Photography of Ludwig Wittgenstein Released by Archives at Cambridge ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/photography_of_ludwig_wittgenstein.html
Louise Nevelson Papers (art photography) ---
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/louise-nevelson-papers-9093
Where to Find Free Art Images & Books from Great Museums, and Free Books
from University Presses ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/01/free-art-images-books-from-great-museums.html
Where to Find Free Art Images & Books from Great Museums, and Free Books
from University Presses ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/01/free-art-images-books-from-great-museums.html
PhotoSeed (Art History, Photography) ---
http://photoseed.com/
22 Photos of the USA Air Force ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-air-force-69th-birthday-photos-2016-9
Post (art and literature) ---
http://post.at.moma.org/
MoMA: Inventing Abstraction 1910–1925 ---
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/inventingabstractio
MoMA: Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010 ---
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/polke/
Every Exhibition Held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Presented in a New Web Site: 1929 to Present ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/every-exhibition-held-at-the-museum-of-modern-art-moma-presented-in-a-new-web-site-1929-to-present.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
John Austen’s Haunting Illustrations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A
Masterpiece of the Aesthetic Movement (1922) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/john-austens-haunting-illustrations-of-shakespeares-hamlet.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The World's Greatest Cities Before They Were Cities ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/images-worlds-greatest-cities-2016-9
Andre Studios 1930-1941 (fashion clothing) --- http://andrestudios.nypl.org
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 Collective Biographies of Women ---
http://womensbios.lib.virginia.edu --
Hear 75 Free, Classic Audio Books on Spotify: Austen, Joyce, Bukowski, Kafka,
Vonnegut, Poe, Kerouac & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/john-austens-haunting-illustrations-of-shakespeares-hamlet.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
John Austen’s Haunting Illustrations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Masterpiece
of the Aesthetic Movement (1922) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/john-austens-haunting-illustrations-of-shakespeares-hamlet.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
400 Ways to Make a Sandwich: A 1909 Cookbook Full of Creative Recipes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/400-ways-to-make-a-sandwich-a-1909-cookbook-full-of-creative-recipes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Brooklyn Quarterly (essays and poetry) ---
http://brooklynquarterly.org
The Kim-Wait/Eisenberg Native American Literature Collection
https://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/holdings/nativeamericanlit
Storybench ---
http://www.storybench.org
Revisionist History (New Yorker's Malcomb Gladwell) ---http://revisionisthistory.com
Explore 5,300 Rare Manuscripts Digitized by the Vatican: From The Iliad &
Aeneid, to Japanese & Aztec Illustrations ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/explore-5300-rare-manuscripts-digitized-by-the-vatican.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%2
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 September 28, 2016
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2016/TidbitsQuotations092816.htm
To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the booked
obligation of $19+ trillion) ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/05/25/spring-2016-to-whom-does-the-us-government-owe-money-n2168161?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
The US Debt Clock in Real Time ---
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Remember the Jane Fonda Movie called "Rollover" ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film)
To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the
unbooked obligation of $100 trillion and unknown more in contracted
entitlements) ---
http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/15/news/economy/entitlement-benefits/
The biggest worry of the entitlements obligations is enormous obligation for the
future under the Medicare and Medicaid programs that are now deemed totally
unsustainable ---
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
"These Slides Show Why We Have Such A Huge Budget Deficit And Why Taxes
Need To Go Up," by Rob Wile, Business Insider, April 27, 2013 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/cbo-presentation-on-the-federal-budget-2013-4
This is a slide show based on a presentation by a Harvard Economics Professor.
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
Trinity University was ranked #1 in the West by US News and World Report
for the 25th consecutive year ---
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-universities-west
Guns Versus Free Food Stamps, Free Education, and Free
Healthcare
The $1 trillion price tag of modernizing America's nuclear weapons falls to the
next president ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-cost-of-modernizing-us-nuclear-weapons-to-fall-to-next-president-2016-9
Sixty Minutes Video: The New Cold War (Russia not as afraid to use nuclear
weapons in light of antiquated nuclear capabilities of a chicken USA)
http://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/iEM2236cIOex9vmBkrLIy2oENpJKdrRk/the-king-the-new-cold-war-the-picasso-portfolio/
The above video will only be free for a short time in September 2016
On a national level, a family needs a minimum of
$389,436 in earnings to be in the top 1%, but this number varies significantly
from place to place. It takes an income of $2.2 million to be in the top 1% of
earners in Teton County, Wyo., but an income of $97,000 is enough to be in the
top 1% in Holmes County, Miss. ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/business/your-local-1-percenters-may-not-be-as-rich-as-you-think.html?_r=0
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016-2017 list the
980 top universities in the world ---
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2017/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank_label/sort_order/asc/cols/rank_only
US News Rankings of Best Global Universities 2016-2017 ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities
Inside Higher Ed 2016: Key Trends in
Graduate and Professional Education: Attracting Students in Changing Times ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/10/05/new-compilation-graduate-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=56ea154f66-DNU20161005&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-56ea154f66-197565045&mc_cid=56ea154f66&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Inside Higher Ed 2016: The State of Undergraduate Education ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/22/more-people-enroll-college-even-rising-price-tag-report-finds?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=00a3f1d133-DNU20160922&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-00a3f1d133-197565045&mc_cid=00a3f1d133&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
What the study fails to mention is the superiority of undergraduates today
relative to decades past. Half of today's students earn A- or better grades
whereas in the 1940s the median grade in the USA was closer to a C grade. College teachers today must all be doing a much better job
in
Lake Wobegon across the USA where nobody is average --- Bravo!
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
Economists Offer
Unconventional Wisdom on Student-Loan ‘Crisis’ ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Economists-Offer/237906?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=193fd4c0dcd543388a6b70ce8df317af&elq=c359a50f67944a519f876e89534abe92&elqaid=10848&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4124
Warning: These two books are not politically correct for campus debate
In Transitional Year,
SAT (and ACT) Scores Drop on Old Test ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/09/27/transitional-year-sat-scores-drop-old-test?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=fde7a60fcd-DNU20160927&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-fde7a60fcd-197565045&mc_cid=fde7a60fcd&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
"Student Diversity at More Than 4,600 Institutions," Chronicle of
Higher Education, September 18, 2016 ---
http://www.chronicle.com/interactives/student-diversity-2016?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=0232a6c335f14a75a6c9c8de066dd14a&elq=600a2190e4de4e46bb287bb898fdf710&elqaid=10747&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4072
Jensen Comment
Some things got my attention like the prestigious Ivy League universities that
have nearly 50% minority enrollments. “Total minority” is the percentage of all
students who are not categorized as white, race unknown, or nonresident
Keep in mind that some (most?) prestigious universities invite children of
families earning less than USA average income ($54,500) to attend free if they
meet admission standards. A high proportion of those children are minority, and
the admissions bar may be lower for some or all minorities.
Added Note
It's not uncommon for for-profit universities to have 70+% women enrolled.
Although I'm not a fan of for-profit universities it makes me wonder who will be
hurt the most if the trend of closing them down continues. For example, look at
the enormous enrollments for the University of Phoenix, Grand Canyon University,
and Walden University.
"Ten Elite Schools Where Middle-Class Kids Don't Pay Tuition,"
by Akane Otani, Bloomberg News, April 1, 2015 ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-01/ten-elite-schools-where-middle-class-kids-don-t-pay-tuition?cmpid=BBD040215
Students lucky enough to be accepted
to some of the most competitive schools in the country can save hundreds of
thousands of dollars on tuition.
In a trend that's bound to come as a relief to
parents of high school seniors facing sticker prices that approach $63,000 a
year, a growing number of Ivy League and elite colleges are making college
more affordable for middle-class families.
Stanford University announced last week that,
starting this fall, students whose families make less than $125,000 a year
will not pay any tuition. Previously, the school had set the bar at
$100,000. With the move, Stanford has made it possible for more middle-class
students to get a degree for what they'd spend in tuition at an in-state,
public university (students with a family income above $65,000 a year still
have to cover room and board). That makes an admissions offer that's already
among the most coveted in the country even more attractive.
Stanford is not the first elite school to slash
tuition for middle-class and upper-middle-class students. (For reference,
we're going by the Pew Research Center's definition, which calls a family of
three in the U.S. middle class if they made between $40,667 and $122,000 in
2013.) While the wealthiest schools have long covered nearly all costs for
their poorest students, Harvard since 2004 has steadily broadened the group
of students to whom it gives financial aid, putting pressure on its peers to
match its generous discounts. The aid programs have helped absorb some of
the sticker shock from continuously rising tuition. Take a look at the top
schools that students from a range of middle-class families can attend,
tuition-free:
Continued in article
Summary
-
Princeton
-
Brown
-
Cornell
-
Columbia
-
Duke
-
Harvard
-
Yale
-
Stanford
-
MIT
-
Dartmouth
Americans With Disabilities Act ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990
Americans With Disabilities Act Restraints on Education, Including Free
Education
This problem never occurred to me until I read the article below
If you make a product of service free to the public should you be required to
make very expensive investments to
accommodate disabled people get your free product or service?
University May Remove Online (free MOOC) Content to Avoid Disability Law
---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/20/berkeley-may-remove-free-online-content-rather-complying-disability-law?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=6933764856-DNU20160920&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-6933764856-197565045&mc_cid=6933764856&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
. . .
While the university
has not made a final decision, she said, it may not be able to afford
complying with the Justice Department's recommendations on how to make the
online material accessible.
"In many cases the
requirements proposed by the department would require the university to
implement extremely expensive measures to continue to make these resources
available to the public for free," she wrote. "We believe that in a time of
substantial budget deficits and shrinking state financial support, our first
obligation is to use our limited resources to support our enrolled students.
Therefore, we must strongly consider the unenviable option of whether to
remove content from public access."
The announcement
added that Berkeley hoped to avoid that path through additional discussions
with the Justice Department.
The material in
question involves courses provided by Berkeley through the edX platform for
massive open online courses, and videos on YouTube and iTunes U.
The Department of
Justice found that much of this online material is in violation of the
Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires colleges to make their
offerings accessible to people with disabilities.
The department
investigation followed complaints by two individuals who are deaf -- one of
them a faculty member at Gallaudet University and one at its school for
elementary and secondary school students. Both said that they are unable to
use Berkeley online material because it has not been formatted for use by
people with hearing disabilities.
Berkeley released
the Justice Department letter
finding the university in violation of ADA. The letter outlined numerous
concerns not only about issues related to those who are deaf but also those
who have visual disabilities:
Many videos do not
have captions.
Many videos lack "an
alternative way to access images or visual information (e.g., graphs,
charts, animations, or urls on slides), such as audio description,
alternative text, PDF files, or Word documents.)
Many documents
"associated with online courses were inaccessible to individuals with vision
disabilities who use screen readers because the document was not formatted
properly."
