Tidbits on July 16, 2019
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
Wes Lavin's Great Springtime
Pictures of 2019 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/2019July/2019June.htm
Tidbits on July 16, 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
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
Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
BBC: 13 Minutes to the Moon --- www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx
Video: This device, created by two Japanese scientists, can easily
translate real-time speech into over 40 languages using only a few finger-taps
---
https://jborden.com/2019/07/11/this-looks-like-one-of-the-coolest-and-most-useful-gadgets-ever/
YouTube: American Sign Language University --- www.youtube.com/user/billvicars
Video: When Chomsky met Foucault: how the thinkers debated the ‘ideal
society’
https://aeon.co/videos/when-chomsky-met-foucault-how-the-thinkers-debated-the-ideal-society?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=64f1a38ee4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_02_11_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-64f1a38ee4-68951505
CBS Sixty Minutes on June 30, 2019: "The Nuremberg Prosecutor"
https://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/IwL1g71DuOHQLpOrKNfdGxF_Rq4Tl0Gf/taking-aim-at-opioids-the-nuremberg-prosecutor-into-the-wild/
What a great (middle) segment about an unbelievable 97-year old prosecuter
Two Animated Maps Show the Expansion of the U.S. from the Different
Perspectives of Settlers & Native Peoples ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/06/two-animated-maps-show-the-expansion-of-the-u-s-from-the-perspectives-of-settlers-native-peoples.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
TED Talk: Getting Better at Asking for Help ---
https://jborden.com/2019/06/26/getting-better-at-asking-for-help/
A Quick Six Minute Journey
Through Modern Art: How You Get from Manet’s 1862 Painting, “The Luncheon on the
Grass,” to Jackson Pollock 1950s Drip Paintings ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/06/a-quick-six-minute-journey-through-modern-art.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The First Museum Dedicated Exclusively to Poster Art Opens Its Doors in the
U.S.: Enter the Poster House ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/the-first-museum-dedicated-exclusively-to-poster-art-opens-its-doors.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Secret Language of Trees: A Charming Animated Lesson Explains How Trees
Share Information with Each Other ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/the-secret-language-of-trees.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
It's not so insulting when one tree calls another tree a "stick-in-the-mud"
VIDEO: 60 Teens Allegedly Loot Walgreens in Downtown Philly ---
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2019/07/06/video-teens-allegedly-loot-walgreens-in-downtown-philly/
Hear the First Recording of the Human Voice (1860) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/hear-the-first-recording-of-the-human-voice-1860.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Sunset Hill House Hotel (near our cottage)
---
https://www.thesunsethillhouse.com/
Watch the video
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
Hear Wade in the Water: An Unprecedented 26-Hour-Long
Exploration of the African American Sacred Music Tradition ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/hear-wade-in-the-water.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's Links to Free Music
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm
Photographs and Art
Arab Photography Archive Puts 22,000 Historic Images Online: Get a Rare Glimpse into Life and Art in the Arab World ---
Download Beautiful Panoramic Paintings of U.S. National
Parks by H.C. Berann: Maps That Look Even More Vivid Than the Real Thing ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/download-beautiful-panoramic-paintings-of-u-s-national-parks-h-c-berann.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
In
1886, the US Government Commissioned 7,500 Watercolor Paintings of Every Known
Fruit in the World: Download Them in High Resolution ---
Inside Italy's mountains that produce more tons of marble than anywhere else on Earth -
--A Quick Six Minute Journey Through Modern Art: How You Get from Manet’s 1862 Painting, “The Luncheon on the Grass,” to Jackson Pollock 1950s Drip Paintings ---
Artists
in Paris: Mapping the 18th-Century Art World ---
https://artistsinparis.org/#@261848.15527273554,6250566.718238154&z=13.00&y=1675&g=s,hp,p,gp,l,slp,e,o
19th Century Japanese Woodblock Prints Creatively Illustrate the
Inner Workings of the Human Body ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/06/19th-century-japanese-woodblock-prints-creatively-explain-the-inner-workings-of-the-human-body.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Record-Breaking Heat Around the World ---
https://psmag.com/news/record-breaking-heat-around-the-world-in-photos?utm_source=Pacific+Standard&utm_campaign=2a9fc5d184-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_08_10_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a4fd1bcb7e-2a9fc5d184-80656397
Except in northern New England where June was an unusually cool and wet month
Black Bear Found Relaxing on Porch at Luxury New Hampshire
Resort, Likely Waiting for Room Service ---
https://time.com/5624960/bear-photo-verandah-mount-washington-resort/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2019071210am&xid=newsletter-brief
Jensen Comment
About 10 years ago a bear ripped off the screen of garage windo in our
physician's house. It managed to climb through the window and push a trash bag
outside. The last our doctor saw of the bear it was dragging the trash bag into
the woods. Here are some pictures of a small bear destroying our hummingbird
feeder ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Animals/Set02/Set02.htm
(scroll down)
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
Wait: Galway Kinnell’s Beautiful and Life-Giving Poem for a Young Friend
Contemplating Suicide ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/05/16/wait-galway-kinnell/?mc_cid=b035335510&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
Open Textbook Library --- https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks
A Day in the Life of the Jungle: A Poetic Vintage Illustrated Ode to the
Wilderness and the Glorious Diversity of Life on Earth ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/06/27/the-jungle-helen-borten/?mc_cid=a42ad89ea8&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
From the Scout Report on June 28, 2019
Joy Harjo Becomes Poet Laureate, First Native American Appointed to Position
Joy Harjo Is Named U.S. Poet Laureate
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/books/joy-harjo-poet-laureate.htmlJoy Harjo is first Native American named US poet laureate
https://www.apnews.com/a71dbd5172d545788eb8b2842b03e169Joy Harjo Becomes the First Native American U.S. Poet Laureate
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/733727917/joy-harjo-becomes-the-first-native-american-u-s-poet-laureateAmerican Academy of Poets: Joy Harjo
https://poets.org/poet/joy-harjoPloughshares: Contemporary Native American Poetry Essentials
http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/contemporary-native-american-poetry-essentials/Library of Congress: About the Position of Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry
https://www.loc.gov/poetry/about_laureate.html
Free Electronic Literature ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Now in
Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on July 16, 2019
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2019/TidbitsQuotations071619.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
Jensen Comment
I thank former colleague Paul Myers for forwarding the link to this article
The Metamorphosis: Sophisticated artificial intelligence “is no
longer constrained by the limits of human knowledge.”
Example: Alpha Zero became the best chess player in the world by training
itself without the benefit of knowing how humans previously played the best
chess
Humanity is at the edge of a revolution driven by artificial intelligence. It has the potential to be one of the most significant and far-reaching revolutions in history, yet it has developed out of disparate efforts to solve specific practical problems rather than a comprehensive plan. Ironically, the ultimate effect of this case-by-case problem solving may be the transformation of human reasoning and decision making.
This revolution is unstoppable. Attempts to halt it would cede the future to that element of humanity more courageous in facing the implications of its own inventiveness. Instead, we should accept that AI is bound to become increasingly sophisticated and ubiquitous, and ask ourselves: How will its evolution affect human perception, cognition, and interaction? What will be its impact on our culture and, in the end, our history?
Such questions brought together the three authors of this article: a historian and sometime policy maker; a former chief executive of a major technology company; and the dean of a principal technology-oriented academic institution. We have been meeting for three years to try to understand these issues and their associated riddles. Each of us is convinced of our inability, within the confines of our respective fields of expertise, to fully analyze a future in which machines help guide their own evolution, improving themselves to better solve the problems for which they were designed. So as a starting point—and, we hope, a springboard for wider discussion—we are engaged in framing a more detailed set of questions about the significance of AI’s development for human civilization.
The AlphaZero Paradox
Last December, the developers of AlphaZero published their explanation of the process by which the program mastered chess—a process, it turns out, that ignored human chess strategies developed over centuries and classic games from the past. Having been taught the rules of the game, AlphaZero trained itself entirely by self-play and, in less than 24 hours, became the best chess player in the world—better than grand masters and, until then, the most sophisticated chess-playing computer program in the world. It did so by playing like neither a grand master nor a preexisting program. It conceived and executed moves that both humans and human-trained machines found counterintuitive, if not simply wrong. The founder of the company that created AlphaZero called its performance “chess from another dimension” and proof that sophisticated AI “is no longer constrained by the limits of human knowledge.”
Now established chess experts are studying AlphaZero’s moves, hoping to incorporate its knowledge into their own play. These studies are practical, but larger philosophical questions also emerge. Among those that are currently unanswerable: How can we explain AlphaZero’s capacity to invent a new approach to chess on the basis of a very brief learning period? What was the reality it explored? Will AI lead to an as-yet-unimaginable expansion of familiar reality?
We can expect comparable discoveries by AI in other fields. Some will upend conventional wisdom and standard practices; others will merely tweak them. Nearly all will leave us struggling to understand. Consider the conduct of driverless cars stopped at a traffic light. When cars driven by people inch forward to try to beat the traffic, some driverless cars occasionally join them, though nothing in the rules of driving given to them suggests that they should do so. If this inching-forward has been learned, how and for what purpose? How is it different from what people are taught and learn about waiting at traffic lights? What else might AI learn that it is not “telling” us (because AI does not or cannot explain)? By enabling a process of self-learning for inanimate objects, we do not yet know what we are starting, but we need to find out.
The Nature of the Revolution
Heretofore, digital evolution has relied on human beings to create the software and analyze the data that are so profoundly affecting our lives. Recent advances have recast this process. AI has made it possible to automate an extraordinary range of tasks, and has done so by enabling machines to play a role—an increasingly decisive role—in drawing conclusions from data and then taking action. AI draws lessons from its own experience, unlike traditional software, which can only support human reasoning. The growing transfer of judgment from human beings to machines denotes the revolutionary aspect of AI, as described last year in these pages (“How the Enlightenment Ends,” June 2018).
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
I suspect that AI will have the most trouble solving the great debates in human
history such as explaining why humans so often act irrationally --- that great
debate in behavioral economics ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics
Then there are even bigger unsolved mysteries of life such as what happens to
"you" after you die? Where did the building blocks of objects in space come
from? What is "life" like in other worlds?
And there are smaller mysteries in history such as who was Jack the Ripper?
Some real tests of AI in science will be winning the race for significant discoveries such as how to make cheap and abundant hydrogen and conduct electricity without resistance.
Some real tests in medicine will be to prevent cancer or to eliminate all spinal pain without unwanted side effects.
AI will really have arrived when AI wins Nobel prizes in all areas?
Then there are paradoxes that even AI can't solve such as: "Can God create a problem that God can't solve" or "build a mountain that God can't move"?
How do we make human life rich and rewarding when humans are inferior to the
AI machines they created?
I suspect that over history bees and ants have been relatively industrious and
happy even though they're inferior to humans.
Then there are the most difficult problems of all such as how to bring love and understanding and statesmanship to decision makers in Washington DC?
