Tidbits on July 27, 2017
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Wes Lavin's 2017 Summer Part 2 --- Sugar Hill Festival
http://cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/2017WesLavinCD/SugarHillFestival/2017Summer.htm 

 

 

Tidbits on July 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

100 Years of Cinema: New Documentary Series Explores the History of Cinema by Analyzing One Film Per Year, Starting in 1915 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/100-years-of-cinema.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

BBC Radio 4: Seriously... (history modules) --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p021gdt

Stream a 24 Hour Playlist of Charles Dickens Stories, Featuring Classic Recordings by Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/a-24-hour-playlist-of-charles-dickens-stories.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

George Eliot’s Middlemarch Gets Reborn as a 21st Century Web Series: Watch It Online ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/george-eliots-middlemarch-gets-reborn-as-a-21st-century-web-series-watch-it-online.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

YouTube: Numberphile (advanced mathematics and number theory videos) ---
https://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile/featured

Hummingbird in Slow Motion ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPRswRWZ23Q

Louie's Candy Store (Brooklyn) ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzhElCGzQNM&feature=youtu.be

Watch the Making of a Hand-Crafted Violin, from Start to Finish, in a Beautifully-Shot Documentary ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/watch-the-making-of-a-hand-crafted-violin-from-start-to-finish-in-a-beautiful-wordless-documentary.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29


Free music downloads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm 

Mark Knopfler Gives a Short Masterclass on His Favorite Guitars & Guitar Sounds ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/mark-knopfler-gives-a-short-masterclass-on-his-favorite-guitars-guitar-sounds.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Watch the World’s Oldest Violin in Action: Marco Rizzi Performs Schumann’s Sonata No. 2 on a 1566 Amati Violin ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/watch-the-worlds-oldest-violin-in-action-marco-rizzi-performs-schumanns-sonata-no-2-on-a-1566-amati-violin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Louie's Candy Store (Brooklyn) ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzhElCGzQNM&feature=youtu.be

Hear the 150 Greatest Albums by Women: NPR Creates a New Canon of Albums That Puts Women at the Center of Music History ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/the-150-greatest-albums-by-women.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

Archaeologists Discover the World’s First “Art Studio” Created in an Ethiopian Cave 43,000 Years Ago ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/archaeologists-discover-the-worlds-first-art-studio.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The World’s Oldest Multicolor Book, a 1633 Chinese Calligraphy & Painting Manual, Now Digitized and Put Online ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/the-worlds-oldest-multicolor-book-a-1633-chinese-calligraphy-painting-manual-now-digitized-and-put-online.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Oxford American (phography) --- http://www.oxfordamerican.org

Coursera: Seeing Through Photographs --- https://www.coursera.org/learn/photography

NASA's $1 billion Jupiter probe just sent back breathtaking new images of the Great Red Spot ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/latest-jupiter-pictures-nasa-juno-2017-7

Library and Archives Canada: Aboriginal Heritage ---
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage

Who Am I?: Self-Portraits in Art and Writing ---
https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/education/teachers/lessons-activities/self-portraits.html

Pictorial Saint Louis --- http://jarednielsen.com/pictorial-st-louis

Two Coats of Paint (contemporary art news) --- http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com

Livingston Online (explorer David Livingstone) --- http://livingstoneonline.org

The Artful Science of Anna Atkins ---
https://daily.jstor.org/the-artful-science-of-anna-atkins/

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum --- http://cartoons.osu.edu

The Center for Cartoon Studies --- http://www.cartoonstudies.org/

Russian History & Literature Come to Life in Wonderfully Colorized Portraits: See Photos of Tolstoy, Chekhov, the Romanovs & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/russian-history-literature-come-to-life-in-wonderfully-colorized-portraits.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

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

40th Anniversary of the Frost Place Museum in Franconia, NH (two miles down from our cottage in Sugar Hill) ---
http://www.franconianotch.org/members/directory/the-frost-place/
 

Robert Frost Museum Down the Road from Our Cottage ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/FrostMuseum/FrostMuseum01.htm

Free: 355 Issues of Galaxy, the Groundbreaking 1950s Science Fiction Magazine ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/free-355-issues-of-galaxy-the-groundbreaking-1950s-science-fiction-magazine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community --- https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/incredible-bridges-poets-creating-community

Stream a 24 Hour Playlist of Charles Dickens Stories, Featuring Classic Recordings by Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/a-24-hour-playlist-of-charles-dickens-stories.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The World’s Oldest Multicolor Book, a 1633 Chinese Calligraphy & Painting Manual, Now Digitized and Put Online ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/the-worlds-oldest-multicolor-book-a-1633-chinese-calligraphy-painting-manual-now-digitized-and-put-online.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

George Eliot’s Middlemarch Gets Reborn as a 21st Century Web Series: Watch It Online ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/george-eliots-middlemarch-gets-reborn-as-a-21st-century-web-series-watch-it-online.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 July 27, 2017
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2017/TidbitsQuotations072717.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




Autism:  Seeing the World in a Different Way ---
http://time.com/4856602/autism-nonverbal-book-naoki-higashida/?xid=newsletter-brief


Prevent Windows 10 from spying on you ---
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2017/jul/prevent-windows-10-from-spying-on-you.html?utm_source=mnl:globalcpa&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=19Jul2017

Enable system protection in Windows 10 ---
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2017/jul/windows-10-system-protection.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20Jul2017


How to Find Someone's Phone Number Online ---
https://www.howtogeek.com/318937/how-to-find-someones-phone-number-online/


USA vs. Europe:  The Legal Costs of Banks Behaving Badly ---
https://www.theatlas.com/charts/Sk8H1soB-


Obsolete Laws Protecting Franchises Not Owned by Manufacturers
Elon Musk Can't Sell His Teslas in Texas In six states, it's illegal to walk into a company-owned store and buy a car -
--
http://reason.com/reasontv/2017/07/19/why-tesla-cant-sell-cars-in-texas

Jensen Comment
The title of the above article is a bit deceptive since Texans can go online to buy a Tesla or drive a new one to Texas from outside the state.  The six states that won't allow direct sales by Tesla are
Arizona, Connecticut, Michigan, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

Where's Elizabeth Warren when we need her (not that I would buy a Tesla even if Tesla-owned dealerships are legal in New Hampshire).


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

IoT --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things

THE BLOCKCHAIN IN THE IoT REPORT: How distributed ledgers enhance the IoT through better visibility and create trust ---
|http://www.businessinsider.com/the-blockchain-in-the-iot-report-2017-6

The Internet of Everything — $12.6 trillion ROI expected over the next decade [SLIDE DECK] ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/internet-of-things-research-iot-connected-cars-connected-homes-enterprise-government-2016-11

Stanford:  The Internet of Things isn’t only modernizing our products. It’s also overhauling our business models ---
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/internet-changing-things?utm_source=Stanford+Business&utm_campaign=829aea90e6-Stanford-Business-Issue-117-7-23-2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b5214e34b-829aea90e6-70265733&ct=t(Stanford-Business-Issue-117-7-23-2017)


Amazon is building another multibillion dollar business that you probably haven't heard of ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/interview-amazon-business-bill-burkland-017-7


In the last two years over half of German companies have been hit by sabotage ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/german-companies-lose-billions-to-cybercrime-2017-7


20 books on college summer reading lists across the US ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/summer-reading-list-college-books-2017-7  

Jensen Comment
So far I'm batting 1/20 in this list, but I usually wait until other readers give me reasons to read a book.
I'm still plowing my way through Mathsemantics:  Making Numbers Talk Sense by Edward MacNeal.\

July 23, 2017 reply from Glen Gray

Well, you are 20 books ahead of me. But I did hear Doc Hendey (Wine to Water author) do a presentation. It’s a sad story of government (plus other do-gooder’s) short-sighted, feel-good, photo-op activities. The government, UN, and NGOs would drill wells and install water pumps—however, they never trained people or provided spare parts to maintain the pumps. Don found lots of nonworking pumps that just needed simple parts like gussets. He got the parts and fixed the pumps. Then the local governments and rebels got mad at him because lack of water is how people are controlled. I think the rebels actually put a price on his head.

