Tidbits on July 31 2019
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

The Beautiful History of St. Matthew's Chapel of Sugar Hill, New Hampshire

http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Churches/Set02/ChurchesSet02.htm  

 

Tidbits on July 31, 2019
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Bob Jensen's Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

For earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 
Bookmarks for the World's Library --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm 

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

Recovering From a Stroke --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5MgqXrl1U0
Thank you Lapétra for the heads up

Richard Feynman’s Technique for Learning Something New: An Animated Introduction ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/richard-feynmans-technique-for-learning-something-new.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

PBS LearningMedia: Great American Read (English Literature) --- https://nhpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/great-american-read/ 

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 

“Happy Birthday” Played on the Piano with 16 Increasing Levels of Complexity: From Easy to Very Complex ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/happy-birthday-played-on-the-piano-with-16-increasing-levels-of-complexity.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The Top 20 Acoustic Guitar Intros of All Time ---
https://jborden.com/2019/07/22/music-monday-the-top-20-acoustic-guitar-intros-of-all-time/

Whisperin' Bill Anderson ---
https://jborden.com/2019/07/29/music-monday-whisperin-bill-anderson/

Bob Jensen's Links to Free Music
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm


Photographs and Art

60 Jarring Nature Photographs ---
https://historydaily.org/60-jarring-nature-photos?utm_subid=1792715&utm_source=ga_tc&utm_medium=tc&utm_term=phys.org&utm_campaign=498260&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIifrHndDY4wIVBN7ACh1KKwCvEAEYASAAEgIOZvD_BwE

What Happened to the 1200 Paintings Painted by Bob Ross (popular PBS painting instructor)? The Mystery Has Finally Been Solved ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/what-happened-to-the-1200-paintings-painted-by-bob-ross.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Pulling the Strings: Rosalynde Stearn Puppet Collection --- http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/puppets/index.php

Bob Jensen's threads on art history ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#ArtHistory

Behold Fantastical Illustrations from the 13th Century Arabic Manuscript Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/marvels-of-things-created-and-miraculous-aspects-of-things-existing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

ongs by Joni Mitchell Re-Imagined as Pulp Fiction Book Covers & Vintage Movie Posters ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/songs-by-joni-mitchell-re-imagined-as-pulp-fiction-book-covers-vintage-movie-posters.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The World of the Crusades:  An Illustrated History ---
https://www.amazon.com/World-Crusades-Christopher-Tyerman/dp/0300217390/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2R16YJT5EHXOL&keywords=world+of+the+crusades&qid=1563805110&s=gateway&sprefix=world+of+ther+c%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1/marginalrevol-20

Chase rolling hills and windmills on a jazzy ride through the California countryside ---
https://aeon.co/videos/chase-rolling-hills-and-windmills-on-a-jazzy-ride-through-the-california-countryside?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=05a3c68abc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_17_05_44&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-05a3c68abc-68951505

Art21: Magazine --- http://magazine.art21.org/

Past to Present: Fashion Reinterpretations --- www.europeana.eu/portal/en/exhibitions/past-to-present#

The Ohio State University: Fashion2Fiber --- http://fashion2fiber.osu.edu/

Dressed: The History of Fashion --- www.dressedpodcast.com

Fashion History Timeline --- https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/

Kyoto Costume Institute Digital Archives --- www.kci.or.jp/en/archives/digital_archives

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

PBS LearningMedia: Great American Read (English Literature) --- https://nhpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/great-american-read/ 

The Brit Lit Blog --- https://britlitblog.com/

Alluvium Language (21st Century Literature)  www.alluvium-journal.org

Duke University Libraries: Bitstreams ---
https://blogs.library.duke.edu/bitstreams/

Free Electronic Literature --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm st
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 31, 2019
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2019/TidbitsQuotations073119.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




What did the buffalo say to his son when he left for college? Bison.
The Next Big College Scandal? Parents Giving Up Guardianship for Aid
(and possibly student loan forgiveness) ----
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/07/30/next-big-college-scandal-parents-giving-guardianship-aid?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=c37a912039-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-c37a912039-197565045&mc_cid=c37a912039&mc_eid=1e78f7c952


Five colleges and universities misreported the data used to calculate the 2019 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” rankings ---
https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/articles/2019-07-25/updates-to-5-schools-2019-best-colleges-rankings-data?cid=db

Five colleges and universities misreported the data used to calculate the 2019 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” rankings. The institutions — the University of California at Berkeley, Scripps College, Mars Hill University, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Johnson & Wales University — notified the magazine that they first submitted incorrect data during the spring and summer 2018 data-collection period.


The Atlantic:  Has College Gotten Too Easy? Time spent studying is down, but GPAs are up ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/07/has-college-gotten-easier/594550/

Jensen Comment
In eight decades the median grade across the USA went from C+ to A- (with variations of course) and efforts in such places as Princeton and Cornell to limit the proportion of A grades were ended and deemed as failures.
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor

Now we ask:  Has college gotten to easy. I guess you know what I think.

Higher education has become Lake Wobegon where (almost) all students are above average in terms of what used to be average.


She Had Her Head in the Clouds:  A hacker stole the personal data of 106 million US and Canadian Capital One customers:  A suspect, Paige A. Thompson, was arrested by the FBI ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/f/614032/a-hacker-stole-the-personal-data-of-100-million-capital-one-customers/


Financial Literacy Should be Part of Core Curriculum in Both High School and College
Here’s why America’s $1.5 trillion student-loan crisis has spiralled out of control
---
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-financial-education-wont-solve-the-15-trillion-student-loan-crisis-2019-06-27
Read the comments that follow the article
Jensen Comment
Ignorance of finance is not the only cause of out-of-control student debt (think over $1.5 trillion dollars), but it's a major cause of poor student loan decisions, bad decisions in marriage, and poor career choices.

Making political promises of loan foregiveness excerbates the student loan crisis, encouraging students to borrow more on a bet that all their debts will be forgiven after 2020.

The fact of the matter is that progressive spending for green initiatives, Medicare-for-All, student loan forgeiveness, free college, guaranteed annual income, etc. will aggregate to spending of over $20 trillion per year with no hope of paying for even the first year without destroying the stock markets, bond markets, and real estate markets. That, in turn, will destroy pension funds of teachers, professors, firefighters, civil servants, and virtually all business employees of the USA.

The bottom line is that student loans can only be forgiven if their parents' pensions are destroyed.


A New Interactive Visualization of the 165,000 Most-Frequently Assigned Texts in College Courses ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/a-new-interactive-visualization-of-the-1650000-most-frequently-assigned-texts-in-college-courses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29


Washington state’s big bet on ‘free college’ ---
https://theconversation.com/washington-states-big-bet-on-free-college-119073

 . . .

Washington state’s new college affordability initiative differs from the “free college” efforts being undertaken by other states such as Tennessee and Oregon. In other states, such as these, Rhode Island and, soon, Massachusetts, the “free college” initiatives are mostly limited to tuition-free community college for some students. But in Washington state, the Workforce Education Investment Act provides money for students to attend not only a community college, but four-year public and private colleges and universities.

Other states’ free college initiatives, for the most part, are “last dollar” programs. The most prominent example is Tennessee. In last dollar programs, the state money students get is applied toward their college costs only after they have gotten other financial aid, such as federally administered Pell Grants. These last dollar state grants typically cover only tuition and cannot be applied to living costs.

The new Washington program, however, offers “first dollar” grants. This allows students to apply Pell and other aid to college costs besides tuition, such as books, room and board, and transportation. This lowers the amount that students have to borrow for college.

Also, unlike in some states’ “free college” programs, there is no residency requirement after graduation. This is not the case in, for example, New York, where students who get their tuition covered by an Excelsior Scholarship must live and work in New York for the same number of years that they received the scholarship. Otherwise, their scholarship becomes a repayable loan.

The new law also seeks to help those who need training that doesn’t necessarily involve college. For instance, students can use the grants for Registered Apprenticeship programs, which sometimes charge tuition. The act also provides substantial new money – $11.5 million for the next two-year budget cycle – for Career Connect Washington, an effort to bring employers and educators together to design programs that emphasize the skills employers seek.

Will it work?

Washington state already keeps tuition from rising more than the rate at which average wages grow. Now, with this new initiative that provides state aid grants to more students, the state is attacking the college affordability issue on multiple fronts.

The grant program is being funded by $162.7 million that has been set aside to finance the new student aid grants over the 2019-21 budget cycle. This is beyond the roughly $648 million reserved for the current grant program and represents a significant 25% gain in a state that was already a college aid leader.

The new college grants will be made available beginning in the 2020-21 school year to students with family incomes up to the state median, which is $92,000 for a family of four, according to the Washington Student Achievement Council. Under the old grant program, the cutoff was at 70% of the median.

The Workforce Education Investment Act also provides $17.1 million in funding for more seats in college programs in high-demand fields, such as nursing and IT. It also provides for increased faculty salaries in those fields.

