Tidbits on May 25, 2017
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Set 2 of the Colors of Early Springtime in the White Mountains
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/SummertimeFavorites/EarlySpringtime/Set02/EarlySpringtimeSet02.htm

 

 

Tidbits on May 25, 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

Video:  Four Lottery Winners Who Lost it All ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/lottery-winners-lost-money-divorce-drugs-powerball-2017-5

All 886 episodes of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood Streaming Online (for a Limited Time) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/all-886-episodes-of-mister-rogers-neighborhood-streaming-online-for-a-limited-time.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

YouTube: Above the Noise (science) --- https://www.youtube.com/abovethenoise


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 

The NPR Classical 50 --- http://www.npr.org/series/99866406/the-npr-classical-50

Hear 2,000 Recordings of the Most Essential Jazz Songs: A Huge Playlist for Your Jazz Education ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/__trashed.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Library of Congress Collection: Aaron Copland Collection --- https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland

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

Visit a New Digital Archive of 2.2 Million Images from the First Hundred Years of Photography ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/visit-a-new-digital-archive-of-2-2-million-images-from-the-first-hundred-years-of-photography.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Flickr: The Commons (photo archives) --- https://www.flickr.com/commons

Unpublished Photos Capture the Lifesaving Role of Nurses in World War II ---
http://time.com/4746347/nurse-shortage-photos-1942/?xid=newsletter-brief

The Falmouth Project (Caribbean architecture) --- http://falmouth.lib.virginia.edu

The Hidden World of National Parks --- https://artsandculture.withgoogle.com/en-us

Res Obscura (historic paintings of monkeys getting drunk) --- https://resobscura.blogspot.com

Biodiversity Library Exhibition: Spices --- http://spices.biodiversityexhibition.com

Schulz Library Blog (comics, cartoons and graphics in books) --- http://www.cartoonstudies.org/schulz/blog

Mapping Performance Culture: Nottingham --- http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ahzvven/mapping/map33.html

A photographer captured the astonishing moment a pair of humpback whales breached in perfect unison off Sydney ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/humpback-whales-breached-in-perfect-unison-2017-5

Women at Work Around the World ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-women-at-work-around-the-world-2017-5

Fake Modiglianis began to emerge in the 1920s, soon after his death. Now he is one of the world's most faked artists. There are even fake fakes ---
http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/05/worlds-most-faked-artists-amedeo-modigliani-picasso

Where Jumbo Jets Go to Die ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/victorville-california-airplane-boneyard-photo-2017-5

Architects Identified the 10 Most Beautiful Gas Stations in the World ---
https://qz.com/985578/architects-have-identified-the-10-most-beautiful-gas-stations-in-the-world/

Worst Tourist Trap in Every State ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-tourist-traps-usa-overrated-attractions-2017-5/#alaska-the-north-pole-2

21 photos that show why Charleston is one of America's most popular destinations right now (but not in July and August) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/charleston-south-carolina-travel-guide-2017-5/#charleston-is-a-port-city-on-the-coast-of-south-carolina-the-city-itself-has-a-population-of-roughly-133000-according-to-2015-census-data-1

Font Map --- http://fontmap.ideo.com

From the Scout Report on May 19, 2017

Botticelli Comes to the United States in a New Exhibit that Highlights
the Artist's Full, Complex Oeuvre
Superb Botticelli show at MFA traces the master's arc
https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/art/2017/04/19/superb-botticelli-show-mfa-traces-master-arc/f0VgVMeuE7MIqFqH51GKAO/story.html

A Lesser Known Venus Visits the U.S. in New Botticelli Exhibit
http://www.npr.org/2017/05/16/527589941/a-lesser-known-venus-visits-the-u-s-in-new-botticelli-exhibit

How this Tiny Museum in Virginia Lands Major Shows of Botticelli and
Michelangelo
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-tiny-museum-virginia-lands-major-botticelli-michelangelo

Botticelli and the Search for the Divine
http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/botticelli-and-the-search-for-the-divine

Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance
http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici

Perspectives on Painting: Investigating Early Italian Renaissance Art
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/perspectives-on-painting-investigating-early-italian-renaissance-art

 

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

Prize-Winning Books Online --- http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/prize.html

Scottish Chapbooks --- https://scottishchapbooks.lib.uoguelph.ca/home

Life Changing Books (not all are free online)---
http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/23-books-that-changed-my-life/

Casebooks Project (astrological medicine) --- http://www.magicandmedicine.hps.cam.ac.uk

Austen Said: Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels --- http://austen.unl.edu

Developing Clarity: Innovating Library Systems --- http://www.knightfoundation.org/reports/developing-clarity-innovating-in-library-systems

Helen Keller Writes a Letter to Nazi Students Before They Burn Her Book: “History Has Taught You Nothing If You Think You Can Kill Ideas” (1933) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/helen-keller-writes-a-letter-to-nazi-students-before-they-burn-her-book-history-has-taught-you-nothing-if-you-think-you-can-kill-ideas-1933.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

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 May 25, 2017
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2017/TidbitsQuotations052517.htm          

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

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




If the American Statistical Association Warns About p-Values, and Nobody Hears It, Does It Make a Sound? ---
https://replicationnetwork.com/category/news-events/

Jensen Comment
What will it take to get accountics scientists to stop using them in every empirical study?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong


Here are the 5 books Bill Gates thinks everyone should read this summer ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-book-recs-summer-2017-5/#hillbilly-elegy-by-jd-vance-1


Here are 200 Excel shortcuts that'll make your life a lot easier ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/excel-keyboard-shortcuts-windows-and-mac-2017-5


Python Programming Language --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)

Learn Python Programming Language with a Free Online Course from MIT ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/learn-python-with-a-free-online-course-from-mit.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Free eBooks on Computer Programming from O’Reilly Media ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/36-ebooks-on-computer-programming-from-oreilly-media-free-to-download-and-read.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29


Big List of Free Art Lessons on YouTube ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15c3a864d2816091


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

Someone bought 2 pizzas with 10,000 bitcoins in 2010 — today they're (the bitcoins) worth $20 million ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-pizza-day-passes-2000-20-million-2017-5


Do Your Students Learn by Rote? Or Can They Recognize Patterns?
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Do-Your-Students-Learn-by/240100?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=f0c39d7d443a461da653e0cd3856d654&elq=8d4e6a13654d41449ebc6eff99d41e01&elqaid=14028&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5865

A question confronts many professors at the start of each semester: Which of their students can grasp a subject’s underlying concepts, and which are simply adept at memorizing? Both kinds of students might complete a problem set or ace a quiz, but for very different reasons.

