Tidbits on April 27, 2017
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Set 1 of Storms in the White Mountains of New Hampshire
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Storms/Set01/Storms01.htm

 

Tidbits on April 27, 2017
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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

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

USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl




Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
 

Rare footage revealing how blue whales kill krill ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-rare-footage-showing-how-blue-wales-hunt-krill-2017-4


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 

Hear Two Legends, Lead Belly & Woody Guthrie, Performing on the Same Radio Show (1940) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/04/hear-two-legends-lead-belly-woody-guthrie-performing-on-the-same-radio-show-1940.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

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

Google Earth Just Rolled Out Its Biggest Update Yet ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-earth-biggest-update-new-features-2017-4

NASA Releases a Massive Online Archive: 140,000 Photos, Videos & Audio Files Free to Search and Download ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/04/nasa-releases-a-massive-online-archive-140000-photos-videos-audio-files-free-to-search-and-download.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

This new photo of Earth taken through the rings of Saturn should make you feel very lucky ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/earth-saturn-rings-image-cassini-2017-4

Water, weather, and new worlds: NASA's Cassini mission reveals Saturn's secrets ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-cassini-mission-saturn-secrets-2017-4

Picture This! Vintage Postcards of Southeast Europe ---
http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/exhibitions/picture-this-vintage-postcards-of-southeastern-europe

Mapping Gothic France --- http://mappinggothic.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

 

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 April 27, 2017
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2017/TidbitsQuotations042717.htm          

USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl

How Your Federal Tax Dollars are Spent ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4eab53ef01b7c8ee6392970b-popup

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)
One worry is that nations holding trillions of dollars invested in USA debt are dependent upon sales of oil and gas to sustain those investments.

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




Discover “Unpaywall,” a New (and Legal) Browser Extension That Lets You Read Millions of Science Articles Normally Locked Up Behind Paywalls ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/04/unpaywall-a-new-and-legal-browser-extension-that-lets-you-read-millions-of-science-articles.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

 

Unpaywall ---
http://unpaywall.org/

FAQs
http://unpaywall.org/faq

Jensen Comment
The above site also has links to free courses and great lectures


BBC News:  Credit card with a fingerprint sensor revealed by Mastercard ---
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39643453?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=d912f3c4e5-The_Download&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-d912f3c4e5-153727301


Kroger has a game-changing new grocery service — and many shoppers might never shop the old way again ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/kroger-tests-delivery-grocery-service-2017-4

Kroger is now delivering groceries to customers' homes using Uber.

The grocery chain already has a program called ClickList that lets customers order groceries online and pick them up at a store, where employees will load their food into their cars.

The delivery service is the newest extension of ClickList, and so far it's available in only two cities: Dallas and Richmond, Virginia.

We tried it, and it made us never want to drive to a grocery store again.

Here's how it worked:

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Sadly there are no Kroger stores in the White Mountain Region where I live. Because of this article I was curious whether Uber serves this area, and yes Uber serves our cottage with fares that are quite reasonable ---
https://www.uber.com/
Now the trick will be for Shaws or Walmart to offer such a Uber grocery delivery service.


Cybersecurity Knowledge Quiz --- http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/cybersecurity-knowledge
Is 50% a failing grade on this quiz?


Interesting Tax Facts and Tips ---
http://reason.com/reasontv/2017/04/17/23-tip-and-facts-about-taxes


Features of Amazon's Echo That You May Not Know About ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-echo-best-skills-2017-4


"Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy on the Unknown, the Horizons of the Knowable, and Why the Cross-Pollination of Disciplines is the Seedbed of Truth," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, April 19, 2017 ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/04/19/marcus-du-sautoy-the-great-unknown/?utm_source=Brain+Pickings&utm_campaign=bf344a7af3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_04_21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_179ffa2629-bf344a7af3-234390133&mc_cid=bf344a7af3&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
This article has some great links to other articles and books.


Thomas Piketty --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty

"Contradictions of Capital Taking on Thomas Piketty," by Diane Coyle, The Chronicle of Education's Chronicle Review, April 23, 2017 ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Contradictions-of-Capital/239829?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=0795d9d8e2d14c21952da3ea098798b4&elq=cbcc060eb5994809b10d9e3c4d53ec4a&elqaid=13625&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5654

. . .

Piketty’s empirical observation is that inequality in the Western economies declined through the middle of the 20th century, but that from around 1980 it started to increase again, to return to the levels of the Gilded Age. His theoretical argument is that there is an inherent dynamic in economic growth that tends to increase inequality, a dynamic halted and reversed in the 20th century by the two world wars, the postwar welfare state and social-market economies (especially in Europe), and rapid postwar growth.

The key point he makes is that when the growth rate slows, the rate of return on capital falls more slowly, increasing the ratio of capital to income and further widening the gap. This is the r>g formula that was fashionably adorning some T-shirts for a while.