Given student living costs, there is no guarantee that Washington College Grant recipients will graduate debt-free. And it remains to be seen whether the Workforce Education Investment Act will pay off in the way that employers hope. But through the program, Washington state seems better poised than it was before to ensure that its own citizens are able to get one of the state’s high-paying jobs.

Continued in article

 Jensen Comment
For a state without personal income tax, this seems like a potentially heavy burden for business firms to bear when such a large proportion of the graduates are not really prepared for careers without graduate studies and further career training. For example, accounting majors have to tak a fifth year just to sit for the CPA examination and law students have to go law school. What happens to graduates who are denied admittance to graduate studies for careers.

There's also a problem for some disciplines, especially humanities where there is already a surplus of Ph.D. graduates. Having more graduates seeking graduate studies in humanities exacerbates the supply problem.


A giant data store quietly being built in India could free vast swathes of science for computer analysis — but is it legal?
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02142-1


Replication Failures: The Plot Thickens ---
https://replicationnetwork.com/2019/07/19/replication-failures-the-plot-thickens/


Buckminster Fuller (futurist author of over 30 books)  --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller

Buckminster Fuller Tells the World “Everything He Knows” in a 42-Hour Lecture Series (1975) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/buckminster-fuller-tells-the-world-everything-he-knows-in-a-42-hour-lecture-series-1975.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29


Fifty Years, Little Progress For Black Accountants ---
https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/fifty-years-little-progress-for-black-accountants

Jensen Comment
This article is misleading in one major aspect. It's really a study of trends of blacks in the CPA profession. Remember that many accountant graduates never take the CPA examination. For decades business firms (think IBM) and government agencies (think IRS) have been hiring accounting graduates who are not CPAs. Furthermore, large corporations have partnered with historically black universities to sponsor internships and hiring programs for accounting majors for students who are not on CPA tracks as accounting majors.

For African Americans who do pass the CPA examination there often enormous opportunities for career advancement into management outside the common track of becoming auditors or tax accountants in CPA firms. It's not possible to become a licensed CPA without  auditing experience, but many graduates (especially African Americans) who pass the CPA examination have golden career opportunities that tempt them away from becoming auditors. The CPA exam itself is a badge of accomplishment more important, in many instances, than a full CPA license for African Americans on a management track.

The bottom line is that many accounting program graduates of all races and ethnicities do not even attempt the CPA examination, because the exam requires a more rigorous accounting curriculum to sit for the exam and difficult preparation effort time and money.. An analogy here is the high proportion of financial analysts who never attempt the very difficult CFA examination.

There's also a huge problem attracting talented African Americans into accounting Ph.D. programs even though virtually all of those programs provide alternatives for free tuition, room and board, and other expenses. The competition is keen to get into programs where there are only around 200 accounting Ph.D. degrees awarded across the entire USA. Unlike science and engineering, there are no incentives for accountants to get a Ph.D. unless they're intending to teach and conduct research in colleges.


About a mile down the road from where we live in the White Mountains of New Hampshire is the historic (at one time a farm porch for horse carriages) "Polly's Pancake Parlor" ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/2009/Tidbits090105.htm
Except at 7:00 am opening time and 2:00 pm near closing time, the customer wait at Polly's is usually 1-2 hours. My neighbor and I eat at Polly's at least once each week, but we always go at 7:00 am.

Polly's Pancake Parlor on the Cooking Channel ---
https://pollyspancakeparlor.com/

Polly’s was recently featured on the Cooking Channel’s "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." The episode was titled- "Genuine Legends" - and celebrates eats and eateries that will always withstand the test of time. Find out which dishes make the cut and go down in history as true legends.

Polly’s was nominated by celebrity chef Simon Majumdar who visited the restaurant in 2017 unbeknownst to the staff and owners. Taping took place in October of 2018 and features manager Scott Carmichael.

Owner Kathie Aldrich Côté says that it was an honor to be nominated and featured on the Cooking Channel. Polly’s is open daily 7 AM- 3 PM through October and then open four days per week Friday-Mondays, November through April.

Upcoming air dates are:

Thursday, Jul 25 - 7pm

Monday, Aug 5 - 11pm

Tuesday, Aug 6 - 3am

Thursday, Aug 8 - 7:30pm

Monday, Aug 19 - 11:30pm

Tuesday, Aug 20 - 3:30am

Things I Never Knew About New Hampshire ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/my-favorite-things-new-hampshire.html
Note the long list of comments (including my own)

 


Critics are calling Apple's latest refreshed laptops a 'much-needed upgrade' — here's what they have to say about the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-macbook-air-macbook-pro-refresh-reviews-2019-7


How to Make Word Documents Fillable but Not Editable ---
https://www.howtogeek.com/398308/how-to-make-word-documents-fillable-but-not-editable/


Nestle Creates New Chocolate—With No Added Sugar
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-16/nestle-invents-new-way-to-make-chocolate-without-adding-sugar?cmpid=BBD071619_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190716&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily


Margaret Mead --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead

How the misadventures of Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune, and Gregory Bateson shaped anthropology ---
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190724-king-mead?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&cid=at

. . .

 

But Mead was feeling the tug toward a more ambitious, all-encompassing science. She could claim no theoretical advance as her own, no broad finding that people would recognize as a signature contribution. “I find I am growing more and more cynical all the time about good work winning through,” she complained to Benedict.

Since finishing her doctorate, she had failed to land a professorial position. Her annual salary as an assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History was a little under $2,400. Benedict at least had an academic job; she had recently been elevated from a lectureship to an assistant professorship in Boas’s department, earning about $3,600 a year — although this was still far less than the salary of a male visiting scholar. Mead worried that she herself was fated to be little more than a popularizer or, as she had once complained, “that awful animal a ‘lady scientist.’”

By her 30th birthday, Mead had become one of the most recognizable names in anthropology — at least to non-anthropologists. Newspapers and magazines quoted her as an authority on marriage, child-rearing, adolescence, and other subjects. Coming of Age in Samoa was one of the very few books in the field that people outside academia could name. But she wondered what you had to sacrifice to make sure that your work mattered in the world. “I don’t think having the worst paid job in the Museum, and never having been offered another job, and having been panned or damned with faint praise in all the journals of my own science, is wonderful recognition,” she said to Benedict. You needed academic prestige to make your ideas stick, and so far that was very much lacking.

As the Grantwood evenings showed, it was hard to separate your scholarly work from the swirl of relationships — academic, professional, social, romantic — that developed as you tried both to write your books and to live your life. Can what you produce ever really be divorced from your own biography, the ties you forge and then forget, the horrors and mishaps that you sweep neatly behind the footnotes and reference lists? Especially if you’re a social scientist, what happens to the adjective as you shape yourself into the noun?

In late 1932, Mead found herself wrestling with these problems in one of the remotest places in the world. She was in a soggy river port in New Guinea with Reo Fortune. She would soon be in the throes of what she believed would mark her greatest achievement as a thinker and writer, a genuine theoretical breakthrough on par with the most profound insights in the social sciences. It would also usher her toward the brink of madness.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
A friend of mine used to say that Margaret Mead was an anthropologist in tennis shoes. What you learned from her is pretty much what you could learn from studying social sciences from the pictures in National Geographic Magazine ---
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=national+geographic+magazine&t=h_&ia=web

Sometimes a picture, like a multiple regression model, is worth thousands of words. But then looking at a picture or p-values you can make a lot of wrong conclusions from very interesting photographs or equations ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead#Controversy 

She did spread a lot of love around the world.

 


A Key Reason the Fed Struggles to Hit 2% Inflation: Uncooperative Prices ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/how-hard-is-it-to-stimulate-demand.html
See the full article at
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-key-reason-why-the-fed-struggles-to-hit-2-inflation-uncooperative-prices-11564318800
 


Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events ---
https://www.amazon.com/Narrative-Economics-Stories-Economic-Events/dp/0691182299/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2TATJQOS71QST&keywords=narrative+economics+robert+shiller&qid=1563805196&s=gateway&sprefix=narrative+e%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1/marginalrevol-20


LSU Just Unveiled a $28-Million Football Facility. The Flood-Damaged Library Is Still ‘Decrepit.’ ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/LSU-Just-Unveiled-a/246750?utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en&cid=wc


Washington Post:  SAT, ACT, IQ, and College Graduate Rates for Each of the 50 States ---
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/13/actually-mr-trump-iowa-is-one-of-the-smartest-states-in-the-union/?utm_term=.f9b558a9305f
Jensen Comment
If Fox News or Breitbart had published this study it would've been decried as racist (with some exceptions). But since The Washington Post published the results the liberal media largely ignored the study.

