Tidbits on May 14, 2020
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

May 2020 thus far has been cold with snow and ice still on the ground
I've not been as active with my camera this spring
Hence I will feature a rerun of some ice photographs of previous springtimes at our cottage
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/JackFrostPaint/Set04/Set04.htm

 

Tidbits on May 14, 2020
Scroll Down This Page

Bob Jensen's Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

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

My Latest Web Document
Over 400 Examples of Critical Thinking and Illustrations of How to Mislead With Statistics --
-
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm

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

What a Wonderful World --- https://www.youtube.com/embed/auSo1MyWf8g?rel=0

Bertrand Russell Remembers His Face-to-Face Encounter with Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/bertrand-russell-remembers-his-face-to-face-encounter-with-vladimir-ilyich-lenin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The Sunset Hill House Hotel (near our cottage) ---
https://www.thesunsethillhouse.com/
Watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5cqUX0LcbU&t=9s


Free music downloads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm 

At Home with John Fogerty ---
https://jborden.com/2020/05/04/music-monday-at-home-with-john-fogerty/

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


Photographs and Art

BigPicture Natural World Photography Contest ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2020/05/winners-2020-bigpicture-natural-world-photography-competition/611491/

Coronavirus street art in pictures ---
www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2020/apr/06/coronavirus-street-art-in-pictures

Parked Aircraft --- https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-a-photographers-quest-to-photograph-hundreds-of-parked-planes-2020-5

Benaki Museum (Greece): Museum From Home --- 
www.benaki.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=38&Itemid=1114&lang=en

Take a Virtual Tour of the Mütter Museum and Its Many Anatomically Peculiar Exhibits ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/take-a-virtual-tour-of-the-mutter-museum-and-its-many-anatomically-peculiar-exhibits.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Dali Theatre-Museum Virtual Tour --- www.salvador-dali.org/en/museums/dali-theatre-museum-in-figueres/visita-virtual

artasiamerica (Asian artists) --- http://artasiamerica.org/home

Asian Art Museum: Education Resources Archive ---
https://education.asianart.org/resources/

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

Shakespeare & Beyond --- https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/

‘Never Be Afraid’: William Faulkner’s Speech to His Daughter’s Graduating Class in 1951 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/never-be-afraid-william-faulkners-speech-to-his-daughters-graduating-class-in-1951.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

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 May 14, 2020
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2020/TidbitsQuotations051420.htm             




How to Mislead in Various Ways

Online Education is Better
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/05/online-education-is-better.html

Jensen Comment
There are so many things to consider when comparing onsite versus online education.

Firstly, there's the difference in student levels and motivation. Many empirical studies (thousands?) conclude that for highly motivated students pedagogy does not matter. Good students do whatever it takes to get their A grades ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#AssessmentIssues
This often is the case for advanced students who tend to be more motivated unless they're just curiosity seeking without the time or inclination to put in the work needed to excel in a course.
For unmotivated, especially younger, students pedagogy tends to matter more, especially when students are lethargic under Socratic Method. The teachers with the highest teaching evaluations tend to be those that spoon feed in lectures combined with relatively easy grading (virtually all top teachers at RateMyProfessors.com are easy graders who also take personal interests in their students). In advanced courses the knowledge of the instructor combined with course preparation tends to increase in importance.

Secondly, there's the fundamental difference in pedagogy such as synchronous versus asynchronous pedagogy differences in either online or onsite learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Years ago in the SCALE Experiments for 30 courses across five years at the University of Illinois students living on campus were divided in each course into those students who learned virtually everything online asynchronously versus those who had to go to  synchronous classes. Each course was taught by the same instructor using the same materials and examinations. The findings are interesting ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois

Thirdly, when referring to "online education" there are huge differences in how it transpires. At one extreme an instructor is available huge portions of each day and available for "instant messaging" with a relatively small number of students. The gold standard at this extreme is tax professor Amy Dunbar at the University of Connecticut ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/Dunbar2002.htm
At the other extreme there may be over a million students taking a MOOC course from a prestigious university where the instructor has zero personal communications with so many students. There are always some outstanding students completing MOOC courses, but they are doing so without any outside help from their instructors. Many more students get lost along the way and drop out.

My point here is that saying "online is better" or "onsite is better" is over generalizing across varied circumstances.


My Painless "Heart Attack"

Heart Attack --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myocardial_infarction

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

I now have a new stent that was installed on May 2, 2020. I'm not bragging. My neighbor in San Antonio was a retired physician who was 20 years older than me. His nine stents gave him bragging rights.

For those of you who are interested this is my story.
Over the past few weeks I grew noticeably weaker and short of breath, although I've really not been my old vigorous self for a few years. On the night of my birthday (April 30) my breathing during the night became much more labored. In the morning I told my wife I thought I had some type of bug. My nurse-wife said nonsense and ordered this macho mountain man to get in the car so she could take me to the local Littleton Regional Hospital Emergency Room. There they would only admit me and made her return home because of the pandemic.

After about two hours of needles, an EKG, and consultations two doctors informed me that I was now having a heart attack --- even if there was no pain. It was decided that I would be taken by ambulance to the huge Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center down south in New Hampshire. But the DHMC did not make it easy for me to get a green light of admission. First the LRH had to do more prescreening things like more EKGs, more blood tests, chest X-Rays, and a CAT Scan. After all that I did not receive the green light to be admitted until I had lain in the LRH ER for over five hours.