Some videos that had
automatically generated captions were 'inaccurate and incomplete."
The review of online material
involved 16 MOOCs available in March and April of 2015 and another 10 in
January of this year. The Justice Department also based its analysis on
reviews of 543 videos on Berkeley's YouTube channel, and on 99 lectures in
27 courses on iTunes University.
Jensen Comment
This is more than just a MOOC problem. It's an enormous problem for distance
education in general as well as onsite traditional education where course
learning materials do not be ADA standards.
In fact those of us involved in blogging and the social media are undoubtedly
providing free material that is not ADA compliant.
Will the government eventually shut us down?
One way around this problem is probably to provide
non-compliant free learning material in other nations that do not have such
onerous ADA standards. Of course in USA courses such learning materials
could not be required in courses. The question is whether it can even be
recommended in free courses.
Bob Jensen's threads on technology aids to help disabled learners ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs and other free learning materials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
IBM Certificate Badges Available
Free Analytics, Big Data, and Data Science Courses ---
https://bigdatauniversity.com/
Bob Jensen's threads on free distance education and training courses (most
from prestigious universities) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance education and training courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
The 15 Best Gadgets for Your Car ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-car-gadgets-2016-9
Jensen Comment
My number one pick is a high-quality glass breaker and seat belt cutter
accessible from every seat in the vehicle. Windows can no longer be cranked down
manually when there's an accident.
I also wonder if there should be a noisemaker that sounds after 15 seconds
when both hands are not gripping the steering wheel while the vehicle is moving.
How We Get to Next (breakthroughs for the future of humanity) ---
https://howwegettonext.com
World’s Largest Companies: 2016 vs 2006 ---
http://ritholtz.com/2016/09/largest-companies-2016/
The Death of the Telephone Call ---
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_next_20/2016/09/what_s_lost_when_telephone_calls_disappear.html
Time Magazine: 2016 Ig Nobel Prize
Winning Quirky Research ---
http://time.com/4505383/ig-nobel-awards-2016-spoof-prize-quirky-science/?xid=newsletter-brief
Home Page and Archives ---
http://www.improbable.com/ig/
The World's First Hydrogen-Powered Train is Coming to Germany ---
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/23/13022400/hydrogen-train-germany-coradia-ilint-alstom-innotrans
Richard Mattessich ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mattessich
Jensen Comment
When I was a doctoral student UC Berkeley's Richard Mattessich
occasionally visited Stanford to discuss his current research and writings. I
always thought Mattessich was incapable of writing a working paper with
less than 150 pages. He spent much of his life studying history and philosophy,
and when reading one of his papers it was easy to get bogged down in the
verbiage and hundreds of references and endless quotations. I kept thinking "get
to the point."
I never in my life, until now, associated Professor Mattessich with anything
practical. But today I read where he's given credit for a practical idea in the
"invention" of a spreadsheet.
MIT: Why Big Companies Can't Invent
---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/402693/why-big-companies-cant-invent/
Jensen Comment
A lot depends upon what we mean by "invent?" Companies are often very good at
development and improvements that take a lot of "invention" for progress along
this path. For example, Microsoft did not invent the spreadsheet but there are
hundreds of subsequent Microsoft inventions that allowed Excel to become a
dominant force in spreadsheet software.
Actually until I went to the
following Wikipedia module this morning I was not even aware
that an acquaintance of mine (Richard Mattessich) years ago is given some credit
in the spreadsheet "invention."_
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet#Paper_spreadsheets
There were many "inventions" regarding spreadsheets in the years that followed,
including all the inventions Microsoft kept adding to Excel. I'm absolutely
certain that Richard Mattesich was incapable of developing Excel software even
though he made a seminal contribution to the concept of a "spreadsheet."
The above article overlooks some major inventions that were corporate-based.
For example, note the inventions credited to Xerox Parc:
Xerox PARC has been the inventor and incubator of many elements
of modern computing in the contemporary office work place:
- Laser printers,
- Computer-generated bitmap graphics
- The graphical user interface, featuring windows and
icons, operated with a mouse
- The WYSIWYG text editor
- Interpress, a resolution-independent graphical
page-description language and the precursor to PostScript
- Ethernet as a local-area computer network
- Fully formed object-oriented programming in the
Smalltalk programming language and integrated development
environment.
- Model–view–controller software architecture
The computer mouse was an enormous invention leading to development of Apple
computers. However, the mouse was actually rooted in a "trackball" invention of
the British Navy ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_(company)#Accomplishments
The developments of a spreadsheet and a computer mouse illustrate how
difficult it is to pinpoint where invention takes place. Most inventions are
rooted in other inventions that are rooted in other inventions. There may be
something innovative about each "invention" but there's usually something
borrowed as well.
Nobel prizes and patents are awarded for "seminal discoveries" that almost
always had roots in earlier research and invention. For example, Watson and
Crick got the Nobel Prize for the seminal discovery of DNA structure, but their
discovery depended a lot on the earlier findings of such researchers as Pauling,
Franklin, etc.
My point is that big companies often are not the source of primitive ideas
and findings that led to corporate research projects. These companies do not
usually focus on the most primitive findings upon which funded projects are
later built. Universities are best suited for primitive research. This is mainly
due to the freedom afforded by universities for faculty just to think and work
on things that interest them (the faculty) rather than the university not
motivated by a profit bottom line. Often the university is not even aware of
what faculty are spending a lot of time thinking about and tinkering with in
labs and in their wanderings through libraries and the Internet.
Companies are not as good at primitive level research because their employees
are usually more directed in terms of what to think about.
Primitive discovery is usually the result of freedom and lack of employer
control on how time is spent by workers. Companies do not usually allow the same
freedoms afforded college faculty and the unemployed of the world.
Conclusion
Back in the 1960s professors were not held accountable for publication counts
like they are today. They were expected to write and speak about what they were
thinking, but Richard Mattessich could build a reputation on working papers
without an annual journal hit list. In important ways professors were more
"free to be" in those days than today where the hit list of refereed journal
articles makes or breaks scholarly reputations. In some
ways it's sad that universities are no longer willing to give tenure for
primitive thinking instead of research journal hit lists.
President of Columbia University on Political Correctness
The No-Censorship Approach to Life ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-No-Censorship-Approach-to/237807?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=5b26715e0f9847b9946c344a50d984d6&elq=b6871985db7f4957a0ce96606e5b7d12&elqaid=10748&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4073
. . .
I do not want to discuss any of those specific
issues; however, I do want to make two overarching points. The first is
about proposals to stop speech from happening on campus, officially or
through private acts of disruption. The rules of the road here are very
clear. Even though private institutions like Columbia are not subject to the
First Amendment since it covers only actions by the state, many of them,
including Columbia, have voluntarily chosen to live by First Amendment
principles.
The First Amendment as we know it today is not all
that old — in a few years the nation will celebrate the 100th anniversary of
the first Supreme Court decisions interpreting freedom of speech. Those came
in 1919 in a series of cases under the Espionage Act of World War I, and in
the process the court affirmed the jailing of the presidential candidate
Eugene V. Debs for the crime of opposing the war and draft and for praising
those who resisted.
Looking back, it was obviously not an auspicious
beginning for the First Amendment jurisprudence we have come to embrace. For
while court interpretations have ebbed and flowed in the scope of protection
for speech since then, in the past half century we have all come to a pretty
clear position that is unique among nations: With few exceptions, speech
that is about or relevant to public issues and the search for truth, broadly
interpreted, is fully protected against censorship, no matter how offensive
or dangerous it might seem to the majority of the citizens of this country.
In this case, what’s true for the country is also
true for Columbia. We don’t ban speech. We don’t censor speech. But make no
mistake: This is no simple, clear-cut,
self-evident principle or policy; in fact, far from it.
You hear a lot of people these days talking as if
this were all perfectly obvious and no reasonable person could believe
otherwise. I have spent a good part of my life trying to understand why this
approach is indeed the right and sound way to structure a society or a
university. I can assure you, it is highly complicated. Nevertheless, it is
our choice on my campus that students cannot expect the institution to
intervene, to stop thoughts or viewpoints many of us may dislike, and deeply
so. And we will not let others do what we cannot.
At the same time, we cannot just leave it there.
Just because we cannot and will not stop or
censor expression does not mean we will or should do nothing;
that we are powerless. The burden we impose on ourselves by forgoing
censorship is the responsibility to engage the debate. We can express
counterviews, give reasons why the contrary view was wrong, offensive, and
dangerous. We can be upset and angry, organize an opposition, ignore or shun
a speaker, or deploy humor to deflect injury. We can also listen, reflect,
reconsider, and forgive. To say that we can’t ban speech is, in a sense,
easy. To say what follows next is very, very hard.
This brings me to that second essential point: How
students today grapple with ideas, with thoughts and viewpoints in the
myriad ways available to them, will determine who they are. Of course, they
will never completely resolve this process; it is too complex for rules or
clear guides. They will make many errors, and feel embarrassed looking back.
Or they will feel proud and hope they can replicate what they did.
Does this open environment, created by the First
Amendment for society — and, by extension, for our campuses — allow students
to be confident in their beliefs, yet open to alternative perspectives?
Courageous when confronting evil, or weak and fearful? Does it encourage
them to change their minds when evidence and reason call for a change,
instead of being stubborn and myopic about things they just don’t like or
can’t refute?
I hope so. That’s the best rationale we have for
our no-censorship approach in life. We throw our graduates into the deep
waters of that life, and we must make the most of every opportunity we have
to prepare them to deal with the world they will confront. This won’t always
be easy — for us or for those students. We humans are not naturally disposed
to be open-minded, to be tolerant, and willing to engage with thoughts that
are foreign to us and contrary to our own beliefs and views.
Our natural instinct is to preserve our own ways of
thinking, whatever they happen to be. Left to our own devices, we avoid
discourse, we prefer to associate with those who reinforce our own ways of
thinking, and we fear the uncertainty of not knowing what or how to believe.
But in the academic world, our basic intellectual
inquiry emphasizes habits of mind that we think increase the odds that we
will discover new ideas and truths. We stress being able to suspend our
beliefs, to embrace self-doubt, to take joy in learning that we were wrong,
to welcome knowing what is not true as another step toward knowing what is
true, to be articulate about ideas, to relish complexity, and to use reason
while knowing its limits.
To some extent, this commitment to constant
self-reflection can make us seem ill-suited for the world outside, which too
often elevates voices that are loudest and most sure of themselves. Yet our
essential mission remains to invite students to join us in these special
qualities of intellect that never stop questioning, whether it’s society’s
conventional wisdom or their own beliefs. After all, it may be their only
chance in life to see what’s possible with such a truly open mind.
Lee C. Bollinger is president of Columbia University. This essay was
adapted from his speech at the university’s fall convocation.
