West Side Story: Birth of a Classic --- http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/westsidestory/

Powerhouse Museum: Online Resources --- http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/online/index.asp

Hampton Dunn Postcards Collection --- http://www.lib.usf.edu/public/index.cfm?Pg=HamptonDunnPostcardsCollection

Jones Beach Air Show --- http://www.jonesbeachairshow.com/gallery.html

Environmentalist in a G-String --- http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2008/04/jennifer-moss-pastie-lady-environmental-exhibitionist-too-liberal-for-liberal-town/

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://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

The Visual Dictionary --- http://www.infovisual.info/

Open Science Directory --- http://www.opensciencedirectory.net/

The National Institute for Conservation --- http://www.heritagepreservation.org/

What is more touching than a used-book store on Saturday night,
dowdy clientele haunting the aisles:
the girl with bad skin, the man with a tic,
some chronic ass at the counter giving his art speech?
August Kleinzahler as quoted by Dwight Garner, "Bullies, Addicts and Losers: A Poet Loves Them All," The New York Times, April 24, 2008 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/books/24garn.html

Especially note the free online textbook sites

The Community College Open Textbook Project begins this week with a member meeting in California," by Catherine Rampell, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2008 --- Click Here

At the meeting, representatives of institutions around the country will start reviewing open-textbook models for “quality, usability, accessibility, and sustainability,” according to a news release. They will initially review four providers of free online educational resources: Connexions, run by Rice University; Flat World Knowledge, a commercial digital-textbook publisher that will begin offering free textbooks online next year; the University of California’s UC College Prep Online, which offers Advanced Placement and other courses online; and the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, which was founded by the Foothill-De Anza Community College District and the League for Innovation in the Community College.

The open-textbook project was paid for by a $530,000 grant to the Foothill-De Anza Community College District from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Bob Jensen lists other free online textbooks in various disciplines, including accounting textbooks, cases, and free online tutorials, at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

Bob Jensen's threads on free online tutorials in various academic disciplines are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials

Ignorance is never out of style. It was in fashion yesterday, it is the rage today, and it will set the pace tomorrow.
Franklin K. Dane as quoted in a recent email message from Aaron Konstam

My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference.
Attributed to Harry Truman, although I did not verify this.

My choice early in life was either to frolic in whorehouses or go to Harvard Law School and become New York's Attorney General investigating white collar crime on Wall Street. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference between those two roads in life.
Hypothetically said by Eliot Spitzer when he came to the fork in the road and took it.

Through instructing our students in the questions that I have outlined, we continue the debate proposed by the Founders. Socrates argues that human goodness, at its peak, may well consist primarily in investigating the question, “What is human goodness?” Socrates taught Plato, who in turn taught Aristotle. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle honors both Plato and Socrates when he takes Plato to task: “Plato is dear to me,” writes his best student, “but dearer still is truth.” In a like manner, we pay tribute to the Founders when we subject their radical reinterpretation of citizenship to the most searching scrutiny. But such tribute is far from filial piety. It is, instead, the quest demanded by the desire to know ourselves. For the sake of the integrity of both our universities and our politics — for our citizens both newly arrived and native-born — let us begin this quest, and let us do so in the civil, fair-minded, and magnanimous manner that defines university life at its noblest.
Thomas Lindsay , "Becoming American," Inside Higher Ed, April 25, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/04/25/lindsay

Whether Barry Bonds's absence from the San Francisco Giants is a factor in the team's slow start is a matter of debate. But unquestionably it is responsible for the drop in sales of rubber chickens at the stadium.
Jim Carleton, The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2008 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120933917167348283.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Other commentators were more definitive. "The simple truth is that imprisonment works," wrote Kent Scheidegger and Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in The Stanford Law and Policy Review. "Locking up criminals for longer periods reduces the level of crime. The benefits of doing so far offset the costs." There is a counterexample, however, to the north. “Rises and falls in Canada’s crime rate have closely paralleled America’s for 40 years,” Mr. Tonry wrote last year. “But its imprisonment rate has remained stable.”
Adam Liptak, "Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations’," The New York Times, April 23, 2008 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
Adam Liptak fails to mention that one reason for the higher number of prisoners in the U.S. is the relatively high number of incarcerated illegal aliens. Canada does not have nearly as much violent crime committed by residents who were not admitted to the country legally.

A wall-mounted gadget designed to drive away loiterers with a shrill, piercing noise audible only to teens and young adults is infuriating civil liberties groups and tormenting young people after being introduced into the United States. Almost 1,000 units of the device, called the Mosquito, have been sold in the United States and Canada after the product debuted last year, according to Daniel Santell, the North America importer of the device sold under the company name Kids Be Gone. The high-frequency sound has been likened to fingernails dragged across a chalkboard or a pesky mosquito buzzing . . CNN, April 23, 2008 --- http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/23/teen.be.gone.ap/index.html

New data on Iraq oil revenues suggests that country's government will reap an even larger than expected windfall this year - as much as $70 billion - according to the special U.S. auditor for Iraq. The previously undisclosed information is likely to strengthen the hand of U.S. lawmakers complaining that Iraqis aren't footing enough of the bill for rebuilding their nation - particularly in light of rising oil production and world prices. Oil prices Wednesday hovered near $120 a barrel.
Pauline Jelinek, "Iraqi oil windfall keeps growing," SeattlePi, April 23, 2008 --- http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1152ap_us_iraq_oil.html

The problem is the wreath he laid piously at the grave of Yasser Arafat, who, as Mr. Carter knows better than anyone else, was a real obstacle to peace.
Bernard-Henri Levy, "The Sad End of Jimmy Carter," The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2008; Page A15  --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120908506974843623.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

The repeated claim that Shia Iran doesn't help Sunni terrorists is wrong. Dead wrong. When McCain stated this, he was called every name in the book: "Abysmally ignorant," said someone on the Atlantic.com website. Someone else accused him of brain failure. But the abysmally ignorant are those that can't figure out that terrorists all over the globe are helping each other. Irish terrorists, for example, are in love with PLO terrorists, with whom they share neither religion, nationality or culture. McCain got it right. The Obama cheerleaders might want to reconsider whom they are calling ignorant, and wise up.
Naomi Ragen, Email Message from Israel on April 22, 2008 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q69ubiOko8A
See http://media.nationalreview.com/author/?q=NDI0NA==

The most recent assault on the Ahmadiyya comes from a government body that manages to sound Orwellian and Kafkaesque at the same time – the Coordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society. Last Wednesday this august grouping recommended a ban on Ahmadiyya in Indonesia. The reason: Though Ahmadiyya Muslims revere the prophet Muhammad and follow the Quran, they also contend that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908), was a prophet as well. This contradicts the mainstream Islamic assertion that all divine revelation ended with Muhammad, the so-called – and it might be noted, self-proclaimed – "seal of the prophets."
Sadanand Dhume, "Intolerance in Indonesia," The Wall Street Journal Asia, April 22, 2008 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120880837027832281.html?mod=djemEditorialPage
Jensen Comment
That's almost like  having Congressional bans on the witnessing of a a 200-foot tall Jesus.

