Tidbits on November 16, 2020
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Wes Lavin's 2020 Autumn Foliage Part 2
http://cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/2020-7/Part2.htm

Tidbits on November 16, 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

Bob Jensen's search helpers --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

Bob Jensen's World Library --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm

Human Population Over Time on Earth ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE 

Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio

Video:  ARE YOU CONFUSED ABOUT HEALTH INFORMATION? YOU'RE NOT ALONE --- 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6DLqtaK2g

Watch the Making of Japanese Woodblock Prints, from Start to Finish, by a Longtime Tokyo Printmaker ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/watch-the-making-of-japanese-woodblock-prints-from-start-to-finish.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Experience the Bob Ross Experience: A New Museum Open in the TV Painter’s Former Studio Home ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/bob-ross-experience.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

The Five Minute Museum: A Stop Motion Animation Shows the History of Civilization at Breakneck Speed ---
Click Here

Theranos, whistleblowing and speaking truth to power ---
https://www.ted.com/talks/erika_cheung_theranos_whistleblowing_and_speaking_truth_to_power?utm_source=recommendation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explore&utm_term=newest-talks-1

Aerial View of Sugar Hill, NH --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ATDjsJUi7M

Foliage in Sugar Hill, NH --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOPSUMWbclU

Foliage at the Sunset Hill House Hotel in Sugar Hill, NH --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RowlAA9XIno

History of the Sunset Hill House Resort in Sugar Hill, NH 000 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3uqK8T1ZDc

Lupines in Sugar Hill, NH --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7-1jCk4Ak0

Lupines in New Hampshire --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOR1vTHZjPo

Four Seasons at 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 

CLASSICS FOR KIDS (MUSIC) ---  www.classicsforkids.com

Top Wedding Songs --- https://jborden.com/2020/11/09/music-monday-top-wedding-songs/

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

Photographs and Art

The Meticulous, Elegant Illustrations of the Nature Observed in England’s Countryside ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/the-meticulous-elegant-illustrations-of-the-nature-observed-in-englands-countryside.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Watch the Making of Japanese Woodblock Prints, from Start to Finish, by a Longtime Tokyo Printmaker ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/watch-the-making-of-japanese-woodblock-prints-from-start-to-finish.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Trips on the World’s Oldest Electric Suspension Railway in 1902 & 1917 Show How a City Changes Over a Century ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/trips-on-the-worlds-oldest-electric-suspension-railway-in-1902-1917-show-how-a-city-changes-over-a-century.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

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

Sean Connery (RIP) Reads C.P. Cavafy’s Epic Poem “Ithaca,” Set to the Music of Vangelis ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/10/sean-connery-rip-reads-c-p-cavafys-epic-poem-ithaca-set-to-the-music-of-vangelis.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 November 16, 2020
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2020/TidbitsQuotations093020.htm             

Free Ebook entitled Transitioning to Effective Online Learning: The Playbook ---
https://www.rev.com/blog/transitioning-to-effective-online-learning-the-playbook?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=education-ebook&utm_content=102

How to Mislead With Statistics

Statistical Anomalies in Biden Votes, Analyses Indicate ---
https://www.theepochtimes.com/statistical-anomalies-in-biden-votes-analyses-indicate_3570518.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-11-08-5

Jensen Comment
Be aware that the above article is published by a conservative and highly biased media outlet. In spite of this the article raises some interesting questions such as Benford's Law commonly used by accountants (think IRS)  in search of fraud in financial data. Benford's Law is also a common component of forensic accounting education ---
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63099/irss-favorite-mathematical-law

I want to claim that I do no support the long delay in the the GOP concession that Trump lost to Biden. But it is interesting how data analysts are identifying and analyzing statistical anomalies. Readers can be confused by false claims of statistical anomalies and true anomalies that are not due to fraud or error ---
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/09/diy-election-fraud-analysis-benfords-law.htm

Having said this I don't think there's probably sufficient evidence to overthrow the 2020 election results. Investigations of fraud should proceed to improve the integrity of future elections. But the Biden team should not be delayed in their efforts to take over the leadership of the USA.

Election fraud analysis becomes increasingly important as the margins of difference vote counts shrink like they did in the November 2020 election.  Some fraud controls in live voting are lost when votes are accepted by mail. For example, it's much harder for the dead to show up at the voting centers.

CPA Journal:  How long will it take for Federal interest on the debt costs over $1 trillion annually?
https://www.cpajournal.com/2020/10/29/icymi-the-trillion-dollar-annual-interest-payment/

Jensen Comment
The year will probably be sooner than the above article estimates as we take on huge new budget items for:

Various green initiative programs ($2 trillion)
Bailouts of bankrupt states and cities
National healthcare and medicines for everybody, including a tidal wave of undocumented immigrants
Free or highly subsidized vaccines (including billions already being spend for the Corona-19 vacine)
Free preschool
Forgiveness of most of the $1.5 trillion student loans outstanding
Free college and free training schools
Reparations for descendants of wronged minorities
Guaranteed annual income for everybody
Free public transportation
Housing for all

Additional campaign promises

$1.3 trillion for infrastructure
$100 billion for investments in public school buildings that are already included in the infrastructure plan)
$750 billion for higher education (other than free college and training)
$700 billion for Biden’s “Buy American” plan
$125 billion for Biden’s opioid plan
$30 billion for criminal justice reform
$30 billion for small business opportunity funding
Between $270 billion and $380 billion for paid family leave

The point in this tidbit is that it's literally impossible to raise enough tax revenue to fund all the new spending programs promised by Biden and Harris. Borrowing will have accelerate beyond the growth rate assumed at
https://www.cpajournal.com/2020/10/29/icymi-the-trillion-dollar-annual-interest-payment/

And when borrowing and tax increases cannot pay the bills the Federal government will increase the $1 trillion the Fed already printed ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing

It won't be long before interest on Federal government debt is the 800-lb gorilla in the annual budget. America's world-wide credit rating is at stake. Disaster will hit if and when the biggest investors in this debt (think China and Japan) decide not to roll over their investments in our debt. Remember the Jane Fonda/Kris Kristofferson movie "Rollover" ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film) 

Never fear. It won't be long before the Federal Reserve owns most of the Federal government debt. Try to explain to student how borrowing from yourself works!

Here’s what a President Joe Biden would mean for Americans’ retirement savings ---
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-what-a-president-joe-biden-would-mean-for-americans-retirement-savings-11604767234

Jensen Comment
Leave it to the New York Times not to say anything negative about the Biden and Harris victory. No mention is made of how inflation risk is made much greater from the proposed trillions of increased annual government spending for their new social programs.

How can you discuss what Biden and Harris will mean for Americans' retirement savings without once mentioning the word "inflation."