A new method developed by professors of chemistry and psychology at Washington University in St. Louis may be able to identify which of these two thinking patterns — often called rule-based and rote-based learning — students tend to use. Those who tend to think abstractly about underlying rules also tended to perform well in their chemistry courses, particularly at the upper levels, the scholars found.

In a recent issue of the Journal of Chemical Education (requires subscription), Regina F. Frey, a professor of STEM education and an associate professor of chemistry, and Mark A. McDaniel, a professor of psychological and brain sciences, outlined how the task they’ve designed can reveal students’ thinking patterns by asking them to make predictions about two fictional elements in a fictional organism.

The results of the scholars’ research suggest that rule-based (or abstraction) learners consistently performed better in general- and organic-chemistry courses, even after controlling for their academic preparation.

Ms. Frey and Mr. McDaniel, who also lead Washington University’s Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education, wrote the article with their colleague Michael J. Cahill. They spoke with The Chronicle about how their work can shed light on students’ thinking habits and how faculty members can move students from being memorizers (also known as instance- or exemplar-based thinkers) into those who look for underlying patterns.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
A confounding factor is the role of metacognition is forcing students to learn/discover individually on their own as opposed to providing them with material from class materials, textbooks, and student teams. There are experiments that students have better long-term memory when they learn (painfully) on their own in a way that leads them to question why they even have "teachers."
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm

It's one thing to making them good searchers. However, it's quite another hardship for them to find and correct errors. In the BAM project students not only had to learn complicated Intermediate 1 and 2 rules they had to apply this learning to discovering mistakes in a year-long complicated financial reporting case.
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm

In other words self-discovery of our own errors and errors of others improves long-term memory. Not many journal referees will argue with this. Interestingly, some of the errors in the BAM case were not intentional errors of the BAM Case writers.

At the Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School case writers pride themselves in writing cases that have no "correct" answers. The learning comes from the process of dynamic case discussions in which teachers are more interested in the learning process and case dynamics rather than discover of a hidden optimal solution. Two or more opposite solutions may be equally "correct." There are solution patterns rather than "solutions."

In theory this should also allow a great case to be used more than one semester. However, it can destroy repeated use if students create archives of case notes and videos of prior case discussions. A particularly good class discussion can be "memorized" to corrupt the class discussion in a non-creative way.

Stanford Researchers Discover a Smarter Way to Prepare for Exams: Introducing MetaCognition, the Art of Thinking About Your Thinking ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/metacognition-the-art-of-thinking-about-your-thinking.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Bob Jensen's threads on metacognition ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm 


Graph:  After Peaking in 2010 Law School Enrollments Tumbled ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4eab53ef01bb099e92bd970d-popup

Jensen Comment
The reasons for enrollment declines are complicated but the leading cause for enrollment declines in both journalism and law schools is the shrinking of opportunities for careers after graduation.

This is especially sad in the case of law schools since so many undergraduates majored in humanities disciplines (think history) with the intent of eventually tracking into law schools and law firm employment.

A small but increasing reason for decline in law firm employment is that robots now exist to do some of the legal research work.

A major reason for the decline in majors is the cost of three years in law school (think student loans) coupled with with decline in career opportunities after graduation.

Continue reading --- http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/05/hendersona-measure-of-overcapacity-in-legal-education.html#more


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

IBM, a Pioneer of Remote (Home) Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-a-pioneer-of-remote-work-calls-workers-back-to-the-office-1495108802

International Business Machines Corp. is giving thousands of its remote workers in the U.S. a choice this week: Abandon your home workspaces and relocate to a regional office—or leave the company.

The 105-year-old technology giant is quietly dismantling its popular decades-old remote work program to bring employees back into offices, a move it says will improve collaboration and accelerate the pace of work

Jensen Comment

One of the arguments for remote work is that it's family-friendly relative to being at the office.

Another argument is that it avoids the waste of commuting time that in IBM's new Boston offices could well be in excess of two hours per day given the enormous traffic congestions in the some of the offices in 170 countries where IBM has business offices.

But there are advantages to having workers be in business offices, including serendipity encounters, face-to-face encounters (such as greeting customers who want to share their needs), fewer distractions such as tending to demanding children, and reduced abuse devoting time to personal rather than business projects. It seems to me, however, that "pace of work" can be monitored online.

The fact is that much depends upon the type of work. A woman lives down the road who hired to edit reports of a prestigious consulting firm. She tells me she's much more efficient and effective at her job if she works at home. There are other types of jobs where this may not be the case such as management and leadership jobs that often benefit from presence among subordinates. This is especially the case where senior workers mentor newer workers.


Political Correctness --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness

I think political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don't address reality.
Juan William before he was fired after a distinguished career on NPR.
http://townhall.com/columnists/GuyBenson/2010/10/21/npr_finally_finds_an_excuse_to_fire_juan_williams

Political Correctness Offends Me 
John Cleese Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klu1SCueDow 

Political Correctness and Safe Spaces:  Tread Carefully with the Socratic Method ---
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/1806-tread-carefully-with-the-socratic-method?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=634f1b9cd92a47569df50a721f4c0756&elq=671d2781aa214850b36cdc11d4982696&elqaid=14047&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5874

Whatever you may think of Neil Gorsuch as a jurist — or of his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court — there is one episode from his confirmation hearing that should give all faculty members a moment's pause.

As readers who followed the hearing may know, one of the people who wrote to the Senate to object to his nomination was one of his former students at the University of Colorado Law School, where Gorsuch — then serving on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals — had taught as an adjunct professor. In her letter, the student accused Gorsuch of demonstrating bias toward women, based on comments he allegedly made in class. If you're unfamiliar with the details, you can find them here.

Other former students, including women and self-described liberals, quickly came to Gorsuch's defense, as did 11 of his former law clerks, all women. Some commentators pointed out that Gorsuch was merely utilizing the Socratic method, a common teaching strategy in law (and other) courses that seeks to draw out a student's underlying assumptions and foster reasoned debate by asking pointed questions and assuming a contrary position. Gorsuch himself explained that in the particular situation raised by the objecting student, he had been using a case study from a popular law textbook.

Whether or not you believe Justice Gorsuch is sexist — personally, I don't — this incident might send a slight chill up your spine. Because many of us also use some version of the Socratic method in our classrooms, in an attempt to stimulate critical thinking. What if a student takes offense to something we said — perhaps while we were playing devil's advocate — and accuses us of some form of discrimination? On today's hypersensitized campuses, where in many cases emotional responses have been privileged over intellectual ones, that has become a very real possibility.