At long last I got the green light, and the Fire and Rescue service in the town of Lancaster was called.  I then waited 45 more minutes until a brand new $100,000 ambulance pulled up in back. Two attendants filled out a bunch of paperwork and loaded me into the ambulance. The trip to Dartmouth is nearly all interstate highway --- first in the wrong direction (north) on I-93 to Vermont where I-93 begins at I-91. From there it's straight south down the I-91 interstate where there's never traffic any time of day or any time of year. My ambulance averaged over 90 mph the entire trip, although my life was never in danger. The Lancaster firemen maybe wanted to return to their families at a somewhat decent hour on a Friday night. I'm being facetious here since I'm sure they wanted their new ambulance returned to their small mountain town of Lancaster where it assuredly would be needed more times on a Friday night.

When we arrived at the enormous DHMC complex of white buildings with green trim (Dartmouth College's colors) the ambulance attendants wheeled me straight up to the Heart&Vascular Center (H&V Center). There I was taken to a room (thankfully private by happenstance) where a stream of technicians with needles and machines descended upon me. One of the more interesting machines detected ultrasounds where I could listen to blood slushing through my arteries and valves. At that point I wondered if I need plumbers rather than doctors.

At about 11:00 pm it was decided that my heart catheterization procedure could be delayed until Saturday morning ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_catheterization

At 6:00 am the technicians started streaming in again with needles and machines. At 11:00 am I signed a very scary piece of paper written by lawyers and was wheeled across to a $3.5 million dollar Heart Cath room. After sliding me to a table a team of six technicians commenced to move big pieces of big equipment into place (some pieces moved along the ceiling). Then two doctors whom I'd never met politely introduced themselves and quickly cut a tiny incision in my right wrist. A miniature camera was inserted into an artery in my wrist and the exploration commenced on key sight seeing portions of my vascular system, In a 55-inch screen I watched the tiny camera move about, but I could not understand much of the tech code (mostly numbers) gibberish used by the doctors. After a surprisingly short time they spoke to me in English and showed my where they had discovered my serious blockage. They next pushed a stent into my wrist and guided that stent up close to my heart. The blockage was where the artery looked like the number 8. They expertly secured the stent in place. Afterwards the number 8 became a number one. They pulled pulled out their valuable equipment and it was over. Man they are good at their jobs!

Afterwards I was wheeled into a recovery room. Having been with my wife after most of her many surgeries (while she was entangled in all the tubes and wires attach to her body) I begged for a Foley ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_catheter
At first my nurses were reluctant, but in the end I won. They expertly and painlessly installed my Foley.
Boy was I grateful for the Foley since the rest of my wire-entangled stay in the hospital entailed Lasex, more Lasex, and later more Lasex ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furosemide

I spent two more nights in the H&V Center. The doctors said that, among other things, they wanted to study my heart's reaction to the changed flow of blood after my stent was in place.

On Monday my neighbor and very close friend (who is himself a retired cardiologist who used to install stents) insisted on driving to the DHMC to take me home to the loving arms of my wife.

After a solid night's sleep (where hospital staff could not keep waking me up every hour) I at last got a hot morning shave and shower. I'm feeling pretty good today while writing this. I'm breathing better than I breathed in the past two years. I'm still very weak, but with all the exercise that's insisted upon in my return-home documentation I should be around for a few more years.

I lost 20 pounds in three days and now have an incentive to lose even more weight --- although that won't be easy. At Polly's Pancake Parlor I'll be the one eating Eggbeaters and a dry English Muffin while my cardiologist friend eats a stack of pancakes, two poached eggs, two patties of sausage, and toast dripping in butter. But then his basketball team travels around the USA playing in a geriatric team league --- I'm serious.

For those of you who like what I do on the AECM Listserv --- all I can say is that I'm back!
For those of you who don't always like what I do on the AECM Listserv --- all I can say is that I'm back!

I close by thanking God for giving me a caring wife, an expert staff at the LRH Emergency Room, and the amazing experts at Dartmouth's H&V Medical Center that is one part of the hospital that never seems to find time to rest any time of any day. They don't walk --- they run during 12-hour shifts!

I'm ready to pass on when my number is up, but I'm especially looking forward to more Friday mornings at Polly's Pancake Parlor even if I can only drool over the stacks of pancakes soaked in authentic maple syrup. Eggbeaters ain't all that bad if they're cooked properly. Sigh!


Ways the World Is Getting Remarkably Better: Visuals by Statistician Hans Rosling ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/16-ways-the-world-is-getting-remarkably-better.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Not much good to say about education and learning

Visualization with a Bar Chart That Changes With Each Year's New Chart
Biggest Fast Food Chains in the World 1971 - 2019 (Stores)
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1160235/
The year in question is shown in the lower right corner of the chart (which might be missed on some high resolution monitors)

Bob Jensen's threads on data visualization ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm


An Economist Looks at University Finances for the 2020-21 Academic Year ---
https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2020/04/university-finances.html


Professors at Ohio U say tenure-track faculty cuts can't simply be blamed on COVID-19, but rather long-term financial mismanagement ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/05/professors-ohio-u-say-faculty-cuts-cant-just-be-blamed-covid-19?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b6d8c82e83-DNU_2019_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b6d8c82e83-197565045&mc_cid=b6d8c82e83&mc_eid=1e78f7c952


Are open source textbooks the way of the future?
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/kyle-hiebert-in-the-covid-19-world-open-source-textbooks-are-the-way-of-the-future

Jensen Comment
The above article says yes, but I don't entirely agree unless textbooks become wiki textbooks much like Wikipedia where they are continuously improved and updated by users around the world. This will probably happen in varying degrees for different disciplines. In accountancy I don't see this happening very quickly. Accountancy, especially financial and tax accountancy, is like law in that the rules are constantly changing. 