Perhaps a more interesting table (and less controversial) is the trends in college graduation numbers by state ---
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/new-state-state-college-attainment-numbers-show-progress-toward-2020-goal

My reason for showing this was triggered by the recent enormous budget cuts for state-supported universities in Alaska. Especially note the increased number of graduates between 2009 and previously-predicted number for 2020. Compare that with the dismal predicted increase for Wyoming. Another low-population state, Vermont, shows increases similar to Alaska. Here are the relative populations of Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming. ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories_of_the_United_States_by_population

737,438  Alaska
626,299  Vermont
577,737  Wyoming

Comparisons of universities in terms of state support is very dubious since there are so many variations in funding ---
https://www.educationdive.com/news/colleges-vary-widely-in-reliance-on-state-support-report-says/548013/

Three states — Hawaii, Alaska and Illinois — rely on state support for more than 40% of their public higher ed funds. Meanwhile, Vermont, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania round out the bottom, with less than 10% of their funds coming from the state.

One difference between Alaska and Vermont is that Vermont has more private college alternatives that are not state supported but offer a lot of scholarships. And there are alternatives for college closer to home due to the many nearby colleges in New England. Another difference is the difference in the "reasons" for low population. Alaska has issues with climate and daylight that discourage migration to that far north. Alaska spends much more trying to attract new residents. Vermont mainly has issues of taxation that discourage migration into the state, and the home of Bernie Sanders is not about to cut taxes.

You can read a bit more about the recent budget cuts for higher education in Alaska at
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/should-alaska-cut-state-university-funding-by-41-percent.html


College’s IT system was attacked by hackers demanding $2 million in Bitcoin ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/15/hackers-demand-2-million-monroe-college-ransomware-attack?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=af9a6d96b1-WNU_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-af9a6d96b1-197565045&mc_cid=af9a6d96b1&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Jensen Question
Why can't blockchain identify the hackers if the college pays the ransom?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain


On Bill Gates’s ‘Greatest Mistake Ever’ ---
https://daringfireball.net/2019/07/gates_biggest_mistake

Jensen Comment
It's easier to be a barstool quarterback after the game is over. One thing the article notes is that in hindsight it's easy to overlook how different decisions might create different circumstances such as increased anti-trust penalties if Microsoft killed off the competition.

I still think what Bill Gates did right (profitably) is to allow multiple computer manufacturers to use the DOS and Windows operating systems, thereby serving a mass worldwide market customer base with Windows computing. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, would not allow the Mac operating system to be installed by any manufacturer of computers other than Apple. It's ludicrous that Apple could meet the world demand for computers. This move opened the door for Bill Gates to become the richest man in the world and reduced Mac computers to a niche market. It's a shame, because the Mac operating system, at the time, was superior to the Windows OS.

The next great decision Bill Gates made was to meet the commercial demand for MS Office software (think Word, Excel, and other software in the Office family) that left Apple in the dust in terms of the business and government mass market.

The Mac OS is still superior in a niche market, but it will never overtake the Windows OS in the mass market. For one thing is might take over a trillion dollars to retrain MS Office users all over the world who now use Office software in both complicated routine and innovative applications. For example, professionals can make a career out of being Excel experts. Excel became a fantastic piece of software in various types of applications (think financial analysis).


The Nordics: Market economies that are just as business-friendly as the US  ---
https://www.jpmorgan.com/jpmpdf/1320747403290.pdf


How to Mislead With Statistics
States Producing the Most Renewable Energy (as a percentage of total energy production)
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/07/24/states-producing-the-most-renewable-energy-2/

Jensen Comment
The Number 1 winner is Vermont --- supposedly producing virtually 100% of its electricity needs (2.1 million KWh) with (mostly old) hydro electric power.

At Rank 26 we have Wyoming producing 11.6% of its electricity needs (46.7 million KWh) with wind power.

Vermont has 626,000 people whereas Wyoming only has 577,000 people.

The first question is why Wyoming has fewer people but still needs 20 times more electric power. Partly this is explained by having the population of Vermont more concentrated, thereby having less transmission line loss of electricity. But 20 times less when wind power can be generated more where needed with wind than hydro power that depends more upon geology?

Secondly, Wyoming disserves more credit than Vermont by meeting power needs with new investments (windmills) whereas Vermont does relatively little new investing in new renewable power sources since it has very old hydro dams still meeting power needs.

Actually Vermont sells much of its hydro power to the grid and relies a great deal more on burning of biomass (wood chips) for cities like Burlington. Vermont actually discourages investing in wind power as being bad for aesthetics and tourism.

The second question is why are renewable energy sources are lumped into one category when they are environmentally different? |
Should you really compare Wyoming (generating 11.6% of its energy needs from wind power that does not produce carbon) with South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia (generating most of their renewable energy from biomass wood chip burning that's second only to coal in terms of producing carbon into the atmosphere).

What's very misleading, aside from lumping solar, wind, and biomass into one category, is to ignore state population in the write up of this energy data. Sure Vermont supposedly generates almost 100% of its electricity needs with hydro, but when I visit Vermont I see as many fuel oil and propane trucks in each village as I see in New Hampshire villages. Vermont is burning petroleum just like New Hampshire, but Vermont is making more selling power from old hydro dams to states like New York and Massachusetts. Vermonters are not nearly as environmentally focused as they like to pretend, especially since much of their newer "renewable" electric power is from burning wood chip smoke into the atmosphere that's far less environmentally friendly than propane.

In truth we probably should not even be comparing Vermont and Wyoming with high-populated states like California and New York. There's a denominator effect where percentages are distorted by very small or very large denominators relative to numerators of interest.


From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on July 25, 2019

 In a small California city, America’s highest minimum wage is causing a debate over how to balance boosting wages for the lowest-paid workers and ensuring small businesses can afford to keep employing them.

Jensen Comment
Showing once again that minimum wages are more of a problem for small businesses than for Walmart and Amazon that are not located in small villages with less than 1,000 people --- small town businesses that struggle to make any profits and endure losses in some seasons (think a small New England inn in the winter and spring). Actually I've recently discovered how the inn down the road from me charging a $300 average (with tax) per night for a room is struggling with competition from Airbnb renting scenic entire houses (think four bedrooms and a garage) for $200 per night in very scenic locales.

The high-labor inn across from me is once again is trying to lift itself out of bankruptcy while the Airbnbs are doing great ---
The Sunset Hill House --- https://www.thesunsethillhouse.com/

Prices of course vary, but up here in small-village Sugar Hill (one store downtown) you can rent a picture-perfect farm house for $200 per night, a ski chalet on Cannon Mtn for $200 a night, and the historic dairy barn film Bette Davis hauled in from Vermont and rebuilt into her main home (rent now for $300 per night) ---
ttps://hookedonhouses.net/2016/01/14/bette-davis-beloved-butternut-farm-new-hampshire/

Airbnbs can also make labor-saving deals like bring your own sheets and towels and bring your own breakfasts. 

The bottom line is do you want to pay $300 per night per room with a view versus $300 per night for four bedrooms in wooded seclusion, a fully-equipped kitchen, a huge family room, and a deck with a view --- all for $300 per night --- with much more privacy for your family and friends?

New Hampshire has not yet doubled the minimum wage to $15 per hour, but when it does hundreds of struggling inns and other small businesses end up in bankruptcy court (yet again).

In small villages doubling the minimum wage will wipe out jobs, once again driving people to the bigger cities.

 


Chronicle of Higher Education:  How Political Science Became Irrelevant
The field turned its back on the Beltway
By Michael C. Desch February 27, 2019

https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Political-Science-Became/245777?utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&cid=cr

In a 2008 speech to the Association of American Universities, the former Texas A&M University president and then-Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates declared that "we must again embrace eggheads and ideas." He went on to recall the role of universities as "vital centers of new research" during the Cold War. The late Thomas Schelling would have agreed. The Harvard economist and Nobel laureate once described "a wholly unprecedented ‘demand’ for the results of theoretical work. … Unlike any other country … the United States had a government permeable not only by academic ideas but by academic people."

Gates’s efforts to bridge the gap between Beltway and ivory tower came at a time when it was growing wider, and indeed, that gap has continued to grow in the years since. According to a Teaching, Research & International Policy Project survey, a regular poll of international-­relations scholars, very few believe they should not contribute to policy making in some way. Yet a majority also recognize that the state-of-the-art approaches of academic social science are precisely those approaches that policy makers find least helpful. A related poll of senior national-security decision-makers confirmed that, for the most part, academic social science is not giving them what they want.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that scholars increasingly privilege rigor over relevance. That has become strikingly apparent in the subfield of international security (the part of political science that once most successfully balanced those tensions), and has now fully permeated political science as a whole. This skewed set of intellectual priorities — and the field’s transition into a cult of the irrelevant — is the unintended result of disciplinary professionalization.

The decreasing relevance of political science flies in the face of a widespread and longstanding optimism about the compatibility of rigorous social science and policy relevance that goes back to the Progressive Era and the very dawn of modern American social science. One of the most important figures in the early development of political science, the University of Chicago’s Charles Merriam, epitomized the ambivalence among political scientists as to whether what they did was "social science as activism or technique," as the American-studies scholar Mark C. Smith put it. Later, the growing tension between rigor and relevance would lead to what David M. Ricci termed the "tragedy of political science": As the discipline sought to become more scientific, in part to better address society’s ills, it became less practically relevant.

