Tidbits on October 15 2019
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Pictures of 2019 New England Summer Festivals
http://cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/2019Summer/2019 Festivals.htm 

 

Tidbits on October 15, 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

Where Did Human Beings Come From? 7 Million Years of Human Evolution Visualized in Six Minutes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/7-million-years-of-human-evolution-visualized-in-six-minutes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

NPR:  White Lies (true crime stories) ---  www.npr.org/podcasts/510343/white-lies

SciShow Space Science (YouTube Channel) ---  www.youtube.com/user/scishowspace

Video:  The Hank Williams Story --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ0SuDdhUS4

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 

Patti Smith Sings “People Have the Power” with a Choir of 250 Fellow Singers ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/patti-smith-sings-people-have-the-power-with-a-choir-of-250-fellow-singers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The Beautiful Sadness of Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’ ---
https://jborden.com/2019/10/07/music-monday-the-beautiful-sadness-of-joni-mitchells-river/

Country Music Trio MAMADEAR --- https://jborden.com/2019/09/30/music-monday-country-music-trio-mamadear-you-gottahear/

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


Photographs and Art

Bob Jensen's Foliage Pictures (Scroll down to Foliage)
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Polly's Pancake Foliage Color History at Polly's Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire ---
https://pollyspancakeparlor.com/foliage-color-chart/
Note the color history PDF at
https://pollyspancakeparlor.com/wp-content/uploads/Leaf-Chart-1-3.pdf
Jensen Comment
We're expecting our first freeze the first week of October 2019
Last year's (2018) serious snow depth before Halloween caught me by surprise --- My yard was not ready for winter

USA Navy History ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-birthday-2016-10

Jessica Lange's Highway 61 ---
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/sep/30/highway-61-revisited-jessica-lange-explores-the-historic-route-in-pictures

Download 435 High Resolution Images from John J. Audubon’s The Birds of America ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/download-435-high-resolution-images-from-john-j-audubons-the-birds-of-america.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

YouTube: TV Artist Bob Ross
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxcnsr1R5Ge_fbTu5ajt8DQ

A 900-Page Pre-Pantone Guide to Color from 1692: A Complete Digital Scan ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/a-900-page-pre-pantone-guide-to-color-from-1692-a-complete-digital-scan.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The Japanese Fairy Tale Series: The Illustrated Books That Introduced Western Readers to Japanese Tales (1885-1922) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/09/the-japanese-fairy-tale-series.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Great Pictures from The Atlantic Magazine on September 27, 2019 ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/09/photos-of-the-week-roaring-stag-garden-fox-goose-gathering/598933/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-weekly-newsletter&utm_content=20190929&silverid-ref=NTk4MzY1OTg0MzY5S0
Since I have a mother fox and three babies under my studio, I especially liked the picture of the "garden fox."

Wildlife Photographs of the Week ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/best-wildlife-photos-of-2019-animals-struggle-to-survive-2019-9

Library of Congress: WPA Posters --- www.loc.gov/collections/works-progress-administration-posters/about-this-collection

Claiborne Horse Farm in Kentucky ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/claiborne-farm-lexington-kentucky-tour-horse-racing-photos

China's Giant Pig ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-06/china-is-breeding-giant-pigs-the-size-of-polar-bears?srnd=premium

Buy a town in California for $6 million or a house in Italy for $1 ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/california-ghost-town-campo-for-sale-10

Paul Allen's 414-foot superyacht is for sale for $325 million. Take a look at the late Microsoft cofounder's yacht ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-allen-microsoft-superyacht-octopus-for-sale-photos

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

Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History


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

School Library Journal: The Yarn (especially for kids --- http://blogs.slj.com/theyarn/

ALSC Blog (library services for children) --- www.alsc.ala.org/blog

International Children’s Digital Library --- http://www.icdlbooks.org/

The International Children’s Digital Library Offers Free eBooks for Kids in Over 40 Languages ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/the-international-childrens-digital-library.html

Thrive After Three (readings for children) --- https://thriveafterthree.com/

ACL: Storytimes ---  www.bayviews.org/storytime

Latinxs in Kid Lit --- https://latinosinkidlit.com/

KidLit TV --- https://kidlit.tv/

The Children's Picture Book Project --- www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/children-picture-book-project-1022.html

Hayao Miyazaki Picks His 50 Favorite Children’s Books ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/hayao-miyazaki-picks-his-50-favorite-childrens-books.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Choices Reading Lists --- http://www.reading.org/resources/booklists.aspx

Jane Goodall’s Lovely Letter to Children About How Reading Shaped Her Life ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/01/31/jane-goodalls-reading-a-velocity-of-being/?mc_cid=b4afba6c33&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Sontag:  Her Life and Work ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/09/sontag-her-life-and-work.html

Bob Jensen's threads on libraries --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---Libraries

Free Electronic Literature --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI




Now in Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on October 15, 2019
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2019/TidbitsQuotations101519.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




The Atlantic:  Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/?utm_medium=cr&utm_source=email-promo&utm_name=onboarding&utm_term=bau&utm_content=email7

The Atlantic:  Why Are Young People Having So Little Sex? (problems beyond smartphones)
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/the-sex-recession/573949/?utm_medium=cr&utm_source=email-promo&utm_name=onboarding&utm_term=bau&utm_content=email7

Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side of technologies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm


Important Scholarships in Higher Education ---
https://www.mometrix.com/blog/scholarships-for-college/

Jensen Comment
Although these are not all of the "top" scholarships, these are very important scholarships for students to consider. I consider the top scholarships to include the full-ride scholarships offered by virtually all universities such as the Ivy League schools' full-ride scholarships for low income students that cover tuition, room, board, and other incidentals. A small wave of scholarships is commencing to form for free medical school education at NYU and Cornell.

There's also a difference between learning versus transcript credits and badges/certifications. Thousands of MOOC courses provide free learning to anybody from the most prestigious universities in the world. However, earning transcript or certification credit requires some form of verification of what students learn, and verification requires fees in most instances. But the learning itself is free ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

There's also a rising wave of employer-funded college degrees ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#EmployerSubsidized

 


Freakonomics:  America's Math Curriculum Doesn't Add Up (avoids the real world)
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/math-curriculum/

Freakonomics:  How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War ---
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/farms-race/
Mother Hubbard had a bare cupboard in wannabe communist nations where people were equal in their hunger (no food stamps or food)

 


Course Management Systems Become Virtual Learning Environments --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_learning_environment
It all started at the University of Illinois in 1960 with the now-defunct Plato Project ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)

Blackboard Education Technology Company Became a Dominant For-Profit Virtual Learning System --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc.

Cheaper (think free Moodle)  Virtual Learning Systems  Compete With Blackboard --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle
Many competitors dropped from the scene
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm#Moodle

Flipped Classroom --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom

Jensen Comment

Virtual learning systems like Moodle that supposedly are free still may require software (especially video production software for flipped classrooms) that is not free, notably Camtasia or related screen capturing video software (some options are free)---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camtasia
It's possible to flip classrooms with Camtasia or other software without using complete course management systems like Blackboard or Moodle

A university just announced that it’s dumping Blackboard, and there was much rejoicing. Why is Blackboard universally reviled?
https://twitter.com/random_walker/status/1182635589604171776 ?
Mathematicians love Blackboard Education Technology Company ---
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/12/mathematicians-blackboards-academics-photographer-jessica-wynne-do-not-erase

History and Future of Course Authoring/Management Technologies and Virtual Learning Environments
(Including Predictions for the 21st Century and Knowledge Portals)
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm
Jensen Warning:  The above Working Paper 290 has not been updated for a number of years. Some products mentioned no longer exist.

 


Video Course:  How & How NOT to Do Economics ---
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/videos/how-and-how-not-to-do-economics
Before viewing any of the lectures you maybe should scroll down to the comments

Jensen Comment
I think 2020 presidential candidates should especially study Lecture 2 entitled:
Unlimited Wants, Limited Resources

Academics may be more interested in Lecture 4 entitled:
Is Economics a Science?


Largest Health Care Scam Ever: Fake Genetic Testing Result Scheme Results in $2.1 Billion in Medicaid Losses ---
https://www.newsweek.com/largest-health-care-scam-ever-fake-genetic-testing-result-scheme-results-21-billion-medicaid-1461901

Bob Jensen's threads on Medicaid and Medicare Fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#Medicare

Jensen Comment
Essential to the schemes are usually unbelievably greedy and fraudulent doctors.


Edward Snowden --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden

What We Learned From Snowden
https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2019/09/24/looking-back-at-the-snowden-revelations/

 

Jensen Comment
Of one thing I'm certain. If Snowden was a whistleblower of Russian, Chinese, Israeli, Iranian, or North Korean secrets living in England or the USA he'd have been taken out years ago. But since he became perhaps the most notorious leaker of USA secrets living in Russia he's relatively safe from retaliation.
 

As an accountant, I'm also amazed at the lack of internal controls of  vast classified information in the USA's National Security Administration. As a low-level operative Snowden should never have had access to so much data.

Personally, I'm neither surprised nor appalled that the Orwellian security apparatus of the NSA following the USA's high-stakes Cold War with the Soviets (and now China, Iran, and North Korea) and the new high stakes war of terror following the 9/11 attacks and the discovery of worldwide terror cells.

 

I would be more appalled if the USA's government simply let our enemies take advantage of our own Constitution to bring us down

 

We're living in an era of high stakes terror capabilities awaiting sucker punches from dirty bombs, chemical poisoning of water supplies, biological warfare, and cyber warfare. Nobody seems to remember like I remember that ISIS was carrying out WMD experiments in Yemen until the experiments got out of control and killed their own researchers. Nobody seems to remember these days  that an unstable billionaire named Saddam Hussein was Hell-bent of acquiring WMDs if we left him to his folly. 

 

My own opinion is that the surveillance of the NSA was the minimum needed for intelligence gathering in a future that that make subway bombings and school shootings seem like child's play.

 

I don't view Snowden as a hero. He's a traitor who played into the hands of our worst enemies.

 

But our worst enemies can take a breather. 
The 2020 Democratic Platform on social spending will open our borders and  take down the economy (think stock market) of the USA before it's necessary to bring WMD terrorism on the USA.

 

PS
I do hope Trump is impeached long before the 2020 election. It's not because of the reasons he might be impeached. My conclusion is based upon his seeming inability to work with anybody to accomplish his goals. The Presidency is just too bitg a job to go it alone.

 


How to mislead with statistics

Measuring Learning Outcomes from Getting an Economics Degree ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2019/9/26/measuring-learning-outcomes-from-an-economics-degree

Jensen Comment
Disciplines with licensure examinations (think law, medicine, accountancy, nursing, pharmacy, engineering, etc.) can look at licensing examination performance of recent graduates. However, such outcomes can be misleading when graduates invest in coaching courses after graduation. Coaching courses mixed with college courses confound the licensing examination outcomes.

