Tidbits on March 14 2019
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
Historic Photographs (Set 07) of the Sunset
Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/2019/07ResdenSSH.htm
Tidbits on March 14, 2019
Scroll Down This Page
Bob Jensen's Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For
earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Bookmarks for the World's Library ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
My Latest Web
Document
Over 400 Examples of Critical Thinking and Illustrations of How to Mislead With
Statistics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.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
Mathematical Association of America: On This Day --- www.maa.org/news/on-this-day
Animated Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth
Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010) ---
A Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years
(1790 – 2010)
Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
TED Talks: Self-Assembling Computer Chips of the Future ---
https://www.ted.com/talks/karl_skjonnemand_the_self_assembling_computer_chips_of_the_future?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2019-03-02&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=top_right_button
I Couldn’t Solve This TED-Ed Riddle – Even After I Saw the Answer ---
https://www.jborden.com/i-couldnt-solve-this-ted-ed-riddle-even-after-i-saw-the-answer/
Video: Trump and Jobs --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h1ooyyFkF0
Animated Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth
Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010) ---
A Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years
(1790 – 2010)
The Big Pond: Stream 50 Audio Stories from the Goethe-Institut, Available Free
Online ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/03/the-big-pond.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Inn on Sunset Hill (just down from our cottage) ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5cqUX0LcbU&t=9s
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
Going Back in Time --- https://www.jborden.com/music-monday-going-back-in-time-way-back/
The Top 25 Songs That Matter Now (not my top choices) --- https://www.jborden.com/music-monday-the-top-25-songs-that-matter-now/
The 100 Top Punk Songs of All Time, Curated by Readers of the
UK’s Sounds Magazine in 1981 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/the-100-great-punk-songs-of-all-time-sounds-magazine-in-1981.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
A Stunning Live Concert Film of Queen Performing in Montreal,
Digitally Restored to Perfection (1981) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/03/a-stunning-live-concert-film-of-queen-performing-in-montreal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Man Who Wasn’t Gershwin (Oscar Levant) ---
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-man-who-wasnt-gershwin/
YouTube Clips ---
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Oscar+Levant
Tap dance lovers should especially note these clips with Gene Kelly ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJtXkorMZII
Bob Jensen's threads on nearly all types of free
music selections online ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm
Photographs and Art
All the Rembrandts: The Rijksmuseum Puts All 400 Rembrandts It
Owns on Display for the First Time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/all-the-rembrandts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
How to Talk about Art History --- www.howtotalkaboutarthistory.com
Van Gogh’s Ugliest Masterpiece: A Break Down of His Late, Great
Painting, The Night Café (1888) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/03/van-goghs-ugliest-masterpiece-a-break-down-of-his-late-great-painting-the-night-cafe-1888.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Life & Work of Edvard Munch, Explored by Patti Smith and
Charlotte Gainsbourg ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/the-life-work-of-edvard-munch-explored-by-patti-smith-and-charlotte-gainsbourg.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Captivating Colorized Portraits of Russian Fighters In World War
1 ---
https://flashbak.com/captivating-colorized-portraits-of-russian-fighters-in-world-war-1-411895/
Puffin eats fish (photo).
74 years ago, US troops got their first foothold in Nazi Germany
— here are 8 photos of the Battle for Remagen ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-troops-capture-bridge-at-remagen-entering-nazi-germany-in-wwii-2017-3
Bob Jensen's threads on art history ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#ArtHistory
Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various
types electronic literature available free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on libraries --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---Libraries
Mrs. Stoner Speaks: An Interview with Nancy Gardner Williams ---
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/02/20/mrs-stoner-speaks-an-interview-with-nancy-gardner-williams/
The British Library Digitizes Its Collection of Obscene Books (1658-1940) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/the-british-library-digitizes-its-collection-of-obscene-books-1658-1940.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Dialect in British Fiction, 1800-1836 --- www.dialectfiction.org
ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World --- https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/en/
The Atlantic: What Was the Best Sequel in History? ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/q-what-was-the-best-sequel-in-history/583261/
Two Free Books (thank you Sira Schulz)
Tana French The Trespasser
Viet Than Nguyen The Refugees (short stories)
Free Electronic Literature ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Now in
Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on March 14, 2019
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2019/TidbitsQuotations031419.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
Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education Ranks Trinity Among Nation’s Best
Colleges (Rank 37) ---
https://new.trinity.edu/news/wall-street-journaltimes-higher-education-ranks-trinity-among-nations-best-colleges?utm_source=Our+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=c9c426bb74-TOWERNEWS_MARCH_2019&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_00cfaca66d-c9c426bb74-160446777
The Horrible Experience of Trying to Report a Sexual Assault in Europe --- especially in the "happiest countries in the world"
Jensen Comment
I've subscribed to Time Magazine for decades and have been saddened how
it became politicized over the past three decades sinking ever deeper into
cherry picking and leftist leanings. Thus I was quite shocked by the following
2019 article. Rapes have become much more common in all of Europe accompanying
the rise of immigration to a point where German police, in fear of stirring
political unrest, no longer use the terms "rape" or "sexual assault."
Many (most?) such assaults go unreported in the media and the
official statistics reported by German police only use the term "assault" rather
than sexual assault.
What is ironic is that the Nordic Countries often come out on top of rankings in terms of "happiness countries." Those citizens and visitors increasingly being raped in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are not likely to be very happy. Perhaps the happiest citizens are the rapists who are either not punished at all for rapes or are given light sentences in country club prisons. Sometimes rapists are deported only to return in a few months. They have little fear from law enforcement.
Time Magazine: Denmark Is Supposed
to Be a Land of Gender Equality. That's Why I Speak Out About My Rape ---
Click Here
by Kirstine Holst
. . .
As I have found out first hand through my experience of trying to navigate the justice system over the last year and a half, women and girls are being failed by dangerous and outdated laws. Rape is often not reported through fear of not being believed, stigma and a lack of trust in the justice system. Even when it is, the barriers to justice can prove insurmountable. The reason for the low conviction rates lies in deeply-entrenched biases within the justice system, and lack of trust in that system contributes to under-reporting.
. . .
But the worst aspect of the entire experience was the focus by the police, the lawyers and the judge on whether there was evidence of physical violence: on whether I had resisted, rather than whether I had consented.
Although I had told my rapist many times to stop, I was repeatedly asked questions about the physical evidence that I had resisted.
This focus reflects the fact that Danish law still does not define rape on the basis of lack of consent. Instead, it uses a definition based on whether physical violence, threat or coercion is involved or if the victim is found to have been unable to resist. The assumption that a victim gives her consent because she has not physically resisted is deeply problematic since “involuntary paralysis” or “freezing” has been recognized by experts as a very common physiological and psychological response to sexual assault.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
It saddens me that, while there's a highly-publicized effort to get victims of
rape in the USA to report such crimes to the police, there's also an effort to
lighten the punishments and become more like happiest nation in the world ---
Denmark.
The only difference between the USA and Europe regarding
deportations is that deported criminals in Europe return in a few months while
in the USA they're back in a matter of weeks.
There's a
possibility that New York City may go bankrupt under
Mayor de Blaso---
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/03/deep_blue_new_york_city_looking_at_bankruptcy_after_a_mere_fiveyear_socialist_hog_wallow.html
Amtrak: A Horrible Experience of Government Spending ---
Click Here
Jensen Comment
I can't imagine high speed rail having a future in a world of terrorism and
drones. Technology will one day fend drones away from airliners. I cannot
imagine fending off persistent destruction of high speed rail tracks and
bridges. There may not be loss of life while rail systems are almost
continuously side tracked waiting for rail repairs. It may take years to repair
railroad bridges crumbled by Kalashnikov drones.
Kalashnikov, the maker of the AK-47, has invented
an explosive kamikaze drone; Its aim is to “democratize bombs” so they’re
affordable for smaller armies, apparently ---
https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/26/kalashnikov-kamikaze-drone/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=70296560&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8C254ogpqcUXuBnjM9myyb0mNwHr-efaaNNPmITRYKqUL1qxH1y17t3C_aaodlHJ5AJ5WXu_XNjhTIDsca3xfQbqmH7Q&_hsmi=70296560
Jensen Comment
Add kamicaze drones to the list of the Malthusian ways of solving the world's
overpopulation problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusianism
It will not only make smaller armies more lethal, it will also make them targets
for revolutionaries and criminals. Like the AK-47, this will keep revolutions in
Africa and elsewhere forever ongoing. There can be no stability wth all those
AK-47s and lethal drones. And the thought of these in the hands of terrorists is
really scary. Think of the power grid, brimming flood control dams, railroad and
automobile
bridges in our largest cities and on and on and on. And then there's Trump's
crumbling wall as caravans of 100,000+ people reach the border.