When political scientists seek rigor, they increasingly conflate it with the use of particular methods such as statistics or formal modeling. The sociologist Leslie A. White captured that ethos as early as 1943:

We may thus gauge the ‘scientific-ness’ of a study by observing the extent to which it employs mathematics — the more mathematics the more scientific the study. Physics is the most mature of the sciences, and it is also the most mathematical. Sociology is the least mature of the sciences and uses very little mathematics. To make sociology scientific, therefore, we should make it mathematical.

Relevance, in contrast, is gauged by whether scholarship contributes to the making of policy decisions.

That increasing tendency to embrace methods and models for their own sake rather than because they can help us answer substantively important questions is, I believe, a misstep for the field. This trend is in part the result of the otherwise normal and productive workings of science, but it is also reinforced by less legitimate motives, particularly organizational self-interest and the particularities of our intellectual culture.

While the use of statistics and formal models is not by definition irrelevant, their edging out of qualitative approaches has over time made the discipline less relevant to policy makers. Many pressing policy questions are not readily amenable to the preferred methodological tools of political scientists. Qualitative case studies most often produce the research that policy makers need, and yet the field is moving away from them.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
This sounds so, so familiar. The same type of practitioner irrelevancy commenced in the 1960s when when academic accounting became "accountics science" --- About the time when The Accounting Review stopped publishing submissions that did not have equations and practicing accountants dropped out of the American Accounting Association and stopped subscribing to academic accounting research journals.

An Analysis of the Contributions of The Accounting Review Across 80 Years: 1926-2005 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm 
Co-authored with Jean Heck and forthcoming in the December 2007 edition of the Accounting Historians Journal.

Unlike engineering, academic accounting research is no longer a focal point of practicing accountants. If we gave a prize for academic research discovery that changed the lives of the practicing profession who would practitioners choose to honor for the findings?

 

The silence is deafening!


Equifax Might Owe You $125 for Its Massive Data Breach. Here's How to File a Claim ---
https://time.com/5634465/equifax-125-data-breach-how-to/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief-pm&utm_content=2019072519pm&xid=newsletter-brief

More Proof That Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is Clueless as to What Happens When You Give Away Money ---
https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2019/07/more-proof-that-alexandria-ocasio.html

Jensen Comment
You might be a bigger lottery winner (hundreds of millions of dollars to you and your lawyer) if you used Johnson and Johnson talcum powder or sprayed for weeds around you house with Roundup and got cancer (doesn't matter what really caused the cancer). Seems like $125 is maybe not worth your time, but why not?


The Code:  History of Silicon Valley ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-code-review-how-green-was-thevalley-11563231951?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1

The history of Silicon Valley now extends 70 years, encompassing multiple generations of hardware and software technology, of company founders and venture capitalists, of migrants both domestic and foreign, of tech evangelists and myth creators. And of an evolution, from a small electronics industry south of San Francisco into a global network, dominated by software-is-eating-the-world collossi with twin centers: the greater San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.

Condensing this range of stories into a compact narrative isn’t a task for the timid, but Margaret O’Mara, a historian at the University of Washington, has pulled off the feat with panache in “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.” She distills voluminous monographs and biographies, newspaper articles and trade-industry publications, unpublished company materials and transcripts that she gleaned from various university archives into a briskly paced narrative. She also enlivens the book with the reflections of dozens of participants who played roles in the Valley early on, obtained through interviews she conducted and from oral histories collected by others.

The story begins in 1949, when, as Ms. O’Mara puts it, “the U.S. government got into the electronics business and became, in a sense, the Valley’s first, and perhaps its greatest, venture capitalist.” Or the start could be in 1952, when administrators at Stanford University began developing open space for a new kind of research park, giving corporate tenants special access to its faculty and students and encouraging entrepreneurial ventures that originated in the university’s labs.

Bob Jensen's threads on computing and networking history ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#---ComputerNetworking-IncludingInternet


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

Monopsony Power in Higher Education: A Tale of Two Tracks ---
https://www.nber.org/papers/w26070#fromrss

Jensen Comment
Monopsony power such as that resulting from a high minimum wage increase often results in employers, especially small businesses, seeking more workers from the un enormous underground economy in the USA. For example, in San Antonio throngs of workers wait every morning on accustomed street corners to be picked up and taken to job sites such as sites for landscaping, roofing, construction, house cleaning, day care assisting, etc. Authorities look the other way because denying underground workers cash wages will hurt many young families, especially those of illegal immigrants.

In the case of colleges, the article points out that monopsony leads to more and more adjunct employment with almost no hope of getting onto a tenure track.


Top Ranked Universities (50) That Pay Off the Least ---
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/07/12/50-top-ranked-colleges-that-pay-off-the-least-3/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter&utm_content=JUL152019a

Jensen Comment
There are many reasons for choosing a college other than a career track. Most of the above universities have limited professional programs (such as business, engineering, computer science, pharmacy, nursing, etc.) but some are strong in graduate school preparation such as pre-med and law school and MBA  preparation.


Unwanted Diversity:  The University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents told Joan Gabel, new president of the institution, that it should work harder to recruit students from conservative and rural parts of the state ---
http://www.startribune.com/how-welcoming-are-the-university-of-minnesota-s-campuses-regents-disagree/512665622/?cid=db


Why History Gets Stuff Wrong All the Time ---
https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2019/07/why-history-get-stuff-wrong-all-the-time/


Divorce Is Destroying the Finances of Americans Over 50 ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-19/divorce-destroys-finances-of-americans-over-50-studies-show?cmpid=BBD071919_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190719&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily 

. . .

Splitting up after age 50 -- often called “gray divorce” -- may be particularly hazardous to your emotional and financial health, far worse than doing so at younger ages. A wave of new research is quantifying the damage.

“It’s a grim picture,” said Susan Brown, a Bowling Green State University sociology professor and co-director of the National Center for Family & Marriage Research, which has generated many of the new findings. According to one study, people who’ve gone through a gray divorce report higher levels of depression than those whose spouses died.

The economic effects are even more stark. As more and more Baby Boomers end marriages, sometimes for the second or third time, they’re wrecking their finances on an unprecedented scale.

“Getting a gray divorce is a major financial shock,” Brown said.

If you get divorced after age 50, expect your wealth to drop by about 50%, Brown and her colleagues found in yet-to-be-published research that analyzed a long-running longitudinal survey of 20,000 Americans born before 1960. That’s not really a surprise: After all, any divorce involves dividing a family’s resources.

But incomes also collapse after a gray divorce, particularly for women. The researchers looked at standard of living -- income adjusted for household size -- reflecting the fact that a solo adult needs less income than a single parent with two children still at home. They found that when women divorce after age 50, standard of living plunges 45%. That’s about double the decline found in previous research on younger divorced women.

Older men see their standard of living drop 21% after a divorce. Previous studies have found a small or negligible effect of divorce on younger men’s incomes.

Even more troubling is that older people aren’t bouncing back from these financial shocks. Brown and her colleagues were able to follow survey respondents’ finances for up to a decade post-divorce.

“There is no appreciable recovery on the wealth front,” she said. “There’s no appreciable recovery in standard of living.”

Late in their careers, older Americans simply don’t have time to undo the financial destruction that a divorce causes. Women who spent years at home caring for children find it difficult to re-enter the workforce.

By retirement age, they can be in dire straits. Another 2017 study by Brown and colleagues found U.S. women 63 and older who went through a gray divorce have a poverty rate of 27%, more than any other group at that age, including widows, and nine times the rate of couples who stay married.

Continued in article


What to do when K-12 science teachers don't know their specialties (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwChmLnLWvlzpBdHVKjvLSBqzlc


Pearson's Next Chapter
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/07/16/pearson-goes-all-digital-first-strategy-textbooks?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=15b5d68b90-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-15b5d68b90-197565045&mc_cid=15b5d68b90&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

The company will abandon its traditional textbook publishing model in favor of a digital-first strategy. Print books will still be available, but students will be encouraged to rent rather than buy.

Pearson, like many publishers in higher education, has long signaled its intent to move from print textbooks to digital courseware.

But today the company went farther than anyone else -- announcing that all of its 1,500 U.S. titles will become “digital first.”

From now on, instead of publishing new editions of print textbooks every few years, the publisher will focus its energy on its digital course materials.

 

These digital materials will be updated on an ongoing basis -- reflecting new research developments, technology breakthroughs and the latest pedagogical trends. Print versions of the materials will still be widely available to rent, but students will be discouraged from buying them with relatively high pricing and limited availability.

 

Instead of the digital product being adapted from the print textbook, the process will be the other way around, said John Fallon, CEO of Pearson, in an interview. There is no fixed schedule for how frequently print versions will be created from the digital materials.