Jensen Comment
I might point out that these issues are often not black versus white as alluded
to in the above article For example, in 2006 Lee Bollinger cancelled an
invitation to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Columbia Withdraws an Invitation to Ahmadinejad
Overruling a prominent dean, the president of Columbia
University, Lee Bollinger, yesterday withdrew an invitation to the Iranian
president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The dean of Columbia's school of international
and public affairs, Lisa Anderson, had independently invited Mr. Ahmadinejad to
speak at the World Leader's Forum, a year-long program that aims to unite
"renowned intellectuals and cultural icons from many nations to examine global
challenges and explore cultural perspectives." In a statement issued yesterday
afternoon, Mr. Bollinger said he canceled Mr. Ahmadinejad's invitation because
he couldn't be certain it would "reflect the academic values that are the
hallmark of a University event such as our World Leaders Forum." He told Ms.
Anderson that Mr. Ahmadinejad could speak at the school of international and
public affairs, just not as a part of the university-wide leader's forum.
Iliana Johnson, "Columbia Withdraws
an Invitation to Ahmadinejad," New York Sun, September 22, 2006 ---
http://www.nysun.com/article/40142
At another time when Ahmadinejad did speak at Columbia Lee Bolinger was
openly hostile toward the speaker ---
http://snarkybehavior.com/2007/09/24/thoughts-on-ahmadinejad-at-columbia/
I might point out that many vocal alumni of Columbia were openly appalled
that Ahmadinejad was ever invited to the campus of Columbia University ---
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-shmuley-boteach/columbia-disgraces-itself_b_65541.html
Iran is the leading state-sponsor of
terrorism, with government officials directly responsible for numerous terrorist
attacks ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-cant-whitewash-its-record-of-terror-1474234929?mod=djemMER
Hence political correctness is and never was a black
and white issue except at the very extremes such as inviting a bomb maker to
campus to demonstrate how to make pressure cooker bombs or inviting Ben Sahapiro
to speak on conservative economics at Depaul University.
But the latest predictable outrage is that
DePaul University has banned Shapiro from appearing on campus, under the
ludicrous and specious pretense of "security concerns." If there are
security concerns, neither Shapiro nor his admirers are causing them. As
Shapiro's sponsor, Young America's Foundation said, "Make no mistake,
any security concerns we face on campuses are 100 percent incited by the
censorious, intolerant left."
http://townhall.com/columnists/davidlimbaugh/2016/08/05/censorial-depaul-bans-conservative-ben-shapiro-n2201935?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
Jensen Comment
The :intolerant left" includes most of Depaul's faculty as well as
students.
Ben Shapiro is not politically correct for campuses in the USA. He
favors capitalism in economics. This is like showing students how to make
pressure cooker bombs.
The Political Correctness Faculty of the University of Chicago Strike Back
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness
Excel Errors in Science Papers ---
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/09/daily-chart-3?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/excelerrorsandsciencepapers
Jensen Comment
In the case of accounting research the software tends to be statistical packages
like SAS or SPSS. Where errors arise is that most of the data comes from
purchased databases like CRSP, Compustat, and AuditAnalytics. The sad news is
that academic accounting research is almost never replicated. Even more sad news
is that when replicated errors in the data are rarely discovered because both
researchers and the replicators use the same databases. Checking for errors in
purchased databases is almost unheard of among accounting researchers. This is
why accounting research is almost always considered truth the instant it's
published. We really don't want to find errors in academic accounting research
because nobody cares if there are errors --- certainly not practitioners who
have no interest in the fun and games of academic accounting research.
Bob Jensen's threads on the sad state of academic accounting research ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
Also see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
PS
Excel errors are more apt to arise in accounting practice where Excel dominates
many accounting tasks, especially in auditing.
Are high school counselors overselling careers in science?
Why ‘Alternative’ Careers in STEM Aren’t
‘Alternative’ ---
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/1549-why-alternative-careers-in-stem-aren-t-alternative?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=ff777a5b693b4c9aa558e08b72af2aff&elq=045c6cfdcd26488389974e647a9b7107&elqaid=10791&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4093#sthash.Rwl9pAxv.dpuf
Jensen Comment
I don't think I oversold careers in accounting. I did repeatedly caution many of
my advisees early on that they may not get those sought-after offers from the
multinational accounting firms.
However, I probably did oversell ultimate career alternatives for becoming an
accounting professor. It was easy to show my masters students statistics on the
excess of demand for tenure-track accounting professors versus supply. It was
easy to point out the starting salary differences between an accounting Ph.D.
versus a humanities Ph.D.
However, what I did not perhaps stress hard enough was the shortage of
capacity in North American accounting Ph.D. programs accredited by the AACSB
(which is the only route for a career in North American accounting academia).
Whereas there are
27,000+ accounting masters degree graduates in the USA each year, there are
fewer than 200 accounting Ph.D. graduates each year, significantly down from the
1980s. The reason is that the large accounting Ph.D. mills of the 1980s (e.g.,
Illinois, Texas, and some of the Big 10 universities) cut back greatly on the
number of admissions to their Ph.D. programs. For example, Illinois and Texas
graduating over 15 accounting Ph.Ds per year in the 1980s sometimes now graduate
zero or one per year.
In the 1980s there were over 220 accounting Ph.D. graduates per year in the
USA whereas in 2015 there were only 174 Ph.D. graduates in the USA ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoct/XDocChrt.pdf
Promising our masters students in accounting wonderful careers in academe is
misleading with such low odds of getting into a program, especially amidst the
increasing highest quality global competition (mathematics geniuses) from Asia
trying to get into USA accounting doctoral programs.
How to Mislead With Statistics
Zero Correlation Between Evaluations and Learning ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/21/new-study-could-be-another-nail-coffin-validity-student-evaluations-teaching?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=ddd03ccf45-DNU20160921&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-ddd03ccf45-197565045&mc_cid=ddd03ccf45&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
In fairness the article does caution against statistical quirks and misleading
conclusions.
The criticism that I would place on this is that there is no homogeneity
among sample items and an enormous problem of non-stationary states where
regression and correlation analyses fall apart.
Teachers get high student evaluations for many of the right reasons (personal
and individual time and attention) and the wrong reasons (fluff assignments and
easy course grading). The "zero correlations" have almost no meaning unless the
sampling populations are partitioned into reasons why teachers get high or low
evaluations that can sometimes be garnered from subjective comments such as the
comments in RateMyProfessor.com (where sample sizes are too small and self
selective for statistical analysis on numerical ratings). The best teacher that
I encountered in my 40 years in academe was a lousy classroom teacher. But she
spent and added 40+ hours one-on-one or two-on-one time in her office patiently
going over and over technical accounting rules until her students had a tough
accounting course etched in their brains. Her virtues were caring and patience
and rigor.
There's an enormous problem in defining "learning." In theory it should be
defined in terms of some performance measure that can be tested before a course
begins versus when a course ends. But even here there are all sorts of issues.
For example, my son had a third grade teacher in Tallahassee who could not
herself functionally read. She could hardly be evaluated for teaching of
reading. Yet she was a great inspiration to him in terms of wanting to learn in
general and received praises from him even though another teacher had to be
brought in to teach reading. Hence the variable "learning" is confounded with
the variable "inspiration."
Some universities have a course called "CPA Review" that's usually very
popular with masters of accounting students who are facing the tough nation-wide
CPA examination (with a 15% to 25% first-time pass rate) after graduation.
Teachers might be evaluated on "learning" according to their students' ultimate
pass rates the first time they take the CPA examination. But there are all sorts
of complications with that since teachers cannot control the amount of
self-study between when the course ends and when the student ultimately
graduates and sits the first time for the CPA examination. There are many other
confounding variables that make CPA exam pass rates poor measures of learning in
a CPA Review course.
At a minimum learning should be validated independently of the teachers as
often is the case in competency-based testing ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
But there are issues with this since it encourages teaching to the tests rather
than teaching to the students.
I think the numerical parts of teaching evaluations are more
misleading than helpful in most (not all) courses. The subjective evaluations
are sometimes much more helpful, but here again there are cautions. Repeated
complaints like "everything I learned in this course I
had to learn by myself" was a common complaint among students of
three top teachers who team-taught Intermediate 1 and 2 courses at the
University of Virginia. Getting such evaluations became the goals of these
three professors using a BAM pedagogy (students called it DAMN pedagogy) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm
I Don't Think Anybody Beats the LL Bean Lifetime Return Policy
LL Bean ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.L.Bean
L.L.Bean offers a '100% satisfaction guarantee' on
all of its products meaning they will accept
all returns with or without the receipt however long ago you purchased the item.
We spoke with Business Insider reporters about why this
return policy is easily the best there is ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/llbean-return-policy-retailer-satisfaction-guarantee-boots-shoes-2016-9
Jensen Comment
This is not necessarily a replacement guarantee. The one and only time I
put LL Bean to the test was when I returned a pair of gumshoes (boots) that
I'd worn out in years of heavy use. LL Bean expertly repaired the boots
(including new bottoms) but did not send me a new pair. I've got no
complaints even though the repaired boots do not look like new boots. Who
cares?
Even though the above article says "all returns" there may indeed be some
exceptions. Before ordering read the fine print, especially on expensive
items like boats, tents, and high-end camping gear. For example, there may
be an exception to a boat exposed for long times in salt water.
Customer Service Hall of Fame/Shame: the companies with the highest
and lowest customer satisfaction ratings ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/08/23/customer-service-hall-of-fame-4/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AUG242016A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter
Jensen Comment
Note that some companies that advertise a lot (read that as Progressive
Insurance, BofA, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Dish Network, Direct TV, and the big
cable companies) have lousy customer service reputations. The bad customer
service seems to worse for companies that provide continuous service such as
mobile phone and cable companies. The sad thing is that their prices seem to be
going up faster than price increases on other things we buy.
My favorite customer service story was one that Jay Leno told during a gig at
Trinity University. It seems that his father bought a toilet with a 20-year
warranty. During one of Jay's visits home his dad asked for help getting that
toilet disconnected and returned to the hardware store after 19+ years of use.
At the time Jay was very famous and recognizable with that huge chin. Jay Leno
felt more than a little embarrassed carrying a 19+ year old toilet into the
hardware store for a new replacement in front of the other customers in the
store. He got the new toilet and took it home. Jay is rich and could easily have
ordered a new toilet installed without returning the old toilet. But his father
insisted that the store must honor its warranty. Jay had some other cute stories
about his modest and plain-living parents.
Bob Jensen's Customer Service Preferences When Living in the Boondocks
Personally I like the ease and convenience of Amazon's customer service,
especially regarding how easy it is to return merchandise with free return
shipping when you live 10-100 miles from stores where you customarily shop. With
Amazon I can return it in the same shipping box (that I don't get from an
in-store purchase) and drop it off at a UPS or Postal Service counter less than
three miles from our cottage. The drawback is that I may have to wait a couple
of days for the credit to appear on my credit card, but who cares about such a
short wait?