Al Gore has just won the Dan David Prize for "social responsibility."  That's another $1 million that I presume Gore will use to push his message further, so presumably winning him more awards. 
National Review Corner Blog, April 29, 2008 --- http://corner.nationalreview.com/

Saying Wesley Snipes showed "contempt," a Florida judge sentenced the actor to three years in prison for failing to file income tax returns. "These are serious crimes, albeit misdemeanors, because he has a history of contempt over time," said U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges during Snipes's sentencing hearing in Ocala, FL Thursday. Hodges sentenced Snipes to the maximum sentence, one year for each misdemeanor count, to be served consecutively, Bloomberg reported. He must also pay all tax debts. Snipes was found guilty in February of willfully failing to file taxes from 1999-2001. He was acquitted of three identical counts and two felony charges of tax fraud and conspiracy . . . Snipes's co-defendants, Douglas P. Rosile and Eddie Ray Kahn, were convicted on felony counts of tax fraud and conspiracy. Kahn, who refused to defend himself in court, was sentenced to the maximum 10 years. Rosile received 4 1/2 years. Kahn was the founder of American Rights Litigators, and a successor group, Guiding Light of God Ministries, groups that claimed to help members legally avoid paying taxes. Snipes, who fought the IRS for years, was a dues-paying member of the organization. Rosile, a former accountant who lost his license, prepared Snipes's paperwork, the Associated Press reported.
AccountingWeb, April 25, 2008 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=105029

Representative John Murtha is one sorry man, and by sorry, I do not mean apologetic. His efforts to smear the military in the court of public opinion, the Marines in particular, has been elaborate, elongated and disgraceful. It is hard to fathom that this man was ever a member of a group that he seems to hold in such contempt. His distaste has such a powerful hold on him that, when asked on Nightline on January 2, 2006 if he would join today’s military, the Vietnam Veteran and Marine firmly answered, “No.” One can only assume the feeling is mutual. Murtha’s character assassination of the Haditha Marines, long before the facts were available, and his efforts turn the public opinion against them will go down in American history as one of the most egregious acts of hate and slander against the United States military since…well, the last time anyone from Code Pink opened her mouth . . . While Murtha is clearly comfortable disparaging our military men with cameras rolling and lights blazing, one can only assume that the thought of having to look the victims of his smears in the eye was more than he could bear and more than his staff knew they could expect of him.
Katie O'Malley, "John Murtha is Sorry," Human Events, April 23, 2008 --- http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26175

Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been repelled by Mr. Lee's remarks. I was his lawyer and one of his closest advisers, and I can say with absolute certainty that Martin abhorred anti-Semitism in all its forms, including anti-Zionism. "There isn't anyone in this country more likely to understand our struggle than Jews," Martin told me. "Whatever progress we've made so far as a people, their support has been essential." Martin was disheartened that so many blacks could be swayed by Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam and other black separatists, rejecting his message of nonviolence, and grumbling about "Jew landlords" and "Jew interlopers" – even "Jew slave traders." The resentment and anger displayed toward people who offered so much support for civil rights was then nascent. But it has only festered and grown over four decades. Today, black-Jewish relations have arguably grown worse, not better.
Clarence B. Jones, "King and the Jews," The Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2008  --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120951797764154811.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Obama, declaring "that's enough," denounced Tuesday as "appalling" and "ridiculous" comments made in the last few days by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. . . . "I am outraged by the comments that were made, and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama said. "The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe they ended up giving comfort to those who prey on hate," he said.
Fox News, April 29, 2008 --- http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/29/obama-i-am-outraged-and-angered-by-wrights-comments/

Mr. Wright has not let that happen. In the last few days, in a series of shocking appearances, he embraced the Rev. Louis Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. He said the government manufactured the AIDS virus to kill blacks. He suggested that America was guilty of “terrorism” and so had brought the 9/11 attacks on itself. This could not be handled by a speech about the complexities of modern life. It required a powerful, unambiguous denunciation — and Mr. Obama gave it. He said his former pastor’s “rants” were “appalling.” “They offend me,” he said. “They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced. And that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.”
The New York Times Editorial, April 30, 2008 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30wed1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Wright's purpose now seems quite clear: to aggrandize himself--the guy is going to be a go-to mainstream media source for racial extremist spew, the next iteration of Al Sharpton--and destroy Barack Obama.
Joe Klein, Time Magazine, April 28, 2008 --- http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/04/the_reverend_wright.html
Jensen Comment
I might add that Joe Klein is one of the most liberal, Bush-hating correspondents in Time Magazine's stable.

By the time he took the stage on Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, Mr. Wright was on a tear, insisting that “this is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright, this has nothing to do with Barack Obama, this is an attack on the black church.” He delivered a rambling disquisition on race, African tradition and theology, and he was clearly enjoying himself, frowning in concentration as the moderator read written questions from reporters, then stepping up to the lectern with feisty rejoinders and snappy retorts, looking as pleased with his replies as a contestant in a high school spelling bee who has just correctly spelled the final word. While MSNBC was waiting to go live to the event, an anchor asked Mr. Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, why the campaign had allowed Mr. Wright to refocus attention upon himself. “He is doing his own thing,” Mr. Axelrod said wearily by telephone. “There’s not a thing we can do about it.” By the time Mr. Wright had finished speaking, he had proved Mr. Axelrod’s point. And also one made by Chuck Todd, the NBC political director who summed up Mr. Wright’s apologia by paraphrasing a Carly Simon song: “You’re so vain, I bet you think this campaign is about you.”
Alessandra Stanley, "Not Speaking for Obama, Pastor Speaks for Himself, at Length," The New York Times, April 29, 2008 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
Media comparisons with Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and Jeremiah Wright are unfair. Ms Stanley points out that Rev. Wright has a lot to brag about and is a scholar in various disciplines including “hermeneutics.” Not mentioned by her are  his two masters degrees and a doctorate. Interestingly, Fox News is purportedly the most fair to Rev. Wright's side of things (apart from Bill Moyers on PBS who could not find anything seriously wrong with his friend)  in reporting Wright's latest racial class warfare "tear" according to Kathryn Jean Lopez:  "For all the short skirts and lip gloss on FOX, there’s real journalism happening there (at Fox News), too. Sean Hannity deserves credit for doing actual reporting" National Review, April 29, 2008 --- http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDI4ZjVmYzNiMTczMjFiYWEzNjE4NGI1NDRlNGU0YmQ=

Dana Milibank has a sober review of Wright’s morning rantings — and what they portend for the Obama campaign. For weeks now Wright has insulted the United States, whites, Jews, Israel, Italians, et al., but confined his media attacks to talk radio and cable news. But at the Press Club he showed disdain for the liberal corps, and that is a felony of a different sort. So expect outraged reporters to strike back. All this will be fatal to the Obama candidacy. Had he set an example of moral outrage at his pastor, Wright would be gone and Obama would...
Free Republic, April 29, 2008 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008567/posts

To Rev. Wright, it’s wrong to compare “African-American” and “European-American” kids with one another because they are virtually different species . . .  In other words, this great Civil Rights (NAACP) organization seems to have come full-circle—from supporting Thurgood Marshall and other lions of justice in demanding that black kids can- and must- learn and compete directly with white kids, to now cheering the lunatic Dr. Wright who says it’s wrong to even compare achievements of black children with the performance of white children because the two races are so completely different. While Obama tries to rally his followers with the chant of “Yes We Can,” Dr. Wright shrieks at African-American children, “No You Can’t” --- you can’t compete with white or Asian kids because your lack of “logical and analytical” and “left-brained” wiring makes it impossible for you even to engage your white neighbors on the same playing field.
Michael Medved, "Ranting Rev's Education Theories Strike At Heart of Obama Campaign," Townhall, April 30, 2008 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
Sort of makes you wonder how Jeremiah Wright earned earned two masters degrees and a doctorate if he could not compete in the classroom. Seems like he competed pretty well with white people. It seems to me that he's insulting the millions of blacks who cheer at his rants.