There's also possible bias. For example ,accountancy masters programs at flagship universities often have the be best CPA examination passage rates. However, there are two sources of bias. One is that there is so much demand to major in accountancy at a flagship university that that university sometimes puts of barriers to entry along the way such as having to have a 3.5 gpa to major in accounting or to get into a masters program. The bias here is that we expect top students to have better licensing examination success even if their alma maters did a rather poor job preparing them to take the licensing examinations.

There's also possible bias in that flagship university students are often preferred by recruiters of the largest multinational CPA firms, and those firms often invest more in getting their newly-hired employees licensed. The firms may pay for the best coaching courses and even conduct some of their own coaching courses. Once again a flagship school may do a lousy job preparing students for the licensing examination, but the employers of their graduates make up for lost time.

There can also be sample size issues. For 24 years I taught in the accountancy program at Trinity University. Our masters of accounting program was very small (sometimes less than 20 students), and on some CPA exam dates we had less than ten students taking the exam.. Sometimes our CPA examination performance average was at or near the top forTexas. Other times is was below average. The reason is that our licensing exam performance standard deviation was was much greater due to sample size relative to the large mills like the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M.

Lastly, I might add that the success of a college program lies in more than examination performance and grades. In higher education we pride ourselves in making students eager for more learning. Some of the best academic programs should be judged on the basis of what graduates learned after graduation rather than what they learned before graduation. Sometimes we have to wait to hear what post-graduate award winners have to say about why they think they won those awards.


How to Mislead With Statistics

Children’s average allowance in 2019: $120 a month ---
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2019/oct/average-child-allowance-2019-201922088.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01Oct2019

Jensen Comment
How could this conclusion possibly be misleading? Firstly, it's an average based upon an unknown distribution that may must have a huge standard deviation, outliers (think of all the families that do not pay a cash allowance), and variations over time (there are weeks where a given child gets less allowance or more allowance. And there are variations in what students must buy with their allowances and duties they must perform for their allowances. Some have to buy their own ski lifet tickets, equipment, and clothing, including tennis shies, whereas others get many things like clothing extra. Some are required to save portions of allowances.

The bottom line is that "allowances" are not fungible items in sampling distributions.


Nobel Prize in Economics (The Sveriges Riksbank Prize) Awarded to Three Researchers on Global Poverty ---
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2019/summary/


Externality (non-convexity) --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality

Do lithium batteries leave a big mess for future generations to pay for?

How do Lithium-ion Batteries Work?---
https://theconversation.com/how-do-lithium-ion-batteries-work-99164

Jensen Comment
The above article fails to mention the dark side of lithium batteries---
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact

Also see ---
https://www.engineering.com/ElectronicsDesign/ElectronicsDesignArticles/ArticleID/17435/Will-Your-Electric-Car-Save-the-World-or-Wreck-It.aspx


How to Mislead With Statistics

The 20 cities in the Northeast that Americans are escaping (from) in droves (2010-2018) ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-in-the-northeast-americans-are-fleeing

Jensen Comment
There were 9/20 losing cities in New York, followed by 4/20 from New Jersey, and 3/20 from Pennsylvania, 3/20 From Connecticut, and 1/20 from Maine.

Those four states are the only ones in the Top 20 out of 14 states generally considered in the Northeast ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_United_States

What's causing the exodus?
We might look at taxes, but the high taxing states of Massachusetts and Vermont are not included in the Top 20 above.
We might look at climate, but the too many of the coldest states are not included in the Top 20.

We might look at fiscal mismanagement in state government since New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania are hit hard, but this leaves out badly mismanaged Rhode Island and some other states with relatively poor fiscal management. Besides this is a ranking of cities rather than states.
The cities in the Top 20 are so varied in terms of size and crime rates, I don't think crime is the underlying issue here.

I think that one underlying issue is such a wide variation in population of these cities. The New York metro area has nearly 20 million people whereas Lewiston-Auburn in Maine barely has 100,000 people with some of the other cities having less than 200,000. Yeah, I know the ranking is based upon the proportion of exiting population, but nevertheless comparing a giant pumpkin (NYC) to a raison (Lewiston-Auburn) raises some other issues.

The problem with including very small cities in the above rankings is that a random event can dominate small town population loss more than cities with millions of people. Lewiston and Auburn in Maine was were dead mill towns (think shoes) long before 2010 ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewiston,_Maine
In 1999, partly due to low-cost empty houses in Lewiston, the government located 12,000+ refugees from Somalia. These newer residents started a relatively large number of retail shops, but Lewiston was already a relatively lousy place to locate new retail shops. The bottom line is that the shops have not prospered and many Somalis moved elsewhere 2010-2018.

My point is that population spurts and losses are likely to be affected by a random event in a small town more than population spurts and losses in cities with millions of people. We should not be comparing raisins with pumpkins.


How to Mislead With Statistics

Walter E. Williams:  Idiotic Environmental Predictions ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2019/10/09/idiotic-environmental-predictions-n2554294?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=10/09/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

The Competitive Enterprise Institute has published a new paper, "Wrong Again: 50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions." Keep in mind that many of the grossly wrong environmentalist predictions were made by respected scientists and government officials. My question for you is: If you were around at the time, how many government restrictions and taxes would you have urged to avoid the predicted calamity?

As reported in The New York Times (Aug. 1969) Stanford University biologist Dr. Paul Erhlich warned: "The trouble with almost all environmental problems is that by the time we have enough evidence to convince people, you're dead. We must realize that unless we're extremely lucky, everybody will disappear in a cloud of blue steam in 20 years."

In 2000, Dr. David Viner, a senior research scientist at University of East Anglia's climate research unit, predicted that in a few years winter snowfall would become "a very rare and exciting event. Children just aren't going to know what snow is." In 2004, the U.S. Pentagon warned President George W. Bush that major European cities would be beneath rising seas. Britain will be plunged into a Siberian climate by 2020. In 2008, Al Gore predicted that the polar ice cap would be gone in a mere 10 years. A U.S. Department of Energy study led by the U.S. Navy predicted the Arctic Ocean would experience an ice-free summer by 2016.

In May 2014, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius declared during a joint appearance with Secretary of State John Kerry that "we have 500 days to avoid climate chaos."

Peter Gunter, professor at North Texas State University, predicted in the spring 1970 issue of The Living Wilderness: "Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions. ... By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine."

Ecologist Kenneth Watt's 1970 prediction was, "If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000." He added, "This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age."

Mark J. Perry, scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan's Flint campus, cites 18 spectacularly wrong predictions made around the time of first Earth Day in 1970. This time it's not about weather. Harrison Brown, a scientist at the National Academy of Sciences, published a chart in Scientific American that looked at metal reserves and estimated that humanity would run out of copper shortly after 2000. Lead, zinc, tin, gold and silver would be gone before 1990. Kenneth Watt said, "By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate ... that there won't be any more crude oil."

Continued in article

The New Yorker:  The climate apocalypse is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it ---
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending

Jensen Comment
The problem with prior idiotic predictions is that they are like the boy who cried wolf repeatedly ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf

When the real wolf is lurking many people ignore the warnings.


How Fact Checkers Mislead With Statistics
Ilhan Omar Defended by Media and Fact Checkers
---

https://townhall.com/columnists/johnrlottjr/2019/07/31/ilhan-omar-defended-by-media-and-fact-checkers-n2550908?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/31/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

Jensen Comment
The way fact checkers mislead with statistics is in selectivity bias by not fact checking claims they agree with politically.


Meet this year's 26 MacArthur 'geniuses,' who each got $625,000 for changing the world ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/macarthur-fellowship-genius-grant-winners-2019-9


The 40 most attractive companies for business students around the world ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/universum-most-attractive-employers-in-the-world-business-students

01 Google
02 Ernst & Young
03 PwC
04 Deloitte

05 Apple
06 KPMG
07 Goldman Sachs
08 Microsoft
09 JPMorgan Chase
10 Mckinsey & Company
11 Amazon

. . .

37 Grant Thornton
38 Toyota
39 Credit Suisse
40 Intel

Jensen Comment
The accounting firms shown in red above hire for both accounting/tax careers and non-accounting careers in consulting, information technology, communications, etc. Accounting graduates often prefer the largest multinational auditing and tax firms to because those firms provide the most entry-level jobs (no experience required for accounting graduates), provide outstanding training, and provide client exposures where great opportunities to change employers arise. Many graduates choose accounting and consulting firms like Mckinsey without intending to stay with those firms more than 5-10 years. Reasons for changing employers are complicated, but often in accountancy and consulting the pressures to attract clients become very heavy for employees who stay with their starting firms for their entire careers.

These days the large accounting firms are also heavy into hiring business and other graduates who have taken little or no accounting, because these "accounting" firms offer so many non-accounting services such as services in data analytics, consulting, and computer security services. Some firms have expanded heavily into legal and actuarial services. Accounting services are frequently less profitable and slower growing for accounting firms than other lines of business.


Accounting Firms Do Well in the Listing of Best Companies for Working Moms ---
https://goingconcern.com/one-big-4-firm-isnt-among-the-10-best-companies-for-working-moms/

Working Mother released its list of the 100 best companies for 2019 yesterday, and the usual suspects from public accounting are once again on there (in alphabetical order):

Those are eight of the 12-largest accounting firms in the U.S. that made the list, which is a pretty good showing. By comparison, only five law firms cracked the top 100none of which were in the top 12 of the most recent Am Law 100.

In addition, no law firms made the top 10 companies for working moms, whereas three of the Big 4 firms were recognized. Last year, Deloitte and EY made the top 10.

So which three firms made this year’s top 10, and which was the odd firm out? When you think of an “odd firm,” KPMG is probably the first to come to mind. But it wasn’t the House of Klynveld that didn’t crack the top 10.

Here are the 10 best (in alphabetical order):

 

Jensen Comment
In all disciplines, small firms have a harder time when it comes to benefits for working moms. However, there are criteria not included on the above listing of great firms for working moms.. For example, small firms are often located in small towns that are hundreds of miles from where large firms have offices. The small-town firms offer jobs not usually available to residents unless those jobs are totally online or are part-time jobs with no extra benefits. That's a big plus for moms who either chose to work in small towns or are forced to work in small towns for one reason or another.

This morning I had a conversation with the mom serving my breakfast at a restaurant. Her hours varied in that job, and she had no benefits like health care and unemployment benefits. But she had a job that enabled her to supplement the income of her husband who had full-time work and benefits in these mountains. Since restaurant, hotel, and many other jobs are so seasonal in this region, many small-company jobs would disappear if employers were forced to be among the best employers for working moms. It often becomes a matter of having a crappy job versus having no job. Sure laws can be passed forcing employers to hire full time with full benefits, but such laws will also mean a lot of working moms up here lose their local jobs because our seasonal economy just cannot economically support full-time work with full benefits for all current employees.