And when I return something to Amazon I don't have to wait in a customer
service line even on the day after Christmas. I can't say that for an in-store
return to Wal-Mart.
Personally I like the in-home service contract coverage from Sears on larger
items like snow throwers, air conditioners, dehumidifiers, microwaves, stoves,
and refrigerators. It sometimes takes 10-20 days for the Sears truck to roll up
my driveway but what a convenience of not having to take these heavy items to a
drop off point myself.
The Sears in-home service contract comes with a "free" annual maintenance
service. Refrigerators don't take much service other than a little cleaning, but
air conditioners and snow throwers take a bit more maintenance.
I'm worried about a long-term renewal of my Sears extended warranties.
Sears purportedly is in deep trouble in terms of survival (along with K-Mart
owned by Sears).
September 17, 2016 reply from Steve Hornik
This one is close. I have a Weber Grill and the
bottom portion where a post held up the grill rusted out so when I cooked I
had to strategically place whatever I had on the grill so it wouldn't slide
down into the coals. One day I looked closely and saw that there were only 4
screws holding the bottom bowl to the grill stand so I tried to order it
rather than have to get a new grill (forget the fact that i forgot all the
other things attached to the bottom bowl). So I called Webber trying to oder
what I needed and low and behold they too have a lifetime warranty, out they
shipped a new bottom bowl AND a new top cover (because there policy is that
they must match) all for free - Amazing!
Here's the list of K-Mart stores that will be closing ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/kmart-is-closing-64-stores-full-list-2016-9
Also see
http://www.businessinsider.com/kmart-closes-64-more-stores-sales-decline-retail-locations-clearance-2016-9
Tesla ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla
Tesla Owners Love to Shame Gas Car Drivers Who Park in Supercharger Spots
---
https://www.yahoo.com/news/tesla-owners-love-shame-gas-211050005.html
Jensen Comment
Most of us hate it when able-bodied drivers have handicapped tags in
order to get preferred parking. For example, I know a granddaughter (not
ours) who carries her grandmother's hanging tag un her purse so she and her
boyfriend can get privileged parking. The grandmother is in a nursing home.
Supposedly usage of someone else's hanging tag is illegal, but it's seldom
enforced. In fact, handicapped parking is seldom enforced when cars without
tags park in handicap places. Drivers get away with this all the time,
especially busy shopping seasons. Police are just too busy with other
matters.
This raises a whether Tesla drivers should be getting privileged parking
near power outlets in parking lots/garages, such as employee and hotel
parking facilities, so as to attach cords to power outlets when there are no
Tesla supercharger facilities available. This is irritating since Tesla
drivers may even be getting better privileges as handicapped drivers. It's
bad enough that Tesla owners get an enormous taxpayer subsidy on the
purchase price of their luxury cars. It also irritates me no end when Tesla
drivers pay zero (except in Oregon) for roads and bridges used by their
cars. It would also irritate me if Tesla car owners get very privileged
parking parking near power outlets.
To be honest with you I would be very nervous parking a very expensive
Tesla in a hotel parking garage with a power cord leading to a wall
electricity outlet. When we get up in the morning, have a great breakfast,
pack our bags, and check out of our room we might get off the elevator and
discover our Tesla in a choice parking space is scratched all over with four
flat tires and a missing power cord. It gives me some comfort that our
modest gray Subaru Forrester is parked in a handicapped zone legally since
my wife really is very legally handicapped with a wheelchair in the back of
the car. I've never found our modest car scratched with four flat tires even
when we've parked many times in a very full hotel parking garage near the
Harvard Medical Center.
Of course this is no longer just a Tesla problem. Experts predict that
Teslas are not the electric car of the future. We may be seeing many more
Chevy Bolts and other electric cars on the road rather than the more
expensive Tesla alternatives. Chevy Bolts and other electric cars will also
have to have power outlets in parking lots and garages. This is not a
problem in Alaska where each parking stall has it's own metered power outlet
for head bolt heaters. But it will be a problem in the other 49 states,
albeit less of a problem in states with hard winters since electric cars
don't work well in cold weather.
Google’s car will automatically pull you over for the police ---
http://readwrite.com/2016/09/11/google-self-driving-police-tl4/
You don't want to ask what Bill Clinton's car pulls over for automatically.
Why the Business School Dean was Canned at Syracuse University ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/19/syracuse-ousted-dean-after-he-was-arrested-patronizing-prostitute?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=bd7ec52f6b-DNU20160919&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-bd7ec52f6b-197565045&mc_cid=bd7ec52f6b&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
What surprised me is his salary. Does that surprise you? He could afford the
best.
Syracuse dismissed head of business school without
public explanation and suspended him from faculty job. He had been arrested
for patronizing a prostitute.
Meanwhile
Stop Arresting Prostitutes ---
ACLU
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2016/09/aclu_to_newark_stop_arresting_citys_prostitutes.html#incart_most-commented_hudson
Jensen Comment
These arrests are tarnishing the image of Bill Clinton and at least one business
school dean
Why are colleges now selling beer at football games?
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/19/struggling-low-attendance-games-colleges-turn-beer-sales?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=bd7ec52f6b-DNU20160919&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-bd7ec52f6b-197565045&mc_cid=bd7ec52f6b&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Get Yer Beer Here
For decades, beer sales at college football games were nearly unheard-of.
Now many programs are turning to alcohol to help boost attendance and
revenue.
Jensen Comment
Not a good idea at the University of Michigan and elsewhere where stadiums have
shortage of bathrooms. Each beer container should come wrapped with a pair of
Depends. I often thought a clever name for a beer brand would be "Dependable."
A long-running investigation of exceptional children
reveals what it takes to produce the scientists who will lead the twenty-first
century.
How to raise a genius: lessons from a 45-year study of super-smart children
---
http://www.nature.com/news/how-to-raise-a-genius-lessons-from-a-45-year-study-of-super-smart-children-1.20537
No Math Isn't Racist ---
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/439846/
I was hoping the article would address the question of whether some races
(think Asian) have superior brains for mathematics relative to other races. But
alas, the above article really does not deal with that issue. Or that some races
have superior brains for music (think African). This is a genetics question
that's probably impossible to determine decisively from SAT, ACT, and other
testing instruments because of so many intervening and interactive variables
such as racial variations in education and family life.
Many (not all) Asian Americans score well on these types of tests because
their parents are so aggressive (think Tiger moms) at home regarding education
apart from what is taught in the schools. I suspect that many African Americans
are very good in music performances because of motivating incidents and
circumstances in early childhood.
What is unanswered (at least for me) is why some children seem to be born
with abilities that cannot be attributed to childhood experiences such as
Savants (think
The Rain Man) who are often mysteriously skilled in mathematics and some
other savants and others (think
Mozart) who mysteriously perform wonderfully in music or art without being
taught or without being taught at a level that they can perform at an early age.
But I'm not a believer of in genetic differences in mental abilities due to
race. I am, however, a believer in differences in mental abilities due to
genetics in general. This of course is a belief not attributable to any type of
study or research on my part. We inherited a lot from our family trees apart
from what we can see in mirrors. But the nature-nurture debate has a long way to
go before issues can be resolved.
How to Rewire Your Brain to Become Fluent in Math ---
http://nautil.us/issue/17/big-bangs/how-i-rewired-my-brain-to-become-fluent-in-math?utm_source=frontpage&utm_medium=mview&utm_campaign=how-i-rewired-my-brain-to-become-fluent-in-math
Sorry, education reformers, it’s still memorization
and repetition we need.
Jensen Comment
When I got seriously better at math and statistics i was in a Ph.D.
program (for six wonderful years on full scholarship, including room and
board). While getting a Ph.D. in accountancy I was already a CPA and a MBA
so Stanford made me take years and years of mathematics, statistics,
economics, and operations research courses. The secret of my success ---
repetition. I worked tons of problems and wrote tons of my own
problems. Among my fellow students I looked like a genius, because they came
into the doctoral program having a lot more mathematics in years past.
They'd forgotten most of it! My colleagues and even some faculty constantly
came to me for help in the doctoral program.
This sort of makes you think about the value or remedial courses in
general. Remedial courses have an advantage of being recent on the brain.
Why Science Should Stay Clear of Metaphysics ---
http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/-why-science-should-stay-clear-of-metaphysics?utm_source=frontpage&utm_medium=mview&utm_campaign=-why-science-should-stay-clear-of-metaphysics
Jensen Question
Is philosophy of science pretty well dead, along with Latin and Sanscrit, in
college curricula?
Why humans can't domesticate (most) zebras?
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-humans-couldnt-domesticate-zebras-2016-9
How to Mislead with statistics
NetFlix claims these are the 20 most popular shows at the moment
http://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-most-popular-shows-2016-9
That might be true, but I've been on a waiting list for over a year for 40
BBC Masterpiece Theater videos (mostly mysteries like the Inspector Lynley
disks)
Out of curiosity I sampled some of the above "20 most popular shows" that are
not streamed and found there's no wait to receive a disk.
As we know well from the NYT Bogus "Best Seller" listings and the Good
Housekeeping Seal of Approval, being "most popular" depends upon how you define
"most popular."
Buick and Cadillac join Chrysler and Jeep the Top 10 list of least
reliable automobiles (Consumer Reports) ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/09/12/best-and-worst-car-brands/6/
Why can't we make cars like the Japanese?
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/09/12/best-and-worst-car-brands/2/
The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2020 ---
https://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2020/
The Atlantic: The Rich Were Meant to Have More Free Time While the
Poor the Least; The Opposite is Happening. Why?
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/the-free-time-paradox-in-america/499826/
. . .
In the classic 1930 essay “Economic Possibility of
Our Grandchildren,” the economist John Maynard Keynes forecast a future
governed by a different set of expectations. The 21st century’s work week
would last just 15 hours, he said, and the
chief social challenge of the future would be the difficulty of managing
leisure and abundance.
“For the first time since his creation man will be
faced with his real, his permanent problem,” Keynes wrote, “how to use his
freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which
science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and
agreeably and well."
The same idea was echoed in a 1957 book review for
The New York Times, in which the writer Erik Barnouw predicted that, as work
became easier and more machine-based, people would look to leisure to give
their lives meaning.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
I don't think Keynes anticipated the robotics revolution of the 21st Century,
but robotics are definitely leading to more and more free time in society when
more free time is increasingly problematic.
Some Swedish firms are experimenting six-hour work day. Think about it if this
becomes mandated. Police, hospitals, and other 24/7 workplaces will have to 28
shift changes per week ---
http://www.snopes.com/sweden-6-hour-workday/ .