And how can life as we know it be sustained on planet Earth?
Is Democracy Doomed?
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/is-democracy-doomed.html
Farm Subsidies Are Corporate Welfare — And They Cost Us Plenty
J
ensen CommentJensen Comment
I worry most about voters more interested in voting in their personal gains than
saving or spurring the economy. A perfect example, is voting is voting in USA
social spending programs of over $20 trillion per year without any viable way of
funding them without destroying stock markets, bond markets, real estate
markets, and pension funds.
Even though Kamala Harris, as with Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, there are $20+ trillion (annual) reasons why Kamala can't beat Joe Biden and Donald Trump ---
Jensen
Comment
The above link's estimate of $4 trillion annually leaves out a lot of promises,
especially the 2-ton gorilla called green initiatives. AOC conservatively
estimates her green initiatives alone will cost $10 trillion per year.
Add to this what the $4.4 trillion that the USA Federal government currently
spends on other items (most of which are non-discretionary like Social Security
and other pensions) at you get $20-$25 trillion per year, over $20 trillion of
which will be taken from investors, thereby destroying the stock markets, bond
markets, and real estate markets upon which most USA's pension plans depend
(think CREF and CalPERS) ---
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
In fairness what business firms currently contribute to health insurance can be applied to Medicare-for-All but that won't begin to cover the costs of coverage for people currently not on employer medical plans (such as millions of refugees, workers in the underground economy, and other workers whose employers don't pay medical benefits). Add to this the Medicare-for-All added promises of nursing home coverage (massive cost) and medications (massive cost).
The Future Looks Terrible for U.S. Nursing Home Costs ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-25/u-s-nursing-home-costs-may-get-worse-thanks-to-a-labor-shortage?cmpid=BBD062519_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190625&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
Stanford University: John Taylor’s on-line summer economics
principles class ---
https://economicsone.com/2019/06/23/lets-twist-again-with-online-econ-1/?utm_source=Hoover+Daily+Report&utm_campaign=e48421bf6e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_06_24_06_23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_21b1edff3c-e48421bf6e-72599109
Mistakes University Students and Graduates Make in Their Jobs ---
https://readwrite.com/2019/07/08/mistakes-university-students-and-graduates-make-in-their-jobs/
**How to Mislead With Statistics
This epic chart shows the average wage for almost every job in America ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-average-wage-for-almost-every-job-in-america-2015-6#ixzz3d2buLBjq
Jensen Comment
Once again I remind readers of how misleading compensation rankings can be due
to missing variables in deriving the numbers. The biggest source of error
becomes "gross" versus "net" compensation. For example the highest paid
professionals in the USA are anesthesiologists and surgeons. But they may not
lead the pack in terms of net compensation
after deducting for malpractice insurance, business insurance, medical office
space costs, and medical office staff(receptionists, nurses, accountants,
computer technicians, etc.) Those who work for medical centers, including VA
centers, that pay anesthesiologists and surgeons net of
such expenses do not make nearly as much as the gross compensation rankings in
the comparisons in the above citation.
Gross compensation varies considerably with location. For example, malpractice insurance is much cheaper in Texas due to a constitutional amendment that caps punitive damages that make lawyers salivate. Office space costs that must be covered in San Francisco and Silicon Valley is out of sight compared to what it costs in Bangor, Maine.
Compensation also varies a great deal with perks that are almost impossible to compare in various professions. For example, large public accounting firms spend a fortune on training costs relative to what is drug chains spend for training pharmacists and what doctors spend for training their nurses. For newly-hired staff accountants this and on-the-job experience is more important than starting salaries, especially for those accounting graduates who have no intention of staying in public accounting pressure cookers for more than a few years before moving on.
Some companies like Starbucks and Blue Cross Anthem will now provide free or nearly-free general education leading to most any type of undergraduate degrees (not necessarily job related) even for lowest-paid full-time employees whereas this perk is not common in most other companies. The USA military branches provide very generous college stipends for enlisted personnel to use even after being honorably discharged. Those stipends in many instances cover full tuition, room and board. We have a granddaughter who intends to join the Navy just because of this perk.
Retirement benefits vary greatly. For example, in the private sector it's rare to provide generous retirements to employees who are 40-50 years of age. It's commonplace among USA military retirees. Several of my cousins retired from the Air Force before they were 40 years of age and now live comfortably on marginal farms (think cold northern Minnesota) that do not pay a whole lot beyond military retirement benefits.
Job security also varies a great deal and is perk for which employees will take sacrifices in take-home pay. For example, it's virtually impossible to be fired from the USA Civil Service, which is why many folks try so hard to work for the Civil Service. One of our sons who works for the largest Caterpillar dealer in the world had a chance for promotion that would have given him a huge increase in compensation. However, he would no longer have job security backed by his union. He turned the promotion down.
College professors frequently turn down higher paying opportunities that do not have tenure. Some that could nearly double their salaries will not give up their tenure. For example, sometimes even endowed chairs in the Academy are offered under conditions where tenure will only be evaluated after a year on the job. Sometimes professors will not put their current tenure at risk by relocating where they must be re-evaluated for tenure after a year. Bob Jensen is Exhibit A, although when I moved from Florida State University to Trinity University I did have to be re-evalueated for tenure after a year as the Jesse Jones Professor of Business Administration. I had opportunities to move after than without immediate tenure, but there's no way I would have done that again. There's too much stress having to earn tenure more than once!
I have a friend who wanted to leave a university in Ohio so badly that he gave up his tenure to move elsewhere. He lost three different professorships after that and is, I think, belatedly sorry he sacrificed his tenured job security.
Then are all the problems with comparing averages (means or medians) due to varying standard deviations and that pesky kurtosis.
Bob Jensen's threads on careers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers
**How to Mislead With Statistics
The 25 college majors that will lead to the lowest-paying jobs ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/college-majors-that-lead-to-the-lowest-paying-jobs-2015-5#ixzz3ZaIQmfD3
Jensen Comment
Such rankings on "pay" typically are misleading. Firstly, these are medians such
that half the people are earning more in each category and half the people are
learning less in each category. We need to know more about variances and reasons
for those variances --- often the variances are due to variances in living
costs.
Secondly, many of the low paying jobs are in education. But most of those low paying jobs only entail working eight or less nine per year and can hardly be compared with jobs that are nearly 12 months per year. Many parents are willing to sacrifice pay for more opportunity to share time with their own families. Many others take advantage of opportunities to earn more money in the off season by writing books, working on organic farms, etc.
Some job categories are too vague to be compared. For example, what does a job in "music" or "neuroscience" or "drama" entail? Typically music and "drama" careers are highly variable in terms of time commitment. Performers may average only a few hours or less per month in actual performance with highly variable hours in practice and preparation. Music teachers, like other educators, are not likely to have 12-month job commitments. Drama performers may not be so lucky.
Also majors do not necessarily translate to jobs requiring those majors. For example about half of the law school graduates are now working in jobs that do not require law degrees.
Lastly, it does not make much sense to compare "pay" without comparing benefits. For example, teachers working for school systems typically get fairly generous benefits in terms of medical insurance for 12 months while working less than eight months on the job.
YouTube: American Sign Language University --- www.youtube.com/user/billvicars
The Learning Scientists --- www.learningscientists.org
Bob Jensen's threads on learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Also see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Average Student Loan Debt For Law School Graduates: $145,500
---
Jensen
Comment
There are two types of populations. One is the total population of law school
graduates. The other is the subset of those graduates who have some student loan
debt. According to the article rougly 25% of the graduates have no student debt.
It would be misleading to include these in the calculation of average student
debt. Doing so would greatly draw down the mean average relative to the mean for
only the subset of students who have debt.
A
second problem is that of defining "student debt." First there is the subset of
students who have "student loans" ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_debt
Add to this the graduates who have other forms of debt such as loans from relatives. These types of loans often are not quite the same as "student debt" in terms of things like payback timing, interest rates, and legal proceedings in the case of default. It's very hard to get a database on this type of customized "debt." I suspect that if this debt could be factored into the database, the mean would be considerably higher than $145,500.
Cambridge Analytica --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved a record privacy settlement against Facebook requiring the social-media company to pay about $5 billion to resolve an investigation stemming from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal -
--Bob
Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
How to Create and Manage a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word ---
A case study in public school failure and lack of accountability ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-education-horror-show-11562532467?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1
The National Education Association held its annual convention this past weekend, and the Democratic presidential candidates made their pilgrimage to promise the teachers union more money—and even more money. One word we didn’t hear on stage was “Providence,” as in the Rhode Island capital city whose public schools were recently exposed as a horror show of government and union neglect.
Peeling lead paint, brown water, leaking sewage pipes, broken asbestos tiles, rodents, frigid and chaotic classrooms, and student failure were all documented in a 93-page review by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. The review was conducted in May at the request of the Rhode Island education commissioner, and it deserves attention nationwide as an example of government failure.
“Very little visible student learning was going on in the majority of classrooms and schools we visited—most especially in the middle and high schools,” the report says. “Our review teams encountered many teachers and students who do not feel safe in school. There is widespread agreement that bullying, demeaning, and even physical violence are occurring within the school walls at very high levels.”
No surprise, then, that only 5% of Providence eighth graders on average scored proficient in math in the 2015 through 2017 school years. That compares to 21.3% in Newark, N.J., where students have similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Low-income students in Worcester, Mass., not far away, were twice as proficient as those in Providence.
“Teachers did not press students to become engaged with the mathematics instruction, resulting in a variety of student off-task behavior: chatting with peers, checking phones, staring into space, or, in some cases, taking phone calls and watching YouTube videos,” the report says. Student performance actually drops the longer students spend in Providence schools. Proficiency in English fell from 18.7% of students in fifth grade to only 8.5% in eighth.
One student reported that “my best teacher’s desk was urinated on, and nothing happened.” Another noted a teacher “was choked by a student in front of the whole class. Everybody was traumatized, but nothing happened.” One district leader observed, “the students run the buildings.”
One culprit are policies that discourage student discipline. Rhode Island Democrats in 2016 passed legislation backed by the American Civil Liberties Union that limits school suspensions, which progressives claim discriminate against minorities. Teachers are reluctant to punish students, and violence and misconduct make it harder to retain good teachers.
The reviewers also note that collective-bargaining agreements limit the ability of school principals to fire lousy teachers. “In the case of an abusive teacher, s/he is placed on unpaid administrative leave but then ‘lawyers up’ through the union and ultimately returns to the classroom,” one principal noted.
Another principal was forced to accept a teacher with a history of falling asleep in class and lying about grades. “We fought her placement but the union prevailed,” the principal said. Teachers who skip school face few repercussions.
By contrast, Providence charter schools have been “successful,” the reviewers note. But the city council can’t decide “whether to expand charter schools or to pause their growth.” “If we went the charter route, we would circumvent a lot of issues,” one council member said. “But I don’t see the Providence Teachers Union going anywhere.”