It has actually happened to me on two occasions. Most recently, a student accused me in a private meeting of saying something during a class discussion that I had never said and taking a position I'd never taken. She was offended and, although she hadn't wanted to bring it up in class, she felt she should do so now.

The issue was mainstreaming of students with disabilities in K-12 classrooms, which another student had proposed as a possible essay topic. During the ensuing class discussion, the young woman I was meeting with had asserted that all such students should be mainstreamed. I then asked her in class if she really meant “all,” or if she thought there were some students with disabilities so severe that they couldn't function in a regular class or perhaps needed special attention. Later in our private meeting, she told me that, as a middle-school student, she had been misdiagnosed with a mild learning disability and segregated, even though she was perfectly capable of doing well in mainstream classes. Hence her awareness on this subject.

I appreciated her honesty and discretion but was alarmed that she had so thoroughly misunderstood what was going on in class. I explained that I had merely been playing devil's advocate, asking questions to encourage her and her classmates to think more deeply about their arguments and understand the potential weaknesses of those positions so they could better defend them — and, most important, be better equipped to make a more persuasive case.

The meeting ended amicably enough, and I think she understood. But I was left wondering: Would things have turned out differently if she had gone straight to the dean and accused me of having a bias against students with disabilities?

In my more than 30 years of teaching, I’ve often used a semi-Socratic method in leading class discussions. Up until just a few years ago, students seemed to understand very well what I was doing. To my knowledge, no one got offended or misconstrued my words or intent. In the past few years, however, I have encountered more students who don’t seem to grasp that I am playing devil’s advocate in the classroom.

Continued in article

Political Correctness Graduation Speech
Forwarded by a Good Friend on the AECM
Leave Your Safe Spaces: The 2017 Commencement Address at Hampden-Sydney College ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/opinion/leave-your-safe-spaces-the-2017-commencement-address-at-hampden-sydney-college.html?_r=0

. . .

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of your peers are also celebrating their commencements, receiving their diplomas, starting out in the world. But not all of their educations have been liberal in the truest sense of the word.

Instead of being educated to a cultured skepticism, too many have been educated to a fervent certitude. Instead of embracing, or at least respecting, heterodox or unsettling ideas, they prefer to retreat into settled convictions. Instead of wanting to engage controversial discussions, they’d just as soon shut them down.

And instead of wanting to emerge at last from the cocoons of their “safe spaces,” they want to extend the domain of those spaces into the next stages of their lives.

Now, don’t get me wrong: The “they” in those sentences consists, for the most part, of nice, well-intentioned, intelligent, hard-working and often high-achieving people.

They just happen to know that truth and virtue are on their side. They are convinced that any difference of opinion on matters they hold dear isn’t simply an error of reasoning but an affront to human decency. They believe they are entitled to denounce the people with whom they disagree as knavish ignoramuses. And they believe that it is imperative to keep a very safe distance between themselves and the ideas that so disturb them.

Today, we live in a world that makes it easy to continue inhabiting these safe spaces, above all when it comes to politics, public policy and ideology.

On social media, you follow, share, “like” and retweet the people you agree with — while you ignore, unfriend, remove or block those you don’t.

If you’re a conservative news junkie, Fox News is your safe space, even if you’d probably never call it that. You can watch it for days — indeed, weeks, months and years — on end without ever encountering a persuasively contrary opinion, at least one that isn’t instantly derided as unworthy of serious consideration. If you’re a liberal, it’s the same story on MSNBC.

When you open the op-ed pages of a newspaper, you’ll turn first to the columnist with whom you already know you’re likely to agree, so that you can see your already-correct opinions repeated and ratified once more. As for the writers with whom you disagree — whether it’s Krugman or Stephens, Kristof or Krauthammer — you’ve already concluded that they’re idiots or liars, so you’ll either skip over them or read them with smirking disdain.

And so it goes. We all believe that the system of checks and balances is a good idea for a well-functioning and prudent government. But where are the checks and balances in our own thinking — the check that whispers, “You could be wrong”; the balance that suggests, “There’s another way of thinking about it”?

This is what I fear we are at risk of losing in America today. Too many of our schools are producing students who have never learned properly to engage, understand or accept an alternative point of view. Too many of our citizens want to hear only from the people whose views they already share, and who will never change their minds about a thing. And too many of our media outlets see no problem in catering exclusively to these increasingly narrow and illiberal tastes.

We worry a lot these days about political polarization, the unpleasant choices such polarization leaves us with at the ballot box, its effects on what used to be our common values, our shared sense of nationhood. What we fail to recognize is that this polarization is a result of us getting exactly what we want — only to rue the consequences.

A month ago, I chose to do my small part in trying to swim against this particular current. After 16 productive and happy years as a conservative writer with the staunchly conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, I decided to switch teams to the mostly liberal editorial page of The New York Times.

In case you’re wondering, my opinions are just as conservative, reactionary and antediluvian as they’ve always been. My salary is pretty much the same. And, no, I wasn’t pushed out of my last job.

But I did have a gnawing sense that it was time to stop talking to my own side, preaching to my own choir. I wanted to write for an audience that might not be wholly receptive — and might even be openly hostile — to what I have to say.

In short, I thought it was time to leave my own safe space: to take the gamble that I might be able to sway readers not always inclined to agree with me, and to accept the possibility that they, in turn, might sway me.

Has it been fun? Yes. Has it been rough? A bit. Has it been worth it? Ask me again in a few years. But I’m optimistic.

So here’s my advice to you: Get out of your own safe spaces. Define what your intellectual comfort zone is — and leave it. Enhance your tolerance for discordant voices. Narrow your criteria for what’s beyond the pale. Read the authors or watch the talking heads with whom you disagree. Treat those disagreements as a whetting stone to sharpen your own arguments. Resist the temptation to call people names.

By all means master the art of being pugnacious in argument — but as a pugnacious dialogian, not a petulant didact.

Go beyond that. Befriend your intellectual adversaries. Assume that they’re smart, that they’re motives are honorable and that they are your fellow travelers in a quest to better understand a common set of challenges. Master the civilized art of agreeable disagreement. Try to remember that words are not weapons, and that politics is not warfare, and debate is not a death sport. Learn that — in politics no less than in marriage — it’s a bad idea to go to bed angry with one another. Have an argument, then have a drink, together.

Members of the class of 2017: Do not close your ears to opposing points of view. Otherwise you cannot learn. Do not foreclose the possibility that you might change your mind. Otherwise you cannot grow. Do not lose sight of the fact that you are not in possession of the whole and only truth. Otherwise you will fail to notice your mistakes, and so suffer their consequences.