How bad was Reverend Wright's appearance before the National Press Club this morning? Bad enough that even CNN contributor Roland Martin—who yesterday enthused about Wright's address to the Detroit NAACP, who gave Wright's chat with Bill Moyers an 'A'—flunked it with an 'F.' Bad enough that David Gergen condemned it as "narcissistic almost beyond belief." Bad enough that, introducing a panel discussion of the speech, the palpably distressed CNN Newsroom host Tony Harris let out an audible groan of "ah, boy," and later wondered how much damage had been done.
Mark Finkelstein, "Rev. Wright's Press Club Debacle Has CNN Anchor Groaning 'Ah, Boy'," April 28, 2008 --- Click Here 

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright taunted a gathering of journalists Monday in Washington, D.C., calling their coverage of his speeches an attack on the black church, while defending his claim that the U.S. was responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Wright, the controversial former pastor of Barack Obama’s church, took dead aim at the U.S. government Monday — saying American soldiers in Iraq have died “over a lie” and calling the war “unjust” — as he called for reconciliation and understanding between blacks and whites. Wright was speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. as he continues a...
Fox News, April 28, 2008 --- http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/28/rev-wright-takes-his-message-directly-to-the-media/

If you (Barack Obama) get elected, November the 5th I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a face-to-face meeting with Senator Obama --- http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9912.html

Mr. Wright’s return to the national stage has provided more sound bites that could haunt the Obama campaign.
Kate Phillips, "Rev. Wright Defends Church, Blasts Media," The New York Times, April 28. 2008 ---
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/rev-wright-defends-church-blasts-media/index.html?hp
Jensen Comment
I think it's unfair to not vote for Senator Obama because of the racial class warfare and over-the-top hate for whites of his pastor. But I think it's entirely fair to fear Obama because of his poorly thought out, truly ignorant, populism taxation and spending plans that will most likely destroy the U.S. economy. Obama would only compound the disastrous deficit spending ignorance of George W. Bush.

From The Wall Street Journal Editors' Newsletter on April 21
We learn from blogger Tom Maguire that a group of 41 "journalists and media analysts" have signed an "open letter" to ABC in which, according to The Nation (with which five of the signatories are affiliated), they "condemn the network's poor handling" of the debate. Here's how the letter closes:

Neither Mr. Gibson nor Mr. Stephanopoulos lived up to these responsibilities. In the words of Tom Shales of the Washington Post, Mr. Gibson and Mr. Stephanopoulos turned in "shoddy, despicable performances." As Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher describes it, the debate was a "travesty." We hope that the public uproar over ABC's miserable showing will encourage a return to serious journalism in debates between the Democratic and Republican nominees this fall. Anything less would be a betrayal of the basic responsibilities that journalists owe to their public.

, , ,

Then on April 22, 2008
Of course, after last week's debate--which turned out to be highly informative--Obama has got to be wishing he had stopped at 20 (not the 21st debate with Clinton). Given that he seems to have the nomination nearly locked up anyway, it makes tactical sense for him to run out the clock and stay far away from anyone who may ask him a tough question.

"Akin to a federal crime . . . new benchmarks of degradation," The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg declared, of the debate. - "Despicable. . . . slanted against Obama," Washington Post critic Tom Shales charged. A "disgusting spectacle," the New York Times's David Carr opined . . . The uproar is the latest confirmation of the special place Mr. Obama holds in the hearts of a good part of the media, a status ensured by their shared political sympathies and his star power. That status has in turn given rise to a tendency to provide generous explanations, and put the best possible gloss on missteps and utterances seriously embarrassing to Mr. Obama.
Dorothy Rabinowitz, "Obama's Media Army," The Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2008; Page A17 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120891044439036617.html?mod=djemEditorialPage 

Among other things the liberal media is raging mad because ABC Television asked Sen. Obama for details regarding his tax initiatives.
Time and again, the rookie Senator (Obama) has said he would not raise taxes on middle-class earners, whom he describes as people with annual income lower than between $200,000 and $250,000. On Wednesday night, he repeated the vow. "I not only have pledged not to raise their taxes," said the Senator, "I've been the first candidate in this race to specifically say I would cut their taxes." But Mr. Obama has also said he's open to raising – indeed, nearly doubling to 28% – the current top capital gains tax rate of 15%, which would in fact be a tax hike on some 100 million Americans who own stock, including millions of people who fit Mr. Obama's definition of middle class. Mr. Gibson dared to point out this inconsistency, which regularly goes unmentioned in Mr. Obama's fawning press coverage. But Mr. Gibson also probed a little deeper, asking the candidate why he wants to increase the capital gains tax when history shows that a higher rate brings in less revenue.
"Obama's Tax Evasion," The Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2008; Page A16 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120847505709424727.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

"Why Not Blame Obama? The media favorite has a very poor grasp of basic economic principles," by Larry Kudlow, National Review, April 18, 2008 --- http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTEwYWUxNjY0ZTJmNGY4NjAwYTM4NmJhNWMzZWYxNzc=

It’s rather amusing watching the liberal media launch a full-scale attack on George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson, with General Tom Shales of the Washington Post leading the charge. ABC’s Stephanopoulos and Gibson had the audacity to ask Obama some tough questions during the Democratic debate Tuesday night. Challenge Obama with well-informed questions on tax policy and politics? Wound the media favorite? How dare they?

. . .

But here’s the deal: During the debate, Obama bungled his answers on tax policy, big time. Period. End of sentence. End of story. To my liberal friends in the media, all I can say is: Get over it. Your guy has a very poor grasp of basic economic principles.

First off, you don’t raise taxes during a recession. That’s a no-brainer. Second, doubling the capital-gains tax rate will affect Americans up and down the income ladder, not just rich hedge-fund managers. In addition, capital-gains tax cuts are self-financing, and they stimulate jobs and the economy. You want to raise budget revenues and spark economic growth? Cut the cap-gains tax rate. That’s what history shows.

The Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore points out that in 2005, almost half of all tax returns reporting capital gains came from households with incomes under $50,000, while more than three-quarters came from households earning less than $100,000.