Print revisions were a costly and time-consuming process, he said. The company is now in a position to "break that cycle."

 

Over half of all students now use at least one ebook as part of their studies, signaling increased acceptance of digital materials, said Fallon. He said that Pearson now has the technology to pull off the transition. The company’s Global Learning Platform, which has been in development for several years, will play a central role in enabling staff to update content in real time. “It’s been a huge investment, a big restructuring,” he said.

 

Of Pearson’s 1,500 active U.S. titles, 500 are currently digital first, said Fallon. He did not share how long he anticipates the transition to fully digital first will take, but he said the company is working to make it happen “as quickly as we possibly can.”

 

“We want students to have the best and most up-to-date content for the best price,” said Fallon. Pearson plans to lower its prices so that fewer students are tempted to buy secondhand books. It will also push its rental program so that fewer books ever enter the secondhand market.

 

“We will effectively have three price points. They will vary by discipline, but broadly speaking, the average ebook will be $40. You can still rent a physical textbook for $60. And a fully integrated digital product, like Revel, MyLab or Mastering, will be $65 to $80,” said Fallon.

 

With inclusive-access deals, where whole classes are signed up for a product and charged for access by their institution, the prices will be 30 to 40 percent lower than those above. Over 700 universities now have inclusive-access deals with the publisher, accounting for about 9 percent of its sales, said Fallon.

 

Pearson is not the first publisher to announce its intention to make the transition from analog to digital. Brian Kibby, former president of McGraw-Hill Higher Education, predicted in 2012 that colleges and universities would be done with textbooks within the next three years. It didn’t happen. But if other publishers follow Pearson’s lead, a digital-first future seems inevitable.

For textbook authors, the change will be significant. As publishers invest more heavily in digital courseware with built-in assessments and learner analytics, they have started to sign fewer textbook authors.

Continued in article


Listen up: why we can't get enough of audiobooks ---
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/13/listen-up-rise-of-audiobooks-steven-poole

Jensen Comment
Personally I love movies (especially from BBC), but I don't care much for audiobooks. Mostly it's my impatience when spending so much time getting through a single book. Perhaps if I'd spent hours each day commuting in a car I would appreciate audiobooks more. But I've never had to spend much time commuting. Before retirement I did spend a great deal of time on airplanes going to and from my dog and pony shows both inside and outside the USA. However, when flying to my gigs I rehearsed for my engagements. Returning home I just wanted to relax on the airplane, and what better way to relax than with a paperback written by Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, PD James, Elizabeth George, etc.? With such books I could read a bit and then doze a bit and then read a bit and so on. Airline movies were usually Hollywood trash. Hence I tried to concentrate on my more entertaining books on return flights.

At one point in my life I aspired to write mystery novels. Hence when reading novels or more serious academic books I made a lot of marginal notes and made my pencil indexes to pages behind the book covers. I was an early adopter of eBooks (remember the Rocket eBook) where I could make bookmarks and take electronic notes. But I was so caught up in my professional work that the novels I rushed out were not worthy of sharing with anybody else. I further decided that even if I spent more time writing fiction I was not going to be an  Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, PD James, Elizabeth George, etc.

Over the years I increasingly became a speed reader. Audiobooks are just too slow. And yeah, I miss a lot speed reading. But with an audiobook I miss a lot day dreaming.


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

The EPA Blames Six Asian Nations That The U.S. Exports Plastic Waste to for Ocean Pollution ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwChmKgFnwZmrPNtFLdjRlCdjnH

Jensen Comment
This illustration of externalities is especially important for economics and business courses. Since over half the world population dumps plastic into ocean currents running toward the USA it's likely that USA exports of plastic waste to those six (now five) countries ends up as a significant portion of the plastics headed for the Western Hemisphere. China recently stopped importing USA plastic waste but that's not expected to make any dent on the plasticizing of the Pacific Ocean. Much greater effort (especially research) must be made into making plastic waste profitable
. Meanwhile more regulation is desperately needed.


When the Legal and Financial Systems Become Dysfunctional:  India's Example ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/indias-tallest-building-cut-down-to-size.html


Changing the Curve:  Women in Computing
https://datascience.berkeley.edu/women-computing-computer-science/

Trends for Women in the Professions ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Women


Balance of Trade ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_trade

Nearly half of the USA trading deficit is caused by trade with China ---
https://www.usdebtclock.org/

What is the America-China Trade War All About?
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/what-is-the-america-china-trade-war-all-about.html

 

NYT's Tom Friedman: Trump Is Right About Trade Relationship with China --- 
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/opinion/china-trump-trade.html


 

Econometrics Reading List from David Giles

https://davegiles.blogspot.com/2019/07/july-reading.html

July 2019 Reading

This month my reading list is a bit different from the usual one. I've taken a look back at past issues of Econometrica and Journal of Econometrics, and selected some important and interesting papers that happened to be published in July issues of those journals.

 

Here's what I came up with for you:

·                     Aigner, D., C. A. K. Lovell, & P. Schmidt, 1977. Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models. Journal of Econometrics, 6, 21-37.

·                     Chow, G. C., 1960. Tests of equality between sets of coefficients in two linear regressions. Econometrica, 28, 591-605.

·                     Davidson, R. & J. G. MacKinnon, 1984. Convenient specification tests for logit and probit models. Journal of Econometrics, 25, 241-262.

·                     Dickey, D. A. & W. A. Fuller, 1981. Likelihood ratio statistics for autoregressive time series with a unit root. Econometrica, 49, 1057-1072.

·                     Granger, C. W. J. & P. Newbold,  1974. Spurious regressions in econometrics. Journal of Econometrics, 2, 111-120.

·                     Sargan, J. D., 1961. The maximum likelihood estimation of economic r


A jury found an electrical engineer and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor guilty of exporting stolen U.S. military technology to China ---
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13423


Note the Term "Bleg"
Foreign exchange and correspondent banking bleg ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/foreign-exchange-and-correspondent-banking-bleg.html


Libraries Must Draw the Line on E-books ---
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/80689-libraries-must-draw-the-line-on-e-books.html


Corzine Accepts Prop Trading Ban in His Wall Street Resurrection ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-15/corzine-accepts-prop-trading-ban-in-his-wall-street-resurrection?cmpid=BBD071519_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190715&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily

Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

 


Sales Tax --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_tax

. . .

Conventional or retail sales tax is levied on the sale of a good to its final end user and is charged every time that item is sold retail. Sales to businesses that later resell the goods are not charged the tax. A purchaser not an end user is usually issued a "resale certificate" by the taxing authority and required to provide the certificate (or its ID number) to a seller at the point of purchase, along with a statement that the item is for resale. The tax is otherwise charged on each item sold to purchasers without such a certificate and who are under the jurisdiction of the taxing authority

Other types of sales taxes, or similar taxes


Most countries in the world have sales taxes or value-added taxes at all or several of the national, state, county, or city government levels. Countries in Western Europe, especially in Scandinavia, have some of the world's highest valued-added taxes. Norway, Denmark and Sweden have higher VATs at 25%, Hungary has the highest at 27% although reduced rates are used in some cases, as for groceries, art, books and newspapers.
 

In some jurisdictions of the United States, there are multiple levels of government which each impose a sales tax. For example, sales tax in Chicago (Cook County), IL is 10.25%, consisting of 6.25% state, 1.25% city, 1.75% county and 1% regional transportation authority. Chicago also has the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority tax on food and beverage of 1% (which means eating out is taxed at 11.25%).

For Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the tax is 9.45%, which is 4.45% state & 5% local.[16] In Los Angeles it is 9.5%, which is 7.25% state & 2.25% county.

In California, sales taxes are made up of various state, county and city taxes. The state tax is "imposed upon all retailers" for the "privilege of selling tangible personal property at retail".[17] Strictly speaking, only the retailer is responsible for the payment of the tax; when a retailer adds this tax to the purchase price, the consumer is merely reimbursing the retailer by contractual agreement. When consumers purchase goods from out-of-state (in which case the seller owes no tax to California) the consumer is required to pay a "use tax" identical to the sales tax. Use tax is levied upon the "storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property". Consumers are responsible for declaring these purchases in the same filing as their annual state income tax, but it is rare for them to do so. An exception is out-of-state purchase of automobiles. Then, use tax is collected by the state as part of registering the vehicle in California.

The trend has been for conventional sales taxes to be replaced by more broadly based value-added taxes. Value -added taxes provide an estimated 20% of worldwide tax revenue and have been adopted by more than 140 countries. The United States is now one of the few countries to retain conventional sales taxes

Continued in article

 

A Great Debate Article for Accounting, Law, Economics, Sociology, and Political Science Courses
The Taxes Of San Francisco: Bay Area In Vanguard Of Tax Increase Movement
---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/07/the-taxes-of-san-francisco-bay-area-in-vanguard-of-tax-increase-movement.html

San Francisco is emerging as one of the most receptive places in the country for new taxes.