How Eugenics Shaped Statistics:  Exposing the damned lies of three science pioneers ---
http://nautil.us/issue/92/frontiers/how-eugenics-shaped-statistics

Book Reviews

Best Non-fiction Books in 2020 ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/11/best-non-fiction-books-of-2020.html

Big Data On Campus ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/11/10/authors-discuss-new-book-big-data-campus?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=420e94d588-DNU_2020_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-420e94d588-197565045&mc_cid=420e94d588&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

‘Relationship-Rich Education’ Authors discuss their new book on the importance of the human connection in higher education ---
https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/relationship-rich-education/

Runaway College Costs ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/11/05/authors-discuss-recent-book-runaway-college-costs?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=f3837a4d38-DNU_2020_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-f3837a4d38-197565045&mc_cid=f3837a4d38&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology
From the 1830s, this remains one of the great scientific classics.  I had never known how well-reasoned or beautifully written it was, a big positive surprise for me.  Not just a bunch of crusty old rocks, though it is also about...a bunch of crusty old rocks
Tyler Cowen
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/11/what-ive-been-reading-179.html

Gregory M. Collins, Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke's Political Economy.
Burke is underrated as an economist, and also more generally.  This very thorough and thoughtful book goes a long way toward setting the record straight.  In the meantime, it is not sufficiently well known just how much Keynes was influenced by Burke.
Tyler Cowen
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/11/what-ive-been-reading-179.html

Charles Camic, Veblen: The Making of an Economist Who Unmade Economics.
It makes sense that a biography of Veblen should be...somewhat verbose. Nonetheless this is a valuable contribution for anyone interested in the topic. To me the main question is why the libertarian right takes Veblen more seriously these days than does the Left, perhaps it is because they read Veblen and immediately think of Wokeism?
Tyler Coiwen
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/11/what-ive-been-reading-179.html

Worst Book Reviews ---
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/worst-book-reviews

Don’t write off Big Oil: The geopolitics of energy and security ---
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2020/1013/Don-t-write-off-Big-Oil-The-geopolitics-of-energy-and-security

About Nabokov:  Eat butterflies with me?
https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n21/patricia-lockwood/eat-butterflies-with-me

Verifiable Truths:  The thinkers who tried to strip metaphysics from philosophy ---
https://theamericanscholar.org/verifiable-truths/

A review of Crisis of the Strauss Divided, by Harry V. Jaffa ---
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/a-giving-of-accounts/

The Seamus Heaney Experience ---
http://www.drb.ie/essays/the-seamus-heaney-experience
Jensen Comment
In one of my very early years on the faculty of Trinity University, I think the readings of some of his poems by Seamus Heaney were perhaps the only presentations in my life where I did not look at my watch at some time or another. I was totally mesmerized for over an hour.

Good News Tidbits

Microsoft OneNote --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_OneNote
Four ways to unleash the power of OneNote ---
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2020/nov/microsoft-onenote.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12Nov2020

Nanoparticles create ‘miracle’ treatment for deadly brain tumors ---
https://www.studyfinds.org/nanoparticles-miracle-treatment-brain-tumors/

WSJ:  Applications to American M.B.A. programs increased 21% in the latest admissions cycle ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/applications-to-u-s-business-schools-rise-for-first-time-in-five-years-11605034179?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst

Employer-Funded College Programs Here to Stay (as fringe benefits) ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/11/05/employers-boosting-programs-cover-tuition-amid-pandemic?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=f3837a4d38-DNU_2020_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-f3837a4d38-197565045&mc_cid=f3837a4d38&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Bob Jensen's threads on employer-funded college and training programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Partnerships

MIT:  AI has cracked a key mathematical puzzle for understanding our world ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/30/1011435/ai-fourier-neural-network-cracks-navier-stokes-and-partial-differential-equations/

Temple University:  Spring 2021 course delivery and testing plan ---
https://news.temple.edu/announcements/2020-11-01/spring-2021-course-delivery-and-testing-plan

City growth can be viewed as good news and bad news
The 12 Texas cities everyone in the country is moving to ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-cities-everyone-is-moving-to-2019-11?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Business_Insider_select&pt=385758&ct=Sailthru_BI_Newsletters&mt=8&utm_campaign=Insider%20Select%202020-11-03&utm_term=INSIDER%20SELECT%20-%20ENGAGED%2C%20ACTIVE%2C%20PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED%2C%20NEW

01 Austin Metro (20.7%)
02 Midland (17.3%)
03 San Antonio Metro (12.1%)
04 Sherman-Denison (11.6%)
05 Dallas-Ft. Worth Metro (10.7%)
06 Houston Metro (10.2%)
07 Odessa (9.9%)
08 College Station-Bryan (8.7%)
09 Tyler (6.6%)
10 Lubbock (5.4%)
11 San Angelo (3.6%)
12 Waco (3.3%)

Jensen Comment
Estimates are lower than actual growth in southern border states due to additional influx of undocumented immigrants.

Bad News Tidbits

Schools Struggling to Stay Open Get Hit by Ransomware Attacks ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/my-information-is-out-there-hackers-escalate-ransomware-attacks-on-schools-11605279160?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst

As virus spikes, Europe runs low on ICU beds, hospital staff ---
https://www.foxnews.com/world/virus-spikes-europe-runs-low-icu-beds-hospital-staff

New Tax Scam Uses Text Message About Covid Payment ---
https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21161391/new-tax-scam-uses-text-message-about-covid-payment?oly_enc_id=2883F7313867A8G
Thank you Elliot Kamlet for the heads up

FBI Says COVID-19 Charity Fraud is Increasing
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201101/fbi-says-covid-19-charity-fraud-is-increasing

Businessman Accused of Swindling University Hospitals Out of Millions --- 
Click Here 

Friendly’s Restaurant Files for Bankruptcy, Expect Many More ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/friendlys-restaurant-files-for-bankruptcy-expect-many-more

A (warning) Letter to My Children Regarding Bernie Sanders by Andrew E. Busch ---
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/a-letter-to-my-children-regarding-bernie-sanders/

A wave of ransomware hits US hospitals as coronavirus spikes ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/29/1011436/a-wave-of-ransomware-hits-us-hospitals-as-coronavirus-spikes/

WSJ:  On how state governments have been fleeced by major consulting firms like McKinsey and Deloitte ---
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/11/mckinsey-deloitte-charge-big-bucks-to-states-for-botched-covid-projects.html

A former Microsoft employee is going to prison after stealing $10 million in store credit and buying a Tesla and lakefront home ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-employee-stole-millions-gift-cards-bitcoin-purchased-tesla-home-2020-11

For earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

How to Mislead With Statistics

To combat the COVID-19 economic downturn, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy passed a millionaire's tax. Here's why he says that's good for everyone ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/nj-gov-phil-murphy-millionaires-tax-will-help-middle-class-2020-11

This year, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and the state legislature agreed on a deal to raise the income tax by 2% on incomes over $1 million per year to address the budget crisis brought on by the pandemic. Not only will this tax help administer coronavirus relief to the communities and small businesses that need it most, but it will also help rebalance a regressive state tax code which puts a bigger tax burden on poorer households.

In this week's episode of Pitchfork Economics, David Goldstein and Nick Hanauer interview Governor Murphy about his decision to tax the rich.

Murphy, a millionaire former Goldman Sachs executive, wants to be very clear that he's not fomenting class warfare.

"We don't begrudge people's success," Murphy began. "Whether you're a wealthy individual or a large corporation — we want more of each in New Jersey."

But Murphy says he raised the tax because "I got elected to stand for a stronger, fairer New Jersey that works for not just some, but for everybody." That meant asking the wealthiest New Jerseyans to "help us rebuild our middle class."

From the beginning, Murphy laid out the conditions for the tax very clearly: "Anyone earning a million dollars and up, we're asking you to pay a few pennies more, and we'll put every dime of that into the middle class."  

Continued in article

Taxes are about to rise for New Jersey millionaires. There aren’t many ways to duck the levies ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/24/taxes-are-about-to-rise-for-new-jersey-millionaires.html

. . .

“New Jersey is one of the more painful states to really tax plan for,” said Albert J. Campo, CPA and managing partner at AJC Accounting Services in Manalapan, New Jersey.

“Anyone who’s $1 million and up is getting substantial benefits (tax breaks) at the federal level, but they’re somewhat limited at the state level.”

The Garden State is known as a “gross income” state, and that means certain exclusions and deductions are off the table on state tax returns.

For instance, contributions you make to a workplace retirement plan reduce your taxable income on your federal return.

In New Jersey, only contributions to 401(k) plans are excludible from wages. Amounts you divert to a deferred compensation plan or any other retirement plan – including 403(b) or 457 plans -- are not excludible from your pay.

