Tidbits on April 30, 2020
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Maple Sugaring Photographs of 2018 and 2020
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/2018March/2018March.htm

 

Tidbits on April 30, 2020
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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

Excellent, Cross-Disciplinary Overview of Scientific Reproducibility in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ---
https://replicationnetwork.com/2018/12/15/excellent-cross-disciplinary-overview-of-scientific-reproducibility-in-the-stanford-encyclopedia-of-philosophy/
[Researchers] are rewarded for being productive rather than being right, for building ever upward instead of checking the foundations.---
Decades of early research on the genetics of depression were built on nonexistent foundations. How did that happen?

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/waste-1000-studies/589684/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20191022&silverid-ref=NTk4MzY1OTg0MzY5S0
Bob Jensen:  My take on research validation or lack thereof is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
You must watch this to the ending to appreciate it.

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

Take a Long Virtual Tour of the Louvre in Three High-Definition Videos ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/take-a-long-virtual-tour-of-the-louvre-in-three-high-definition-videos.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Watch 3,000+ Films Free Online from the National Film Board of Canada ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/03/watch-3000-films-free-from-the-national-film-board-of-canada-2.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Watch Full Productions of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Musicals, Streaming Free for 48 Hours Every Weekend ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/watch-full-productions-of-sir-andrew-lloyd-webbers-musicals.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Bill Gates Ted Talk:  We're Not Ready for the Next Outbreak ---
https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready?rid=0C2MDTDiJn8H&utm_source=recommendation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explore&utm_term=watchNow

Alanna Shaikh Ted Talk:  Why COVID-19 is hitting us now -- and how to prepare for the next outbreak
https://www.ted.com/talks/alanna_shaikh_why_covid_19_is_hitting_us_now_and_how_to_prepare_for_the_next_outbreak?rid=cuIjJgihv70B&utm_source=recommendation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explore&utm_term=watchNow#t-104


Ray Dalio --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Dalio
Ray Dalio Ted Talk:  How the coronavirus pandemic is changing the world ---
https://www.ted.com/talks/ray_dalio_what_coronavirus_means_for_the_global_economy?utm_source=recommendation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explore&utm_term=newest-talks-6

Trump-Hating Billionaire Ray Dalio says investors would be 'pretty crazy to hold government bonds' right now as central banks continue to print money ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/ray-dalio-crazy-hold-bonds-now-central-banks-printing-money-2020-4-1029095649
Good financial advice even though it's not very patriotic

Act of Magic Link Forwarded by Paula ---
https://1funny.com/amazing-heartwarming-magic/

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 

Solitary Man --- https://jborden.com/2020/04/20/music-monday-a-boy-named-shel/

Merle Haggard doing impersonations (Marty, Hank Snow, Buck, Cash) ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4V3S7kGNjY&feature=youtu.be

The Most Popular Juke Box Tunes of All Time ---
https://jborden.com/2020/04/13/music-monday-the-most-popular-jukebox-songs-of-all-time/
The above  list is based on pop tunes, whereas the coins put into the juke boxes, especially in bars and road houses, more often leaned toward country music
Patsy Cline's Crazy crosses over into country lists as well.  Crazy was a hit, but not Patsy's all-time hit. By the way Crazy was written by Willie Nelson, who wrote songs that became both pop and country favorites recorded by other artists. In Ken Burn's History of Country Music Willie claims he started out as a poet before becoming a song writer.

The Top 100 Country Music Hits ---
https://timelife.com/products/the-country-jukebox-collection/
The alcoholic Hank Williams is now considered a poet after writing the lyrics for over 167 songs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_written_by_Hank_Williams

Top Selling Singles of All Time ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_singles

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


Photographs and Art

Take a Long Virtual Tour of the Louvre in Three High-Definition Videos ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/take-a-long-virtual-tour-of-the-louvre-in-three-high-definition-videos.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

12 Famous Frank Lloyd Wright Houses Offer Virtual Tours: Hollyhock House, Taliesin West, Fallingwater & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/12-famous-frank-lloyd-wright-houses-offer-virtual-tours-hollyhock-house-taliesin-west-fallingwater-more.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Why is Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring” Considered a Masterpiece?: An Animated Introduction ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/why-is-vermeers-girl-with-the-pearl-earring-considered-a-masterpiece-an-animated-introduction.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Bald eagles photographed nesting in saguaro cactus for first time ---
https://www.foxnews.com/science/bald-eagles-photographed-nesting-saguaro-cactus-first-time-arizona

Florida Photos --- https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2020/04/florida-photos/610483/

Van Gogh Museum ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/experience-the-van-gogh-museum-in-4k-resolution-a-video-tour-in-seven-parts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

How to Paint Water Lilies Like Monet in 14 Minutes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/how-to-paint-water-lilies-like-monet-in-14-minutes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Happy Hues Science (color resource) --- www.happyhues.co

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

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


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

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

 

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 April 30, 2020
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2020/TidbitsQuotations043020.htm             




While living in the White Mountains of New Hampshire May is my favorite month of the year

Although we can still get squalls by day or night I'm not likely to have to move snow
Due to frost risks I don't plant until June
The grass does not have to be mowed until June
The weeds do not have to be pulled until June
I don't have to move fallen leaves that are almost up to my knees
It's still too early for mosquitoes and ticks
My flowers and vegetables do not have to be watered until June
I moved up here to escape the heat, and the hottest days in May are still delightfully cool or even cold in the wind
And it's like holding your breath for our spectacular wildflowers in June

Springtime

Set 1 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits//SummertimeFavorites/EarlySpringtime/EarlySpringtimeSet01.htm

Set 4 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/SummertimeFavorites/EarlySpringtime/Set04/EarlySpringtimeSet04.htm 

My Walk Down Lovers Lane --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lupine/Set01/LupineSet01.htm

 

Lupine Favorites

Set 1 --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lupine/Set01/LupineSet01.htm

Set 2 --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lupine/Set02/LupineSet02.htm 

Set 3 ---  http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lupine/Set03/LupineSet03.htm

Set 4 ---  http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lupine/Set04/LupineSet04.htm

Wes Lavin's Artistic Photographs of Our Lupine in 2017
http://cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/2017WesLavinCD/Lupines2017/2017Lupine.htm

Wes Lavin's 2019 Great Springtime Pictures of 2019 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/2019July/2019June.htm

Yeah I like our color season in autumn as well, but winter is more likely to move in with a big boom before Thanksgiving or maybe even before Halloween

Actually I don't mind winter because it's not hot and I don't have to mow, weed, or water --- my tractor makes moving snow a lot easier


The 15 coding languages with the highest salaries, and how to learn them online at no cost ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-coding-languages-with-the-highest-salary-2020-4
Jensen Comment
I think a better alternative is to learn coding free via MOOC online courses from the most prestigious universities in the world
The article fails to mention that Coursera certificates for these courses are now free until the end of May


A hundred prestigious university courses (through Coursera) are $0 now through May 31 — here's a list of all the classes open for free enrollment ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-coursera-courses
Includes an exciting array of new courses that did not exist twenty years ago


 

Six Reasons Students Aren't Showing Up for Virtual Learning during this 2020 pandemic---
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2020/04/6_reasons_students_arent_showing_up_for_virtual_learning.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=59562836&U=2290378&UUID=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f

. . .

The 6 reasons are:
No access
 - Some students are living in homes that may not have access to Wi-Fi or limited access at best. Many of those students may not have a "device" to use for schoolwork. Yes, schools hand out devices to students, which is extremely helpful, but not all families are experts at devices and Wi-Fi. Common Sense Media reports (Today Show. 04/21/20) that over 10 million students in the US do not have devices. If teachers and leaders are struggling with technology, perhaps it's probable that families are struggling with technology, too? Not everyone works for the Geek Squad. 

Essential Workers - Some students are working full time. Whether they are working the fields in California or at grocery stores in the Midwest, it's plausible that our students have had to take on jobs to help their families put food on the table. Their work, and the contributions they make monetarily at home, is essential. 

No Grade Incentive - Many school districts in many states have gone to a no grading policy because they don't want to punish students who cannot attend all classes or hand in all of their work due to equity of access to virtual learning. The interesting thing happening here is that there are students who find that the incentive for showing up is not there, so they no longer need to attend the class. Is there a way that we can use a no grading policy to our advantage? Can we continue to provide students with the flexibility to do project-based learning around topics they find interesting to get a sense of their interests and creativity? 

Taking care of their siblings - If parents or caregivers are still working because they are essential workers, it is possible that our students are caregiving for their siblings and helping those siblings do their classwork ... or keeping siblings from tearing things apart. These students may attend only half of the classes they are "required" to attend. 

Bedlam but No Bedroom - Not everyone has a bedroom to themselves. In fact, I work in many schools where multiple families live in the same apartment or house. If there isn't a quiet space where they are  able to focus, perhaps it's just easier to not connect with their teacher at all.  

Student - Teacher Relationships - Some students are not connecting because they felt invisible while they were in the physical classroom, so they feel that they will not be missed in the virtual one. Additionally, some students just didn't find their teachers very engaging in person, so they aren't really concerned about engaging with those particular teachers online. 