Actually, many workers prefer entire days off which is why in the USA it's
increasingly popular to have four 12-hour workdays per week. Scheduling can get
complicated for six-hour shift changes such as when there have to be shift
changes of nurses and technicians during long surgeries or when sheriff's
deputies just get out into the counties and have to quickly turn around to
return to base. Six-hour shift changes can lead to added expenses such as fuel
expenses. It's not possible to have six-hour shift changes on 18-hour flights to
Asia.
Professors have somewhat ideal flex-time careers where they may only be in
class 5-9 hours per week plus expected office hours of another 5-9 hours per
week. If they don't teach in summer terms they may only have to teach 30 or less
weeks per year. Professors can than often work when and where they choose,
because their efforts are usually judged based upon scholarship and research
performances/reputations rather than clocked hours of input. In reality many
professors work 60-hours per week (I was one of those before I retired), but the
work is often outside their campus classrooms, offices, and labs. I cannot think
of a better career other than being a quality control inspector in a Nevada
brothel.
A Reply from a retired economist friend on September 16, 2016
Since the marginal return on hours worked by some
of the rich is way more than the average pay received by the poor, one can
see why the rich work more than the poor. Of course, most of the rich worked
hard investing in human capital in order to increase the value of work time.
A surgeon may make several hundreds $ per hour in comparison to the $10-$12
per hour the poor may make. So, the trick here is to make investments in
human capital while young in areas that have higher returns and that are
also fun to do.
Bob Jensen's reply on September 16, 2016
The rich have more temptations to overspend on such things as expensive
homes, second homes, luxury vacations, lawsuits, etc. The rich may also be
paying more for one or more ex-spouses. One thing about being poor is that
divorce is relatively free as long as you used birth control. "I've got
plenty of nuthin', and nuthin's plenty for me. Or remember this great song
from Father Goose (one of my all-time favorite movies):
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ten+fine+toes+and+Father+Goose
Three Types of Debt to Pay Off Before You Retire ---
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2016/09/14/debt-retire-pay-off-bills-mortgage-credit-cards/89786516/
Jensen Comment
I disagree. Circumstances vary too much for this type of blanket advice. Much
depends on the type of debt, your income, and what your taxes will be in
retirement.
In my particular case it would've been dumb to not have mortgage debt in
retirement. Instead I took on a jumbo mortgage (and later refinanced for lower
interest rates they became available). For many retirees mortgage interest is
all that keeps them from having to resort to the miserable standard deduction on
their tax returns. Then a lot of other deductions like property taxes,
charitable deductions, health care deductions etc. may go wasted.
The thing to consider is what you will do with the investment savings you
would've used to pay off your mortgage. In my case it turned out wonderfully to
put that money into a long-term insured tax exempt mutual fund that has paid
more after-tax returns and tax savings than any benefit I would've gotten from
not having mortgage payments. Don't get me wrong. This
is not good advice for everybody. It all depends on your mortgage
size, your retirement income, health issues, and your particular tax situation
that is unlike anybody else's tax situation.
Another consideration is that a jumbo mortgage means investing a lot in your
home, and maybe this is not wise in your particular case. A valuable home means
more property taxes and upkeep work and expenses. There are many variables to
consider here. The huge amount of work keeping up my big yard probably
keeps me alive since I hate other types of exercise.
One mistake that I could not have foreseen in 2003 when I bought our
retirement cottage before the real estate bubble burst is that real estate
values would subsequently crash. After the real estate bubble burst in 2007 it
became obvious that I paid way too much for our mountain cottage and acreage.
But the loss will be borne by my heirs rather than me after I'm dead and gone
unless I live a long, long time and real estate values soar once again.
Whether you should pay off other debt like car loans is somewhat debatable,
but your other debt probably does not give you any tax advantage, unlike
mortgage debt. I don't have any other debt and never, in my whole life, had
stupid credit card debt. The only other debt I can recall is buying a second
home (an ocean cottage) when I was on the faculty of the University of Mainr ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Ocean/Set01/OceanSet01.htm
But interest on that debt was tax deductible.
The only new car I ever bought in my lifetime was when I bought a Subaru
Forrester in retirement during the short-lived Cash-for-Clunkers Program. I hate
car loans with a passion. Leasing is another matter, but here again there are
too many variables for blanket recommendations. When I lived in San Antonio my
wife had a decent Honda, but I drove an ugly, really ugly, Ford Stationwagon
that had a new power train. Nobody in San Antonio ever wanted to steal that
ugly, albeit reliable, car. The problem was that my kids were embarrassed to
ride with me.
You can read about our current retirement cottage at ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
529 Plan ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/529_plan
New York Times: How to Pay for College With Less Stress ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/your-money/paying-for-college/how-to-pay-for-college-with-less-stress.html?_r=0
Jensen Comment
College costs 10-20 years from now are a great unknown. Even today much varies
with race, level of family income, and admission qualifications of an applicant.
Although there is greater value and inflation risks, you may want to consider a
tax-exempt bond fund as opposed to a 529 plan having greater tax uncertainties
(such as when it will not be used for college expenses) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/529_plan#Disadvantages .
The great unknown is what inflation will be over the next 10-20 years. An
advantage of a tax-exempt bond fund is that as inflation risks increase you can
bail out of the tax-exempt fund at any time (usually) and invest the proceeds
where they are more hedged for inflation.
Bob Jensen's Personal Finance Helpers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers
How little couples talk about money. It’s probably one of the last taboos
except in heated arguments after it's too late.
Suggestions for improving communications with partners about money
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2016/09/16/how-much-do-you-need-for-retirement-communication-is-the-key/#558a3fc514eb
Jensen Comment
I found the best way to communicate about money with Erika was to let her take
over the checkbook years and years ago even before we retired. That way when I
talked about long-range planning her knowledge of the short-range ins and outs
made her much more sympathetic and understanding about the long run. In the
short run, however, she still won't tell me how much money is in the account ---
in fear that I might spend too much foolishly if I know how much is available.
She let's me carry one check in my billfold --- but that's strictly for
emergencies.
And what a relief it was to put bill paying out of my mind.
Erika actually reconciles the checkbook to the penny which is something that I
rounded off to the nearest $100 give or take another $100. This task is
difficult for her since, as a surgical nurse by training long before computers,
she does not even use a calculator let alone a computer. She was very good at
counting sponges and sometimes had to tell the surgeon that a sponge was
unaccounted for and must still be hidden in the body. One time a surgeon ignored
her. Three weeks later he had to go back into the patient's body to look for the
(now infected) sponge.
Bob Jensen's personal finance helpers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers
MIT: Why we will need genetically modified foods ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/522596/why-we-will-need-genetically-modified-foods/
Poor Endowment Year for Large Public Universities ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/09/13/poor-endowment-year-large-public-universities?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=990cee7fcb-DNU20160913&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-990cee7fcb-197565045&mc_cid=990cee7fcb&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
It will be an even worse year as wealthy alumni watching athletic events
exercise their own constitutional rights.
Alumnus and longtime library employee left largely
unrestricted bequest to U of New Hampshire. It is spending $100,000 on the
library and $1 million on a video scoreboard for the football stadium. ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/15/critics-question-spending-librarians-donation-scoreboard?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=c72eec25d2-DNU20160915&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-c72eec25d2-197565045&mc_cid=c72eec25d2&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
It's not like UNH is a prominent football powerhouse on national TV like Notre
Dame, Southern Cal., OSU, Auburn, FSU. I mean UNH plays the Universities of
Vermont, Maine, Delaware, etc. If UNH really wanted to help the football fans
they should've spent the $1 million on seat heaters.
And the highest paid state employee in New Hampshire is not even the UNH
football coach or the NH Governor. No! The highest paid state employee is the
UNH hockey coach.
Modern Language Association ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Language_Association
"Why I Hate the New 'MLA Handbook'," by Dallas Liddle, Chronicle of
Higher Education, September 14, 2016 ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Hate-the-New-MLA/237761?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=a317a9c052f443a3bd6af26a98764894&elq=a638569ff7824bbf94c9b82ba87988db&elqaid=10728&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4056
Apple releases iOS10 for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.---
http://macdailynews.com/2016/09/13/apple-releases-ios-10/
Jensen Question
What's an iPad?
How to Use Office 365’s Troubleshooting Tools to Fix Common Problems ---
http://www.howtogeek.com/271183/how-to-use-office-365s-troubleshooting-tools-to-fix-common-problems/
Harvard: Preparing for a Black Swan Cyberattack ---
https://hbr.org/2016/09/preparing-for-a-black-swan-cyberattack?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date
Windows 10’s second big update, dubbed the
“Anniversary Update”, is finally here. This is a huge update that touches every
corner of the operating system. It includes many, many more changes than the
November update did ---
http://www.howtogeek.com/248177/whats-new-in-windows-10s-anniversary-update/
Also see
http://www.howtogeek.com/264273/one-year-later-did-microsoft-listen-to-windows-10-complaints/
Archival documents reveal how
the sugar industry secretly funded heart disease research by Harvard professors
How the Sugar Lobby Skewed Health Research
---
http://time.com/4485710/sugar-industry-heart-disease-research/
Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
By now you're most likely aware that those threatening phone calls from the
IRS are not from the IRS --- these are scam phone calls.
But you're students may not be aware of this, and you should perhaps do what
you can to make them aware ---
http://www.freep.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2016/09/21/irs-itunes-federal-student-tax/90686230/
Also tell them about those phony phone calls saying there's something wrong
with your computer. The caller may even claim to be from Dell, Microsoft, or
Apple. Always tell them to leave their number and you will call them back.
Nearly always they will not give you a phone number. If they do search that
phone number in a search engine like Google. Chances are 99.999999% that the
number is a phony number or a scam number.
Scams Targeting International Students
https://internationalaffairs.uchicago.edu/
The scam tidbits are embedded with other tidbits.
Top 10 Scams of 2016 ---
https://www.scamguard.com/list-of-scams/?gclid=CIni6KfGhM8CFVVahgodlRoFCA
Infosecurity Magazine ---
http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com
U. of Colorado Rescinds Pharmaceutical Researcher’s Ph.D. Over Falsified
Data ---
http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-colorado-revokes-pharmaceutical-researchers-ph-d-over-falsified-data/114137?elqTrackId=ddbfa33597cb4c44bb7ce14fb8cbde6b&elq=78e96a60b431451ba50f46a55c1908b3&elqaid=10625&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4014
Bob Jensen's threads on professors and students who falsify data or otherwise
cheat ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize
Amazon cornered the future of book publishing ---
http://qz.com/780897/amazon-has-cornered-the-future-of-book-publishing/
Jensen Comment
This may not be true of textbook publishing where giant publishing oligopolies
have become learning material factories complete with multimedia supplements,
instructor handbooks, homework supplements, etc. Most importantly, the majority
of instructors are relatively lazy when it comes to examinations and answers to
examinations. They want test banks that upgraded sometimes more often than the
textbooks.