Where's the incentive to continuously update free textbooks in a discipline that changes daily?

This may be a good thing for textbook publishers in that publishers will have to upgrade their products to compete with the free stuff. For example, textbook publishers are currently providing a lot of free or low-fee supplements such as videos, learning management systems, student guides, test banks, etc. And most of this has moved online, including the textbooks themselves. Textbooks themselves are in full color with lots of end-of-chapter questions, problems, and cases.

There's always room for improvement. Textbooks can be continuously updated when they're online. Publishers can pay users to submit supplements such as cases and problems and exam materials. Publishers one day will probably provide chat bots that know more and teach better than live instructors in terms of technical explanations ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Chatbots

Video supplements are often poor quality or poorly targeted. Now publishers will have more incentives to improve the video supplements.

My philosophy before retirement was to require the best textbooks available even if they were more costly to students. When I was in college more often than not I learned more from my textbooks than I did from my teachers. Why deprive the all your students of the best learning materials even if these materials are more costly?

Bob Jensen's neglected threads on free textbooks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks


Air Conditioning and Learning ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/05/heat-and-learning.html
Jensen Comment
This just begs a question of how much the racial disparity in learning could be attributed to less frequent air conditioning in southern/urban poor schools and homes.
Even when outdoor temperatures are below 80 degrees F buildings may have stale air hotter than the outdoors.


Michael Jensen --- https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/nicholas-lemann-transaction-man-review/

Theory of the Firm --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_firm

From a Leftist Perspective:  Prophets of Instability How finance broke the modern corporation
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/nicholas-lemann-transaction-man-review/

When his "theory of the firm" went bust, the economist Michael Jensen needed a scapegoat. He found one in basic human irrationality

Jensen Comment
This article is biased according to what one expects from The Nation. However, I always like to view both sides of important issues. The "theory of the firm" did not exactly go bust.


How to Mislead With Statistics

Virtual Events Zooming, But Will It Last?

While Zoom seemed to be one of few companies actually benefiting from the lockdown, the picture isn’t quite as rosy as it said. Despite some notorious security issues, the company posted last month that its daily active users had jumped from 10 million in December to 300 million in April. But it turns out Zoom was counting meeting participants, not individual users — likely a vastly inflated number since people can be in multiple meetings per day. The company quietly corrected the post, but when questioned said it was a “genuine oversight.”


The Art of the New Deal: Why the Federal Government Funded the Arts During the Great Depression ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/the-art-of-the-new-deal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29


How to Mislead With Statistics

CDC:  USA Media Over Reporting Coronavirus Deaths by 60%
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/867450-cdc-data-shows-coronavirus-deaths-actually-37308-nearly-half-what-media-is-reporting-special?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=9GHGkdpWhYe83EFyZJjkFO8_21LdfGwaVfyZOKuqu1nQ.A

As of May 1, the CDC website states that 37,308 people died from the Wuhan coronavirus, which includes confirmed and presumed deaths from the pathogen.

The data also shows that the coronavirus pandemic peaked in the U.S. the week of April 11.

Additionally, the number of coronavirus deaths have been decreasing since April 25, with about 93% of all coronavirus deaths happening to individuals over 55 years old.

As Newsmax journalist John Cardillo noted, the data reported on by the media and Worldometer is a “scam” for likely attributing other causes of death to inflate coronavirus fatalities

Jensen Comment
I can think of trillions of reasons for overstating the deaths, although in truth much of the problem may be due to careless reporting errors. The same thing has happened for over 100 years with pneumonia. Pneumonia is known as the old peoples' friend because when people suffering with cancer or other terminal illnesses experience weakened immune systems the final cause of death is often pneumonia. It would've been a total waste of money all those years to have diverted 60% of the medical research money to preventing pneumonia when that medical research money was better spent on cancer and other terminal illnesses that led to the weakened immune systems.

There are many reasons (think stimulus money) for over reporting Covid-19 deaths, but the above article has huge statistical errors ---
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cdc-death-figures/

It looks like it is 67% of all Covid-19 deaths in Spain were in retirement/nursing homes
https://twitter.com/jtepper2/status/1257227517204869124


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
.

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 many jobs do robots really replace?
https://techxplore.com/news/2020-05-jobs-robots.html


The Coronavirus Truthers Don't Believe in Public Health ---
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxevj5/the-coronavirus-truthers-dont-believe-in-public-health

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


Nassim Nicholas Taleb --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb

Derivative Financial Instrument --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(finance)

A hedge fund advised by Nassim Nicholas Taleb posted a 4,000% return as a result of the pandemic ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/nassim-taleb-best-quotes-most-thought-provoking-hedge-fund-return-2020-5-1029182885

·  As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, the stock market plunged more than 30%.

·  While most investors suffered from the drop, one hedge fund provided its clients with returns in excess of 4,000%.

·  The "Black Swan" fund, managed by a protege of Nassim Taleb, invested in securities and derivatives that benefited from the extreme market volatility caused by the coronavirus.

·  Taleb is the author of 2007's "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" - a book that has had a lasting impact on investors and was released just before the start of the great financial crisis.

·  Here are 10 of Taleb's most thought provoking quotes.
 

Nassim Taleb was back in the news in April as one of his old colleagues posted a remarkable return for his hedge fund last quarter.

Mark Spitznagel of Universa Investments posted a 4,144% return as the fund profited from the heightened market volatility caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Spitznagel was a student of Taleb at New York University and together they established Empirica Capital in 1999. Additionally, Taleb serves as an adviser to Universa Investments.