Obama also proposed uncapping the payroll tax, another blunder that will hit people up and down the income ladder. While Obama pledges tax hikes only for folks earning more that $200,000 a year, his tax hike on payrolls would actually slam middle-income earners. The cap on wages subject to the payroll tax is presently $102,000. By eliminating that cap Obama will be soaking veteran firemen, cops, teachers, and health-service workers, along with a variety of other occupations.

In fact, in America’s largest cities, a firefighter married to a school teacher can earn close to $200,000 filing jointly. So not only will each spouse separately pay more for Social Security and health care under Obama’s plan, together they’ll also be slammed by Obama’s cap-gains tax increase.

This is more than just a failure to understand the Laffer curve. It’s another cultural misstep by Obama. I can’t help but wonder if the senator knows any cops or firemen. His appeal is to well-educated latte liberals. That remark about middle-income folks having turned to God, faith, and guns because of economic setbacks? Not only was it ill-advised, it illustrates the wide cultural chasm that exists between the candidate and the rest of America.

. . .

That’s exactly why wealth-redistribution plans always backfire. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is a surefire economic loser. So is putting government in charge of the economy, which is what Mr. Obama is proselytizing.

This marks the third mistake for the Illinois senator. Not only does he not understand economics; not only is he set apart from middle-class values and beliefs; he apparently hasn’t read much history either.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The liberal media seems to be totally ignoring substantive questions like taxation and the economy. The New York Times called the ABC questions in the debate little more than show biz while never mentioning the NYT's preferred candidates' ignorance of economics and taxation --- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/us/politics/18moderator.html
Since the economy is the Number 1 priority among voters in the U.S., you would think all Presidential candidates would prepare themselves better on how to answer questions about tax increases, spending, the Federal deficit, the plunging U.S. dollar, and soaring oil prices. They'd much rather avoid these topics and discuss Iraq, poverty, health care, and all the things they'd rather spend money on without having to be specific about where it will come from.

Did you ever wonder why nobody, including ABC's Gibson nor Stephanopoulos, seems to ask the Presidential candidates for details on how they plan to reduce the Federal deficit (which is now the main cause of the plunging dollar and the soaring fuel prices)? The answer is simple. McCain wants to carry on in Iraq, and both Democratic Party contenders want to add over a trillion dollars to the budget for universal health care, free education for the poor, ending global warming, wonderful houses for every family, and many other noble causes that will never be reality if the taxes, deficit spending, inflation, and a soaring Federal deficit kills the goose that lays the golden eggs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm
In fairness, any candidate that wants to fatten the goose before spending all the golden eggs can never be elected by voters who worry more about themselves than their children and grandchildren. The real advantage of our political system in the U.S. is that what a newly elected President promised along the way and what she/he can deliver is chained down by a cumbersome, albeit corrupt, Congress feeding at the trough of the lobbyists.

Watch the Video of the non-sustainability of the U.S. economy (CBS Sixty Minutes Television) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS2fI2p9iVs

"Taking Back Our Fiscal Future" by experts who understand eonomics --- http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/04_fiscal_future/04_fiscal_future.pdf

The authors of this paper are longtime federal budget and policy experts who have been drawn together by a deep concern about the nation’s long-term fiscal outlook. Our group covers the ideological spectrum. We are affiliated with a diverse set of organizations. We have been meeting informally for over a year, under the auspices of The Brookings Institution and The Heritage Foundation, to define the dimensions and consequences of the looming federal budget problem, examine alternative solutions, and reach agreement on what should be done. Despite our diverse philosophies and political leanings, we have found solid common ground. We agree that:

• Unsustainable deficits in the federal budget threaten the health and vigor of the American economy.

• The first step toward establishing budget responsibility is to reform the budget decision process so that the major drivers of escalating deficits—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—are no longer on autopilot.

What is the next President of the United States going to do about the primary cause of the rise in fuel prices --- The Federal Deficit
The dollar dropped to a new low against the euro Tuesday, as the single currency climbed above the symbolic $1.60 level on growing expectations for an increase in the European Central Bank's benchmark interest rates
Dan Molinski, The Wall Street Journal,April 23, 2008; Page C8 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120886941035334513.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing

Gold has jumped about 35% over the past year, to $922 an ounce, and if U.S. dollar weakness and geopolitical tensions continue, it may well move higher from here. Two exchange-traded funds, iShares Comex Gold and streetTracks Gold Shares, are designed to track the price performance of gold bullion, minus fees, and they both charge reasonable expenses of 0.4%. But the yellow metal is an extremely volatile investment, and it has failed to keep pace with inflation in recent decades. Many advisers recommend a small, long-term allocation to a broad commodities fund that includes gold rather than a stand-alone bet on bullion. One option: The Pimco CommodityRealReturn Strategy Fund. This fund holds inflation-indexed bonds as well as derivatives linked to the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index, which gives a roughly 7% weighting to gold.
Eleanor Laise, "Is This a Good Time to Invest in Gold? The Wall Street Journal,April 23, 2008; Page D2 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120891304962036781.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal
Jensen Comment
I've never been a fan of investing in gold. But then I'm a guy who sold the family farm in Iowa just after an ethanol  plant was built in nearby Dakota. The dummy sold too soon to benefit from the subsequent surge in corn-producing land values. I predicted ethanol would never make it, because it took more (from natural gas) energy going in that coming out --- which to me sounded like bad chemistry. Little did I realize that the Federal government would, with Vice-President Al Gore's tie-breaking vote, be stupid enough to require ethanol be added to every gallon of gas that I now buy for my car. The Federal government now subsidizes ethanol to a point where ethanol plants actually can be profitable. Those subsidies actually reduce the price of every gallon of gas by a few cents, but this is more than offset by the soaring prices of grain-based food such as milk, eggs, meat, cereal, and sour mash.

"Twenty-Five Years Later, A Nation Still at Risk," by Chester E. Finn Jr., The Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2008; Page A7 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120916804732546311.html

Today marks the 25th anniversary of "A Nation at Risk," the influential Reagan-era report by a blue-ribbon panel that alerted Americans to the weak performance of our education system. The report warned of a "rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people." That dire forecast set off a quarter century of education reform that's yielded worthy changes – yet still not the achievement gains we need to turn back the tide of mediocrity.

After decades of furthering educational "equality," the 1983 commission admonished the country, it was time to attend to academic excellence and school results. Educators didn't want to hear this and a generation later many still don't. Our ponderous public-school system resists change. Teachers don't like criticism and are loath to be judged by pupil performance. In educator circles, one still encounters grumbling that "A Nation at Risk" lodged a bum rap.

Others heeded the alarm, though, and that report launched an era of forceful innovation and accountability guided by noneducators – elected officials, business leaders and philanthropists.

Such "civilian" leadership has brought about two profound shifts that the professionals, left to their own devices, would never have allowed. Today, instead of judging schools by their services, resources or fairness, we track their progress against preset academic standards – and hold them to account for those results.

We're also far more open to charter schools, vouchers, virtual schools, home schooling. And we no longer suppose kids must attend the campus nearest home. A majority of U.S. students now study either in bona fide "schools of choice," or in neighborhood schools their parents chose with a realtor's help.