 

Not on the list, but a book I recommend is the 2014 book “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari which I just finished.

 


The Road to Success Often Commences With Community College ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Student-s-Mission-Sharing/240654?cid=db&elqTrackId=107210b0786c4a7cb3a0139ea5c1ba20&elq=a35605333885463f85513fa3e00118bb&elqaid=14875&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6295

From the Chronicle of Higher Education's Daily Briefing Newsletter on July 26, 2017

Looking back.

A gem of an article last week combined a heartwarming tale of a community-college kid made good at Georgetown University with a salute to academe’s unsung heroes — the invisible workers who make higher education hum. The student, Febin Bellamy, founded Unsung Heroes, an organization with chapters on five campuses that shares the stories of those many employees and helps some of them realize their dreams.

Take a look at The Chronicle, and you’ll find academe’s sung heroes — the faculty members who are memorable teachers, the researchers who make world-shifting discoveries, the presidents who lead their colleges higher in higher ed. But there's the invisible workers: the custodians who serve as unheralded pillars of student support, the calligrapher who inscribes diplomas, the low-level admissions officers who actually deliver each freshman class, the scholarly-book indexers, librarians, and archivists. Such workers are everywhere on your campus. Just look.


What’s Happening in Remedial Education?
http://www.chronicle.com/resource/what-s-happening-in-remedial-e/6131/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=9f2f234dd8df45e1972016d19bd48c33&elq=4e0001d04d9b4615aecdd9813e54b61c&elqaid=14874&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6294


Financial Wellness (read that Literacy)  Programs Help Create Successful Students (especially those borrowing and then seeking to repay student debt) ---
http://www.chronicle.com/paid-article/Financial-Wellness-Programs/44?cid=at&elqTrackId=cfe25100c8e6405a850eece425952e14&elq=15ab059dc81243968369569f1bd05fab&elqaid=14851&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6281

Debt from student loans continues to mount as students report they don’t understand their loan repayment terms, how much they owe, or their loan limits. It’s leading to some dropping out, defaulting on loan payments, and reporting dissatisfaction with their college experience. In an effort to change the conversation, several universities have implemented financial wellness programs into their student’s curriculum. It’s becoming an innovative way to gain a competitive advantage as budgets tighten and institutions are in need of reducing expenses - creating financially literate students is seeing big results.

Creating an uncomplicated path to financially literate students

A 2017 white paper by Inceptia called “Loan Summaries: Nudging Students Towards Smart Borrowing,” found a whopping 94% of students do not understand their loan repayment terms and 65% reported that the loan process was confusing. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants found while nearly all college students they surveyed ranked personal financial management as a skill that was extremely important only 23% of those surveyed actively seek out information to improve their financial habits. The results show that students simply don’t have the time or energy to focus on topics that are not part of their required curriculum

The University of Nebraska at Kearney discovered its students were stressed about their loans. Their biggest question was, “How do I pay it back?” “Sometimes we don’t know what students know, and we have to step in as their partner and show them ways to plan for paying back their loans,” says Jennifer Harvey, Director of the Thompson Scholars Learning Community.

Harvey’s department, which is outside the financial aid office, decided to implement a program through Inceptia called Financial Avenue. The program’s goal is to educate students on the basics of personal finance and help them translate these concepts into an actionable plan. Second year TSLC students were required to complete three Financial Avenue courses by the end of the fall semester. Through real time reporting, staff could track student registration, course completion, and pre and post assessment results. “When students know how to spend and save their money they are more likely to stay in school and prioritize their education,” says Scott Seeba, Associate Director, Thompson Scholars Learning Community. “Retention rates go up, graduation rates go up, and it only helps the university.”

In all, 93 Thompson Scholars completed close to 300 courses with an average knowledge gain of 41% across all courses – resulting in a vital piece for the reporting requirements of the grant-funded program. “I think wow this college really cares about me because they want me to succeed in the future and want me to understand how to pay bills, how to get a loan, and how to calculate my interest,” says Jill McClure, Thompson Scholar.

Debt letters are not enough

States like Indiana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin have seen success with debt letters or loan summaries, which provide information to students on what they owe and when it needs to be paid. Montana State University saw positive gains in GPAs and credit hour enrollment for students receiving debt letters, as well. But the University of Missouri at Columbia decided to take the debt letter to the next level. Administrators found that letters, without the support of financial education, may not be enough to influence a significant change in borrowing habits. They discovered that debt letters sometimes hindered student’s academic progress by limiting their borrowing. By creating a financial education program students were better able to understand how the loan process works, their limits to borrowing, and how to be financially successful after graduation.

Indiana University combined its debt letter with a robust financial literacy program sponsored by the college called “IU MoneySmarts.” The program includes peer counseling, a podcast, and online calculators and educational resources on the MoneySmarts website.  The combination of the loan summaries and financial education program resulted in federal student loans decreasing by almost $114 million during the first four years of the initiative, representing a 23 percent decrease in federal loan borrowing.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
I'm a long-time advocate that financial literacy (including rudimentary tax knowledge)  should be a vital component of the skills requirements in the common core of both education and training schools. Firstly, ignorance of finance is the major cause of breakdown in living relationships and marriage in the USA. This ignorance begins with couples becoming hopelessly mired down in debt while trying to live lifestyles (think new car payments and credit card debt) that they cannot afford. In addition this ignorance makes them more vulnerable to scams such as scams regarding "consolidations of debt" that lead to being more hopelessly in debt.

Another problem with ignorance in personal finance is that it leads to ignorance in business finance. There are temptations to start up businesses or buy out small businesses without understanding how to successfully finance those businesses. For example a while back I had a very good female MD general practitioner who worked along with several other doctors in a clinic that operated out of our regional hospital. From all accounts that clinic was and still is a very successful business. But she elected to leave the clinic and form her own solo practice in a very small mountain town about 30 miles from our regional hospital. Personally, I think she was medically brilliant and financially naive about the economics of solo medical practices in this era of heavy fixed costs of forming a small medical practice. She just did not understand the economies of scale of setting up third party billing operations. For example, it's very expensive to get approval to bill Medicare and Medicaid and the large insurance conglomerates. Then there are expenses of staff (e.g., a receptionist, a nurse, and a bookkeeper). Then there are the huge expenses of medical malpractice insurance and office space. The bottom line is that her startup practice failed in less than two years after she and her husband lost an enormous amount of money in the venture.

Another problem with ignorance in finance is that it leads to horrible investment decisions. Over and over successful professionals (think sports stars and entertainers) end up bankrupt because they are vulnerable to scam artists called "investment advisers" who lead them down the road to bankruptcy and everlasting trouble with the IRS that will not let declarations of bankruptcy wipe out tax liens.

A related problem is that in this era of low interest rates it often does not pay to afford honest investment advisors to help you build up a portfolio for retirement. It's better to know enough about investing to handle your own retirement planning. The main thing is to learn about investing and taxes. For example, when is investing a land a good versus lousy investment choice? When is investing in tax exempt mutual funds a good versus lousy investment choice? Why are precious metal coins usually lousy investment choices? When is a home solar system a good versus poor investment decision? When should you buy versus rent a home?

Even sadder are the college graduates who are not successful professionals and may never be successful professionals because they tried to live the lifestyles of successful professionals on cash flow from debt rather than earnings. They maxed their student loans and their credit cards. Belatedly they discovered that personal bankruptcy might get you out of credit card debt but not student loan debt. And even if you can get out of credit card debt with personal bankruptcy declaration you now have to start over again with a lousy credit score that becomes a scarlet letter on your future.