In the End
There are students not attending all of their classes because of a lack of accountability at the same time their teachers are being held accountable. Let's face it though, most teachers are less worried about the kind of accountability that comes from their school leaders, and more of the accountability they are concerned about comes from the pressure they put on themselves as teachers. So many teachers care deeply about their students and worry about their social-emotional and academic growth during this pandemic. 

In one of the pages I explored, someone posed the question, "Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently when the students were in front of you?" I thought it was a great question, and apparently so did others because there were 79 responses at the time I began writing this blog. 

Most of the responses focused on how they would have used different tools, or they would have assigned at least one virtual assignment every week. All of these responses are important. However, very few of the comments focused on how teachers would have built better relationships with students so those students would show up to the virtual classroom. If we find ourselves in a situation where we are teaching online for the first month of school, knowing we have the same restraints we do now (i.e. no grading, access, etc.) student teacher relationships is the first place we must start, and we need to take some time soon to think about what that may look like in a virtual setting.

Questions I have been pondering:

·        We know that virtual teaching during a pandemic is hard, and takes a lot of work. However, what is working for your school/classroom right now that can continue to be used again in the fall?

·        What is one way you have communicated during this time that brought in the most attention by the community (i.e. teachers, students, families, etc.)? Many years ago, we went from just sending home paper newsletters to parents (we went from a 5 pager to a 1 page), and I began flipping communication through our parent portal. I was amazed at how well it went the first time around. Are there any similar changes you have made that have worked well, and it surprised you?

·        As school leaders, what do you need to do during the summer to continue to connect with families? With my PTA we would have at least one summer meeting, and one summer event. If social distancing is still in place, is there a virtual event that you can create?

·        As school leaders, how are you supporting teachers and students socially-emotionally and academically? For example, are you engaging in their live classroom chats with students?  

·        As school leaders, what incentives are cable companies offering that may help put more hot spots in the community? I coach with a high school principal that contacted those companies and got them to compete with each other a bit, and his high poverty community ended up with a few more hot spots set up.  

 

Jensen Comments
There are many other reasons/excuses students aren't working very hard from home. In some cases face-to-face competition for scholastic performance among peers trumps online competition. Or more importantly many online students just aren't as motivated to study amidst competing non-scholastic incentives.

 

And without advanced prep time for online delivery many teachers just are not providing very good courses. Veteran online teachers have better asynchronous learning materials and better communications (think instant messaging).

 

With free online MOOC courses from the most prestigious universities in the world it's been found that students are more motivated in advanced courses than introductory courses. Introductory students often want more hand holding outside of class and more class time devoted to non-technical content.

 


 

Largest versus Best Online Degree Programs (there are surprises in both rankings)

Federal data show the colleges and universities with the most students enrolled online in 2018---
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/12/17/colleges-and-universities-most-online-students-2018?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=7a6385859f-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-7a6385859f-197565045&mc_cid=7a6385859f&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Jensen Comment
The mega universities stand out at the top. Reasons why these universities are so huge vary. For the University of Southern New Hampshire its largely marketing success. For Liberty University there's a religious connection to students. Western Governors University and Arizona State have taxpayer funding subsidies. Online universities vary with respect to also having onsite campuses.

For me there were some surprises regarding the sizes of the online degree programs at the  University of Iowa, University of South Florida, San Diego State University, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas at Arlington, and others. I was not aware they had so many online students.

Western Governors University commenced and still is a model of competency-based testing where instructors have little or no subjective impact on grading. Other leading online universities have some but not all subjectivity in grading ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge

For me the test of quality is having admission standards. The questionable online universities are the for-profit universities that have virtually no admission standards and questionable academic standards.
USNews provides quality rankings of online programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm#Comparisons
Especially note
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education

U.S. News College Compass Details of 1,800 Colleges and Universities ($29.95 Annual Database Subscription Fee) ---
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/store/college_compass.htm
Jensen Comment
Much of this data is available for free at each Website, but it's harder to find and match with a student's profile that is this U.S. News consolidated database. The database appears to be of limited use for comparing academic disciplines, although U.S. News has other sites (most of them free) for such purposes. For example if you want comparisons (rankings) on selected disciplines go to http://www.usnews.com/educatio

US News: 2020 Best Online Bachelor's Programs ---
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education 

#1 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University--Worldwide Daytona Beach, FL
#2 Arizona State University Tempe, AZ
#3 Ohio State University--Columbus (tie) Columbus, OH
#3 Oregon State University (tie) Corvallis, OR
#5 Pennsylvania State University--World Campus (tie) University Park, PA
#5 University of Florida (tie) Gainesville, FL
#5 University of Illinois--Chicago (tie) Chicago, IL
#8 Colorado State University--Global Campus (tie) Greenwood Village, CO
#8 University at Buffalo--SUNY (tie) Buffalo, NY
#8 University of North Carolina--Wilmington (tie) Wilmington, NC
#8 University of Oklahoma (tie) Norman, OK

Popular Degree Profiles Accounting, Business Administration and Management, Computer Science, Health Care Administration and Management, Marketing, 

Best 2020 Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
 https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings 

Bob Jensen's threads on distance education (including a somewhat neglected ranking of program quality) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm

 

 


Liability Everywhere Why college lawyers will be working overtime ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Liability-Everywhere/248039?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1163622&cid=db&source=ams&sourceId=296279

 

Colleges will have to tighten their belts amid the next recession and a subsequent mid-decade enrollment drop of roughly 15 percent. But one place they might not want to cut is their general-counsel offices.

That’s because on top of a widening list of free-speech, mental-health, regulatory, and other legal concerns, the forthcoming era of austerity will usher in a slew of new issues.

"I don’t think we’ve ever had to cope with the level of rightsizing we’re about to in higher education," says Peter F. Lake, a higher-education-law expert at Stetson University. Tongue only slightly in cheek, he calls what’s coming the "edupocalypse."

Higher education is in for the kind of shakeout big business experienced in the 1980s, he says, with closings, mergers, and personnel suits among the resulting legal shocks.

Those rightsizing burdens will only add to a variety of recent cases testing the range of colleges’ responsibility and culpability. And across the spectrum, increased litigation and starkly rising jury awards are leading, in turn, to painful liability-insurance premiums that hit colleges squarely in the wallet.

Consider the $32-million defamation verdict against Oberlin College in a case brought by a nearby bakery. Ostensibly triggered by a shoplifting incident, that case involved students’ subsequent statements, administrators’ and faculties’ responses to those statements, and — as The Chronicle has detailed — a general town-gown culture clash. While the size of the jury’s award was jaw-dropping, experts say it isn’t out of line with awards in other industries, and colleges better get used to their vulnerability to such judgments.

Says Scott Schneider, a specialist in higher-education law, a partner in the Austin office of Husch Blackwell, and an instructor at Tulane University’s School of Law: "People have hard and fast opinions about colleges and universities, and in some communities these are not popular institutions. … Some lawyers and juries will really try to stick it to an institution they think is out of touch."

And class action suits are on the rise. Corporations in 2018 spent almost $2.5 billion defending against them. Colleges already face a litany of class actions — most visibly in sports abuse scandals like those at Michigan State, Ohio State, and Pennsylvania State Universities. But class actions can also stem from questions of financial responsibility — unpaid overtime, for instance, or poorly managed retirement-account investments. They might relate to cybersecurity, discrimination allegations in faculty layoffs or pay; antitrust claims regarding tuition, admissions, athletics, or hiring; or medical issues like concussion, mold, or other sick-building situations.

Litigation trends are incredibly hostile to higher education," says Lake. And class actions are litigation on steroids.

Here, according to college general counsels, higher-education lawyers, and other experts, are a half-dozen other trends you’re likely to see over the next five years.

In Loco Parentis

More and more, parents look to colleges to keep their children safe and well. When tragedy strikes, they take those dashed expectations to the courthouse.

In a $56-million suit filed in 2019 by the parents of Lauren McCluskey, a slain University of Utah student and track star, Matt and Jill McCluskey argue that university police officers didn’t respond properly to stalking, abuse, and intimidation by their daughter’s angry ex-boyfriend. The university’s president has said that a review, although finding fault with campus police and housing officials, "does not offer any reason to believe that this tragedy could have been prevented." McCluskey’s family has hired a former state Supreme Court chief justice to represent them.

The family of Olivia Shea Paregol, a student at the University of Maryland, claims that college officials did not quickly and properly alert students to the spread of adenovirus in moldy dorm rooms, resulting in Paregol’s delayed treatment and subsequent death in 2018. An outside review determined that the university followed protocols but also identified areas of weakness in its response and recommended changes in procedure. The family has filed notice of intent to sue.

Describing courts’ movement toward holding institutions responsible for students’ safety, lawyers sometimes cite the $41.7-million verdict against the Hotchkiss School of Salisbury, Conn. A jury awarded that amount to the family of Cara Munn, who at age 15 contracted debilitating encephalitis from a tick bite while hiking during a school trip to China.