Another quirk: People who itemize on their federal income tax return can claim a write-off for charitable giving. New Jerseyans, however, can’t do this on their state return.

Earlier this year, Garden State legislators put forth a proposal to allow a gross income tax deduction for contributions made to certain New Jersey-based charitable organizations during the pandemic. That measure is pending.

See here for a list of items that can’t be excluded from wages in New Jersey.

There are a few moves high-income households can take to lower their income if they’re close to the margins and a couple of thousand dollars away from the steeper tax rate, according to Alan Sobel, CPA at Sobel & Co. in Livingston, New Jersey, and president of the New Jersey Society of CPAs:

• Increase your 401(k) plan contributions: It’s the one retirement plan contribution that can let you lower wages on your New Jersey tax return.
• Drawing down portfolio income? Consider tax-exempt bonds: Garden State municipal bonds can create income that’s free from federal and state income tax.
• Gift assets to family members in lower tax brackets: “This way, the income is going to them and not you,” said Sobel. Be aware this is a long-term play. You should coordinate with your accountant, estate attorney and family members before making these gifts.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
But in both the federal and state jurisdictions, millionaires often defer more income tax than they report due to capital gains and losses, often value changes that are highly volatile and highly subjective in measurement. For example, owners of Tesla shares can see the values of their unsold shares bounce up and down like a basketball.

Ten different real estate appraisers may give you ten highly different value estimates of a 100 acre parcel of land on the outskirts of Newark, the value of which may be highly dependent upon where locations of future roads, road exits, train tracks, and bridges are built. Ups and downs in values of such investments are unknown in amount until sales transactions actually take place.

For the same reason, it's virtually impossible to compare total wealth of most millionaires and billionaires. The estimated wealth of such persons vary widely in the eyes of different appraisers. In estate value disputes it's often the courts that have to set values, and the courts do not have magical measurement wands any better than the wands all disputing appraisers. The courts merely have the power to set values when disputing value appraisers cannot agree.

My best example of where the court resolved highly varying value estimates of finance models is:
Questrom vs. Federated Department Stores, Inc.:  A Question of Equity Value," by University of Alabama faculty members by Gary Taylor, William Sampson, and Benton Gup, May 2001 edition of Issues in Accounting Education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/roi.htm

One thing is certain is that the federal government under Biden and Harris will soon impose heavy new taxes on the same "millionaires" in New Jersey and millionaires in all the other 49 states. This will soon become a taxing time for high earners and wealthy people in the USA.

I think the Governor of New Jersey overstates the case that his proposed "millionaires" tax will not lead to exodus of a significant number of high earning citizens to move elsewhere or be a barrier to such citizens that might move into New Jersey. New Jersey already has nearly the highest state taxes for citizens at all levels of income. The problem with the causal factors that inspire movements of households is that there are many such factors that are highly interactive.

Consider me as an example, although my income is way too low to qualify for the new millionaire tax in New Jersey. When I retired in San Antonio, Texas my wife and I wanted to move out of the heat, humidity, and congestion of a big city. We also wanted to be closer to family. We have two children living in northern California, one living in Wisconsin, and two in northern Maine. Almost like New Jersey, those three states are among the highest taxing states in the USA. Having family within driving distance was the primary consideration for where to move, but environmental beauty and state taxation were interactive causal factors in choosing where to retire. We thus narrowed our search down to northern Nevada next to California or northern New Hampshire next to Maine. We found a mountain cottage in northern New Hampshire that is within five hours of driving to where two of our children live in Maine ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

State taxation was not the primary causal factor for choosing to retire in New Hampshire, but the fact that New Hampshire has no income tax and no sales tax was an interactive causal factor that led us to choose New Hampshire over California, Wisconsin, and Maine. If we had children in New Jersey we probably would've retired in a nearby state with lower taxes. Never New Jersey!

My point here is some people will avoid living in a state with very high taxes being the main reason. Others, like my wife and I, left Texas primarily for reasons not affected by taxation. But when choosing where to retire taxation became an interactive causal factor --- along with other factors like not wanting to live in a city, having nice surroundings like mountains, and having nearby family in an adjoining state.

New Jersey's enormous state taxes have primarily or interactively been a factor in keeping many people from wanting to live there. Adding more taxes to already high taxes may be hurting more than helping revenue taxes in New Jersey, the second highest taxing state in the USA. People who can now work remotely are leaving New York, New Jersey, and Silicon Valley in droves.

NYSE and Nasdaq threaten to leave New Jersey if transaction tax goes ahead ---
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nyse-and-nasdaq-threaten-leave-new-jersey-if-transaction-tax-goes-ahead/

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has threatened New Jersey lawmakers it will move its data operations out of state if taxes are imposed on electronic trades.

Nasdaq has also come out against the tax, saying it is in talks with Texas as a future home.

New Jersey is proposing a hundredth-a-cent tax on every financial transaction processed in the state. The transaction tax won favor amongst politicians and also of Governor Phil Murphy and Senate President Steve Sweeney back when it was introduced in July. At the time it was set to charge a quarter-of-a-cent ($0.0025), but has been scaled back due to the stock markets' resistance.

If implemented, New Jersey’s financial transaction tax would be a flat-rate levy imposed per instrument, not per trade. Lawmakers believe it could harvest about $500m each year or $1bn over the tax’s two year lifetime.

The securities industry in New Jersey employs about 38,000 people and pays nearly $1.4bn in state and local taxes.

The Assembly of Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee held a virtual public hearing on Monday, as reported by NJ.com. The tax would be paid by companies operating data centers specializing in financial trades. Many such facilities are based out of New Jersey's suburban districts like Mahwah, Secaucus, and Carteret.

In the past, proximity to Wall Street made it sensible for data centers to be nearby for low latency trading, however, the market has now been testing whether it can operate out-of-state.

Back in September and earlier this month, the NYSE simulated a trading day using its backup data center in Chicago. This was a practice for any possible relocation of the market to data centers out of New Jersey. The co-head of government affairs for the NYSE, Hope Jarkowski, said: “From Sept 28 to Oct 2, we moved our production servers for our NYSE Chicago exchange out of New Jersey to our secondary data center… Proximity to New York City is no longer relevant in today’s trading environment."

She added: “We understand why a financial transaction tax, or FTT as it’s commonly known, may be perceived as a silver bullet that can remedy or offset financial hardship with little effect on the financial markets themselves, impacting perhaps only big corporations or wealthy individuals. In reality, this tax would be imposed on a processor of transactions but would be passed along to a purchaser or seller.

"That said, these harms will never come to pass," she added, "because those with obligations to their investor clients will simply move their business out of New Jersey to avoid harm, leaving no transactions in New Jersey to tax and undermining the revenue-generating aim of an FTT.”

Nasdaq also threatened to leave if any transaction tax was put in place and said it is currently in talks with Texas Governor Greg Abbott about relocating trading systems to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Several other unnamed states are also said to be talking to Nasdaq.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy revealed he has been in talks with market representatives to get them on side. At a Covid-19 briefing on Monday, he said: “We’ve had - I thought - constructive discussions with Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. They’ve expressed their concerns. I can’t read their minds. But the fact that we are in an hour of need, this is not a 'forever and always' consideration. I think our side of the argument is also reasonable... we shall see. This is something we still are studying and we still like what we see, but it’s complicated, there’s no question about it.”

Continued in article

How Controlled Digital Lending Makes an Entire College Library Available to Everyone Everywhere ---
https://medium.com/everylibrary/how-controlled-digital-lending-makes-an-entire-college-library-available-to-everyone-everywhere-f4387450634

Jensen Comment
Even before computers and digitization, I made extensive use of my college's interlibrary loan service where books are shared between libraries around the USA.