Bob Jensen's free helpers for personal finance are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers


What Married Couples Need to Know About Social Security ---
10 Ways to Increase Your Social Security Payments ---
https://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/on-retirement/articles/2017-07-21/what-married-couples-need-to-know-about-social-security


Naive Mathematics Applications in Real Life

Jensen Comment
One of the real problems of mathematics (think game theory) is that the underlying assumptions that make formula derivations (like the Nash Equilibrium Formula) possible are just not applicable assumptions to complications of real life ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium

Time Magazine:  This Is the Easiest Way to Solve Disagreements About Money (Yeah Right!) ---
http://time.com/4867730/relationships-money-tool/?xid=newsletter-brief

Jensen Comment
This may be an "easy way" to play a fun parlor game in a relationship, but I think it would be naive to base a complicated real life financial relationship on a Nash equilibrium. First of all putting away and spending savings for a long-term future is a complicated and dynamic process. This requires joint decisions as the relationship proceeds over time. One of the most complicated dynamic aspects of this is how careers and financial responsibilities (such as planning for and having children) progresses over time. There's just too much serendipity in life to depend upon John Nash for a solution to your spending and saving decisions.

I can't believe Time Magazine published this article.


July 25, 2017 message from Dennis Huber

Abuse of the tax benefits of conservation easements has reached a fever pitch as easement donations are now syndicated at multiples of nine to one and above.  Put $100,000 into the syndication black box and take out a charitable contribution of $900,000 a year or two later. And wrap yourself in a green flag to defend the travesty. 

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2017/07/24/new-irs-scandal-syndication-of-conservation-easement-deductions/#c4801e06b333

 Dennis

 


Khan Academy: Career Profiles ---
https://www.khanacademy.org/college-careers-more/career-content/career-profile-videos

Are you wondering how to land your dream job or negotiate your salary? Finding answers to questions like these can be hard, but we’re here to help. We ask real people in real jobs how they make it all work in our new video series about careers.

Jensen Comment
As Sal Khan admits in the introductory video, this site too date is only a rudimentary beginning. It has a long, long, long way to go.

At present the site is not interactive where students and employers can add content and interact with the site  Hopefully the site will eventually have a Q&A section.

One of the enormous problems in this endeavor is that so many disciplines have so many specialties that are, in my viewpoint, impossible to cover without thousands of interviews on most of these specialties. For example, in accounting there are both private sector and public sector careers. Next consider the private sector. There are careers in public accounting and business firm accounting. In business firm accounting there are over hundreds of specializations if you start to break down accounting careers by ever narrowing specialties.

Another problem is getting persons interviewed to stress the negatives as well as the positives of careers. For example, being an ophthalmologist is a very high paying career in most instances that, after many years of education and training, can be a relatively boring career. The surgeon who fixed my cataracts spends three days a week doing mostly routine cataract surgeries (on average about six per day). On his other work days he examines patients before and after surgeries. During his career there's little variation in duties. Perhaps this is why he's also getting an online MBA and considering a career change after his wealth is sufficient to consider other career alternatives for the latter part of his life.

It's probably best to include interviewees in this study who have switched careers even when they were successful at former careers. Telling why they switched careers is not always negative about their first careers. It simply prepares young graduates to expect that they too may want mid-career changes down the road. One of the enormous advantages of military service, for example, is that after 20-30 years on the job there is ample opportunity to seek out new careers backed up by lifetime military pensions and medical insurance coverage.

My point is that it's very easy for this career profile site such as this to become too promotional regarding particular types of careers.

Another problem is stressing the variance as well as the averages in travel, stress, income, and training. For example, salaries in Silicon Valley are extraordinarily high. But in the Silicon Valley living expenses are so high that some person starting out at $150,000 per year may be living in a van in an employer's parking lot. The same starting salary anywhere in Nebraska can go much further toward better living. Working for a consulting firm can pay well but there can be tiresome travel and stress in having to continually land new consulting contracts.

Some careers have built in options for change. For example, there's very high turnover among professionals at most any age in public accounting vis-a-vis business firm accounting. Most young people actively seeking public accounting in their first jobs anticipate voluntarily or involuntarily having to eventually move out of public accounting. First of all, public accounting is tends to offer a higher proportion of entry level jobs to graduates without accountancy experience. Secondly, public accounting firms tend to offer great, and often very expensive, training as well as experience for developing career specialties (think corporate tax specialties or accounting for derivative financial instruments). Thirdly, public accountants are generally exposed to a wide variety of clients. Many (most?) career changes are induced by job offers from clients. Saying that the probability of spending a lifetime in public accounting ranges from 10-25% is not such a bad thing after all. Certified Public Accountants expect to eventually get better job offers from clients, jobs that have less travel, less stress, and greater job security.

Some careers are more family friendly than other careers. For example being a K-12 teacher or a college professor is usually very family friendly because of there greater freedom choosing time (think summers) to devote to children and less obligation to travel extensively on the job.

Many of these things are covered at my Career Helper site ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers


These were the top-selling items from Amazon's Prime Day around the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-day-best-selling-items-around-world-2017-7/#united-states-for-the-second-consecutive-year-the-top-selling-item-in-america-was-a-pressure-cooker-1

10 tech gadgets that’ll make your everyday life easier ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-gadgets-to-make-life-easier-2017/#the-amazon-echo-1

9 must-have gadgets for first-time parents ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/must-have-tech-gadgets-for-new-parents-2016-6/#a-white-noise-machine-1


What Is Space? It’s not what you think ---
http://nautil.us/issue/49/the-absurd/what-is-space?utm_source=frontpage&utm_medium=mview&utm_campaign=what-is-space


California Requires Solar Panels on All Homes and Windmills on All Farms
https://townhall.com/columnists/brucebialosky/2017/07/16/california-requires-solar-panels-on-all-homes-and-windmills-on-all-farms-n2354430
Jensen Comment
Power greedy Californians don't seem to mind that millions of windmills will eradicate wild birds in the rural parts of their state.
This bill stands a good chance of being unconstitutional. But much depends upon the makeup of the state and federal Supreme Courts.


Question
How is buying solar panels in the 21st Century similar to buying computers in the 1980s?

Answer
When I retired in 2006 and sold our house in San Antonio I had seven obsolete models of laptop computers stacked in a garage closet. In those days I was visiting hundreds of college campuses around the world to demonstrate the use of computers --- think Toolbook and Authorware course management and content systems in classrooms. The problem was that by the time I had each new laptop loaded with software the machine was obsolete. My colleagues who were not quite as dependent upon getting the latest "high tech" computers had enormous frustrations about timing of their investments in new computers.

I should add that both desktop and laptop computers in the 1980s usually entailed investments of $3,500 or more. Today's new computers in comparison are relatively cheap and not changing  quite as rapidly in terms of technology.  The technology that seemed to be ever-changing was the amount of random-access memory. Constant increases in RAM in newer computers made older computers quickly obsolete.

The same phenomenon has been happening with solar panels since the turn of the Century. These panels used to be quite expensive and quickly became obsolete in terms ever-changing technology. Like 1980s computers, the solar panels kept getting cheaper and cheaper for ever-better technology. This makes it tremendously frustrating in terms of timing of a purchase. Even more frustrating is that, unlike computers, buyers hope their solar panels will last 20 or more years before becoming technologically obsolete.

How to get more output for the buck from your solar panels ---


 

KPSS Test for Stationarity in Econometric Data --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPSS_test

David Giles"  The Bandwidth for the KPSS Test ---
http://davegiles.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-bandwidth-for-kpss-test.html


The Great Conference Con?
Article sparks new round of criticism of the costs associated with academic conferences
---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/07/25/article-sparks-new-round-criticism-costs-associated-academic-conferences?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=ad043a1c7e-DNU20170725&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-ad043a1c7e-197565045&mc_cid=ad043a1c7e&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Jensen Comment
During my 40 years of being a full-time faculty member at four different universities I feel I learned a lot as well as enjoying myself at regional, national, and international conferences. Among other things it helped me a great deal professionally to have to prepare for and deliver presentations in front of academic audiences. And the receptions, dinners, and professional/social interactions were memorable to say the least.

Certainly the 21st Century cost of attending conferences in towering hotels are much, much more expensive than years ago with taxi rides that now cost more more than our air fares used to cost.