The pair have specialized in tail-risk investment strategies that can post substantial returns during periods of market stress.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's timeline of derivative financial instruments and hedge accounting ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds


Death of a Quantum Man: The Suicide of Stanford physics professor Zhang Shoucheng ---
https://www.thewirechina.com/2020/05/03/the-quantum-man/


Immune system discovery could end chronic organ rejection ---
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-immune-discovery-chronic.html


It’s time to take UFOs seriously. Seriously ---
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/5/8/21244090/pentagon-ufo-videos-navy-alexander-wendt

Jensen Comment
The mere presence of UFOs does not mean that "people" from outer space are nearby. More than likely UFOs, if they exist, are only bringing robots to our earth just like we've only sent robots to Mars.


Storyline Online (for children) --- www.storylineonline.net

Bob Jensen's threads on free literature for children ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Children


The circle of life, publish or perish edition: Two journals retract more than 40 papers ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2020/05/06/the-circle-of-life-publish-or-perish-edition-two-journals-retract-more-than-40-papers/

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


The U.S. Postal Service 'Unsustainable,' Says GAO. And That Was Before COVID-19 Hit ---
https://reason.com/2020/05/07/the-u-s-postal-service-unsustainable-says-gao-and-that-was-before-covid-19-hit/


Trump OKs Huge Nevada Solar Installation ---
https://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-325760/?utm_term=OZY&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PDB%20%282020-05-12%2010:31:38%29#article325784


Pregnant woman, boyfriend killed in New York home invasion ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/botched-home-invasion-on-staten-island-leaves-pregnant-woman-boyfriend-dead-report


MIT:  Health systems are in need of radical change; virtual care will lead the way
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/04/30/1000818/health-systems-are-in-need-of-radical-change-virtual-care-will-lead-the-way/

Jensen Comment
I think virtual care and virtual college education are waves of the future. I'm betting that one of the key players will be chat bots ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Chatbots 


Virus unleashes wave of fraud in US amid fear and scarcity ---
https://apnews.com/f7ab8d9f968905498cb3b31c9c753b1e


Questions Asked by Joe Hoyle (University of Richmond) in an April 29, 2030 message
His questions in red
Bob Jensen's off the cuff answers in black

 
1 - How would you describe your classes (a) historically and (b) going forward – totally live, blended (a mix of online and live), all online/distance learning or something else?

WHAT YOU FAIL TO DISTINGUISH, JOE, IS THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION OF ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING VERSUS SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING. THIS SHOULD FIRST BE ASKED BEFORE ASKING THE ABOVE QUESTIONS. FOR EXAMPLE, AN EARLY COMPARISON WAS CONDUCTED IN THE EARLY "SCALE" EXPERIMENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS WHERE 30 COURSES ACROSS FIVE YEARS WERE TAUGHT TO CAMPUS STUDENTS DIVIDED BETWEEN SYNCHRONOUS AND ASYNCHRONOUS DELIVERY BY THE SAME INSTRUCTOR USING THE SAME TEACHING MATERIALS AND  EXAMINATIONS. THE FINDINGS ARE VERY INTERESTING ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois

ABOUT 10 YEARS BEFORE I RETIRED I "FLIPPED MY CLASSROOMS (USUALLY LESS THAN 20 STUDENTS)" AND WENT ALMOST ENTIRELY ASYNCHRONOUS FOR MY STUDENTS WHO WERE ALL GRADUATE ACCOUNTING STUDENTS IN MY VERY TECHNICAL COURSES (THINK FAS 133 THEORY AND THEORY FOR OTHER TOUGH STANDARDS OR MY AIS STUDENTS IN ANOTHER COURSE). I MADE HUNDREDS OF CAMTASIA VIDEOS THAT STUDENTS STUDIED BEFORE COMING TO CLASS. IN CLASS THEY DEMONSTRATED TO ME AND OTHER STUDENTS WHAT THEY HAD LEARNED ASYNCHRONOUSLY. I COULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING ONLINE THAT I WAS DOING IN CLASS (HAVING THEM DEMONSTRATE WHAT THEY LEARNED).

BY FLIPPING MY CLASSROOM I COULD DEVOTE MORE CLASS TIME TO FIELDING QUESTIONS STUDENTS HAD ABOUT ACCOUNTING CAREERS. SINCE THEY HAD UNDERGRADUATE ACCOUNTING DEGREES THEY OFTEN ASKED MORE PENETRATING QUESTIONS ABOUT CAREERS --- SUCH AS WHETHER THEY SHOULD CONSIDER PH.D STUDIES IN THE FUTURE.

I DON'T THINK MY "FLIPPED HIGHLY TECHNICAL CLASSROOM" WOULD'VE BEEN AS EFFECTIVE FOR INTRODUCTORY STUDENTS WHO ARE LESS MOTIVATED AND YEARS AWAY FROM THE CPA EXAM. THEY REQUIRE MORE HAND HOLDING.

Camtasia 2020 ---
https://www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html?utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=dnl127&utm_campaign=tsc&spMailingID=65235031&spUserID=MTQ4MzE0MDYwOTcxS0&spJobID=1881920326&spReportId=MTg4MTkyMDMyNgS2


 

 
2 - Given your traditional style of teaching, what’s a maximum number that you could teach reasonably well?  How many could you teach well using distance learning?
 