Goldman Sachs --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs

 In April 2016, Goldman Sachs launched a direct bank, GS Bank.^[93] In October 2016, Goldman Sachs Bank USA started offering no-fee personal loans under the brand Marcus by Goldman Sachs.^[94] In March 2016, Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire financial technology startup Honest Dollar, a digital retirement savings tool founded by American entrepreneur whurley, focused on helping small-business employees and self-employed workers obtain affordable retirement plans. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.^[95] In May 2017, Goldman Sachs purchased $2.8 billion of PDVSA 2022 bonds from the Central Bank of Venezuela during the 2017 Venezuelan protests.^[96]

In April 2018, Goldman Sachs bought Clarity Money, a personal finance startup, to be added to its Marcus by Goldman Sachs roster. This acquisition is expected to add over 1 million customers to the Marcus business.

The most exciting new tech gadgets of 2020 are designed for the future, not today ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-12-xbox-series-x-ps5-launch-future-tech-2020-10

Goldman Sachs made Marcus Insights available to anyone, including consumers who aren't existing customers ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-opens-marcus-insights-to-all-consumers-2020-10?IR=T&utm_medium=email&utm_term=BII_Daily&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_campaign=BII Weekender 2020.10.30 - Marketing

The free suite of personal finance management (PFM) tools dubbed Marcus Insights is now available to any iOS, Android, or web user, regardless of whether they are a customer of Goldman Sachs' digital-only offshoot, per an email sent to Insider Intelligence.

This marks an expansion from the initial September rollout to only Marcus customers on iOS. Users need only link their external bank accounts—including checking, saving, brokerage, or retirement accounts, among others—to create a dashboard of their finances and get insights into their spending per month; across categories like shopping, dining and drinks, and home; and, for iOS users only, with their most frequented merchants.

This enhanced PFM functionality could greatly increase the utility of the Marcus app for existing savings account or loan users. Marcus' flagship products are a high-yield savings account and personal loans of $3,500–$40,000, and its app was previously meant for little besides managing those accounts—like viewing account balances or making transfers.

But now with the wider launch of Marcus Insights, existing savings or loan customers can choose to aggregate their external account information and use Marcus to stay on top of their entire financial lives. This could drive engagement with Marcus and boost the app's importance to its users' lives, provided that customers like Marcus Insights better than the PFM options offered by their other primary bank or by fintechs that focus only on PFM tools, like Mint.

Offering Marcus Insights to noncustomers for free is also a bold customer acquisition strategy that could draw new clients into the Marcus fold. The features could attract consumers who currently don't have access to PFM tools that meet their needs or who are looking for a way to manage and view their financial accounts from a centralized hub.

And once those customers are using the Marcus platform to stay on top of their financial lives, the digital bank will have ample opportunities to cross-sell them on products like its high-yield savings account, or its upcoming checking or brokerage accounts, potentially driving revenues as well as engagement.

Continued in article

This paper evaluates the Zones of Choice (ZOC) program in Los Angeles, a school choice initiative that created small high school markets in some neighborhoods but left traditional attendance zone boundaries in place throughout the rest of the district. We leverage the design of the program to study the impact of neighborhood school choice on student achievement, college enrollment, and other outcomes using a matched difference-in-differences de-sign. Our findings reveal that the ZOC program boosted test scores and college enrollment markedly, closing achievement and college enrollment gaps between ZOC neighborhoods and the rest of the district. These gains are explained by general improvements in school effectiveness rather than changes in student match quality, and school-specific gains are concentrated among the lowest-performing schools. We interpret these findings through the lens of a model of school demand in which schools exert costly effort to improve quality.The model allows us to measure the increase in competition facing each ZOC school based on household preferences and the spatial distribution of schools. We demonstrate that the effects of ZOC were larger for schools exposed to more competition, supporting the notion that competition is a key channel driving the impacts of ZOC. In addition, demand estimates suggest families place a larger weight on school quality compared to peer quality, providing schools the right competitive incentives. An analysis using randomized admission lotteries shows that the treatment effects of admission to preferred schools declined after the introduction of ZOC, a pattern that is explained by the relative improvements of less-preferred schools. Our findings demonstrate the potential for public school choice to improve student outcomes while also underscoring the importance of studying market-level impacts when evaluating sch

Stephen Wolfram:  When Computation Fails ---
https://www.edge.org/conversation/stephen_wolfram-computation-all-the-way-down  

David Kaiser:  The Shifting Terrain of Scientific Inquiry ---
https://www.edge.org/conversation/david_kaiser-the-shifting-terrain-of-scientific-inquiry

The Ultimate Guide to Personal Bankruptcy in America ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/storythreads/2020-11-11/the-ultimate-guide-to-personal-bankruptcy?cmpid=BBD111120_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=201111&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily

Thousands of Online Courses from the World's Most Prestigious Universities
Coursera and edX are two popular online learning platforms — here's how they compare in terms of price and programs offered ---
Click Here

As online learning platforms continue to grow, there are more and more options for more accessible education. Whether you're looking to switch careers, pick up a new skill for your current job, or take classes for fun, many e-learning platforms offer both free classes and paid certificate programs that can be budget-friendly alternatives to traditional college.

Among some of the biggest platforms are edX and Coursera, which collaborate with prestigious universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and MIT to provide free or comparatively affordable online courses. Each lets users audit at least some classes for free, pay to earn certificates to put on LinkedIn or your resume, and complete longer certificate programs that can be used as cheaper college credits to work towards a full degree. 

Below is a comparison of both edX and Coursera's features, including the pricing for each.

edX vs. Coursera

Founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012, edX is a nonprofit, open-source learning platform designed to "increase high-quality education for everyone, everywhere." It has partnerships with over 120 institutions (from Ivy League schools to companies like IBM and Microsoft) and boasts over 20 million students. 

Similarly, Coursera aims to make online learning more accessible in terms of money and time commitment, and access. It also partners with schools like UPenn and companies like Google to provide professional certificates and degrees at a fraction of the cost of grad and undergrad programs.

Course offerings

Both edX and Coursera offer a wide range of courses, from data science and machine learning to humanities and even personal development courses. Among edX's most popular courses are HarvardX's "Introduction to Computer Science (CS50)", an Excel visual data analysis course taught by an expert on the Excel Product team at Microsoft, and a class on English grammar and style from the University of Queensland in Australia. 

Some of Coursera's highest-enrolled courses include a machine learning class from Stanford, "Learning How to Learn," which equips students with mental tools to break down complicated learning tasks, and "The Science of Well-Being," Yale's most popular online class.

Both platforms offer combinations of videos, quizzes, readings, forums, and longer assignments for their courses. They also both include transcriptions of the video lectures and can offer options in languages other than English. 

Free courses

All edX courses offer an option to either audit it for free or pay for a verified certificate. The free track gives you access to all the learning materials (including discussion forums), but you won't receive a grade, and access to the material will disappear after the class is over. 

Coursera offers the free-or-paid-certificate option for some courses. For others, they're only free with a seven-day trial — afterward, you will have to pay a monthly fee to keep learning (but you can cancel anytime before the trial ends and not be charged). The free classes don't have a time limit and you can access the learning materials at any time.

Individual course certificates

edX's paid certificates vary in price and can range anywhere from $50 to $300 depending on the course or program. You can find this information in the right-hand column of every course's page. Even if a course is part of a longer certificate program, you can still take that course on its own and only pay for that certificate. For example, you could either pay $396 to finish a full program in US government, or opt to pay $99 for a certificate in just the foundations of the US government (the first course in the program). 