For economists, there is nothing inexorable about this. As Paul Krugman points out in his essay in After Piketty, the theoretical argument depends on (among other things) it being easy enough to substitute machines for workers, and there is no definitive empirical evidence that this is so. Devesh Raval points out a number of other problems. Among them, Piketty uses the term "capital" as an abstraction, but the empirical claim that r>g conflates physical capital used in production, housing capital, and the human capital resulting in high earnings for some people. Indeed, the share of top incomes coming from earnings (rather than rents and dividends) is a great contrast with the inequality of the early 20th century. Suresh Naidu underlines this point, calling Piketty’s argument "institution and politics free": "When wealth is understood as police-backed paper claims over resources, rather than the resources themselves, the undemocratic nature of wealth inequality becomes much clearer." A number of other essays in the volume round out the economists’ (sympathetic) critique of Piketty’s book.

The two subsequent sections cover extensions of Piketty. His collaborator Emmanuel Saez argues for continuing and extending the data-collection effort. This is a significant point: Phenomena for which the data are not readily available are invisible in political and policy discourse. In many ways Capital in the 21st Century was published much too late. The political consequences of great inequality were already playing out in the anger and division so visible now in politics in the United States and across Europe. Saez makes the point that although there has been substantial data collection since the 1960s and ’70s on individual incomes, largely through surveys, this statistical approach severs the connection between income distribution and macroeconomic outcomes. Economists in the late 20th century thinking about the economy in the aggregate largely stopped noticing the macro-level inequality trends. There is little reliable data on wealth (as opposed to incomes) at all, and research into wealth distribution and its evolution is correspondingly sparse (as Mariacristina De Nardi and her co-authors point out in their essay).

Filling some of the other research and policy gaps will be crucial for anyone who considers the extent of modern inequality to be problematic. One made visible by the British E.U. referendum and the U.S. presidential election is the spatial dimension. Economies have a geography, something that economists have until recently been prone to overlook; financial capital is highly mobile geographically and — as Gareth Jones points out here — has also created "extra-legal" zones in tax havens where it can safely land. (In a fascinating book, Capital Without Borders [Harvard, 2016], the sociologist Brooke Harrington documents wealthy individuals’ ardent belief that they have a moral responsibility to safeguard their wealth from government expropriation, or what many of us would call "tax.") Heather Boushey explores in After Piketty the implications for women’s economic and political autonomy of "patrimonial capitalism," particularly given the gender bias of inheritance.

The book ends with some reflections from Piketty himself. He is disarmingly open to critiques of his work: "I would like to see Capital in the 21st Century as a work-in-progress of social science rather than a treatise about history or economics," he writes, arguing that all social-science disciplines are needed for a complete picture. However, the critiques matter, at least to the extent that one thinks the current degree of inequality is unsustainable.

Two other recent books point to contrasting possible futures. In The Great Leveler (Princeton University Press, 2017), Walter Scheidel paints a picture not unlike Piketty’s of an inexorable internal dynamic whereby societies become progressively more unequal, until this provokes a reset through war or revolution. In contrast, Tony Atkinson’s Inequality: What Can Be Done? (Harvard, 2015) presents a pragmatic 15-point list of policy measures to limit and reduce inequality. When these are taken together, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that if you do not adopt the Atkinson approach, you get the Scheidel outcome. This was exactly the realization that led to the creation of the postwar social contract in the late 1940s.

The editors’ introduction in After Piketty zeros in on this contradiction at the heart of Piketty’s work and its reception: Are there fundamental, intractable laws of capitalist dynamics, making garden-variety policy analysis of inequality ultimately futile? Or, rather, are there "historically contingent and institutionally prescribed processes that shape growth and distribution?" Capital in the 21st Century does not resolve this; neither do the essays in After Piketty. Perhaps it is a purely academic question, but to the extent that any of us are troubled by the new Gilded Age, we have to act as if the second possibility is true regardless.

"Is Piketty's 'Second Law of Capitalism' Really a Law?" by Peter Coy, Bloomberg Businessweek June 6, 2014 ---
 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-06/is-pikettys-second-law-of-capitalism-really-a-law


The Economist Magazine:  A lack of competition explains the flaws in American aviation ---
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21721201-americans-are-treated-abysmally-their-airlines-they-should-look-europe-lessons-lack?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/20170420n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/na/25018/n

Americans are treated abysmally by their airlines. They should look to Europe for lessons

DECADES ago travelling by air in America was a glamorous affair. Today it signals delays, discomfort, extra charges and the threat of violence. A video of a passenger being forcibly dragged from a United Airlines flight on April 9th, after too few people volunteered to give up their seats, has sparked an outpouring of complaints about flying in America. Passengers are right to moan. America’s airlines really do compare badly with foreign ones. European carriers are the best point of reference.

Air fares are higher per seat mile in America than in Europe. When costs fall, consumers in America fail to enjoy the benefits. The global price of jet fuel—one of the biggest costs for airlines—has fallen by half since 2014. That triggered a fare war between European carriers, but in America ticket prices have hardly budged. Airlines in North America posted a profit of $22.40 per passenger last year; in Europe the figure was $7.84.

Standards of service are also worse. Only one operator based in America can be found in the world’s 30 best carriers, as rated by Skytrax, an aviation website, compared with nine from Europe. When Ryanair, currently Europe’s largest and cheapest airline, cut service to the bone, it began to lose customers and money. That prompted it to perform a U-turn and be “nicer” to customers, in order to protect its market share from rivals like easyJet, Wizz Air and Norwegian.