THIS IS DIFFICULT TO ANSWER IN GENERAL SINCE THOUSANDS OF FANTASTIC MOOC COURSES (TAUGHT EACH SEMESTER BY PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITIES) ARE TAUGHT LIVE TO VARYING SIZED CLASSES (SOME VERY SMALL) AND THEN DELIVERED BY VIDEO TO MILLIONS FOR NON-CREDIT (OR FOR CERTIFICATES). THE PHRASE "REASONABLY WELL" PERTAINS MORE TO THE MOTIVATION OF THE STUDENT RATHER THAN PERFORMANCE OF THE TEACHER. FOR EXAMPLE, OUT OF A MILLION STUDENTS THERE ARE ALMOST CERTAIN TO BE SOME MOOC STUDENT OUTLIERS WHO LEARNED BETTER THAN ALL ONSITE STUDENTS AND MANY WHO DROPPED OUT OR OTHERWISE LEARNED POORLY. THE PHRASE "REASONABLY WELL" DEPENDS MORE ON THE STUDENT RATHER THAN THE TEACHER. ---
 

THE PHRASE "NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES" IS CONCLUDED REPEATEDLY IN RESEARCH FOCUSED UPON GOOD STUDENTS WHERE PEDAGOGY REALLY DOES NOT MATTER --- THEY DO WELL UNDER ANY PEDAGOGY. PEDAGOGY MAY MATTER FOR WEAK STUDENTS ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#AssessmentIssues



 
3 - In a live class, teachers traditionally convey information through a textbook, other assignments, and classroom sessions.  What are the ways that you can convey information in a distance learning environment?
 

THE ALTERNATIVES FOR CONVEYING INFORMATION IS ALWAYS GREATER FOR DISTANCE LEARNING. FOR EXAMPLE, AMY DUNBAR, A TAX PROFESSOR AT UCON, WAS AN EARLY PIONEER OF INSTANT MESSAGING ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/Dunbar2002.htm

INSTANT MESSAGE MAKES EDUCATION MORE LIKE ONE-ON-ONE TUTORIALS


 
4 - In a live class, students are “encouraged” to actually prepare for class through graded assignments, pop tests, calling on people in class, participation grades, etc.  How do you get students in a distance learning class to do the assigned work and do it at the appropriate time?

 

I CAN'T ANSWER THIS FOR INTRODUCTORY STUDENTS OR STUDENTS WHO ARE NOT HIGHLY MOTIVATED. I THINK FOR THEM INSTANT MESSAGING (THINK AMY DUNBAR) BECOMES MORE IMPORTANT RELATIVE TO STUDENTS WHO JUST NEED TO BE TOLD WHAT TO LEARN AND THEN TURNED LOOSE WITH THE VIDEOS AND OTHER HANDOUTS I GIVE THEM IN ADDITION TO THE ASSIGNED TEXTBOOKS.

INSTANT MESSAGING ACTUALLY CAN BECOME AN ORAL EXAMINATION PROCESS WHERE THERE'S LESS NEED FOR QUIZZES AND EVEN WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS.

 

 


 
5 - In a live class, scheduled class sessions form a structure.  If you plan to talk about Chapter 16 at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, then all of the students need to be ready for Chapter 16 by 9 a.m. on Wednesday.  In a distance learning class, how do you create a structure that keeps students reasonably well together?  Or, are you more inclined toward self-paced and don’t care whether students stay together or not?

EVEN THOUGH MY PEDAGOGY WAS ASYNCHRONOUS I KEPT THE CLASS PRETTY MUCH ON PACE WITH ASSIGNED VIDEOS AND READINGS. IT GETS TOO MUCH LIKE HERDING CATS IF YOU HAVE STUDENTS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COURSE AT THE SAME TIME.
 



 
6 - Colleges talk a lot about the development of critical thinking skills.  In a live class, that process is often initiated by using probing questions or assignments designed to help students begin to “connect the dots” for themselves.  In distance learning classes, how do you help students develop their critical thinking skills?
 

I FORCE STUDENTS TO THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT A LOT OF THINGS, ESPECIALLY STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. BEFORE I PUT OVER 500 EXAMPLES OF CRITICAL THINKING ONLINE AT MY WEBSITE I DEVELOPED SOME OF THESE EXAMPLES WITH STUDENT ASSIGNMENTS ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm


 


 
7 – In live classes, the assessment of critical thinking skills can be extremely difficult.  How can that be accomplished in distance learning?

I HAVE NO MAGIC BULLET FOR ASSESSING CRITICAL THINKING. I USUALLY MADE CRITICAL THINKING PART OF GROUP WRITING ASSIGNMENTS WHERE IT'S VERY DIFFICULT TO ASSESS THE INPUT OF EACH MEMBER OF THE GROUP. HOPEFULLY CRITICAL THINKING RUBS OFF IN GROUP CONVERSATIONS AND DIVISION OF LABOR.

 


 
8 - In a live class, if students start to get lost or confused, they can pose questions in class, they can come to office hours, or they can send emails.  Or, as the teacher, I can recognize that they are struggling through their answers or body language and ask them to come see me.  How do students pose questions to you in distance learning classes?  How can you encourage those questions?

STUDENTS ARE MORE APT TO POSE QUESTIONS VIA EMAIL OR IN CHAT ROOMS IN DISTANCE EDUCATION. THE IDEAL ALTERNATIVE FOR A STUDENT IS INSTANT MESSAGING, ALTHOUGH ONLINE CLASSES MUST BE RELATIVELY SMALL AND IT TAKES A LOT OF TIME AND PATIENTS ALA AMY DUNBAR.

 



 
9 - In a live class, the professor can give students tests 2 or 3 times per semester (or as needed) to assess grades but also to help students get feedback as to how they are doing.  In distance learning classes, how do you assist students in determining how they are doing and how often do you do this?