Coursera's certificates work a little differently. Typically, if the course is a stand-alone class, like "The Science of Well-Being," you have the option to audit for free or pay for a certificate, which can range from $29-$100. If the course is part of a Specialization or longer program, you can take it for free with the seven-day Coursera Plus trial, which is $399 annually but lets you get free certificates for over 90% of its classes. If you just want to complete one Specialization, you'll have to pay $49-$79 a month to continue learning, so the faster you finish, the more money you save.

Longer certificate and degree programs

Both platforms offer longer, multi-course certificate programs, which can also double as college credits to help you work towards a full degree. Such programs can cost a few thousand dollars, depending on the course and platform. 

Coursera and edX both also have full degree programs, which are more affordable than regular degrees due to being fully online.

edX's offerings include:

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on other free online courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

CPA Journal:  The Enrollment Cliff, Mega-Universities, COVID-19, and the Changing Landscape of U.S. Colleges ---
https://www.cpajournal.com/2020/11/13/icymi-the-enrollment-cliff-mega-universities-covid-19-and-the-changing-landscape-of-u-s-colleges/

. . .

The Enrollment Cliff

Enrollments at U.S. colleges and universities have fallen for eight consecutive years and are now below 18 million for the first time this decade (https://bit.ly/2DLB5hD). Recently, accounting programs have experienced a drop in accounting majors that outpaces this overall decline (A. Gabbin, “Warning Signs about the Future Supply of Accounting Graduates,” CPA Journal, September 2019). Demographic indicators point to things getting even worse for the nation’s colleges and universities. Between 2025 and 2029, the college-age population in the United States is expected to decrease by 15%.

Labeled the “enrollment cliff,” this decline is not caused by the rising costs of a college education or the declining value proposition of a college degree; rather, the problem is beyond the control of higher education institutions, specifically the nation’s fertility rate. The birthrate in a given year largely determines the college freshman population 18 years later. The number of children born in the United States fell precipitously between 2008 and 2011. Because the drop in fertility coincided with the 2008 financial crisis, the decline is frequently attributed to that event; it is worth noting, however, that the birthrate failed to rebound with the economic recovery and the college-age population is expected to continue to decline by 1–2% per year after 2029. Immigration has also fallen during recent decades; the number of permanent resident “green cards” issued reached a peak in 1991 at 1.8 million, but has varied between 840,000 and 1.2 million since 2000 (Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics, https://bit.ly/3fT3Rdi.)

The most comprehensive examination of population trends and college enrollment is provided in Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education by Nathan Grawe, an economist at Carleton College in Minnesota (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018). Using census information on the number of births and demographic characteristics correlated with college attendance, Grawe predicts college enrollments in the coming years. To get a better understanding of the effect of changing birthrates on different regions of the country, Grawe’s estimates of changes in college populations by U.S. census division are presented in Exhibit 1. His model predicts a decrease of 11% nationwide, but significant variation exists among regions. In absolute terms, the Middle Atlantic (NJ, NY, and PA) and East North Central (IL, IN, OH, MI, and WI) account for 56% of the overall drop in predicted college enrollments, but only 27% of the U.S. population.

Continued in article

Camtasia and Other Self-Made Videos ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#NewTools

Privacy, Consent, and the Virtual One-Shot ---
https://acrlog.org/2020/11/13/privacy-consent-and-the-virtual-one-shot/

. . .

I (article author) did teach two virtual guest lectures in May and thought nothing of the fact that the instructors recorded them—something we’d discussed in advance and which seemed important given the emergency outside of all of our apartments and the very real technology barriers that students at CUNY face.

Then in the summer when both courses ran again and the instructors emailed to ask if I could reprise my guest lectures, they both indicated they could also just use the recordings from spring if I was busy or away. I responded immediately that either was fine as though we all implicitly understood that in virtual education contexts, ourselves and our pre-recorded simulacra are basically the same. Aren’t they?

But then, upon further reflection, I felt a little odd and I began to wonder how many MP4s of me had been recorded or shared since the pandemic had started. I thought of a virtual conference panel I participated in, which I learned was being live-streamed to YouTube only after the session had commenced: “thousands of people are watching right now,” one of the organizers said, proudly. Then in June, I was asked by a faculty member who I’d worked with before to do virtual library instruction for a research-intensive course and was startled to join a Zoom session and see the red recording button blinking before I opened my mouth.

I wondered then, gloomily, if part of the natural progression of higher education in this moment is not only the loss of corporeality but the end of the ephemeral educational encounter altogether. Or perhaps we are all experiencing some kind of temporal implosion in which college exists both nowhere and everywhere, and classes are attended by black boxes on a screen, which may or may not represent the attention and presence of actual students, and the teacher might be ported in from another time and place.

. . .

I don’t know exactly what I’m worried will happen with the videos, which are not exciting and I can’t imagine many people rewatching. I certainly would never rewatch them, in part because they are, with some small deviations, almost identical. In the background are small personal details-—a framed May Day poster a friend designed, a dying succulent, my swimsuit drying on a door-knob, my husband walking by. Parts of the videos are potentially dangerous out of context in that they are mildly political; almost all students in first year composition courses are researching social and political issues. It’s unlikely but not impossible that pieces of the videos could be recontextualized and weaponized by alt-right cyber-trolls who spend their days harassing and doxxing liberal academics and students of color (the majority of students at the CUNY campus where I work are Black and Hispanic).

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
In my courses (not online) I made videos of the most technical aspects of my courses (e.g., how to account for very technical derivative instrument contracts as speculations versus as hedges under FAS 133 rules). The students watched and rewatched these videos over and over before class as many times as needed, because they knew they would have to demonstrate what they learned in front of the class in subsequent class meetings).

My point is that there are many types of videos that can be used for onsite or online teaching. My preference is to make learning videos on very technical topics that students learn at different rates. Videos were a great way to level the playing field on learning rates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#BYUvideo

Thailand Bets on a New Rice Grain to Feed the World ---
Click Here

A long—but soft—strain suits the globe’s changing appetite and might save the country’s declining export business. But experts miss the signature fragrance of traditional varieties.

Ant Group --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_Group

Ant was heading for a record-breaking $37 billion IPO before its dreams were dashed by Chinese regulators ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-ant-group-ipo-jack-ma-alipay-2020-11

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

Retirement funds and other institutions are gradually warming to cryptocurrencies ---
https://www.ai-cio.com/in-focus/market-drilldown/wild-crazy-bitcoin-may-become-pension-portfolio-fixture/

Bitcoin blazed past $15,500 this week. Here's why one strategist says it's the best safe-haven out there ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/bitcoin-biden-divided-government-best-safe-haven-now-2020-11-1029777380

 

Bitcoin leapt 17% this week to cross the $15,000 mark, nearing a 3-year-high.

The digital token's latest surge came as Joe Biden's election lead edged up higher. He is projected to defeat incumbent President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

A divided Congress would be great for Bitcoin because the dollar can expect a substantial decline under a gridlocked government, Bill Noble, chief technical analyst at Token Metrics, told Business Insider.

That's because the Federal Reserve would be forced to print more money to support the economy, which depresses the value of the dollar and lowers US borrowing costs.

That would, in theory, fuel inflation, forcing investors to seek alternative safe-haven investments, he said.

Bitcoin soared past $15,500 this week, hitting its highest level since January 2018, fueled by a cocktail of a weak dollar and acute uncertainty over the US political and economic outlook.

The rally coincided with Democratic nominee Joe Biden steadily gaining the lead in critical battleground states in the 2020 presidential election. He is projected to defeat Trump in the 2020 election.

Bitcoin has risen 17% in the past week, hitting $15,527 as of 09:00 am ET on Friday. The price has gained almost 60% since the end of August and is up nearly 300% so far this year.

Why is its price soaring?