I had to have my tractor towed to a dealer yesterday, because it was overheating for some unknown (turned out later obscure) reason. The tow truck driver was a female cop moonlighting on a day off. Sure we could require that the tow truck company hire only full-time drivers getting full benefits. But that would mean having much worse towing service up here in the mountains, and some of our police officers would have to struggle with less family income. I wonder if California realizes how many small town workers (think cops) its putting out of business with its new anti-gig laws that prevent cops, school teachers, and other part-time workers from driving Uber cars? The anti-gig law should also be called anti-rural-town law. We don't have Uber service where I live. If New Hampshire passes a gig law like the one in California our chances of ever getting Uber service up here plunge to almost zero.


Elizabeth Pierce dazzled investors with plans to run high-speed fiber optic cable under the Arctic, boosting web speeds for much of the planet. It turned out to be a $1 billion scam ---
https://mustreadalaska.com/department-of-justices-case-against-elizabeth-pierce/


University of Georgia Student ran $1 million Ponzi Scheme from Fraternity House ---
https://www.newsweek.com/university-georgia-undergraduate-syed-arbab-1m-ponzi-scheme-frat-house-1464805 

Bob Jensen's threads on famous Ponzi schemes --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRottenPart2.htm#Ponzi


A Foot of Snow Is Forecast to Bury Crops in Great Plains, Canada (this could hit prices harder than the trade war with China) ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-08/heavy-snow-targeting-corn-wheat-in-dakotas-canola-in-canada?cmpid=BBD100819_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=191008&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily


Is the Mac Pro Overpriced Compared to a PC?
https://www.howtogeek.com/442418/is-the-mac-pro-overpriced-compared-to-a-pc/

. . .

Conclusion

So after everything we’re spending close to $3,700, far less than the $6,000 cost of the base model of the Mac Pro. So is this a clear example of the Apple Tax? Well, yes but let’s add some caveats. First, you’re always going to get it cheaper when you build it yourself. We also don’t have to factor in the costs of custom design that Apple had to with its motherboard, the proprietary connectors, and those MPX modules.

We are also missing some features such as the extra Thunderbolt 3 ports, and a “pro” designation on our GPUs. But we do have some advantages such as doubling up on GPUs, adding more storage for almost nothing, and a pretty sweet case.

Back to the Apple Tax, does it matter? To everyday consumers, it absolutely does, but this isn’t a consumer PC. To the workstation market, it doesn’t matter as much. If you’re a Mac shop, then Macs are what you want. That could be because the software you’re using just runs better on Macs, or your workflow is set up to accommodate the Apple ecosystem. And if you’ve been waiting for the Mac Pro “trash can” to go away before updating your machines, then the new Mac Pros are a welcome sight.

Still, there’s no question that the Mac Pro is awfully expensive, and only Apple could get away with this kind of pricing.

Jensen Comment
That's about it. Clearly Apple shops and die hard Apple users will almost always dig deeper to buy the latest Mac Pro computers.

But it's also clear that strained university budgets and the majority of college students will, as always, lean toward cheaper alternatives rather than Apple Lamborghinis, especially when Dell Chevrolets will get you to where you want to go at the same speed at lower cost. The question is:  Where do you want to go?

One thing is clear. It's risky leaving most any any higher priced computers just laying about in hotel rooms or even work offices. Hopefully, hotels will increase the sizes of their safes for storing valuables. Investors in new Mac Pros should also buy office safes that protect against theft and fire.


Econometrics Readings From David Giles

October Readings

Here's my latest, and final, list of suggested reading:

·                     Bellego, C. and L-D. Pape, 2019. Dealing with the log of zero in regression models. CREST Working Paper No. 2019-13.

·                     Castle, J. L., J. A. Doornik, and D. F. Hendry, 2018. Selecting a model for forecasting. Department of Economics, University of Oxford, Discussion Paper 861.

·                     Gorajek, A., 2019. The well-meaning economist. Reserve Bank of Australia, Research Discussion Paper RDP 2019-08.

·                     Güriş, B., 2019. A new nonlinear unit root test with Fourier function. Communications in Statistics - Simulation and Computation, 48, 3056-3062.

·                     Maudlin, T., 2019. The why of the world. Review of The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect, by J. Pearl and D. Mackenzie. Boston Review.

·                     Qian, W., C. A. Rolling, G. Cheng, and Y. Yang, 2019. On the forecast combination puzzle. Econometrics, 7, 39. 

 


The Best Robot Vacuums You Can Buy ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/best-robot-vacuum

Jensen Comment
There is no "best" vacuum on all criteria. Important criteria to consider include buying one that doesn't fall downstairs, one that "sees" obstacles in advance, one that doesn't hang up on rug fringes, strong suction power, and a large dust bin (or automatic dumpimg capability). Also consider how long it can vacuum without having to be recharged and hours of battery life before replacements. I paid nearly $1,000 for on made by Electrolux. It tends to get stuck a lot and hangs up on rug fringes. It also has a very small dustbin.

It does call out and tell me when its stuck.


Everything You Didn't Want to Know About the University of Southern New Hampshire (history is being made and most of it is depressing) ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/10/08/how-marketing-helped-southern-new-hampshire-university-make-it-big-online?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=d82a9788fd-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-d82a9788fd-197565045&mc_cid=d82a9788fd&mc_eid=1e78f7c952


MIT:  Meet America’s newest military giant vendor: Amazon ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614487/meet-americas-newest-military-giant-amazon/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement

MIT:  Forget fake news—nearly all deepfakes (often faking celebrities) are being made for porn ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/f/614485/deepfake-porn-deeptrace-legislation-california-election-disinformation/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement


How to Mislead With Statistics

NYT:  The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You ---
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/06/opinion/income-tax-rate-wealthy.html

Jensen Comment
The article is misleading in two major respects. Firstly, the title implies that the rich pay less taxes than you. How can that be true since nearly half the USA "taxpayers" who file tax returns pay zero income taxes ---
Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/a-fierce-tax-debate-without-much-light/2012/06/18/gJQAijuEmV_blog.html
Add to that the number, millions *rich and poor)  in the underground economy, who don't even file tax returns.
Add to that the fact that the rich pay more in other taxes, especially property taxes that largely fund USA K-12 schools.

This does not mean that the rich are paying as much as they should be paying, and the rich have tax havens and other tax avoidance/deferral strategies (legal andillegal) to reduce their income taxes. But it is false to write that "The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes That You." The rich in general pay more taxes than you. They just don't usually pay as much as they should be paying. But that's a different statement.

U.S. Taxes are Progressive: Comment on “Progressive Wealth Taxation” ---
http://www.davidsplinter.com/Splinter-TaxesAreProgressive.pdf

U.S. federal taxes are progressive, as shown by Congressional Budget Office and Tax Policy Center estimates, with average tax rates increasing with income. In fact, the OECD (2011) estimated that the U.S. has the most progressive household taxes among developed countries. Moreover, the 2017 tax reform is expected to have little effect on overall tax progressivity (Tax Policy Center, 2017; Joint Committee on Taxation, 2019). But Saez and Zucman (2019) argue that average tax rates are nearly equal over the income distribution. To examine this claim, this paper compares other estimates of average tax rates by income group, all of which suggest a high degree of progressivity. Three issues are found to bias the average tax rates presented in Saez and Zucman (2019). After correcting for these issues, their estimates align more closely with other estimates that show U.S. taxes are progressive. 

I. Comparing Estimates of Average Tax Rates  There are two types of average tax rate estimates in the literature, one based on federal taxes and another on taxes from all sources. Figure 1 considers average federal tax rates over the income distribution, showing estimates from Piketty and Saez (2007), Tax Policy Center (2018, hereafter TPC), Congressional Budget Office (2019, hereafter CBO), and Auten and Splinter (2019, hereafter AS). The left side presents tax rates excluding payroll taxes.2 For 2004, Piketty and Saez (2007) estimated a second quintile average tax rate of –1%, with the negative rate resulting from refundable credits, while the top 0.01 percent tax rate was 33%. The other three estimates are for 2014, with CBO and TPC estimating bottom quintile tax rates of –8% and –4% and top 1 percent rates of 32% and 31%. AS estimated a bottom 50 percent tax rate of 2% and a top 1 percent rate of 29%. These average tax rates increase with income, suggesting significant progressivity.                                      

Figure 1, right side, includes payroll taxes. This generally increases federal tax rates by about 10 percentage points for the bottom 99 percent of the income distribution and 2 percentage points for the top 1 percent—a result of the Social Security contribution taxable maximum.3 Average tax rates taxes are very similar among these four estimates and imply a highly progressive federal tax system.4 The Joint Committee Taxation (2019) also estimated average federal tax rates. For 2019, before accounting for the effects of the 2017 tax reform, these tax rates almost exactly match those of Piketty-Saez. For 2015, U.S. Treasury (2015) data indicate that average federal tax rates were more progressive than those presented in Figure 1: rangin

from –5% for the bottom quintile to 39% for the top 0.1 percent.5 Note that Figure 1 exaggerates the share of the population at the top. While this emphasizes differences in top tax rates, Figure 2 instead uses an equal-spacing approach that shows how average tax rates truly spike for a small share at the top of the distribution.

. . .

 

Saez and Zucman (2019) argue that the U.S. has a relatively proportional tax system across all income levels. However, federal taxes are progressive, as shown by Piketty and Saez (2007), Auten and Splinter (2019), The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the U.S. Treasury, and the Congressional Budget Office. Three issues with the Saez and Zucman (2019) methodology for calculating tax rates are shown to explain much of their deviation from other measures.

The second thing that is misleading is that the article implies that back in the 1950s when the tax rates on high income people were much higher (think 70%) that the rich really paid those high rates. Multimillionaire Bing Crosby was not paying 70% in 1950. The rich took advantage of tax loopholes as much or more in the 1950s as they do in the 21st Century. And the levies for state income taxes and property taxes were much, much lower.

 


How to Mislead With Smoke and Mirrors

Marketwatch:  These 7 Social Security myths just aren’t true, no matter how often you hear them ---
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-7-social-security-myths-just-arent-true-no-matter-how-often-you-hear-them-2019-08-27

Jensen Comment
I agree with most of that most of the "myths" in this article are myths, but I disagree with Myth 2.

Myth No. 2: The government raided the trust fund

Some people believe the Social Security system wouldn’t be facing insolvency today if the government kept their gosh-darned theivin’ hands out of it.

Here’s the truth: There has never been any change in the way Social Security payroll taxes are used by the federal government.

The Social Security trust fund has never been “put into the general fund of the government.” It is a separate account, and always has been.

We can find the origins of this myth in the change that happened back in 1969. At that time, the government began listing the trust fund’s transactions in a single budget along with all the other functions of the federal government.

The transactions were shown alongside other functions, but the trust fund remained a separate account. In 1990, the government began listing the activities of the trust fund separately.

None of these movements had anything to do with the actual operations of the trust fund; it was purely a change of accounting practices.

The government did not raid Social Security’s trust fund. But you might still believe the myth that it did if you don’t understand where the money went — because it is true that the system faces insolvency today.