Those are historic changes indeed – most of today's education debates deal with the complexities of carrying them out. Yet our school results haven't appreciably improved, whether one looks at test scores or graduation rates. Sure, there are up and down blips in the data, but no big and lasting changes in performance, even though we're also spending tons more money. (In constant dollars, per-pupil spending in 1983 was 56% of today's.)

And just as "A Nation at Risk" warned, other countries are beginning to eat our education lunch. While our outcomes remain flat, theirs rise. Half a dozen nations now surpass our high-school and college graduation rates. International tests find young Americans scoring in the middle of the pack.

What to do now? It's no time to ease the push for a major K-12 education make-over – or to settle (as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton apparently would) for reviving yesterday's faith in still more spending and greater trust in educators. But we can distill four key lessons:

First, don't expect Uncle Sam to manage the reform process. Not only does Washington lack the capacity to revamp thousands of schools and create alternatives for millions of kids, but viewing education reform as a federal obligation lets others off the hook. Yet some things are best done nationally – notably creating uniform standards and tests in place of today's patchwork of uneven expectations and noncomparable assessments. These we have foolishly resisted.

Second, retain civilian control but push for more continuity. Governors and mayors remain indispensable leaders on the ground – but the instant they leave office, the system tries to revert. The adult interests that rule it – teacher unions, yes, but also colleges of education, textbook publishers and more – look after themselves and fend off change. If three consecutive governors or mayors hew to the same agenda, those reforms are more apt to endure.

Third, don't bother seeking one grand innovation. Education reform is not about silver bullets. But huge gains can be made by schools that are free to run (and staff) themselves, attended by choice, expected to meet high standards, and accountable for their results.

Consider the more than 50 schools in the acclaimed Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) network. We don't have nearly enough today, but we're likelier to grow more of them outside the traditional system than by trying to alter the system itself.

Finally, content matters. Getting the structures, rules and incentives right is only half the battle. The other half is sound curriculum and effective instruction. If we can't place enough expert educators in our classrooms, we can use technology to amplify the best of them across the state or nation. Kids no longer need to sit in school to be well educated.

Far from delivering an undeserved insult to a well-functioning system, the authors of "A Nation at Risk" were clear-eyed about that system's failings, and prescient about the challenges these posed to America's future. Now that we're well into that future, we owe them a vote of thanks. But our most solemn responsibility is to keep the reform flag flying high in the wind that they created.

Mr. Finn, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, is the author of "Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform Since Sputnik," published in February by the Princeton University Press.

I have a dilemma that is outlined below.

1. Issues in Accounting Education (IAE) is one of my favorite journals, in part because it is more open to wide ranging research methodologies than all other research publications of the American Accounting Association (AAA)
    

2. The current February 2008 issue has an excellent printed Teaching Case:
   
   "Accounting for Derivatives and Hedging Activities: Comparison of Cash Flow versus Fair Value Hedge Accounting" Issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 23, No. 8, February 2008, pp. 103-117 --- http://aaahq.org/pubs.cfm
    

3. A Teaching Note (case solution) is available AAA members who pay a fee for an electronic subscription to this publication. There are no restrictions on who can be an AAA member and subscribe to IAE. Hence anybody in the world can download the Teaching Note as an electronic subscriber --- http://aaahq.org/pubs.cfm
    

4. I studied this Teaching Note carefully and found, in my opinion, both serious errors and misleading assumptions. I communicated these as an error-correcting working paper to both the authors of the published Teaching Note and to the Editor of IAE. I suggested that my error corrections be appended at the end of the original Teaching Note. This would not be hard to do since the Teaching Note can only be downloaded on the Internet. Unlike the Teaching Case itself, the Teaching Note was not distributed in hard copy.
    

5. The IAE Editor informed me that my working paper would be appended to the Teaching Note. However, weeks turned into months and nothing happened. When I inquired the IAE Editor informed me that he’d had a change of heart. What was rude is that he never bothered to inform me of this until I inquired why no appendix was added to the Teaching Note.
    

6. The Editor of IAE  later informed me that he will not append my error corrections to the end of the Teaching Note until I pay a submission fee to have my submission formally refereed. It makes perfect sense that the working paper should be refereed before IAE publishes it as an appendix to the Teaching Note. However, it's ludicrous that, if I want the IAE to correct the IAE's own mistakes, I must pay the IAE to merely consider correcting its own mistakes."
   Submission fees range from $75 to $100 --- https://aaahq.org/AAAforms/journals/iaesubmit.cfm
    

7. I might add that I'm willing to make referee-suggested corrections to my own errors. However, this is not a mainline publication, and I refuse to spend more time word crafting this error-correcting working paper. One of the most difficult aspects of publishing mainline journal articles is satisfying referees who often have differing viewpoints on how the paper should be word crafted. I've just signed a contract to write a book on derivative financial instruments and hedging activities and do not have the time or inclination to word craft this error-correcting working paper. I think the editor of the IAE feels that my use of the word "errors" will embarrass the Case authors. I did make an effort to only use the word "error" when there was what I consider to be an outright error such as using cash flow hedging journal entries for a hedged item that has no cash flow risk. I refuse to call outright errors differences in assumptions when they are in fact errors. When there were differing assumptions I did not call those "errors."
    

8. The Editor may one day have a change of heart about making me pay a submission fee to get the IAE to correct its own mistakes and to word craft the paper to take out the word "error" wherever it appears. Otherwise what are serious errors, in my viewpoint, will live on forever in the Teaching Note to what is otherwise a very good Teaching Case. The Case authors could also rewrite their original Teaching Note, but across several months of communications between us they've never proposed doing so to me or the IAE editor. It would take a substantial effort to rewrite the Teaching Note, and there are complications that arise in that some problems in the Case itself are impossible to correct since the Case has already been distributed as hard copy.
    

9. This could be success arising from troubles turned inside out. In my viewpoint comparing my error-correction working paper with the original Teaching Note has value-added beyond what a perfectly rewritten Teaching Note would make to the Teaching Case. In other words, students and instructors can learn more by studying the errors themselves in the original Teaching Note. This is what I mean by turning troubles inside out to create success. For this reason you should download the current Teaching Note to keep in your own archives just in case it gets laundered later on --- http://aaahq.org/pubs.cfm 
    

10. I think both teachers and students may be misled by the current Teaching Note that can be downloaded from http://aaahq.org/pubs.cfm
    If you are using this Teaching Note, you may download, for free, my error corrections at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/CaseErrors.htm
     

11. My error-correcting working paper is designed to be used alongside the electronically published Teaching Note. My working paper will not make much sense to readers who do not have both the Teaching Case and the original Teaching Note for comparative purpose. The original Teaching Note has many things that are very good. I did not find errors in everything contained in the Teaching Note.
     

12. Of course my proposed error-correcting working paper contains only my opinions and could itself have errors that I do not yet know about.
    You be the judge at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/CaseErrors.htm
    Please let me know if you find errors in my work since my working paper can be easily corrected at this point.
     