Above all, do not forget that the world would be a duller and darker place if everyone thought as you did, and if all our thoughts were safe ones, and if there were nothing to bestir our minds, and inflame our senses, and rouse our consciences, and churn the warm but too-placid waters in which we swim at our own peril.

Safe spaces, physical and intellectual, are for children. You are grown-ups now. If your diplomas mean anything, it’s that it is time you leave those spaces behind forever.

Bob Jensen's threads on political correctness ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness

 

Updates on Politically Correct Language Trends ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/05/20/in-seattle-police-can-no-longer-report-suspects-they-have-to-say-community-members-n2329542?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

In Seattle, police can no longer use the term “suspect” for use of force reports. Instead, they have to write “community member.” Alas, we have political correctness now infesting law enforcement. Also, this isn’t new. KIRO 7 reported that the Washington’s Department of Corrections no longer calls prisoners inmates; they call them students.

Jensen Comment
Becoming a "student" is now punishment for crime convictions. Bernie Madoff is a lifetime "student."

One of the problems of the new PC language is that words can no longer be partitioned into different meanings.

A "student" in the State of Washington can be enrolled at the University of Washington or incarcerated for life at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla.

A "community member" may be a victim or a suspect (who knows which?)

The word "they" is now singular and must be used for both a "he" or a "she"
For example"  "They had a hysterectomy" and "They's prostate was removed."

Lake Superior State University's 41st Annual List of Banished Words --- 
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/ 
Jensen Comment
Much depends upon context. Motivational speakers make millions of dollars beating socially incorrect words to death. Rappers make millions beating politically incorrect words to death.

Book Reviews
1-Free Thought Under Siege?
2-What's Happened To The University? A Sociological Exploration Of Its Infantilisation (read that microaggressions and political correctness)
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/11/whats-happened-to-the-university-a-sociological-exploration-of-its-infantilisation.html


Pressure Builds from Low Endowment Returns ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/05/22/pressure-builds-low-endowment-returns?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=cd4ec41b43-DNU20170522&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-cd4ec41b43-197565045&mc_cid=cd4ec41b43&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

. . .

That is changing as average endowment returns have fallen substantially below levels needed to keep up universities’ standard endowment spending rate, widely considered to be 5 percent. Over the last decade, endowments have posted an average annual return rate of 5 percent. After inflation is factored in, that would mean a 5 percent spending rate would create a shortfall of 2 percent to 2.5 percent, driving down endowment values over time, Moody’s said.

As a result of the crunch, universities could choose to reduce their annual spending levels. Some are gradually cutting spending to the 4.5 percent to 5 percent range, according to Moody’s. However, large reductions are unlikely in a current climate of political scrutiny that has included Congress making noise about taxing large endowments at colleges and universities that do not spend substantial amounts on student financial aid.

Colleges and universities could also choose to pursue strategies like moving to passive management to try to match market returns. Such a strategy would likely limit their possibility of outperforming the market, though.

Others might take on increasing risk. Some colleges and universities may turn to fund-raising and retained cash flow to shore up their long-term endowment returns.

As a result, the wealthiest universities would appear to have the most potential for future endowment health. Such universities tend to disproportionately benefit from fund-raising and cash flow because they have wealthy donors and strong brands commanding more money. They also tend to have the endowment size and flexibility required to invest in the alternative and riskier assets that could yield the highest returns.

Jensen Comment
The Fed's low interest rate policy helps maintain the National Debt while, at the same time, forces both people saving for retirement and colleges with endowments to both spend less and take on more investments having more financial risks. Doing so in recent years hit Harvard badly.

Harvard Endowment to Lay Off Half Its Staff The school fund will lay off half of its staff and ask outside funds to run its investments ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-to-outsource-management-of-its-35-7-billion-endowment-1485363650?mg=id-wsj

Harvard University’s endowment fund, which is the largest in the world, is planning to make big changes to its investment approach. Here’s why Harvard and many of its endowment peers are making similar moves.


Books Recommended by This Year's TED Speakers ---
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/50-books-recommended-by-this-years-ted-speakers.html


David Pogue:  How to speed up YouTube playback with a keystroke ---
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/pogues-basics-speed-youtube-playback-keystroke-160348751.html

Jensen Comment
The first two accounting courses at BYU are primarily video courses. One of the features is that the video can be viewed at variable speeds. There are some learning efficiencies of this feature ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#BYUvideo


14-year-old whiz kid becomes the youngest graduate ever at Texas Christian University ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-graduate-14-youngest-ever-at-texas-christian-university-2017-5


May 2017 Update on Retractions ---
http://retractionwatch.com/2017/05/13/weekend-reads-prison-sharing-article-country-fake-peer-review-retractions-counterfeit-reagents/
Which nation has the most retractions?

Does Philosophy Literature Have a Plagiarism Problem? ---
http://retractionwatch.com/2017/05/19/philosophy-literature-plagiarism-problem/

Journal flags two more papers by diabetes researcher who sued to stop retractions (and now has 12) ---
http://retractionwatch.com/2017/05/18/journal-flags-two-papers-diabetes-researcher-sued-stop-retractions-now-12/


Nine tips and tricks to unlock cool Uber features you never knew about ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/top-tips-and-tricks-for-using-uber-2017-5


To Criticize? Or Not to Criticize? That is Not the Question (especially in the social mediia) ---
https://replicationnetwork.com/2017/05/06/to-criticize-or-not-to-criticize-that-is-not-the-question/


Net Neutrality --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 on Thursday in favor of reversing net neutrality rules ---
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fcc-neutrality-idUSKCN18E2H7?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=a2633ebc2f-The_Download&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-a2633ebc2f-153727301


Microsoft publicly attacked the US government for 'stockpiling' exploits after a massive global cyberattack ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-brad-smith-attacks-us-government-stockpiling-vulnerabilities-ransomware-attack-2017-5


This electric bike is powerful enough to tow a car
http://www.businessinsider.com/electric-bike-powerful-enough-tow-suv-moar-ebike-price-fat-tire-tyre-2017-5

Jensen Comment
Maybe electric car owners should carry such a bike if their power runs out short of a charging station. However, the towing speed is too slow to be safe on a freeway.