In recent weeks: 

·   San Francisco leaders supported the proposed overhaul of the city’s gross receipts tax structure, which would be the fourth tax-raising proposal on the city’s November ballot.

·   A San Francisco Superior Court judge upheld an initiative raising commercial lease taxes to fund early childhood education and upheld a Salesforce.com-backed initiative imposing gross receipts taxes on companies earning more than $50 million to support homeless services.

·   A pair of recent court rulings upheld locally passed tax initiatives—including one backing the city’s authority to seek taxes from drivers who use paid parking lots at state universities—which could embolden tax enthusiasts in San Francisco even more.

“I think SF is going to be the poster child, one way or another, for aggressively looking for money from business,” Joseph Bankman, Stanford University professor of law and business, said in an email.

Expect a ripple effect as local officials around the state talk about what worked in San Francisco and how to push the envelope in their own localities, said Rex Hime, president and CEO of the California Business Properties Association. The trade group’s members include Target Inc., Regency Centers Corp., and CBRE Group Inc.

“I think we all know that once something violates the process that others certainly follow suit thereafter, so we anticipate there will be a lot of these kinds of elections up and down the state,” Hime said. The impact is clear for his members: “The property owners can‘t leave. The tenants can.”

Voters over the past two decades approved taxes to pay for services or programs on top of existing taxes used to cover bonds and schools. Governments and taxpayers probably haven’t yet reached the tax saturation point but may be there in a decade, said Larry Tramutola, an election consultant who shepherded successful sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Albany, Calif., and Boulder, Colo.

“And no one knows when the golden goose is going to stop laying the golden eggs. But at some point, there’s going to be fewer eggs or no eggs in some communities. We just haven’t gotten there yet.” Tramutola said.

Setting the Trend

For now, San Francisco is the trendsetter. It’s the first major California city to test a state Supreme Court decision involving the Southern California city of Upland that supported the argument that tax initiatives by local governments can pass by a simple majority vote.

“The July 5th ruling would open the door for local governments to use the initiative process to avoid the two-thirds voter approval margin entirely and pass more special taxes, but next we will see how the Court of Appeal interprets the issues,” Laura Dougherty, a staff attorney with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which challenged the initiatives, said in an email. Howard Jarvis and the California Business Properties Association filed a notice of appealJuly 8.

San Francisco leaders, in addition to putting the gross receipts overhaul on the ballot, are supporting three new taxes for the November election: an excessive CEO salary tax, a 1.5% to 3.25% tax on shared rides, and a stock-based compensation tax.

“Regardless, all of these tax measures will require voter approval within the City and County of San Francisco,” said Kelly Salt, a public finance partner with Best Best & Krieger LLP in San Diego. “And as you well know, the cost of living there is already very high and will become more burdensome as a result of tax measures such as these. Ultimately, it is a matter of how much more of a tax burden voters are willing to tolerate.”

Gross Receipts Revamp

Mayor London Breed (D) and board President Norman Yee asked the city controller to develop a next-generation tax to replace the gross receipts structure voters adopted in 2012. That measure, also led by the Controller’s office, was implemented to phase out the much-despised 1.5% payroll tax. The payroll tax now stands at 0.38%, as the phase out hasn’t been completely revenue neutral.

Breed and Yee requested an initiative to create a more efficient tax system while ensuring the system is fair and equitable, including for small businesses. The effort would also identify ways to generate additional revenue to address the cost of housing and homelessness, support youth and families, improve behavioral health, and enhance the city’s public transportation system, a July 3 statement said.

An overarching plan is needed for San Francisco’s “current very complex patchwork of taxes, suspension of phase outs, more proposals on the way,” said Charles Moll III, a McDermott Will & Emery LLP tax law partner in San Francisco. But “any talk about a fair and equitable system usually means new and higher taxes.”

Michael Colantuono, managing partner and municipal finance attorney at Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley PC in Grass Valley, Calif., shrugged at San Francisco’s latest effort. “LA periodically goes through business tax reviews. Goal is always to maintain or increase revenues while reducing bureaucratic impositions on business. Their lack of success explains why my So Cal office is in Pasadena,” Colantuono said in an email.

Fueling Tax Fire

San Francisco used the Upland decision for a City Attorney opinionto conclude “it seems very likely that voters may now propose special taxes by initiative subject only to majority vote.”

“In light of the multiple lawsuits filed to date, the courts or, ultimately, the California Supreme Court, will have to answer the question of whether the Upland ruling extends to the voter approval threshold for citizen initiatives proposing special taxes,” said Best Best & Krieger’s Salt.

Ultimately, Salt said, California voters may be the ones to answer this question by amending the state constitution. Until then, local governments leave themselves open for litigation whether they collect a special tax approved by majority vote or decline to collect it, she said.

San Francisco Dreaming

San Francisco’s push for new taxes may be replicated by other local governments.

“Locals are always eager for new revenues for many reasons that can lead to desperate measures such as trying to enact new taxes that often are not well designed. Locals face challenges of an eroding sales tax base in California. As we move to more services and digital goods, and less tangible personal property, locals see reduced sales tax collection,” said Annette Nellen, director of San Jose State University’s master of taxation program.

Many places that tax goods, say weights bought at Wal-Mart to use in the garage, don’t tax services, say fees at the local gym where users can lift weights untaxed, said Tracy Gordon, senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

“The point is it is consumption. People who have a lot of resources, you can decide whether you tax their income or yoga studios. Yoga studios are a great thing to tax because they’re not mobile because they’re trying to serve a community or neighborhood,” said Gordon.

Among those waiting to see what happens with San Francisco’s litigation are Oakland and Fresno. Oakland, across San Francisco Bay, is defending its decision to declare a parcel tax was valid even though the measure only received a majority vote. In the Central San Joaquin Valley, Fresno was sued for not validating a sales tax measure that only received 52.17% of the vote.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The most controversial tax proposal is the "gross receipts (sales) " tax on gross revenue as opposed to net income taxes. Corporate net income taxes are fundamental Federal and most states of the USA. Taxes on gross revenues are much more controversial they vary selectively between different counties within a given state and when they vary between vendors (such has those having more than $50 million in sales).

More often than not, business firms do not pay any taxes and manage to merely collect all taxes from customers. For example, if San Francisco imposes an added local sales tax on its famous SF sourdough bread the SF sellers of that bread easily pass the tax along by raising bread prices. The exception arises where competitive pricing prevents raising prices for new local taxes. For example, it's pretty easy to raise the price of sourdough bread sales or alcohol sales in San Francisco. However, there's a limit to how much SF hotels can pass along steep local hotel sales tax increases. The reason is that convention planners for business firms and other organizations (think of American Accounting Association having its annual convention in SF in August 2019) might not ever return to SF if the prices of hotel rooms in SF become outrageously high relative to convention locations in other USA cities.

There's also a potential problem of double taxation. For example, if a sourdough bread manufacturer in San Francisco sells bread online around the world it's possible that San Francisco taxes the sale of the bread to Portland, Oregon customers. But what if Portland, Oregon also taxes the the online sales of this incoming sourdough bread to Portland, Oregon customers. There are ways of getting around double taxation, but it can get complicated.

The Tragic Outcome
Building housing for homeless only attracts more homeless than you can possibly house, especially if your open borders new policy opens the gates to billions of poor and disabled around the world. The Nordic nations along with the rest of the EU would never dream of such a tragic open borders policy that would destroy their economies. But Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and most other Democratic candidates are promising open borders along with free college, guaranteed annual income, free food, and free health care.

Mother Jones Writer: Warren’s Immigration Plan ‘De Facto Open Borders’---
https://freebeacon.com/issues/mother-jones-writer-warrens-immigration-plan-de-facto-open-borders/

An open invitation to billions of poor people around the world:  The beginning of the end for the USA economy, stock markets, bond markets, and pensions.

Why doesn't any other developed nation have open borders?

Suggestion for AAA Members at the August Annual Meetings:  Have at least one thick slice of unique SF sourdough bread glopped in chunks of real butter. Also watch where you step while taking walks outdoors.

And lastly, avoid looking at the tax added to your bill when checking out of the hotel.

 


How to Mislead With Statistics
Worst Car Brands of 2019 ---

https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/07/17/worst-car-brands-of-2019/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter&utm_content=JUL182019a

01 Land Rover (worst of worst)

02 Jaguar

03 Fiat

04 Volvo

05 Mitsubishi

06 Chrysler

07 Dodge

08 Jeep

09 GMC

10 Cadillac (best of the worst)

Jensen Comment
I leave it up to you to read the criteria for this ranking, which is mainly associated with "dependability." But "dependability" itself is a multivariate attribute. For example, up in the snow country Jeep is horribly prone to rust and deterioration from road salt. This is not a "dependability" concern in Arizona. However, Jeep has some other flaws that are nationwide such as a high failure rate in the differential.