There are really two types of "academic conferences" that are what I call outlier conferences. The one outlier is a conference where all attendees are required to attend all sessions such as where the host funds all conferences fees and expects attendance at all sessions. The other is where the conference is little more than a paid vacation where there are almost no session attendees other than the speakers assigned to speak at each session. Most conferences all somewhere in between these two outlier extremes where attendees cherry pick sessions where they will sit in the audience.

Times have changed with fantastic newer types of technologies that can open the doors to virtual conferences (think Webinars) where attendees do not have to endure long airline flights to be participate in the conferences. This begs the question of whether colleges and universities should continue to fund the travel costs for physical (as opposed to virtual) conferences.

Virtual conferences are certainly not perfect substitutes for physical conferences. Much of the serendipity and social/professional interaction is lost in a virtual conference. But when hotel rooms costing over $300 per night and airline tickets costing thousands of dollars we should certainly question whether virtual conferences make more economic sense in this high tech era.


USA Cost of Living Map ---
http://ritholtz.com/2017/07/most-least-expensive-live/


How to Mislead With Statistics

This Chart Shows How Much Americans Pay in Taxes vs. the Rest of the World ---
http://time.com/money/4862673/us-tax-burden-vs-oecd-countries/?xid=newsletter-brief 

Jensen Comment

I don't know how you can compare tax burdens without adjusting for tax benefits. For example, how can you compare tax burdens of the USA that has only part of its health care system (think Medicare, Medicaid, and local tax burdens for emergency rooms) funded by taxpayers with nations that have national health care plans? How can you compare Norway with the USA when taxpayers in Norway pay for recharges to electric cars?

How can you compare tax burdens of the USA where only part of the nursing care system (think Medicaid) is funded by taxpayers with nations that fund nursing care for all citizens?

How can you compare tax burdens of the USA that has only part of its K-12 and college costs funded by taxpayers with nations that fund almost all education costs with taxes? Actually no nation that I know of funds training or education as a "right" similar to the "right" to healthcare. Those G-20 nations providing free "tertiary" college and training actually do so for only those deemed worthy of free college or free training funded by taxpayers (less than 50% of high school graduates).  The "unworthy" must either fund tertiary training themselves pr get training funded by employer apprenticeships ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Tertiary 

How can you compare tax burdens with nations that have enormous underground economies (think the USA, Russia, India, and China) that avoid taxation with economies that have almost no underground economies like the Nordic nations?

How can you compare taxes for defense between Canada that benefits from the costly North American continent defense umbrella funded mostly by USA taxpayers?

To compare what nations pay in taxes after adjustments for benefits (such as adding health insurance payments by taxpayers to their tax burdens) becomes immensely complicated (probably a hopeless effort).

Who Pays USA Taxes?
http://www.pgpf.org/budget-basics/who-pays-taxes?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=whopaystaxes&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CKPfk5jG5dQCFci4wAodzZsNyw

Jensen Comment
There also is controversy regarding how to define a "tax." Social Security funding was probably not a "tax" as originally designed and implemented by FDR in the 1930s. It was more like a pension system where payments into the system were forced savings that participants cashed in on in their senior years. Over the years it became more of a tax as Congress added benefits for the disabled (at any age who sometimes pay zero into the system), dependents of military killed in service, etc.

Are "profits" from government enterprises a form of taxation if they benefit the public sector at the expense of the private sector? For example, revenues flowing into the government from patents and royalties in some sense deprive the private sector of those "profits." There are huge gray zones such as when Indiana University benefits from the sale of every tube of Crest tooth paste or when the University of Texas benefits from the sale of every gallon of oil and gas from its oil wells. The National Parks receive considerable revenue from the operation of hotels and restaurants as well as the charging of admission fees. This is often not viewed as "taxation" since only those that directly benefit from the services pay the fees. Non-users pay no such fees.


50 Worst Product Flops of All Time ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2017/07/19/50-worst-product-flops-of-all-time-2/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=JUL212017A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter
Jensen Comment
Google Glass may have been a flop initially, but this product is now coming back with vigor.

Also the definition of a "flop" is somewhat ambiguous. Presumably it means a sales bust. There are other types of "flops" such as successful sales products that were disasters to health and well being such as the German tranquilizer called Thalidomide.


What happens when your students are robots?

MIT:  Teaching Machines to Understand Us ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/540001/teaching-machines-to-understand-us/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=4d4e62160a-Weekend_Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-4d4e62160a-153727301&mc_cid=4d4e62160a&mc_eid=fe7f400ea3

Jensen Comment
The controversial term here is to "understand" us. Telephone systems are already "trained" to "understand" voice commands and route callers to automated and human systems that can help them such as when you call Sears for a warranty repair on an air conditioner. The challenge is to increasingly make robotic machines make more sophisticated conversations such as conversations about choosing a retirement investment plan or making a car leasing decision or in making improvements on an article submitted to a journal for publication.

Eventually mega-teaching machines will be able to converse with human teachers about out to improve content and delivery of their courses.

The ultimate question is whether mega-learning machines will one day have conversations with robotic teaching machines  to improve content and delivery of their courses.


Tesla Burning Through Cash as Always ---
http://professorelam.typepad.com/my_weblog/2017/07/tsla-burning-through-cash-as-always.html

9 signature features in Tesla's Model 3, an electric car that could change the world ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-model-3-features-specs-design-photos-2017-7/#1-the-first-feature-should-make-anyone-excited-teslas-model-3-starts-35000-and-thats-before-federal-tax-exemptions-1

Jensen Comment
Notice how Tesla Model 3 writers seldom if ever mention the negatives aside from the limited 215 range without recharging the batteries.
Seldom mentioned negatives include the following:

  1. It takes over an hour to recharge batteries at a Tesla supercharging station. This means that if you are on a longer trip it takes over one hour of charging at a supercharging station for slightly over three hours of travel. And in most of the 50 states there are few Tesla charging stations that have to be sought out unless drivers are willing to take hours to recharge batteries at other sites.  It takes roughly nine hours on a 240 volt wall plug at to fully charge Tesla batteries  You can partially recharge batteries for shorter trips. 

     
  2. Competition for both low-end and high-end electric cars will become intense from nearly all automobile manufacturers --- most are adding more and more electric car models. Those manufacturers also have networks of nationwide and sometimes world wide dealerships. More importantly there are economies of scale in automobile manufacturing that will probably always make the current business model for Tesla unprofitable as competition becomes more intense.

     
  3. Electric cars in general rely on government rebates and free (or nearly free) travel on roads and bridges. In the current political environment it will become harder to keep up those cost saving deals for electric cars.

     
  4. At the moment forecasted Tesla used-car prices are probably inflated. The reason is that technology and competition is changing so quickly that three or more years down the road your Tesla will probably be more obsolete than dealers are currently factoring into unkonwn future used car prices for Tesla and other electric car models.
     

It Might Be Time for Tesla to Get Out of the Car Business ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/it-might-be-time-for-tesla-to-get-out-of-the-car-business-2017-6

Added Jensen Comment
The future for electric cars and hybrid electric cars and trucks is rosy --- but not for Tesla. The future is probably brighter yet for European manufacturers relying on smaller countries like Norway (which is about the size of Iowa). In the USA most car owners will probably be those who can also afford to own or rent other types of cars for longer trips.

 

What is really needed is an eclectic car that does not rely on lithium --- which is costly to mine and highly polluting to refine. In the interim an infrastructure of charging stations in all or most small towns is needed.


"How to Flatten the Cost Curve of College," by Alana Dunagan, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 2, 2017 ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-to-Flatten-the-Cost-Curve/240486?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=ea9036e73cc942279f01b5fa4afc959a&elq=a246d4fdfd274984b5e2ea434f5675cd&elqaid=14715&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6221

Political pressure is building to lower the cost of college, as seen in efforts in many states to make college tuition-free. But the expenses involved in running a college aren’t going anywhere but up, according to data from the National Center for Educational Statistics. Big tuition increases are getting tougher to sell — and they are translating to smaller increases in revenue, because of rising tuition-discount rates. The business model of higher education is being stretched thin, and administrators are scrambling to find pennies to pinch in order to balance budgets for another fiscal year.