AN ONLINE TEACHER CAN ALSO GIVE TESTS MULTIPLE TIMES EACH TERM WITH FEEDBACK AND FOLLOW-UP COMMUNICATIONS, ESPECIALLY VIA INSTANT MESSAGING.


 


 
10 - In a live class, the teacher can watch the students and have a reasonable feeling that they are not cheating on tests.  In distance learning, how do you prevent students from cheating? 

TESTING CAN BE DIFFICULT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE NOT GIVING "ORAL EXAMS" VIA INSTANT MESSAGING. HERE ARE SOME OF THE TRICKS OF THE TRADE FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#OnlineOffCampus

 

 


 
11 - In a live class, grades are normally determined using some combination of papers, tests, and other factors.  How do you assess grades in a distance learning class? 

WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS ANY DIFFERENT IN DISTANCE EDUCATION?

IN SOME DISTANCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS GRADING IS COMPETENCY BASED, TAKING THE SUBJECTIVITY OUT OF GRADING. EXAMPLES INCLUDE WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE.


 


 
12 - Do you know anyone who teaches blended or online classes (anywhere) who really seems to have the knack for creating great courses?  I am sure there are people out there who really do a great job.  I’d like to talk with them but first I have to find them.  How do I find those people and how can I best learn from them? 

BEGIN BY CONTACTING TAX PROFESSOR AMY DUNBAR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT. AMY IS THE GOLD STANDARD FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/Dunbar2002.htm

You might also try to contact selected professors in what US News claims are the leading distance education programs in the USA

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

 


The Fight Against Cheating in Distance Education ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/11/online-proctoring-surging-during-covid-19?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=eebf0d01a5-DNU_2019_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-eebf0d01a5-197565045&mc_cid=eebf0d01a5&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Jensen Comment
Cheating control can be difficult in large lecture courses on campus. My daughter's chemistry class had nearly 1,000 students at the University of Texas. Some chemistry majors were supporting themselves by taking the course for other students (there's an enterprise for generating fake ID cards)

TESTING CAN BE DIFFICULT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE NOT REPEATEDLY GIVING "ORAL EXAMS" VIA INSTANT MESSAGING.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE TRICKS OF THE TRADE FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION ---

http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#OnlineOffCampus 
Also see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Ideas


The $44,000 Chevy Bolt versus the $44,000 Nissan Leaf: A battle of mass-market electric hatchbacks ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/chevy-bolt-and-nissan-leaf-compared-photos-features-best-choice-2020-5

Demand for the Chevy Bolt ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Bolt#United_States

Demand for the Nissan Leaf ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#Model_and_production_history

In 2019, the auto industry in the United States sold approximately 17 million light vehicle units ---
https://www.statista.com/statistics/199983/us-vehicle-sales-since-1951/


Editors of Ethnologia Europaea announce the retractions of seven more papers by Mart Bax, the Dutch anthropologist whose misconduct includes not only making up data but making up papers — at least 61 of them ---
https://ee.openlibhums.org/article/id/1801/

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


Microsoft Teams --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Teams

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

Look out - that Microsoft Teams alert might be a phishing scam ---
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/look-out-that-microsoft-teams-alert-might-be-a-phishing-scam


The Atlantic:  What Really Happened to Malaysia’s Missing Airplane
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/mh370-malaysia-airlines/590653/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-weekly-newsletter&utm_content=20200510&silverid-ref=NTk4MzY1OTg0MzY5S0


May 11, 1920 (100 years ago)
Women admitted to Oxford University for the first time ---
https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=1044


How Albert Einstein's Son Tamed the Mississippi River ---
https://www.wired.com/story/how-albert-einsteins-son-tamed-the-mississippi-river/


California State U. System (23 universities and 500,000 students) Will Conduct Most Fall Classes Online ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/California-State-U-System/248759?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1212285&cid=at&source=ams&sourceId=296279

Think of all the empty dorm space that will now be available for the millions of more ill and homeless people in California. This will add much more space for the 7,000+ homeless now being housed in San Francisco's most luxurious hotels. The homeless cost more than students in dorms, because taxpayers don't provide students with free food, drugs, and alcohol in the dorms.

San Francisco gives free food, drugs, alcohol to homeless quarantining in hotels ---
https://nypost.com/2020/05/06/san-francisco-gives-drugs-alcohol-to-homeless-quarantining-in-hotels/

Where do California officials eventually unload all those homeless in dorms and hotels?
Maybe the solution is to permanently house the homeless on campuses and hotels and make students forever take online courses.




From the Scout Report on April 24, 2020

Compassion, Community Shine in the Time of COVID-19

 

Property owner tells restaurants to pay employees, not rent during coronavirus pandemic
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/property-owner-tells-restaurants-pay-employees-rent-coronavirus/story?id=69683850

NBA star Kevin Love donates $100,000 to help Cleveland Cavaliers arena workers impacted by coronavirus
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kevin-love-donates-100000-cleveland-cavaliers-workers-coronavirus-nba/

Young woman helps 'terrified' elderly couple get food, inspires others to pitch in
https://www.today.com/health/young-woman-helps-terrified-elderly-couple-get-food-inspires-others-t176131

Met launches "Nightly Met Opera Streams," a free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure
https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/

Audible: Stories Help
https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

Yoga for Uncertain Times
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLui6Eyny-Uzy-b0MKzL2EfaTqB0ppgK06