This happy combination of low fares and reasonable service has a simple explanation: competition. American policymakers have presided over a wave of mergers in the past few years. The biggest four carriers in America between them now control 80% of the market, compared with just 48% a decade ago. Warren Buffett, a man who knows an oligopoly when he sees one, bought nearly $10bn-worth of airline stock in 2016. In Europe, where the top four carriers have around 45% of the market, policymakers have got three things right.

First, European regulators have tried harder to preserve competition between existing carriers. The EU has been willing to block mergers, such as a proposed tie-up between Ryanair and Aer Lingus, and to prevent airlines from building monopoly positions at airports. Not so in America: at 40 of its 100 biggest hubs, a single carrier now accounts for more than half of capacity. That pushes up prices. The merger of American and US Airways in 2013 increased American’s market share at Philadelphia’s airport to 77%. Fares rose from 4% below the national average in 2013 to 11% above after the merger.

Second, Europe has made it easier for foreigners to boost competition by entering new markets. There are no ownership limits at all between European countries; and the EU lets airlines with a non-EU owner that has a stake of up to 49% fly anywhere within the bloc. America caps foreign ownership at 25%. Foreign joint ventures, such as Virgin America (which was acquired by Alaska Air Group last year) struggle to take off.

Third, Europe has also encouraged competition between different airports and their main operators. Breaking up the ownership of London’s biggest three airports has saved passengers £420m ($628m) in fares since 2009, according to ICF International, a consultancy. In contrast, most American cities have only one airport, many of them publicly owned.

Dogfighters

Some of Europe’s advantages are hard to replicate. Distances between big cities are shorter, making road and rail transport serious rivals. Yet that is all the more reason for America to promote competition in the sky. America’s regulators should loosen the cap on foreign ownership, take away slots from incumbents and promote the use of secondary airports to give new entrants a leg-up. If that doesn’t yield dividends, regulators should consider breaking up the big airlines. Allowing competition to wither was a huge mistake. It should be rectified

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
There are so many examples of where breaking up oligopolies and monopolies lead to greater efficiency, service, and innovation. Exhibit A is AT&T that made us rent their heavy clunky telephones and did not have an innovative idea since the days of Alexander Bell. Think of the world of telephone communications that evolved with the split up of AT&T.

At the same time I recall the good times when small towns like Ft. Dodge, Iowa and Bangor, Maine were had airline service with big airliners. Regulations required that these losing markets be subsidized with higher ticket prices in the bigger cities like Kansas City and Boston. With removal of regulations so did great airline service in many small towns. Competition has its drawbacks. Service to losing markets is dropped in favor of cheaper ticket pricing in lucrative, albeit competitive airports.

At the moment in airline service we seem to have to worst of all worlds in the 21st Century. Mergers of our largest airlines destroyed what little competition we once enjoyed. At the same time deregulation allowed the merged airlines to drop services in marginal or losing small town airports. I think deregulation of the airline industry coupled with deregulation has been a disaster in the USA. My consolation is that my wife's health gives me an excuse to not fly. I'm not shedding any tears due to what The Economist Magazine now calls "abysmal" airline service.


Harvard:  Why the U.S. Is Still Richer Than Every Other Large Country ---
https://hbr.org/2017/04/why-the-u-s-is-still-richer-than-every-other-large-country?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date&spMailingID=17055972&spUserID=MTkyODM0MDg0MAS2&spJobID=1001728102&spReportId=MTAwMTcyODEwMgS2

An entrepreneurial culture. Individuals in the U.S. demonstrate a desire to start businesses and grow them, as well as a willingness to take risks. There is less penalty in U.S. culture for failing and starting again. Even students who have gone to college or a business school show this entrepreneurial desire, and it is self-reinforcing: Silicon Valley successes like Facebook inspire further entrepreneurship.

A financial system that supports entrepreneurship. The U.S. has a more developed system of equity finance than the countries of Europe, including angel investors willing to finance startups and a very active venture capital market that helps finance the growth of those firms. We also have a decentralized banking system, including more than 7,000 small banks, that provides loans to entrepreneurs.

World-class research universities. U.S. universities produce much of the basic research that drives high-tech entrepreneurship. Faculty members and doctoral graduates often spend time with nearby startups, and the culture of both the universities and the businesses encourage this overlap. Top research universities attract talented students from around the world, many of whom end up remaining in the United States.

Labor markets that generally link workers and jobs unimpeded by large trade unions, state-owned enterprises, or excessively restrictive labor regulations. Less than 7% of the private sector U.S. labor force is unionized, and there are virtually no state-owned enterprises. While the U.S. does regulate working conditions and hiring, the rules are much less onerous than in Europe. As a result, workers have a better chance of finding the right job, firms find it easier to innovate, and new firms find it easier to get started.