In Tennessee, Free College for All?
https://townhall.com/video/in-tennessee-free-college-for-all-n2326063?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=


On the nature of creepiness ---
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0732118X16300320


Efficient Market Hypothesis --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis

Efficient Markets Debates That Never End

Profit opportunities exist until (academic) researchers publish findings on market inefficiencies. Then they disappear ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-11/ivory-tower-wonks-help-traders-make-a-quick-buck

Profit opportunities do not exist in many instances (e.g., those attributed to p-hacking mistakes)
An Algorithm, an ETF and an Academic Study Walk Into a Bar ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-algorithm-an-etf-and-an-academic-study-walk-into-a-bar-1494528113

Most of the supposed market anomalies academics have identified don’t exist, or are too small to matter

Tie together an algorithm, an exchange-traded fund and an academic study finding an anomaly in the markets, and voilà! You have a formula for making money. Trouble is, it turns out that most of the supposed anomalies academics have identified don’t exist, or are too small to matter.

A new study making waves in quantitative finance tested 447 anomalies identified by academics and found more than eight out of 10 vanish when rigorous tests are applied. Among those failing to reach statistical significance: one anomaly recently set out by the godfathers of quantitative finance, Nobel-winning economist Eugene Fama and his colleague Kenneth French.

The study, “Replicating Anomalies,” published this week by Kewei Hou and Lu Zhang at Ohio State University and Chen Xue at the University of Cincinnati, is the biggest test of examples of inefficient markets carried out so far. The trio applied consistent analysis to the supposed anomalies, used the same database of stocks and set higher standards for statistical significance. Simply reducing the influence of the plethora of rarely traded penny stocks—which make up just 3% of market value but 60% of all listings—by using market capitalization weightings made more than half of past findings no longer significant.

Messrs. Hou, Xue and Zhang warn that academics have been fiddling the statistics to come up with interesting findings, known to statisticians as data mining or p-hacking. “The anomalies literature is infested with widespread p-hacking,” they write.

It isn’t all bad news for investors and those trying to make a living flogging what have become known as “factors.” The research confirmed that the most popular factors have indeed outperformed the market over long periods even when faced with rigorous tests, but found much smaller returns than previous studies estimated.

Market anomalies that passed the new study’s tests included several of the biggest. Cheap stocks indeed beat expensive ones; share prices have momentum; companies that invest a lot underperform, and quality of earnings matters. Known as value, momentum, investment and quality, these have become the biggest of the so-called “smart beta” ETFs sucking in tens of billions of dollars.

A lot depends on exactly how the factors are implemented, though, and the researchers dismissed one of the industry-standard Fama-French factors as statistically insignificant: Companies with high operating return on equity don’t outperform meaningfully on their tests. Other measures of return on equity did outperform sufficiently, however, underlining the sensitivity of some factors to exactly how they are defined.

One lesson for investors is to be careful about trying to make money by repeating what seems to have worked in the past. If it was so easy, everyone would do it and it would stop working.

A former student of Mr. Fama, Cliff Asness, founder of quantitative hedge-fund manager AQR Capital Management, said he tries to avoid being caught out by false findings by trading on anomalies he can explain, economically or through investor behavior. To assess whether the market anomalies will continue, he looks for ones which carried on after being identified, can be seen in other markets or asset classes, and where minor changes to how they are defined don’t much affect the result. These include most famously value, momentum and corporate quality, among others.

Still, he worries that the “awesome effort” in the new paper might lead some to overreact and reject all factors, even those which Messrs. Hou, Xue and Zhang found evidence for.

“Many factors are demonstrably silly, or are highly correlated versions of the same idea,” he said. “Where I get worried is about overreaction [to the paper] and the cynicism it breeds.”

Investors are still likely to be confused. There are well over 100 value and high-dividend ETFs in the U.S. alone, tracking large, small or midsize stocks, based on different definitions and often combined with other factors such as momentum, quality or low volatility. Intelligently choosing between them would mean examining how indexes are constructed and comparing to the long-term academic studies to see which methodology was best; in practice for most investors there is little more to go on than a few years of performance data and fees.

Worse still, the markets are reasonably efficient. If it turns out that shares usually rise just after Christmas or fall on Mondays when it rains in New York, traders will quickly find a way to profit from the anomaly, and it will disappear.

The danger for investors who have piled into “smart beta” ETFs betting on value or quality is that exactly this happens. Small-capitalization companies stopped outperforming after the landmark study identifying the so-called small-cap effect in 1981, for example, and haven’t looked good since (see chart).

Continued in article

Enter Desmos, a San Francisco-based company that offers a free online version of TI’s graphing calculator ---
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2017/desmos-now-embedded-in-year-end-assessments-across-the-united-states/

Jensen Question
Guess reasons why some instructors still require the student to own a pricey TI graphing calculator.


Life Changing Books ---
http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/23-books-that-changed-my-life/


The New Yorker: A.I. Versus M.D. (artificial intelligence in medical diagnostics) ---
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/03/ai-versus-md


Developing Clarity: Innovating Library Systems ---
http://www.knightfoundation.org/reports/developing-clarity-innovating-in-library-systems


A young researcher could go to jail for sharing a scientific paper ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/a-young-researcher-could-go-to-jail-for-sharing-a-scientific-paper-2017-5

FAQs and Fair Use Under USA Copyright Law ---
http://graduate.ucr.edu/copyrightresources.html

Fair Use Too Often Goes Unused ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Fair-Use-Too-Often-Goes-Unused/240033?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=c435993b44d44c6a95318b390b49091a&elq=2173f922c313468d8e991cf21b680ab4&elqaid=13928&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5810
Read the comments following this article

Jensen Comment
Bob Jensen's threads on the dreaded DMCA ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright


Stanford:  Can the GOP Fix the Corporate Income Tax?
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/can-gop-fix-corporate-income-tax?utm_source=Stanford+Business&utm_campaign=79e2a76402-Stanford-Business-Issue-112-5-14-2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b5214e34b-79e2a76402-70265733&ct=t(Stanford-Business-Issue-112-5-14-2017)

. . .

Will Trump address the root of the problem?
I think he really wants to end the lock-out of foreign profits once and for all, but it’s hard to tell if he’s settled on an approach. During the campaign Trump seemed to favor an end to deferral on foreign earnings. In other words, going forward, corporations would have to pay tax immediately on all their income worldwide, so there’d be no reason to hold cash overseas. And then you make that palatable by lowering the tax rate.

By the way, that’s what Obama tried to do, and it’s still the approach favored by Democrats. But Obama would only have lowered the rate to 28%. Trump wants to cut the tax rate to 15%, which is pretty low by world standards.

In his latest proposal — which is still just a page of bullet points — the president seems to have adopted an idea from Paul Ryan’s House plan: He now says he wants to move away from our system of global taxation to what’s called territorial taxation, where firms are taxed only on U.S. income. So instead of taxing offshore profits at once, he’d stop taxing them altogether.