But some leaders are taking a bolder path. Five institutions profiled in "Colleges Transformed," my recent paper for the Clayton Christensen Institute, are searching for new business models that can help them serve more students, improve work-force outcomes, and strengthen their own fiscal sustainability.

While these institutions are diverse — small and large; public and private; some in financial straits, others hoping to broaden their missions — all of them are willing to look beyond incremental solutions and rethink the role of higher education.

Each of the programs brought new students, and new types of students, into the institution. Some of those arrivals were adult learners looking to start or finish bachelor’s degrees. Others were looking to retrain for new careers. Regardless, the programs allowed colleges to reach untapped pools of students with the goal of raising their bottom line.

Simmons College, a Boston-based institution with a traditionally regional draw, has attracted students from across the country and even globally to its online graduate nursing, social-work, and management programs. Simmons has seen revenues from its online programs rise to almost 40 percent of the total, from nothing three years ago. Other programs, like Northeastern University’s Level boot camp for data analytics, haven’t yet increased total institutional revenues but represent a move into a new and fast-growing market aimed at defining success through student outcomes in the work force — a model that could eventually compete with traditional degrees.

Arizona State University’s president, Michael M. Crow, has pressured the institution to redefine itself by whom it accepts, not whom it excludes. That thinking, which cuts against the prestige-oriented grain of higher education, inspired the Global Freshman Academy and other efforts there to build a more inclusive culture and pedagogy.

The academy is a set of online courses, free and open to anyone. What sets them apart from MOOCs, or massive open online courses, is that students who complete them can pay to convert them into Arizona State credits, thus completing their freshman year. That removes some of the risk of attempting a college degree, given that many students do not complete their first year.

In all cases, institutional leadership was crucial to inspiring and creating these new pathways to innovation. Northeastern University’s president, Joseph E. Aoun, has said, "It’s time to stop thinking of higher education as an experience people take part in once during their young lives … and begin thinking of it as a platform for lifelong learning." Under his leadership, Northeastern has built a team assigned to future-proof the university.

For many institutions, challenging the status quo has been driven by necessity: an understanding that the current system of higher education can’t tweak its way into financial sustainability, or into meeting the work-force needs of the 21st century. That was the case for the University of Wisconsin, which realized that as the state diversifies out of a manufacturing-intensive economy, the need for retraining exceeds the system’s capacity. In response, the university developed an online competency-based program called UW Flex, designed especially to meet the needs of adult learners.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Via MOOCs learning is free from thousands of courses in the most prestigious universities in the world. However, transcript credits entail meeting academic standards and paying for credit via some of the alternatives listed at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Learning is also free online when funded by some employers like Wal-Mart and Starbucks. Starbucks even pays for Arizona State University degrees for its part-time employees ---
https://www.starbucks.com/careers/college-plan

Probably most students pressed for funds in the USA attend classes at local community colleges that are now free in some states and very low cost in other states. Quality varies greatly in those colleges, but this is a good way to conserve funding for advanced studies in higher larger state universities.

Most prestigious universities (e.g., the Ivy League, Stanford, Rice, Chicago, etc.) are now offering free tuition or nearly free tuition to admitted students from families earning less than $50,000 per year. The trick is to be admitted among pools of highly-competitive applicants.

New York State is now offering free four-year degrees from state universities, but there are some negatives such as having to pay the funding back for students who leave the state after graduation.

Other tuition-free college alternatives ---
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/16/pf/college/states-tuition-free-college/index.html

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


Taxation and Investment in Denmark ---
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Tax/dttl-tax-denmarkguide-2015.pdf

How to Mislead With Statistics

Mortgage Interest Tax Break Has ‘No Effect’ on Homeownership, Study Finds ---
https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2017/07/24/mortgage-interest-tax-break-has-no-effect-on-homeownership-study-finds/

Jensen Comment
This study illustrates how to mislead with statistics.

First let me start with the obvious. The study uses data from the Denmark in the 1980s. There are huge differences between income taxation and public sector spending in Denmark versus other nations. To round out the study the authors should take the trouble to identify what aspects of USA tax law are especially important in making the Denmark data misleading for comparative purposes.

For example, may homeowners (many retired)  like myself in the USA who can afford not to have a mortgage on their home choose to do so because it frees up savings to invest in tax-exempt bonds. In the USA trillions of dollars in public sector capital investments (e.g., for schools, roads, public buildings, parks, etc.) are funded with bonds paying tax-exempt interest. The mortgage interest deduction in the USA, unlike in Denmark, provides home owners like me incentives to carry home mortgages that we would otherwise avoid if it were not for the income tax incentives of home mortgage interest and property tax deductions.

Secondly, the above study fails to stress that making mortgage payments is a type of forced savings that renters unfortunately avoid. Saving in the USA is more important that saving in Denmark for many reasons, especially the need for USA citizens to save for their nursing care in old age. In Denmark the government pays for nursing care. In the USA the government pays for nursing care only for poor people on Medicaid. Many people on Medicare in the USA must rely upon the sale or rental of their homes to pay for their long-term nursing care.Many elderly folks who rented most of their lives in the USA wish they had homes to sell to pay for long-term nursing care.

Within the USA the mortgage interest deduction tax incentive is variable across a myriad of interactive factors, especially the amounts of your other itemized deductions. For example, other popular itemized deductions are charitable donations (including churches), state and local taxes such as property taxes, medical and dental expenses that were not reimbursed, and a variety of employee-related expenses that were not reimbursed. There are of course many other itemized deductions in the USA---
https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sca/ar01.html
Especially note the line 13 instructions near the middle of the above document.

Whether or not you get itemized deductions for such things as your charitable donations and non-reimbursed dental and medical expenses depends upon the total itemized deductions relative to the standard deduction. Having a home mortgage interest deduction and home property taxes helps to bring this total itemized deductions up to where these deductions may exceed the standard deduction. Not having them may eliminate the tax benefit of all other itemized deductions.

See the line 29 worksheet for limitations placed on the total amount of itemized deductions that can be taken ---
https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sca/ar01.html
However, it's important to note that taxpayers having lower adjusted gross income than the line 29 amounts get to benefit fully from their itemized deductions in excess of the standard deduction. For many taxpayers this eliminates all taxes due.

In general poor people don't pay income taxes in the USA. Middle income taxpayers often can eliminate or greatly reduce their taxes owed with itemized deductions. This is where mortgage interest deductions can help reduce or entirely eliminate income taxes owed. Nearly half the households filing tax returns in the USA either pay zero income tax or collect money due to income tax credits like the earned income tax credit. Many helped reduce their taxes owed to zero or nearly zero with itemized deductions. The mortgage interest deduction played a role for home owners.

My first point here is that this aspect of the USA tax law differs from the Danish tax laws of the 1980s such that conclusions regarding tax incentives to own homes in Denmark cannot be extrapolated to the USA and many other nations.

My second point is that  tax incentives to own homes in the USA differ greatly for taxpayers within the USA.

There are many other reasons why the findings of the above Denmark data study cannot be extrapolated to the USA, especially its major conclusions.

Of course for many taxpayers rules for itemizing deductions are so complicated that they may use tax software (think TurboTax) that computes their deductions while they themselves do not fully understand the rules behind the software computations. In that case the mortgage interest deduction may not fully enter into their decision to buy rather than rent a home or vice versa. Thus we can conclude in such instances the mortgage tax deduction was not truly a factor in their decision to buy or rent. Astute buyers, however, would seek expert tax advice or at least do a sensitivity analysis using tax software to see the outcome of a rent versus buy decision on income taxes in their particular circumstances.

There are other taxpayers who naively assume that home ownership provides tax incentives even in cases where these assumptions are in error for them but not a lot of other taxpayers. In that case we can conclude the deductibility of mortgage interest had an impact even if this is based upon erroneous assumptions on the part of some home buyers.