Continued in article

Monte Carlo Simulation --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo_method

David Giles reports that he's delighted to learn recently about an outstanding book on this topic by Jan Kiviet. The book is titled, Monte Carlo Simulation for Econometricians ---
http://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/ECO-011

Many studies in econometric theory are supplemented by Monte Carlo simulation investigations. These illustrate the properties of alternative inference techniques when applied to samples drawn from mostly entirely synthetic data generating processes. They should provide information on how techniques, which may be sound asymptotically, perform in finite samples and then unveil the effects of model characteristics too complex to analyze analytically. Also the interpretation of applied studies should often benefit when supplemented by a dedicated simulation study, based on a design inspired by the postulated actual empirical data generating process, which would come close to bootstrapping. This review presents and illustrates the fundamentals of conceiving and executing such simulation studies, especially synthetic but also more dedicated, focussing on controlling their accuracy, increasing their efficiency, recognizing their limitations, presenting their results in a coherent and palatable way, and on the appropriate interpretation of their actual findings, especially when the simulation study is used to rank the qualities of alternative inference techniques.


San Diego's Experiment With Higher Minimum Wage: 4,000 Fewer Restaurant Jobs ---
http://reason.com/blog/2017/04/11/san-diegos-experiment-with-higher-minimu

Jensen Comment
This conflicts with studies in some cities like Seattle that found less negative correlation between minimum wage increases and job losses. It would be interesting to see if the impacts are also suspected in other industries like landscaping where there are a high proportion of minimum wage workers. Several things complicate these studies. San Diego is close to the border with Mexico. That alone means a greater likelihood of undocumented workers working at low wages in the underground economy where wages earned are not reported to the government or to researchers doing wage studies.

In the case of San Diego it's possible that jobs are not being totally lost due to minimum wage increases. Some of those jobs may only appear lost due to their movement into the underground economy.

What I find interesting is that our liberal media tends to cherry pick reporting of these wage studies. The Seattle studies are widely reported. The San Diego studies are more likely to get passed over by the liberal media.

I did not do any research to report the total number of restaurant jobs in San Diego. Hence I don't know if 4,000 jobs is an insignificant number of such jobs.

Also jobs are increasingly being lost in the restaurant industry due to technology. It's more difficult these days to attribute lob losses to higher wages.


Economics is Overwhelmingly the Most Popular Major in the Ivy League ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-ivy-league-major-2017-4/#university-of-pennsylvania-6
Jensen Comment
In my opinion business would overtake economics if it were available as a major in more of the Ivy universities.

The most surprising thing to me is that pre-med or its equivalent (e.g., biological sciences) is not more popular. It also surprised me that computer science is not more popular.

My experience during my 24 years on the faculty at Trinity University is that pre-med is overwhelmingly the most popular major in the first year in many private universities. However, pre-med majors frequently change majors by the second year for a variety of reasons as business majors often take over in popularity across campus. Certainly some of the required courses such as chemistry take their toll on pre-med majors. But in my conversations with former pre-med majors I discovered that as students learned more about the careers of being physicians they became discouraged. Other than uncertainties about being admitted to medical school and mounting student debt commonly cited negatives are stress on the job and in family life, boring lifetime routines, long hours, hospital politics, price fixing by insurance companies (including Medicaid and Medicare), and costs of being a doctor (including malpractice insurance and meeting a payroll for office staff).

Economics is most likely the most popular undergraduate major in the Ivy League because economics majors have such an enormous variety of opportunities for varied graduate studies and careers (think graduate studies in law and business and higher education).

I think economics is more popular in the Ivy League than in less prestigious universities because of confidence of Ivy League graduates that they will be later admitted into the most prestigious graduate studies programs in law schools, MBA programs, and Ph.D. programs in a variety of academic disciplines. An Ivy League diploma (with an almost certain high gpa given the exceptional grade inflation in the Ivy League) is almost certainly a ticket to admission into a prestigious graduate school. That's the way the game is played in higher education aside from some other tickets to success such as graduate study affirmative action for promising African Americans and Native Americans.


University of Texas Saga on Retracting a Ph.D. Degree in Chemistry ---
http://retractionwatch.com/2017/04/21/chemist-wins-injunction-university-trying-revoke-degree/#more-49554


From a Chronicle of Higher Education Newsletter on April 19, 2017

Six public universities in Illinois are on review for credit downgrades by Moody's Investors Service. The review could affect about $2.2 billion of their debt.

Jensen Comment
The State of Illinois is in a long-time budget crisis largely stemming from unfunded pensions of state workers. The crisis spilled over into renewed funding of state universities. Three former Illinois governors received prison terms for frauds of various types. For years Democrats were unable to solved the budget mess. Now Republicans appear to be equally ineffective in solving the state's fiscal crisis.


FDA rule to take effect May 5 requires chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus: The pepperoni calorie-count rule ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fdas-pizza-minders-1492379447?mod=djemMER

The Food and Drug Administration can’t possibly fulfill all of the responsibilities it claims to have, and here’s one way the Trump Administration can set better priorities: Direct the agency to end its effort to inform Americans that pizza contains calories.

An FDA rule to take effect May 5 requires chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus. The regulation also covers movie theaters, grocery stores, breweries and other establishments with more than 20 locations. The rule, required by the Affordable Care Act, has been revised and twice delayed in six years, mostly due to objections from a trade coalition called the American Pizza Community. (Regrettably, it does not issue membership cards.)

The more than 100-page rule, perhaps the longest meditation on fast food ever published, says that pizza purveyors must display per slice calorie ranges. Dominos offers 34 million potential combinations, and the number of pepperonis on a pizza can vary based on whether a customer also tosses on green peppers or something else. FDA suggests displaying verbiage like “pepperoni—200 added calories for a one-topping pizza” for every topping. Better have a calculator when ordering.