Biden in the White House and a Republican Senate is great for cryptocurrencies, because his presidency would probably drive the dollar lower, according to Bill Noble, a chief technical analyst at Token Metrics.

Projections of a declining dollar suggest that investors are looking to alternative investments — and that is fueling demand for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, he said. It has also pumped up the likes of gold, silver and other hard commodities, although not by nearly as much.

If it is harder for the Democrats to push larger stimulus bills for households and businesses past a majority of Republican lawmakers in the Senate, it could fall to the Federal Reserve to take more action to support the economy, which would depress the value of the dollar and keep interest rates low - making it cheaper for anyone looking to borrow money that they want to invest

Continued in article

States Are Taxing Nonresidents Who Barely Spent Time In Them This Year On Their Full 2020 Income ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2020/11/states-are-taxing-nonresidents-who-barely-spent-time-in-them-this-year-on-their-full-2020-income.html

Some Americans will be facing big tax bills this year from states where they spent very little time living or working. Delaware, Nebraska, New York, and Pennsylvania have traditionally claimed income taxes from people who aren’t residents but work in offices there—and Arkansas and Massachusetts this year joined their ranks.

This has meant that some workers have had to pay state taxes in two states on the same income. The issue is even more acute this year as people working remotely because of the pandemic will have spent even less time in the states they’re having to pay taxes to.

This week New Hampshire accused Massachusetts of “attempting to pick the pocket of our citizens” and filed a case with the US Supreme Court over this issue. And New York updated its FAQ documents to make even clearer that it expects remote workers to pay up.

I spoke with Professor Edward Zelinsky of Cardozo Law School in New York City, a leading expert on double taxation.

Continued in article

Twelve ROI Options for Promoting an Event Online ---
https://readwrite.com/2020/10/28/hosting-an-online-event/

How to Mislead With Statistics

Capitalized Value --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_capitalization

Zoom is Now Worth More Than Exxon, I Have Ten Questions ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/zoom-is-now-worth-more-than-exxon-i-have-ten-questions

Jensen Comment
Capitalized value is a highly controversial way of valuing a company because most of the shares outstanding are not traded on a daily basis such that prices of the relatively few shares being traded are generally poor estimates of what all outstanding shares would bring if they were suddenly made available. Share trading prices are also subject to a lot market fluctuations that have little to do with the company itself such as when a powerful world leader dies or is overthrown.

Accountants argue that using capitalized value to estimate the total value of a company is usually nonsense since only equity is being valued rather than total asset value. Using share prices puts the carts before the accounting horses. The purpose of financial accounting is to help investors set their buy, sell, and hold decisions based upon accounting measurements and accounting disclosures such as contingencies.

Would all the owners of Exxon shares pool their holdings and trade them for all the shares of Zoom? I seriously doubt it!
Zoom's value is based upon a speculative balloon in the sky, whereas a lot of Exxon's value lies in hard and soft assets like real estate, oil leases, tankers, trucks, oil rigs, refineries, etc. Most of those assets have alternative uses with great value. Zoom's value can pop in an instant, whereas a great many of Exxon's assets can be put into alternative valuable uses. Also the hundreds of millions of home and vehicle owners who rely of some type of Exxon fuel cannot easily change to alternative energies. For example, it will take decades for hundreds of millions vehicles relying on carbon fuel to be replaced by carbon-free alternatives.

Zoom's customers can switch on short notice when some better technology emerges on the scene.

Netflix's streaming plans cost $8.99 per month for the Basic plan, $13.99 per month for the Standard, and $17.99 per month for the Premium ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-is-netflix?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Business_Insider_select&pt=385758&ct=Sailthru_BI_Newsletters&mt=8&utm_campaign=Insider%20Select%202020-10-31&utm_term=INSIDER%20SELECT%20-%20ENGAGED%2C%20ACTIVE%2C%20PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED%2C%20NEW

Jensen Comment
Months ago I became so disappointed in the quality of movies available through the Netflix streaming plan that I dropped the streaming plan and increased the number of mailed rental Netflix disks. Most of the movies I really want to view are not available for streaming.

More importantly I also started buying more used disks available for purchase, especially boxed disk sets, from Amazon. Sometimes there are good deals, and sometimes the used disks are nearly as expensive as new disks. Be careful that you avoid disks that will not play in the USA.

MicroStrategy could have gotten rid of its excess cash by paying a big dividend or buying back a ton of stock. Instead, the company made a big digital currency bet ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cash-is-trash-so-lets-bet-425-million-on-bitcoin-11604070071?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst

. . .

MicroStrategy’s revenues have barely grown over the past decade, from $455 million in 2010 to $486 million last year. Yet the company finished 2019 with $566 million in cash and short-term investments, up from $174 million a decade earlier. Even after shelling out $425 million for bitcoin and $61 million for stock buybacks since August, MicroStrategy still has $53 million in cash.

And the shares had been stagnant for years.

MicroStrategy had been one of the hottest stocks in the technology boom of the late 1990s, returning 567% in 1999. The company lost more than 90% the next year amid a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into its accounting. MicroStrategy restated its financial results and settled administrative reporting charges, without admitting or denying them.

Three managers, including Chief Executive Michael Saylor, also settled civil accounting-fraud charges with the SEC. The executives didn’t admit or deny the charges; Mr. Saylor disgorged more than $8 million and paid a $350,000 penalty. When we spoke this week, Mr. Saylor, who is still CEO, declined to discuss the case.

MicroStrategy never recovered its lost glory. From its initial public offering in June 1998 through the end of 2019, the stock returned an average of 1.4% annually. Over the same period, the S&P 500 gained 7.2% annualized, including dividends.

But 2020 has been a whole new story. In August, when MicroStrategy announced it had invested $250 million in bitcoin, the stock jumped 9% in a day. A month later, the company declared that it would continue to put most of its excess cash into bitcoin. The stock rose 23% in two days.

At their peak on Oct. 23, the company’s shares had doubled in price since their low in early March.

MicroStrategy’s Mr. Saylor says the primary objective of buying bitcoin isn’t to make the stock go up, but to keep the company’s purchasing power from going down.

Thanks to the Federal Reserve’s immense intervention in the economy, the U.S. monetary supply is soaring—by one measure, up more than 20% this year. Mr. Saylor expects that pace to continue at 10% or 15% annually, not just in the U.S. but globally.

“We realized that cash is trash,” he says, “and we needed either to shrink the capital structure or move our cash into something that is going to float on the flood of liquidity and not sink under the flood of liquidity.”

Of course, even as the monetary supply has doubled since late 2008 the Fed has struggled to lift inflation, as officially measured, anywhere close to 2%. While financial assets have soared and some items in the real economy have become more costly, many others have stayed flat or gotten cheaper.

Because the quantity of bitcoin is limited to 21 million, the digital currency can never be “debased,” Mr. Saylor argues, and is therefore bound to hold its value over the long run.

At this week’s price of about $13,500, MicroStrategy’s 38,250 bitcoins were worth more than $515 million, a third of the stock’s total market value. Bitcoin doesn’t only go up, though. In 2018 it bottomed below $3,200, down roughly 80% from a year earlier. (To be fair, five years ago it was about $300.)

I asked if Mr. Saylor was nervous about putting so much of his company’s capital into such an asset.

“What would I be nervous about?” he shot back. “If I had $500 million in cash, that would make me nervous because I think it would go to zero [in purchasing power] over five years. So what’s my choice? I think bitcoin is better than gold as a store of value.”

He added, “It’s not perfect, there’s risk. But I can’t find anything better, and the option of doing nothing is more risky.”