Most
Popular Books by State in 2018 ---
https://www.thriftbooks.com/b/most-popular-books-by-state/
Now Dogs as Well as Humans are Being Replaced by
Technology (think sheep herding in New Zealand) ---
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018685575/barking-drones-used-on-farms-instead-of-sheep-dogs
How
to Choose Which Day Amazon Packages Arrive (so you will be home) ---
https://www.reviewgeek.com/13572/amazon-day-lets-prime-members-choose-what-day-packages-arrive/
How to
Mislead With Statistics
China’s economy is about 12 per cent smaller than official figures indicate, and
its real growth has been overstated by about 2 percentage points annually in
recent years, according to research ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/03/china-non-fact-of-the-day.html
How to
Mislead With P-Values
When You’re Selecting Significant Findings, You’re Selecting Inflated
Estimates ---
https://replicationnetwork.com/2019/02/16/goodman-when-youre-selecting-significant-findings-youre-selecting-inflated-estimates/
How Many Ways Can You Misinterpret p-Values, Confidence Intervals,
Statistical Tests, and Power? 25
https://replicationnetwork.com/2019/02/09/how-many-ways-can-you-misinterpret-p-values-confidence-intervals-statistical-tests-and-power-25/
The
Khan Academy (an amazing free resource, mostly videos, at almost all levels of
education) ---
https://www.khanacademy.org/
What percentage of wannbes of law school take the Khan Academy's free LSAT prep
modules?
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/03/44-of-lsat-test-takers-use-khan-academys-free-online-prep.html
Free online courses, lessons, and practice
Turnitin --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnitin
There's
Huge Value in Plagiarism Detection Using Artificial Intelligence
Turnitin to Be Acquired by Advance Publications for $1.75B ---
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-03-06-turnitin-to-be-acquired-by-advance-publications-for-1-75b
Turnitin was started by four students and emerged as a leading plagiarism
detection system
Bob
Jensen's threads on plagiarism and other forms of academic cheating ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm
How
to protect your tax refund from scammers, identify risks ---
https://www.freep.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2019/02/28/tax-refund-scam-calls/2941303002/
Bob
Jensen's tax helpers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#010304Taxation
No,
Americans will not need a visa to travel to Europe ---
https://qz.com/1569477/no-americans-will-not-need-a-visa-to-travel-to-europe/
But you may need to fill out an ETIAS form ---
https://www.germany-visa.org/etias/
How
to Stop a Bird-Murdering Cat ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/12/accessories-for-your-murderous-pet/419601/
Sadly, millions of feral cats in the wild need the birds and their eggs for
food.
Kylie Jenner is officially the youngest self-made billionaire. Here are 9 other
self-made billionaires who crossed the $1 billion milestone before 30. ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/youngest-self-made-billionaires-kylie-jenner-mark-zuckerberg-2019-3
Which one made on the basis of a scam and got cauht?
While a
move is underway to destroy the American Dream of rags to riches (by taxing away
the riches) the Chinese dream is on the rise.
The Chinese Dream
How a Chinese billionaire went from making $16 a month in a factory to being one
of the world's richest self-made women with an $8.3 billion real-estate empire
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-richest-self-made-woman-wu-yajun-net-worth-2019-2
Top 50 Billionaires in China ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_by_net_worth
Jensen
Comment
The question for students to debate is why a supposed
communist country allows so many billionaires to rise up from poverty.
That's supposed to happen in the USA where a child growing up in deep
poverty (think Oprah Winfrey or Howard Shultz) became a multi-billionaires.
But is it also supposed to happen under communism? If
so, why?
How To Think About Taxing And Spending Like A Swede ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/03/how-to-think-about-taxing-and-spending-like-a-swede.html
Europe has less inequality and more social mobility because its taxation schemes reach deeper into society (especially the middle class) and do more for everyone.
In the recent rush of proposals to tax the rich, Democrats have forgotten — or never really cared to learn — an important lesson: The countries that have been most successful at reducing poverty and inequality have not done it by taxing the wealthy and giving to the poor.
Take Sweden, a country often cited by progressives for its extensive social programs. Sweden has very low poverty and inequality, and economic mobility is significantly higher than it is in the United States; a poor Swede is much more likely to become middle class than a poor American is.
We can learn from Sweden, but the lesson is not what many people think. Rich Swedes do get taxed at high rates, but so does everyone else: The average American worker’s total tax burden is 31.7 percent of earnings, compared with 42.9 percent for the average Swede. The Swedes actually tax corporations less: 19.8 percent, compared with 34.2 percent in the United States in 2017, the last year for which we have comparative data — and yes, that’s after all the loopholes and deductions have been accounted for. The American rate will be lower after the 2017 tax bill, but it’s still unlikely to be as low as Sweden’s. ...
Continued in article
In 1979 the highest marginal tax rate on individuals was 87% which proved to
be a disaster;
In 1990 is was down to 65%
In 2002 it was further reduced to 56% and that covers a lot more services (think
health care) than income taxes fund in the USA
Marginal Tax Rate Declines in Sweden and the Rest of the World ---
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MarginalTaxRates.html
The fleet of Democratic Party candidates are active in promoting $100+
trillion dollar government spending but are vague or silent on taxation.
What these candidates don't like is how Nordic countries tax the middle class ---
http://reason.com/blog/2019/03/06/low-tax-socialists-medicare-for-all-gnd
Consider how taxation works in the nordic countries that many American socialists describe as their models. Yes, taxes are high on the rich. But as the Tax Foundation noted during Sanders' last presidential campaign, they are also high on the middle class. The 70 percent top marginal tax rate floated by Ocasio-Cortez would apply to income earned over $10 million, affecting only about 16,000 Americans each year. In countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, marginal tax rates of near 60 percent hit earners deep into the middle class. Denmark's 60 percent marginal rate applies to income over 1.2 times the national average, which in the U.S. would hit earners making just $60,000 a year—not exactly millionaires and billionaires. These countries also typically rely on value-added taxes that are inherently regressive, placing a bigger burden on the poor and middle class than on the rich.
Highest Marginal Tax Rate Declines in the Rest of the World ---
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MarginalTaxRates.html
UMass System Aims to Join the Mega-University Club ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/UMass-System-Aims-to-Join-the/245825?cid=db&elqTrackId=3f32894a5a664ed788887261c8f04c24&elq=79e5bf77abf94b569aa996ee93cc5b1f&elqaid=22428&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=11058
Will it also serve corporate America with special programs like Arizona State
(Starbucks) and Purdue Global (Popa Johns)?
Mega-Universities (unexpectedly) on the Rise ---
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/Trend19-MegaU-Main?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=818d19efc4804478bc59234df45cb112&elq=e45302a1d7524e09bb00395f674bd07c&elqaid=22287&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=10969
Liberty, Southern New Hampshire, Grand Canyon, Western Governors, and a few other universities have found a new way to play the game that many colleges are losing. Could they one day lay claim to a significant share of the nation’s new college students?
. . .
At a time when many colleges are struggling with shrinking enrollment and tighter budgets, Southern New Hampshire is thriving on a grand scale, and it’s not alone. Liberty, Grand Canyon, and Western Governors Universities, along with a few other nonprofit institutions, have built huge online enrollments and national brands in recent years by subverting many of traditional higher education’s hallmarks. Western Governors has 88,585 undergraduates, according to U.S. Education Department data, more than the top 14 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings combined.
Jensen Comment
Especially note the graph of enrollment trends at Arizona
State, Grand Canyon, Purdue Global, Liberty, Southern New Hampshire, and Western
Governors.
The most important key to success, in my viewpoint, is the attraction of top
students coupled with tougher admission standards that are key to academic
reputations. If admission standards are not tough reputation depends upon
academic standards for flunking out low performers. If you graduate low
performers you can soon develop a reputation for being a diploma mill ---
which is the fate of most of the for-profit universities
that have closed or will soon close.
Of course the attraction of reputable faculty is important, especially in research (R1) universities, but often the top research faculty are not even teaching undergraduates. What the Mega-Universities have to concentrate is on hiring and nurturing of great teachers who are experts in their disciplines. This will increasingly change accreditation standards and enforcement.
Arizona State University is somewhat unique in that it seems to want to be both a reputable R1 research university (with distinguished researchers) along with a diversity of missions such as providing Starbucks' funded degrees to any Starbucks employee (including part-time employees) who want to do the academic work for free.
Note that religion is no key to success in and of itself. Many religious colleges are on the verge of bankruptcy while Liberty University enrollments soar.
For me the greatest surprise is how competency testing seems to not be the
kiss of death that I predicted in this era where students are constantly brown
nosing teachers for grades and seeking leniency based upon race and age. Both
WGU and Southern New Hampshire are noted for grading based upon competency
testing ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Skype a Scientist --- www.skypeascientist.com
National Center on Accessible Educational Materials --- http://aem.cast.org/
While a
move is underway to destroy the American Dream of rags to riches (by taxing away
the riches) the Chinese dream is on the rise.
The Chinese Dream
How a Chinese billionaire went from making $16 a month in a factory to being one
of the world's richest self-made women with an $8.3 billion real-estate empire
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-richest-self-made-woman-wu-yajun-net-worth-2019-2
Top 50 Billionaires in China ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_by_net_worth
Jensen
Comment
The question for students to debate is why a supposed
communist country allows so many billionaires to rise up from poverty.