The regulation also defines menu to include advertisements or flyers that list a phone number or website for ordering—in other words, marketing material. The restaurant must certify that the store made “reasonable” efforts to ensure that calorie estimates are accurate, though the minds behind this rule don’t sound like reliable arbiters of reasonableness. The penalty for noncompliance is fines, jail or, this being America, class-action lawsuits.

The micromanaging extends to menu font and colors, which must be “the same color or in a color at least as conspicuous” as other types, according to FDA guidance. By the way, none of this will help consumers eat less pizza: Most customers place orders online or over the phone, not from a menu board. Dominos offers an online Cal-O-Meter to help customers know what they’re eating. Restaurants are already required to make this information available in stores and the web for those who wish to know.

The rule has also riled grocers who must label tuna sandwiches or other fresh foods where preparation isn’t standardized. A supermarket trade association, the Food Marketing Institute, says compliance will cost at least $1 billion and some grocers may decide to stop selling prepared foods.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Do people really concerned with calories eat pizza? If so they probably just assume a wide slice of pizza has calories approaching infinity.

In high school my daughter Lisl would not eat fish or meat. But she turned salad bar meals into 5,000 calorie love affairs.

How do you report calorie counts of a 25-item salad bar? A leaf of lettuce smothered with blue cheese dressing can be an inch wide or a six inches wide.


Jagdish put down economics majors (and presumably business majors) with the following message:

. . .

So, now economics is very popular. But economics produces nothing, it only juggles what you have. Hard sciences, medicine, humanities, architecture, music, all contribute far more to civilization, and the mind.

Jensen Comment
I could not disagree more. Economics and business management (along with supporting components like accounting, finance, marketing, data processing, engineering, and markets themselves) perhaps contribute the most essential components of great civilizations --- the marshalling of resources and the leadership essential to bringing those resources to fruition. What great economy in history did as well as the USA without massive slavery and oppression?

 

"Why the U.S. Is Still Richer Than Every Other Large Country," by Martin S. Feldstein, Harvard Business Review, April 20, 2017 ---
https://hbr.org/2017/04/why-the-u-s-is-still-richer-than-every-other-large-country?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date&spMailingID=17055972&spUserID=MTkyODM0MDg0MAS2&spJobID=1001728102&spReportId=MTAwMTcyODEwMgS2

An entrepreneurial culture
Individuals in the U.S. demonstrate a desire to start businesses and grow them, as well as a willingness to take risks. There is less penalty in U.S. culture for failing and starting again. Even students who have gone to college or a business school show this entrepreneurial desire, and it is self-reinforcing: Silicon Valley successes like Facebook inspire further entrepreneurship.

A financial system that supports entrepreneurship
The U.S. has a more developed system of equity finance than the countries of Europe, including angel investors willing to finance startups and a very active venture capital market that helps finance the growth of those firms. We also have a decentralized banking system, including more than 7,000 small banks, that provides loans to entrepreneurs.

World-class research universities
U.S. universities produce much of the basic research that drives high-tech entrepreneurship. Faculty members and doctoral graduates often spend time with nearby startups, and the culture of both the universities and the businesses encourage this overlap. Top research universities attract talented students from around the world, many of whom end up remaining in the United States.

Continued in article

Martin S. Feldstein is the George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

 

Added Jensen Comment
In socialist economies where government rather than markets allocate resources of economic production to provide goods and services the government's economists and managers face more daunting tasks equating supply with demand such as when the Soviet economy produced way to many surpluses of some products and dire shortages of others due to failures of the socialist economists and managers supervising a nation of unmotivated workers  --- think of the highly inefficient collective farms that led to food shortages and the fall of the Soviet socialist economy.

Now the Chinese, India, and the other Brics nations are seeking to beat the USA at its own game with even better economists and entrepreneurs. The Brics may well do so once they clean up a lot of lingering corruption and inefficiencies of their old economies. Meanwhile the USA is doomed with political infighting and with $100 trillion in entitlements promises it cannot keep ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS


Sorry California and Texas:  The 25 Most Popular Places to Retire in America ---
http://time.com/4734442/retirement-popular-place-map/?xid=newsletter-brief

Jensen Comment
The headline is misleading because it includes only people who move to other states in retirement. The most popular places to retire are probably the most populated states in the USA since most people do not leave their home state when they retire.

In any case Arizona and Florida pretty well absorb those who want to change states. The popularity of Arkansas may surprise some folks, but not me. When growing up in Iowa it was common for people who wanted to economize with lower-priced housing, scenic hill country, and warmer (hot?) weather chose Arkansas. However, even Arkansas gets overwhelmed by the statistics of Arizona and Florida.

Texas and California enter into the equation for folks who retire in their home states like Iowa but choose to spend a couple of winter months in a double wide among orange groves down south or out west near the ocean.. For decades Texas and California also attracted northerners who wanted to venture into Mexico for the sights and shopping. Now there's more fear of crossing the border.

California lost its full-time retirement luster with high real estate prices and soaring taxes.