Why isn’t there a trust fund sitting around with trillions of dollars from all the money we working taxpayers put into the system? Because the Treasury uses those dollars.

Before you say, “aha! This proves the point; the government did steal the money!” …not so fast. The government always uses incoming revenue to meet its current obligations before it borrows money. This includes funds coming in and earmarked for the Social Security trust fund.

For every dollar that comes in from Social Security taxes, a special-issue Treasury bond takes its place. These bonds earn interest — which is a good thing.

In fact, since these bonds were first introduced to the trust fund, they generated $1.9 trillion in interest. For reference, the total trust fund balance is only $2.9 trillion.

Had all those dollars been left in cash, the trust fund would be worth about two-thirds less and would have run dry much earlier than currently projected.

The bottom line is that there’s no difference between the way the federal government runs the trust fund and the way your bank handles your cash accounts.

 

Jensen Added Comment

Who pays the interest?

When a lender lends cash to a borrower the borrower repays the loan principal plus interest to the lender. The interest is called a Return on Investment (ROI) to the lender.

But borrowing from the Social Security Trust fund is all smoke and mirrors.
The current generation lends money to whom?
In effect they lend it to themselves. Presumably the money taken out each year from the SS Trust Fund each year goes to first pay for current social security benefits and any excess goes current government spending goes to current government spending on other programs, thereby avoiding additional taxes that the current generation should be funding this year with added taxes. Yes Congress does promise to repay the money from the trust fund plus interest. But the interest paid years down the road is paid by future generations of unborn children that did not borrow the money. Those children will eventually have to pay the added taxes the current generation should have coughed up this year instead of raiding the SS Trust fund and forcing the future generation repay the loan plus the interest. Those unborn children did not elect to borrow the money and repay the principal plus interest. No the current generation borrowed the money and forced the future generation to replay the principal plus interest. It's all smoke and mirrors that the Marketwatch did not own up to in the above article.

Sure it looks like the SS Trust funds earned interest on the bonds it used to replace current cash collections. But in reality the returns are paid eventually in taxes by our unborn children to pay for historic government expenditures on other programs that otherwise would have required increased taxes.

Something similar happens with Social Security benefits to disabled programs. The government should help disabled people, but the disability benefits each year should come from current tax money raised for by the current generation to help disabled people. In effect the current generation avoided some disability  taxes this year for disabled people by borrowing from future generations of unborn children to pay the current disability benefits. In effect Congress is getting away with robbing our future generations of unborn children by promising that they will eventually pay for disability benefits doled out in the present years.

It's all smoke and mirrors.


From a MIT newsletter on October 11, 2019

Can a blockchain be good or bad? At first glance, the word “ethics” may seem out of place next to “blockchain.” After all, the world of cryptocurrency may be most famous for its many frauds and scams.

But according to a small contingent of academics, not only does it makes sense to discuss “blockchain ethics”—it is necessary.

If blockchain technology can be reasonably expected to make a significant difference in society, then it deserves its own field of ethics, just like biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and nuclear technology, argues Rhys Lindmark, head of community and long-term societal impact at MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative. 

Lindmark spoke October 6 at the group’s Cryptoeconomic Systems Summit, a gathering of blockchain developers, economists, financial engineers, lawyers, and others whose academic disciplines are relevant to the technology. The summit was an attempt to lay the foundations for a new academic field focused on the many interdisciplinary aspects of blockchain development. Blockchain ethics might be considered a subfield of that. Lindmark described it as “a group of people focused on the question: How we can positively shape the development of this technology?”

Blockchain technology is still mostly a niche interest; the value of the cryptocurrency market is minuscule compared with the value of traditional global investment markets. It doesn’t have much influence, if any, in the global financial system—rather, cryptocurrencies are mostly seen as a way to profit by speculating on their volatile prices. But that may be changing. Big mainstream institutions like Fidelity Investments and Intercontinental Exchange (which owns the New York Stock Exchange) have embraced the technology. Facebook wants to launch its own global digital currency. Central banks may be close to getting into the business too.

Lindmark said that like other “tech ethics” fields, the field of blockchain ethics should examine what the technology is capable of doing, and ponder the potential consequences. For instance, blockchains make it possible to create leaderless, “decentralized” organizations. Does that mean no one is responsible if something goes wrong? In public blockchains like Bitcoin, the network’s shared software rules are supposed to automatically sort out what behavior is allowed. So if a user exploits the protocol for profit without breaking its rules, is that unethical? Meanwhile, global digital currencies like what Facebook is proposing might change the nature of money. How might that change politics and power dynamics?

A concrete, near-term concern pertains to blockchain research. Much like biotechnologies and nanotechnologies, blockchains and cryptocurrencies introduce a new class of “ethical risks” for researchers, said Quinn DuPont, an assistant professor at University College Dublin. 

The blockchain field should work toward standardizing guidelines for ethical research, he said, because studying crypto networks—for instance, probing and disclosing security vulnerabilities—can put other people’s money at risk. One of the slides from DuPont’s talk at the MIT conference featured a Twitter poll posted last year by Philip Daian, a researcher at Cornell University’s Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts. Daian asked if it’s ethical to assign students to find a vulnerability in a live blockchain smart contract. Two-thirds of the 1,262 respondents said yes.

Traditional computer security research faces a similar quandary. But in proceeding with research like this on a blockchain, “you’re not just breaking into a social network or some other system which may be relatively important,” DuPont said. “You’re literally teaching them how to break into the bank.”

 

Will Libra’s members be tempted to collude? A new analysis by Wired finds that 15 of the 27 founding members of the Libra Association, a nonprofit that is supposed to run and manage the network, “are directly or indirectly tied to Facebook.” That means they employ former Facebook executives, have Facebook board members on their boards, or have ties through common investors. So what? Primavera De Filippi, a blockchain researcher and faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, tells Wired that the Libra Association creates “a facade of decentralization, so that no single company can be held responsible for the management of the Libra system." She argues that in reality the “the likelihood of collusion is quite high, and the various association members will likely be tempted to act in a coordinated manner in order to maximize their profits.”

 

October 12 reply from Eric Cohen

ERIC E. COHEN/Cohen Computer Consulting

Sat, Oct 12, 8:35 AM (1 day ago)

to AECM

Thank you for passing along this article/opinion piece and the underlying resource.

I have a personal goal much like that expressed in the article: “How can the extended
accounting profession/financial reporting professionals be a group of people focused on the
question: How we can positively shape the development of this technology?”

FWIW, I have worked previously with the referenced Quinn Dupont on the ISO blockchain
effort.

Ethics and emerging accounting/audit technology (with a focus on blockchain) is a special
interest of mine. I spoke on the topic (with a special focus on privacy/confidentiality) at the
2019 Ethics Symposium at the University of Waterloo Centre for Accounting Ethics
symposium (1) in April, wrote about it in the Summer ThinkTwenty20 (2) and the topic is
very relevant for the work I will be discussing at the UWCISA 11th Biennial Symposium (3)
in a few weeks, on Internal Controls and Blockchain.

(I note that when people speak to blockchain, they are usually referring to blockchain PLUS
something - blockchain PLUS AI, blockchain PLUS IoT, blockchain PLUS a new
interoperability and integration ecosystem.)

In April, I spoke to the topic of decentralization and accountability, as also mentioned in the
MIT article ("For instance, blockchains make it possible to create leaderless, “decentralized”
organizations. Does that mean no one is responsible if something goes wrong?"). The
"buck" always has to stop somewhere; people always want to hold an actual person
responsible. If a blockchain is leveraged as part of audit processes, for example, could it
possibly be considered a "third party service provider", with the growing requirements
related to client confidentiality and privacy? Can a smart contract in a blockchain commit
the chain to the service requirements discussed in the AICPA Code of Ethics 1.700.040?

Of course, blockchain-facilitated decentralization is only part of the leaderless organization.
(Some wags have said that my own business is a leaderless organization, and a non-profit
too, neither by choice.) Blockchain would have not "no leaders" but "lots of leaders" unless
it was first developed, then the rules driven by a protocol written once, and finally never
touched again. It's either decentralized leadership or ... maybe? ... an AI/machine learning
evolving from within chain (you thought the DLT stood for distributed ledger technologies,
not Deep l'il Thought.)

FWIW, "blockchain ethics" being an oxymoron would be saying blockchain is inherently
unethical. You could say "[any tool] ethics" is an oxymoron; you can poke someone's eyes
out with scissors or a screwdriver, but that doesn't make them inherently bad. The first use
of blockchain in my book was that of Surety.com of 1995 in proving document integrity, not
in any way evil. That technology of all kinds is adapted early for evil doesn't make
technology evil. People using Bitcoin for Silk Road or money laundering doesn't make
Bitcoin "the root of all evil". But I'm all for Ethical Blockchain Principles and generally
accepted blockchain accounting/audit principles. Here's the WWW's Ethical Web Principles
(4). I find the last one interesting in my work on continuous reporting facilitated by
blockchain - "People should be able to render web content as they want". How do you hold
management responsible to a fair representation/true and fair view if the market calls for
ad hoc reporting in a format and with content considered relevant to them?

(1)
https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-accounting-ethics/2019-ethics-symposium
(2)
https://thinktwenty20.store/products/summer-2019-issue
(3)
https://uwaterloo.ca/uwaterloo-centre-for-information-system-assurance/uw-cisa-
symposium
(4)
https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/ethical-web-principles/

 


The People’s Republic of China has been the most successful in curbing the internet and successfully banned nearly all bookstores, books, authors and academics that do not adhere to the Communist Party’s line ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/opinion/books-censorship.html

Political Correctness at Georgetown University
Kevin K. McAleenan, acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was shouted off the stage by protesters who interrupted his talk at Georgetown University’s law school ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/us/politics/homeland-security-chief-protesters.html?cid=db&source=ams&sourceId=296279

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


Field’s Top Young Scholar Asks, Why Don’t More Women Study Economics?
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Field-s-Top-Young-Scholar/247135?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&cid=at&source=ams&sourceId=296279

NYT:  Only 2% of 2017 bachelor’s degrees and 0.6% of the Ph.D.s  in economics were awarded to black women and often they're not happy economists ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/opinion/economics-black-women.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Jensen Comment
Over 50% of the bachelor's and masters degrees and 55% of the Ph.D.s in accountancy were awarded to women in 2016 and 2017. Slightly under 5% of the bachelor's and masters accountancy degrees were awarded to black women and 9.3% of the accountancy Ph.D.s were awarded to black women ---
https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-in-accounting/

There's still a huge diversity problem among licensed CPAs, but some of that can be attributed to not having minority accountancy graduates taking/passing the CPA examination ---
https://nasba.org/blog/2012/07/13/women-minorities-less-often-cpas/
This is further complicated by sometimes having accounting programs in predominantly black colleges that do not even have curricula designed for CPA aspirants. Often the black-college accountancy programs are designed more  for careers in business firms and government rather than CPA firms.