That's supposed to happen in the USA where a child growing up in deep
poverty (think Oprah Winfrey or Howard Shultz) became a multi-billionaires. But
is it also supposed to happen under communism? If so,
why?
Politico: Progressives want a government-managed single payer insurance program to replace (in two years) all USA private sector medical insurance companies ---
Here's
one of the problems as they also plan to cut back on what hospitals, drug
companies, physicians earn in the USA ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/highest-paying-job-in-every-us-state-2019-2
Related
to the above problem is will be the shortage of physicians and hospitals to
serve the expected increase in services expected by wider coverage and the
attraction of hordes undocumented immigrants primarily coming to the USA for
needed medical services like dialysis and transplants.
How do you attract
more students to become physicians (especially in rural USA) when you plan to
cut back on what physicians earn with caps on billings and higher taxes on the
earnings of physicians.
With
physicians the problem is huge because of the long ordeal it takes to become a
licensed specialist and the likelihood of early burnout.
I'm especially aware of this problem because one of our top regional
hospital general surgeons, frightfully overworked, in these mountains just
flamed out before reaching the age of 50.
Support for Medicare-for-All will evaporate once voters become aware that confiscating the wealthy and high earners will only pay a tiny fraction for the cost and that, when combined with other progressive programs like the green initiative, guaranteed income, student loan forgiveness, housing subsidies, free college, cash reparations to African and Native Americans, etc. the price tags aggregate way over $100 trillion on top of the existing $100+ trillion in contracted entitlements for Medicaid, Medicare, Veterans Benefits, Social Security, Disability Payments, unfunded pensions, etc.
How to Mislead With Statistics
Three reasons why people fall for politicians’ lies about statistics ---
https://theconversation.com/3-reasons-why-people-fall-for-politicians-lies-about-statistics-110014
Jensen Comment
A reason for being misled (related to letting emotions rule) is hoping that the
politician will become powerful enough to make the lie come true. For example,
many people are falling for statistics cited and the promises made by promises
of guaranteed income for everybody in the USA (think AOC and Kamela Harris).
Nancy Pelosi warns of the hazards of believing those lies.
The Democratic Party is Split
“You have to make decisions that you’re going to reach certain goals, and some
of our goals we think are
achievable”
Nancy Pelosi (when criticizing Alexandria's Green New Deal and
Basic (Guaranteed) Income Medicare-for-All)
Click Here
Added Jensen Comment
I suspect progressives will eventually make
medical schools much cheaper. However, this will not solve the problem since
these same progressives also want to tax what physicians make at 70+% and put
severe caps on what they can charge for medical services (makes me think of rent
control disasters). It's like making physicians pay their own fees
https://www.businessinsider.com/highest-paying-job-in-every-us-state-2019-2
What progressives can't do much about is to take what discourages medical students the most --- the years of ordeal it takes to master their crafts.
One almost certain solution for the USA will be what my biologist colleague calls the "French solution" --- which Jagdish tells us is also the "Indian solution." Physicians commence medical school within one year out of high school (or in some instances zero years after high school). Medical students don't have "waste" 3-5 years as undergraduates. Johns Hopkins has a small experimental program something like the French solution.
Another possible help to physicians that progressives are divided over is malpractice insurance and lawsuit pots of gold. The Canadians virtually cut the lawyers out of the equation (except in outlier instances) that makes malpractice insurance in Canada almost nothing compared to the USA. Medical boards in Canada pay victims for damages but no punitive damage awards.
Amazingly, however, the State of Texas passed a constitutional amendment severely capping punitive damages. The NYT reported that almost immediately medical school graduates started seeking jobs in Texas.
What will make malpractice insurance relief difficult is that most of our USA federal and state legislators are lawyers. It amazed me that the lawyers in Texas let the punitive-damage pot of gold slip through their fingers in the Lone Star State.
The WSJ reports that progressive support for eliminating private sector medical insurance companies is waning due to the massive cost of replacing it with a government bureaucracy. Physicians and hospitals have barely had a chance to fight but will fight tooth and nail if Medicare-for-All ever becomes a threat to them.
The real test is Bernie Sanders.
He still favors eliminating the private sector in medical insurance and ignores
the fact that even Medicare and Medicaid outsource insurance claims to the
private sector that's currently geared up
with the trained employees and software to process such claims.
It's not so much that Bernie Sanders is a threat as the threat that hordes of socialists are also elected to the House and Senate if Bernie becomes wildly popular. The reason progressives like Bernie are currently vague about funding Medicare-for-All is that they know that they will lose millennial support once it's revealed that middle income and maybe even poor people will be taxed for their medical coverage or copays will be charged (as they are in many other nations like Canada).
Or some nations like Germany greatly limit what's covered in the national plan, thereby forcing those who can afford it to buy secondary medical insurance from the private sector to pay for better services (like not having to wait years for a knee or hip replacement).
Animated Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth
Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010) ---
A Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years
(1790 – 2010)
USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl
In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time
---
http://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/national-debt-surpasses-20-trillion-for-the-first-time-in-us-history
Human Population Over Time on Earth ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE
Jerry Falwell invited Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Convocation after heated Twitter interaction ---
Tacko Fall Is 7-Foot-6. And He’s Breaking Basketball ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/tacko-fall-is-7-foot-6-and-hes-breaking-basketball/
He can dunk a basketball while standing flat-footed on the floor.
Jensen Comment
What should be Tacko's main concern?
My neighbor in these mountains (actually part-time neighbor since his home is
down on the coast of Mass.) is over 70 years of age and still plays in a
basketball league spread all over the USA. He tells me that the main concern of
very tall players is the endurance of their feet.
When I lived in San Antonio, the first things that commenced to fail for the
7-foot David Robinson on the Spurs team were his feet.
Perhaps Tacko should not run more than ten feet from the opponent's basket
throughout the game. The other team would then probably have to keep defender
near him at all times. Basketball would never be the same.
Tesla unveiled a next-generation Supercharger designed to add up to 75
miles of range in just 5 minutes ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/faster-tesla-v3-superchargers-250kw-will-benefit-model-3-vehicles-2019-3
Jensen Comment
But this "pump" still won't add anything to help pay for road maintenance and
repairs. For those important things we still rely on gas pumps.
NYC teachers
speak out about their horrific experiences in class ---
https://nypost.com/2019/03/07/nyc-teachers-speak-out-about-their-horrific-experiences-in-class/
This is way beyond talking out of turn — today’s public school students are hellions who attack educators, shout X-rated bile and make bomb threats with impunity, teachers told The Post.
“If I had a dime for every time I was told to suck something, I’d be a millionaire,” said a female Jamaica, Queens, high school teacher.
“They know the system. They can say whatever they want to us and get away with it, but we can’t say a thing to them.”
When teachers use what little leverage they have, the kids do their best to get the educators in hot water.
“You can’t even tell a student that they aren’t going to pass a test or a class anymore because they will go to an administrator and complain that you made them feel uncomfortable and we’ll get written up,” she added.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Amazon is fortunate not to have to hire such kids after they "graduate" so
disrespectfully from high school. The question is why are they allowed to
"graduate" in the first place?
How to mislead with statistics (small and unreliable samples)
This Year’s 2019 CDC Gun Injury Data Is Even Less Reliable Than Last Year’s ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/this-years-cdc-gun-injury-data-is-even-less-reliable-than-last-years/
. . .
But that number is suspect, in part because the agency sources its data from a small number of hospitals: just 60 in 2017, according to data obtained in a public records request by The Trace and FiveThirtyEight. Drawing data from such a small pool means that a single hospital that treats a disproportionate number of gun injuries has the potential to drastically skew the entire estimate. In contrast, the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), another database under the Department of Health and Human Services, uses data from more than 950 hospitals to create its own gun injury estimate, which contains much less uncertainty than the CDC’s. HCUP’s website also prevents users from accessing any estimate with a coefficient of variation greater than 30 percent.
Despite the issues with the CDC’s data, many academics have cited it in their work. Our previous reporting identified at least 50 research papers that have cited the CDC’s gun injury numbers since 2010.
“I would not cite these estimates,” Guohua Li, editor-in-chief of the medical journal Injury Epidemiology and director of Columbia University’s Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention, told The Trace and FiveThirtyEight. “As an editor, I would not publish any manuscript that is based on these estimates.”
Li says that the CDC could correct the uncertainty of its estimates by incorporating data from a much larger and more reliable source like HCUP. “If they want to fix it, I think it is definitely doable,” Li said.
Lenard, the CDC spokesperson, said that HCUP’s data sets have their own limitations and that making any changes to the database that underlies the CDC’s estimates would depend on congressional funding.
Li doesn’t believe that the limitations of HCUP’s data are significant enough to keep the CDC from using it.
“The data quality has become more important than ever, so they should really pay immediate attention to this issue and get it improved,” Li said.