Continued in article

 

 

Boise State to furlough employees (including all tenured faculty) due to revenue losses from COVID-19 pandemic
https://www.idahostatesman.com/living/health-fitness/article242160641.html?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1163622&cid=db&source=ams&sourceId=296279#storylink=cpy

Facing $250 Million Loss From COVID-19, University Of Arizona Imposes Pay Cuts (Up To 20%) And Furloughs (Up To 39 Days) On All Faculty And Staff ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2020/04/facing-250-million-loss-from-covid-19-university-of-arizona-imposes-pay-cuts-up-to-20-and-furloughs-.html

University Of Michigan Faces Up To $1 Billion Loss From COVID-19, Announces 5%-10% Executive Pay Cuts, Salary And Hiring Freezes, Voluntary Staff Furloughs ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2020/04/university-of-michigan-faces-up-to-1-billion-loss-from-covid-19-announces-5-10-executive-pay-cuts-sa.html

 

Jensen Comment
There's some hope in the horizon. That hope is that the lawyers aren't smart enough to adjust the helicopter money settlements for inflation.

 

I was on the tenured faculty at four universities in my 40-year academic career and recall that one of these universities made virtually all employees, including tenured faculty, sign yearly employment contracts. It would seem that under such circumstances putting employees on any unpaid leave is a clear breach of contract that could end up in court if pursued by any employee. Most employees will not sue when the furloughs are only a week or so.

 

 

But there's always at least one with a starving lawyer friend who will set precedent in a lawsuit. Soon the university ends up paying a lot of lawyers who did not have employment contracts.

 


 

Isn't it strange how preschool teachers will have more job security in the future than college professors and many entrepreneurs?

 

The big will get bigger as mom-and-pops perish and shopping goes virtual ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/how-pandemic-will-change-face-retail/610738/

Jensen Question for Students
Would it have been a good or a bad idea in 1930 (after the 1929 crash) at the start of the depression to make emergency loans to small buggy whip manufacturers --- emergency loans that would be forgiven if such failing small businesses continued to pay idle employees for a short while?

Or put another way, should you save employees in dying companies at the early point of a pandemic or other economic crises?

It's important to note that in 2020 the SBA loans are called "stimulus" loans. The idea is to help idled employees for the very short term pay for food, rents, and mortgages while at the same time infusing cash into the economy at the start of a downturn to avoid a bigger and longer economic downturn. Even if buggy whip companies were going to fail 1930 SBA stimulus loans going to employees would've helped the economy by helping to prevent the real estate market and local banks from totally crashing.

Of course not all 2020 small businesses are going to fail to the degree that buggy whip manufacturers failed with the rise in automobiles. Many 2020 small businesses (think restaurants and hair salons) will survive the lockdowns even if the 2020 mom-and-pop shoe stores, clothing stores, and jewelry stores will not recover.

The 2020 pandemic crisis is not exactly like the 1930 crisis. In 2020 there will be relatively a lot more jobs available as the lockdowns are lifted. In 1930-1939 a much higher proportion of workers faced horrible job prospects until government spending (think WPA) created public-project jobs --- while at the same time stimulated the economy (although it's hard to factor out the start of WW II economic stimulus).

A friend of mine grumbled that too much 2020 SBA loan cash going to employees would eventually find its way into banks, mortgage companies, and other creditors. I had to remind him that the most disruptive things in the Great Depression was the crash in the real estate market (think houses and farms) that led to failures of nearly all the local banks and businesses. When an economy is built on credit it helps to save the creditors as well.

Of course we still face the enormous 21st Century employment problems after the 2020 pandemic that were looming before the pandemic? I will fill my car today at a town's only fueling station that has no attendant on site. How do we keep people employed as robots seriously wipe out their jobs? Soon the robot janitors, truck drivers, cashiers, postal clerks, soldiers, college professors, physicians, etc. will become rules rather than the exceptions.

Yeah, even college professors will be threatened by chat bot teachers who know a lot more than they do ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Chatbots
Isn't it strange how preschool teachers will have more job security in the future than college professors?

 


Betsy DeVos Releases Billions More in CARES ACT Coronavirus Education Aid ---
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2020/04/betsy_devos_releases_billions_coronavirus_education_aid.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=59548612&U=2290378&UUID=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f
The aid falls way short of losses, but there is a lot indirect aid such as the support of unemployed parents with forgivable small business loans.

The CARES Act will provide nearly $14 billion to college students and institutions of higher education. ... Colleges and universities can distribute the cash grants to students to use on course materials, technology, food, housing, healthcare and child care ---
https://universitybusiness.com/college-students-cares-act-healthcare-trump-administration-coronavirus/
Also see other aid at
https://www.clasp.org/blog/how-cares-act-supports-higher-education
The aid falls way short of losses, and some college officials are arguing for more student loans in support of existing and emerging student rather than forgiveness of the 1.5 trillion in debt owed mostly by former students.

 

College Groups: "Hold Off on Debt Cancellation in Favor of Loans to Current and Emerging Students" ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/21/college-groups-tell-congress-put-debt-cancellation?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=c53fcd2d51-DNU_2019_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-c53fcd2d51-197565045&mc_cid=c53fcd2d51&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

 

Jensen Comment
This misses the point that when you're printing helicopter money there's enough for cancellation of all student debts and free college for anybody that wants it.

 

As a matter of fact why not print $100 trillion for all of the other new social spending initiatives proposed by Bernie Sanders ---
https://www.city-journal.org/bernie-sanders-expensive-spending-proposals


We don't have enough helicopters for this, but the B1 bombers are all sitting idle. We just have to replace the bombs with newly printed money. Everybody will be so happy. People will come from all over the earth to share in the bounty.

 


Massive spending in a crisis brought bloody consequences in ancient Athens ---
https://theconversation.com/massive-spending-in-a-crisis-brought-bloody-consequences-in-ancient-athens-135915

 

Scientific American:  The pandemic will kill many directly, but the effort to fight it will incur a huge toll on other aspects of our health and well-being ---
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-true-costs-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Jensen Comment
To say nothing of the possibility that it will destroy the global economies (think hyperinflation) and efforts to save the planet (like affording even modest green initiatives)
Today I went to our local hospital for a general practitioner routine appointment. It pained me to walk past the darkened areas of X-Ray, outpatient surgeries, and offices of our top surgeons. It especially pained me to have to walk past the chained off cafeteria. Then I thought of all those folks suffering with cataracts who have impaired vision for extra months or more, and what a backlog the hospital will have when the lockdown is finally lifted. Folks with cataracts, bad knees, bad hips, painful feet, etc. will have to wait even longer because of the backlog. Our local hospital is not teeming with Covod-19 patients. Our entire county with multiple local hospital had relatively few coronavirus cases, and most did not even have to be hospitalized.  Was so much prolonged elective surgery delay suffering and the laying off of nurses and other hospital staff necessary with so few Covid-19 cases here in the mountains?


UN Warns of Pandemic-Spawned Famine ---
https://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-311959/?utm_term=OZY&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PDB%20%282020-04-22%2010:31:09%29#article312516

Jensen Comment
In Africa the disaster may not be the coronavirus itself but the economics it generated. This economics disaster is already on top of the locust plague that ravaged East Africa before the pandemic ---
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/worst-locust-outbreak-in-decades-ravages-east-africa-kenya-somalia-ethiopia/


What Is Dropshipping, and Is It a Scam? ---
https://www.howtogeek.com/667846/what-is-dropshipping-and-is-it-a-scam/

Current and past editions of my blog called Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


Seven Certificate-Based 'mini MBAs' offered by top institutions and organizations that'll give you a taste of business school for a fraction of the cost ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/mini-mbas-top-programs-affordable-business-school-2020-4?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BIPrime_select&utm_campaign=BI%2520Prime%25202020-04-24&utm_term=BI%2520Prime%2520Select

·        MBA programs are both costly and time consuming, but you could try the "mini MBA," which are weeks long and teach you a lot of the same subjects covered in business school.

·        Top schools like Rutgers, Clemson, and Bentley and organizations like Marketing Week offer these certificate-granting programs.

·        Learn the core principles of business online at programs like these for anywhere between $275 to $6,000. 

·        You can choose to specialize in certain aspects of business that are most appealing, from digital advertising to entrepreneurship.

 

A traditional MBA is a two-year commitment — or more if completed while also working part or full time — and can be costly. Prestigious programs like Stanford and Harvard, ranked No. 1 and No. 5 in the world respectively, can charge up to $120,000 for full tuition. 

If spending the extensive time and money to go to business school doesn't pique your interest, but you're still intrigued by the value an MBA can have for your career, there's another option: the "mini MBA." 

While there's no set definition or criteria for what's involved in a mini MBA, these are generally short (think: weeks-long), certificate-based programs geared toward business professionals who want the chance to network and advance their understanding of core principles covered in business school. They're offered by select business schools as well as well-respected organizations, and can be completed either in person or online.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Business undergraduates can often later enroll in onsite or online MBA programs that take only two or three semesters.

I remind readers that some highly prestigious MBA programs (think the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania) offer MBA courses free as online MOOCS. For somewhat modest fees Coursera will provide certificates for taking these and thousands of other MOOC courses from the top universities in the world ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

 


Walter E. Williams:  Fixing College Corruption ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/04/15/fixing-college-corruption-n2566832?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=04/15/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

America's colleges are rife with corruption. The financial squeeze resulting from COVID-19 offers opportunities for a bit of remediation. Let's first examine what might be the root of academic corruption, suggested by the title of a recent study, "Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship." The study was done by Areo, an opinion and analysis digital magazine. By the way, Areo is short for Areopagitica, a speech delivered by John Milton in defense of free speech.