I think it is safe to conclude that decades ago tax incentives for home ownership was a major factor, but not the only factor, leading to the construction of tens of millions of homes in the USA. As the tax rules became more complicated for itemized deductions in general, the importance of tax benefits of home ownership became more complicated to a point where most taxpayers probably do not understand the limitations of home ownership on tax incentives. Personally, I think what tax incentives are left in mortgage interest and property tax deductions do result in more homes being built and cared for by homeowners. I stress the phrase "cared for" because homeowners are more apt to take better care of their homes than renters and landlords.

The bottom line, of course, is the real benefits of a tax incentive to own a home depends upon what owners do with the tax benefits of owning their homes. Saving more for retirement is probably a good thing. Buying hundreds of lottery tickets is probably a bad thing for the home owners personally. In my own case the tax benefits of home ownership allowed me to put more savings into a Vanguard long-term tax-exempt mutual fund. In this era of low interest rates I conclude that doing this gives me a net positive tax-exempt return each year, part of which is due to the tax deductibility of mortgage interest and property taxes. But my situation is not the same as your situation so don't think what I do is best for you.

Finance and tax matters in life can become very, very complicated. Greater financial literacy is a good thing. Don't depend upon so-called financial advisors to solve all your problems.  That certainly did not help Debbie Reylolds who was defrauded by an investment adviser..

PS
I usually do not recommend home ownership for taxpayers who face a strong possibility of having to sell again in less than seven years. Put another way new teachers should probably not buy homes until they have tenure in their jobs. The transactions costs of buying and selling homes are usually (not always) just too high for short-term ownership. Many things must be considered beside tax incentives to own your own home.


"How a BYU Campus Is Reshaping Online Education — and the Mormon Faith," by Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 13, 2017 --- 
http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-a-BYU-Campus-Is-Reshaping/240649?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=2123037a343c428f8209b582597d619e&elq=a246d4fdfd274984b5e2ea434f5675cd&elqaid=14715&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6221

On a summer Thursday night, more than a dozen students, ages 22 to 71, are settling in to two classrooms here in a small brick building on the outskirts of the University of Maryland’s main campus. They’re here for their weekly in-person class.

Around the world, at 436 other Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints congregational and educational facilities, nearly 11,000 other online students are doing the same thing.

The students here — stay-at-home moms pondering their next step and young adults recently returned from missionary service, among others — are in their final month of PathwayConnect, a yearlong, 15-credit program created by Brigham Young University-Idaho. It’s an ambitious endeavor with a simple goal: to prepare them to go, or return, to college.

PathwayConnect began in 2009 and has quickly developed into one of online education’s striking success stories. It has graduated nearly 24,000 students, more than 14,000 of whom have continued on for an online certificate or degree from BYU-Idaho. (BYU-Idaho’s online degree programs have been growing so fast — enrollment has increased tenfold, to more than 13,000, over the past five years — that the church recently established the online operation as a separate entity called BYU Pathway Worldwide.)

As with the rest of BYU, a Mormon character is inseparably woven into PathwayConnect. Required religious offerings, like a two-course sequence on the Book of Mormon, mix with secular courses in writing, mathematics, and life skills, in which students learn about goal-setting and "provident living." Students can use the program as an entry point to college, says Clark G. Gilbert, president of BYU Pathway Worldwide, "and a path back to the faith."

But at a time when colleges of all stripes are expanding online to meet the needs of a diversifying student population, PathwayConnect is a model worth paying attention to. Several features of the program could make it relevant — and, in some form, adaptable — to other institutions, religious or not.

‘No Credit Left Behind’

Most obvious of these is the price. Students in the United states pay $68 per credit — and even less if they’re overseas. If they later enroll in BYU-Idaho online, they can continue to take the rest of their courses at the same price they paid for PathwayConnect. In the United States, that adds up to just over $8,100 for the 120 credits needed for a bachelor’s degree, half the price of traditional BYU-Idaho. That’s a striking bargain in a world where many political figures still openly dream of creating a $10,000 degree.

Continued in article

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


Kaplan-Owned Coding Boot Camp Will Close ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/07/14/dev-bootcamp-which-kaplan-bought-three-years-ago-closing?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8f3d5b8e63-DNU20170714&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8f3d5b8e63-197565045&mc_cid=8f3d5b8e63&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Other online coding courses (many are free) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#---ComputerNetworking-IncludingInternet


Tax Court Denies Billionaire's $33m Charitable Deduction; Did University Of Michigan 'Rent Its Brand To Brazen 10:1 Tax Avoidance Scheme'? ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/07/tax-court-denies-billionaires-33m-charitable-deduction-for-gift-to-university-of-michigan-1.html

. . .

The bare bones of the plan are that RERI, whose principal investor was Mr. Ross, bought an asset (call it "the thing") which it donated to the University of Michigan toward a $5 millon pledge that Mr. Ross had made.  Under the gift agreement UM had to hold onto "the thing" for two years, then sell it.  The amount that UM received would be credited to Mr. Ross's pledge. Round numbers RERI acquired "the thing" for $3 million.  When it came time to sell it UM had it appraised at $6 million.  UM sold it to a partnership for $2 million under pressure from Mr. Ross who threatened to count that amount towards his pledge, if they ended up getting less.  How large was the charitable deduction taken by RERI, of which Ross was the principal investor? That would be $33,019,000.

Continued in article

The Thing --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1tKZ3flZZY


How Students Cheat in a High Tech World ---
http://www.chronicle.com/resource/how-students-cheat-in-a-high-t/6122/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=0eb2e027093e46e093c78bc89de8e9a8&elq=a39bfe53376f4fd49972af646aac5c8e&elqaid=14674&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6206

Cheating has always involved elaborate schemes, but now they are increasingly complex and multinational – and  sometimes quite expensive.  Our reporters look at how  students in the United States use Google searches to find  surrogates in Kenya or the Philippines to do their work for them, and how those surrogates can raise their standard of living by writing one paper after another. Cheating technology has also infiltrated  classrooms, with social-media sites sometimes acting as vehicles for sharing correct test responses. This collection of articles prepares  educators for new challenges in stemming a tide of deception that could undermine the value of college degrees.

TABLE OF CONTENTS TOPICS

The New Cheating Economy Business is booming right under colleges’ noses. It’s not just papers anymore. It’s the whole course.

Contract Cheating’s African Labor Among Kenyan college graduates, competition for jobs writing papers for American students is fierce.

In a Fake Online Class, Could Professors Catch Students Who Are Paid to Cheat? The experiment shows how easily online education can be exploited by people intent on deception.

3 Modern Methods of Cheating Extra online accounts, smart watches, and Yik Yak are among the tools employed by dishonest students.

Online Classes See Cheating Go High-Tech Test takers are finding ways to score easy A’s by teaming up with their friends.

Memorization, Cheating, and Technology What can we do to stem the increased use of phones and laptops to cheat on exams in class?

Behind the Webcam’s Watchful Eye, Online Proctoring Takes Hold Universities are hiring companies that have cropped up to police the integrity of online courses.

Cheating Goes Global as Essay Mills Multiply Current and former essay-mill writers help provide an inside look at an essay-writing company.

The Shadow Scholar A man who writes students’ essays explains how he makes his living off their desperation

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on new ways of cheating ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#NewWays

Bob Jensen's threads on plagiarism and other types of cheating ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm


How to Deal With Excel 2016’s New Persistent Clipboard ---
https://www.accountingweb.com/technology/excel/how-to-deal-with-excel-2016s-new-persistent-clipboard?source=ei071217


American University Provost Denies Tenure To Latina Prof Based On Standard Deviation Of Her Student Evaluations, Rather Than Relying On The 'Tyranny Of The Mean' ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/07/american-university-provost-denies-tenure-to-latina-prof-based-on-standard-deviation-of-her-student-.html

Jensen Comment
Note that this is not quite such a single-criterion decision as the title of the article suggests.

However, if I were her attorney I would question the consistency of her annual performance reports with the question that her teaching did not meet the ultimate decision regarding tenure. Under AAUP guidelines annual performance reports should be somewhat consistent with the ultimate tenure outcome such that candidates receive some warnings of weaknesses.