Which is how most countries do it.
Right. And of course U.S. multinationals have been clamoring for this for years. They talk about “abolishing the repatriation tax,” which makes it sound like there’s a separate, unfair tax on foreign income. It’s just the ordinary income tax that companies have deferred for so long that they sort of stop thinking of it as a liability they already owe.

Why hasn’t the U.S. adopted a territorial tax system?
There are real risks. If you say foreign earnings aren’t taxable, you’re incentivizing companies to shift more of their operations offshore. And if you try to counteract that with a low tax rate like 15% — and at the same time, you’re shrinking the tax base by excluding foreign profits — you could be looking at significant revenue losses. It might really increase the federal deficit.

Continued in article


ABC News:  Global cyberattack has hit more than 200,000 organizations in 150 countries ---
http://abcnews.go.com/International/global-cyberattack-hit-100000-organizations-150-countries/story?id=47400573
Also see
http://fortune.com/2017/05/14/ransomware-wannacry-faq/?xid=newsletter-brief

Jensen Comment
Rumors are flying that this was an attack from North Korea.


San Francisco is so expensive, the city is spending $44 million so its teachers won't be homeless ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-teacher-housing-affordability-2017-5

Jensen Comment
This is probably a drop in the bucket compared to the need for cheaper housing for teachers, firefighters, police officers, hotel workers, janitors, etc.
The biggest boon to low cost housing is probably the BART train system leading to Oakland. But Oakland has its own troubles dealing with a culture of crime and racial strife.
The problem of not having low cost housing in Silicon Valley becomes more severe in cities like Palo Alto that are further from BART terminals. Palo Alto was one of the first to offer low cost housing to public service workers.

Jensen Question
My question is what this will do for taxation of relatively low-paid public servants who are almost twice or more above the USA poverty line.
College presidents, for example, pay income taxes on the estimated value of their subsidized housing?
A College president can easily afford the added income tax on free rental of a campus house valued at $1+ million anywhere in the USA.
Can a K-12 teacher earning $85,000 per year afford the added income tax on a free tiny cottage in valued at $1 million Palo Alto (that would be valued at less than $20,000 in rural Swea City, Iowa).
 


Active Learning, Cooperative Active Learning, and Passive Learning Methods in an Accounting Information Systems Course
Issues in Accounting Education, Article Volume 32, Issue 2 (May 2017)
http://aaajournals.org/doi/abs/10.2308/iace-51366

Authors

Jennifer Riley, University of Nebraska at Omaha 

Kerry Ward, University of Nebraska at Omaha 

Abstract

We report the results of a study to examine the effectiveness of active versus passive learning methods in the accounting information systems area. Two groups of students completed an assignment under two active learning conditions (individual and cooperative), while a third group covered the same topic in a passive lecture. Our findings indicate support for active learning, measured through student performance on exam questions and student feedback on a questionnaire. However, compared to passive learners, we find significantly improved exam performance only for students who work individually in an active environment. Students in the cooperative active environment posted exam scores that were not statistically different from passive participants' scores. Students in both individual and cooperative active environments reported positive feedback on satisfaction, perceived learning, and effectiveness of the method. We conclude that active learning enhances student outcomes, particularly for those who work individually.

Bob Jensen:  Metacognitive Concerns in Designs and Evaluations of Computer Aided Education and Training: Are We Misleading Ourselves About Measures of Success?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm


Growing Up: How Audit Internships Affect Students' Commitment and Long-Term Intentions to Work in Public Accounting
Issues in Accounting Education, Article Volume 32, Issue 2 (May 2017)
http://aaajournals.org/doi/abs/10.2308/iace-51431 Texas Tech University

Authors

Matthew Hart, Texas Tech University

Joleen Kremin, Portland State University

William R. Pasewark, Texas Tech University

Abstract

This study investigates factors that influence audit interns' commitment and long-term intentions to work in public accounting. We measure the organizational and professional commitment of 127 audit interns prior to the start of busy-season internships with public accounting firms and then again at the conclusion of the internship. We find that both organizational and professional commitment decline significantly as a result of the internship experience. We note that heavy workloads during the internship decreased the degree of commitment to a particular firm. On the other hand, offering challenging work assignments and surrounding the intern with desirable coworkers significantly increased commitment to both the firm and the profession. We also find that changes in organizational commitment are related to changes in interns' long-term intentions to work in public accounting, and that by the end of the internship, nearly 60 percent of the interns changed their views with regard to how long they planned to work in public accounting, with a majority of respondents anticipating a shorter career in the profession.

Jensen Comment
It would be interesting to compare these results with a similar study of tax interns.


Here's what could happen to America's hundreds of dead malls ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-will-happen-to-closed-malls-2017-5/#before-the-department-store-1

Jensen Comment
Some malls within a few hundred miles of our border with Mexico are still doing well because the launder money for the drug cartels.


U.S. Crackdown on Fraudulent For-Profit Schools Is Said to Go Idle ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/business/education-department-for-profit-schools.html?elqTrackId=ac9840b1f7a84800a6bcdaaa806c6a9d&elq=8314fc8dcf554e22811100d5e69b74f8&elqaid=13920&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5805&_r=0
Jensen Comment
Except for outright diploma mills most of these marginal "schools" are ripping off taxpayers (thing billions in student loans) with substandard education and training programs for Veterans and folks otherwise not equipped to compete in legitimate schools.
These questionable for-profits "schools" have virtually no admission standards and no academic standards. There are instances where dogs have gotten diplomas.
The Obama Administration shocked the world by shutting down the huge and fraudulent ITT Technical Institute. There's doubt that this would've happened under President Trump.


Sitting Near a High-Performer Can Make You Better at Your Job ---
https://journal.thriveglobal.com/how-sitting-near-a-high-performer-can-make-you-better-at-your-job-825f1699c29b

Jensen Comment
In academe there are at least four types of low performers. First there are the disgruntled performers who perform only to minimum levels to keep their jobs such as when only meeting classes and having a few office hours each week. Other than that you never see them on campus. Your presence near them does little to help unless you can find a way to make them less disgruntled. Usually these employees are what we call lifetime associate professors. Often they ceased being scholars in their field and focus on non-academic hobbies and side businesses (like raising cattle). At the University of Maine we had a science professor who spent more time making harpsichords than in doing his paid job at the University. Another lifetime associate professor of business spent a lot of time on his lobster boat.