Authors Helen Pluckrose, James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian say that something has gone drastically wrong in academia, especially within certain fields within the humanities. They call these fields "grievance studies," where scholarship is not so much based upon finding truth but upon attending to social grievances. Grievance scholars bully students, administrators and other departments into adhering to their worldview. The worldview they promote is neither scientific nor rigorous. Grievance studies consist of disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, gender studies, queer, sexuality and critical race studies.

In 2017 and 2018, authors Pluckrose, Lindsay and Boghossian started submitting bogus academic papers to academic journals in cultural, queer, race, gender, fat and sexuality studies to determine if they would pass peer review and be accepted for publication. Acceptance of dubious research that journal editors found sympathetic to their intersectional or postmodern leftist vision of the world proves the problem of low academic standards.

Several of the fake research papers were accepted for publication. The Fat Studies journal published a hoax paper that argued the term bodybuilding was exclusionary and should be replaced with "fat bodybuilding, as a fat-inclusive politicized performance." One reviewer said, "I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and believe it has an important contribution to make to the field and this journal." "Our Struggle Is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism," was accepted for publication by Affilia, a feminist journal for social workers. The paper consisted in part of a rewritten passage from Mein Kampf. Two other hoax papers were published, including "Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at Urban Dog Parks." This paper's subject was dog-on-dog rape. But the dog rape paper eventually forced Boghossian, Pluckrose and Lindsay to prematurely out themselves. A Wall Street Journal writer had figured out what they were doing.

Some papers accepted for publication in academic journals advocated training men like dogs and punishing white male college students for historical slavery by asking them to sit in silence in the floor in chains during class and to be expected to learn from the discomfort. Other papers celebrated morbid obesity as a healthy life choice and advocated treating privately conducted masturbation as a form of sexual violence against women. Typically, academic journal editors send submitted papers out to referees for review. In recommending acceptance for publication, many reviewers gave these papers glowing praise.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on professors who let students cheat ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#RebeccaHoward

Bob Jensen's threads on professors who cheat ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoFabricate

Bob Jensen's threads on grade inflation ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor

Current and past editions of my blog called Fraud Updates --- 
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


Ransomware is now the biggest online menace you need to worry about - here's why ---
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-is-now-the-biggest-online-menace-you-need-to-worry-about/


A year after the University of Maryland asked two Elsevier journals to retract papers, they haven’t ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2020/04/22/a-year-after-a-university-asked-two-elsevier-journals-to-retract-papers-they-havent/

Walter E. Williams:  Fixing College Corruption ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/04/15/fixing-college-corruption-n2566832?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=04/15/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

America's colleges are rife with corruption. The financial squeeze resulting from COVID-19 offers opportunities for a bit of remediation. Let's first examine what might be the root of academic corruption, suggested by the title of a recent study, "Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship." The study was done by Areo, an opinion and analysis digital magazine. By the way, Areo is short for Areopagitica, a speech delivered by John Milton in defense of free speech.

Authors Helen Pluckrose, James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian say that something has gone drastically wrong in academia, especially within certain fields within the humanities. They call these fields "grievance studies," where scholarship is not so much based upon finding truth but upon attending to social grievances. Grievance scholars bully students, administrators and other departments into adhering to their worldview. The worldview they promote is neither scientific nor rigorous. Grievance studies consist of disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, gender studies, queer, sexuality and critical race studies.

In 2017 and 2018, authors Pluckrose, Lindsay and Boghossian started submitting bogus academic papers to academic journals in cultural, queer, race, gender, fat and sexuality studies to determine if they would pass peer review and be accepted for publication. Acceptance of dubious research that journal editors found sympathetic to their intersectional or postmodern leftist vision of the world proves the problem of low academic standards.

Several of the fake research papers were accepted for publication. The Fat Studies journal published a hoax paper that argued the term bodybuilding was exclusionary and should be replaced with "fat bodybuilding, as a fat-inclusive politicized performance." One reviewer said, "I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and believe it has an important contribution to make to the field and this journal." "Our Struggle Is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism," was accepted for publication by Affilia, a feminist journal for social workers. The paper consisted in part of a rewritten passage from Mein Kampf. Two other hoax papers were published, including "Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at Urban Dog Parks." This paper's subject was dog-on-dog rape. But the dog rape paper eventually forced Boghossian, Pluckrose and Lindsay to prematurely out themselves. A Wall Street Journal writer had figured out what they were doing.

Some papers accepted for publication in academic journals advocated training men like dogs and punishing white male college students for historical slavery by asking them to sit in silence in the floor in chains during class and to be expected to learn from the discomfort. Other papers celebrated morbid obesity as a healthy life choice and advocated treating privately conducted masturbation as a form of sexual violence against women. Typically, academic journal editors send submitted papers out to referees for review. In recommending acceptance for publication, many reviewers gave these papers glowing praise.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on professors who let students cheat ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#RebeccaHoward

Bob Jensen's threads on professors who cheat ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoFabricate

Bob Jensen's threads on grade inflation ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor

Current and past editions of my blog called Fraud Updates --- 
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

 


Snapchat --- https://qz.com/1842574/snapchat-beat-revenue-expectations-despite-covid-19/

Snapchat  created more than 4 billion Snaps every day during the first quarter of 2020 ---
https://qz.com/1842574/snapchat-beat-revenue-expectations-despite-covid-19/

The company is still waiting for its first profit.
Remember Tesla's first reported profit? Didn't set a trend.


USA States on Deepest Trouble for Paying Bills (your state is probably one of them) ---
https://www.data-z.org/state_data_and_comparisons/
As expenses soar revenues (think sales and income taxes and property taxes) collapse


How to Mislead With Statistics (What the attention/advertising seeking media usually ignores)

Coronavirus: Why are international comparisons difficult?
https://www.bbc.com/news/52311014
Thank you Arnold Barkman for the heads up. b

Everyone wants to know how well their country is tackling coronavirus, compared with others. But you have to make sure you're comparing the same things.

The United States, for example, has far more Covid-19 deaths than any other country - as of 20 April, a total of over 40,000 deaths.

But the US has a population of 330 million people.

If you take the five largest countries in Western Europe - the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain - their combined population is roughly 320 million.

And the total number of registered coronavirus deaths from those five countries, as of 20 April, was over 85,000 - more than twice that of the US.

So, individual statistics don't tell the full story.

For comparisons to be useful, says Rowland Kao, professor of data science at the University of Edinburgh, there are two broad issues to consider.

"Does the underlying data mean the same thing? And does it make sense to compare two sets of numbers if the epidemiology [all the other factors surrounding the spread of the disease] is different?"

Counting deaths

Let's look at some of the numbers first. There are differences in how countries record Covid-19 deaths.

France, for example, includes deaths in care homes in the headline numbers it produces every day, but the daily headline figures for England only include deaths in hospitals.

There's also no accepted international standard for how you measure deaths, or their causes.

Does somebody need to have been tested for coronavirus to count towards the statistics, or are the suspicions of a doctor enough? Does the virus need to be the main cause of death, or does any mention on a death certificate count?

Are you really comparing like with like?

Death rates

There is a lot of focus on death rates, but there are different ways of measuring them too.

One is the ratio of deaths to confirmed cases - of all the people who test positive for coronavirus, how many go on to die?

But different countries are testing in very different ways. The UK has mainly tested people who are ill enough to be admitted to hospital. That can make the death rate appear much higher than in a country which had a wider testing programme.

The more testing a country carries out, the more it will find people who have coronavirus with only mild symptoms, or perhaps no symptoms at all.

Most cases are never counted at all!

Continued in article

 

Jensen Comment
There are of course giant nations more populated than the USA. China has 1.5 billion people, but it's suspected that China cheats with statistics when it suits a purpose. India has almost as many people but is way down the list of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths ---
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Reasons are not clear, but India and Africa are mysteriously immune to coronavirus infections to date.


How to Mislead With Statistics by Assuming a Stationary Process That is Not Stationary

What should we believe and not believe about R?
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/our-best-people-are-working-on-this-problem.html

. . .

Ultimately, the models and statistics in the field aren’t designed to handle rapidly changing R, and everything is made much worse by the massive inconsistencies in the observed data. R itself is a surprisingly subtle concept (especially in changing systems): for instance, rt.live uses a simple relationship between R and the observed rate of growth, but their claimed relationship only holds for the simplest SIR model (not epidemiologically plausible at all for COVID-19), and it has as an input the median serial interval, which is also substantially uncertain for COVID-19 (they treat it as a known constant). These things make it easy to badly missestimate R. Usually these errors pull or push R away from 1 — rt.live would at least get sign(R – 1) right if their data weren’t garbage and they fixed other statistical problems — but of course getting sign(R – 1) right is a low bar, it’s just figuring out whether what you’re observing is growing or shrinking. Many folks would actually be better off not trying to forecast R and just looking carefully at whether they believe the thing they’re observing is growing or shrinking and how quickly.