13. Even if the IAE Editor has a change of heart and is willing to have my error-correcting working paper refereed for free, the process could take many months, possibly over a year, before my working paper is appended to the Teaching Note. If you are using this Teaching Case, you probably should take a look at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/CaseErrors.htm
    That in fact is my main purpose for writing the above message!

    Postscript 01
    After I circulated this message among some friends, one wrote back and wondered if Science Magazine and the the New England Journal of Medicine charges for correcting their mistakes? We're in deep trouble if that's the case.

Business schools, eager to impart ethics, are paying white-collar felons to recite the error of their ways

"Using Ex-Cons to Scare MBAs Straight," by Porter, Business Week, April 24, 2008 --- Click Here

Bob Jensen's threads on white collar crime include the following links:

http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm

http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm

http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

April 30, 2008 reply from Elliot Kamlet [ekamlet@STNY.RR.COM]

We had a very successful presentation by:

http://www.whitecollarfraud.com/

And when you invite him to come, you cannot pay him a thing – not travel costs, not honorarium, nothing.

You may want to add him to the list.

Elliot Kamlet
Binghamton University

Question
What is Walter Bagehot's Rule for our faltering economy?

Bagehot's Rule: "very large (domestic) loans at very high rates are the best remedy for the worst malady of the money market when a foreign drain is added to a domestic drain." The Fed, and the U.S. government more generally, have so far got it only half right.
Ronald McKinnon (see below)
Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Bagehot

"Bagehot's Lessons for the Fed," by Ronald McKinnon, The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2008; Page A15 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120908336730343529.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

No one needs to be reminded about the bad financial-market news. Sharp cuts in the federal funds rate down to 2.25% have provoked a flight from the dollar, and a weakening of the dollar against most foreign currencies. Every day brings word of new write-downs and write-offs, and the Federal Reserve has rolled out a bewildering variety of stratagems to help. But the economy is not responding positively.

What strategy or rule should the Fed be following to help the economy recover from recession, or curb what is now a spectacular inflation in commodity markets?

For a decade before 2003, the Fed more or less did follow a rule, which was formulated by my colleague John Taylor of Stanford University. The Taylor Rule specifies how the fed funds interest rate by itself can smooth mild business cycles.

It presumes that the Fed aims for 2% annual inflation in the CPI. Thus, with an average short-term real interest rate of 2%, the fed funds rate should average about 4% in the "steady state."

At the top of the business cycle, or to combat a surge in inflation, the rate should be raised by 1.5 percentage points for every one percentage point of inflation above the 2%. It should be lowered during a cyclical downturn accompanied by deflation. The Taylor Rule worked well in facilitating high, noninflationary growth through the two-term Clinton presidency and most of the first term of George W. Bush.

Then – with CPI inflation at the putative target of 2% and moderately robust real economic growth of 2.7% – the Fed began cutting the fed funds rate in 2003. It was down to 1% at the end of the year and into early 2004 – a full three percentage points less than what the Taylor Rule would have prescribed. Worse, the Fed failed to raise interest rates fast enough or far enough in 2005 into 2006, even as inflation gained momentum, with a surge in output from unsustainable household spending stimulated by the housing bubble.

Now with rising inflation, falling output and the flight from the dollar, the U.S. economy has been knocked off the moorings that the Taylor Rule had provided. Although the Taylor Rule still correctly shows that the Fed cut interest rates too much in 2007-2008, it understates the appropriate level of the interest rate. Moreover, its two key implicit assumptions – that equilibrium interest rates can always be found to clear markets, and that the foreign exchanges can be ignored – are no longer valid. At least temporarily, when so many financial markets have now seized up, Taylor's Rule has lost its ability to provide an unambiguous guide to the Fed.

But all is not lost.

Fast backward 135 years to 1873, when Walter Bagehot, the eminent Victorian institutional economist and constitutional scholar, wrote "Lombard Street." The London capital market was the center of world finance under the gold standard. Bagehot described the intricacies of how money markets worked, including counterparty risks and all that – but he also prescribed how the Bank of England should confront major financial crises.

Bagehot called a seizing up of internal markets "a domestic drain" (of gold), and the flight of capital abroad "an external drain." He wrote that "The two maladies – an external drain and an internal – often attack the money market at once." And what, he asked, should be done when this happens?

"We must look first to the foreign drain, and raise the rate of interest as high as may be necessary. Unless you can stop the foreign export, you cannot allay the domestic alarm. . . . And at the rate of interest so raised, the holders – one or more – of the final bank reserve must lend freely.

"Very large (domestic) loans at very high rates," Bagehot advised, "are the best remedy for the worst malady of the money market when a foreign drain is added to a domestic drain. Any notion that money is not to be had, or that it may not be had at any price, only raises alarm to panic and enhances panic to madness. But though the rule is clear, the greatest delicacy, the finest and best skilled judgment, are needed to deal at once with such great and contrary evils."

How does Bagehot's Rule apply to today's credit crunch? Bagehot was worried about gold losses to foreigners that would cause domestic credit markets to seize up even more and, worse, weaken the pound in the foreign exchanges. Now, foreigners are disinvesting from private U.S. financial assets, which itself worsens conditions in American markets. Additionally, foreign central banks, to stem the appreciations of their currencies against the dollar, are building up large dollar exchange reserves – much of which are invested in U.S. Treasury bonds.

But U.S. Treasurys are the prime collateral for borrowing and lending in the multitrillion dollar U.S. interbank markets. Thus there is a foreign "drain" of prime collateral from the already-impacted private U.S. markets. The depreciating dollar also greatly exacerbates inflation in the U.S.

Consequently, there is a strong case for raising the fed funds rate as much as is necessary to strengthen the dollar in the foreign exchanges – as Bagehot would have it – and to cooperate with foreign governments to halt and reverse the appreciations of their currencies against the dollar.

By slashing interest rates too much in 2007-2008, the Fed has accentuated the foreign drain and thus made the alleviation of the domestic drain more difficult. Yet, despite this mistake, Bagehot would approve of other actions the Fed has taken to deal with the domestic drain by unblocking specific impacted domestic markets. These include (1) swapping Treasury bonds for less safe private bonds, (2) opening its discount window to shaky borrowers, and (3) maybe even rescuing Bear Sterns. He would also approve of the relaxation of capital constraints on Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac and so on, for mortgage lending. Yet these measures will be insufficient if the foreign drain continues.

To repeat Bagehot's Rule: "very large (domestic) loans at very high rates are the best remedy for the worst malady of the money market when a foreign drain is added to a domestic drain." The Fed, and the U.S. government more generally, have so far got it only half right.

Mr. McKinnon is a professor at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institution for Economic Policy Research.

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what other people say you cannot do.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1827)

"A Research Paper Introduces Better Google Image-Search Technology," by Hurley Goodall, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28, 2008 --- Click Here

Google unveiled a prototype algorithm at a conference in Beijing last week that will add precision to the search engine’s image-search technology, The New York Times says.

Two Google researchers presented a paper describing the prototype, which is called VisualRank. It uses image-recognition technology to help rank the relevance of images found in a search.