The Average Property Taxes in All 50 States & DC ---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/taxes/the-average-property-taxes-in-all-50-states-and-dc/ss-BBzxPSe?ocid=spartandhp
This is a slide show with 53 slides.

Hawaii, Alabama, Colorado, Tennessee, and Delaware have the lowest average effective tax rates ranging from 0.32% to 0.56%

Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey found out the top with average effective tax rates of 2.00% to 2.31%

Jensen Comment
The results are misleading in various ways. The most obvious deception is that total taxes are not compared. New Hampshire, Delaware and three other states have no sales taxes. New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas and six other states have no personal income tax or only tax a small part of income such as cash dividends and interest ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_income_tax#States_with_no_individual_income_tax

Some of the states with high average effective property taxes also tax everything else imaginable such as the states of California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Hawaii, and Illinois.

States vary greatly as to value increases exempt from property taxes. California's Proposition 13 enormously reduces property taxes by not taxing increases in value to home owners. People having houses worth millions may not pay more property tax than people with houses worth a few hundred thousand dollars depending on how much was paid originally for the property. Texas and some other states do not tax property value increases for school taxes (for property owners over 65 years of age). Personal exemptions for property taxes vary among states which especially lends relief to lower valued properties.

States vary greatly as to when value increases in property are captured for taxation purposes. When I lived in Texas it seemed that value increases were captured in real time whenever properties were bought and sold in a neighborhood. Here in New Hampshire property value increases are captured very slowly (years later).

States vary regarding negotiability of property taxes. I found Texas property taxes to be relatively negotiable as long as you hired a business specializing in property tax negotiations for homeowners. In New Hampshire property taxes are set in stone and the courts rarely side with homeowners.

And there are various statistical analysis caveats when dealing with averages computed as means rather than medians. Means are greatly impacted by outliers relative to medians. Means are more sensitive to kurtosis ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurtosis


N.Y.'s Tuition-Free Dream Meets Details (clawback restrictions, full-time student requirements, tuition price fixing, etc.)---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/17/new-yorks-tuition-free-college-program-sparks-debates-and-defenses?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b60fb2979f-DNU20170417&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b60fb2979f-197565045&mc_cid=b60fb2979f&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Jensen Comment
Many students were probably better off previously with schalarships and the ability to work part time to cover living expenses (think rent, food, and car insurance).


Kentucky Limits Free 2-Year College Program (to students preparing for careers in just five industries) ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/04/17/kentucky-limits-free-2-year-college-program?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b60fb2979f-DNU20170417&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b60fb2979f-197565045&mc_cid=b60fb2979f&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Jensen Comment
Is accounting a "business service" in Kentucky?




From the Scout Report on April 21, 2017

Origin -- http://origin.star-lord.me/?ref=producthunt  ,

Origins is for Apple users looking to improve their writing productivity. This minimalist tool, which can be downloaded for free on any Mac computer, allows users to write and save their work - and write and save only. Origins does not allow users to delete text, copy and paste, scroll, or edit and modify their work. The idea is to push writers to complete brainstorm sessions or first drafts without the constraints of editing or perfectionism. Origins is available in four different themes; documents are saved in plaintext.  


Storm It! --- http://nfnlabs.in/stormit

Twitter requires users to share their thoughts and ideas in 140 characters or less - which can be a tough skill to master. Storm It! is a free application, available for iOS devices, Android, devices, and Mac computers, designed to help. The tool works by inviting users to type (or copy and past) what they want to say without character limits. The app then calculates and suggests a way to divvy up the provided content so that it can be posted as a "tweetstorm," or a string of related tweets


New Study Shines Light on how the Enigmatic Naked Mole-Rat Survives
With Limited Oxygen
Researchers Find Yet Another Reason Why Naked Mole-Rats Are Just Weird
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/20/524511231/researchers-find-yet-another-reason-why-naked-mole-rats-are-just-weird

No Oxygen? The Naked Mole Rat Might Not Care
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/science/naked-mole-rats-metabolism-video.html

How Naked Mole Rats Can Survive Without Oxygen for 18 Minutes
http://www.livescience.com/58765-naked-mole-rats-survive-without-oxygen.html

YouTube: The Brain Scoop: The Naked Mole-Rat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyx6jcp9zfQ

The Naked Mole-Rat Genome Resource
http://www.naked-mole-rat.org

What can we learn from naked mole rats and eusocial living? - tech podcast
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/audio/2017/apr/07/what-can-we-learn-from-naked-mole-rats-and-eusocial-living-tech-podcast




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


Education Tutorials

Philosophy for Beginners --- https://mariannetalbot.co.uk/about/podcasts/philosophy-for-beginners

Spiders & Other Arachnids --- https://australianmuseum.net.au/spiders

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

Science Vs https://gimletmedia.com/science-vs
This site communicates current issues in science to those of us who are not scientists.

Tropical Ecology in Panama --- http://www4.uwm.edu/clacs/tropicalecology 

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

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


Social Science and Economics Tutorials

Convict Records of Australia (the 160,000 United Kingdom convicts deported to Australia 1787 and 1867) ---  https://convictrecords.com.au
One problem is the definition of a "convict" that ranges from some who only stole potatoes to some who murdered.