That’s for sure. The union’s latest political focus is “evergreen” contracts that stay in place even after they expire, giving the union more leverage in negotiations with the school district. Student results are an afterthought. Democratic Mayor Jorge Elorza reflected the liberal political class’s low expectation by telling the Johns Hopkins reviewers he’d give Providence schools a C grade.
Democrats as ever blame a lack of funding, though the district spent nearly $18,000 per pupil in 2017—about 50% more than the national average. In a system with any accountability, this would all be judged a disgrace and people would be fired. But this is a government failure, underwritten by entrenched union power.
Continued in article
Blockchain --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain
Boosting Degree Completion With Blockchain ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/09/arizona-state-tackling-college-completion-blockchain?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8990367216-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8990367216-197565045&mc_cid=8990367216&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Napoleon’s Disastrous Invasion of Russia Detailed in an 1869 Data
Visualization: It’s Been Called “the Best Statistical Graphic Ever Drawn”
---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/napoleons-disastrous-invasion-of-russia-explained-in-an-1869-data-visualization.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Visualization: The Taxpayer Roadmap of 2019 ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4eab53ef0240a497428f200d-popup
Bob Jensen's threads on multivariate data visualization ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm
Video: This device, created by two Japanese scientists, can easily
translate real-time speech into over 40 languages using only a few finger-taps
---
https://jborden.com/2019/07/11/this-looks-like-one-of-the-coolest-and-most-useful-gadgets-ever/
Bob Jensen's threads on languages ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Languages
He died as he lived: David Hume, philosopher and infidel ---
https://aeon.co/ideas/he-died-as-he-lived-david-hume-philosopher-and-infidel?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=64f1a38ee4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_02_11_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-64f1a38ee4-68951505
Bob Jensen's threads on philosophy ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/
Thank you Tyler Cowen for the
heads up
The New York Times Questions Whether the USA Needs Air Conditioning (and if so should temperatures be so high that people are dripping in sweat?) ---
Jensen
Comment
How could an article like this be published by the NYT without once using the
word "humidity." Air conditioners, especially in the USA's deep south, do as
much or more for comfort by lowering humidity as well as temperatures.
This has been a cool and wet early summer in northern New England. Our furnace
kicked on in many 2019 June nights and most of our July nights hover around 50
degrees in our mountain cottage.
We can live without air conditioning, but I cannot imagine living without air
conditioning in our 24 years in somewhat tropical (high-humidity) San Antonio
and four years in really humid "dog days" in Tallahassee.
Interestingly, you can construct spaces that make very hot days more tolerable.
I recall a comfortable tour of the Christian Bros Winery when the Napa Valley
temperature reached 108 degrees. It was quite comfortable behind stone walls
over two feet thick. But it may not have been so comfortable if the humidity
exceeded 90% the walls were dripping wet.
Can you imagine getting driving a car without air conditioning in Memphis in
August?
Babies die when left in hot cars (even with the windows cranked down). Will they do any better stuck in traffic when the outdoor temperatures are over 100 degrees?
If you want to exterminate the old and sick, banning air conditioning is the place to start.
If you're indoors, it's a lot easier to deal with the cold than the heat.
Here in the mountains we just pile on the clothing and blankets. If necessary,
you can sleep outdoors atop Mt. Washington in a thermal sleeping bag.
But indoors or outdoors it's horrible to live with humid temperatures above 100
degrees unless you're a fish, and even fish die when the water is not cold
enough.
Jensen Comment
The 2-ton gorilla in statistical analysis is non-stationary data. My favorite
example is when the famous analyst, Nate Silver, predicted right up to the time
of the election that Republican Scott Brown would lose the election to
fill Ted Kennedy's vacant Senate seat. After Brown won, Nate complained that too
many voters changed their minds on election day. Sometimes events reported in
the media can greatly change outcomes. For example the NFL found that when a
relatively small number of players refused to stand for the playing of the
National Anthem TV ratings plunged way below forecasts for the season.
Stationary Process --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stationary_process
There's often little that can be done concerning non-stationarity data. But in econometrics there are some tools for non-stationary seasonal data.
David Giles: Seasonal Unit Roots - Background Information ---
https://davegiles.blogspot.com/2019/07/seasonal-unit-roots-background.html
To Your List of Biases in Meta-Analyses, Add This One: Accumulation Bias
---
https://replicationnetwork.com/2019/07/05/to-your-list-of-biases-in-meta-analyses-add-this-one-accumulation-bias/
“Studies accumulate over time and meta-analyses are mainly retrospective. These two characteristics introduce dependencies between the analysis time, at which a series of studies is up for meta-analysis, and results within the series.”
“Dependencies introduce bias — Accumulation Bias — and invalidate the sampling distribution assumed for p-value tests, thus inflating type-I errors.”
“…by using p-value methods, conventional meta-analysis implicitly assumes that promising initial results are just as likely to develop into (large) series of studies as their disappointing counterparts. Conclusive studies should just as likely trigger meta-analyses as inconclusive ones. And so the use of p-value tests suggests that results of earlier studies should be unknown when planning new studies as well as when planning meta-analyses.”
“Such assumptions are unrealistic… ignoring these assumptions invalidates conventional p-value tests and inflates type-I errors.”
“… we argue throughout the paper that any efficient scientific process will introduce some form of Accumulation Bias and that the exact process can never be fully known.”
“A likelihood ratio approach to testing solves this problem … Firstly, it agrees with a form of the stopping rule principle … Secondly, it agrees with the Prequential principle … Thirdly, it allows for a betting interpretation …: reinvesting profits from one study into the next and cashing out at any time.”
“This leads to two main conclusions. First, Accumulation Bias is inevitable, and even if it can be approximated and accounted for, no valid p-value tests can be constructed. Second, tests based on likelihood ratios withstand Accumulation Bias: they provide bounds on error probabilities that remain valid despite the bias.”
To read the paper, go to
https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.13494
How to Mislead With Statistics
Where you will pay the most in electric bills ---
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/07/03/where-youll-pay-the-most-in-electric-bills-4/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter&utm_content=JUL082019a
Jensen Comment
The statistics themselves aren't so misleading, but what is misleading is power
use variability. For example, here in New Hampshire we heat mainly with fuel
oil, and on July 8, 2019 our furnace is still kicking in nights. We have
electric air conditioning for cooling that we use very little. When we lived for
24 years in Texas our heating bills were very low, but our electric bills were
enormous due to air conditioning. Hence our electric rates are very high in New
Hampshire, but we use much less electricity in New Hampshire. Of course now
there are a number of ways across the nation to save on electric bills (think
solar), but it takes years to overcome the relatively large fixed cost for solar
energy.
Up here in New Hampshire there are various ways to cut back on heating costs, particularly if you have your own wood lot and split your own firewood for wood stoves and furnaces (decorative fireplaces are not very efficient). You don't save much if you have to buy wood that's ready for the fire.
My point is that in places where electricity rates are high (think Alaska and New Hampshire) there are alternatives for using less electricity. Life is not quite so cool in the south, but new and better ways of generating electricity are being advanced every year.
A Fish Tale
The Pakastan Journal of Zoology has retracted six papers that share a co-author
who the editors say “exploited the peer-review process in the Journal of Zoology
by generating fake reviewers[sic] email addresses.”
https://retractionwatch.com/2019/07/05/journal-editors-flabbergasted-by-responses-to-authors-ruse/
USC to Pay $50 Million to Settle Legal Dispute ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/05/usc-settles-lawsuit-uc-san-diego-50-million?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=6e678a0107-WNU_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-6e678a0107-197565045&mc_cid=6e678a0107&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Action on US debt limit might be needed sooner than expected Congress
might have to act on the debt limit sooner than expected, according to an
estimate by the Bipartisan Policy Center. The government could be unable to pay
bills starting in early September, the group says, although that is more likely
to occur in October ---
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/452033-debt-ceiling-deadline-could-hit-in-early-september-study
You ain't seen nuthin' yet
https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnphilipsousaiv/2019/07/03/dem-debates-what-they-said-what-they-didnt-and-who-will-pay-n2549466?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f
Jensen
Comment
The above link's estimate of $4 trillion annually leaves out a lot of promises,
especially the 2-ton gorilla called green initiatives. AOC conservatively
estimates her green initiatives alone will cost $10 trillion per year and newer
promises such as Kamala's promise of house purchases for minorities. The $150
billion expense for free college for all is greatly underestimated. It will cost
trillions of dollars annually, especially when job training is added.
Add to this what the $4.4 trillion that the USA Federal government currently
spends on other items (most of which are non-discretionary like Social Security
and other pensions) at you get $20-$25 trillion per year, over $20 trillion of
which will be taken from investors, thereby destroying the stock markets, bond
markets, and real estate markets upon which most USA's pension plans depend
(think CREF and CalPERS) ---
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
In fairness what business firms currently contribute to health insurance can be applied to Medicare-for-All but that won't begin to cover the costs of coverage for people currently not on employer medical plans (such as millions of refugees, workers in the underground economy, and other workers whose employers don't pay medical benefits). Add to this the Medicare-for-All added promises of nursing home coverage (massive cost) and medications (massive cost).
The Future Looks Terrible for U.S. Nursing Home Costs (currently not paid
by Medicare but paid for Medicaid recipients) ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-25/u-s-nursing-home-costs-may-get-worse-thanks-to-a-labor-shortage?cmpid=BBD062519_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190625&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
From a Chronicle of Higher Education Newsletter on July 9, 2019
Former Penn admissions officer on Trump: ‘Certainly not a super genius.’
For decades, President Trump has pointed to his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School as evidence of his smarts. Trump wrote about his transfer from Fordham University to Wharton in his autobiography, saying, "I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best.”
James Nolan, a former admissions officer at Penn, met with Trump and his father, Fred Trump Sr., for the younger Trump’s Wharton interview. Nolan, who was a close friend of the president’s brother Fred Jr., told all in an interview with The Washington Post.
Nolan’s recollection of the future president? “Certainly not a super genius,” he told the Post. The rating he assigned Trump for admissions purposes, however, was “decent enough to support his candidacy,” Nolan said. At the time, it was fairly common for the children of wealthy families to be accepted before other applicants, but there is no evidence that Trump’s family made a big donation to Penn, according to the Post.
We may never know the story of Trump’s year at Penn. Remember, this past February, Michael D. Cohen, the president’s former personal lawyer and fixer, said in testimony before Congress that, under Trump’s direction, he threatened to take legal action against the College Board, Trump’s former high school, and the universities that Trump attended if they released his academic records. If you’re still curious about Trump’s college years, let our Jack Stripling be your guide.