Also there is a variation between long-run dependability versus short-run dependability. In the short run there can be cars that are prone to little things going wrong when they are new. Then there are those those things (like built-in obsolescence) that makes you wnat to dump a Jeep or Land Rover every three years or less but make you sort of like the long-term mileage expectation of you Volvo.

In any case rankings like this are misleading because they ignore standard deviations, skewness, variable driving climates (Arizona versus Maine), type of roads (on a ranch versus on an interstate highway), etc. People don't usually buy a Jeep or a Land Rover if they expect to use it mainly for interstate highway driving. People don't buy a Jaguar or Cadillac to haul hay to cows in the north pasture or get into remote fishing sites in Quebec forests. A sleek Jaguar may be the best car to park beside a singles bar when compared to a Dodge van often used to haul your kids to movies on week ends.

My point here is that ranking generally ends up to being analogous to a many-to-one aggregation that is subject to all sorts of misleading outcomes in mathematics and statistics.

The real test of a ranking might be to park the most expensive model of each of the 10 brands listed above in a Laredo parking lot near the bridge to Mexico. Leave the keys in each car and see which is the first to disappear versus the last one to disappear. Perform this experiment 30 days in a row. My guess is that you will get a quite different ranking with Fiat last to go. But then this experiment is misleading as well since the brands vary so greatly in price. Car thieves are after resale value, not dependability.

When I buy a car I usually want a dealer to be within a 30 mile distance of my home. That way I don't have to pay to have it hauled so far when it won't run. You guessed it. I would never buy a Tesla, because there are no Tesla dealers.


Bentley University student attacked for conservative activism ---
https://www.thecollegefix.com/bentley-university-student-attacked-for-conservative-activism/


The CPA Journal:  Fraud in the World of Advanced Technologies ---
https://www.cpajournal.com/2019/07/01/fraud-in-a-world-of-advanced-technologies/

Bob Jensen's Archives on Frauds ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


Battling Information Illiteracy ---
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2019/07/17/battling-information-illiteracy/

Jensen Comment
In the realm of financial information, accountants have been both contributing to and fighting financial information literacy for almost as long as there have been accountants. Accounting chefts cook the books followed by accounting auditors who attempt to put out the fires ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory02.htm#Manipulation


How to Mislead With Statistics
Divorce and Higher Education ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/divorce-and-higher-education.html

Jensen Comment
Note Tyler's comments about there "being more to it than this."

The major problem with this study is missing variables, variables that are often quite interactive (which creates huge problems in linear regression) and dependent upon unique circumstances.


How to Mislead With Statistics
Double-Counting of Investment
by  Robert J. Barro, NBER Working Paper No. 25826
 Issued in May 2019, Revised in July 2019
https://www.nber.org/papers/w25826 

The national-income accounts double-count investment, which enters once when it occurs and again in present value as rental income on added capital. The double-counting implies over-statement of levels of GDP and national income. Across countries, those with higher propensities to invest artificially look richer gauged by per capita GDP. There is also exaggeration of capital-income shares. An alternative measure involves a form of full expensing of gross investment. In the steady state, revised product and income correspond to consumption. Outside of the steady state, the measure deviates from consumption because full expensing applies to the long-run flow of gross investment.

You may purchase this paper on-line in .pdf format from SSRN.com ($5) for electronic delivery

Also see
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/robert-barro-says-we-double-count-investment.html


How to Mislead With Statistics
Anaesthetist John Carlisle has spotted problems in hundreds of research papers — and spurred a leading medical journal to change its practice ---
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02241-z


The Atlantic"  The spectacular PT Barnum ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/08/pt-barnum-biography-robert-wilson/592780/
 




From the Scout Report on July 19, 2019

DBeaver Science --- https://dbeaver.io/
DBeaver is a database client and administration tool that can interface with a large number of database servers. In DBeaver's graphical database explorer, users may examine and edit the structure of a database (e.g., the tables, columns, indexes, stored procedures, etc). Also included is an interactive SQL execution environment that includes syntax highlighting and offers auto-completion as queries are being entered. Query results are displayed in a data viewer that offers a spreadsheet mode, tabular text display, JSON, and XML. DBeaver can connect to MySQL and MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQLite, and numerous other databases. In addition, users are able to route connections through an SSH tunnel to reach development servers behind a firewall. The website's Download page contains installers for Windows, macOS, and Linux. DBeaver is free software, distributed under the Apache license, with source code available on GitHub.


Krita --- https://krita.org/en/
Krita is a graphics editor designed primarily for digital painting and animation. Its unique features include a brush stabilization engine that supports several methods of smoothing brush strokes, a brush engine that allows users to create their own custom drawing tools, and a customizable pop-up palette. A complete list of aspects is presented on the Features section of the website. This section also contains a gallery of images created with Krita and a series of interviews with artists who use the tool. More detailed usage information is presented in the Krita manual, which can be located on the Learn tab of the website. Also featured in this section are tutorials highlighting example workflows, including colorizing line art, digital painting, and creating pixel art. Under the Downloads tab, users can locate installers for Windows, macOS, and Linux as well as links to the Krita source code.

 




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


Education Tutorials

The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources --- www.cccoer.org

PBS LearningMedia: Great American Read (English Literature) --- https://nhpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/great-american-read/ 

The Brit Lit Blog --- https://britlitblog.com/

Alluvium Language (21st Century Literature)  www.alluvium-journal.org

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

Scientists call for reform, sugar regulation and transparency around dental research ---
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/18/inadequate-health-response-leaves-35bn-with-poor-dental-care

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene --- www.elementascience.org

Esri: Landsat Explorer (geospatial visualizations) --- http://landsatexplorer.esri.com/

How Do Scientists Know What Dinosaurs Looked Like? 
www.sciencefriday.com/educational-resources/how-do-scientists-know-what-dinosaurs-looked-like

The Lazarus Project: The Future of the Past (imaging technology) --- www.lazarusprojectimaging.com

1000th California condor chick hatched, marking recovery milestone
The largest bird in North America was nearly wiped out. Here's how it fought its way back.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/07/23/california-condor-hatchlings-hit-conservation-milestone/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8b7f855eceef

 

Once Nearly Dead as the Dodo, California Condor Comeback Reaches 1,000 Chicks
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/21/743901094/once-nearly-dead-as-the-dodo-california-condor-comeback-reaches-1-000-chicks

California condor births mark soaring comeback after numbers dwindled to 22
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/17/overwhelming-joy-birth-of-california-condor-chicks-marks-soaring-comeback

All About Birds: California Condor
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/California_Condor/overview

CondorKids
http://condorkids.net/

The California Condors of Big Sur
http://bigsurcondors.com/

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

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


Social Science and Economics Tutorials

The Pew Research Center: A Rising Share of Undergraduates are from Poor Families, Especially at Less Selective Colleges Social studies ---
www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/05/22/a-rising-share-of-undergraduates-are-from-poor-families-especially-at-less-selective-colleges

Words Without Borders Language --- www.wordswithoutborders.org

Reading Women Language --- www.readingwomenpodcast.com

Statistics in Schools: Geography Activities --- www.census.gov/programs-surveys/sis/activities/geography.html

HathiTrust: Food Studies ---
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis&c=317123364

Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Philosophy tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

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


Law and Legal Studies

Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Law


Math Tutorials

Four-Color Theorem --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_color_theorem
Also see --- http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Four-ColorTheorem.html

Statistics in Schools: Geography Activities --- www.census.gov/programs-surveys/sis/activities/geography.html

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

Why History Gets Stuff Wrong All the Time ---
https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2019/07/why-history-get-stuff-wrong-all-the-time/

The Atlantic"  The spectacular PT Barnum ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/08/pt-barnum-biography-robert-wilson/592780/

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Prediction of How American Democracy Could Lapse Into Despotism, Read by Michel Houellebecq ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/alexis-de-tocquevilles-prediction-of-how-american-democracy-could-lapse-into-despotism.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The World of the Crusades:  An Illustrated History ---
https://www.amazon.com/World-Crusades-Christopher-Tyerman/dp/0300217390/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2R16YJT5EHXOL&keywords=world+of+the+crusades&qid=1563805110&s=gateway&sprefix=world+of+ther+c%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1/marginalrevol-20

Schisms and Divisions in Crime and Punishment  (Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel) ---
https://edsitement.neh.gov/curricula/schisms-and-divisions-crime-and-punishment

PBS LearningMedia: Great American Read (English Literature) --- https://nhpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/great-american-read/ 

The Brit Lit Blog --- https://britlitblog.com/

HathiTrust: Food Studies ---
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis&c=317123364

Pulling the Strings: Rosalynde Stearn Puppet Collection --- http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/puppets/index.php

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

Early Indo-European Online Lessons --- https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol

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


Music Tutorials

“Happy Birthday” Played on the Piano with 16 Increasing Levels of Complexity: From Easy to Very Complex ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/happy-birthday-played-on-the-piano-with-16-increasing-levels-of-complexity.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Songs by Joni Mitchell Re-Imagined as Pulp Fiction Book Covers & Vintage Movie Posters ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/07/songs-by-joni-mitchell-re-imagined-as-pulp-fiction-book-covers-vintage-movie-posters.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Past to Present: Fashion Reinterpretations --- www.europeana.eu/portal/en/exhibitions/past-to-present#

The Ohio State University: Fashion2Fiber --- http://fashion2fiber.osu.edu/

Dressed: The History of Fashion --- www.dressedpodcast.com

Fashion History Timeline --- https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/

Kyoto Costume Institute Digital Archives --- www.kci.or.jp/en/archives/digital_archives

 

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/

July 17, 2019

·         Evolution Could Explain Why Staying Slim Is Tough

·         Tough E-Cig Rules Might Push Folks Back to Smoking

·         Would You Like a Lizard With That Salad?