Second there are low performers in research who do a might be more respected if they were re-classified as clinical professors. They are still scholars in their disciplines who often became discouraged by journal rejections of their research submissions to a point where they no longer do research. Sometimes these low performers in research can be helped by having offices next to high performer researchers who help them some with research.

Third there are the low performers in research who are under-appreciated for the monumental effort they make in their teaching, especially by having an open-door policy that many students take advantage of for help and inspiration. Sometimes high performers change opinions about the contributions these teachers make to the main mission of the university.

Fourth there are the high performers in research who are low performers in teaching. Sometimes sitting near top teachers can inspire top researchers to give more effort into becoming better teachers. When I had an office near a leadership professor named Don Van Eynde I became impressed with the way he would know the names of all his students after the first week of class. Being near him inspired me to become closer with my students. Until then I always thought I was doing a better job if I provided Camtasia videos on technical course modules than enabled students to have less need to come to my office.


Early May 2017 Suggested Readings in Econometrics
by David Giles
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2017/05/heres-what-ive-been-reading.html

Here are some of the papers that I've been reading recently. Some of them may appeal to you, too:




From the Scout Report on May 12, 2017

OperaVPN --- https://www.operavpn.com/ 

Accessing websites served over plain http (rather than https) using public wifi can be problematic for user privacy. As technically minded readers will be aware, any other users on the same network can snoop on http connections. Wifi network owners can even modify content traveling over http links (e.g., to insert advertising). OperaVPN makes the virtual private network already built in to the Opera web browser available to Android and iOS users as well. When using the service, all web browsing is shunted through an encrypted tunnel to the servers at SurfEasy Inc, a Canadian subsidiary of Opera Software, which then connect to sites on a user's behalf. Because traffic through the tunnel is encrypted, browsing sessions cannot be observed by other users on the same network, nor can they be modified by the network owner.


Hemingway Editor --- http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ 

Writing can be among the most mercurial of skills, in large measure because of how quickly clarity can slip through one's fingers. The Hemingway Editor provides a distraction-free writing environment with a twist. It has an Edit mode that will highlight complex sentences and common errors, compute readability scores, and estimate reading time. According to the about page, "It's like a spell checker, but for style." These features can help authors to sharpen, clarify, and simplify their prose. In addition to the free web version of the editor, a desktop version is available for purchase for both Macintosh and Windows computers


Astronomers Map Out Lava Waves on Io, Jupiter's Most Tumultuous Moon
Enormous lava waves spotted on Jupiter moon Io
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/may/10/lava-waves-size-wales-jupiter-moon-io

A Rare Peek at the Waves of Lava on Jupiter's Moon Io
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/solar-system/a26474/io-jupiter-moon-lava-waves

Waves of lava seen in Io's largest volcanic crater
http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/05/10/waves-of-lava-seen-in-ios-largest-volcanic-crater

Multi-phase volcanic resurfacing at Loki Patera on Io
https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v545/n7653/full/nature22339.html

Volcanoes in the Solar System
http://teachers.yale.edu/curriculum/viewer/initiative_05.04.03_u

Space Volcanoes
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/volcanoes/en


From the Scout Report on May 19, 2017

Signal Private Messenger --- https://whispersystems.org 

Signal is a communications platform for iOS and Android devices that supports text messaging, voice calls, and video calls. While users are identified by their phone number, Signal messages and calls are sent via the internet using a wifi or data connection, not over the cellular voice network. Because of this, there are no charges beyond data fees for Signal calls, even for long distance or international calls. Signal conversations are encrypted using the namesake Signal Protocol, designed by Open Whisper Systems and subsequently also adopted by WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Allo. Unlike the other systems using the Signal Protocol, complete source code for the Signal client applications as well as the Signal servers is available under a free software license. Signal has been recommended by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in their "Surveillance self-defense guide," has been endorsed by Edward Snowden, and was recently approved by the US Senate's Sergeant at Arms for official use by Senate staff members.


Open Broadcaster Studio --- https://obsproject.com 

It can be a surprisingly difficult task to record and stream video over the internet. Users must often assemble a pipeline of several different tools that each handle a different aspect of the production process. Open Broadcaster Studio wraps the entire process into a single, simple to use application. It can be used to pre-record video content, but it truly shines as a tool for live streaming. Multiple popular streaming services are supported including YouTube and Facebook Live. It can perform real time video and audio mixing, audio filtering (e.g. noise suppression), video filtering (e.g. color correction), custom transitions between scenes, and more. Extensive documentation is available on its website, including step-by-step guides with detailed instructions and screenshots. Users may also seek assistance via the very active Open Broadcaster Software forums or via live community chat. Open Broadcaster Studio is available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers.


Botticelli Comes to the United States in a New Exhibit that Highlights
the Artist's Full, Complex Oeuvre
Superb Botticelli show at MFA traces the master's arc
https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/art/2017/04/19/superb-botticelli-show-mfa-traces-master-arc/f0VgVMeuE7MIqFqH51GKAO/story.html

A Lesser Known Venus Visits the U.S. in New Botticelli Exhibit
http://www.npr.org/2017/05/16/527589941/a-lesser-known-venus-visits-the-u-s-in-new-botticelli-exhibit

How this Tiny Museum in Virginia Lands Major Shows of Botticelli and
Michelangelo
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-tiny-museum-virginia-lands-major-botticelli-michelangelo

Botticelli and the Search for the Divine
http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/botticelli-and-the-search-for-the-divine

Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance
http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici

Perspectives on Painting: Investigating Early Italian Renaissance Art
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/perspectives-on-painting-investigating-early-italian-renaissance-art

 




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


Education Tutorials

Mathematics Assessment Project (learning assessment) ---http://map.mathshell.org

ArtsEdge (teaching resources) --- http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators.aspx

Big List of Free Art Lessons on YouTube ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15c3a864d2816091

Science Notebook Corner --- http://www.calacademy.org/educators/science-notebook-corner

Prize-Winning Books Online --- http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/prize.html

Austen Said: Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels --- http://austen.unl.edu

Child Trends: Databank Indicators --- https://www.childtrends.org/databank-indicators

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

The Physicist Who Denies Dark Matter ---
http://nautil.us/issue/48/chaos/the-physicist-who-denies-dark-matter

Science Notebook Corner --- http://www.calacademy.org/educators/science-notebook-corner

YouTube: Above the Noise (science) --- https://www.youtube.com/abovethenoise

NASA's Science Friday: Space Seen Through a Window --- http://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/space-seen-through-a-window

The Cell Image Library --- http://www.cellimagelibrary.org

The New Yorker: A.I. Versus M.D. (artificial intelligence in medical diagnostics) ---
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/03/ai-versus-md