Jack Stripling: Trump: The College Years ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Trump-The-College-Years/237013?cid=db
Donkey’s cognitive capabilities (Equus asinus) share the heritability and
variation patterns of human’s cognitive capabilities (Homo sapiens) ---
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1558787819300309
The Guardian: Attention Seeking
Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips: ‘You have to let your child teach you’ ---
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/06/adam-phillips-interview-attention-seeking
NYT: First beef, now plant-based and lab-grown fish is coming to
your plate ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/business/fake-fish-impossible-foods.html?action=click&module=Editors
Picks&pgtype=Homepage&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=74501497&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--cVL81TqEo8jXYaZj0omxdCshL3HX8HN2vv0aPKIdEKdCFEjZwr0P1_ncxCF669bzT-LknyfosuKfafWptwPtm5noVAg&_hsmi=74501497
Prejudice and foreign policy views ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/prejudice-and-foreign-policy-views.html
Liberal Bias in Academe ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#LiberalBias
Bob Jensen's threads on political correctness ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness
Conservatism --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism
Impossible to Believe: The University of Colorado Encourages (at
least minimally) Some Conservative Thinking and (gasp) Hiring
A Campus Welcomes Conservatism
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-campus-welcomes-conservatives-11561415989
While researching what would become their 2009 book, “Becoming Right: How Campuses Shape Young Conservatives,” sociologists Amy Binder and Kate Wood conducted extensive student interviews at two schools: Harvard and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Although the faculty members they encountered were overwhelmingly liberal, Ms. Binder and Ms. Wood found that students at Boulder “were far likelier [than Harvard students] to contend that their professors bring those personal politics into the classroom.” This stifling ideological conformity, they concluded, caused conservative students to adopt “the provocative style” as their favored tactic to fight back.
The authors’ visit to Boulder coincided with the arrival of Bruce Benson as president of the University of Colorado system. If they returned now, on the eve of Mr. Benson’s retirement this month after 11 years at the helm, they would find a decidedly different campus climate. The reason is Mr. Benson’s determination to bring vibrant and serious ideological diversity to the “Berkeley of the Rockies.”
Mr. Benson became president amid a sea of troubles after the 2007 financial collapse. The ensuing recession led the state to cut funding for the university system by about 35%. A successful businessman and one time head of the Colorado GOP, Mr. Benson didn’t limit himself to the traditional fundraising role of university presidents. He also made achieving viewpoint diversity a priority.
It’s one thing to admit privately, as many college administrators do, that liberal faculties and the rigid conventions of academic hiring often combine to create a campus culture that is hostile to conservative viewpoints. It is another to devise a practical remedy. Mr. Benson pressed CU Boulder to come up with a solution.
The result was the establishment of a new faculty slot that I was privileged to be the first to hold: the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy. I spent the 2013-14 academic year as a visiting scholar in the political science and environmental studies departments. A parade of well-known and highly regarded conservative academics have since rotated through Boulder: Bradley Birzer of Hillsdale College, Brian Dimitrovic of Sam Houston State College, Francis Beckwith of Baylor, Robert Kaufman of Pepperdine University, William B. Allen of Michigan State and Stephen Presser of Northwestern. What started as a three-year pilot will enter its seventh year this fall, welcoming its eighth visiting scholar, Villanova’s Colleen Sheehan.
Hiring by ideological criteria is an imperfect answer to universities’ leftist skew. Some conservatives worried this approach resembled “affirmative action” for conservatives, but it might be better to think of it as the intellectual equivalent of antitrust, breaking up the increasingly anticompetitive marketplace of ideas in universities. The University of California’s legendary president Clark Kerr observed decades ago that “few institutions are so conservative as the universities about their own affairs while their members are so liberal about the affairs of others.” Change doesn’t come easily.
Although most conservative academics don’t conduct themselves as deliberate ideological advocates in the classroom, there is a benefit for universities to have some “conspicuous conservatism” in Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield’s phrase. Conservative students know their views won’t be mocked in the classroom, and curious liberal students—I heard this from several—want the challenge of a different perspective. It enables the university to live up to what Mr. Benson cites as its mission: teaching students how to think, not what to think. It helps reclaim academia’s place as a true marketplace of ideas and sends the message on campus and beyond that differing intellectual viewpoints matter. Perhaps most important, the effort is changing the culture on campus.
To avoid the program becoming an isolated outpost of ideological sectarianism, Mr. Benson revived and expanded a dormant Center for the Study of Western Civilization to house visiting conservative scholars and develop an expanded program of speakers, public events, seminars, and student and faculty fellowships. Earlier this month the university renamed the center for Mr. Benson.
A century ago the Cambridge classicist F.M. Cornford wrote that the first rule of faculty governance is “nothing should ever be done for the first time,” and Mr. Benson’s model is spreading in variations at other universities. A few similar programs already existed, such as the James Madison Program at Princeton and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas at the University of Texas at Austin. Since 2016 I have been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley—an unimaginable prospect if not for my time at Boulder.
Continued in article
Jensen Comments
There are many facets of conservatism such that its nearly impossible to
classify a person as either being conservative or non-conservative. For example,
I personally am non-conservative (progressive) about gay rights, abortion, and
various other political issues. I'm conservative with respect to many economic
issues such as pending entitlements disasters, gun rights, and limits to
immigration hordes. I'm most certainly opposed to most "political correctness"
issues that restrain academic debate ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness
I don't think it's necessary to expound political beliefs in courses where such
content is outside the curriculum intent such as bringing gun control or
abortion beliefs into calculus courses or sexual orientation beliefs into
financial accountancy. When the curriculum intent encourages political debates I
think it's essential to present balanced sides of such debates.
The USA Economy Cannot Be Sustained With Existing, Let Alone New,
Entitlements ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/entitlements.htm
Also see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm
Video: Where is it easier to get rich?
Answer: On a per capita basis with $30+ million as a definition of "rich" the
answer is Scandinavia (the region of capitalists), Canada, and New Zealand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Thank you Jagdish Gangolly
Jensen Comment
I keep telling the world that Scandinavia is the region of capitalism.
But of course there are other factors not mentioned in the video. Scandinavia can do more social good with taxes collected since they spend so little on defense (relative to the USA, Russia, Israel, Iran, and China) and living costs are relatively high (e.g., for housing, cars, and restaurants). They are not noted for research (what new drugs and technologies did they invent?). And given choices people from India and Asia who aspire to get rich would rather emigrate to the USA rather than Scandinavia. Thousands of poor people each day are not flooding their southern borders. It's relatively difficult to become a citizen of Scandinavia. They pay to return illegals.Thousands of poor people each day are not flooding Scandinavia's southern borders. It's relatively difficult to become a citizen of Scandinavia. They pay to return illegals just like the mayor of NYC will provide one year of free rent elsewhere to a homeless person if that person will leave the State of New York.
The above video is highly misleading about free college education and training in Europe. In truth only about the top 1/3 students in European nations get free education or free training.
In OECD nations (think Finland, Denmark, Germany, and Norway) that have free college or free job training, well over half of the Tier 2 graduates are not even allowed to go to college or receive free job training paid for by their governments. This makes "free college" or "free training" affordable by limiting it only to top graduates . . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ tertiary_education_attainment
How to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectnessMislead
With Statistics
Washington Post: Bernie Sanders and other Democrats are embracing free
college. Europe shows it can be done, but there’s a cost.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/bernie-sanders-and-other-democrats-are-embracing-free-college-europe-shows-theres-a-cost/2019/06/25/2939047c-8bc4-11e9-b6f4-033356502dce_story.html?utm_term=.fcf29f7bfba6
Jensen Comment
I don't know how often I have to keep repeating something that the NYT,
Washington Post, Time Magazine, and other liberal media won't mention. These
news sources keep repeating the message that college education is free in
Europe. Yes it is free in most European nations, but these news outlets never
mention that it's only free for the intellectually elite. Unless you're in the
top third (or so) of your Tier 2 school (read that high school) you can't even
go to college let alone get a free college education. This is not at all what
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have in mind for the USA which is providing
a free college education for any of the 350+ million residents of the USA who
want a college education.
No --- Europe has not shown that free college or free job training paid for by taxpayers can be done for more than the top third of Tier 2 graduates. And yes this does hit minority student hard since they are less likely to be in the top third.
And yes the top third of USA's high school graduates and a nearly all of the USA's top minority students get substantial financial aid for college. Most of the $1.6 trillion in student debt is carried by students who were not so intellectually elite. These students would not be eligible for a free college education or free job training if they lived in Europe.
And by the way, most of the job training costs in Europe are paid for by employers rather than taxpayers.
And by the way, most of the job training costs in Europe are paid for by employers rather than taxpayers.
Also employers spend a lot more on employee training that the average USA employer, and employee training is more formalized in terms of attainment levels in Europe.
July 1, 2019 reply by Glen Gray
In the book, “Scandinavians: In Search of the Soul of the North,” the author made an interesting point: tourists rarely meet Norwegians in Norway. Because there is so much wealth in Norway, no one needs to take a service job (restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, etc.). All the service job are done by people from Eastern Europe. Once in a while, you might occasionally be served by someone from Denmark.
Robots Are Beating Humans At Poker ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/robots-are-beating-humans-at-poker/
Jensen Comment
I don't think casino and online poker machines are the same thing as the phrase
"robot poker player" in this article. For example, a casino would not offer a
poker machine that did not have a long-term edge from get go. Those poker
machines lose now and then, but as with all casino games, the casino always wins
over time unless there is a flaw in the rules (think card counting) or the
machine (which
actually happened in 1960s roulette wheels). This article concerns robots
that do not have a casino-type advantage. The article concerns other advantages
(think perfection of poker faces) of robots.
Of course the statistics of poker is very simple compared to that of chess.
The new and improved Magnus Carlsen (just being the number one chess
player in the world beforehand was not enough) ---
https://twitter.com/demishassabis/status/1145638590036283392
Jensen Comment
Can he beat newer and improved machines?
July 5, 2019 reply from computer science professor Paul Myers
Nope! That day is long gone, and all grandmasters acknowledge that! Nowadays computers are hugely used to help study positions, variations, openings, endgames, etc. ... Well, except for AlphaZero where we are learning whole new subtleties in the game and seeing what looks like genuinely intuitive play. Not at all “like a machine would play” — except that it is a machine!
Paul
New IRS guidelines further define which institutions are subject to
endowment tax --- what should be included as taxable "investment income" (surprise:
dorm rental income).
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/01/us-provides-some-clarity-about-tax-endowments?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=c2d605daae-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-c2d605daae-197565045&mc_cid=c2d605daae&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday released long-awaited guidance designed to clarify the impact of the so-called endowment tax that Congress approved as a part of a sweeping tax bill in late 2017.
The tax, a 1.4 percent excise tax on net investment income at private colleges and universities with at least 500 tuition-paying students and assets of at least $500,000 per student, has generated
College and university leaders -- especially those at the wealthy private nonprofit institutions that are subject to the excise tax -- generally oppose the new tax, but they have nonetheless been eager for information about its impact. The guidelines don't break a ton of new ground, but they define some terms in ways that will help colleges' lawyers, business officers and others gauge which institutions will be affected, and how.