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
Scroll down to Law


Math Tutorials

University of Michigan Library: Mathematics Teacher Resources --- http://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=282791&p=1888115

Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Mathematics and Statistics

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


History Tutorials

Ultimate History Project http://www.ultimatehistoryproject.com
The word "ultimate" in the title is misleading. These are interesting essays on topics in history, but the site is not a comprehensive or ultimate history site.

Philosophy for Beginners --- https://mariannetalbot.co.uk/about/podcasts/philosophy-for-beginners

Convict Records of Australia (the 160,000 United Kingdom convicts deported to Australia 1787 and 1867) ---  https://convictrecords.com.au
One problem is the definition of a "convict" that ranges from some who only stole potatoes to some who murdered.

Picture This! Vintage Postcards of Southeast Europe --- http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/exhibitions/picture-this-vintage-postcards-of-southeastern-europe

Mapping Gothic France --- http://mappinggothic.org

Virginia Memory: Digital Collections --- http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections

Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to History
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

 

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

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


Writing Tutorials

Adverbs and United Airlines ---
http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2017/04/18/adverbs-and-united-airlines/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=06b8b46d98e647ffaf1b8d10efc2ed25&elq=3be8f7a5dfcb4ea3aa20ed208da104a5&elqaid=13555&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5630 

You might think nothing more remained to be said about United Airlines Flight 3411 from Chicago to St Louis on Sunday, April 9. Not so. The coverage left key facts of the case misreported, and the most interesting linguistic aspects completely unnoticed.

Sean Davis at The Federalist sensibly dug out United’s contract of carriage and read it. But even he failed to note how bad its use of English is.

The volitional subclass of adverbs used as act-related adjuncts are the adverbs like accidentally, deliberately, inadvertently, knowingly, purposely, reluctantly, unwittingly, and willingly (see The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Pages 675–679). Crucially, involuntarily belongs to this class. The key thing about these words is that they modify the agent in a clause. Jack voluntarily kissed Jill asserts only that Jack had free will — not that Jill consented. This holds even for passives: The suspect was reluctantly released from jail by the police, attributes reluctance to the police, not the suspect.

With that in mind, take a look at part of Rule 25, Denied Boarding Compensation, subsection 1, in United’s contract of carriage:

If a Passenger is asked to volunteer, UA will not later deny boarding to that Passenger involuntarily unless that Passenger was informed at the time he was asked to volunteer that there was a possibility of being denied boarding involuntarily …

Consider the clause UA will not later deny boarding to that Passenger involuntarily. Adverbs like involuntarily target the agent; so that’s UA. Denying boarding involuntarily would involve a weird sci-fi scenario where UA staff are in the grip of some drug or alien mind control that forces them to deny some passenger boarding even though they want her to be allowed to board.

United’s intent, clearly, is to state that if you are first asked to volunteer to get bumped, United personnel have to tell you certain things at that point: They can’t ask you to volunteer, fail to let you know about the $1,000 voucher, and then bump you against your will. But the ordinary semantics of English does not support that reading.

The mistaken use of involuntary is repeated:

If there are not enough volunteers, other Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority …

Again, to deny boarding involuntarily would mean to deny it despite not wanting to. That’s how volitional act-related adjuncts work.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment

You probably did not even notice the other bad (recently banned for political incorrectness) grammar of United Airlines. Consider the phrase:  "involuntarily unless that Passenger was informed at the time he was asked to volunteer ..."

The newer politically correct way to write the phrase is:  "involuntarily unless that Passenger was informed at the time they was asked to volunteer ..."

Under new political correctness rules, the word "they" is now singular or plural and should replace the words "he" and "she" is all writing unless you're an old fudd like me he who at times refuses to be politically correct.

 

It's going to take some getting used to as our journals, books, email messages, letters, etc. do away with the singular (think I, me, he, him, himself, she, her, and herself) with the plural (think they, their, theirself, and them) where we used to use the singular case for just one person. The Wall Street Journal writes about this by quoting an acceptance letter from a Dean Powell at Brown University where they writes (now supposedly politically correct grammar) in the new politically correct (plural) case.

"A Letter From An Ivy League Admissions Dean," by James Freeman, The Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2017 ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-letter-from-an-ivy-league-admissions-dean-1492107041?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb

. . .

Oddly, the note referred to the accepted student not as “she” but as “they.” Dean Powell’s letter also stated that our reader’s daughter had no doubt worked hard and made positive contributions to “their” school and community. Our reader reports that his perplexed family initially thought that Brown had made a word-processing error. That was before they listened to a voice mail message from the school congratulating his daughter and referring to her as “them.”

. . .

The letter from Dean Powell included a total of four short paragraphs, including this one: “And now, as we invite you to join the Brown family, we encourage you to allow [daughter’s name] to chart their own course. Just as you have always been there, now we will provide support, challenge and opportunities for growth.”

Nearly a complete stranger, Mr. Powell is writing a short, error-filled letter to parents claiming that his organization is fit to replace them. No doubt the “Brown family” with all its “thems” and “theys” can offer a wealth of valuable educational opportunities. But anyone who buys the line that competent parenting is part of the package has probably never set foot on campus.