In some disciplines like financial accounting, taxation, and auditing
self-publishing is too exhausting for one or even a few joint authors to
continuously keep up with revisions of our ceaseless standard setters like the
FASB, IASB, and IRS. The big publishing houses can provide services to their
authors and fund all sorts of assistance for books requiring almost continuous
revision. Huge publishing houses outsource things like multimedia supplements,
end-of-chapter problem and case writing, test bank writing, etc. This is not
always a good thing, because in many instances a high quality textbook has
second-rate supplements due mostly to publisher stinginess in paying for
those supplements.
In some ways the big publishing house oligopoly is shooting itself in the
foot with excessively high prices. State legislators and even university
administrators are resisting high prices with new rules for textbook adoptions
that punish high priced textbooks. There also is rebellion among many
instructors who are finding cheaper sources for learning materials in their
classrooms.
Marketing of textbooks faces all sorts of ethics issues. Textbook authors are
chosen sometimes on the basis of markets they control rather than quality of
their authorship. For example if the department head of an accounting department
oversees instruction of 5,000 students in Accounting 101 and 102 deals are often
made with that department head to become a co-author with very little required
in terms of writing content for the book. The mergers of large publishing
companies also eliminated much (most?) of the competition if textbooks for
courses. Authors forced out of the gravy train sometimes retaliated by making
their textbooks free as eBooks. But there's little incentive for those authors
to spend a lot of time and money updating free textbooks. Can you imagine
adopting an intermediate financial accounting textbook that's not been revised
for five years? Forget it!
Apparently Amazon has a way of dropping loser self-authored books. I have a
distant relative (best not to reveal the relationship) who paid to publish a
book. The book was listed on Amazon for about two months. However, it was
apparently too lousy for Amazon and was dropped like a rotten egg. The book
title and the author no longer are recognized in an Amazon book search.
Good Presentations Need to Make People Uncomfortable ---
https://hbr.org/2016/09/good-presentations-need-to-make-people-uncomfortable?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date
Jensen Comment
I think that's also true in general with blogs and other social media
communications. Nobody wants to waste time reading what they already know. Good
presentations and blogs should make readers feel ignorant enough to pursue the
suggested links and ideas.
TiVo Bolt Plus Packs 6 Tuners, 3TB of Storage and Skips Ads ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/tivo-bolt-plus-packs-6-163207830.html
Jensen Comment
In the early days of satellite TV users got away with not paying for shows they
watched. Everybody knew that this could not possibly last or there would be no
interesting shows to watch unless taxpayers footed the bill like what happens in
some other nations like England.
I think that perhaps it is naive to assume that technology for skipping
advertisements will be allowed to continue much longer for the same reason as
satellite users could not be allowed to forever get away with not paying for
programming. But in the meantime this technology is allowed ---
https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-TiVo-Bolt-skip-commercials
It's most certainly enjoyable watching selected television series (like
Law and Order) on NetFlix with commercials deleted. But users are indirectly
paying producers for the NetFlix videos.
The Downside of Student Load Forgiveness (aside from net cost to
taxpayers) ---
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/09/student-loan-forgiveness-can-come-with-a-tax-bomb.html
Thanks in large part
to Obama policies, only 37% of student borrowers are paying down their student
loans ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/writing-off-student-loans-is-only-a-matter-of-time-1471303339?mod=djemMER
50% of health and social-care funding is spent on
4% of people . . . About 25% of all hospital inpatient spending during a
person’s lifetime occurs in the final three months.
"The (British) National Health Care
Service is a Mess," The Economist,
September 10, 2016, pp. 48-49 ---
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21706563-nhs-mess-reformers-believe-new-models-health-care-many-pioneered
. . .
Like health-care systems around the world, the National Health Service (NHS)
is struggling to provide good care at low cost for patients such as Mrs
Evans (not her real name). Its business model has not kept up with the
changing burden of disease. For as more people enter and live longer in
their dotage, demand increases for two costly types of care. The first is
looking after the dying.
About 25% of all hospital
inpatient spending during a person’s lifetime occurs in the final three
months. The second is caring for those with more than one chronic
condition. About 70% of NHS spending goes on long-term illnesses. More than
half of over-70s have at least two and a quarter have at least three. In
south Somerset 50% of health and social-care funding is spent on 4% of
people.
. . .
If one fallacy about
the NHS is that it is the envy of the world, as its devotees claim, another
is that it is a single organisation. In fact it is a series of interlocking
systems. Public health, hospitals, general practitioners (or GPs, the family
doctors who provide basic care outside hospitals) and mental-health services
all have separate funding and incentives. Social care, which includes
old-folks’ homes and the like, is run by local councils, not the NHS
. . .
So the NHS must do more
with what it already spends. A sign of inefficiency is the 6,000 patients in
English hospitals who are ready to go home but not yet discharged, up from
4,000 in 2013. They cost the service hundreds of millions of pounds per year
and obstruct others from treatment. The bed-blockers themselves are harmed,
too. Elderly patients lose up to 5% of muscle strength for every day they
are laid up in hospital. Some delays are the result of council cuts: about
400,000 fewer old people receive social care than in 2010, meaning that
hospitals are sometimes used as expensive alternatives to care homes. But
most are due to how hospitals are run.
. . .
On average, the
framework made GPs some of the highest-paid family doctors in the world when
it was introduced in 2004. But since then it has become less generous. GPs’
real-terms income has fallen by one-fifth. This, and poor planning, has led
to a shortage of them. England needs 5,000 more in the next five years. The
NHS is mulling a deal with Apollo, whereby the Indian health-care firm
supplies enough doctors to fill the gap.
. . .
The move from “volume
to value”—that is, from paying providers for the procedures they carry out
to paying them for the outcomes they achieve—has helped to stem the cost of
Medicare, the American health system for pensioners. The expansion of ACOs
as part of Obamacare led to reduced mortality rates and savings for
providers of about 1-2%. But Dan Northam Jones,
a visiting fellow at Harvard, warns that the potential for savings is
greater in systems like Medicare, where there is no cap on spending.
And yet ACOs reflect a
growing belief that if you want radically to improve health care you have to
change how you pay for it. They will not solve all the problems of the NHS,
some of which are inherent in its taxpayer-funded model. But perhaps its
business model may yet catch up with how illness is changing. The NHS should
forget being the envy of the world, and instead learn from it.
How to Mislead With Statistics
Wait — Why Shouldn’t The Raiders Have Gone For 2?
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-better-question-why-shouldnt-the-raiders-have-gone-for-2/
. . .
The statistical wisdom of Del Rio’s choice is up
for interpretation. ESPN’s Stats & Information Group crunched the numbers
and found that the Raiders’ win probability would have been higher after the
touchdown if they had chosen to attempt an extra point to force a likely
overtime (51 percent) rather than to go for two (44 percent). Del Rio had
other thoughts:
Jensen Comment
Probability theory generally assumes stationary in repeated events. Sure the
odds may be almost identical when the same coin is flipped repeatedly in the
same way. But the odds may change when i another coin is flipped or the coin is
slightly damaged in one of the flips.
Odds change in a big way when circumstances vary significantly between
events. This is why there have never been hurricane tracking forecasts with
identical (unknown) probabilities for different hurricanes. Too many variables
interact to affect the track of a hurricane until it comes quite close to
landfall.
Similarly if a head coach who makes a decision based on a computer database
(and learns that an extra point-overtime probability of winning is 51% versus
44% for going for two points) is not taking everything important into account in
a unique game at a unique moment. No two teams, games, and other circumstances
are identical in the games that comprise that computer a historical database.
There's no stationary state for football games over the years or even a season.
If coaches were obsessed by probability theory they probably would never
throw a forward pass. OSU coach Woody Hayes used to say that "when you throw a
pass three things can happen and two of them are bad." He did not pass very
often. In reality five things can happen and three of them are bad ignoring such
things as having the quarterback be sacked or extraneous penalties such as
having an illegal receiver down field. Most times the good things that happen
are a completed pass or defensive pass interference. Bad things that happen
include an intercepted pass, an incomplete pass, or offensive pass interference.
Coaches are advised not to rely too much on archives of game histories
because no two teams or games are entirely alike.
Statistics fails us in varying degrees when event states are non-stationary.
At one time statistical sampling in auditing became a fad until auditors
discovered non-stationarity. Analytical reviews commenced to greatly replace
detailed investigations (think of Andersen's most famous failed audits) until
regulators like the PCAOB began insisting on more detailed testing. Now the fad
is becoming "audit analytics." I fear that it's just a fancy extension of
analytical reviews and will eventually be called an unfortunate audit
cost-saving fad. Would a naive auditor have kicked an extra point to go into
overtime in the Oakland game?
From the Scout Report on September 16, 2016
POPFile ---
http://getpopfile.org
Email spam is a scourge that few can escape,
slowing productivity and making it more difficult to focus on important
emails. POPFile is an online tool that allows email users to sort incoming
messages into categories that they create themselves. This allows users to
manually classify emails in their inbox as spam. The system then "learns" to
classify these emails based on your input. Users can create other categories
that may also aid in organization, e.g. "work" or "personal." Interested
readers will find both Windows and Mac OS X versions of POPFile for
download.
WhatsApp ---
https://www.whatsapp.com
Anyone looking to keep in touch with friends and
family far away may want to check out WhatsApp, a handy messaging and
calling app. Popular outside of the United States, WhatsApp allows users to
share text messages, photographs, and videos with one another using WiFi,
thus eliminating SMS fees. Free to download, WhatsApp can be used on iPhone,
Android, and Windows phones as well as on desktop computers. In addition,
users can share documents of 100mb or less.
Uber Pilots Self-Driving Cars in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Uber's self-driving Car: Prepare to be thrilled and bored at the same time
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/09/14/what-its-actually-like-to-ride-in-ubers-self-driving-car
No Driver? Bring It On. How Pittsburgh Became Uber's Testing Ground
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/technology/no-driver-bring-it-on-how-pittsburgh-became-ubers-testing-ground.html
The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/driverless-cars-are-this-centurys-space-race/417672
Uber pressed to make self-driving service info public
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2016/09/08/uber-pressed-make-self-driving-service-info-public/90096004
Self-driving cars and trucks could leave many jobs in the dust
http://www.seattletimes.com/business/self-driving-cars-and-trucks-could-leave-many-jobs-in-the-dust
From 1956: A future vision of driverless cars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2iRDYnzwtk
From the Scout Report on September 23, 2016
Beets ---
http://beets.io
The team behind Beets describes this tool as a
"media library management system for obsessive-compulsive music geeks."