Whereas most licensure careers (think nursing, pharmacy, law, and medicine) focus heavily educating for success in licensing, there are a relatively high proportions of accounting jobs that do not require passing the formidable CPA examination. Many  Ph.D.s in accountancy are not CPAs --- similar to graduates with only bachelor's degrees in accountancy.

Most masters students in accountancy are aspiring CPAs,  However, passage rates among masters graduates are much lower than those in nursing, pharmacy, law, and medicine.

All Ph.D.s in accountancy entered a wonderful tenure-track academic market (due to the shortage of Ph.D.s relative to higher education demand for accounting Ph.D. graduates) ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoct/FAQs.pdf

Bob Jensen's threads on careers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers


A former Boston College student has won more than $100,000 from his alma mater after a federal jury found the private nonprofit institution mishandled sexual assault allegations against him ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/25/jury-sides-former-boston-college-student-accused-sexual-assault?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=a38f520b30-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-a38f520b30-197565045&mc_cid=a38f520b30&mc_eid=1e78f7c952


NFL players keep setting record-breaking contracts. Here are the highest-paid players at each position ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/highest-paid-nfl-players-at-each-position-2019-8


Very real progress on the market concentration debate ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/09/very-real-progress-on-the-market-concentration-debate.html


Nature paper on ocean warming retracted (after authors agree with a critic) ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2019/09/25/nature-paper-on-ocean-warming-retracted/

Jensen Comment
I'm sure this is not a first in most academic disciplines. I don't recall that full retraction with authors' blessings ever happened for a published paper in academic accountancy, although sometimes journals have published corrections to accompany published papers. On occasion the authors themselves requested that corrections be published.


Ponzi Fraud --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

NYT:  The S.E.C. has prosecuted 50 percent more Ponzi cases in the last 10 years. Those scams cost their victims $31 billion ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/business/ponzi-scheme-bernie-madoff.html

Bob Jensen's threads on Ponzi frauds ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRottenPart2.htm#Ponzi

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


FBI:  Justifiable Homicide Data 2014-2018 ---
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-15.xls


"Me Before You" Author Jojo Moyes Has Been Accused Of Publishing A Novel With "Alarming Similarities" To Another Author's Book ---
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tomiobaro/jojo-moyes-the-giver-of-stars-kim-richardson-bookwoman-of

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


China extends olive branch ahead of trade talks, says it plans to buy US soybeans and pork ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trump-trade-war-china-says-its-buying-us-farm-products-2019-9-1028556774

China Lost 100 million pigs to African swine fever ---
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/04/business/china-pork-swine-fever-pigs/index.html


Curtis Carter, Marquette professor of philosophy and aesthetics, regards Jim as "Milwaukee’s King of Comics" ---
https://www.wuwm.com/post/legacy-milwaukees-underground-comix-scene#stream/0

Jensen Comment
I prefer the cartoons in The New Yorker 
 


Stanford University:  Research finds management practices account for 20% of variation in productivity among certain firms ---
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/how-much-does-management-matter-productivity?utm_source=Stanford+Business&utm_campaign=edb093f8cb-Stanford-Business-Issue-172-10-6-2019_active&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b5214e34b-edb093f8cb-70265733&ct=t(Stanford-Bu

Why are some companies more productive than others? And why do certain divisions within those companies perform better than others do? Research has shown that top performers tend to invest more in research and development, adopt better technology, and employ a more educated workforce.

But a new new study  suggests another surprising factor plays as much or more of a role: strong management.

Nicholas A. Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business and the university’s School of Humanities and Sciences, and other researchers partnered with the U.S. Census Bureau to survey more than 35,000 U.S. manufacturing plants in 2010 and 2015. They found that management practices accounted for about one-fifth of the variation in productivity among plants. Management style had the same effect as R&D spending — and twice the impact of technology spending — in explaining productivity differences.

“There’s an overwhelmingly strong relationship between structured management and performance,” Bloom says. “Plants with more standardized practices grew faster and were more profitable, more productive, more innovative, and more likely to survive.”

It Pays to Measure

Research on management strategies has historically been limited to case studies and small sample sizes. Bloom’s analysis, based on a mandatory Census Bureau survey, was the first large and randomized study of management practices in the U.S.

The researchers found that plants where managers carefully monitored the manufacturing process, production targets, and employee performance, and used that data to inform decisions, were more successful. Plants where leaders infrequently reviewed performance indicators and targets, and promoted employees based on tenure or connections rather than achievement, fared worse. These links remained strong after controlling for workers’ education level, the age of the plant and firm, and a wide range of other factors. Plants with more structured management performed better than other sites within the same firm, and plants that adopted more of these strategies saw their performance improve over time.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
I suspect this study extrapolates to productivity in academe, but the extent of extrapolation is probably clouded by tenure decisions in academe with is that fork in the road where productivity often diminishes with college faculty. Good management begins with hiring and keeping good workers. But it does not end there. Of course much depends upon the definition of "productivity," that is a much more controversial criterion in academe.


How to Mislead With Statistics

What's the Best State for Teachers?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2019/09/whats_the_best_state_for_teachers_this_years_answer_might_surprise_you.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2-rm&M=58940204&U=2290378&UUID=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f

Seeking a stable teacher salary and a healthy work environment? A new analysis suggests heading north.

This year, North Dakota took first place in personal finance site WalletHub's annual ranking of the best and worst states to be a teacher.

The other states (after North Dakota)  rounding out the top five spots this year?

·         New Jersey

·         Pennsylvania

·         Wyoming

·         Connecticut 

The ranking is based mostly on what the website calls "opportunity and competition"—factors including the average salary and starting pay for teachers, potential for income growth over the course of a career, pension, tenure protections, and job competition in the state. Scores on these metrics make up 70 percent of a state's rating. 

The other 30 percent comes from measures of a teacher's work environment and quality of life. These categories cover things like per-pupil spending and teacher-student ratio, but also union strength, commute time, and how supported teachers feel in their jobs. 

To calculate these scores, WalletHub uses census data, federal education data, and data from the National Education Association, the National Council on Teacher Quality, the Learning Policy Institute, and The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, among other sources. A few of the measures are taken from some of WalletHub's other state ranking lists, like statewide school quality and how friendly states are to working moms. 

Continued in article

The worst states are New Hampshire at rank 50/51 and and Arizona at rank 51/51.

 Jensen Comment
These rankings are misleading for various reasons. First and foremost is cost of living (think housing costs). When renting or buying homes, teacher salaries don't go far in very high living cost states of Connecticut and New Jersey. The ranking in the above study seemingly ignored differences between states in terms of "affordability" where the Midwest (think Iowa and Ohio) win out ---
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/opportunity/affordability
Anecdotally, we have a teacher who moved to New Hampshire from New Jersey because she was seeking a higher quality students and better deals in housing quality for the money.

Secondly, the "Report Card"  for for schools ranks New Hampshire at Rank 8 way above its Rank 50 of being  "Best State for Teachers." This alone should tell us that something is misleading in these sets of rankings
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/NPE-Report-Card-Smaller.pdf
My opinion is that New Hampshire has no trouble attracting relatively very high quality teachers in the Granite State's K-12 schools. The State is doing something right to attract school teachers as well as retirees.

Thirdly, the rankings illustrate a problem when there are too many ranking criteria. For example, one criterion in the "Best State for Teachers" ranking is "pension" protection. What a joke in those rankings since teacher pensions are in worse trouble in Connecticut and New Jersey relative to pension protections in most other states. Connecticut in particular is in deep trouble with badly under funded pensions ---
https://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/connecticut-retiree-health-care-severely-underfunded
New Jersey's Finances are the Worst in the USA ---
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/new-jerseys-finances-are-the-worst-in-the-us

The problem is that with so many other criteria in the ranking formula, pension protections have very little impact on the rankings

My main point is that rankings should always be questioned in terms of what (and how many) variables are included versus what (and how many) variables are excluded.


How to Mislead With Statistics (Missing Variables)

The White-Collar Job Apocalypse That Didn’t Happen ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/business/economy/jobs-offshoring.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage 

. . .

Economists once warned that office jobs in the United States would soon follow factory jobs in moving overseas. New research suggests that jobs may be moving to other parts of the country instead.

A widely covered 2007 study by Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton economist and former Clinton administration official, estimated that a quarter or more of jobs were vulnerable within the next decade. But many companies discovered that labor savings were offset by other factors: time differences, language barriers, legal hurdles and the simple challenge of coordinating work half a world away. In some cases, companies decided they were better off moving jobs to less expensive parts of the United States rather than out of the country.

“Where in retrospect I missed the boat is in thinking that the gigantic gap in labor costs between here and India would push it to India rather than to South Dakota,” Mr. Blinder said in a recent interview. “There were other aspects of the costs to moving the activities that we weren’t thinking about very much back then when people were worrying about offshoring.”

In his 2007 paper, Mr. Blinder scored occupations on a 1-to-100 scale based on how easily they could be sent offshore. Bus drivers and electricians scored near the bottom. There is pretty much no way to do that work from afar. On the other end of the spectrum were computer programmers and telemarketers — jobs that in many cases were already being sent overseas.

In a follow-up paper released Friday, another economist, Adam Ozimek, revisited Mr. Blinder’s analysis to see what had happened over the past decade. Some job categories that Mr. Blinder identified as vulnerable, like data-entry workers, have seen a decline in United States employment. But the ranks of others, like actuaries, have continued to grow.

Over all, of the 26 occupations that Mr. Blinder identified as “highly offshorable” and for which Mr. Ozimek had data, 15 have added jobs over the past decade and 11 have cut them. Altogether, those occupations have eliminated fewer than 200,000 jobs over 10 years, hardly the millions that many feared. A second tier of jobs — which Mr. Blinder labeled “offshorable” — has actually added more than 1.5 million jobs.

Continued in article


Bob Jensen's threads on the crucial role of passion in teaching and learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Passion

Joe Hoyle's presentation on teaching philosophies ---
https://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2019/10/what-are-your-teaching-philosophies.html


The Great Enrollment Crash:  Students aren’t showing up. And it’s only going to get worse ---
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190906-Conley?utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&cid=cr&source=ams&sourceId=296279

. . .

The handwriting (for enrollment declines) was probably on the wall, as the national, first-year discount rate had already crested the 50-percent mark; according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), it was 39 percent as recently as 2008. This steep rise is significantly fueled by colleges that have adopted the airline pricing model: If the plane is going to fly anyway (and if there are still spots open), no harm in getting even pennies on an otherwise unsold ticket. For colleges discounting at or above the national figure, this is unlikely to be a sustainable strategy. However, in the meantime, they are no doubt pulling students away from colleges that expect full-pay or better-pay students to foot the true bill. In short, price sensitivity is a structural reality when supply (number of college beds and desks) is greater than demand.

. . .