My new Web site on illustrations of misleading
statistics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm
Scientists find worms that recently evolved the ability to regrow a
complete head ---
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-scientists-worms-evolved-ability-regrow.html
I wish I knew the secret of doing this for humans
Can Smart Thermostats Ruin Your Furnace?
https://www.howtogeek.com/405478/can-smart-thermostats-ruin-your-furnace/
Jensen Comment
I replaced our smart thermostat with a traditional old-fashioned thermostat that
uses no batteries. A couple of years ago we woke up to a cold house. Our heating
guy made and emergency call a puzzled for a long time in the basement before
discovering that the problem was bad batteries in our upstairs thermostat. A
similar thing happened when we arrived for church services and found that the
church was freezing cold.
I decided that it's too risky to rely on a thermostat that uses batteries. Sometimes the old things are better than the new gadgets.
I suspect that really smart thermostats these days will send you a text message or phone call that the batteries are growing weak. But who wants to be on vacation in the south when you get such a message from you have a dying thermostat on a below-zero day up north?
Excel: How to Calculate a Z-Score Using Excel (with great illustrations) ---
Nearly one-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks ---
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/08/nearly-one-in-five-americans-now-listen-to-audiobooks/
Bob Jensen's suggestions for audio books ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Audio
Jim Borden on the March 4 Nashenal Grammar Day ---
https://www.jborden.com/nashenal-grammer-deigh/
In honor of such an important day, I thought I would share Grammar Girl’s top 10 grammar myths:
1. A run-on sentence is a really long sentence.
2. You shouldn’t start a sentence with the word “however.”
3. “Irregardless” is not a word.
4. There is only one way to write the possessive form of a word that ends in “s.”
5. Passive voice is always wrong.
6. “I.e.” and “e.g.” mean the same thing.
7. You use “a” before words that start with consonants and “an” before words that start with vowels.
8. It’s incorrect to answer the question “How are you?” with the statement “I’m good.”
9. You shouldn’t split infinitives.
10. You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition.
And if you would like to read more detail on why these are considered myths, here is the link.
Jensen Comment
I'm too old to change my ways when starting sentences with "However," And I'm
also too old to commence beginning that phrase with a semicolon ---
https://www.grammar.com/however
However, I don't like calling most of the above "myths." If
I'm an assigned grader or article referee I will probably red-line the above
"myths."
And I always liked "alright" being counted as a spelling error, but that seems
to no longer be the case.
In my opinion the most dangerous words in writing are "always" and "proof or proved." (mathematicians excepted)
But since I don't "proof" read a lot of my Web postings I do make a lot of "phonix" errors like "to instead of too" and "your instead of you're" or using "its" as a verb. It's sad when old guys write that way on the fly when they know better.
Guess how Nate Silver ranks the 16 Democratic candidates for the 2020
presidential election as of March 2019?
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-beto-orourke-overrated-or-underrated/
Jensen Comment
The winner to date (Kamela Harris) is also the one who promises to spend the
most on green initiatives, free health care, guaranteed income for all
Americans, rent subsidies, and on and on and on.
The betting odds place her ahead of Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden at this point
in time.
The fleet of Democratic Party candidates are active in promoting $100+
trillion dollar government spending but are vague or silent on taxation.
What they don't like is how Nordic countries tax the middle class ---
http://reason.com/blog/2019/03/06/low-tax-socialists-medicare-for-all-gnd
Consider how taxation works in the nordic countries that many American socialists describe as their models. Yes, taxes are high on the rich. But as the Tax Foundation noted during Sanders' last presidential campaign, they are also high on the middle class. The 70 percent top marginal tax rate floated by Ocasio-Cortez would apply to income earned over $10 million, affecting only about 16,000 Americans each year. In countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, marginal tax rates of near 60 percent hit earners deep into the middle class. Denmark's 60 percent marginal rate applies to income over 1.2 times the national average, which in the U.S. would hit earners making just $60,000 a year—not exactly millionaires and billionaires. These countries also typically rely on value-added taxes that are inherently regressive, placing a bigger burden on the poor and middle class than on the rich.
The New York Times' David Brooks: ‘Medicare for All’: The Impossible
Dream ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/opinion/medicare-for-all.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Jensen Comment
This is one of the more sensible articles about Medicare-for-All. I recommend
reading it carefully.
In my viewpoint the estimated cost of slightly over $3 trillion per year is greatly underestimated.
Firstly, it underestimates the extra cost added by covering long-term care (think nursing homes) that is not presently covered in Medicare.
Nursing Homes ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing_home_care
How to Mislead With Statistics (distortions)
Median prices per month for nursing homes in all 50 states ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/nursing-home-private-room-monthly-median-price-by-state-2019-3#10-delaware-10950-per-month-1
Secondly, it ignores the attraction that free medical care will have in attracting millions and millions of sick people, especially older people in need of free nursing homes, to enter into the USA.
The New York Times: Border at ‘Breaking Point’ as More than 76,000 Migrants Cross in a Month ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/us/border-crossing-increase.html
That extrapolates to nearly a million a year before we attract millions more
with free medical care, housing, education, food stamps, and guaranteed income.
The good news is that, with exponential growth,
there will soon be enough to bury the Republican party forever. Exhibit A is
California
Let's face facts
We've lost the wars on both drugs and "undocumented immigration." Exhibit A is
California that's surrendering in fighting both wars.
Face recognition software is now illegal in the sanctuary city of San Francisco where police are duty-bound to protect "undocumented" migrants from being deported.
How do you deport a helpless person dropped off and lying 10 feet inside the USA border?
The fleet of Democratic Party candidates are active in promoting $100+
trillion dollar government spending but are vague or silent on taxation.
What they don't like is how Nordic countries tax the middle class ---
http://reason.com/blog/2019/03/06/low-tax-socialists-medicare-for-all-gnd
Consider how taxation works in the nordic countries that many American socialists describe as their models. Yes, taxes are high on the rich. But as the Tax Foundation noted during Sanders' last presidential campaign, they are also high on the middle class. The 70 percent top marginal tax rate floated by Ocasio-Cortez would apply to income earned over $10 million, affecting only about 16,000 Americans each year. In countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, marginal tax rates of near 60 percent hit earners deep into the middle class. Denmark's 60 percent marginal rate applies to income over 1.2 times the national average, which in the U.S. would hit earners making just $60,000 a year—not exactly millionaires and billionaires. These countries also typically rely on value-added taxes that are inherently regressive, placing a bigger burden on the poor and middle class than on the rich.
These surprising spending truths could upend your retirement ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/05/these-surprising-spending-truths-could-upend-your-retirement.html
Jensen Comment
One of the real surprises is how medical costs alone pretty well eat up Social Security Income, especially the costs Medicare (it's not free), Medicare Supplements (ours are really expensive), and expenses that aren't covered like dentists and eyewear and the many drugs not fully covered by Medicare D. Congress sneaked in a surprise surcharge for Medicare for persons having taxable income of $85,000 or joint return income of $170,000.If you take out long-term nursing insurance, premiums recently doubled. Nursing homes can be really, really, really expensive if you want one that's halfway decent. Insurance companies must charge enough to cover their losses.
Be sure to vote for a Democratic candidate since they all promise free long-term nursing care for 330 million citizens and all resident non-citizens. At current prices that alone adds trillions more to the estimated $32 trillion cost of Medicare-for-All. The problem is that none of them have a clue how to pay for Medicare-for-All.
Nursing Homes --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing_home_care
How to Mislead With Statistics (distortions)
Median prices per month for nursing homes in all 50 states ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/nursing-home-private-room-monthly-median-price-by-state-2019-3#10-delaware-10950-per-month-1
Jensen Comment
Firstly I might note that Medicare does not pay for long-term nursing care
whereas Medicaid does pay for long-term nursing care, and this leads to a
scramble by heirs to drain off parent or grandparent assets five or more years
before those older folks come into need of long-term care. However, Medicaid
caps of monthly care result in most of those "poverty" cases to be put in
low-standard nursing facilities well below the median prices in each state. Also
it's a crap shoot predicting if and when those folks will need long-term care.
Long-term care insurance has always been expensive and is often limited in
terms of what it will pay per month. To add pain to misery the premiums almost
doubled recently because insurance companies were losing so much money on
long-term care insurance do to such factors as exploding prices of nursing homes
and increased demand for nursing home care relative to supply --- due mostly to
the bubble of aging baby boomers ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers
One of the things greatly increasing the new Democratic bill for
Medicare-for-All to over $30 trillion is that it proposes adding extremely
expensive long-term care coverage to everybody in the USA (including millions of
undocumented immigrants) ---
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/26/house-democrats-medicare-for-all-1189139
Now what's so misleading about the median prices reported by state?
https://www.businessinsider.com/nursing-home-private-room-monthly-median-price-by-state-2019-3#10-delaware-10950-per-month-1
Firstly, averages (whether mean or median) should be accompanied by variance and skewness distribution information. Skewness at the low end for cheap and substandard nursing homes in particular brings down those averages such that heirs wanting better care for their elders can expect to pay much more than the medians reported in this study.