Beets allows users to sync their music collection to a database called
MusicBrainz, a metadata library. In doing so, users both improve the
MusicBrainz database and, in turn, are able to access a variety of
information about their music. MusicBrainz provides provide listeners with
accurate titles, artist tags, album art, and a variety of tags to help users
organize their music. In addition, Beets allows users to search, sort, and
categorize their music in a variety of ways.
Laverna ---
https://laverna.cc
With all the different note-taking tools out there,
Laverna may be a nice option for those readers looking for a Markdown
note-taking app that offers a little extra privacy. Users create encrypted
Notebooks with custom headings, check lists, and code blocks all by using
Markdown. (See the 10-02-2015 edition of the <i>Scout Report</i> for an
online tutorial on using Markdown). That said, Laverna helpfully includes
shortcuts for all Markdown features by adapting icons similar to those used
in Microsoft Word. Laverna will also appeal to users looking for simplicity:
unlike some online notetaking platforms, Laverna sports an unfussy interface
that allows users to focus on their notes rather than other distractions. In
addition, users can sync their Laverna notes with Dropbox or Remote Storage.
Laverna is not quite ready for Android devices, but is available for
machines running Linux, MacOS, and Windows.
A 101 Year Old Endeavor, Realized at
Last: Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of African American History and Culture Opens Saturday
The National Museum of African American History and Culture: I, Too, Sing
America
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/09/15/arts/design/national-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture.html
Family Heirloom, National Treasure: Rare Photos Show Black Civil War
Soldiers
http://www.npr.org/2016/09/21/494734329/family-heirloom-national-treasure-rare-photos-show-black-civil-war-soldiers
How a Museum Captures African American History
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/09/how-the-new-smithsonian-african-american-museum-works/500459
First look at the Smithsonian's museum of African American History - in
pictures
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2016/may/13/smithsonian-national-museum-african-american-history-culture-sneak-peak-tour-washington-dc
Full interview: Lonnie Bunch, director of Smithsonian African American
History Museum
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/lonnie-bunch-present-future
National Museum of African American History and Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu
Free Online Tutorials, Videos, Course Materials, and
Learning Centers
Education Tutorials
PACTISS: Resources for Educators (philosophy) ---
http://pactiss.org
Gods, Saints, and Heroes: An Art History Resource ---
http://arthistoryguide.artinterp.org/omeka
Core Skill Standards for Bioscience Technicians (PDF) ---
http://bio-link.org/home2/sites/default/files/Core Skills
Booklet_posting_SCREEN-mid_0.pdf
University of Iowa Libraries: UI Physical Education for Women ---
http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/wpe
Algebrarules.com ---
http://algebrarules.com
MiddleWeb (middle school resources) ---
http://www.middleweb.com
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Bob Jensen's bookmarks for multiple disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials
UW Madison Libraries: Grant Proposal Writing ---
http://researchguides.library.wisc.edu/proposalwriting/websites
GrantSpace ---
http://grantspace.org/
On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in
Research ---
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12192/on-being-a-scientist-a-guide-to-responsible-conduct-in
Genome: Unlocking Life's Code: Timeline of the Human Genome ---
https://unlockinglifescode.org/timeline
How We Get to Next (breakthroughs for the future of humanity) ---
https://howwegettonext.com
Nova: The Qualitative Report (Qualitative research)
--- http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr
NOVA: Interactives Archive ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hotscience/
NOVA: Dawn of Humanity ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/dawn-of-humanity.html
NOVA: Can Alzheimer's Be Stopped? ---
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365702638
Carry the One Radio (interviews with scientists) ---
http://www.carrytheoneradio.com
Forum Network ---
http://www.forum-network.org
Undark (misc. science) ---
http://undark.org
ScienceOpen ---
https://www.scienceopen.com
GotScience.org (recent research)
http://www.gotscience.org
The Center for Science and Democracy ---
http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy
Echo (history of science and technology) ---
http://echo.gmu.edu
SciStarter ---
https://scistarter.com
Othmeralia (chemical history) ---
http://othmeralia.tumblr.com
Earth Science System Data: the Data Publishing Journal ---
http://www.earth-system-science-data.net
Air Asia's Read of the Month
Book (the gnome) ---
https://www.edge.org/news/life-picked-as-air-asia%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cread-of-the-month%E2%80%9D
Stem Cells Across the Curriculum ---
http://www.stemcellcurriculum.org
FORM and LANDSCAPE ---
http://pstp-edison.com
Core Skill Standards for Bioscience Technicians (PDF) ---
http://bio-link.org/home2/sites/default/files/Core Skills
Booklet_posting_SCREEN-mid_0.pdf
Ensia (ecology) ---
http://ensia.com
Why Neuroscientists Need to Study the Crow ---
http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/why-neuroscientists-need-to-study-the-crow
The neocortex is argued to be the seat of cognition, but crows don't have one.
Bob Jensen's threads on free online science,
engineering, and medicine tutorials are at --http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Infosecurity Magazine ---
http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com
Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Social Science and Economics Tutorials
Tube Heartbeat (transportation and urban planning) ---
http://tubeheartbeat.com/london
How We Get to Next (breakthroughs for the future of humanity) ---
https://howwegettonext.com
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
Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Math Tutorials
The Essence of Linear Algebra Explained With Animations ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/the-essence-of-linear-algebra-explained-with-animations.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Algebrarules.com ---
http://algebrarules.com
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
222 Classic Films Now in the Public Domain (free) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/watch-222-great-films-in-the-public-domain.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
PACTISS: Resources for Educators (philosophy) ---
http://pactiss.org
Gods, Saints, and Heroes: An Art History Resource ---
http://arthistoryguide.artinterp.org/omeka
Art History Today ---
http://www.arthistory.today
Every Exhibition Held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Presented in a New
Web Site: 1929 to Present ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/every-exhibition-held-at-the-museum-of-modern-art-moma-presented-in-a-new-web-site-1929-to-present.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Fine Books Blog (rare books) ---
https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine_books_blog
Phenakistoscopes (1833) ---
http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/phenakistoscopes-1833/
Othmeralia (chemical history) ---
http://othmeralia.tumblr.com
Revisionist History (New Yorker's Malcomb Gladwell) ---http://revisionisthistory.com
400 Ways to Make a Sandwich: A 1909 Cookbook Full of Creative Recipes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/400-ways-to-make-a-sandwich-a-1909-cookbook-full-of-creative-recipes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Operation War Diary (WW 1) ---
https://www.operationwardiary.org
The Kim-Wait/Eisenberg Native American Literature Collection ---
https://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/holdings/nativeamericanlit
The Brooklyn Quarterly (essays and poetry) ---
http://brooklynquarterly.org
James Naismith's Life and Legacy: Celebrating 150 Years (basketball history)
---
http://liblamp.vm.ku.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/naismith150
University of Iowa Libraries: UI Physical Education for Women ---
http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/wpe
The Collective Biographies of Women ---
http://womensbios.lib.virginia.edu ---
Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project ---
http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/WVHP
Andre Studios 1930-1941 (fashion clothing) ---
http://andrestudios.nypl.org
Explore 5,300 Rare Manuscripts Digitized by the Vatican: From The Iliad &
Aeneid, to Japanese & Aztec Illustrations ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/explore-5300-rare-manuscripts-digitized-by-the-vatican.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Hidden
Figures: The Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Powered Early
Space Exploration ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/09/19/hidden-figures-margot-lee-shetterly/?mc_cid=ddefbb8098&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
The Art of Making Old-Fashioned, Hand-Printed Books ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/the-art-of-making-old-fashioned-hand-printed-books.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
From the Scout Report on September 23, 2016
A 101 Year Old Endeavor, Realized at
Last: Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of African American History and Culture Opens Saturday
The National Museum of African American History and Culture: I, Too, Sing
America
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/09/15/arts/design/national-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture.html
Family Heirloom, National Treasure: Rare Photos Show Black Civil War
Soldiers
http://www.npr.org/2016/09/21/494734329/family-heirloom-national-treasure-rare-photos-show-black-civil-war-soldiers
How a Museum Captures African American History
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/09/how-the-new-smithsonian-african-american-museum-works/500459
First look at the Smithsonian's museum of African American History - in
pictures
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2016/may/13/smithsonian-national-museum-african-american-history-culture-sneak-peak-tour-washington-dc
Full interview: Lonnie Bunch, director of Smithsonian African American
History Museum
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/lonnie-bunch-present-future
National Museum of African American History and Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu
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
Love Songs With a Side of Theory ----
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Love-Songs-With-a-Side-of/237802?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=acc15470d7ae44d893ff6b96b6cd5f2e&elq=b6871985db7f4957a0ce96606e5b7d12&elqaid=10748&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4073
Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Writing Tutorials
UW Madison Libraries: Grant Proposal Writing ---
http://researchguides.library.wisc.edu/proposalwriting/websites
Storybench ---
http://www.storybench.org
Jennifer Egan on Writing, the Trap of Approval, and the Most Important
Discipline for Aspiring Writers ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/09/06/borges-and-i/?mc_cid=1ffb15db80&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
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
CDC Blogs ---
http://blogs.cdc.gov/
Updates from WebMD ---
http://www.webmd.com/
September 13, 2016
September 14. 2016
September 15, 2016
September 16, 2016
September 17, 2016
September 19,. 2016
September 20, 2016
September 21, 2016
September 22. 2016
September 23, 2016
September 24, 2016
September 26, 2016
September 27, 2016
NOVA: Can Alzheimer's Be Stopped? ---
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365702638
Why Neuroscientists Need to Study the Crow ---
http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/why-neuroscientists-need-to-study-the-crow
The neocortex is argued to be the seat of cognition, but crows don't have one.
The Ultramarathon Legend Karl Meltzer
Three 2,190 Mile Runs Across Mountain Tops and All
A 48-year-old shattered the Appalachian Trail record —
and he did it with protein, beer, and 20 pairs of shoes ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/karl-meltzer-48-year-old-sets-appalachian-trail-record-2016-9
Jensen Question
How does the north-south trip taken by Meltzer differ from the south-north trip?
Answer
Thenorth-to-south gets the more frequent mountains out of the way early on while
the runner is more fresh.
Also it avoids having to run up the north terminus of Mt. Katadin in Maine. It's
faster to do that mountain on the downhill.
These days I only get to see hikers on part of the
Appalachian Trail by taking the Cog Railroad to the top of Mt. Washington.
Cog Railroad
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/CogRailroad/History1/CogRailroadHistory.htm
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Mountains/HistoryWhiteMountains/01/HistoryWhiteMoutains01.htm
Also see
Bob Jensen's Favorite Pictures of Mt. Lafayette
10 Miles Distant
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Mountains/Layfayette01/Lafayette01.htm
What ‘super agers’ are teaching us about staying mentally sharp as we age
---
http://qz.com/780985/by-testing-super-agers-neuroscientists-identified-one-of-the-key-factors-in-maintaining-a-healthy-memory-with-age/
Jensen Comment
I'm not yet a "super ager" and have little personal advice to give. Going down
hill due to stress seems to be a factor for some, but not all. My friend (age
93) did quite well with his lifetime wife while they both stayed active in yard
work and short daily outings (they would go to Wal-Mart for a bar of soap).