As we face the uncertainty and adjustments necessary in an unprecedented time, the news cycle is dominated by COVID-19 stories. In addition to stories that are informative, sad, or perhaps an equal combination of the two, there are many stories of resilience, kindness, and selfless acts — neighbors helping neighbors, frontline workers making sacrifices to keep us safe, and businesses and individuals finding creative ways to do their part. This month we highlight news stories that bring a much needed smile, sources of connection and entertainment in a sea of social-distancing, and a reminder that there is always good to be found, even in difficult times. Following some of these news stories, readers will find a few resources that provide entertainment or endorphins from the comfort of your home. All of us at Scout hope you continue to be well and healthy! [EMB]

The first link highlights a story by Ella Torres for ABC News about an Arkansas investment company that waived rent for restaurant tenants to ensure that employees are paid during restaurant shutdowns. The second link leads to a story by Christopher Brito for CBS News that discusses NBA star Kevin Love's pledge to help cover the salaries of arena workers during the NBA's suspension, a generous choice also made by multiple other players, including Zion Williamson and Giannis Antetokounmpo. At the the third link readers will find a story by Samantha Kubota for Today that spotlights a woman's random act of kindness: buying groceries for an elderly couple who worried about going out into the large grocery store crowd. Since the story's publication, many grocery stores have created a dedicated shopping time for older patrons, as well as those who are at high risk. Readers looking for a night at the opera from the comfort (and safety) of their couch may enjoy the fourth link, which leads to a schedule of the Metropolitan Opera's new free live-stream series. The fifth link connects to Audible (a digital audiobook platform), where the company is granting free access to materials perfect for children and teenagers (available in six languages) during the COVID crisis, declaring "for as long as schools are closed, we're open." Finally, the sixth link directs readers to a playlist of instructional yoga videos from the popular YouTube channel Yoga With Adriene focused on coping with the stresses of uncertain times. The series offers 34 workouts perfect to get your endorphins pumping without leaving home.

 

From the Scout Report on May 1, 2020

Manuskript (write a novel) --- www.theologeek.ch/manuskript 
Manuskript is a tool for writers with special support for building novels using the snowflake method (which stresses the importance of design). In addition to the text of the novel itself, Manuskript can store writer's notes on characters, plots, and the world in which the story takes place. All these notes can be cross-linked with each other and with the text of the story to help maintain consistency and continuity. Cross-links can also be used to generate a graphical Story Line view of the work in progress. Using the Outliner view, authors are able to see and rearrange the chapters and scenes that they have written thus far and create placeholders to indicate sections that still need to be written. Manuskript also includes a Focus Mode where the editor occupies the entire screen. Users can optionally configure a writing goal in Focus Mode, either a time or a word count, and Manuskript will not allow them to leave the editor until this goal has been completed. The Download section of the website contains installers for Windows and Linux system, , s

From the Scout Report on May 8, 2020

Open Broadcaster Studio --- https://obsproject.com/ 
Instructors and individuals looking for a more intuitive video production and streaming software may want to revisit this resource from the 05-19-2017 issue of the Scout Report. Open Broadcaster Studio (OBS) continues to provide no-cost recording, streaming, and mixing tools to enhance your projects including, perhaps, a creative COVID-19 archive or project. It can be a surprisingly difficult task to record and stream video over the internet. Users must often assemble a pipeline of several different tools that each handle a different aspect of the production process. Open Broadcaster Studio wraps the entire process into a single, simple to use application. It can be used to pre-record video content, but it truly shines as a tool for live streaming. Multiple popular streaming services are supported including YouTube and Facebook Live. It can perform real time video and audio mixing, audio filtering (e.g. noise suppression), video filtering (e.g. color correction), custom transitions between scenes, and more. Extensive documentation is available on its website, including step-by-step guides with detailed instructions and screenshots. Users may also seek assistance via the very active Open Broadcaster Software forums or via live community chat. Open Broadcaster Studio is available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers.




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


Education Tutorials

Storyline Online (for children) --- www.storylineonline.net

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/

Stairway to STEM (for autistic students) ---  www.stairwaytostem.org
Bob Jensen's threads on STEM --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm

Her STEM Story --- https://herstemstory.com/

National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) --- www.neonscience.org

COVID-19 and Climate Change: Graphing the Connection ---  
www.projectlooksharp.org/front_end_resource.php?resource_id=505

Forestry Links

Urban Forestry Toolkit --- www.vibrantcitieslab.com/toolkit

TreeGenes --- https://treegenesdb.org/

Botanical art and artists: How to draw and paint leaves and trees --- www.botanicalartandartists.com/botanical-tips-trees-leaves.html

YourForest --- https://yourforestpodcast.com/episode-1

Forest Inventory & Analysis One-Click Factsheet ---
https://public.tableau.com/views/FIA_OneClick_V1_2/StateSelection?%3AshowVizHome=no

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

BillTrack50 (legislation) --- www.billtrack50.com

Cork LGBT Archive --- http://corklgbtarchive.com/

A Day in the Queer Life of Asian Pacific America (LGBT) --- http://smithsonianapa.org/day-queer-life/

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

BillTrack50 (legislation) --- www.billtrack50.com

 

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


Math Tutorials

 

Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Mathematics and Statistics

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


History Tutorials

Bertrand Russell Remembers His Face-to-Face Encounter with Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/bertrand-russell-remembers-his-face-to-face-encounter-with-vladimir-ilyich-lenin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Shakespeare & Beyond --- https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/

Nurses Have Always Been Heroes ---
https://daily.jstor.org/philadelphia-general-hospital-school-of-nursing/

One Woman in the World War II ---
https://www.amazon.com/Alaine-Polcz-One-Woman-War/dp/B008WD9Y3G/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=alaine+polcz&qid=1588529825&sr=8-2/marginalrevol-20