All that said, the growing (not total, but mostly shared) consensus among both folks I’ve talked to inside Google and with academic epidemiologists who are thinking hard about this is:

Anyways, I guess my single biggest point is that if you see a result that says something about R, there’s a very good chance it’s just mathematically broken or observationally broken and isn’t actually saying that thing at all.”

That is all from Rif A. Saurous, Research Director at Google, currently working on COVID-19 modeling.

Currently it seems to me that those are the smartest and best informed views “out there,” so at least for now they are my views too.

Jensen Comment
Misleading statistics aren't all bad as long as they get you tenure, promotions, and pay raises.


How to Mislead With Statistics

Critics Say a Pair of California Antibody Studies Contain Critical Statistical Errors That Produced Implausible Results ---
https://reason.com/2020/04/22/critics-say-a-pair-of-california-antibody-studies-contain-critical-statistical-errors-that-produced-implausible-results/

Too many false positives, nonrandom study population, and infection fatality rates out of whack with other data, critics claim.

Two studies by researchers associated with Stanford University and the University of Southern California using antibody blood tests have estimated that many more people have been infected with the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 than confirmed diagnoses would indicate. How many more people? In the Santa Clara (Silicon Valley) study, the researchers estimated that coronavirus infections at the beginning of April were 50- to 85-fold more than the number of confirmed cases at that time. In the Los Angeles County study, they estimated the infection rate at 28 to 55 times higher than confirmed cases in that jurisdiction.

If true, these findings of vastly more widespread rates of infection would suggest that the disease is much less lethal than the crude case fatality rates suggest. (A point noted by me and other Reason colleagues in reporting on these studies.) Not surprisingly, these findings have proved quite controversial, particularly drawing the critical attention of statisticians from other institutions.

Since the Los Angeles County study has apparently not yet been published online, let's focus on the chief objections to the Santa Clara study. Those include arguments that (1) the prevalence rates among people tested for antibodies to coronavirus published in the study are mostly, or even entirely, very likely due to false positives; (2) the results are skewed because it was enriched with participants who were more likely to have been exposed to the virus than the general population of the county; and (3) that COVID-19 infections must be very widespread to produce the excess mortality seen in places like New York City, e.g, essentially most New Yorkers must already have been infected, suggesting an unprecedented level of contagiousness.

First, let's look at the problem of false positives. The researchers' blood test survey in Santa Clara County found that 1.5 percent (50 out of 3,330 people tested) were positive for the presence of antibodies to the coronavirus. So the question is, how many of the 50 positives they found might be false positives?

Continued in article


Remotely Hands-On:  Teaching lab sciences and the fine arts during COVID-19 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/14/teaching-lab-sciences-and-fine-arts-during-covid-19?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=e230e94718-DNU_2019_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-e230e94718-197565045&mc_cid=e230e94718&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Bob Jensen's Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm


The University of Oregon will cut off pay to 282 staff members in response to a projected loss of $25 million in net revenue due to coronavirus closures ---
https://www.dailyemerald.com/news/breaking-uo-to-stop-paying-282-classified-staff-projects-25-million-in-lost-revenue/article_9ffea6f4-7dbb-11ea-b3fa-9ff8916e95d9.html?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1143892&cid=db&source=ams&sourceId=296279


The University of Nebraska will offer free tuition to students whose families are at or below the state’s median income level. The $5-million initiative won’t require any additional state funding, said the university’s president. (The Lincoln Journal Star)

Jensen Comment
You be the judge as to the timing of this announcement when it's not certain yet whether all courses will be online in Fall 2020.

It's also not clear whether the offer goes only to students admitted to this flagship university or whether it's an open enrollment offer to all lower income cornhuskers --- young vs. old, smart vs. stupid, etc. What flagship university in the USA has the capacity for open admissions of half the people in the state?

Arizona State University rescinded its offer of free tuition to its MBA program ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/09/arizona-state-business-school-abandons-tuition-free-mbas-after-rankings-boost-fades.html


Is it still the happiest place on earth? Disney, likely bracing for a lengthy shutdown, will cease paying 100,000 of its park employees this week, leaving them to rely on state aid instead ---
https://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-310900/?utm_term=OZY&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PDB%20%282020-04-20%2011:19:17%29#article311001

Jensen Comment
Where do we get enough food in food banks for 100,000 people.
Where do we get enough money for state aid?

USA States on Deepest Trouble for Paying Bills (your state was probably one of them before the 2020 pandemic hit) ---
https://www.data-z.org/state_data_and_comparisons/
As expenses soar in this pandemic state revenues (think sales and income taxes and property taxes) collapse

A solution is at hand. Helicopters are lining up for newly printed bundles of dollars. States will get trillions of new greenbacks.


Immanuel Kant --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant

April 22, 1724;  Immanuel Kant born in Konigsberg, Prussia. The famous philosopher's work included philosophy of mathematics.
https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/kant-immanuel-1724-1804/v-1

April 22, 2020 reply from Barbara Scofield

BBC's In Our Time has a good podcast on Kant at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0952zl3

My ethics students listened to it this year and benefited from the deeper dive into his categorical imperative than any business ethics book discusses.

April 23 reply from Peter Olofsson suggesting what made philosophers so great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9SqQNgDrgg 

Jensen Comment
Also see The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy module at
https://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html#k


Over 500 Million Zoom Accounts Found for Sale on the Dark Web ---
https://www.reviewgeek.com/40112/over-500-million-zoom-accounts-found-for-sale-on-the-dark-web/


What Is COBOL, and Why Do So Many Institutions Rely on It? ---
https://www.howtogeek.com/667596/what-is-cobol-and-why-do-so-many-institutions-rely-on-it/

Jensen Comment
Because my Dean at the University of Maine begged and begged. for a very short time in my life I taught COBOL and hated every minute of it. Attempts to make programming "easier" did not make programming better, especially in an era where long COBOL "sentences" had to be punched into IBM cards. I did not mind also having to teach FORTRAN for a short time. I don't know if FORTRAN skills are still in demand, but organizations are still trying to hire COBOL programmers, many of whom are in homes for old people.


Any person age 17 to 24 who was claimed as a dependent won’t be eligible for the $1,200 payment or the $500 child bonus ---
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/15/21222170/stimulus-checks-dependents-excluded
Millions of college students will be disappointed


Ray Dalio --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Dalio

Trump-Hating Billionaire Ray Dalio says investors would be 'pretty crazy to hold government bonds' right now as central banks continue to print money ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/ray-dalio-crazy-hold-bonds-now-central-banks-printing-money-2020-4-1029095649
Good financial advice even though it's not very patriotic

Buyers needed for $3 trillion of US government debt ---
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/buyers-needed-for-3-trillion-of-us-government-debt

Jensen Comment

One buyer dominates all others --- The Federal Reserve (think of it as a debtor investing in his own debt)
But the Federal Reserve is "printing money" in a limited way (QE is not like printing helicopter money)  to buy much of the debt under the fancy name of Quantitative Easing ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing

Jensen Comment
There's no disaster in quantitative easing in times of recession as long as the QA is in relatively small amounts and the money is not being used to finance the Federal deficit ---
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-quantitative-easing-definition-and-explanation-3305881
It helps maintain investment market liquidity and prevent runs on markets where investors want to withdraw cash (think Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life)
However, as we get into the realm of trillions of dollars these are not small amounts by any means.

There are losers even with more limited QE ---
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-15198789
Outside investors in our National Debt get hit and become less likely to roll over their investments in our National Debt, thereby making the National Debt a bigger problem

Are there any losers from QE? QE pushes up the market price of government bonds and reduces the yield, or interest rate, paid out to investors. In other words, investors have to pay more to get the same income. 

If market interest rates are lower that depresses the value of a currency because it becomes less attractive to foreign investors. 

The US's programme of QE also kept the value of the dollar lower than it might otherwise have been, a factor not welcomed in some emerging economies. Since the end of QE in the US and with the prospect of interest rate rises there, the dollar has regained strength.

March 16, 2020
Federal Reserve cuts rates to zero and launches massive $700 billion quantitative easing program ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/15/federal-reserve-cuts-rates-to-zero-and-launches-massive-700-billion-quantitative-easing-program.html

The bottom line is that to a point QE is not as inflationary as helicopter money, but only to a point under three trillion dollars and counting ---
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/2900/inflation/inflation-and-quantitative-easing/

See the comments at
https://www.quora.com/Does-quantitative-easing-lead-to-inflation?share=1


University of Oklahoma considering keeping classes online for entire academic year ---
http://www.oudaily.com/news/ou-amid-coronavirus-interim-president-joseph-harroz-considering-keeping-classes-online-for-entire-academic-year/article_825244be-7dd2-11ea-90c8-97109882a4aa.html?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1146688&cid=db&source=ams&sourceId=3265431
Is i]t possible the Sooners will play sports without the rest of the student body on campus?