After his wife died he seems to be very stressed and going downhill fast while
unable to enjoy previous routines like yard work and shopping. In fact he
refuses to live in their long-time chalet and insisted on moving in with his
unmarried daughter (much to her dismay).
My father lived five years after my mother died. In his 80s he lived along in
their longtime Iowa home and continued to do his yard work and eat out in
various nearby cafes in small towns. Unlike my mother, he was very outgoing his
whole life and ran into long-time friends wherever he went. He died in his sleep
at age 89. He retired early from a stressful job on the road as a territory
manager for a jobber oil company. Then he had a very non-stressful job for years
as a manager of an Iowa State Liquor Store (my tea-totaling mother would not
allow him to bring any of it home). His liquor store job definitely helped him
get to know most everybody in Kossuth County Iowa. I think it was his vast
number of friendships that helped keep him mentally sharp in late retirement.
Many will argue that vigorous exercise of the body and brain helps old people
keep mentally sharp. However, I knew too many retirees who had long lives
without vigorous exercise of body or mind. However, we do have a 95 year old
widow friend (our very close neighbor) in San Antonio who vigorously exercises
her brain with crossword puzzles and bridge games at least twice a week. She's a
Tiger Granny at bridge. She also likes her vodka martinis.
What I'm trying to say is that I don't have much value-added advice to give
about staying mentally sharp as you age. In my case using the Internet a lot and
and sexual intercourse 10 times a day 24/7 is probably the answer to my
longevity to date. But this has probably not been good for my wife's bad back
wife's hurting spine.
Insulin ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin
There's something odd about the way insulin prices change (read that as
meaning competition does not restrain price gouging including Medicare and
Medicaid gouging) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/rising-insulin-prices-track-competitors-closely-2016-9
Insulin prices are rising — increases that mean
some people are spending as much on monthly diabetes-related expenses as
their mortgage payment.
But what makes the rise in insulin prices different
than many other old drugs that have drawn scrutiny over prices, is that
there is competition for insulin.
In most industries, competition drives down prices.
In this case, the competitors appear to increase prices side-by-side —
something that's been referred to as "shadow pricing."
At least three companies — Eli Lilly & Co., Novo
Nordisk, and Sanofi Aventis — make and sell insulin.
Despite this competition, prices have steadily
climbed over the past decade, taking single or double-digit list price
increases in a year. A 10 milliliter vial of Sanofi's long-acting insulin,
Lantus, first hit the US market at $34.81 a vial in 2001, according to data
from Truven Health Analytics.
Since 2014, the last time Sanofi raised the price,
it has been $248.51.
During the period in which Lantus's price rose
600%, a rival product from Novo Nordisk appeared. In 2006, the new drug,
called Levemir, hit the market at $66.96 (close to what Sanofi's drug cost
at the time). These days Levemir costs about $269.
In other words, the competition seems to have done
nothing to push prices down. In fact, when charted side by side, the price
increases seem to be in synch.
Humor for September 2016
Video: The Twilight of the Clintons. A very funny parody of the Ring
cycle ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prls6Iz3B3E
The funniest puns and double-entendres from 'Great British Bake Off' ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/great-british-bake-off-funniest-puns-and-double-entendres-from-2016-9
This is not funny, but it is a little ironic
'Sherlock' actress has a new mystery to solve: Who took her purse when she was
accepting her Emmy ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/amanda-abbington-purse-stolen-at-emmys-2016-9
Time Magazine: 2016 Ig Nobel Prize
Winning Quirky Research ---
http://time.com/4505383/ig-nobel-awards-2016-spoof-prize-quirky-science/?xid=newsletter-brief
Home Page and Archives ---
http://www.improbable.com/ig/
Canadian Mint employee accused of smuggling
$180K of gold in his rectum ---
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/egan-170k-in-mint-gold-allegedly-smuggled-in-body-cavity-judge-hears
Jensen Comment
This is the one and only time it might be very interesting to be a proctologist.
Johnny Cash's Cadillac could not top this one
---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM&list=RDrWHniL8MyMM
Forwarded by Paula
One Liners In An Election Year
Sayings that never grow old!
If
God wanted us to vote,
he would have given us candidates.
~Jay Leno~
The
problem with political jokes is they
get elected.
~Henry Cate, VII~
We
hang the petty thieves and appoint
the great ones to public office.
~Aesop~
If
we got one-tenth of what was promised
to us in these State of the Union speeches,
there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven.
~Will Rogers~
Politicians
are the same all over.
They promise to build a bridge even
where there is no river.
~Nikita Khrushchev~
When
I was a boy I was told that anybody
could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.
~Clarence Darrow~
Politicians
are people who, when they see
light at the end of the tunnel, go out and
buy some more tunnel.
~John Quinton~
Why
pay money to have your family tree
traced; go into politics and your opponents
will do it for you.
~Author unknown
Politics
is the gentle art of getting votes
from the poor and campaign funds from
the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
~Oscar Ameringer~
I
offer my opponents a bargain: if they will
stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling
the truth about them.
~Adlai Stevenson, 1952~
A
politician is a fellow who will lay
down your life for his country.
~ Tex Guinan~
I
have come to the conclusion that politics
is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
~Charles de Gaulle~
Instead
of giving a politician the keys to the
city, it might be better to change the locks.
~Doug Larson~
There
ought to be one day -- just one --
when there is open season on Congressmen.
~Will Rogers~
Forwarded by Paula
You may not remember the old-time Jewish comedians:
Shecky Green, Red Buttons, Totie Fields, Milton Berle,
Henny Youngman, and others.
But some of us miss their kind of humor. Not a single
swear word in their routines, and you don't have to be
Jewish to enjoy their jokes.
*A car hit an elderly Jewish man. The paramedic asks, "Are you
comfortable?" The man says, "I make a good living."
*I just got back from a pleasure trip. I took my mother-in-law to the
airport.
*I've been in love with the same woman for 49 years. If my wife finds
out, she'll kill me!
*Someone stole all my credit cards, but I won't be reporting it. The
thief spends less than my wife did.
*We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.
*My wife and I went to a hotel where we got a waterbed. My wife calls it
the Dead Sea.
*My wife and I revisited the hotel where we spent our wedding night. This
time I was the one who stayed in the bathroom and cried.
*My Wife was at the beauty shop for two hours. That was only for the
estimate. She got a mud pack and looked great for two days. Then the mud
fell off.
*The Doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn't pay his bill,
so the doctor gave him another six months.
*The Doctor called Mrs. Cohen saying, "Mrs. Cohen, your check came
back."Mrs. Cohen replied, "So did my arthritis!"
*Doctor: "You'll live to be 60!"
Patient: "I AM 60!"
Doctor: "See! What did I tell you?"
*A doctor held a stethoscope up to a man's chest. The man asks, "Doc, how
do I stand?"
The doctor says, "That's what puzzles me!"
*Patient: "I have a ringing in my ears."
Doctor: "Don't answer!"
*A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge says, "You've been brought
here for drinking."
The drunk says, "Okay, let's get started."
*Why do Jewish divorces cost so much?
They're worth it.
*Why do Jewish men die before their wives?
They want to.
*The Harvard School of Medicine did a study of why Jewish women like
Chinese food so much.
The study revealed that the reason is Won Ton spelled backward is Not
Now.
*There is a big controversy on the Jewish view of when life begins. In
Jewish tradition, the fetus is not considered
viable until it graduates from law school.
*Q: Why don't Jewish mothers drink?
A: Alcohol interferes with their suffering.
*Q: Have you seen the newest Jewish-American-Princess horror movie? A:
It's called, "Debbie Does Dishes."
*Q: Why do Jewish mothers make great parole officers?
A: They never let anyone finish a sentence.
*A man called his mother in Florida . "Mom, how are you?"
"Not too good," said the mother. "I've been very weak."
The son asked, "Why are you so weak?"
She replied, "Because I haven't eaten in 38 days."
The son said,"That's terrible. Why haven't you eaten in 38 days?"
The mother answered, "Because, I didn't want my mouth to be full in case
you should call."
*A Jewish man said that when he was growing up, they always had two
choices for dinner - Take it or leave it.
*A Jewish boy comes home from school and tells his mother he has a part
in the play. She asks, "What part is it?"
The boy says, "I play the part of the Jewish husband."
The mother scowls and says, "Go back and tell the teacher you want a
speaking part."
*Q: Where does a Jewish husband hide money from his wife?
A: Under the vacuum cleaner.
*Q: How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: (Sigh) "Don't bother. I'll sit in the dark. I don't want to be a
nuisance to anybody."
*A Jewish mother gives her son a blue shirt and a brown shirt for his
birthday. On the next visit, he wears the
brown one. The mother says, "What's the matter
already? Didn't you like the blue one?"
*Did you hear about the bum who walked up to a Jewish mother on the
street and said, "Lady I haven't eaten in three days." "Force yourself," she
replied.
*Q: What's the difference between a Rottweiler and a Jewish mother?
A: Eventually, the Rottweiler lets go.
*Q: Why are Jewish Men circumcised?
A: Because Jewish women don't like anything that isn't 20% off.
Taxing Tattoos and Other Fine Arts ---
http://www.bna.com/sales-tax-slice-b73014447392/
Jensen Comment
I'll resist commenting further on a tattoo of one's cat (mentioned in the
article)
I guess that beats making a tattoo of one's significant other who could become
insignificant most any time.
Accountants might consider a forehead tattoo of a green eyeshade.
But that might lead to lonely times in singles bars.
I think I'll get a tattoo that reads "Test Checker for Your Inventory"
Any better suggestions?
Awful Punish Humor from Paula
Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!
* How does Moses make tea? Hebrews it.
* England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.
* I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.
* They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a typo.
* I changed my iPod's name to Titanic. It's syncing now.
* Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.
* I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.
* I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.
* This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met
herbivore.
* When chemists die, they barium.
* I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can't put it down.
* I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
* Why were the Indians here first? They had reservations.
* I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.
* Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she
couldn't control her pupils?
* When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.
* Broken pencils are pointless.
* What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.
* I dropped out of communism class because of terrible Marx.
* I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.
* Velcro - what a rip off!
* Don't worry about old age it doesn't last
Humor
August 2016
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q3.htm#Humor083116.htm
Humor
July 2016
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q3.htm#Humor0716.htm
Humor
June 2016
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q2.htm#Humor063016.htm
Humor
May 2016
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q2.htm#Humor053116.htm
Humor
April 2016
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q2.htm#Humor043016.htm
Humor
March 2016
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q1.htm#Humor033116.htm
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
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