Prices can also vary greatly in terms of services provided. My granddaughter is a licensed pharmacist for a nursing center in Bangor, Maine. Many nursing homes cannot afford pharmacists, expensive therapists, and expensive recreational facilities. The quality of available physicians also varies a great deal such when a nursing home in the boondocks is very far away from physicians. I suspect this is one of the factors that greatly increases the cost of nursing care in Alaska where, I suspect, that there's a shortage of physicians in most of the state.
Most nursing homes also offer a menu alternative services that vary with
varying patient needs. This distorts medians reported in the above study ---
https://capitalretention.com/jimmy-buffett-long-term-care/
Insurance considerations ---
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/03/04/nursing-home-cost-care-makes-planning-ahead-important/3004694002/
And beware
Reports of elder financial exploitation have increased ---
Financial elder fraud reports quadruple; amount reaches $1.7 billion
https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/home/news/financial-elder-fraud-reports-quadruple-amount-reaches-1-7-billion/
Wealthy Americans contemplating a move to a low-tax state might want to
reflect on these five tales of woe ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-04/rich-people-find-it-hard-to-flee-states-targeted-by-salt-limits
Jensen Comment
Note that these examples apply to people still doing business in a high-tax
state or getting wages other than retirement income from a high-tax state. For
example over a million New Yorkers have retired in Florida without tales of woe.
There are ways of getting around your own tale of woe. For example, two of our
doctors left high-tax Vermont to live near the border in low-tax New Hampshire.
They now make their Vermont patients travel to New Hampshire for medical
services.
If you live out of state and want to have a second home in Vermont be sure to
check with your tax adviser before spending too much of the year in Vermont.
The end of Blu-ray?
https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-end-of-blu-ray/
A traveler tried to smuggle 1,529 live turtles into the Philippines. The
reptiles were worth about $87,000, or nearly $60 a turtle ---
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2019/03/04/traveler-1-500-exotic-live-turtles-into-philippines-luggage-airport/3053422002/
Elsevier --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier
The University of California system is calling it quits with Elsevier, one
of the biggest academic publishers in the world in an effort to promote open
sharing ---
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-terminates-subscriptions-worlds-largest-scientific-publisher-push-open-access-publicly?elqTrackId=d33d910ed53c41839e05a7c88b53acf1&elq=401766e275df4f8bb5d628f7f61360f4&elqaid=22388&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=11031
Also see
https://www.chronicle.com/article/U-of-California-System/245798
Bob Jensen's threads on how some publishers rip off research libraries by
charging extortion-like fees to libraries (but not necessarily individual
researchers) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#ScholarlyJournals
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
2,000 MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses from Prestigious Universities)
Getting Started in March: Enroll Today ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/03/2000-moocs-massive-open-online-courses-getting-started-in-march-enroll-today.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
FYI. 2,000+ MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are getting underway in March, giving you the chance to take free courses from top flight universities. With the help of Class Central, we've pulled together a complete list of March MOOCS. And below we've highlighted several courses that piqued our interest. The trailer above comes from the University of Edinburgh's Introduction to Philosophy.
· How Music Can Change Your Life - University of Melbourne - March 4
· Scandinavian Film and Television - University of Copenhagen - March 4
· Introduction to Machine Learning - Duke University - March 4
· Human Rights Theory and Philosophy - Curtin University - March 4
· Moral Foundations of Politics - Yale University - March 4
· Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance - Monash University - March 4
· Reasoning Across the Disciplines - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - March 4
· Introduction to Philosophy - University of Edinburgh - March 4
· Design Thinking - University of Virginia - March 4
· Conscious Capitalism - Babson College - March 5
· The Science of Beer - Wageningen University - March 5
· Ancient Philosophy: Plato & His Predecessors - University of Pennsylvania - March 11
· Journey of the Universe: The Unfolding of Life - Yale University - March 11
· The Psychology of Thrill Seekers - Emory University - March 11
· The Science of Well-Being - Yale University on Coursera - March 11
Why Goodwill (Not Udacity, EdX Or Coursera) May Be The World's Biggest
MOOC ---
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonbusteed/2019/02/26/why-goodwill-not-udacity-edx-or-coursera-may-be-the-worlds-biggest-mooc/#348b34839048
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Freeman Dyson --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson
Biological and Cultural Evolution: Six Characters in Search of an
Author
by Freeman Dyson
https://www.edge.org/conversation/freeman_dyson-biological-and-cultural-evolution
In the near future, we will be in possession of genetic engineering technology which allows us to move genes precisely and massively from one species to another. Careless or commercially driven use of this technology could make the concept of species meaningless, mixing up populations and mating systems so that much of the individuality of species would be lost. Cultural evolution gave us the power to do this. To preserve our wildlife as nature evolved it, the machinery of biological evolution must be protected from the homogenizing effects of cultural evolution.
Unfortunately, the first of our two tasks, the nurture of a brotherhood of man, has been made possible only by the dominant role of cultural evolution in recent centuries. The cultural evolution that damages and endangers natural diversity is the same force that drives human brotherhood through the mutual understanding of diverse societies. Wells's vision of human history as an accumulation of cultures, Dawkins's vision of memes bringing us together by sharing our arts and sciences, Pääbo's vision of our cousins in the cave sharing our language and our genes, show us how cultural evolution has made us what we are. Cultural evolution will be the main force driving our future.
Continued in article
John Cleese --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cleese
John Cleese Revisits His 20 Years as an Ivy League Professor in His New
Book, Professor at Large: The Cornell Years ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/03/john-cleese-revisits-his-20-years-as-an-ivy-league-professor-in-his-new-book.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Tech gadgets that make my life easier — from a $14 cable to a $1,049 iPad
Pro ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/my-favorite-tech-gadgets-accessories
Bob Jensen's threads on gadgets ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#Technology
TED Talks: Self-Assembling Computer Chips of the Future ---
https://www.ted.com/talks/karl_skjonnemand_the_self_assembling_computer_chips_of_the_future?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2019-03-02&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=top_right_button
MIT: Triton is the world’s most murderous malware, and it’s
spreading ---
Click Here
Rarest orangutans 'doomed' by Indonesia dam project ---
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47451354
From a MIT Newsletter on February 28, 2019
Teh Recent Breakthrough Technologies as Selected by Bill Gates
Here are the top ten—and why they matter:
· Robot dexterity. Robots are teaching themselves to handle the physical world. Why it matters: If robots could learn to deal with the messiness of the real world, they could do many more tasks.
· New-wave nuclear power. Advanced fusion and fission reactors are edging closer to reality. Why it matters: It could make this power source safer and cheaper. Read more here.
· Predicting preemies. A simple blood test can predict if a pregnant woman is at risk of giving birth prematurely. Why it matters: 15 million babies are born prematurely every year; it’s the leading cause of death for children under age five. Read more here.
· Gut probe in a pill. A small, swallowable device captures detailed images of the gut without anesthesia, even in infants and children. Why it matters: The device makes it easier to screen for and study gut diseases, including one that keeps millions of children in poor countries from growing properly.
· Custom cancer vaccines. The body’s natural defenses can be incited to destroy only cancer cells by identifying mutations unique to each tumor,. Why it matters: Conventional chemotherapies take a heavy toll on healthy cells and aren’t always effective against tumors.
· The cow-free burger. Both lab-grown and plant-based alternatives approximate the taste and nutritional value of real meat without the environmental devastation. Why it matters: Livestock production causes catastrophic deforestation, water pollution, and greenhouse-gas emissions. Read more here.
· Carbon dioxide catcher. Practical and affordable ways to capture carbon dioxide from the air can soak up excess greenhouse-gas emissions. Why it matters: Removing CO2 from the atmosphere might be one of the last viable ways to stop catastrophic climate change. Read more here.
· An ECG on your wrist. It’s now easier for people to continuously monitor their hearts with wearable devices. Why it matters: They could turn wearables into serious medical devices, for example helping to detect heart attacks. Read more here.
· Sanitation without sewers. Energy-efficient toilets can operate without a sewer system and treat waste on the spot. Why it matters: 2.3 billion people lack safe sanitation, and many die as a result.
· Smooth-talking AI assistants. New techniques that capture semantic relationships between words are making machines better at understanding natural language. Why it matters: AI assistants can now book restaurant reservations or coordinate package drop-offs rather than just obey simple commands.
The full list is here to read.
Also, in this essay, Gates explains the thinking behind his selections. While many previous inventions focused on quantity of life, our focus is starting to shift to quality of life, as well. Eventually, he hopes the list will center almost entirely on wellbeing: How do we make people happier? How do we create meaningful connections? How do we help everyone live a fulfilling life? There surely can’t be a greater sign of progress than that, because it would mean we’ve successfully fought back against disease, and dealt with climate change, he says.
Bill Gates also sat down with our editor-in-chief, Gideon Lichfield, to talk through his choices. He explained why he’s an optimist, and why he thinks everyone else should be too. “I think the big picture is that it’s better to be born today than ever, and it will be better to be born 20 years from now than today,” he says. Watch the full video of the interview here.