Most experts said they were still reviewing the guidelines (which were part of a time-honored late Friday afternoon news dump that also included the Education Department's release of its final repeal of the gainful-employment rules for vocational programs) and could not offer much in the way of insights into the guidelines' potential impact.
“The implementation of this misguided excise tax will be extremely complex, and the legislation as enacted by Congress itself is vague and ambiguous in important respects," said Steven M. Bloom, director of government relations at the American Council on Education. "So the proposed regulations released late Friday afternoon are a long-awaited and necessary step to ensure that colleges and universities understand, first, whether they are even covered by the new excise tax and, if so, how they are obligated to comply with it. We will be carefully examining the proposed rules to ascertain how they will work in practice and whether they will do more harm than good, and will comment in more detail after we have completed our review.”
But some legal experts reached by Inside Higher Ed over the weekend said the guidance confirmed some expectations and confounded a few others.
First and foremost, the basic outlines of the guidance leave unchanged earlier expectations that about 25 to 30 large-endowment institutions would be affected by the endowment tax in the first year, said Daniel Romano, a partner at Grant Thornton who provides tax services for the nonprofit and higher education sectors.
Most of the new information in the guidance relates to questions such as how to calculate the number of students that institutions have and what counts as net investment income.
For instance, the guidance clarifies that the student count includes part-time students but is calculated using a full-time-equivalent enrollment. Students must have actually attended class, not just be enrolled.
The legislation counts as students those who are "tuition-paying," and the regulations clarify that a student who pays any portion of his or her tuition (or has that tuition covered by a third party) must be counted. That suggests, Romano said, that any student who receive a full scholarship directly from an institution would not count as a student. Small colleges that are near the 500-student mark (and want to stay under that mark) might rejigger their financial aid dollars to cover tuition rather than room and board, Romano said.
The guidance's definition of what counts as net investment income could also affect institutions' obligations under the law.
Many of the definitions in the regulations are drawn from similar federal rules that govern private foundations. Like those rules, the guidance clarifies that colleges can exclude from the calculation of their net investment income 1.5 percent of the total, to keep on hand as a cash balance. (As is true in other cases, the IRS seeks advice from college officials about whether the 1.5 percent figure that applies to private foundations is an appropriate figure in this situation, as well.)
Colleges and universities are also able to count as educational expenses that are exempt from taxation (as opposed to investment income that is subject to the endowment tax) buildings and other assets that are used directly for educational purposes.
How to Mislead With Statistics
New York Times --- Why Can’t Everyone Get A’s?
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/06/why-cant-everyone-get-as.html
Framing excellence in these competitive terms doesn’t lead to improvements in performance. Indeed, a consistent body of social science research shows that competition tends to hold us back from doing our best. It creates an adversarial mentality that makes productive collaboration less likely, encourages gaming of the system and leads all concerned to focus not on meaningful improvement but on trying to outdo (and perhaps undermine) everyone else.
The article was written by
Alfie
Kohn (author, No
Grades + No Homework = Better Learning)
---
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001T4Y1QA/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lawproblo-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B001T4Y1QA&linkId=e245c2f94ba89c4b1fd7d0c7b9b7541c
Jensen Comment
This is a poorly researched article with citation bias that overlooks the
biggest disgrace in USA education over the past 50 years --- grade inflation in
K-12 and higher education where the median grade went from C+ to A-
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
The author looks at the hypothetical case where the proportion of A grades
does not increase when courses get easier. He completely overlooks the reality
that the proportion of A grades actually increased to nearly 50% after teaching
evaluations commenced to affect tenure and pay raises of teachers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
Alfie Kohn completely ignores evidence that student put less effort into courses taken on a pass/fail basis relative to when they take courses for letter grades.
Academic Achievement Declines under Pass-Fail Grading ---
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220973.1971.11011260
The author overlooks the case where over 60 students at Harvard were expelled
for cheating in a political science course where all students were assured of an
A grade if they turned in their homework (irrespective of the quality of their
answers). The students collaborated on cheating because without an incentive to
get a higher grade they did not want to waste their time on homework ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#UVA
"Cheating Scandal at Harvard," Inside Higher Ed, August 31, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/08/31/cheating-scandal-harvardHarvard University is investigating about 125 students -- nearly 2 percent of all undergraduates -- who are suspected of cheating on a take-home final during the spring semester, The Boston Globe reported Thursday. The students will appear before the college’s disciplinary board over the coming weeks, seem to have copied each other’s work, the dean of undergraduate education said. Those found guilty could face up to a one-year suspension. The dean would not comment on whether students who had already graduated would have their degrees revoked but he did tell the Globe, “this is something we take really, really seriously.” Harvard administrators said they are considering new ways to educate students about cheating and academic ethics. While the university has no honor code, the Globe noted, its official handbook says students should “assume that collaboration in the completion of assignments is prohibited unless explicitly permitted by the instructor.”"The Typo That Unfurled Harvard’s Cheating Scandal," Chronicle of Higher Education, September 12, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/the-typo-that-unfurled-harvards-cheating-scandal?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Minimum Wage
Employment Effects and Labor Market Concentration ---
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3416016
Jensen Comment
This, along with most studies of minimum wage increases, ignores the impact of
job growth in the underground economy. It's especially common for small firms
(think landscapers and day care centers in San Antonio) to shift more to the
underground economy where minimum wages are sometimes paid in cash without any
benefits whatsoever, including no medical benefits, no unemployment insurance,
now social security benefits, no paid vacations, etc. Some estimates of the
underground economy claim that this economy pays over $2 trillion per year.
Authorities often look the other way, because closing down the underground labor
market locally directly impacts children and families who need those cash wages
desperately (think immigrants and refugees). Many of the small-time employers
will simply stop hiring completely if they have to pay benefits and relatively
high hourly wages. Hourly wages themselves vary with skills vary in the
underground economy (e.g., mechanics may make $25 an hour without benefits). For
a short while we had a dentist in NH that give suspiciously huge cash discounts
(no checks or paper trail receipts to get the discounts). I think he was working
as a professional in the underground economy where workers seldom pay income or
other taxes.
Tagalog ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagalog_language
This map shows the most commonly spoken language in every US state, excluding
English and Spanish ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-most-common-language-in-every-state-map-2019-6
Jensen Comment
I suspect that the map is misleading in that German and French that will soon
die out since the Immigration Act of 1965 reduced European legal immigration
from over 60% in 1970 to 15% in 2000 (and still shrinking). Mexico, China,
India, Viet Nam, and the Phillipines dominated legal immigration since 1965 ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States#Since_1965
Legal immigration in Canada is dominated by Asia in the west and India in the
east ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Canada#Canadian_immigrant_population_by_country_of_birth_(as_of_2016)
Illegal immigration in the USA this year is shifting heavily toward Latin
America, Africa, and Asia. Illegal Asian immigrants into Canada most recently
have USA as their intended ultimate destinations. The Canadian Army was moved to
the Quebec borders to restrain the flow of illegal immigrants from Haiti.
Improve Your Teaching Evaluations With Free Cookies ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2019/6/20/hessler-ppping-hollstein-ohlenburg-arnemann-massoth-seidel-zarbock-and-wenk-availability-of-cookies-during-an-academic-course-session-affects-evaluation-of-teaching
Just think of what marijuana cookies and drinks can do to your performance
evaluations
As Kanopy’s Popularity Grows, Can Your Library Continue to Afford It?
https://www.indiewire.com/2019/06/new-york-public-library-drops-kanopy-netflix-alternative-too-expensive-1202153550/
The rise of millennial socialism ---
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2019/06/aaron-bastani-fully-automated-luxury-communism-bhaskar-sunkara-manifesto-milennial-socialism-review
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ilhan Omar on Monday proposed legislation to
cancel all federal and private student-loan debt, carried by about 45 million
Americans ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/No-Exceptions-No-Questions/246553?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&cid=at
Wall Street lashes out at Bernie Sanders' plan to pay off student debt
with a securities trading tax ---
https://www.investmentnews.com/article/20190624/FREE/190629961/wall-street-lashes-out-at-bernie-sanders-plan-to-pay-off-student
Jensen Comment
The problem is compounded by the fact that progressives want to spend tens of
trillions more on things other than student debt forgiveness and free college in
future years, including spending programs for green initiatives, free medical
care, free medications, student loan forgiveness followed by free college for
everybody, guaranteed annual income for 350+ USA residents, reparations for
African and Native Americans, and billions for new subsidized housing on top of
existing safety nets such as food stamps and welfare and housing.
Bernie Sanders also wants to make you believe banks and brokerages will be paying the $100 trillion dollars. Absolute lie! Business firms don't pay taxes. They collect taxes from customers. A tax imposed on brokerage transactions hits pension funds for teachers, firefighters, professors, trash haulers, middle class investors, and wealthy investors. Taking $100 trillion from brokerage transactions (even if it were possible) would shut down stock markets and bond markets and bankrupt pension funds.
The cost student debt forgiveness alone is nearly equal to all $1.7+ trillion
Federal income tax revenue currently used to fund existing government spending
---
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
Vague references are made to are made to taking the $1.6+ trillion
from rich investors, but no mention is made of how the aggregated cost of this
$1.6 trillion added to other new spending programs costing $100 trillion will
crash the stock, bond, and real estate markets.
When combined with free college education for anybody who wants it this will make funding more difficult for $100 trillion in green initiatives, Medicare-for-All, free medications for all, free nursing homes, guaranteed annual income for 350+ million residents, reparations for black and native Americans, and so on down the 2020 socialist democratic wish list.
My guess is that Sanders would not have backed this in current legislation if it had a chance of getting the approval of the Senate and President Trump. If it passed it would greatly complicate his other spending plans, especially Medicare-for-All.
The ultimate cost of all this spending will be borne by USA pension fund holders (think CREF and CalPERS) since pension funds depend mostly upon stock, bond, and real estate markets that will crash if you take $100+ trillion from investors in any form whatsoever.
Progressive spenders never talk about how they will save USA's pension funds for teachers, municipal workers, business workers, etc.
The bottom line is that for most student borrowers the funding of the student-loan cancellation will wipe out the pension funds of their parents.
When England got rid of free college, enrollment
expanded, expenditure per student expanded, and inequality of access did NOT
increase ---
https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1145783708802097152
Tagalog
---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagalog_language
This map shows the most commonly spoken language in every US state, excluding
English and Spanish ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-most-common-language-in-every-state-map-2019-6
Jensen
Comment
I suspect that the map is misleading in that German and French that will soon
die out since the Immigration Act of 1965 reduced European legal immigration
from over 60% in 1970 to 15% in 2000 (and still shrinking). Mexico, China,
India, Viet Nam, and the Phillipines dominated legal immigration since 1965 ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States#Since_1965
Legal immigration in Canada is dominated by Asia in the west and India in the
east ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Canada#Canadian_immigrant_population_by_country_of_birth_(as_of_2016)
Illegal immigration in the USA this year is shifting heavily toward Latin
America, Africa, and Asia. Illegal Asian immigrants into Canada most recently
have USA as their intended ultimate destinations. The Canadian Army was moved to
the Quebec borders to restrain the flow of illegal immigrants from Haiti.