How to Mislead With Statistics

Veterans Affairs Secretary Shares Some Key Details About that HCQ Study the Media Is Obsessing Over (like patients were so sick nothing could save them) ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2020/04/22/veterans-affairs-secretary-shares-some-key-details-about-that-hcq-study-the-media-is-obsessing-over-n2567406?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167


Jacinda Ardern --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacinda_Ardern

Leadership Greatness

How to Mislead by Comparing Apples to Oranges

New Zealand’s Prime Minister May Be the Most Effective Leader on the Planet ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand-leadership-coronavirus/610237/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-weekly-newsletter&utm_content=20200419&silverid-ref=NTk4MzY1OTg0MzY5S0

Jensen Comment
Scholars know very well that leadership success varies greatly with time and place. Churchill was what England needed in WW II but not what was needed after the war. Herbert Hoover was not a good president of the USA 1929-1933 but may have been a great president 1940-1948.

Jacinda Ardern’s leadership during the 2020 pandemic seems to be what New Zealand needed, but would she be as effective when leading other nations after the pandemic is ended?

Great leaders were at the right place at the right time. Lousy leaders were either lousy leaders in general or more simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Calling a leader great or lousy is also dependent upon performance criteria. Is a military leader to be judged primarily upon successful strategies in time of war or admiration by those under his command as they go down in defeat (think Robert E. Lee).

Leadership must also be judged on the basis of a time interval such as short-term versus long-term. For example, Castro had admirable success in turning Cuba around in the first two decades following his  revolution. However, in the late 20th Century even Castro admitted that his economic miracle was just not working, and now Cuba is returning to his hated capitalism.

I judge the economic performance of New Zealand in the 20th Century as mediocre relative to Singapore. Jacinda Ardern’s leadership of New Zealand in the 21st Century seems to be more of the same in terms of economics. She may be what's needed during a pandemic, but I question whether she's the best choice when the lockdown is lifted.

She may be effective when dividing up a small pie, but maybe she should be judged by the size of the pie she bakes. New Zealand has 10 million sheep and no Silicon Valley. Many old people would like to emigrate to New Zealand, but the smartest poor young people of the world prefer to emigrate to the USA rather than New Zealand.


How to Mislead With Statistics

Estimating the COVID-19 Infection Rate: Anatomy of an Inference Problem ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/estimating-the-covid-19-infection-rate-anatomy-of-an-inference-problem.html


How to Contact Famous Celebrities (or find company home pages) ---
https://www.wikihow.com/Contact-Famous-Celebrities

Jensen Comment
Many celebrities (think politicians) have contact offices where messages are filtered with only a small number actually being seen by celebrities.

If you search for a celebrity's office I found Duck Duck Go to be a better search engine than Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. ---
https://duckduckgo.com/
Duck Duck Go is also better when you are searching for a home page such as the home page of the Sunset Hill House Hotel where somehow booking agencies have managed to get priority listings in the search engine hits ahead of home pages.

Compare looking for "Sunset Hill House Hotel" with the following two search engines:

https://duckduckgo.com/

https://www.google.com/advanced_search

But Duck Duck Go is not perfect when searching for celebrities. Then try
https://www.wikihow.com/Contact-Famous-Celebrities


New Numbers Confirm Social Security’s Dismal Fiscal Outlook ---
https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2020/04/24/new-numbers-confirm-social-securitys-dismal-fiscal-outlook-n2567581?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=04/25/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

Jensen Comment
One of the problems with Social Security is that legislators decided to spend SS Trust Fund dollars and replace them with IOUs.

A second huge problem is that rather than fund a national disability program separately legislators decided to merge it with Social Security that was originally intended only for retirement relief for old age survivors. Whereas Social Security retirement beneficiaries contributed part of their wages over their working years toward their benefits, disabled people who've never paid a penny into the trust fund can commence collecting benefits at any age.

I'm not arguing that the USA should not have benefits for disabled persons. I think, however, that legislators should have had the guts to make it a separate program from Social Security.


Food and hotel services demanded by celebrities that us nobodies cannot afford or dare not request ---
https://jborden.com/2020/04/27/music-monday-who-do-these-people-think-they-are-dozens-of-outrageous-rider-requests-including-mine/
What do you think Cher requires?

Jensen Comments
Because it can afford it, my former employer (Trinity University) invites a relatively large number of celebrities from all walks of life to either speak or perform on campus. My insider close friend leading campus security said the most demanding and unreasonable celebrities to visit the campus were a longtime head of state from another country and a religious leader from Africa. Visitors from Hollywood were not always easy, but they were less demanding.

San Antonio has a well-known River Walk. One time a tour boat operator told passengers (I was one of them) that the biggest jerk he could recall on a tour boat was Tommy Lee Jones. That surprised me somewhat.

In retirement with binoculars I can look across a valley at a hotel (now a timeshare) in a very tiny alpine village that has its own skiing chairlift to the top of Cannon Mountain. A legendary party at that hotel took place when Desi and Lucy hosted a group of their friends at the hotel. After a drunken brawl, Desi and Lucy coughed up tens of thousands of dollars for damages ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_Ball

Some of the best-known hotel visitors in NYC were Fidel Castro and his entourage that purportedly plucked chickens in their rooms and behaved like crazy rock stars ---
https://www.6sqft.com/fidel-castro-threatens-to-sleep-in-central-park-in-outrage-over-hotel-prices-during-1960-visit/


In unusual lineup, SCOTUS rules annotations in Georgia state code can't be copyrighted ---
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/in-unusual-lineup-supreme-court-rules-annotations-in-georgia-state-code-cant-be-copyrighted


Now you have to believe in UFOs, but do you believe in aliens?
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/now-you-have-to-believe-in-ufos-but-do-you-believe-in-aliens.html
"Have to" is a strong imperative. But if I believed some UFOs came from outside our solar system I would believe in aliens, although the aliens could be light years away manning their robots. I most certainly do not believe most UFO reportings to date.




From the Scout Report on April 17, 2020

Etherpad (open source online editor) --- https://etherpad.org/
Etherpad is a great tool for smooth, remote collaborating. Last featured in the 09-14-2018 Scout Report, the platform was most recently updated in December 2019 to improve security and ease of use. Etherpad is a web-based real-time collaborative editor. Any user can create a collaborative document, called a "pad," each of which has a distinct URL. Anyone that has this URL can make edits to the pad, with every editor's changes appearing in their own color. Etherpad automatically saves changes periodically, but users may also checkpoint specific versions at any time. The editing history of each pad is also saved, with a slider allowing users to rewind a document to view previous versions. Pads can be downloaded in plain text, HTML, PDF, ODF, or Word format. A number of free, public Etherpad servers are available. These can be located in the "List of public instances" under the Links section of the Etherpad site. For users that wish to self-host an Etherpad instance, server installers are provided on the Etherpad site for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Etherpad is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, with source code available on GitHub.


Twist --- https://twist.com/
Featured in the 08-25-2017 Scout Report, Twist continues to be a highly regarded communication application for teams and provides a great way to stay in touch while working remotely. Notably, 81 percent of surveyed team leaders reported improved efficiency with the platform. Readers searching for a collaborative communication app for their team may enjoy Twist. While email shines as a tool for person-to-person correspondence, it can often be less effective as a collaborative space for teams. It can be difficult to share old messages in a thread with a new team member to bring them up to speed. Furthermore, the process of fleshing out new ideas often works better as a conversation rather than a correspondence. A number of collaboration platforms have arisen in recent years that provide both a global history and a more conversational interface. Twist is one such platform. Unlike similar platforms, Twist maintains the concept of threads with their own distinct topics. It also features an inbox where users can see all threads with recent activity. The Why Twist and Compare to Slack sections on Twist's website present an argument for why this organization is a sweet spot for team collaboration. While some upgraded versions of the platform come with a price per user, there is a free version available. Twist is available on the web, as an application for Windows and Macintosh computers, and in the iOS and Android app stores.


ShareX --- https://getsharex.com/
ShareX (featured in the 07-27-2018 Scout Report) continues to be a popular tool for sharing screenshot and screencast information. Since the release of the latest version in March 2020, this tool has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. Easily share screenshots and screencasts with co-workers through ShareX, a Windows utility for capturing and sharing this information. The resource provides a number of ways to specify what should be captured. Users can select from everything on all displays, a single display, a single window, a single region of a window, and other capture modes. Once an image or movie is captured, ShareX can perform a number of post-processing tasks, including watermarking and text recognition. Completed screenshots/screencasts can be uploaded to one of several dozen services. Links to the uploaded file can be created with a variety of URL shorteners (bit.ly, is.gd, tinyurl.com, and others). Lastly, these links can be shared using a number of social media channels, including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Reddit. ShareX is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3, with source code available on GitHub. Executables can be downloaded for Windows computers. ShareX requires Windows 7 or newer.


Magic Wormhole --- https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Last featured in the 11-22-2019 Scout Report, Magic Wormhole's mission to "get things from one computer to another safely," is even more important in remote work environments. Magic Wormhole is a command-line tool for moving arbitrarily sized files or folders from one computer to another securely, without storing them on an intermediate server (e.g. Dropbox). It is designed primarily for situations where two users are already talking and need to exchange a file. To use Magic Wormhole, a sender issues a command such as wormhole send FILE and is given a "wormhole code" derived from a short, pronounceable, phonetically-distinct word list. The sender must then relay this code to the recipient. When the recipient runs wormhole, receives, and enters the provided code, the two computers locate each other via a public "Rendezvous Server," establish a secure connection via Password-Authenticated Key Exchange, and transfer the specified data. Detailed API and protocol documentation describing exactly how this works are provided on the Magic Wormhole site. In the Installation portion of the site, users can locate installation instructions for macOS, Linux, and Windows computers. Magic Wormhole is distributed under the MIT license, with source code available on GitHub.