Currently, Google Image Search results are ranked using the text around the image on the page. The new method will use the visual characteristics of the image itself, and rank search results by comparing similarities among them.

Also see a slightly more detailed news announcement at http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080428-095720

Google Image Search is at http://images.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi

Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm

Community College Open-Textbook Project Gets Under Way
Especially note the open sharing sources for free online textbooks

The Community College Open Textbook Project begins this week with a member meeting in California," by Catherine Rampell, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2008 --- Click Here

At the meeting, representatives of institutions around the country will start reviewing open-textbook models for “quality, usability, accessibility, and sustainability,” according to a news release. They will initially review four providers of free online educational resources: Connexions, run by Rice University; Flat World Knowledge, a commercial digital-textbook publisher that will begin offering free textbooks online next year; the University of California’s UC College Prep Online, which offers Advanced Placement and other courses online; and the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, which was founded by the Foothill-De Anza Community College District and the League for Innovation in the Community College.

The open-textbook project was paid for by a $530,000 grant to the Foothill-De Anza Community College District from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Bob Jensen lists other free online textbooks in various disciplines, including accounting textbooks, cases, and free online tutorials, at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Bob Jensen's threads on free online tutorials in various academic disciplines are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials

Question
This is what happens when you give unauthorized course credit for four MBA courses under the table (allegedly for work experience according to Ms. Bresch) at a major university?

Fallout from a politically charged scandal at West Virginia University now includes resignations, with the announcement on Monday that both the provost and dean of the university's business school are stepping down. But it appears unlikely that the president, Michael S. Garrison, will resign or be removed by the university's governing board, despite an increasing number of calls for his ouster by faculty members. An independent panel last week criticized university administrators for their hasty and flawed decision to retroactively award an unearned executive M.B.A. to Heather M. Bresch, the state governor's daughter (The Chronicle, April 24). The two departing officials, Gerald E. Lang, the longtime provost, and R. Stephen Sears, dean of the College of Business and Economics, were mentioned prominently in the panel's report.
Paul Fain, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/04/2658n.htm

Jensen Comment
The academy does not smile upon giving academic credit for work experience (aside from a small amount of internship/practicum credit administered by the college. It especially scowls at under-the-table awarding of such credit to a privileged student (or possibly even to a handicapped student).

The academy frowns even more on colleges that give academic credit for “life experience” to applicants who apply for a degree program. All God’s children have life experience before applying to a college. Older applicants may have a bit more experience, but that should not, in my viewpoint, substitute for academic study that is assessed for the amount of learning.

Doctoral students in accounting do pretty well with stipends for five years of study, but their support looks a bit puny compared to medical school study at Central Florida

When the University of Central Florida’s medical school opens next year, every member of the inaugural class will receive a full scholarship. The university, citing the Association of American Medical Colleges, said that no other medical school has awarded full scholarships to every member of a class. There will be 40 students admitted for the first class, and each will receive scholarships worth $160,000 over four years — half for tuition and half for living expenses and fees.
Inside Higher Ed, April 29, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/29/qt

Do any accounting doctoral programs do better than $40,000 per year?

"Grade Entitlement," by J. Edward Ketz, SmartPros, April 2008 --- http://accounting.smartpros.com/x61526.xml

I have been teaching for many years, and I have observed lots of changes in the world of education. The differences between the students I taught 30 years ago and those I teach today are huge and growing. In this column I mention a few of these differences; perhaps I can discuss some of the others in later columns. To facilitate this discussion, I examine one student's email as a case study of this phenomenon.

It used to be the case that grades were the vehicle by which a professor would communicate his or her evaluation of competency and quality. If the student did well, the professor would reward the student with a high mark. These grades would also provide a signal, admittedly noisy, to prospective employers about the quality of the student in the class.

Unfortunately, the value of grades as an indicator of competency has declined over time. Students feel that they should get good grades for nothing; teachers capitulate so they can spend time on their research; and administrators add pressure to pass unqualified students to avoid confrontations and lawsuits.

I am currently teaching an Introductory Accounting class, and the Financial Accounting portion will have two exams and homework. I recently gave the first exam and had a mean of 73. I announced there would be no curve. Among other reasons, the students are averaging in the mid 90s on their homework. Here is one student's response to the exam and to the announcement about no curve.

"I do not mean to be disrespectful by any means, but I would greatly appreciate an answer to my inquiry. If the average score of the first exam is 73 percent, why would you deem such a low score as acceptable? Many students like myself are required Accounting 211 for our majors and are required a 70 percent. With an average score of 73 percent, many students have obviously scored below a C on this exam. Personally, I studied a tremendous amount of hours only to receive a 72 percent. I feel as if an average score on an exam on such an important class should certainly be above a C-. Furthermore, for there to be no curve at all is a disprespect (sic) to the students in this class. We are all paying a considerable amount of money to attend this University. Therefore, I expect our professors to take in consideration our wellbeing during our duration here. I would appreciate any insight into this situation, and any explaination (sic) as to why you deem a 73 percent average is suitable for this course. Thanks for your time."

This email is delicious. (I have more.) Notice that the student has an opinion on the grading scheme despite his lack of a teaching degree and any teaching experience. He offers nothing more for his credentials other than his status as a student. Other students have also told me what topics I should exclude (everything boring like the accounting cycle and financial statements) and what I should include (such as Enron). I wonder what insights into the profession they have to supply such opinions, and, if they cannot understand simple journal entries, on what basis do they think they are ready to discuss the SPEs at Enron.

I replied that a 95 on the homework and a 73 on each of the two exams would yield a grade of (95+73+73)/3 or 80, which is a B-. I suppose that a B- is insufficient in his eyes, given his work ethic and his financial contributions to the university.

Perhaps I should have added that I don't care that he "studied a tremendous amount of hours only to receive a 72 percent." I realize that many of my colleagues like to reward effort, but I disagree. In addition to the problem of not knowing whether he is telling the truth, I have the problem of knowing whether he understands what hard work is. What he calls hard work may be what I call barely trying. It is possible to spend many hours on a topic without expending much real effort. Besides, I doubt that many employers would reward their employees for hard effort if it yielded poor results.

I also have discovered the self-fulfilling nature of curves. With a curve, the average student doesn't worry about failing and studies less vigorously. The threat of flunking the course, however, creates a fear that necessitates studying longer and harder. The students may hate the course and dislike me, but they have a greater chance of actually learning something. Of course, it is good that I have tenure -- my teaching evaluations take a hit when I enforce a no-curve policy.

The email is fascinating for its assertion of a direct linkage between tuition and grades. Note his comment, "We are all paying a considerable amount of money to attend this University. Therefore, I expect our professors to take in consideration our wellbeing during our duration here." Admittedly he did not state what he meant by the consideration of his well being, but in the context of his demanding an "explaination" for my policy of no curve, his motive and his argument are clear. I wonder when and how our society evolved into this philosophy that paying one's tuition should guarantee a passing mark. Talk about taking the student-as-client metaphor too far!