TP-106: Taxes and the Canadian Underground Economy (2001) by David E. A. Giles and Lindsay M. Tedds
Author: |
David E.A. Giles and Lindsay M. Tedds |
Publication Date: |
2/1/2002 |
Publisher: |
Canadian Tax Foundation |
Format: |
Softcover |
Edition: |
1st |
Pages: |
270 |
ISBN: |
0-88808-171-5 |
In this volume we report the results of an extensive empirical study into the size of the Canadian underground economy, its development from the mid-1970's to the mid-1990's, and some of the linkages between taxation policy and underground activity in this country. First, we estimate that the Canadian Underground Economy grew from about 3.5% of measured GDP in 1976, to almost 16% in 1995. The latter figure accords well with recent evidence for Canada obtained by Schneider by totally different means - he estimates that it averaged 14.8% in 1994/95 and 16.2% in 1997/98. Second, when the implications of an underground economy of this size are explored in terms of the amount of tax revenue that is lost, we find that the size of this "tax-gap" varied from approximately $2 billion in 1976 to almost $44 billion in 1995, in current-dollar terms. Third, we establish a clear and positive empirical relationship between the aggregate effective tax rate and the (relative) size of the underground economy. We have shown that there is significant statistical evidence of two-way Granger causality, both from the effective tax rate, to the underground economy; and also from the underground economy to the effective tax rate.
Jensen Comment
Data on any underground economy is dubious due to the fact that the transactions
are underground such as when you pay cash the kid who mows your lawn and your
housecleaner for spending four hours each week inside your house. The
underground economy is a really big deal when thousands of workers line up on
San Antonio street corners to work on such jobs as roofing, landscaping,
construction, crop picking, house cleaning, etc. It's a big deal when
professionals (think dentists) give huge cash discounts. The newspaper USA Today
once wrote that in the USA the underground economy aggregates to over $2
trillion per year, but nobody really knows.
We know that authorities often look the other way when it comes to law enforcement. It would be relatively easy to arrest employers who pick up underground workers on the streets of our cities. But to do so in a large city like Houston or Los Angeles would result in a lot of children going hungry, especially children of illegal immigrants.
We know that a major component of the underground economy is for criminal transactions such as narcotics buying and selling and money laundering.
We know that tax avoidance is a major driver of the underground economy. People are not just avoiding income taxes. Employers are avoiding such taxes as payroll taxes and VAT taxes.
Tax increases almost always oil the moving parts of the underground economy.
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on June 27 2019
Employees of Wayfair Inc. walked out of the company’s Boston headquarters in protest of the online retailer’s plan to sell furniture to a border facility for migrant children seeking asylum in the U.S.
Those employees would rather have the children playing and sleeping on the floor.
How
to Create a Book in Microsoft Word ---
https://www.howtogeek.com/425459/how-to-create-a-book-in-microsoft-word/
Acceptance rates at US medical schools in 2015-2016 reveal
ongoing racial preferences for blacks and Hispanics ---
https://www.aei.org/publication/acceptance-rates-at-us-medical-schools-in-2015-reveal-ongoing-discrimination-against-asian-americans-and-whites/
Hampshire College typically welcomes about 300 freshmen each fall, but this year the new class has just 15 students. The “unorthodox liberal arts school” has no majors or letter grades, and has been dogged by governance and financial problems that have threatened its accreditation and future as an independent institution ---
June 20, 2019 note from Tom Dyckman
Bob
Just a note to let you know My and Steve’s paper was just now published in Econometrics Volume 7 Issue 2 June 2019
Jensen Comment
Econometrics is now an open-access free journal
Important Issues in Statistical Testing and Recommended Improvements in Accounting Research
by Thomas R. Dyckman andStephen A. Zeff
Econometrics 2019, 7(2),
18; https://doi.org/10.3390/econometrics7020018
https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1146/7/2/18/htm
Received: 17 December 2018 / Revised: 23 April 2019 / Accepted: 26 April 2019 / Published: 8 May 2019
Viewed by 608 | PDF Full-text (254 KB) | HTML Full-text | XML Full-text
A great deal of the accounting research published in recent years has involved statistical tests. Our paper proposes improvements to both the quality and execution of such research. We address the following limitations in current research that appear to us to be ignored [...] Read more.
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards a New Paradigm for Statistical Evidence)
P-Value Nonsense
Statisticians clamor for retraction of paper by Harvard researchers they say
uses a “nonsense statistic” ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2019/06/19/statisticians-clamor-for-retraction-of-paper-by-harvard-researchers-they-say-uses-a-nonsense-statistic/#more-100498
**How to Mislead With P-Values and Statistical Inference
From David Giles on March 26, 2019
A World Beyond p < 0.05
The American Statistical Association has just published a special supplementary issue of The American Statistician, titled Statistical Inference in the 21st. Century: A World Beyond p < 0.05.
This entire issue is open-access. In addition to an excellent editorial, Moving to a World Beyond "p < 0.05" (by Ronald Wasserstein, Allen Schirm, and Nicole Lazar) it comprises 43 articles with such titles as:
· The p-Value Requires Context, Not a Threshold (by Rebecca Betensky)
· The False Positive Risk: A Proposal Concerning What to do About p-Values (by David Colquhoun)
· What Have we (Not) Learnt From Millions of Scientific Papers With P Values? (by John Ioannidis)
· Three Recommendations for Improving the Use of p-Values (by Daniel Benjamin and James Berger)
I'm sure that you get the idea of what this supplementary issue is largely about.
But look back at its title - Statistical Inference in the 21st. Century: A World Beyond p < 0.05. It's not simply full of criticisms. There's a heap of excellent, positive, and constructive material in there.
Highly recommended reading!
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/
Time to say goodbye to “statistically significant” and embrace
uncertainty, say statisticians ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2019/03/21/time-to-say-goodbye-to-statistically-significant-and-embrace-uncertainty-say-statisticians/
Three years ago, the American Statistical Association (ASA) expressed hope that the world would move to a “post-p-value era.” The statement in which they made that recommendation has been cited more than 1,700 times, and apparently, the organization has decided that era’s time has come. (At least one journal had already banned p values by 2016.) In an editorial in a special issue of The American Statistician out today, “Statistical Inference in the 21st Century: A World Beyond P<0.05,” the executive director of the ASA, Ron Wasserstein, along with two co-authors, recommends that when it comes to the term “statistically significant,” “don’t say it and don’t use it.” (More than 800 researchers signed onto a piece published in Nature yesterday calling for the same thing.) We asked Wasserstein’s co-author, Nicole Lazar of the University of Georgia, to answer a few questions about the move.
So the ASA wants to say goodbye to “statistically significant.” Why, and why now?
In the past few years there has been a growing recognition in the scientific and statistical communities that the standard ways of performing inference are not serving us well. This manifests itself in, for instance, the perceived crisis in science (of reproducibility, of credibility); increased publicity surrounding bad practices such as p-hacking (manipulating the data until statistical significance can be achieved); and perverse incentives especially in the academy that encourage “sexy” headline-grabbing results that may not have much substance in the long run. None of this is necessarily new, and indeed there are conversations in the statistics (and other) literature going back decades calling to abandon the language of statistical significance. The tone now is different, perhaps because of the more pervasive sense that what we’ve always done isn’t working, and so the time seemed opportune to renew the call.
Much of the editorial is an impassioned plea to embrace uncertainty. Can you explain?
The world is inherently an uncertain place. Our models of how it works — whether formal or informal, explicit or implicit — are often only crude approximations of reality. Likewise, our data about the world are subject to both random and systematic errors, even when collected with great care. So, our estimates are often highly uncertain; indeed, the p-value itself is uncertain. The bright-line thinking that is emblematic of declaring some results “statistically significant” (p<0.05) and others “not statistically significant” (p>0.05) obscures that uncertainty, and leads us to believe that our findings are on more solid ground than they actually are. We think that the time has come to fully acknowledge these facts and to adjust our statistical thinking accordingly.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on the decline of p-values from favor in statistical
analysis ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
To p-Value or Not to p-Value? An Answer From Signal Detection Theory ---
https://open.lnu.se/index.php/metapsychology/article/view/871
“In statistics, Type I errors (false alarms) and Type II errors (misses) are sometimes considered separately, with Type I errors being a function of the alpha level and Type II errors being a function of power. An advantage of signal detection theory is that it combines Type I and Type II errors into a single analysis of discriminability…”
“…p values were effective, though not perfect, at discriminating between real and null effects.”
“Bayes factor incurs no advantage over p values at detecting a real effect versus a null effect … This is because Bayes factors are redundant with p values for a given sample size.”
“When power is high, researchers using p values to determine statistical significance should use a lower criterion.”
“… a change to be more conservative will decrease false alarm rates at the expense of increasing miss rates. False alarm rates should not be considered in isolation without also considering miss rates. Rather, researchers should consider the relative importance for each in deciding the criterion to adopt.”
“…given that true null results can be theoretically interesting and practically important, a conservative criterion can produce critically misleading interpretations by labeling real effects as if they were null effects.”
“Moving forward, the recommendation is to acknowledge the relationship between false alarms and misses, rather than implement standards based solely on false alarm rates.”
Continued in article
Liberty --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty
Greed --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greed
Video on Greed for Good --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EwaLys3Zak
The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty*, the new
Acemoglu and Robinson book
https://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Corridor-States-Societies-Liberty/dp/0735224382/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Narrow+Corridor&qid=1562235278&s=books&sr=1-1
Liberty is hardly the "natural" order of things. In most places and at most times, the strong have dominated the weak and human freedom has been quashed by force or by customs and norms. Either states have been too weak to protect individuals from these threats or states have been too strong for people to protect themselves from despotism. Liberty emerges only when a delicate and precarious balance is struck between state and society.
There is a Western myth that political liberty is a durable construct, a steady state, arrived at by a process of "enlightenment." This static view is a fantasy, the authors argue; rather, the corridor to liberty is narrow and stays open only via a fundamental and incessant struggle between state and society. The power of state institutions and the elites that control them has never gone uncontested in a free society. In fact, the capacity to contest them is the definition of liberty. State institutions have to evolve continuously as the nature of conflicts and needs of society change, and thus society's ability to keep state and rulers accountable must intensify in tandem with the capabilities of the state. This struggle between state and society becomes self-reinforcing, inducing both to develop a richer array of capacities just to keep moving forward along the corridor. Yet this struggle also underscores the fragile nature of liberty. It is built on a fragile balance between state and society, between economic, political, and social elites and citizens, between institutions and norms. One side of the balance gets too strong, and as has often happened in history, liberty begins to wane. Liberty depends on the vigilant mobilization of society. But it also needs state institutions to continuously reinvent themselves in order to meet new economic and social challenges that can close off the corridor to liberty.