·         Newer Lung Cancer Screening Saves More Lives

·         Kids Sent to Foster Care Doubles Due to Opioids

·         Too Much Social Media a Depression Risk for Teens

·         The Happiness Dividend: Longer, Healthier Lives

·         Healthy Living Counteracts Alzheimer's Genetic Risk

·         Nearly 13,000 Pounds of Beef, Chicken Recalled

July 18, 2019

·         Clues to Women’s Higher Odds for Alzheimer's

·         Autism Largely Caused by Genetics, Not Environment

·         Harmful Germs in Ocean Water? How to Tell

·         Menstrual Cups Safe and Effective, Study Says

·         Can a Broken Heart Contribute to Cancer?

·         Obesity May Boost Odds for MS in Kids

·         Evolution Could Explain Why Staying Slim Is Tough

·         Tough E-Cig Rules Might Push Folks Back to Smoking

·         Would You Like a Lizard With That Salad?

July 19, 2019

·         Residents Unaware of Cancer-Causing Toxin in Air

·         EPA Won't Ban Pesticide Linked to Harm in Children

·         Is Caffeine Fueling Your Anxieties?

·         Diabetes Raises Heart Failure Risk More in Women

·         Families Cross Borders in Search for Affordable Insulin

·         Overdose Deaths Fall for First Time in Decades

·         Ground Bison Linked to E. Coli Outbreak: CDC

·         Hummus Products Recalled Over Listeria Concerns

·         Money Might Motivate Smokers to Quit Long Term

 July 22, 2019

·             EPA Won't Ban Pesticide Linked to Harm in Children

·         Residents Unaware of Cancer-Causing Toxin in Air

·         Is Caffeine Fueling Your Anxieties?

·         Diabetes Raises Heart Failure Risk More in Women

·         Families Cross Borders in Search for Affordable Insulin

·         Hummus Products Recalled Over Listeria Concerns

·         Ground Bison Linked to E. Coli Outbreak: CDC

·         Overdose Deaths Fall for First Time in Decades

·         Money Might Motivate Smokers to Quit Long Term

July 23, 2019

·                 Extreme Eating Could Be an Early Clue to Autism

·         Just How Effective Are ADHD Meds?

·         Testosterone Therapy May Threaten the Heart

·         Many Taking Antibiotics Without a Prescription

·         Guns in Home, Greater Odds of Family Homicide

·         Electric Shock Drowning: A Silent Killer

·         Listeria Fears Prompt Target, Fresh Market Recalls

·         Pot Use During Early Pregnancy on the Rise

·         EPA Won't Ban Pesticide Linked to Harm in Children

July 26, 2019

·             Dirty Air Kills 30,000 Americans Each Year

·         BPA Replacement Chemical May Not Be Safer for Kids

·         Warm Bath Can Send You Off to a Sound Slumber

·         'Good Death': Would You Choose When You Die?

·         U.S. Fertility Rate At All-Time Low

·         Plant-Based Diet Helps Keep Diabetes at Bay

·         Textured Breast Implants Recalled for Cancer Risk

·         Climate Change Blamed for Deadly Fungus Risk

·         Waist Size Key to Health, Even Without Obesity

July 27, 2019

·             CRISPR to be Used to Fight a Type of Blindness

·         But most teens have never sent or received a sex text, the new study found. It focused on about 5,600 students in American middle and high schools, ages 12 to 17.

·         Can Your Smartphone Make You Fat?

·         Veterans of Toxic Air Fight Vow to Help Others

·         Dirty Air Kills 30,000 Americans Each Year

·         BPA Replacement Chemical May Not Be Safer for Kids

·         Warm Bath Can Send You Off to a Sound Slumber

·         'Good Death': Choosing How to Live and How to Die

·         U.S. Fertility Rate At All-Time Low

July 30, 2019

·         Not Just One Reason Kids Don't Drink Enough Water

·         Could Your Cellphone Charger Electrocute You?

·         Trying to Avoid a Second Stroke? Blood Pressure Control Is Key

·         Mosquito-Borne Brain Infection Found in Florida

·         Family Home, Football Field Most Dangerous Spots for Kids' Head Injuries

·         Where Is Your Risk of Dying Greatest After Surgery?

·         Racial Disparity in Care SRacial Disparity in Care Starts in NICUtarts With Youngest, Frailest Patients

·         Recall: Taco Seasoning Over Salmonella Fears

·         CRISPR to be Used to Fight a Type of Blindness

VIEW ALL HEALTH NEWS


Recovering From a Stroke --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5MgqXrl1U0
Thank you Lapétra
for the heads up


Scientists call for reform, sugar regulation and transparency around dental research ---
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/18/inadequate-health-response-leaves-35bn-with-poor-dental-care


HathiTrust: Food Studies ---
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis&c=317123364

 


Humor for July 2019

A college physics professor was explaining a particularly complicated concept to his class when a pre-med student interrupted him.

“Why do we have to learn this stuff?” one young man blurted out. “To save lives,” the professor responded before A few minutes later the student spoke up again.

“So how does physics save lives?” The professor stared at the student for a long time without saying a word. Finally the professor continued. “Physics saves lives,” he said, “because it keeps certain people out of medical school.”


Where do homeless accountants live? In a tax shelter.

What's the difference between an accountant and a lawyer? The accountant knows he's boring.

When are accountants at their best livening up a a truly dull event? When invited to an actuaries' office party

It's accrual world for accountants.

What do you call an accountant who always works through lunch, takes two days holiday every two years, is in the office every weekend, and leaves every night after 10 p.m.? Lazy.

What do you call an accountant without a spreadsheet? Lost.

How do you drive an accountant completely insane? Tie them to a chair and mess up their Excel formulas.

Why are accountants always so calm, composed, and methodical? They have strong internal controls.

Why do accountants get excited at the weekends? Because they can wear casual clothes to work.

Did you hear about the deviant Forensic Accountant? He got his client’s charges reduced from gross indecency to net indecency.

There are 3 types of accountants. Those who can count and those who can’t.

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

What do you call an accountant without a calculator? Finger Lickin' Good

How can you tell when the chief accountant is getting soft? When he actually listens to marketing before saying no.

Where there’s a will, there’s a tax shelter.

What would an accountant want for a superpower? Telepathy with an excel spreadshe

How does Santa’s accountant value his sleigh? Net Present Value.

What do you call a trial balance that doesn’t balance? A late night.

An accountant is having a hard time sleeping and goes to see his doctor. “Doctor, I just can’t get to sleep at night.” “Have you tried counting sheep?” “That’s the problem – I make a mistake and then spend three hours trying to find it.”

Why does Santa like visiting the UK? He can claim Gift Relief.

Accountants don’t die, they get derecognized.

America is the land of opportunity. Everybody can become a taxpayer!

What’s the difference between death and taxes? Congress doesn’t meet every year to make death worse.

Ever wonder why they call it a Form 1040? For every $50 you earn, you get $10, they get $40.

The best things in life are free — plus tax, of course. (that's what happens with loan forgiveness)

Why did the auditor cross the road? Because he looked in the file and that’s what they did last year.

Children may be tax deductible, but they’re still taxing.

A farmer sends his accounting sheepdog, Spot, off to gather in his 8 sheep. On returning the farmer is astonished to find he now has 10 animals in his pen and asks the dog to explain. “Woof! You asked me to round them up, woof”, barks Spot.

Why don’t skunks have to pay taxes? Because they only have one scent.
 How do you know when an accountant’s having a mid-life crisis? 
He gets a faster calculator.

Welcome to the Accounting department, where everybody counts.

When did John Glenn first know he needed an accountant? That time when he lost his balance.

 




Humor July 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q3.htm#Humor0719.htm

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) Basic Accounting Textbook --- search for Hoyle at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

CPA Examination --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
Free CPA Examination Review Course Courtesy of Joe Hoyle --- http://cpareviewforfree.com/

Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at http://iaed.wordpress.com/

Accounting News, Blogs, Listservs, and Social Networking ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm 
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Some of Bob Jensen's Tutorials

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