Continued in article

youtube-dl --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube-dl

RIAA Abuses DMCA to Take Down Popular Tool for Downloading Online Video:  Does this takedown impinge on free speech?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/riaa-abuses-dmca-take-down-popular-tool-downloading-online-video

"youtube-dl" is a popular free software tool for downloading videos from YouTube and other user-uploaded video platforms. GitHub recently took down youtube-dl’s code repository at the behest of the Recording Industry Association of America, potentially stopping many thousands of users, and other programs and services, that rely on it.

On its face, this might seem like an ordinary copyright takedown of the type that happens every day. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a copyright holder can ask a platform to take down an allegedly infringing post and the platform must comply. (The platform must also allow the alleged infringer to file a counter-notice, requiring the copyright holder to file a lawsuit if she wants the allegedly infringing work kept offline.) But there’s a huge difference here with some frightening ramifications: youtube-dl doesn’t infringe on any RIAA copyrights.

RIAA’s argument relies on a different section of the DMCA, Section 1201. DMCA 1201 says that it’s illegal to bypass a digital lock in order to access or modify a copyrighted work. Copyright holders have argued that it’s a violation of DMCA 1201 to bypass DRM even if you’re doing it for completely lawful purposes; for example, if you’re downloading a video on YouTube for the purpose of using it in a way that’s protected by fair use. (And thanks to the way that copyright law has been globalized via trade agreements, similar laws exist in many other jurisdictions too.) RIAA argues that since youtube-dl could be used to download music owned by RIAA-member labels, no one should be able to use the tool, even for completely lawful purposes.

This is an egregious abuse of the notice-and-takedown system, which is intended to resolve disputes over allegedly infringing material online. Again, youtube-dl doesn’t use RIAA-member labels’ music in any way. The makers of youtube-dl simply shared information with the public about how to perform a certain task—one with many completely lawful applications.

Continued in article

Journals published by the Royal Society of Chemistry have retracted four articles by a researcher in China for a range of misconduct, including manipulation of images, fabrication of authors and more ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2020/11/02/nanoscience-researcher-loses-four-papers-for-image-manipulation-forged-authors/

Independent booksellers write a new chapter during COVID-19 ---
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/independent-booksellers-write-a-new-chapter-during-covid-19/

November 3, 2020 message from Jagdish Gangolly

Hi all,

In my entire career spanning nearly fifty years I have never been as excited as when I saw and briefly read the following paper. It has become so viral on the internet that even the apparently well known rapper MC Hammer tweeted about the paper (not sure he read it). It will revolutionize a whole number of fields in Science. For many problems in science the methods suggested in the paper will make solutions of problems a thousand times faster than using current mathematical methods on existing technology including supercomputers. But my guess is that pseudosciences like Economics and Accounting will lose no sleep over it. But hopefully some doctoral student who has not yet been indoctrinated will dare to work in this area.

It does demand competence in a few areas (Fourier spaces, partial differential equations, Systems Dynamics,....) which unfortunately are not a part of the curriculum even in Economics. Some archivologists in accounting should at least attempt to try modeling accounting stuff using these techniques.

The paper, for those interested, can be found at 

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.08895.pdf

 

Regards,

Jagdish 

Jagdish S. Gangolly

Emeritus Associate Professor
Department of Informatics
Director (Retired), PhD Program in Information Science
State University of New York at Albany
1400 Washington Ave Albany, NY 12222
email: j.gangolly@albany.edu   

 

Powell’s Books Unveils a New Perfume/Cologne That Smells Like Old Books ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/powells-books-unveils-a-new-perfume-that-smells-like-old-books.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Also see
https://www.newsbreak.com/oregon/portland/news/2099439626937/cologne-that-smells-like-old-books

Jensen Comment
Sprinkle a few drops around your monitor when reading old books and journal articles.

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

Education Tutorials

OER TUTORIALS EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ---
www.cccoer.org/about/members/member-activities/timely-oer-tutorials

TEACHING CHILDREN PHILOSOPHY ---
www.prindleinstitute.org/k-12-ethics-education/teaching-children-philosophy

AMOEBA SISTERS (teaching children biology) --- www.amoebasisters.com

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

Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

ICONIC SERVICE TO SCIENCE (International Space Station) --- https://iss.tass.com/

JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH --- www.jphres.org

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: HEALTH LITERACY ---
www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/health-literacy

COVID-19 HEALTH LITERACY PROJECT --- https://covid19healthliteracyproject.com/

CDC TV --- www.cdc.gov/cdctv

Video:  ARE YOU CONFUSED ABOUT HEALTH INFORMATION? YOU'RE NOT ALONE --- 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6DLqtaK2g

HEALTH LITERACY TOOL SHED --- http://healthliteracy.bu.edu/

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

HOW RIGID IS THE MIDDLE CLASS IN THE US, REALLY? ---
https://pudding.cool/2020/08/income/

TEACHING CHILDREN PHILOSOPHY ---
www.prindleinstitute.org/k-12-ethics-education/teaching-children-philosophy

Economics for Beginners:  What is Capitalism? ---
https://mises.org/economics-beginners?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=5f583f41fd-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_05_15_02_03_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-5f583f41fd-228708937

QUEER WORDS PODCAST --- https://queerwords.org/

THE LESBRARY --- https://lesbrary.com/

GLASGOW WOMEN'S LIBRARY: LGBTQ COLLECTIONS ONLINE RESOURCE ---
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/explore-the-library-and-archive/lgbtq-collections-online-resource/

UCLA HISTORY GEOGRAPHY PROJECT: AUDRE LORDE ---
https://ucla.app.box.com/v/hgp-audre-lorde

THE BI-BLIOGRAPHY --- www.librarything.com/profile/The_Bi-bliography

BRITISH LIBRARY: LGBTQ HISTORIES --- www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories

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

Stephen Wolfram:  When Computation Fails ---
https://www.edge.org/conversation/stephen_wolfram-computation-all-the-way-down  

Moore Deductive  Method of Teaching Mathematics --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_method

Incidentally and unrelated to the deductive method, Moore is known for "his racist treatment of African-American mathematics students" ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lee_Moore

November 3, 2020 message from Jagdish Gangolly

Hi all,

In my entire career spanning nearly fifty years I have never been as excited as when I saw and briefly read the following paper. It has become so viral on the internet that even the apparently well known rapper MC Hammer tweeted about the paper (not sure he read it). It will revolutionize a whole number of fields in Science. For many problems in science the methods suggested in the paper will make solutions of problems a thousand times faster than using current mathematical methods on existing technology including supercomputers. But my guess is that pseudosciences like Economics and Accounting will lose no sleep over it. But hopefully some doctoral student who has not yet been indoctrinated will dare to work in this area.

It does demand competence in a few areas (Fourier spaces, partial differential equations, Systems Dynamics,....) which unfortunately are not a part of the curriculum even in Economics. Some archivologists in accounting should at least attempt to try modeling accounting stuff using these techniques.