Today we are in the midst of a time of wrenching destabilization. We need liberty more than ever, and yet the corridor to liberty is becoming narrower and more treacherous. The danger on the horizon is not "just" the loss of our political freedom, however grim that is in itself; it is also the disintegration of the prosperity and safety that critically depend on liberty. The opposite of the corridor of liberty is the road to ruin.
Government "Accountability" Isn't Real Accountability ---
There
need to be limits to liberty such as pollution controls and restraints on
websites showing how to make bombs and concoct poisons
YouTube deleted 130 rap videos to help police
fight street gangs responsible for thousands of stabbings ---
Gun-Free London: Two men have been rushed
to hospital after suffering burns following a suspected acid attack in East
London ---
https://neonnettle.com/news/7903-khan-s-london-victims-sprayed-with-acid-in-terrifying-attack-in-capital-
Can Neurodiversity Defeat Doublethink? ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/neurodiversity-truth-telling/592465/
Meet Libby - the new robot library assistant at the
University of Pretoria's Hatfield campus ---
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-06-04-meet-libby-the-new-robot-library-assistant-at-the-university-of-pretorias-hatfield-campus/
Amazon Third Party Liability Ruling Could Have Enormous Implications for All
Retailers and Consumer Prices
Amazon could be exposed to huge risk after a court ruled that it's liable for
faulty third-party products ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ruled-to-be-liable-for-third-party-products-2019-7
Jensen Comment
This could have an enormous impact on virtually all consumer prices. For
example, suppose Walmart sells Ring front porch security cameras onsite as well
as online. If a camera fails when robbers are breaking in the front door home
owners might now sue Walmart for the value of all possessions stolen and the
murders of all occupants inside the house. The liability could be monumental
considering the millions of products sold be Amazon, Walmart, and the
locally-owned stores on main street who might now also be sued for faulty
products.
Hundreds of small town residents can now sue a hapless local Kroger grocery store that bought sweet corn from a nearby farmer who secretly used Roundup weed killer.
It's no wonder that millions of lawyers have a special reason to celebrate this July 4 holiday. A privately-owned local grocer store may not be worth much in bankruptcy, but you can sue Kroger (or Walmart) for billions.
This Amazon ruling will raise product liability insurance rates enormously. And remember that companies like Amazon, Walmart, Kroger and your locally-owned stores do not pay insurance costs and other costs like taxes. They pass their expenses along to customers such that this Amazon ruling in effect is a tremendous wealth transfer from customers like you and me to lawyers and insurance companies.
New Hampshire: He Cyberstalked Teen Girls for Years—Then They Fought
Back ---
https://www.wired.com/story/cyberstalked-teen-girls-for-years-fought-back/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=74065391&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--j34h0hijX7dPEmMokdbvZ5ux117VjG6_yV5Fmydz6_ILOLkjiLAhJWlzQouki8EjqTYjwQqLAB5gv2tzG_C8FuOhzqg&_hsmi=74065391
The heat wave in Europe is so intense that the weather map of France looks
like a screaming heat skull of death ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-heatwave-extreme-france-weather-map-appears-screaming-2019-6
India is battling intense heatwaves that have killed more than 100 people,
and experts warn some areas could soon be too hot for humans to survive
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/india-heat-wave-kills-experts-areas-maybe-too-hot-live-2019-7
Germany is so hot that the Autobahn now has speed limits ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-26/blazing-heatwave-forces-germany-to-lower-autobahn-speed-limit?cmpid=BBD062619_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190626&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
Yale Settles With Ex-Basketball Player Accused of Rape ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/06/27/yale-settles-ex-basketball-player-accused-rape?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=071e1c4505-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-071e1c4505-197565045&mc_cid=071e1c4505&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Book Review: Tyler Cowen, 'Big Business', and the Role of Companies
in Higher Ed" ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/tyler-cowen-big-business-and-role-companies-higher-ed?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=071e1c4505-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-071e1c4505-197565045&mc_cid=071e1c4505&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
The Love of Books: The Brave Librarians of Sarajevo ---
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeraworld/2019/06/love-books-brave-librarians-sarajevo-190624131307367.html
An Ultra-Selective College Dropped the ACT/SAT. And Then What?
https://www.chronicle.com/article/An-Ultra-Selective-College/246634?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&cid=at
Last year the University of Chicago floored higher education by announcing that it would drop its ACT/SAT requirement in hopes of enrolling more underrepresented students. The South Side campus became the most-selective institution yet to go test-optional, and some admissions insiders predicted that other bastions of prestige would follow suit.
A year later, it’s too soon to tell whether a new phase of the test-optional trend has begun. But for now, maybe a better question is this: How much does a testing policy matter if a college doesn’t consider removing other real or perceived barriers to access?
You’ve got to look at everything, especially affordability, says James G. Nondorf, Chicago’s dean of admissions and financial aid. In an interview with The Chronicle this week, he described the university’s new test-optional policy as one part of a broad initiative that’s helping the university diversify its campus.
That initiative includes an expanded financial-aid program providing full-tuition scholarships to students whose families earn less than $125,000 a year; families earning less than $60,000 a year don’t pay for tuition, room, and board. And first-generation students now get at least $20,000 in scholarships over four years, plus a paid summer internship. (Yes, it helps to have an $8-billion endowment.)
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Just like the impact of the 10% Rule at in the University of Texas system, I
would expect that a larger number of high ACT/SAT students are now enrolling in
Illinois flagship state universities and regional second-tier private
universities
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#10PercentLaw
How to Mislead Without Statistics
The Unbearable Pointlessness of PowerPoint ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Unbearable-Pointlessness/246558?utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&cid=cr
Jensen Comment
This is another one of the increasingly frequent articles where the Chronicle of
Higher Education won't allow reader comments in fear of opposing viewpoints.
PowerPoint is just a communication tool, and like all tools it can be used to
great advantage or used poorly. Even lousy PowerPoint slides (e.g., those with
fine print and clutter) can be useful if the clutter is to data and/or
references. Making a PowerPoint file available to audience members can be
extremely useful following a presentation. Excellent PowerPoint visuals can
greatly enhance a presentation. And, admittedly, they can detract from a
presentation and be used poorly during a presentation.
Public Management of Big Data: Historical Lessons from the 1940's
http://shfg.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/FH 7 (2015) Anderson.pdf
Huawei is giving $300 million a year to universities with no strings
attached ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613917/huawei-is-giving-300-million-a-year-to-universities-with-no-strings-attached/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=74342438&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_QTMj8_y5jtwtAM_USkqTQiQIlyruTsjzHBrlsQeyd4QBd-755ijJpq2hh_uFhZbfd3CYHgLNZFtepWCfHiU9zcINFYA&_hsmi=74342438
The End of an Era: MAD Magazine Will Publish Its Last Issue With Original
Content in Fall 2019 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/the-end-of-an-era-mad-magazine-will-publish-its-last-issue-with-original-content-this-fall.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
As the world grows increasingly "mad" demand for this magazine falters
When MAD Magazine Ruffled the Feathers of the FBI, Not Once But Three Times
---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/when-mad-magazine-ran-afoul-of-the-fbi.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
How Intellectual Humility Can Boost Our Curiosity & Ability to Learn: Read
the Findings of a New Study ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/how-intellectual-humility-can-make-us-more-curious-reflective-able-to-learn-more.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Jensen Comment
And yet some of our best scientists and researchers were and are not so humble.
I suspect there's a correlation with arrogance and competitiveness, although
time sometimes takes a toll along with defeats along the way.
Former governor of Rio paid $2m bribe to win 2016 Olympics — defeating
Chicago’s bid in the process
https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/olympics/ct-rio-chicago-olymics-bribe-20190705-aw4lkxybwbanpb4zyg3j4i6jl4-story.html?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true
Inside Deutsche Bank's brutal $8.3 billion overhaul, which will cost
18,000 bankers their jobs ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/what-we-know-about-deutsche-bank-restructuring-plan-2019-7-1028333237
An Arm of the World Bank Has Been Implicated in Latin
America's Biggest Corruption Scandal ---
https://time.com/5618835/world-bank-international-finance-corporation-graft-grupo-aval/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2019070210am&xid=newsletter-brief
From the Scout Report on July 5, 2019
Recogito --- https://recogito.pelagios.org/
Recogito is a collaborative platform for adding annotations and semantic data to text files and images. In the Tutorial section, users will find a ten-minute introduction that briefly illustrates how to add and annotate a single document. Annotations can indicate that a selected snippet of text or region on an image refers to either a place, a person, or an event. When tagging locations, automatic suggestions are provided from a number of built-in gazetteers. The semantic annotations are useful for exploring the relationships across a set of documents (e.g., by finding all mentions of a specific person). Users can also publicly publish their annotated documents by marking them "visible to all." The free instance of Recogito on Pelagios.org imposes a 200MB total size limit for data stored within a workspace. However, images may be stored on an IIIF server outside of Recogito's limit. Recogito is free software, distributed under the Apache license, with source code available on GitHub. The project README also includes instructions for running a Recogito instance on one's own server.
Cherrytree --- www.giuspen.com/cherrytree
Cherrytree is a structured note taking application with support for rich text formatting and syntax highlighting for a number of common programming languages. Its files contain a related set of hierarchically arranged sub-documents, which Cherrytree calls nodes, that are organized in an outline structure. In addition to formatted text, nodes may also contain tables, images, embedded files, and code blocks. For many scripting languages, users may right click a code block to execute the code that it contains. Cherrytree files are exportable as PDFs, HTML websites, or folders of plain text files. The application website features a manual generated from a single Cherrytree file and the Downloads section of the site contains a Windows installer and .deb and .rpm package files for common Linux distributions. Section 3.4 of the Cherrytree manual outlines how technically inclined macOS users may install Cherrytree via Homebrew. Cherrytree is free software, distributed under the GNU General Public License, with source code available on GitHub
Free Online Tutorials, Videos, Course Materials, and Learning Centers
Education Tutorials
The Learning Scientists --- www.learningscientists.org
YouTube: American Sign Language University --- www.youtube.com/user/billvicars
Encyclopedia of Life: Learning + Education (science) --- https://education.eol.org/
Lesson Plan: "Father" of Our Country v. "Father" of the Bill of Rights --- www.gilderlehrman.org/content/father-our-country-v-father-bill-rights
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
BBC: 13 Minutes to the Moon --- www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2
NASA Sees Climate Cooling Trend (short term?) Thanks to Low Sun
Activity
National Weather Service: The Sun and Sunspots
https://www.weather.gov/fsd/sunspots
Media Ignores the 2016-2018 Cooling Event
---
https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2018/04/24/did_you_know_the_greatest_two-year_global_cooling_event_just_took_place_103243.html
Then why is the polar ice still receding?
"How Rogue Chemists are Creating the Deadliest Wave
of the Opioid Epidemic". So many substance abuse books are a mix of hysterical
in tone and a disappointing “paint by numbers” in their execution, but this one
really stands out for its research, journalism, and overall analysis. To give
just one example, it is also a great book on China, and how China and the
Chinese chemicals industry works, backed up by extensive original investigation.