Disruption is here to stay. Campus leaders cannot change the wind direction, but they can trim the institutional sails. For too long, the admissions dean or enrollment manager had the lone hand on the tuition-revenue tiller. Now, it’s all hands (campus leadership, faculty, staff, trustees, etc.) on deck, pulling the tactical lines in a coordinated, strategic fashion. Given the perilous voyage ahead, what will your institution’s mix of majors, money, and mission be?

Bill Conley is vice president for enrollment management at Bucknell University.

Jensen Comment
Almost 10 years ago, we had a granddaughter who opted for an expensive private college for reasons I won't go into here. After watching her debt soar to well over $100,000 her brother four years ago opted to go to a much cheaper in-state university in Maine that's supported by taxpayers. As he enters his fifth year he still has zero student debt. I think all the press about student loan burdens will increasingly impact higher-tuition colleges.

 


Learn your "ABCs" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff–Berry_computer

Curious Kids: What possibly was the first computer? (think Iowa State University)---
https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-was-the-first-computer-122164

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


How to Mislead With Statistics

The Guardian:  The 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions

Jensen Comment
The article is misleading in a number of ways, firstly by failing to stress that most of the increased carbon emissions are natural phenomena that are not caused by mankind ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas#Natural_and_anthropogenic_sources

The second way the article is misleading is that it seems to imply that if we simply banned those 20 companies from existence the carbon emissions on earth would decline by a third. The fact of the matter is that people would simply grasp at whatever other means are possible to heat their dwellings, power their electricity, be transported from place to place, etc. Up here in New England we would heat our homes and generate our electricity by decimating our forests --- which is counter productive since all the carbon absorbing trees would be taken from the earth. People in the southern USA sweltering in heat would find ways to cool off by consuming vastly more water --- not exactly what environmentalists hope for given the increasing scarcity of water.

Add to this the impact of famine, job losses, and destruction of entire economies if we tried to abruptly terminate the oil and gas infrastructure. Mad Max would become an overnight reality ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max

Having said this does not the world is simply ignoring the problem. Even the 20 firms featured in this article are diversifying into energy alternatives that emit less carbon --- including solar, wind power, and hydrogen initiatives.

And there's the possibility that fanatics will impose drastic solutions that are hopeless from the start ---
 

The New Yorker:  The climate apocalypse is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it ---
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending


Sontag:  Her Life and Work ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/09/sontag-her-life-and-work.html


A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk. This is how ---
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-09-25/texas-ranger-got-one-of-the-nations-worst-serial-killers-to-talk-this-is-how


Targeted Taxes: Localities Take Aim at Large Employers to Solve Homelessness and Transportation Challenges ---
https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=269126002097094115101106070100094068122032049015054052117086126094066078121117116101033022034012040098112080066106124118115124111029057079021093028065068071120082127095033045004070020070021093027112070029104089116090007126077020120114107124119110017005&EXT=pdf

Many localities are facing unprecedented challenges—such as a dramatic rise in homelessness and insufficient transportation infrastructure—that have reached crisis levels.  These localities are in a precarious position.  If they do not solve these problems quickly, or if they impose overbearing and poorly designed taxes, there will be dire economic and social repercussions.  

 In response to these challenges, several localities recently enacted or proposed taxes targeted directly at large businesses, with revenues allocated explicitly for a designated purpose.  Localities are gravitating toward targeted taxes for several reasons.  Some assert that the success of large employers within the locality contributed to, or even directly created, these challenges.  Perhaps most importantly, targeted tax laws serve a clear expressive function.  Depending on the locality’s primary objective, targeted taxes may be problematic and counterproductive.  

 This Article begins by examining the recent local targeted tax provisions, which have crucial distinctions in motivations and mechanics.  The Article then undertakes a tax policy and constitutional analysis of these targeted taxes, and considers whether they are properly characterized as a tax or a fee.  The Article concludes with several proposed alternatives that will generate the requisite revenue—and may serve an expressive function—more effectively than targeted taxes.  

 INTRODUCTION ...

I. TARGETED TAX LANDSCAPE .

A. Seattle Homelessness Tax ..

B. San Francisco Business Taxes

C. Mountain View Transportation Infrastructure Tax .

D. Cupertino Transportation Infrastructure Tax ...

E. New York City Transit Taxes ..

F. “Millionaire” Taxes ...

G. Portland Clean Energy & Excessive CEO Compensation Taxes 

II. THE TROUBLE WITH TARGETED TAXES

A. Negative Economic Impact ...

B. Complicating Tax Regimes and the Business Environment ..

C. Constitutional Considerations ...

D. Additional Policy Considerations – Crises and Revenue Raising Constraints

E. Blurring the Tax Versus Fee Distinction 

III. SUPERIOR ALTERNATIVES ..

A. Partnering to Foster Voluntary Contributions ..

B. One Comprehensive Local Business Tax ..

C. Improving Target Accuracy ..

IV. CONCLUSION .

 Jensen Comment
The most important thing to note is that taxable business firms do not pay taxes.
Taxes imposed on those firms are ultimately paid by customers.

The first thing to ask is what customers?
For example, Portland Oregon's retailer tax hits Portland shoppers the most:

Large retailers mounted a campaign against the tax, but proponents such as the Green Advocacy Project and Sierra Club effectively supported it.201 One of the most significant concerns was whether the tax incidence would ultimately fall on Portland consumers instead of the targeted large businesses—acting like a regressive sales tax. The provision itself contemplates retailers passing the tax through to consumers, and there is some early evidence of this passthrough occurring with certain sales

Next consider a gross receipts tax imposed upon all revenues of a company headquartered in a city such as a gross receipts tax imposed by Seattle or Washington State on all worldwide revenues received by Amazon headquartered in Seattle. Or similarly suppose the tax is on all net profit of Amazon. What's wrong with this is hugely wrong taxation without representation When Bob Jensen buys a shirt from Amazon online from New Hampshire he in effect is being taxed by Seattle or the State of Washington. He has no vote regarding the amount of tax included in the price of the shirt. Similarly, if this is for Seattle or Washington Schools most worldwide customers of Amazon end up paying for Seattle or Washington schools while in the same year they are also supporting school taxes in their own countries, states, and cities of residence. Of course Bob Jensen can protest and  elect to no longer by anything from Amazon, which in turn could wipe out Amazon if virtually all customers of Amazon worldwide protest a headquarters tax imposed in this manner.

A gross receipts tax is not the same as a local sales tax. A local sales tax can and is imposed on sales transactions within a city or state, but local sales taxes in Seattle cannot be imposed on sales transactions taking place in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. Recent legislation forces Seattle residents who buy online from certain out-of-state vendors (think online buying from Walmart headquartered in Arkansas) to pay a Seattle sales tax but not residents outside Seattle. Seattle voters can vote regarding if and how much they pay in such local sales taxes.

 

Another thing that's wrong with a gross receipts tax is that non-taxable entities can end up paying a gross receipts tax. For example, if New Hampshire tax-exempt public schools pay for cloud computing space rented by Amazon New Hampshire schools end up paying a Seattle gross receipts tax.

 

You can find out other things that are wrong with gross receipts taxes in the above article.

 

Cities and states are becoming more and more innovative about how to tax big companies, taxes that are not seemingly so overtly unconstitutional as a gross receipts tax. The above article discusses some of those innovations. But at the same time those cities run the risk of driving part or all of those businesses elsewhere and creating more unemployment and property value losses. Cities that impose targeted taxes end up triggering loaded guns that can backfire.

 

The attribution of homelessness and welfare dependency to being laid off by a local big business is overstated.
Firstly layoffs occur in firms of all sizes and locales. It's common for people laid off or divorced in small rural towns to migrate as homeless people to the big city, e.g., they were laid off by a local contractor in a small town rather than Amazon in Seattle. Secondly, a homeless person more often than is unemployed due to being mentally ill or alcoholic or a heroine addict or all three. Yeah a percentage of Seattle's homeless addicts may be traced back to illegal acts of doctors, pharmacies, and Big Pharma, but Amazon did not cause the pain medication addiction of some of Seattle's homeless people.

 

Analyzing the new Oregon corporate activity tax (that does not even require physical presence in Oregon and taxes out-of-state-residents)---
https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2019/sep/oregon-corporate-activity-tax.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=30Sep2019

 

Tax Foundation:  Oregon’s Proposed Corporate Activity Tax Would Harm Low-Income Oregonians the Most ---
https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2019/sep/oregon-corporate-activity-tax.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=30Sep2019

 

Jensen Comment
I don't understand how Oregon can get away with this gross receipts tax.  

 


University of Texas:  70 Anthropology Students Accused of Cheating ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/10/02/70-texas-students-accused-cheating?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=25391b9e7c-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-25391b9e7c-197565045&mc_cid=25391b9e7c&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Jensen Comment
Perhaps this policy against certain types of group communications is unrealistic since electronic group messaging is only one form of messaging between students. Cheating in electronic messaging is just easier to detect. In the old days in some prestigious universities students were honor-bound to report cheating of any kind. But in this day of lawyers lurking behind every tree it's risky to make students honor-bound to report cheating. The sad thing is that today students are aware of a whole lot of cheating that they're afraid to report unless protected like a Congressional whistleblower. Perhaps the course needs a more secure design such as giving common exams at the same time and the same place for resident students. Online cheating presents unique problems having unique solutions ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#OnsiteVersusOnline

There are unique problems that arise with scale. My daughter had lecture courses with hundreds of students at the University of Texas. It's impossible for teachers to know each student individually and to know when a student with a fake ID is taking a course for somebody else for various reasons, mostly for fees.

Bob Jensen's threads on cheating scandals at prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#UVA


The Impossible burger has 1 major flaw to overcome: It's nearly triple the price of normal ground beef ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-impossible-burger-is-too-expensive-2019-9

Jensen Comment
I find Impossible "Burgers" rather tasteless and miss the fat flavor of beef. However, with a little doctoring up (think mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles) they actually become delicious --- better than most veggie burgers. Time will tell whether these chemical ""burgers" are significantly healthier than burgers made from ground beef or pork. No claim, to my knowledge, is made that they are nutritionally equivalent.

McDonalds is now experimenting with a hybrid that is partly ground beef.

Impossible Burgers are not necessarily triple the price everywhere in restaurants and grocery stores at the moment since there are many lower-priced promotions going on around the USA.

Impossible Burgers on an outdoor grill look and cook a lot like meat burgers ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/cooking-with-impossible-burger-review-2019-9
There's no known health risk (as of yet) from under cooking an Impossible Burger, and there is less risk relative to cooking meat that's not been preserved properly. Of course any food can be contaminated if not cared for properly --- think of those tiny worms that later show up in bulk grains that you scooped up from open bins of a food store.

And yes, any veggie burger or meat burger can be genetically modified since such modifications are possible in vegetation and livestock.

KFC is now experimenting with chickenless fried chicken --- it's bean-licking good.


Liberalism --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism
Note that liberalism is not defined as socialism or the economics of Bernie Sanders. It's quite the opposite!

Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All ---
https://www.amazon.com/Why-Liberalism-Works-Liberal-Prosperous/dp/0300235089/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=why+liberalism+works&qid=1569891759&s=gateway&sr=8-1/marginalrevol-20

Jensen Comment
I ordered this new book this morning. I know Deirdre Nansen McCloskey (Author) and had the honor of being a discussant of one of her plenary sessions at an academic conference. She's a very scholarly economics historian and prolific author. There's little doubt about how she views the historic protests now taking place in Hong Kong ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deirdre_McCloskey


More Lower-Cost Engineering Degrees, From Purdue, Kaplan and edX ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/10/02/support-kaplan-purdue-launches-low-cost-edx-degrees?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=57f4119096-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-57f4119096-197565045&mc_cid=57f4119096&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Jensen Comment
Following the lead of first Stanford and later Georgia Tech there are now newer experiments taking place with engineering masters degree programs. Stanford's ADEPT program (now defunct) was essentially a video-lecture degree program with extremely high admission standards that, by themselves, gave this degree program academic respect.

Distance Education:  Stanford Center for Professional Development
Stanford University was probably the first prestigious university to offer an online masters degree in engineering in a video program called ADEPT. That has since been replaced by an expanded online program in professional development that offers certificates or full masters of science degrees in selected programs, especially engineering. The program was highly restrictive in that employers must be members of Stanford's Corporate Education Graduate Program. For example, to earn a masters of science degree the requirements are as follows:

For details go to
http://scpd.stanford.edu/home

The newer engineering masters programs mentioned in the Chronicle's link above are more open to students and probably will not have quite the admission standards of the former ADEPT program. They also use distance education technologies that were not invented in the days of the ADEPT masters program. For one thing they will do more hand holding. In the ADEPT program students were virtually on their own learning from very technical videos.

Georgia Tech launched the first "massive online open degree" (MOOC) in computer science by partnering with Udacity and AT&T; a complete degree through that program costs students $7,000. It eventually expanded this program with its online masters in analytics in January 2017, as well as providing the option for advanced credits with a MicroMasters in collaboration with edX ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Tech

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


How to Mislead With Statistics

States with the highest, lowest state and local tax collections ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/the-morals-that-determine-whether-were-liberal-conservative-or-libertarian.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Jensen Comment
This is a classic case of ranking based upon averages that ignore sampling distributions (particularly skewness), standard deviations, and outliers.

For example, Alabama supposedly offers the best tax deal, but not necessarily if you make over $150,000 per year. Alabama has all types of taxes, including an income tax. If you make over $150,000 per year you're probably better off in a state without an income tax like Nevada or Florida. The problem is that Alabama has a skewed distribution with lots of low income people who pay little or no income tax. In comparison New York has a much higher proportion of very high income people who pay lots and lots of income tax.

Wealthy people are fleeing high income tax states like New York and Vermont, but not many are choosing to relocate in Alabama or Tennessee because those two states supposedly, according to the above article, offer the best tax deals among all 50 states. That alone should tell you something is wrong with the above ranking of states. Taxation was a factor in my decision about where to retire, especially when comparing high tax states like California, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Maine with with relatively low taxing New Hampshire (that has no sales tax or income tax).

It's also hard to compare some types of taxes. California, for example, is exceedingly difficult to evaluate in terms of property taxes without knowing the context of the comparisons. If you've owned a big house in Palo Alto for 50 years property taxes are not a killer because of Proposition 13 that locks you into paying less than $25,000 per year. However, if you sell your house the buyer may have to pay over $250,000 per year in property taxes on that same house.

Even outside California property taxes are much different than income taxes and sales taxes. For example, I pay relatively high property taxes on my four-acre home site in New Hampshire. However, I hope to get some of those taxes returned if and when I elect to sell the property. However, there would be no return of sales and state income taxes if New Hampshire had taxes on sales and incomes.


The Case of Florida State University's Murdered Law Professor

Hit Man Convicted Of First-Degree Murder Of Dan Markel; State To Retry Magbanua After Jury Deadlocks; Magbanua Fingers Charlie Adelson (former brother-in-law of victim) ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/10/hit-man-garcia-convicted-of-first-degree-murder-of-dan-markel-state-to-retry-magbanua-after-jury-dea.html


 

 

 

 




From the Scout Report on September 27, 2019

From Philosophy Students at the University of Chicago
Elucidations ---
https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/elucidations/
Originally featured in the 03.23.2017 Scout Report, Elucidations continues to provide visitors with engaging episodes on thought-provoking topics, such as plagiarism and quantum mechanics. From the University of Chicago comes Elucidations, a monthly podcast featuring interviews with contemporary philosophers. Each interview is hosted by University of Chicago graduate students in philosophy. On this website visitors can explore and download all current and past podcasts (as of this write-up, 118 in total) and check out suggested related readings. Episodes are structured conversationally and discuss topics meant to incite reflection. For example, in Episode 92 Kristie Dotson of Michigan State University discusses how we access the veracity of information and how larger social forces, such as political oppression, can impact our ability to make these assessments. In another (Episode 90) Asta Sveinsdottir of San Francisco State University discusses the social construction of our identities and argues that each aspect of our identity, such as our gender, sexuality, or race, "makes..[us]..susceptible to certain special entitlements, while also putting you under certain special obligations.


Transom --- https://transom.org/
Readers who have thought about starting their own radio show or podcast may want to check out Transom. This resource offers a wealth of information to help its visitors learn audio storytelling, both in terms of content and technical production aspects. Under Shows, readers will find professionally produced audio and video pieces accompanied by essays from their creators giving insight into their creative process. Those wondering what tools they should use will also find in-depth reviews of microphones, recorders, windscreens, and more, while the Techniques section provides practical guides and tutorials on the craft of radio and podcasting. Advice from audio producers is available under Ideas, and this resource on audio storytelling naturally includes its own podcast entitled HowSound. In addition to browsing Transom's offerings by subject, visitors can also filter by category (e.g. gear guide, production, video) and by tag (e.g. podcast basics, editing, interviewing). Transom is administered by the non-profit Atlantic Public Media and was the first website to win a Peabody Award.


Processing --- https://processing.org/
Processing is a programming environment designed for producing digital artwork. Its developers describe it as "a flexible software sketchbook ... for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts." With processing, they wish to promote "software literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology." Processing sketchbooks can produce interactive two-dimensional and three-dimensional visuals, PDFs, and SVG files. In the Tutorials section on the Processing site, users can locate both video and audio tutorials at a variety of difficulty levels. The Examples section of the site provides several dozen small programs that demonstrate typical processing idioms. Selecting the Reference tab offers users detailed technical reference of the Processing language. The Books section contains links to several published volumes that are available for purchase. These books cover topics relevant to using the software. Processing itself is free software, licensed under a combination of the GNU GPL and LGPL licenses. The Download section of the website offers installers for Windows, macOS, and Linux.


QGIS --- https://qgis.org/en/site/
QGIS is a cross-platform desktop geographic information system that allows users to "create, edit, visualize, analyze, and publish geospatial information." In addition to functioning as a complete, standalone GIS system, QGIS can also be integrated with other open source GIS software, including PostGIS, GRASS, and MapServer. Plugins that extend QGIS can be written in the Python or C++ programming languages. Users who are less familiar with GIS concepts may appreciate the guide "A gentle introduction in GIS," located in the Documentation section on the QGIS site. That section additionally features the "QGIS User guide," which provides a technical reference to the software. Also available here, the "QGIS Training Manual" contains a series of 19 modules that demonstrate the features of the software in the style of an academic course, complete with self-test activities and answer keys. QGIS is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL. Installers for Windows, macOS, and Linux can be located on the Download section of the site.


 

 




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


Education Tutorials

School Library Journal: The Yarn (especially for kids --- http://blogs.slj.com/theyarn/

ALSC Blog (library services for children) --- www.alsc.ala.org/blog

International Children’s Digital Library --- http://www.icdlbooks.org/

The International Children’s Digital Library Offers Free eBooks for Kids in Over 40 Languages ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/the-international-childrens-digital-library.html

Thrive After Three (readings for children) --- https://thriveafterthree.com/

ACL: Storytimes ---  www.bayviews.org/storytime

Latinxs in Kid Lit --- https://latinosinkidlit.com/

KidLit TV --- https://kidlit.tv/

The Children's Picture Book Project --- www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/children-picture-book-project-1022.html

Hayao Miyazaki Picks His 50 Favorite Children’s Books ---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/hayao-miyazaki-picks-his-50-favorite-childrens-books.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Choices Reading Lists --- http://www.reading.org/resources/booklists.aspx

Jane Goodall’s Lovely Letter to Children About How Reading Shaped Her Life ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/01/31/jane-goodalls-reading-a-velocity-of-being/?mc_cid=b4afba6c33&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

 

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

Climate Feedback (sorting fact from fiction)  --- https://climatefeedback.org/

SciShow Space Science (YouTube Channel) ---  www.youtube.com/user/scishowspace

Sea and Sky: Astronomy Reference Guide --- www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy.html

Nature Communications: A song of fire and ice across the Solar System --- www.nature.com/collections/efgaigefga

Download 435 High Resolution Images from John J. Audubon’s The Birds of America ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/download-435-high-resolution-images-from-john-j-audubons-the-birds-of-america.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

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

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


Social Science and Economics Tutorials

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty --- www.nap.edu/catalog/25246/a-roadmap-to-reducing-child-poverty

Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality: Research --- http://inequality.stanford.edu/research

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

A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk. This is how ---
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-09-25/texas-ranger-got-one-of-the-nations-worst-serial-killers-to-talk-this-is-how

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


Math Tutorials

Freakonomics:  America's Math Curriculum Doesn't Add Up
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/math-curriculum/

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

Where Did Human Beings Come From? 7 Million Years of Human Evolution Visualized in Six Minutes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/7-million-years-of-human-evolution-visualized-in-six-minutes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Alexis de Tocqueville on the Tyranny of the Majority ---
https://edsitement.neh.gov/curricula/alexis-de-tocqueville-tyranny-majority

Aby Warburg --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aby_Warburg
Mnemosyne: Meanderings through Aby Warburg's Atlas ---
https://warburg.library.cornell.edu/

NPR:  White Lies (true crime stories) ---  www.npr.org/podcasts/510343/white-lies

Slavery and the Making of the University --- https://exhibits.lib.unc.edu/exhibits/show/slavery

DocsTeach: The Nixon and Ford Years --- www.docsteach.org/topics/nixon-ford

Library of Congress: WPA Posters --- www.loc.gov/collections/works-progress-administration-posters/about-this-collection

Video:  The Hank Williams Story --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ0SuDdhUS4

A 900-Page Pre-Pantone Guide to Color from 1692: A Complete Digital Scan ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/10/a-900-page-pre-pantone-guide-to-color-from-1692-a-complete-digital-scan.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The Japanese Fairy Tale Series: The Illustrated Books That Introduced Western Readers to Japanese Tales (1885-1922) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/09/the-japanese-fairy-tale-series.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Sontag:  Her Life and Work ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/09/sontag-her-life-and-work.html

Prince Albert: His Life and Legacy --- https://albert.rct.uk/

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

The Tweety Bird Test (Linguistics) ---
https://daily.jstor.org/the-tweety-bird-test/

English isn’t uniquely vibrant or mighty or adaptable. But it really is weirder than pretty much every other language.---
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/english-is-not-normal

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


Music Tutorials

 

Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Music

Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm


Writing Tutorials

Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries



Bob Jensen's threads on medicine ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Medicine

CDC Blogs --- http://blogs.cdc.gov/

Shots: NPR Health News --- http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots

Updates from WebMD --- http://www.webmd.com/

September 26, 2019

 C      Cancer Risks Spur Calls to Replace Ethylene Oxide

·         EEE: What You Should Know

·         Billions of 'Microplastics' in Each Plastic Teabag

·         Study Links Menopausal Night Sweats to Impaired Thinking

·         Older Diabetics May Be Getting Too Much Insulin

·         Common Antidepressants May Work in Unexpected Way: Study

·         It Takes Less Weight to Trigger Diabetes in Minorities Than Whites

·         'Self-Silencing' Potentially Deadly for Women

·         Americans Are Still Eating Too Many 'Bad' Carbs

September 27, 2019

·         Poll: Many Young Americans Think Vaping is Safe

·         Legionnaires Cases in North Carolina Rise to 25

·         Link Seen Between Infertility, Prostate Cancer

·         Gum Disease Might Raise Your Blood Pressure

·         Heartburn Drugs and Cancer: What Are the Risks?