Quartz:  Young men are working less due to fundamental economic factors—not video games ---
https://www.theatlas.com/charts/rkbWLfWrZ

The Decline in Summer Jobs ---
http://wamu.org/story/15/08/03/teen-jobs/

MarketWatch:  American Teens Don't Want to Work ---
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/american-teens-dont-want-to-work-2014-05-01

Jensen Comment
What guidance counselors and college faculty will sometimes not tell their students:
One of our grandsons graduated in June 2017 with a degree in "Sports Medicine." He's now interviewing for construction jobs in the Milwaukee area. Actually he's willing to take most any job he can find even if he's now a college graduate.
One of our sons in California graduated with a business degree. For the past ten years he's been employed as a diesel engine mechanic (in a job that requires training but no college education).

For whatever reason the large resorts in our area like the Mt. Washington Resort still bring in a lot of workers (summer and winter) from former Soviet bloc countries. These workers are provided dormitory-style rooms onsite. In part these jobs are available because these resorts are quite distant from the large-city labor markets in the USA. However, they are available, in part, because so many USA young people are not as willing to live in the dormitories and work as food servers and bell hops in those resorts.  Our grandson in Milwaukee would rather work locally in construction than live in a dormitory in a mountain resort and wait on tables. This is not necessarily the case for workers from outside the USA who will take most any available jobs with room and board just to get into the USA.


An AI researcher explains what scares him the most about robots ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/will-robots-take-over-the-world-ai-2017-7


British Library: Turning the Pages (technology for automated book scanning) --- http://www.bl.uk/turning-the-page


Biased Tide Gauges Mean We’ve Been Systematically Underestimating Sea Level Rise ---
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/biased-tide-gauges-mean-weve-been-systematically-underestimating-sea-level-rise


Bacteria, Methane, and Other Dangers Within Siberia's Melting Permafrost ---
https://www.wired.com/2016/12/global-warming-beneath-permafrost/


Review: This Clever Gadget Gives Your MacBook Air a Touchscreen ---
http://time.com/4852395/neonode-airbar-mac-review/?xid=newsletter-brief


July 24, 2017 message from Scott Bonacker

SNOPES.COM COMMUNITY: WE NEED YOUR HELP

Snopes.com in Danger of Shuttering

https://www.gofundme.com/savesnopes

http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/07/snopes-facing-legal-and-advertising-trouble-is-embarking-on-an-urgent-campaign-for-reader-donations/

 https://www.poynter.org/2017/snopes-is-locked-in-a-legal-battle-for-control-of-its-website/465615/

 

 




From the Scout Report on July 14, 2017

uBlock Origin --- https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/#ublock-origin

Many modern websites integrate third-party content from all over the web. Visible examples include embedded Google maps, Disqus comments, Facebook "like" buttons, and advertising. Online user tracking also works this way, but can be much harder to spot. uBlock Origin is a general-purpose content filter. It permits users to decide which third-party content they wish to allow on their computer. In Basic mode, uBlock Origin filters out common advertising, tracking, and known malware. In Advance mode, users can create their own global and site-specific filtering rules. The uBlock Origin team describes this mode as a "point and click firewall which can be configured on a per-site basis." Despite this flexibility, uBlock Origin requires fewer resources than other, similar filtering extensions. uBlock Origin is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge.


Tox --- https://tox.chat 

Chat systems like Facebook Messenger, Google Talk, Slack, Skype, and others play a growing role in both our professional and personal lives. Yet few of these systems were designed with user privacy in mind. Most such systems encrypt connections from users to their central servers. These servers handle conversation data in plain-text, which is visible to server operators. Privacy add-ons like Off-The-Record Messaging provide end-to-end encryption that obscures conversation data. But server operators may still collect conversation metadata. In contrast, Tox is a chat system designed from the ground-up to protect user privacy. End-to-end message encryption is built into the system without the need for add-ons. It has no central servers that can collect data or metadata. Instead, messages are routed through a distributed, peer-to-peer network. Tox clients are available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Android, and iOS devices. All clients support text chat. Support for extended features (file transfer, voice/video, screen sharing, etc) varies by client


Jane Austen Continues to Move Readers and Make Headlines in 2017
Jane Austen sensation: author's parody of trashy novel goes to auction
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/06/jane-austen-sensation-authors-parody-of-trashy-novel-goes-to-auction

Jane Austen's Letter Coolly Dissing Another Novelist Fetches Over $200,000
at Sotheby's
https://news.artnet.com/market/jane-austen-letter-sothebys-1019798

The Word Choices that Explain Why Jane Austen Endures
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/upshot/the-word-choices-that-explain-why-jane-austen-endures.html

Jane Austen 1817-2017: A Bicentennial Exhibit
https://www.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/jane-austen-bicentennial

Jane Austen's House Museum: Jane Austen in 41 Objects
https://www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk/41-objects

Let's Talk About Jane Austen
https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/07/tell-us-whats-your-favorite-jane-austen-adaptation/532836


From the Scout Report on July 21, 2017

Bitwarden --- https://bitwarden.com 

Passwords are often the weakest link in many computer security settings. Good, strong passwords are also difficult to remember, which can prompt users to reuse a small number of passwords on a large number of sites. But whenever passwords used on one site are exposed in a security breach, all sites where those passwords were reused are at risk of a secondary breach. Bitwarden is an open source password management solution designed to help with these issues. It generates a new, unique, random password for each site, such that passwords are never reused. These passwords are then synchronized across any number of devices using industry-standard encryption (AES-256, PBKDF2 SHA-256). Bitwarden's free tier supports sharing collections of passwords with another user (e.g. a spouse) for secure access to shared accounts. Plans that support sharing with three or more users are available for a fee. Bitwarden is available as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Vivaldi. Extensions for Microsoft Edge and Brave are in development. Bitwarden is also available for iOS and Android devices.


Keybr.com --- http://www.keybr.com 

As computers play an increasing role in our professional and personal lives, the ability to touch type quickly and accurately is becoming an increasingly necessary skill. Numerous typing tutors exist, but most rely on repetitive exercises made up of nonsense words. In contrast, Keybr.com follows phonetic rules to generate lessons made of pronounceable "words." New users will start with a small number of keys, with new keys being added as the user gains proficiency. As a user progresses, the site personalizes lessons for them, putting more emphasis on keys that the user has trouble with. Keybr.com can generate lessons according to the phonetic rules of English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian. It also supports a variety of alternative English-language keyboard layouts, like Dvorak and Coleman. Users can view detailed statistics on their typing as they progress. In addition to individualized lessons, the site also supports typing races with other users currently on the site.


New Study Reveals There Are 8.3 Metric Tons of Plastic on Our Planet
Plastic is Everywhere And Recycling Isn't the End of It
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/19/538166682/plastic-is-everywhere-and-recycling-isnt-the-end-of-it

 

Earth is becoming "Planet Plastic"
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40654915

 

The Immense, Eternal Footprint Humanity Leaves on Earth: Plastics
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/climate/plastic-pollution-study-science-advances.html

 

Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782.full

 

How a Crazy Laboratory Accident Helped Create Plastic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML0PN_zvML8

 

The British Plastics Industry - 1945 Educational Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i38Yz4pFQRk

Plastic was invented in 1907. In the 1950s, the material became ubiquitous
in a wide range of products. Today, there are 8.3 billion metric tons of
plastic on our planet. That's roughly the weight of 25,000 Empire State
buildings, and enough to cover the entire country of Argentina. This
alarming finding comes from Roland Geyer, an industrial ecologist at the
University of California, Santa Barbara; Jenna R. Jambeck of the University
of Georgia College of Engineering, and Kara Lavender Law of the Sea
Education Association, who published their study in <i>Science Advances</i>
on Wednesday, July 19th. Of this 8.3 metric tons, 79 percent of plastics
are in landfills, 12 percent are incinerated, and a mere 9 percent is
recycled. The study also notes that the greatest proportion of plastic is
created for packaging (42 percent) and construction (about 20 percent).
Perhaps most frighteningly, Geyer and his fellow co-authors predicted the
amount of plastic on Earth to expand to 12 billion metric tons by the year
2050. Geyer, Jambeck, and Law were also part of the team that authored a
2015 study that estimated that between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of
plastic enters the ocean each year. Geyer notes, "Virtually all the plastic
we ever made is non-degradable. [It] will be with us for hundreds of
years."