The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began ---
https://www.amazon.com/Year-1000-Explorers-World-Globalization-ebook/dp/B07THD2SJJ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=valerie+hansen&qid=1588528405&sr=8-1/marginalrevol-20

Life Stats (enter your birth date to see what happened since birth) --- https://neal.fun/life-stats/

artasiamerica (Asian artists) --- http://artasiamerica.org/home

Asian Art Museum: Education Resources Archive ---
https://education.asianart.org/resources/

Benaki Museum (Greece): Museum From Home --- 
www.benaki.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=38&Itemid=1114&lang=en

May 11, 1920 (100 years ago)
Women admitted to Oxford University for the first time ---
https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=1044

How Albert Einstein's Son Tamed the Mississippi River ---
https://www.wired.com/story/how-albert-einsteins-son-tamed-the-mississippi-river/

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

From the Scout Report on May 1, 2020

Manuskript (write a novel) --- www.theologeek.ch/manuskript 
Manuskript is a tool for writers with special support for building novels using the snowflake method (which stresses the importance of design). In addition to the text of the novel itself, Manuskript can store writer's notes on characters, plots, and the world in which the story takes place. All these notes can be cross-linked with each other and with the text of the story to help maintain consistency and continuity. Cross-links can also be used to generate a graphical Story Line view of the work in progress. Using the Outliner view, authors are able to see and rearrange the chapters and scenes that they have written thus far and create placeholders to indicate sections that still need to be written. Manuskript also includes a Focus Mode where the editor occupies the entire screen. Users can optionally configure a writing goal in Focus Mode, either a time or a word count, and Manuskript will not allow them to leave the editor until this goal has been completed. The Download section of the website contains installers for Windows and Linux systems

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/

May 7, 2020

·        Blood Thinners Could Boost COVID-19 Survival

·        Gay Blood Donors: Eager to Help, but Face Barriers

·        Justice Ginsberg Joins Court Call from Hospital

·        Nurse Shares Sweet Story After Front-Line Shift

·        Turning Patients Prone Helps Fight COVID-19

·        Why Are Minorities Hardest Hit By COVID-19?

·        Warning: U.S. May Not Lower COVID-19 Infections

·        FDA Approves Diabetes Drug for Type of Heart Failure

·        Meat Shortage Forces Some Wendy’s Menu Changes

 May 8, 2020

 

·        PTSD May Plague Many COVID-19 Survivors

·        Virus Found in Semen of COVID-19 Survivors

·        Trump Says Coronavirus Task Force Will Remain

·        What Day Is It? This Is Your Brain on Quarantine

·        100 Days Into COVID-19, Where Do We Stand?

·        Pfizer Starts Clinical Trials of COVID-19 Vaccine

·        Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg Home From Hospital

·        Gentle Yoga May Deliver Migraine Relief

·        Necklace Spots A-Fib in Just Over 30 Seconds

May 9, 2020

·        Will Warmer Temps Help Contain Coronavirus?

·        Texas Gov. Frees Jailed Salon Owner

·        Illness in Dozens of Children May Be Tied to COVID

·        A Trump Valet Tests Positive for COVID-19

·        Trending Clinical Topic: COVID Toes

·        Mental Health an Emerging Crisis of COVID Pandemic

·        Pangolins May Hold Clues to How COVID-19 Began

·        Doctors update warning signs of severe COVID

·        Don't Expect a Baby Boom After Pandemic Lockdowns

May 12, 2020

·        FDA Oks COVID Test Using Gene-Editing Technology

·        Can Schools Really Reopen Safely?

·        Pence’s Press Secretary Has Positive COVID-19 Test

·        Three Top U.S. Officials Self-Quarantining

·        FDA Authorizes First Antigen Test for COVID-19

·        Ivanka Trump’s Personal Assistant Tests Positive

·        FDA Approves First At-Home Saliva Test

·        Remdesivir Shipped to Several States for COVID-19

·        How Do Genes Affect How Severe COVID-19 Will Be?

May 13, 2020

·        Beauty Industry Group Sues Over Shop Closings

·        States Ramp Up Contact Tracing Amid Reopening

·        Organ Transplants Plummet During COVID-19 Crisis

·        After Possible Exposure, Pence won’t Self Isolate

·        White House and CDC at Odds Over Airport Screening

·        Trump Says Not Everyone Should Be Tested

·        COVID-19 Lockdown Increases Child Abuse Risk

·        Stomach Ills May Signal COVID-19 in Kids

·        Blood Yields Clue to Why COVID Is Tougher on Men

VIEW ALL HEALTH NEWS


A New Synthetic Opioid Is Killing American Drug Users ---
https://reason.com/2020/05/12/a-new-synthetic-opioid-is-killing-american-drug-users/




Humor for May 2020

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

A female CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Western Wall to pray, twice a day, every day, for a long, long time.

So she went to check it out.

She went to the Western Wall and there he was, walking slowly up to the holy site.

She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, using a cane and moving very slowly, she approached him for an interview.

"Pardon me, sir, I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. What's your name?

"Morris Feinberg," he replied.

"Sir, how long have you been coming to the Western Wall and praying?"

"For about 60 years."

"60 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?"

"I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims."

"I pray for all the wars and all the hatred to stop."

"I pray for all our children to grow up safely as responsible adults and to love their fellow man."

"I pray that politicians tell us the truth and put the interests of the people ahead of their own interests."

"How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?"

"Like I'm talking to a f**king wall."


 

 




Humor April 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q2.htm#Humor0420.htm   

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