Tyler Cowan
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/fentanyl-inc-by-ben-westhoff.html
The Simple Idea Behind Einstein’s Greatest Discoveries ---
https://www.quantamagazine.org/einstein-symmetry-and-the-future-of-physics-20190626/
Encyclopedia of Life: Learning + Education (science) --- https://education.eol.org/
Donkey’s cognitive capabilities (Equus asinus) share the heritability and
variation patterns of human’s cognitive capabilities (Homo sapiens) ---
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1558787819300309
Entomology Today --- https://entomologytoday.org/
Bug Squad --- https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/index.cfm
Youth and Entomology --- https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/4hyouth/
Buglife Science --- www.buglife.org.uk
"Should We Engineer the Mosquito?" Forum Science --- www.nisenet.org/catalog/should-we-engineer-mosquito-forum
The Atlas of Common Freshwater Macroinvertebrates of Eastern North America
---
http://macroinvertebrates.org/
Tornadoes: A Severe Weather and Natural Disasters Activity Science ---
www.scholastic.com/teachers/activities/teaching-content/tornadoes-severe-weather-and-natural-disasters-activity
The Secret Language of Trees: A Charming Animated Lesson Explains How Trees
Share Information with Each Other ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/the-secret-language-of-trees.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
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
Data & Society --- https://datasociety.net/
The Learning Scientists --- www.learningscientists.org
The Disability Visibility Project (rights) --- https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/
Video: When Chomsky met Foucault: how the thinkers debated the ‘ideal
society’
https://aeon.co/videos/when-chomsky-met-foucault-how-the-thinkers-debated-the-ideal-society?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=64f1a38ee4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_02_11_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-64f1a38ee4-68951505
\He died as he lived: David Hume, philosopher and infidel ---
https://aeon.co/ideas/he-died-as-he-lived-david-hume-philosopher-and-infidel?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=64f1a38ee4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_02_11_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-64f1a38ee4-68951505
The Indigenous Digital Archive --- www.native-docs.org
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
All the Decisions the USA Supreme Court Made in 2019 to Date ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-decisions-this-year-2019-6
Supreme Court Allows Warrantless Blood Draws of Unconscious Drivers ---
https://reason.com/2019/06/27/supreme-court-allows-warrantless-blood-draws-of-unconscious-drivers/
CBS Sixty Minutes on June 30, 2019: "The
Nuremberg Prosecutor"
https://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/IwL1g71DuOHQLpOrKNfdGxF_Rq4Tl0Gf/taking-aim-at-opioids-the-nuremberg-prosecutor-into-the-wild/
What a great (middle) segment about an unbelievable 97-year old prosecutor
Lesson Plan: "Father" of Our Country v. "Father" of the Bill of Rights --- www.gilderlehrman.org/content/father-our-country-v-father-bill-rights
Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Law
Math Tutorials
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Mathematics and Statistics
Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
History Tutorials
The rise of millennial socialism ---
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2019/06/aaron-bastani-fully-automated-luxury-communism-bhaskar-sunkara-manifesto-milennial-socialism-review
"How Rogue Chemists are Creating the Deadliest Wave
of the Opioid Epidemic". So many substance abuse books are a mix of hysterical
in tone and a disappointing “paint by numbers” in their execution, but this one
really stands out for its research, journalism, and overall analysis. To give
just one example, it is also a great book on China, and how China and the
Chinese chemicals industry works, backed up by extensive original investigation.
Tyler Cowan
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/fentanyl-inc-by-ben-westhoff.html
The Love of Books: The Brave Librarians of Sarajevo ---
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeraworld/2019/06/love-books-brave-librarians-sarajevo-190624131307367.html
"What It Means to Be American" --- www.whatitmeanstobeamerican.org
The IQ Test ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient
Alfred Binet ---
http://www.intelltheory.com/
Artists in Paris: Mapping the 18th-Century Art World ---
https://artistsinparis.org/#@261848.15527273554,6250566.718238154&z=13.00&y=1675&g=s,hp,p,gp,l,slp,e,o
Lesson Plan: "Father" of Our Country v. "Father" of the Bill of Rights --- www.gilderlehrman.org/content/father-our-country-v-father-bill-rights
A Witty Dictionary of Victorian Slang (1909) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/a-witty-dictionary-of-victorian-slang-1909.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Hear the First Recording of the Human Voice (1860) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/hear-the-first-recording-of-the-human-voice-1860.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Public Management of Big Data: Historical Lessons from the 1940's
http://shfg.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/FH 7 (2015) Anderson.pdf
Video: When Chomsky met Foucault: how the thinkers debated the ‘ideal
society’
https://aeon.co/videos/when-chomsky-met-foucault-how-the-thinkers-debated-the-ideal-society?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=64f1a38ee4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_02_11_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-64f1a38ee4-68951505
He died as he lived: David Hume, philosopher and infidel ---
https://aeon.co/ideas/he-died-as-he-lived-david-hume-philosopher-and-infidel?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=64f1a38ee4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_02_11_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-64f1a38ee4-68951505
The Indigenous Digital Archive --- www.native-docs.org
A Continent Divided: The U.S. - Mexico War
https://library.uta.edu/usmexicowar/
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
Video: This device, created by two Japanese scientists, can easily
translate real-time speech into over 40 languages using only a few finger-taps
---
https://jborden.com/2019/07/11/this-looks-like-one-of-the-coolest-and-most-useful-gadgets-ever/
A Witty Dictionary of Victorian Slang (1909) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/a-witty-dictionary-of-victorian-slang-1909.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
YouTube: American Sign Language University --- www.youtube.com/user/billvicars
Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Languages
Music Tutorials
Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Music
Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Writing Tutorials
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/
June 27, 2019
· Urine Test Might Dictate Prostate Cancer Treatment
· Many Docs at Stem Cell Clinics Lack Specific Training
· Trump Seeks Health Care Cost Details For Consumers
June 28, 2019
· Massive Fireworks Recall in Three States
· Processed Foods in Pregnancy May Be Tied to Autism
· Early Risers May Be a Little Less Likely to Get Breast Cancer
· Alzheimer's Genes Might Show Effects in Your 20s
· San Francisco First City to Ban E-Cigarette Sales
June 29, 2019
· FDA Recalls Insulin Pumps Over Security Concerns
· Infections, Especially UTIs, May Trigger Strokes
· Early Risers May Be a Little Less Likely to Get Breast Cancer
July 1, 2019
· FDA Recalls Insulin Pumps Over Security Concerns
· Infections, Especially UTIs, May Trigger Strokes
· Alzheimer's Genes Might Show Effects in Your 20s
July 3, 2019
· Surgery Helps Babies With One Heart Chamber Live
· MS Linked to Higher Cancer Risk
July 4, 2019
· Pot a Substitute to Opioids or Sleep Meds for Many
· Need Emergency Air Lift to Hospital? It Could Cost You $40,000
· Millions Hurt by 'Secondhand' Alcohol of Others
· Anti-Vax Push a 'Man-Made' Health Bind: Scientists
· Crypto, Other Dangers Abound Around the Pool
July 6, 2019
· Pot a Substitute to Opioids or Sleep Meds for Many
· Anti-Vax Push a 'Man-Made' Health Bind: Scientists
July 8, 2019
· FAQ: What To Know About Dangerous Vibrio Bacteria
· Pot a Substitute to Opioids or Sleep Meds for Many
July 11, 2019
· How Grief Shows Up In Your Body
· Is Your Mattress Releasing Toxins While You Sleep?
July 12, 2019
· ‘Like Being in an Ocean’: The Many Stages of Grief
· How Grief Shows Up In Your Body
· 'Toy Story 4' Toys Recalled Due to Choking Hazard
July 13, 2019
· Just 300 Fewer Calories a Day Brings a Health Benefit
· CPR Less Likely for Poor Black Kids Study Finds
· ‘Like Being in an Ocean’: The Many Stages of Grief
Animals do have memories, and can help us crack Alzheimer’s ---
https://aeon.co/ideas/animals-do-have-memories-and-can-help-us-crack-alzheimers?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a2c2aa3196-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_06_27_01_56&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-a2c2aa3196-68951505
Researchers reveal how protein mutation is involved in rare brain
development disorder ---
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-06-reveal-protein-mutation-involved-rare.html
Bummer: Last Flu Season's Vaccine Only 29% Effective: CDC ---
https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20190628/last-flu-seasons-vaccine-only-29-effective-cdc
"How Rogue Chemists are Creating the Deadliest Wave
of the Opioid Epidemic". So many substance abuse books are a mix of hysterical
in tone and a disappointing “paint by numbers” in their execution, but this one
really stands out for its research, journalism, and overall analysis. To give
just one example, it is also a great book on China, and how China and the
Chinese chemicals industry works, backed up by extensive original investigation.
Tyler Cowan
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/fentanyl-inc-by-ben-westhoff.html
A Beautiful 1870 Visualization of the Hallucinations That Come Before a
Migraine ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/a-beautiful-1870-visualization-of-the-hallucinations-that-come-before-a-migraine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Humor for July 2019
A Witty Dictionary of Victorian Slang (1909) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/a-witty-dictionary-of-victorian-slang-1909.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Butterfingered perp enters Dunkin’, drops gun in front of cops
https://nypost.com/2019/06/30/butter-fingered-perp-enters-dunkin-drops-gun-in-front-of-cops/
8 Funny and Relatable Experiences That All Entrepreneurs Go Through ---
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/335772
One Word Photo Essays ---
http://forwardsfun.blogspot.com/2014/03/one-word-photo-essays.html
Forwarded by Eileen
WHO ON EARTH DREAMS THESE UP?
How does Moses make tea? Hebrews it.
Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!
I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.
Haunted French pancakes give me the crepes.
England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.
I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.
I thought I had type-A blood, but it was a Typo.
I changed my iPod's name to Titanic. It's syncing now.
Jokes about German sausages are the wurst.
I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid, but he says he can stop any
time.I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.
This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.
When chemists die, they barium.
I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can't put it down.
I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
Why were the Indians here first? They had reservations.
I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.
Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she
couldn't control her pupils?When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.
Broken pencils are pointless.
What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.
I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx.
All the toilets in New York's police stations have been stolen. The police
have nothing to go on.I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.
Velcro - what a rip off!
Don't worry about old age; it doesn't last.
Forwarded by Paula
A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.
A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”
A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
A question mark walks into a bar?
A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.
Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Get out -- we don't serve your type."
A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
A synonym strolls into a tavern.
At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar -- fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.
A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
A dyslexic walks into a bra.
A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars.
A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.
Humor June 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q2.htm#Humor0619.htm
Humor May 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q2.htm#Humor0519.htm
Humor April 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q2.htm#Humor0419.htm
Humor March 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q1.htm#Humor0319.htm
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
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) Accounting Textbooks
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
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