·         Extreme Exercise Might Dull the Brain, Study Says

·         More U.S. Kids Being Diagnosed With Autism, ADHD

·         Walking Pace May Signal If Stroke Patients Can Return to Work

·         New Hope Against a 'Dizzying' Form of Migraine

September 30, 2019

·         Many U.S. Seniors Are Going Hungry, Study Finds

·         Deer Can Give You Tuberculosis: CDC

·         Controversial Studies Say It’s OK to Eat Red Meat

·         Raw Dog Food May Pose Salmonella Threat

·         Pediatric Group Issues Updated ADHD Guidelines

·         Evidence Shows Optimism Might Lengthen Your Life

·         Poll: Many Young Americans Think Vaping is Safe

·         Legionnaires Cases in North Carolina Rise to 25

·         Link Seen Between Infertility, Prostate Cancer

October 1, 2018

·         Stroke Rate Continues to Fall for Older Americans

·         Juul Halts Funding For Vaping Ballot Initiative

·         One Dead in NC Legionnaires' Outbreak

·         Childhood TB Shot May Offer Lung Cancer Protection

·         Paper Books Beat Tablets for Parent-Child Interactions

·         Many U.S. Seniors Are Going Hungry, Study Finds

·         Raw Dog Food May Pose Salmonella Threat

·         Deer Can Give You Tuberculosis: CDC

·         Controversial Studies Say It’s OK to Eat Red Meat

October 2, 2019

·         Antidepressants Might Raise Odds for Serious Pregnancy Complication

·         Bernie Sanders Treated for Blocked Artery

·         County Delays Georgia Sterigenics Reopening

·         Johnson & Johnson Settles Opioid Suit in Ohio

·         Bans on Flavored E-Cigs Continue

·         Cooling Cardiac Arrest Patients May Mean Better Long-Term Brain Function

·         Despite Rise in New Cases, Breast Cancer Deaths Continue to Fall

·         'Nerve-Release' Surgery Helped Ease One Man's Tough Migraines

·         Fish Oil Supplements May Do Your Heart Good

October 4, 2019

·         Actor Diahann Carroll Dies at 84

·         Trying to Conceive? Both Dad and Mom Should Give Up Drinking in Months Before

·         Fungal Invasion May Drive Some Pancreatic Cancers

·         Mind-Controlled 'Exoskeleton' Restores Movement to Totally Paralyzed Man

·         Georgia Plant Reports 8-Day Ethylene Oxide Leak

·         Just a Little Weight Loss Can Put Diabetes Into Remission

·         Your Washer Might Be Breeding Drug-Resistant Germs

·         Twins Are Becoming Less Common in U.S., for Good Reasons

·         Organic Chicken Less Likely to Harbor a Dangerous 'Superbug'

·         'Chemical Burns' May Be Vaping Lung Damage Source

View All Health News

October 7, 2019

·        
    Trying to Conceive? Both Dad and Mom Should Give Up Drinking in Months Before

·         Fungal Invasion May Drive Some Pancreatic Cancers

·         Mind-Controlled 'Exoskeleton' Restores Movement to Totally Paralyzed Man

·         Georgia Plant Reports 8-Day Ethylene Oxide Leak

·         Just a Little Weight Loss Can Put Diabetes Into Remission

·         Your Washer Might Be Breeding Drug-Resistant Germs

·         Twins Are Becoming Less Common in U.S., for Good Reasons

·         Organic Chicken Less Likely to Harbor a Dangerous 'Superbug'

·         'Chemical Burns' May Be Vaping Lung Damage Source

October 8, 2019

·         Aspirin, Antihistamines: Kids Often Use OTC Drugs in Suicide Attempts

·         Cause of Paralyzing Illness in Kids Remains Elusive

·         Sia Has Chronic Pain Due to Neurological Disease

·         Sen. Bernie Sanders Leaves Hospital; Doctors Confirm He Had Heart Attack

·         Actor Diahann Carroll Dies at 84

·         Trying to Conceive? Both Dad and Mom Should Give Up Drinking in Months Before

·         Fungal Invasion May Drive Some Pancreatic Cancers

·         Mind-Controlled 'Exoskeleton' Restores Movement to Totally Paralyzed Man

·         Georgia Plant Reports 8-Day Ethylene Oxide Leak

October 9, 2019

·         Only a Third of Pregnant Women Get Needed Vaccines

·         Bill Would Limit Nicotine in E-Cigarette Products

·         Walgreens and Kroger Halt E-Cigarette Sales

·         Air Pollution Kills as Many People as Cigarettes

·         Your Dog Might Just Extend Your Life

·         Many ICU Admissions May Be Preventable, Large Study Suggests

·         Aspirin, Antihistamines: Kids Often Use OTC Drugs in Suicide Attempts

·         Cause of Paralyzing Illness in Kids Remains Elusive

·         Singer Sia Has Chronic Pain and Genetic Disorder

October 10, 2019

·         Humans May Possess Ability to Regrow Cartilage

·         $8 Billion Award in Risperdal Lawsuit

·         Head, Neck Melanomas Show Alarming Rise in Young Americans

·         Gender Reassignment Surgery Benefits Mental Health

·         'Jeopardy!' Host Alex Trebek 'Not Afraid of Dying'

·         'Smartphone Slouching' More Serious Than It Sounds

·         Passengers May Have Been Exposed to Hepatitis A

·         Could a Pill Replace Insulin Shots?

·         STD Rates Continue to Rise in the U.S.

October 12, 2019

·         By Mid-Century, Heat Waves Could Cover Far Bigger Areas

·         Pet Turtles Linked to Salmonella Outbreak: CDC

·         NYC Sues Flavored Online E-Cigarette Sellers

·         How Does Early Menopause Affect a Woman's Heart?

·         Some Blue Bell Ice Cream May Contain Plastic Pieces

·         Nearly 5 Million American Kids Are Obese, New Study Finds

·         Tying the Knot Is Tied to Longer Life Span, New Data Shows

·         Standard Memory Tests for Seniors Might Differ by Gender

·         Home-Cooked Meals Linked to Lower PFAS in the Body

October 14, 2019

·         Frequent Male Pot Use Linked to Early Miscarriages

·         Vision Problems Strike More Than 2 Billion Globally

·         Is Melanoma Suspected? Get 2nd Opinion From Specialist, Study Says

·         Nurse Pens Powerful Post About Flu Shot

·         By Mid-Century, Heat Waves Could Cover Far Bigger Areas

·         Pet Turtles Linked to Salmonella Outbreak: CDC

·         NYC Sues Flavored Online E-Cigarette Sellers

·         How Does Early Menopause Affect a Woman's Heart?

·         Some Blue Bell Ice Cream May Contain Plastic Pieces

View All Health News


MIT:  Meet the wounded veteran who got a (fully functional) penis transplant ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614501/meet-the-wounded-veteran-who-got-a-penis-transplant/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement


The Four Food Groups Revisited ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2019/10/1/the-four-food-groups-revisited


Costly and Controversial Cures
My wife's brother had two children (one boy and one girl) who died in the 1980s of Batten Disease before they were four years old. The neurological disorder sequentially destroys nearly all body functions in childhood and always led to a child's death (until now).

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614522/this-girls-dramatic-story-shows-hyper-personalized-medicine-is-possibleand-costly/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement

Tragedy strikes: When six-year-old Mila Makovec was diagnosed with a devastating neurological disorder called Batten disease, the happy, active girl had already lost her ability to see, to say most words, and to walk without help. There was no known treatment for her fatal condition.

A treatment of her own: Doctors in Boston created a treatment just for Mila, by finding the genetic cause of her disease and designing a drug to overcome the error. It’s believed to be the first individually tailored treatment of its kind, and it’s been partially successful. Mila has fewer seizures, and can eat pureed foods on her own rather than solely through a tube.

Wider lessons: The question is whether others could benefit from similar hyper-personalized medicines, which could cost several millions of dollars each to produce. And, crucially, who would pay for them?

Jensen Comment
The article focuses on the extreme costs of customized medicines designed and produced for a "cure" or a life that is temporarily prolonged with higher quality.
What the article fails to address is quality of life? Will Mila ever walk again? Will Mila have her vision restored?




Humor for October 2019

·     The Genius of That SNL Sketch on Race ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/10/snl-mid-day-news-segment-smart-funny-race/599545/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20191007&silverid-ref=NTk4MzY1OTg0MzY5S0

       SNL's Mockery of the Democratic Debates ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2019/09/30/watch-snl-lampoons-the-democratic-debates-n2553880?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

D    Dave Barry is Running for President Again in 2020 ---
https://reason.com/2019/10/12/dave-barry-2020/

F    FUNNIEST TRUMP CAN'T WIN VIDEO COMPILATION --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G87UXIH8Lzo

T    These Southern phrases help take the sting out of insults ---
https://www.southernthing.com/these-southern-phrases-help-take-the-sting-out-of-insults-2640874095.html
Thank you Paula

C   Check out these CPAs’ vanity license plates ---
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/newsletters/2019/sep/cpa-vanity-license-plates.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=02Oct2019
Also see
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/newsletters/2018/sep/accounting-cpa-vanity-license-plates.html

 Laugh Factory --- http://www.laughfactory.com/jokes

 

 




Humor September 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q3.htm#Humor0919.htm 

Humor August 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q3.htm#Humor0819.htm 

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