Drawpile --- https://drawpile.net/
Those in creative fields (such as graphic design and marketing) may be searching for work-from-home collaboration tools designed to share more than text. Drawphile (featured in the 09-28-2018 Scout Report) provides just that: a collaborative image-editing platform. In February 2020 Drawphile released an updated version, correcting a few previous bugs. Drawpile is a network-enabled drawing program that allows multiple users to simultaneously edit the same image. In the servers section, users can find a list of active public sessions and may create their own drawing sessions (either fully open or password protected) on the public Drawpile server. The Drawpile application also includes a built-in server that can host collaborative drawing sessions that are accessible to other users on the same network. A number of functions for managing sessions are provided (for example, kicking/banning problematic users); the full list is described in Collaboration and User Management in the About section of Drawpile's website. Drawpile can also create animations, either by recording a whole drawing session as a video file or by using image layers as frames. Images are exported in OpenRaster format, which can be imported by applications like MyPaint, Krita, or GIMP. Drawpile executables can be downloaded for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Drawpile is free software, distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3, with source code available on GitHub

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

 




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


Education Tutorials

Happy Hues Science (color resource) --- www.happyhues.co

How to Paint Water Lilies Like Monet in 14 Minutes ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/how-to-paint-water-lilies-like-monet-in-14-minutes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Science Friday: Make Your Own Sauropod Poop! ---
www.sciencefriday.com/educational-resources/dinosaur-poop

Bob Jensen's threads on education links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech ---
https://newatlas.com/energy/hb11-hydrogen-boron-fusion-clean-energy/

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

Phillips Curve --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_curve
What's Up With the Phillips Curve?
https://www.nber.org/papers/w27003#fromrss

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

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


Law and Legal Studies

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


Math Tutorials

April 22, 1724;  Immanuel Kant born in Konigsberg, Prussia. The famous philosopher's work included philosophy of mathematics.
https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/kant-immanuel-1724-1804/v-1

April 22, 2020 reply from Barbara Scofield

BBC's In Our Time has a good podcast on Kant at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0952zl3

My ethics students listened to it this year and benefited from the deeper dive into his categorical imperative than any business ethics book discusses.

 

Euler's Sum of Powers Conjecture --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_sum_of_powers_conjecture
The Shortest Known Paper Published in a Serious Math Journal ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/02/shortest-known-paper-published-in-a-serious-math-journal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

February 27, 2020 reply from Jagdish Gangolly

Bob,

In one of Jerzy Neyman's PhD classes, George Dantzig misunderstood two problems Neyman had written on the board as a homework problem. Neyman told him what he had achieved. A year later when Dantzig was fishing for a dissertation topic he went to see Neyman who asked him to put his paper in a binder and he would accept it as his dissertation. You can find the two papers at:

On the Non-Existence of Tests of "Student's" Hypothesis Having Power Functions Independent of $\sigma$

On the Fundamental Lemma of Neyman and Pearson

Regards,

Jagdish

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

History of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) 1638-2020 ---
http://rheumnow.com/blog/nine-lives-hydroxychloroquine
Veterans Affairs Secretary Shares Some Key Details About that HCQ Study the Media Is Obsessing Over (like patients were so sick nothing else could save them) ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2020/04/22/veterans-affairs-secretary-shares-some-key-details-about-that-hcq-study-the-media-is-obsessing-over-n2567406?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

Albert Einstein’s Grades: A Fascinating Look at His Report Cards ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/albert-einsteins-grades-a-fascinating-look-at-his-report-cards.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The article also shows how different education was in Munich than it most likely is today. My wife attended a bombed out Munich school at the very end of WW II. Classrooms were very formal. Among other things you never spoke aloud without standing up with permission to speak. Erika was a refugee smuggled in from Czechoslovakia with mother. They lived on the in a garden house on the edge of the Munich. When five years old she begged for food at USA Army posts she said that solders in the black Army camp was more generous than soldiers in the white Army camp. She was told that it was Martin Luther King Sr. who taught her how to chew bubblegum. Many years later my wife Erika accompanied me to a reception hosted by the Burgomaster of Munich who seemed fascinated speaking Bavarian with a former street urchin from Munich ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/erika/xmas00.htm (see the last photograph on the page)

Six Things We Picture Wrong About American History ---
https://www.mindbounce.com/438373/6-things-we-picture-wrong-about-american-history/

The Doolittle Raid April 18, 1942 ---
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3836463/posts

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

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings ---
https://folkways.si.edu/

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/

April 14, 2020

·        WHO Issues Criteria to Lift COVID-19 Lockdowns

·        50 NYC School Employees Have Died of COVID-19

·        Remdesivir for COVID Study: Benefits Not Clear

·        Coronavirus Has Killed Thousands at Nursing Homes

·        Will Coronavirus Exposure Mean Lasting Immunity?

·        ‘Tsunami of Grief’ to Hit as More Loved Ones Die

·        Little Known About COVID Patients' Loss of Smell

·        Bar Owner Removes Cash From Walls to Pay Staff

April 15, 2020

·How 4 U.S. Cities Helped Slow Coronavirus Spread

·        CDC: COVID-19 Can Spread 13 Feet, Travel on Shoes

·        WHO Issues Criteria to Lift COVID-19 Lockdowns

·        50 NYC School Employees Have Died of COVID-19

·        Remdesivir for COVID Study: Benefits Not Clear

·        Ventilator or Hospice? COVID-19 Strains Care System

·        Sleep Troubles Hit Health Care Workers

·        Coronavirus Has Killed Thousands at Nursing Homes

·        Will Coronavirus Exposure Mean Lasting Immunity?

April 16, 2020

·        On the Front Line, COVID Has Them Scared to Go Home

·        George Stephanopoulos Diagnosed With Coronavirus

·        First Case of COVID Spreading from a Corpse Found

·        FedEx Worker Sanitizes Box for Girl at Higher Risk

·        Can Blood of COVID Survivors Help Others Recover?

·        Tips for Safe Grocery Shopping

·        Study: Many Seniors Were Unfazed by COVID Warnings

·        COVID-19 Can Trigger Serious Heart Injuries

·        Obesity Ups Severe COVID-19 Risk in Young Patients

April 18, 2020

·        California Creates Relief Fund for Immigrants

·        Major Drugmakers Join Forces on COVID-19 Vaccine

·        Anxiety, Depression Prescriptions Spiked in March

·        How Accurate Are Coronavirus Death Counts?

·        Paper Towels Beat Air Dryers Against Viruses

·        COVID-19 Making Heart Attack Patients Stay Home

·        Cytokine Storms May Be Fueling Some COVID Deaths

·        New COVID-19 Breast Cancer Treatment Guidelines

·        Is It Allergies or COVID-19?

April 20, 2020

·        New Model Shows COVID More Widespread, Less Severe

·        Trump’s Plan to Reopen the Nation

·        California Creates Relief Fund for Immigrants

·        Major Drugmakers Join Forces on COVID-19 Vaccine

·        Anxiety, Depression Prescriptions Spiked in March

·        How Accurate Are Coronavirus Death Counts?

·        Paper Towels Beat Air Dryers Against Viruses

·        COVID-19 Making Heart Attack Patients Stay Home

·        Cytokine Storms May Be Fueling Some COVID Deaths

·        New COVID-19 Breast Cancer Treatment Guidelines

April 22, 2020

·        Seniors Recruited for Coronavirus Vaccine Trials

·        White House Reemphasizes COVID-19 Testing Capacity

·        Good News on Remdesivir's Power to Treat COVID-19

·        Disinfectant-Linked Poisoning Rises Amid COVID-19

·        Some COVID Patients Develop Guillain-Barre

·        FDA Approves Hydroxychloroquine Trial for COVID-19

·        Sesame Street Eases Kids’ Fears Through Meditation

·        The Road Ahead With COVID-19

·        COVID Keeping People With Lung Diseases Out of ER

·        New COVID-19 Tracking App May Find 'Hotspots'

April 23, 2020

·        Could an Ancient Drug Help Fight Severe COVID-19?

·        COVID-19 Antibody Tests Proliferate, but What Do They Show?