But there were worries expressed in papers and conversations that p.c.-ness has become a rigid concept, a new orthodoxy that does not allow for sufficient complexity in scholarship or even much clarity in thinking. One speaker, Michel Chaouli, a graduate student in comparative literature at Berkeley, said that "politically correct discourse is a kind of fundamentalism," one that gives rise to "pre-fab opinions." Among its features, he said, are "tenacity, sanctimoniousness, huffiness, a stubborn lack of a sense of humor." ---
Michel Chaouli in "The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct," 1990
http://ieas.unideb.hu/admin/file_6308.pdf

Jensen Comment
They (meaning I) am going to continue to use such politically-incorrect words like " I, me, he, him, himself, she, her, herself" just because we is too old to become two old men (no longer a politically-correct word) in one old body.

It might be an interesting writing workshop exercise next semester to rewrite all the politically incorrect graduation speeches that will be given this coming May and June. What celebrity is going to make a fool out of theirself by speaking in the new politically correct plural doublespeak in a graduation speech?

Political Correctness on Campus
To be politically correct at the University of Virginia students and faculty are encouraged to no longer quote the Constitution of the State of Virginia or anything else Thomas Jefferson ever wrote.
U. of Virginia Students and Faculty Ask President to Stop Quoting Jefferson, the founder of the University of Virginia and principle author of Virginia's State Constitution ---
http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-virginia-students-and-faculty-ask-president-to-stop-quoting-jefferson/115516?elqTrackId=e50a59346dec4186a11b83264cd1ea2a&elq=a373ec4040f04e3bb1f24fb30dd2426c&elqaid=11482&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4497

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/

Shots: NPR Health News --- http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots

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

April 18, 2017

April 19, 2017
http://www.webmd.com/news/default.htm

April 20, 2017

April 21, 2017

April 22, 2017

April 24, 2017

April 25, 2017

 


The Ibuprofen Risks You Need to Know ---
http://time.com/4746319/ibuprofen-painkillers-risks/?xid=newsletter-brief


MIT:  Facebook technology is a noninvasive brain-machine interface that could convert neural activity to text at a rate of 100 words per minute, the second a wearable device that may make it possible to sense up to 100 different words via your skin using specific patterns of stimulation ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604229/facebooks-sci-fi-plan-for-typing-with-your-mind-and-hearing-with-your-skin/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=d912f3c4e5-The_Download&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-d912f3c4e5-153727301


Memory:  For decades, neuroscientists believed that short-term memories were transferred from the hippocampus to the prefrontal cortex over time ---
https://qz.com/960066/for-half-a-century-neuroscientists-thought-they-knew-how-memory-worked-they-were-wrong/




Humor for April 2017

SNL Video:  Yes Harvard Does Have a Dorm by That Name ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/04/17/yes-harvard-does-have-dorm-name?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b60fb2979f-DNU20170417&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b60fb2979f-197565045&mc_cid=b60fb2979f&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Berkeley Campus On Lockdown After Loose Pages From ‘Wall Street Journal’ Found On Park Bench ---
http://www.theonion.com/article/berkeley-campus-lockdown-after-loose-pages-wall-st-55815?elqTrackId=cfa773c038ce47e398a51a5f89f13d51&elq=a8199b8e70984d42bf73b213b36428b1&elqaid=13610&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5646

BERKELEY, CA—Advising students to remain in their dormitories and classrooms until the situation was resolved, the University of California, Berkeley declared a campuswide lockdown Thursday after several loose pages from The Wall Street Journal were found on a park bench outside a school building. “At 11:15 this morning, several pages from two separate sections of today’s Wall Street Journal were discovered spread across a bench outside of Eshleman Hall in Lower Sproul Plaza,” read the urgent alert sent to all students and faculty, emphasizing that while campus security and local police had safely disposed of the pages, there was no way of knowing if others were strewn elsewhere on university grounds. “As of now, the perpetrator remains at large, so it is vital that you stay where you are until the all-clear is given. In the meantime, notify police immediately if you have any additional information at all regarding this incident.” At press time, a black-clad group of 50 students were throwing bottles at the bench while chanting, “No Nazis, No KKK, No Fascist U.S.A!”

A Note on the Fabrications and Plagiarism in this Article ---
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-note-on-the-fabrications-and-plagiarism-in-this-article?elqTrackId=345ddc1812004e2f862432f2f52ce166&elq=a8199b8e70984d42bf73b213b36428b1&elqaid=13610&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5646

The Rhetorical Limits of Satire: An Analysis of James Finn Garner's Politically Correct Bedtime Stories ---
http://nca.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00335630308175

Bill O’Reilly Tearfully Packs Up Framed Up-Skirt Photos From Desk ---
http://www.theonion.com/article/bill-oreilly-tearfully-packs-framed-skirt-photos-d-55818?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=feeds ----
 




Humor April 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q2.htm#Humor0417.htm

Humor March 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q1.htm#Humor0317.htm

Humor February 2017 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q1.htm#Humor0217.htm

Humor January 2017 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q1.htm#Humor0117.htm

Humor December 2016 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q4.htm#Humor1216.htm 

Humor November 2016 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q4.htm#Humor1116.htm 

Humor October 2016 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q4.htm#Humor1016.htm

Humor September 2016 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q3.htm#Humor0916.htm

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

 




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

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