Ten Fascinating Things
1 This AI lets you deepfake your voice to speak like Barack Obama
Advances in machine learning mean you’ll soon be able to impersonate anyone. (TR)
2 Karaoke app TikTok has been fined $5.7 million for illegally collecting kids’ data
It’s the largest settlement yet in the US law’s 20+ year history. (Axios)
3 FedEx has joined the growing list of companies trialing autonomous deliveries
Pilots start this summer with AutoZone, Pizza Hut, Target, and Walmart on board. (Engadget)
+ South Korea’s biggest food delivery app is turning to robots, too. (South China Morning Post)
4 The discovery of desert “dead zones” could help find life on Mars
The exceptionally dry Atacama desert in Chile could help NASA plan its Mars 2020 Rover mission. (TR)
+ The solar system’s hidden “Planet X” may finally be spotted soon. Maybe. (CNET)
5 A video of a troupe of dancing children singing Huawei’s praises went viral in China
Lyrics include “Chinese microchips are the most precious!” (NYT)
6 Facebook is set to launch a “clear history” tool later this year
But its CFO warned the feature will make it harder for the company to target adverts to users. (The Verge)
+ Right-wing social network Gab wants to add a comment section to everything on the internet. Shudder. (CNET)
7 The hipster effect: here’s why anti-conformists always end up looking the same
It’s the inevitable outcome of the behavior of large numbers of people. (TR)
8 How to spot fake photos online
Check if it’s been debunked, check the metadata, and be very wary of spectacular sharks. 🦈 (Fast Company)
9 Turns out, you shouldn’t cremate radioactive dead people
A crematorium became polluted after incinerating the remains of a cancer patient who'd undergone treatment just days before. ️ (Ars Technica)
10 Do you listen to music while you work? Well maybe you should stop
It could significantly hamper your ability to perform creative tasks, according to a new study. (New Atlas)
Netflix loses about $192 million a month because we share our logins It
still has roughly 137 million subscribers, though (thanks Mom and Dad.) (Cord
Cutting) ---
https://cordcutting.com/research/subscription-mooching/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=70381626&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8AE5mAwSbyOLXPa6MVsECFYVjjSVWOVhNHPwI42IhIEjPxC-LweAUqXrQRiEhY-U3mqYxqD4UtqkRokVHeozv5bq3jow&_hsmi=70381626
Jensen Comment
Because Netflix has so few licenses for my favorite movies (mostly BBC films) I
now buy the disk sets (mostly from Amazon). It struck me that local film clubs
could be created to buy and share films among families and friends. That could
easily be cheaper than having them continue to subscribe to Netflix (although
I've not completely cut the cord yet). The film clubs could be social events
much like local/campus book clubs.
Gap will shutter 230 stores as sales plunge ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/gap-to-close-230-stores-2019-2
Can competitive bridge players enhance performance with banned substances?
https://deadspin.com/worlds-top-bridge-player-suspended-for-doping-with-synt-1832959247
Jensen Comment
This raises a question of how well banned substances improve competitiveness in
bridge, chess, computer games, and other mental "sports." I doubt that these are
really brain enhancers as much as endurance enhancers.
Are these also becoming the "no-doze" enhancers for college students and researchers?
New York City’s Secret (Tiny) Subway ---
http://nowiknow.com/new-york-citys-secret-tiny-subway/
The University of Michigan thought its misconduct investigation was
complete. Then a PubPeer comment appeared ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2019/03/06/a-university-thought-its-misconduct-investigation-was-complete-then-a-pubpeer-comment-appeared/
Plagiarism prompts retraction of 25-year-old article by prominent priest
---
https://retractionwatch.com/2019/03/04/plagiarism-prompts-retraction-of-25-year-old-article-by-prominent-priest/
NYT: Former Missouri Professor Stole Student’s Research to Sell New
Drug, Lawsuit Alleges ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/us/university-missouri-cequa-lawsuit.html
Thank you Elliot Kamlet for the heads up
New study finds “important deficiencies” in university reports of
misconduct ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2019/02/25/new-study-finds-important-deficiencies-in-university-reports-of-misconduct/
Bob Jensen's threads on professors who cheat ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoFabricate
The University of Houston system exceeded a fund-raising campaign’s
$1-billion goal 18 months ahead of schedule ---
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/education/campus-chronicles/article/University-of-Houston-System-exceeds-1-billion-13653410.php?elqTrackId=0217dd15aa6540a1801f4224596699b0&elq=52b2c1102c2445ae923c16793e11f6e5&elqaid=22397&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=11037
How UT-Austin’s Bold Plan for Reinvention Went Belly Up ---
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/Project2021?cid=db&elqTrackId=94df8bb3315547f2ae5899add5c1d808&elq=52b2c1102c2445ae923c16793e11f6e5&elqaid=22397&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=11037
The University of Texas at Austin in 2016 set out to shake up undergraduate education, using its research heft to rethink everything about how students learn. The five-year plan, called Project 2021, had grand ambitions. Two years later, top administrators quietly killed it — without giving it much support to ever succeed. Interviews and a review of emails, reports, and other documents show how Project 2021 marks another failed attempt in higher education to nail down the elusive act of transformation.
What Is ‘Indoctrination’? And How Do We Avoid It in Class?
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/2163-what-is-indoctrination-and-how-do-we-avoid-it-in-class?cid=VTEVPMSED1
Bob Jensen's threads on political correctness ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness
"Noam Chomsky Spells Out the Purpose of Education," by Josh Jones, Open
Culture, November 2012 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/noam_chomsky_spells_out_the_purpose_of_education.html
E + ducere: “To lead or draw out.” The etymological Latin roots of “education.” According to a former Jesuit professor of mine, the fundamental sense of the word is to draw others out of “darkness,” into a “more magnanimous view” (he’d say, his arms spread wide). As inspirational as this speech was to a seminar group of budding higher educators, it failed to specify the means by which this might be done, or the reason. Lacking a Jesuit sense of mission, I had to figure out for myself what the “darkness” was, what to lead people towards, and why. It turned out to be simpler than I thought, in some respects, since I concluded that it wasn’t my job to decide these things, but rather to present points of view, a collection of methods—an intellectual toolkit, so to speak—and an enthusiastic model. Then get out of the way. That’s all an educator can, and should do, in my humble opinion. Anything more is not education, it’s indoctrination. Seemed simple enough to me at first. If only it were so. Few things, in fact, are more contentious (Google the term “assault on education,” for example).
What is the difference between education and indoctrination? This debate rages back hundreds, thousands, of years, and will rage thousands more into the future. Every major philosopher has had one answer or another, from Plato to Locke, Hegel and Rousseau to Dewey. Continuing in that venerable tradition, linguist, political activist, and academic generalist extraordinaire Noam Chomsky, one of our most consistently compelling public intellectuals, has a lot to say in the video above and elsewhere about education.
First, Chomsky defines his view of education in an Enlightenment sense, in which the “highest goal in life is to inquire and create. The purpose of education from that point of view is just to help people to learn on their own. It’s you the learner who is going to achieve in the course of education and it’s really up to you to determine how you’re going to master and use it.” An essential part of this kind of education is fostering the impulse to challenge authority, think critically, and create alternatives to well-worn models. This is the pedagogy I ended up adopting, and as a college instructor in the humanities, it’s one I rarely have to justify.
Chomsky defines the opposing concept of education as indoctrination, under which he subsumes vocational training, perhaps the most benign form. Under this model, “People have the idea that, from childhood, young people have to be placed into a framework where they’re going to follow orders. This is often quite explicit.” (One of the entries in the Oxford English Dictionary defines education as “the training of an animal,” a sense perhaps not too distinct from what Chomsky means). For Chomsky, this model of education imposes “a debt which traps students, young people, into a life of conformity. That’s the exact opposite of what traditionally comes out of the Enlightenment.” In the contest between these two definitions—Athens vs. Sparta, one might say—is the question that plagues educational reformers at the primary and secondary levels: “Do you train for passing tests or do you train for creative inquiry?”
Chomsky goes on to discuss the technological changes in education occurring now, the focus of innumerable discussions and debates about not only the purpose of education, but also the proper methods (a subject this site is deeply invested in), including the current unease over the shift to online over traditional classroom ed or the value of a traditional degree versus a certificate. Chomsky’s view is that technology is “basically neutral,” like a hammer that can build a house or “crush someone’s skull.” The difference is the frame of reference under which one uses the tool. Again, massively contentious subject, and too much to cover here, but I’ll let Chomsky explain. Whatever you think of his politics, his erudition and experience as a researcher and educator make his views on the subject well worth considering..