·        FDA Authorizes First At-Home Test for Coronavirus

·        NIH Panel: Don't Use Hydroxychloroquine For COVID-19

·        Helping African Americans with More Testing, PPE

·        Coping With Budget Stress During the Pandemic

·        Up to 50,000 Kids May Be Hospitalized With COVID

·        Oregon Town Goes Door to Door Tracking COVID-19

·        Seniors Recruited for Coronavirus Vaccine Trials

April 25, 2020

·        Getting Masks Correct a Key Coronavirus Strategy

·        Blood Clots Are Another Dangerous COVID-19 Mystery

·        Hospital Celebrates 1,500th COVID-19 Survivor

·        First U.S. Coronavirus Death Earlier Than Believed

·        WebMD Doctors: Do Not Ingest, Inject Disinfectant

·        California Still Setting COVID Death Records

·        Higher Temps, Humidity May Help Against COVID

·        Evidence Mounts for Greater COVID Prevalence

·        WebMD Poll: 93% With COVID Symptoms Didn’t Get Test

April 27, 2020

·        Getting Masks Correct a Key Coronavirus Strategy

·        Blood Clots Are Another Dangerous COVID-19 Mystery

·        Hospital Celebrates 1,500th COVID-19 Survivor

·        First U.S. Coronavirus Death Earlier Than Believed

·        WebMD Doctors: Do Not Ingest, Inject Disinfectant

·        California Still Setting COVID Death Records

·        Higher Temps, Humidity May Help Against COVID

·        Trending Clinical Topic: Remdesivir

·        COVID-19: Home Pulse Oximetry Could Be Game Changer, Says ER Doc

April 28, 2020

·        Isolation During Pandemic a Trigger for Depression

·        COVID-19 Antibody Testing Brings Cautious Hope

·        Musician Performs Drive-By Concerts to Spread Joy

·        Poison Control Centers Report Rise in Accidents

·        Birx: Social Distancing Will Last Through Summer

·        USDA Meat Inspector Dies of Coronavirus

·        Italian Authorities Cite Heartening Statistics

·        Fauci: COVID Testing Should Double In Coming Weeks

·        You Can't Get Coronavirus Through Sex: Study

April 30, 2020

·        Interest in Unproven Drugs Follows Trump Thumbs Up

·        Remdesivir & COVID Studies Find Different Results

·        COVID-19 May Cause Severe Heart Condition in Kids

·        Obesity New Risk Factor for Young COVID Patients

·        Trump to Order Meat Processing Plants Remain Open

·        Traffic Down, Dangerous Crashes Up During Pandemic

·        CDC to Conduct Antibody Testing in Atlanta Area

·        Georgia’s Reopening: Dinner, a Movie and a Virus?

·        Don't Let The COVID Pandemic Rob You of Your Sleep

VIEW ALL HEALTH NEWS

 


Humor for April 2020

A 100-Year-Old Says His Secret to a Long Life Is Putting Two Cherries in his Manhattan ---
https://www.ksbw.com/article/man-celebrates-100th-birthday-1586688527/32118142


Florida man put COVID-19 warning sign on his door to avoid arrest, police say (---
https://www.foxnews.com/health/florida-man-covid-19-warning-sign-on-door-avoid-arrest-police-say
He probably also has measles, smallpox, polio, and tuberculosis


Act of Magic Link Forwarded by Paula ---
https://1funny.com/amazing-heartwarming-magic/


Thank you Tina ---
https://1funny.com/jonathan-winters-accidentally-glued-his-cat-to-the-floor/


Forwarded by Paula

One Theory:  Why were space shuttles and railroads built for horses asses?

The U.S. Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed the U.S. Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did 'they' use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tram ways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

You can read about horses asses and space shuttles at
https://aviationhumor.net/the-us-standard-railroad-gauge-is-4-feet-8-5-inches/


Forwarded by Ned Wilson

It is a slow day in the small Saskatchewan town of Pumphandle, and streets are deserted.   Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.
 
A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk, saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
 
The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.
 
The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.
 
The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.
 
The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.
 
The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything.  At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything.  However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a "Stimulus Package" works. ��

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

Imagine in 2010 -- 10 years ago -- you were approached by a time traveler and he said, "Look, I don't have much time to explain. All I can tell you is that the year 2020 is going to be wild as heck! You know Donald Trump, the star of 'The Apprentice'? Well he's the President of the United States and at the beginning of 2020 he gets into a Twitter beef with Iran that almost starts World War III. Australia catches fire and a woman tries to save it by selling pictures of her boobs. Kobe Bryant dies in a helicopter crash. Half the world is devastated and the other half just makes really wretched memes. Tom Brady leaves the Patriots to play for the Buccaneers and, just when the world starts recovering from the loss of Kobe, some dude in China eats a freakin' bat and starts a global pandemic that specifically kills old people and asthmatics. Everyone loses their minds. Forty percent of the population thinks it's the end of the world, another 40% thinks it's all fake, and 20% blames the whole thing on cell phone towers. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the only way to survive is by hoarding toilet paper. Grocery stores are ransacked and Charmin Ultra Soft essentially replaces the dollar as the United States official currency. Eventually, as hysteria grows, world governments are forced to shut the entire planet down and lock everyone in their houses and ... then there is the hit show 'Tiger King' starring a homosexual gun-toting Oklahoma man with two husbands, a meth addiction, and 223 pet tigers ..."

Jensen Comment
It will get worse ---like when you trade your Rolex watch for a pound of bacon

Folks from Michigan are flying to New Hampshire for tomato plant seedlings

Folks from Pennsylvania are cleaning out the New Hampshire liquor stores

Over 7,000 homeless in San Francisco are now staying in hotels that charge over $1,200 per night for each room. They're also getting free WiFi, free movies, free medical care, and room service meals three times a day (seriously).

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

The world has turned upside down. Old folks are sneaking out of the house, and their kids are yelling at them to stay indoors!

You think it’s bad now? In 20 years our country will be run by people home schooled by day drinkers…

This virus has done what no woman had been able to do…cancel all sports, shut down all bars, and keep men at home!!!

Do not call the police on suspicious people in your neighborhood! Those are your neighbors without makeup and hair extensions!

Since we can’t eat out, now’s the perfect time to eat better, get fit, and stay healthy. We’re quarantined! Who are we trying to impress? We have snacks, we have sweatpants – I say we use them!

Day 7 at home and the dog is looking at me like, “See? This is why I chew the furniture!”

Does anyone know if we can take showers yet or should we just keep washing our hands???

I never thought the comment “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a 6 foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are!

Me: Alexa what’s the weather this weekend? Alexa: It doesn’t matter – you’re not going anywhere.

Can everyone please just follow the government instructions so we can knock out this coronavirus and be done?! I feel like a kindergartner who keeps losing more recess time because one or two kids can’t follow directions.

I swear my fridge just said “what the hell do you want now?”

When this is over…what meeting do I attend first…Weight Watchers or AA?

Quarantine has turned us into dogs. We roam the house all day looking for food. We are told “no” if we get too close to strangers. And we get really excited about CAR RIDES.

I was so bored I called Jake from State Farm just to talk to someone. He asked me what I was wearing...

2019: Stay away from negative people. 2020: Stay away from positive people.


Pandemic Discoveries forwarded by Tina

The kids are begging to go to a restaurant because they're tired of eating groceries.

The grandparents missing their grandchildren will probably get them for months once the lockdown is lifted.

Cops outside an apartment with their guns drawn:  "Come out with your hands washed!"

The Powerball Lottery is now up to 100 rolls of Charmin

Dolly Parton:  "Honey when this is over you'll be begging for Joline to take your man."

While removing masks at home after shopping, one wife discovered she came home with the wrong hubby.


Forwarded by Auntie Bev

The INS will announce next month that senior citizens will be deported instead of illegal immigrants
Older people require a disproportionate share of Social Security support, Medicare, and Medicaid. Also they're easier to catch and will not remember how to get back to the USA
Sounds like a good plan

Did you know that on the Canary Islands there's not one canary
The same with the Virgin Islands --- not one canary

Did you know that in Heaven there's a viewer the shows beneath the clouds
It's dedicated for viewing your ex-spouse in Hell

At Age 20 when you drop something you pick it up
At Age 80 when you drop something you decide you don't need it anymore

When you're dead you don't know it; The pain is felt by others still living
The same thing happens when you're stupid

If your eyes hurt while drinking coffee
Think about taking the spoon out of the cup

Conversation starters for old people
"Did I tell you this already?"
"What was I going to say?"

Golf:  The adult version of an Easter egg hunt

Recommended:  Replace answering "Hello" with the following:

We're too broke to buy anything
We know who we're voting for
We've already found Jesus
We don't have a computer or a credit card
Unless we know you, please don't call back

The purpose of your little toe is to keep furniture in its place

Thought of a dog in the park
She loves me enough to pick up my poop in a flimsy glove
I'm not standing six feet away because of the coronavirus

If you buy smart water for $3 a bottle
It's not working

Anything can kill you
So choose something fun


Pandemic Discoveries forwarded by Tina

The kids are begging to go to a restaurant because they're tired of eating groceries.

The grandparents missing their grandchildren will probably get them for months once the lockdown is lifted.

Cops outside an apartment with their guns drawn:  "Come out with your hands washed!"

The Powerball Lottery is now up to 100 rolls of Charmin

Dolly Parton:  "Honey when this is over you'll be begging for Joline to take your man."

While removing masks at home after shopping, one wife discovered she came home with the wrong hubby.


Guess what Bob Jensen saw while coming home from the grocery store
Two little kids were behind a card table set up beside the street
The sign read:

Unused Toilet Paper
$.10 per sheet
12 sheets for a a$1 bill
We don't know how to make change

 




 

Humor March 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q1.htm#Humor0320.htm  

Humor January 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q1.htm#Humor0120.htm

Humor December 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q4.htm#Humor1219.htm

Humor November 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q4.htm#Humor1119.htm

Humor October 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q4.htm#Humor1019.htm

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   




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