The first three links take readers to summaries of this new study, courtesy
of Christopher Joyce of NPR, Jonathan Amos of BBC News, and Tatiana
Schlossberg of <i>The New York Times</i>. Those interested in reading the
study in full may do so via the fourth link. The fifth link takes visitors
to a video from Discovery News' DNews Plus about the chemistry behind
plastic and the material's invention. Finally, the last link takes visitors
 to a 1945 promotional video from the British Plastics Industry. This
video, which depicts how plastics were manufactured in factories at the
time, offers historical insight about the moment when plastic became a
mass-produced and mass-marketed material.

 




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


Education Tutorials

Stanford University Resources for Teaching Mathematics
youcubed --- https://www.youcubed.org

National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science: Cut It Out! ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=915&id=915

From the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
Jim and the Forgotten Embryos ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=628&id=628

Coursera: Seeing Through Photographs --- https://www.coursera.org/learn/photography

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

SFMOMA: Teacher Resources (San Francusci Museum of Art) ---
https://www.sfmoma.org/teacher-resources

The Programming Historian --- https://programminghistorian.org

The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children's Literature ---
http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg

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

What Is Space? It’s not what you think ---
http://nautil.us/issue/49/the-absurd/what-is-space?utm_source=frontpage&utm_medium=mview&utm_campaign=what-is-space

SciShortform (science news) --- https://medium.com/scishortform

Interactive Periodic Table of Elements Shows How the Elements Actually Get Used in Making Everyday Things ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/interactive-periodic-table-of-elements-shows-how-the-elements-actually-get-used-in-making-everyday-things.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

National Historic Chemical Landmarks --- https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks.html

British Library: Turning the Pages (technology for automated book scanning) --- http://www.bl.uk/turning-the-pages

Biased Tide Gauges Mean We’ve Been Systematically Underestimating Sea Level Rise ---
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/biased-tide-gauges-mean-weve-been-systematically-underestimating-sea-level-rise

Bacteria, Methane, and Other Dangers Within Siberia's Melting Permafrost ---
https://www.wired.com/2016/12/global-warming-beneath-permafrost/

National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science: Cut It Out! ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=915&id=915

From the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
Jim and the Forgotten Embryos ---
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=628&id=628

Atlas of Living Australia (biodiversity) ---  http://www.ala.org.au
Bob Jensen's threads on Animals, Natural History, and Evolution ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#---NaturalHistory

 

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

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


Social Science and Economics Tutorials

The Revealer: A Review for Religion and Media --- https://wp.nyu.edu/therevealer

Library and Archives Canada: Aboriginal Heritage ---
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage

Two Coats of Paint (contemporary art news) --- http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com

Library of Congress: Sigmund Freud Papers --- https://www.loc.gov/collections/sigmund-freud-papers

Not So Standard Deviations (podcasts on technology, data science and AI artificial intelligence) --- https://soundcloud.com/nssd-podcast/tracks

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

Stanford University Resources for Teaching Mathematics
youcubed --- https://www.youcubed.org

YouTube: Numberphile (advanced mathematics and number theory videos) ---
https://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile/featured

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

The Programming Historian --- https://programminghistorian.org

Sacred Places, Sacred Ways ---
http://story.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=cbd975db645549ebbc1cc6a060de5787

100 Years of Cinema: New Documentary Series Explores the History of Cinema by Analyzing One Film Per Year, Starting in 1915 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/100-years-of-cinema.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Free: 355 Issues of Galaxy, the Groundbreaking 1950s Science Fiction Magazine ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/free-355-issues-of-galaxy-the-groundbreaking-1950s-science-fiction-magazine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Russian History & Literature Come to Life in Wonderfully Colorized Portraits: See Photos of Tolstoy, Chekhov, the Romanovs & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/russian-history-literature-come-to-life-in-wonderfully-colorized-portraits.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Coursera: Seeing Through Photographs --- https://www.coursera.org/learn/photography

Archaeologists Discover the World’s First “Art Studio” Created in an Ethiopian Cave 43,000 Years Ago ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/archaeologists-discover-the-worlds-first-art-studio.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Library and Archives Canada: Aboriginal Heritage ---
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage

Livingston Online (explorer David Livingstone) --- http://livingstoneonline.org

Pictorial Saint Louis --- http://jarednielsen.com/pictorial-st-louis

BBC Radio 4: Seriously... (history modules) --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p021gdts

Nikola Tesla --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
American Experience: Nikola Tesla --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/tesla

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  

Library of Congress: Sigmund Freud Papers --- https://www.loc.gov/collections/sigmund-freud-papers

Oxford American (phography) --- http://www.oxfordamerican.org

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum --- http://cartoons.osu.edu

The Center for Cartoon Studies --- http://www.cartoonstudies.org/

Louie's Candy Store (Brooklyn) ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzhElCGzQNM&feature=youtu.be
Jensen Comment
In every small town in Iowa where I grew up there was a drug store with a soda and ice cream counter with a few booths ---
http://cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/FamilyHistory/SweaCity/Dourte.htm
Those were good years where a quarter bought a malted milk or a big scoop of ice cream covered in thick chocolate.
Those days are mostly gone in boarded up small towns in Iowa, but the Olmos Pharmacy in San Antonio lasted it out during my later faculty years at Trinity University.
Thank you for the heads up Paula
Note at the end of this candy store video the "fin" cars of the mid-20th Century. In graduate school at Stanford my $75 used 1952 Chevrolet sedan was replaced by a used 1957 pink and white Oldsmobile convertible. Those were the days my friend.

Bob Jensen's history links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to the word "History"


Language Tutorials

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


Music Tutorials

Mark Knopfler Gives a Short Masterclass on His Favorite Guitars & Guitar Sounds ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/mark-knopfler-gives-a-short-masterclass-on-his-favorite-guitars-guitar-sounds.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Watch the World’s Oldest Violin in Action: Marco Rizzi Performs Schumann’s Sonata No. 2 on a 1566 Amati Violin ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/watch-the-worlds-oldest-violin-in-action-marco-rizzi-performs-schumanns-sonata-no-2-on-a-1566-amati-violin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Watch the Making of a Hand-Crafted Violin, from Start to Finish, in a Beautifully-Shot Documentary ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/watch-the-making-of-a-hand-crafted-violin-from-start-to-finish-in-a-beautiful-wordless-documentary.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

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

Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community --- https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/incredible-bridges-poets-creating-community

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/

July 13, 2017

July 14, 2017

July 15, 2017

July 17, 2017

July 19, 2017

July 20, 2017

July 21, 2017

July 22, 2017

July 24, 2017

July 25, 2017


There’s A War On Sugar. Is It Justified?
Freakonomics, April 26, 2017
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/theres-war-sugar-justified/

 




Humor for July 2017

Puns from the SEC office in Ft. Worth ---
http://goingconcern.com/live-breathe-secs-forth-worth-office-great-twitter-account/

First Annual Wall-Mart Car Show ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QgIHzmLIJA
Thanks Paula

50 Worst Product Flops of All Time ---
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2017/07/19/50-worst-product-flops-of-all-time-2/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=JUL212017A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter
Jensen Comment
Google Glass may have been a flop initially, but this product is now coming back with vigor.

Note from Teachers to Students
I know you've texting in class. Why else would you repeatedly be looking down at your crotch and smiling?

Retirement is that period in life when you can take a shower at noon and face a choice to put on clean clothes or PJs?

Old age has arrived when you no longer believe that you're going to feel better in morning.

We'll always be friends because you know too much.




Humor July 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q3.htm#Humor0717.htm

Humor June 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q2.htm#Humor0617.htm

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

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