Marine Species Identification Portal --- http://species-identification.org

Biodiversity Library Exhibition: Spices --- http://spices.biodiversityexhibition.com

The Falmouth Project (Caribbean architecture) --- http://falmouth.lib.virginia.edu

CrashCourse (Philosophy and more) --- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNgK6MZucdYldNkMybYIHKR

Books, Health, and History --- https://nyamcenterforhistory.org

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

National Women's History Museum: Creating a Female Political Culture ---
 https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/politicalculture/index.html

Child Trends: Databank Indicators --- https://www.childtrends.org/databank-indicators

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

Mathematics Assessment Project (learning assessment) ---http://map.mathshell.org

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

Prize-Winning Books Online --- http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/prize.html

New Interactive Tool Traces the Evolution of the U.S. Constitution ---
http://time.com/4777130/compare-drafts-us-constitution/?xid=newsletter-brief

CrashCourse (Philosophy and more) --- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNgK6MZucdYldNkMybYIHKR

Unpublished Photos Capture the Lifesaving Role of Nurses in World War II ---
http://time.com/4746347/nurse-shortage-photos-1942/?xid=newsletter-brief

Books, Health, and History --- https://nyamcenterforhistory.org

National Women's History Museum: Creating a Female Political Culture ---
 https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/politicalculture/index.html

The Women's Library @ LSE --- http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/thewomenslibrary

DPLA: American Empire --- https://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/american-empire

Casebooks Project (astrological medicine) --- http://www.magicandmedicine.hps.cam.ac.uk

The Falmouth Project (Caribbean architecture) --- http://falmouth.lib.virginia.edu

Austen Said: Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels --- http://austen.unl.edu

Developing Clarity: Innovating Library Systems --- http://www.knightfoundation.org/reports/developing-clarity-innovating-in-library-systems

Mapping Performance Culture: Nottingham --- http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ahzvven/mapping/map33.html

The Hidden World of National Parks --- https://artsandculture.withgoogle.com/en-us

Res Obscura (historic paintings of monkeys getting drunk) --- https://resobscura.blogspot.com

Schulz Library Blog (comics, cartoons and graphics in books) --- http://www.cartoonstudies.org/schulz/blog

Hidden Patterns of the Civil War --- http://dsl.richmond.edu/civilwar

National Archives of Japan Digital Archive ---  https://www.digital.archives.go.jp/index_e.html

Scottish Chapbooks --- https://scottishchapbooks.lib.uoguelph.ca/home

Font Map --- http://fontmap.ideo.com

Flickr: The Commons (photo archives) --- https://www.flickr.com/commons

Helen Keller Writes a Letter to Nazi Students Before They Burn Her Book: “History Has Taught You Nothing If You Think You Can Kill Ideas” (1933) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/helen-keller-writes-a-letter-to-nazi-students-before-they-burn-her-book-history-has-taught-you-nothing-if-you-think-you-can-kill-ideas-1933.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

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  

Fake Modiglianis began to emerge in the 1920s, soon after his death. Now he is one of the world's most faked artists. There are even fake fakes ---
http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/05/worlds-most-faked-artists-amedeo-modigliani-picasso

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

Library of Congress Collection: Aaron Copland Collection --- https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-copland

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

Austen Said: Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novels --- http://austen.unl.edu

Schulz Library Blog (comics, cartoons and graphics in books) --- http://www.cartoonstudies.org/schulz/blog

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/

May 15, 2017

May 16, 2017

May 17, 2017

May 18, 2017

May 19, 2017

May 20, 2017

May 22, 2017 --- http://www.webmd.com/news/default.htm

May 23, 2017

May 24, 2017

May 25, 2017

 


Hepatitis C is Spiking Among Young People ---
http://time.com/4775698/hepatitis-c-diagnosis/?xid=newsletter-brief


A promising new cancer treatment is facing a deadly setback ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/cancer-immunotherapy-setbacks-with-car-t-cell-therapy-2017-5


Meet Emma, the wearable that helps people with Parkinson’s ---
http://readwrite.com/2017/05/13/microsoft-parkinson-wearable/

 


Humor for May 2017

Humor in the Workplace (the good and the Ugly) ---
http://blog.aicpa.org/2017/05/just-kidding-humor-at-work.html#sthash.JJ2c9OIw.dpbs

Every day, your mom wasted 90 minutes of her life on you, so today get her a present.
Nate Silver's 5:38 Blog Tweet on Mothers Day
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/jennifervanlaar/2017/05/14/five-thirty-eights-mothers-day-graphic-isnt-polling-well-n2326679?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
The above tweet did not go over well.


Forwarded by Paula

An amazing 2 letter English word.

 


 A reminder that one word in the English language that can be a noun, verb, adjective, adverb and preposition.  
 
 
UP  

  
  Read until the end ....  you'll laugh.  
  
  This two-letter word  in English has more meanings than any other  two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.'  It is listed in  the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n]  or [v].  
 
It's easy to  understand UP, meaning toward the sky  or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in  the morning, why do we wake UP? 
 
At a meeting, why  does a topic come UP?  Why do we speak UP, and why are the  officers UP for election and why is  it UP to  the secretary to write UP a  report?  We call UP our friends, brighten  UPa room, polish UP  the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean  UP the kitchen.  We  lock UP the house and fix  UP the old  car.   
  
At other times, this  little word has really special meaning.   People stir UP trouble, line  UP for tickets, work  UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.   
  
To be dressed is one  thing but to be dressed UP  is special.   
  
And this  UP is confusing:  A  drain must be opened UP because it is stopped  UP.

 

 We open  UP a store in the morning  but we close it UP at night.  We seem  to be pretty mixedUP aboutUP!  
 
To be knowledgeable  about the proper uses of  UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.   In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes  UP almost  1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty  definitions.   
  
If you are UP to it,  you might try building UP a list of the many ways  UP is  used.  It will takeUP a lot of your time, but  if you don't giveUP, you may wind  UP with a hundred or  more.   
  
When it threatens to  rain, we say it is clouding UP.  When the sun  comes out, we say it is clearing UP.  When it rains,  the earth soaks it UP.  When it  does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.  One could go on  and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now . . . my time  is UP!   
  
Oh . . one more  thing:  What is the first thing you do in  the morning and the last thing you do at  night?  
 
U 
  
  P !  
 
Did that one crack  you UP? 
 
Don't screw UP.  Send this on to  everyone you look UP in your address book   . . or not . . it's UP to you. 
 
OK..OK...Now I'll shut UP!




Humor May 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q2.htm#Humor0517.htm

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