Closing? College of New Rochelle has been unable to recover from
scandal involving false budgets and unpaid payroll taxes ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/02/25/college-new-rochelle-announces-it-will-likely-close-year?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=05af0dfa51-WNU_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-05af0dfa51-197565045&mc_cid=05af0dfa51&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Western Illinois University laid off 132 faculty and staff ---
https://wgem.com/2019/03/01/wiu-announces-layoffs/?elqTrackId=b2aeb30ec0da4670b6cacbab3e245d87&elq=52b2c1102c2445ae923c16793e11f6e5&elqaid=22397&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=11037
A Texas jury found a former Baylor University football player not guilty
of raping another student ---
http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/26106699?elqTrackId=6fc49181c75340fea59206ab3790db6e&elq=52b2c1102c2445ae923c16793e11f6e5&elqaid=22397&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=11037
It only took two hours for the jury to conclude the sex was consensual
The guy certainly is not a choir boy, especially in his earlier life at Penn
State
Farmers cling to a dream that, for some, has become a nightmare ---
https://www.jsonline.com/in-depth/news/special-reports/dairy-crisis/2019/02/21/wisconsin-dairy-farms-failing-milk-prices-fall/2540796002/
Jensen Common
The woman that delivers our mail milked cows twice a day with her husband on a
small dairy farm (35 cows) here in the White Mountains. She says that at last
they had sell the herd due to financial losses. Their family might've carried on
if there was any way to make a living on this dairy farm.
It's a doubly tough life in winters like the one we're having this year with deep snow covering the pastures and below zero days as well as nights. Most people don't think about the farmers when they grab bottles of milk in a market. Some huge dairies are carrying on with robots doing the milking and barn cleaning, but this is not an attainable "life" for small dairies --- in economics it's called "economies of scale." The day will come when chemists make the milk without the cows.
From David Giles in March 2019 ---
https://davegiles.blogspot.com/2019/03/some-recommended-econometrics-reading.html
Some Recommended Econometrics Reading for March
This month I am suggesting some overview/survey papers relating to a variety of important topics in econometrics:
- Bruns, S. B. & D. I. Stern, 2019. Lag length selection and p-hacking in Granger causality testing: prevalence and performance of meta-regression models. Empirical Economics, 56, 797-830.
- Casini, A. & P. Perron, 2018. Structural breaks in time series. Forthcoming in Oxford Research Encyclopedia in Economics and Finance.
- Hendry, D. F. & K. Juselius, 1999. Explaining cointegration analysis: Pat I. Mimeo., Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
- Hendry, D. F. & K. Juselius, 2000. Explaining cointegration analysis: Part II. Mimeo., Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
- Horowitz, J., 2018. Bootstrap methods in econometrics. Cemmap Working Paper CWP53/18.
- Marmer, V., 2017. Econometrics with weak instruments: Consequences, detection, and solutions. Mimeo., Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia.
P-value --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-value
How to Mislead With Statistics
P-values can be misleading when hypotheses are
incorrect
February 6, 2019 Message from Tom Dyckman (now retired from Cornell University)
Bob: Here is a new paper you might want to alert your readers too along with Dave's blog today.
Greenland, S., S. J. Senn, K. R. Rothman, J. B. Carlin, C. Poole, S. N. Goodman, & D. G. Altman, 2016. Statistical tests, p values, confidence intervals, and power: A guide to misinterpretations. European Journal of Epidemiology, 31, 337-350.
https://fermatslibrary.com/s/statistical-tests-p-values-confidence-intervals-and-power-a-guide-to-misinterpretationsAbstract
Misinterpretation and abuse of statistical tests, confidence intervals, and statistical power have been decried for decades, yet remain rampant. A key problem is that there are no interpretations of these concepts that are at once simple, intuitive, correct, and foolproof. Instead, correct use and interpretation of these statistics requires an attention to detail which seems to tax the patience of working scientists. This high cognitive demand has led to an epidemic of shortcut definitions and interpretations that are simply wrong, sometimes disastrously so—and yet these misinterpretations dominate much of the scientific literature. In light of this problem, we provide definitions and a discussion of basic statistics that are more general and critical than typically found in traditional introductory expositions. Our goal is to provide a resource for instructors, researchers, and consumers of statistics whose knowledge of statistical theory and technique may be limited but who wish to avoid and spot misinterpretations. We emphasize how violation of often unstated analysis protocols (such as selecting analyses for presentation based on the P values they produce) can lead to small P values even if the declared test hypothesis is correct, and can lead to large P values even if that hypothesis is incorrect. We then provide an explanatory list of 25 misinterpretations of P values, confidence intervals, and power. We conclude with guidelines for improving statistical interpretation and reporting.Continued in article
How Many Ways Can You Misinterpret p-Values, Confidence Intervals, Statistical Tests, and Power? 25
https://replicationnetwork.com/2019/02/09/how-many-ways-can-you-misinterpret-p-values-confidence-intervals-statistical-tests-and-power-25/
Who says I can't: Some workers just can't be replaced by robots ---
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/25983010/who-says-rob-mendez-head-football-coach
Books about the biggest business scams of our time — including Enron,
Bernie Madoff, and Theranos ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/business-books-about-fraud-scandal
Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
The Mormon asymptote? How millennials are changing the Mormon Church ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/03/the-mormon-asymptote.html
Depauw University --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DePauw_University
Depauw University Budget Problems: Mandatory buyouts for dozens of
staff members and hefty voluntary retirement packages for a graying faculty ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/02/27/depauw-offers-buyouts-early-retirement-more-100-faculty-staff?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=3afe8fb6e8-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-3afe8fb6e8-197565045&mc_cid=3afe8fb6e8&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Medicare: What's very significant about the numbers $85,000 and
$170,000?
Medicare beneficiaries can see their premiums go up if their income rises,
although for some that increase will be only temporary ---
https://www.kiplinger.com/article/retirement/T039-C001-S003-how-changes-in-income-affect-medicare-premiums.html
Comics retailers are struggling to adapt to changes among consumers and
publishers ---
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/79292-comics-is-a-market-in-transition.html
Free Online Tutorials, Videos, Course Materials, and Learning Centers
Education Tutorials
The Physics Classroom: Physics Interactives --- www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives
How to Talk about Art History --- www.howtotalkaboutarthistory.com
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Bob Jensen's bookmarks for multiple disciplines --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials
Why the Periodic Table Needs to be Redesigned ---
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132190-400-three-reasons-why-the-periodic-table-needs-a-redesign/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=70381626&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8AE5mAwSbyOLXPa6MVsECFYVjjSVWOVhNHPwI42IhIEjPxC-LweAUqXrQRiEhY-U3mqYxqD4UtqkRokVHeozv5bq3jow&_hsmi=70381626
The Physics Classroom: Physics Interactives --- www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives
Clara Barton Papers --- www.loc.gov/collections/clara-barton-papers/about-this-collection
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
Washington University Women in Law Resource Center ---
https://onlinelaw.wustl.edu/blog/women-law-infographic/
Click! The Ongoing Feminist Revolution --- www.cliohistory.org/click
The Guardian: German academics
and authors call for end to 'gender nonsense' ---
How women wage war – a short history of IS brides, Nazi guards
and FARC insurgents ---
https://theconversation.com/how-women-wage-war-a-short-history-of-is-brides-nazi-guards-and-farc-insurgents-113011
Atria Institute on Gender Equality and Women's History: Collection Highlights
---
https://institute-genderequality.org/library-archive/collection-highlights/
The Coordinating Council for Women in History --- https://theccwh.org/
Jewish Women's Archive: Encyclopedia --- https://jwa.org/Encyclopedia
Bob Jensen's threads on women ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Women
Most Popular Books by State in 2018 ---
https://www.thriftbooks.com/b/most-popular-books-by-state/
The Mormon asymptote? How millennials are changing the Mormon Church ---
1877: The U.S. Congress finally awarded 20 disputed
electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, giving him a 185-184 Electoral College
victory over Samuel J. Tilden in the 1876 U.S. presidential election, despite
Tilden's having won the popular vote (Harper's Weekly) ---
https://elections.harpweek.com/09Ver2Controversy/Overview-1.htm
Biological and Cultural Evolution: Six Characters in Search of an Author
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
Mathematical Association of America: On This Day --- www.maa.org/news/on-this-day
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
All the Rembrandts: The Rijksmuseum Puts All 400 Rembrandts It Owns on
Display for the First Time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/all-the-rembrandts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
How to Talk about Art History --- www.howtotalkaboutarthistory.com
The British Library Digitizes Its Collection of Obscene Books (1658-1940) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/the-british-library-digitizes-its-collection-of-obscene-books-1658-1940.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World --- https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/en/
Out of a century's worth of unsolved disappearances that TIME has revisited,
here are five of the most mysterious cases ---
Click Here
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
D.B. Cooper
Jimmy Hoffa
Amelia Earhart
Lauren SpiererJensen Comment
This is a subjective ranking. There are competitors such as
https://www.grunge.com/103829/unsolved-disappearances-will-haunt/
https://people.com/crime/unsolved-missing-persons-cases-gallery/
The Life & Work of Edvard Munch, Explored by Patti Smith and Charlotte
Gainsbourg ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/the-life-work-of-edvard-munch-explored-by-patti-smith-and-charlotte-gainsbourg.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
New York's Broadcasting History --- https://www.topviewnyc.com/packages/new-york-s-broadcasting-history
Clara Barton Papers --- www.loc.gov/collections/clara-barton-papers/about-this-collection
1877: The U.S. Congress finally awarded 20 disputed
electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, giving him a 185-184 Electoral College