The paper, for those interested, can be found at 

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.08895.pdf

 

Regards,

Jagdish 

Jagdish S. Gangolly

Emeritus Associate Professor
Department of Informatics
Director (Retired), PhD Program in Information Science
State University of New York at Albany
1400 Washington Ave Albany, NY 12222
email: j.gangolly@albany.edu   

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

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

History Tutorials

The Five Minute Museum: A Stop Motion Animation Shows the History of Civilization at Breakneck Speed ---
Click Here

NELSON-ATKINS AT HOME (Kansas City Museum) --- https://nelson-atkins.org/nelson-atkins-at-home/

The world's first cash register, "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier," was patented by James Ritty, Dayton, Ohio ---
https://www.thoughtco.com/cash-register-james-ritty-4070920

Watch the Making of Japanese Woodblock Prints, from Start to Finish, by a Longtime Tokyo Printmaker ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/watch-the-making-of-japanese-woodblock-prints-from-start-to-finish.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

JEWISH WOMEN'S ARCHIVE: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY ---
https://jwa.org/thisweek

MERCATOR: IT'S A FLAT, FLAT WORLD ---
https://mercator.tass.com/

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

CLASSICS FOR KIDS (MUSIC) ---  www.classicsforkids.com

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/

November 2, 2020

Supersreaders Spur Record New U.S. COVID Cases

Antibodies Attack the Body In Some COVID Cases

COVID-19 Infection Fatality Ratio is About 1.15%,

Regeneron Says Its Treatments Lower Medical Visits

Shipping Container of Medical Gloves Stolen in FL

Grocery Workers at Risk for COVID Without Symptoms

Lies Spread on Social Media Hamper Vaccinations

U.S. Cases Spike as COVID Kills Every 107 Seconds

1 in 3 U.S. Seniors Prescribed Inappropriate Drug

November 3, 2020

Boy With Alzheimer's-like Illness Races For Time

Construction Workers at High Risk for COVID

Is It a Cold, the Flu, Allergies, or COVID-19?

Eighth Grader in Missouri Dies From COVID-19

Flu Shot May Shield You From Severe COVID

Chinese Americans Face COVID-based Discrimination

Patients Testing Positive for Both COVID and Flu

Some Grocery Stores Will Stay Open on Thanksgiving

FBI Says COVID-19 Charity Fraud is Increasing

November 4, 2020

Depression Has Strong Ties to Stroke, Study Finds

No, Face Masks Don't Lower Oxygen Levels

Prince William Tested Positive for COVID in April

Hospitals Compete for Nurses Amid COVID-19 Surge

Hardest-Hit Communities May Have Vaccine Priority

For Some, 'COVID Toes,' Rashes Can Last for Months

Boy With Alzheimer's-like Illness Races For Time

Construction Workers at High Risk for COVID

Wear a Mask Inside at Home at First Sign of COVID

November 5, 2020

Student Found Dead in Dorm After Positive COVID Test

New Drug Offers Hope Against MS

Nearly 1 in 5 Americans Follows 'Special' Diet

Clear Election Winners: State Marijuana Reforms

Election Day Didn’t Slow COVID’s Steady Advance

For Rural Youth, Mental Health Care Tough to Find

Heart Trouble From COVID Less Common Than Thought

Upbeat Outlook Could Shield Your Brain

Depression Has Strong Ties to Stroke, Study Finds

November 7, 2020

Georgia Firefighter Dies of COVID-19

Al Roker Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

U.S. Sets Another COVID Record; Hospitals Scramble

COVID-19 Linked to Increased Risk for Parkinson's

COVID May Cause Tinnitus

1 in 6 COVID Patients Only Have Gastro Symptoms

Some COVID Patients See Faster Recovery, More Immunity

Your Corneas May Be Safe From COVID: Study

ND Candidate Elected a Month After Dying of COVID

November 9, 2020

WebMD Poll: Vaccine, Experts Will Mark Pandemic’s End

What's My Risk of COVID?

Alex Trebek Dies After Battle With Pancreatic Cancer

Biden Victory: What It Means for COVID, Health Care

COVID in Minks Spreading to Humans

Georgia Firefighter Dies of COVID-19

Al Roker Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

U.S. Sets Another COVID Record; Hospitals Scramble

COVID-19 Linked to Increased Risk for Parkinson's

November 11, 2020

Up Next for Obamacare: 1 of 4 Court Rulings Likely

U.S. Could Soon Hit 200,000 Daily COVID-19 Cases

COVID Survivors May Develop Mental Illness Later

Justices Question Case to Overturn Affordable Care Act

Marijuana Raises Post-Op Dangers After Heart Attack

FDA Gives Eli Lilly COVID Antibody Drug Emergency OK

Multivitamins' 'Benefits' All in Your Head: Study

November 12, 2020

Melatonin Could Potentially Treat COVID-19

Masks Protect Wearers and Others from COVID-19

TX Becomes First State With 1 Million COVID Cases

Flu Shots: Doctors, Pharmacies Report Higher Demand

UT Mask Rule Spurs Protests; CO Extends Mandate

5 Important Questions About Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine

NY State Closes Restaurants, Bars, Gyms at 10

Record Hospitalizations Limit U.S. COVID Response

Up Next for Obamacare: 1 of 4 Court Rulings Likely

November 13, 2020

Common Cold Antibodies Could Protect Against COVID-19

Half of COVID-19 Patients Report Ongoing Fatigue

Fauci Will Take an Approved Pfizer COVID Vaccine

Melatonin Could Potentially Treat COVID-19

Masks Protect Wearers and Others from COVID-19

TX Becomes First State With 1 Million COVID Cases

Could Propecia Up Young Men's Suicide Risk?

Measles Deaths Grow by Half

Flu Shots: Doctors, Pharmacies Report Higher Demand

November 14, 2020

Is the Pandemic Harming Kids' Mental Health?

Fish Oil, Vitamin D Supplements Won't Prevent A-Fib

Annual Report Highlights Dangerous Toys

Restrictions Return As COVID Surges Across the U.S.

Study: New Mutation Sped Up Spread of Coronavirus

Biden COVID Task Force Weighs In On Lockdown

Common Cold Antibodies Could Protect Against COVID-19

Half of COVID-19 Patients Report Ongoing Fatigue

Study Finds Blacks, Asians More Vulnerable to COVID

List: Town-by-town coronavirus cases in New Hampshire (text-only) --- 
https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-coronavirus-cases-by-town/32935912# 

Gary Cornell: We are Unlikely to Have a (Covid-19) Vaccine that is Proven Effective for Seniors for a Long Time Unless Dramatic Action is Taken Now! ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2020/11/5/gary-cornell-we-are-unlikely-to-have-a-vaccine-that-is-proven-effective-for-seniors-for-a-long-time-unless-dramatic-action-is-taken-now

New vaccine may prevent symptoms, spread of herpes virus---
https://www.studyfinds.org/vaccine-prevent-symptoms-spread-herpes/

Common painkillers don’t relieve back pain – they may make you worse, study claims!
https://www.studyfinds.org/study-finds-back-pain-painkillers-aspirin/

World Vegan Day: What Does the Research Say?
https://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/isr/world-vegan-day-what-does-the-research-say/

Trump tried to attribute the second wave of Corona virus statistics to increased proportion of people tested. He's partly right but the main reason is more frightening.
Coronavirus mutation made illness more contagious, causing nearly all U.S. cases now ---
https://www.studyfinds.org/coronavirus-mutation-more-contagious/

Nanoparticles create ‘miracle’ treatment for deadly brain tumors ---
https://www.studyfinds.org/nanoparticles-miracle-treatment-brain-tumors/

Humor for November 2020

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

You buy your kid a book, and she asks where to put the batteries.

You can open the book without a password

Reading is how brains become updated with software

The best way to keep your car from being stolen is to buy one with a standard shift and clutch pedal

Explain to your child that he can send coded messages just by learning to write in cursive

Forward by Auntie Bev

 

How to Maintain a Healthy Level   Of     Insanity in RETIREMENT...     1.     At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on, point a hair dryer at passing cars and watch them slow down!   2.     On all your check stubs, write, "For Sexual Favors"     3.     Skip down the street rather than walk, and see how many looks you get.     4.     With a serious face, order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat.     5.     Sing along at The Opera.       6.     When the money comes out of the ATM, scream 'I Won! I Won!'     7.     When leaving the Zoo, start running towards the car park, yelling, 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'     8.     Tell your children over dinner, 'Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go....'     9.     Pick up a box of condoms at the pharmacy, go to the counter and ask where the fitting room is.

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

• With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review (TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
• With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
• With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy Ignores TAR
• With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into Undergraduate Accounting Courses

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

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