victory over Samuel J. Tilden in the 1876 U.S. presidential election, despite
Tilden's having won the popular vote (Harper's Weekly) ---
https://elections.harpweek.com/09Ver2Controversy/Overview-1.htm
The Incomplete KGB Museum ---
John Cleese --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cleese
John Cleese Revisits His 20 Years as an Ivy League Professor in His New Book,
Professor at Large: The Cornell Years ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/03/john-cleese-revisits-his-20-years-as-an-ivy-league-professor-in-his-new-book.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
When Americans Loved Reading ---
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/03/07/george-hutchinson-abyss-reading-age-catastrophe/
Project Anqa (ancient Mesopotamia) --- https://cims.carleton.ca/anqa/#1
Dialect in British Fiction, 1800-1836 --- www.dialectfiction.org
Washington University Women in Law Resource Center ---
https://onlinelaw.wustl.edu/blog/women-law-infographic/
Click! The Ongoing Feminist Revolution --- www.cliohistory.org/click
The Guardian: German academics
and authors call for end to 'gender nonsense' ---
How women wage war – a short history of IS brides, Nazi guards
and FARC insurgents ---
https://theconversation.com/how-women-wage-war-a-short-history-of-is-brides-nazi-guards-and-farc-insurgents-113011
Atria Institute on Gender Equality and Women's History: Collection Highlights
---
https://institute-genderequality.org/library-archive/collection-highlights/
The Coordinating Council for Women in History --- https://theccwh.org/
Jewish Women's Archive: Encyclopedia --- https://jwa.org/Encyclopedia
Bob Jensen's threads on women ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Wome
The Man Who Wasn’t Gershwin (Oscar Levant) ---
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-man-who-wasnt-gershwin/
YouTube Clips ---
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Oscar+Levant
Tap dance lovers should especially note these clips with Gene Kelly ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJtXkorMZII
Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to History
Also see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Language Tutorials
Dialect in British Fiction, 1800-1836 --- www.dialectfiction.org
Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Languages
Music Tutorials
The Man Who Wasn’t Gershwin (Oscar Levant) ---
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-man-who-wasnt-gershwin/
YouTube Clips ---
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Oscar+Levant
Tap dance lovers should especially note these clips with Gene Kelly ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJtXkorMZII
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
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/
February 27, 2019
February 28, 2019
March 1, 2019
March 2, 2019
March 4, 2019
March 5, 2019
March 6, 2019
March 7, 2019
March 8, 2019
March 8, 2019
March 9, 2019
March 11, 2019
March 12, 2019
The Flawed Evidence for Antidepressants ---
https://aeon.co/essays/the-evidence-in-favour-of-antidepressants-is-terribly-flawed?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=bc1e69a10d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_07_04_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-bc1e69a10d-68951505
The right way to cook high-antioxidant veggies ---
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-03-cook-high-antioxidant-veggies.html
NYT Cooking. Tried. Tested. And truly delicious.---
https://cooking.nytimes.com/?&mcid=NYT&mc=EInternal&subid=Cooking
Why Wikipedia’s Medical Content Is Superior ---
https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/wikipedia-doctors-medical-knowledge-study.html
Jensen Comment
I've long thought that Wikipedia's content on most technical issues is quite
good (albeit not perfect). However, biographical data obtained for names of
people gets pretty whitewashed these days, especially living people who can
either whitewash a wiki themselves or hire expert wiki whitewashers.
See below.
Can competitive bridge players enhance performance with banned substances?
https://deadspin.com/worlds-top-bridge-player-suspended-for-doping-with-synt-1832959247
Jensen Comment
This raises a question of how well banned substances improve competitiveness in
bridge, chess, computer games, and other mental "sports." I doubt that these are
really brain enhancers as much as endurance enhancers.
Are these also becoming the "no-doze" enhancers for college students and researchers?
Reports of elder financial exploitation have increased ---
Financial elder fraud reports quadruple; amount reaches $1.7 billion
https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/home/news/financial-elder-fraud-reports-quadruple-amount-reaches-1-7-billion/
Current and past editions of Bob Jensen's blog
called Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Humor for March 2019
John Cleese ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cleese
John Cleese Revisits His 20 Years as an Ivy League Professor in His New Book,
Professor at Large: The Cornell Years ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/03/john-cleese-revisits-his-20-years-as-an-ivy-league-professor-in-his-new-book.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Video: Trump and Jobs --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h1ooyyFkF0
Ig Nobel Prizes --- https://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2017
And the Winner for Best (Worst) Puns and One Liners Is… Eye Roll Please ---
https://www.jborden.com/and-the-winner-for-best-worst-puns-and-one-liners-is-eye-roll-please/
Forwarded by Glen Gray
47 tips to keep you out of the emergency room ---
https://www.radajonesmd.com/47-tips-to-keep-you-away-from-my-er/?fbclid=IwAR0RY9CpCkRWoeEuRFNQDYat2GMJINyYcvoptCSrazjv64CkjDx4tXSxYp8
Five Funny Books --- Click Here
Church Signs --- https://expo.nj.com/news/g66l-2019/01/91161c614f6936/these-hilarious-church-signs-in-nj-will-have-you-praying-for-more.html
The Cringe-Inducing Humor of The Office Explained with Philosophical Theories
of Mind ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=mm#inbox/FMfcgxwBVztVpLfCBpngCwDsbKJRhzdK
Forwarded by Paula
NUMBER 1:
If you ever testify in court, you might wish you could have been as sharp as this policeman. He was being cross-examined by a defense attorney during a felony trial. The lawyer was trying to undermine the police officer’s credibility. Q: 'Officer --- did you see my client fleeing the scene?' A: 'No, sir. But I subsequently observed a person matching the description of the offender, running several blocks away.' Q: 'Officer, who provided this description?' A: 'The officer who responded to the scene.'
Q: 'A fellow officer provided the description of this so-called offender. Do you trust your fellow officers?'
A: 'Yes, sir. With my life.'
Q: 'With your life? Let me ask you this then officer. Do you have a room where you change your clothes in preparation for your daily duties?' A: 'Yes sir, we do!' Q: 'And do you have a locker in the room?'
A: 'Yes, sir, I do.'
Q: 'And do you have a lock on your locker?'
A: 'Yes, sir.'
Q: 'Now, why is it, officer, if you trust your fellow officers with your life, you find it necessary to lock your locker in a room you share with these same officers?'
A: 'You see, sir, we share the building with the court complex, and sometimes lawyers have been known to walk through that room.’
The courtroom EXPLODED with laughter, and a prompt recess was called.
The officer on the stand has been nominated for this year's 'Best Comeback' line -- and we think he'll win.NUMBER 2:
Now We Know Why He Was a General -----In an interview, General Norman Schwarzkopf was asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harbored and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America. His answer was classic Schwarzkopf. The General said, "I believe that forgiving them is God's function. OUR job is to arrange the meeting."
NUMBER 3:
Dana Perino (FOX News) describing an interview she recently had with a Navy SEAL. After discussing all the countries that he had been sent to, she asked if they had to learn several languages? "Oh, no ma'am. We don't go there to talk."
NUMBER 4:
Conversation overheard on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai. Iranian
Air Defense Site: 'Unknown aircraft, you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.'
Aircraft: 'This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.'
Air Defense Site: 'You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace, we will launch interceptor aircraft!'
Aircraft: 'This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 Fighter.
Send 'em up, I'll wait!' Air Defense Site:
(... Total silence)A Final Thought…
The guys at the golf course asked me to name an actress I would like to be stuck in an elevator with.
I told them: the one who knows how to fix elevators.
...I'm old, I'm tired, and I have to pee a lot.
Humor February 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q1.htm#Humor0219.htm
Humor January 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q1.htm#Humor0119.htm
Humor December 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q4.htm#Humor1218.htm
Humor November 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q4.htm#Humor1118.htm
Humor October 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q4.htm#Humor1118.htm
Humor October 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q4.htm#Humor1018.htm
Humor September 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q3.htm#Humor0918.htm
Humor August 2018 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q3.htm#Humor0818.htm
Humor July 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q3.htm#Humor0718.htm
Humor June 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q2.htm#Humor0618.htm
Humor May 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q2.htm#Humor0518.htm
Humor April 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q2.htm#Humor0418.htm
Humor March 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q1.htm#Humor0318.htm
Humor February 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q1.htm#Humor0218.htm
Humor January 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q1.htm#Humor0118.htm
Humor December 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q4.htm#Humor1217.htm
Humor November 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q4.htm#Humor1117.htm
Humor October 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q4.htm#Humor1017.htm
Humor September 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q3.htm#Humor0917.htm
Humor August 2017--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book17q3.htm#Humor0817.htm
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
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
AECM
(Educators)
http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi- 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.
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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. |
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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. |
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Business Valuation Group
BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag [RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM] |
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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
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The CAlCPA Tax Listserv September 4, 2008 message from Scott Bonacker
[lister@bonackers.com]
Scott forwarded the following message from Jim Counts
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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