As the reader will note, the document is not well written, has grammatical errors, and has several errors that any spellchecker would have caught. Accounting education might as well go the way of English composition. Students can't write, so English courses no longer require term papers; in like manner, students cannot account, so let's forget financial reporting.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment

High grades are now about as easy to get as the Good Housekeeping Seal in many colleges and universities.

I think the three major causes of grade inflation in accounting courses are as follows:

1. College-required student evaluations of instructors at the end of each course and the question asking for a rating of the instructor have become huge opportunities and/or stumbling blocks for tenure decisions and evaluations for pay raises. It's a point of fact and virtually all statements by administrators and faculty to the contrary are lies.
   
    
2. Accounting recruiters generally set gpa thresholds quite high for accounting majors such that C grades can be devastating terms of getting an opportunity to be interviewed for employment. As a result students fight tooth and nail over grades.
   
    
3. C grades can be devastating when applying for graduate school and law school In most states students want to get into a masters of accounting or tax program in order to qualify to take the CPA examination. In some schools, like Trinity University, students have to be admitted to the masters program in order to get the requisite courses and credits beyond the bachelors degree to sit for the CPA examination in Texas. 

It's a fact that a C grade is essentially a failing grade as far as students are concerned.

Instructors, especially those not yet tenured, are afraid to antagonize students with median grades at the C level in courses that used to have median grades of C sixty years ago. For example, the median undergraduate grade at Harvard was C in the 1940s, and in recent years about 80% of the grades given in Harvard undergraduate courses are A grades. Even Harvard students with C-average gpas can find it tough to get into graduate school, medical school, and law school.

RateMyProfessor found that the number one concern of students is grading --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#RateMyProfessor

Formal research studies indicate that required course evaluations have led to significant increases in grade inflation --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#GradeInflation
Interestingly, a high percentage of students report that getting an "A grade" is easy (but possibly boring and time wasting) in courses.

I have several suggestions along these lines:

1. Colleges should make grading distributions for each course known to other faculty in the division, such as the College of Business.
   
    
2. Grading distributions should be required information for Promotion and Tenure Committees as well as power centers for performance evaluations.
   
    
3. Colleges should set limits on the percentage of A and A- grades allowed in lower division courses and possibly even upper division undergraduate and graduate courses where only A, A-, and B grades are normally given.
   
    
4. Colleges, especially prestigious universities, should consider the college-wide grading controls used by some universities like Princeton and Evergreen.

Do as I say, not as I do:  Professor who criticizes Wikipedia plagiarizes from Wikipedia

"University chief lifted text from Wikipedia," by Mark Sainsbury, The Australian, April 26, 2008 --- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23600451-12332,00.html

GRIFFITH University vice-chancellor Ian O'Connor has admitted lifting information straight from online encyclopedia Wikipedia and confusing strands of Islam as he struggled to defend his institution's decision to ask the repressive Saudi Arabian Government for funding.

Professor O'Connor also appears to have breached his own university's standards on plagiarism as they apply to students' academic work - a claim he denies. And he appears to have ignored his own past misgivings about Wikipedia and internet-based research.

In September, The Australian revealed that the Queensland university had accepted a grant of $100,000 from the Saudi Government. Last week, it was revealed that Griffith had asked the Saudi embassy in Australia for a $1.37million grant for its Islamic Research Unit, telling the ambassador that certain elements of the controversial deal could be kept a secret.

Griffith - described by Professor O'Connor as the "university of choice" for Saudis - also offered the embassy a chance to "discuss" ways in which the money could be used.

Professor O'Connor's response to The Australian's revelations, which was published as an opinion article in the newspaper on Thursday, contained whole passages of text "cut and pasted" from Wikipedia.

"The primary doctrine of Unitarianism is Tawhid, or the uniqueness and unity of God," Professor O'Connor wrote. "Wahhab also preached against a perceived moral decline and political weakness in the Arabian peninsula and condemned idolatry, the popular cult of saints, and shrine and tomb visitation."

The Wikipedia entry for Wahhabism reads: "The primary doctrine of Wahhabism is Tawhid, or the uniqueness and unity of God ... He preached against a 'perceived moral decline and political weakness' in the Arabian peninsula and condemned idolatry, the popular cult of saints, and shrine and tomb visitation."

Professor O'Connor, whose academic credentials are in social work and juvenile justice, appears to have substituted the word Unitarianism for Wahhabism.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on Professors Who Plagiarize --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize

Question
What are the top ranked universities in terms of first-time passage rates on the CPA examination?

"Passing the CPA exam on the first try: Top colleges are ranked," AccountingWeb, April 17, 2008 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=104988
 

Kansas is known for its bumper crops but who knew they were growing accountants? At Kansas University's School of Business, 72 percent of students without advanced degrees passed the CPA exam on the first try, which is much higher than the average considering most people take the exam more than once. Kansas's Lawrence Journal-World reported that of the 69,259 candidates who took at least one portion of the exam in 2007, only 21,893 were taking it for the first time.

This puts KU in some lofty company, ranking number four in terms of the rate of accounting students without advanced degrees who passed last year's exam on the first try. Number one is the University of Texas at Austin with 76.8 percent and number two is a tie between Texas A&M University and the University of Iowa with 73.3 percent.

"This ranking reflects well on the quality of the accounting program and the KU School School of Business," said Paul Mason, a senior lecturer in forensic accounting at KU. "There is no question that we have some of the best students in the country, and this ranking helps highlight that fact."

Mason told the Lawrence Journal-World that corporate recruiters from the area often seek out students for employment and students go on to pursue jobs in Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas.

Rounding out the top 10 schools were: University of Georgia at 71.7 percent; University of Wisconsin at 70.3 percent; University of Virginia at 68.4 percent; Auburn University at 67.4 percent; and a tie for ninth place with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of Washington, Southern Methodist University, at 66.7 percent.

Continued is article

Jensen Comment
Only three of the above "top 10" CPA exam passage rate schools are among Business Week's recent 2008 rankings of undergraduate business programs --- the Universities of Texas, Michigan, and Virginia.

The "top 10" undergraduate business programs for 2008 according to business week are (in order) Wharton, Virginia, Notre Dame, Cornell, Emory, Michigan, BYU, NYU, MIT, and Texas.

"America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree," by Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i34/34b01701.htm

Among my saddest moments as a career counselor is when I hear a story like this: "I wasn't a good student in high school, but I wanted to prove that I can get a college diploma. I'd be the first one in my family to do it. But it's been five years and $80,000, and I still have 45 credits to go."

I have a hard time telling such people the killer statistic: Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later. That figure is from a study cited by Clifford Adelman, a former research analyst at the U.S. Department of Education and now a senior research associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Yet four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year!

Even worse, most of those college dropouts leave the campus having learned little of value, and with a mountain of debt and devastated self-esteem from their unsuccessful struggles. Perhaps worst of all, even those who do manage to graduate too rarely end up in careers that require a college education. So it's not surprising that when you hop into a cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they could have done as a high-school dropout.

Such students are not aberrations. Today, amazingly, a majority of the students whom colleges admit are grossly underprepared. Only 23 percent of the 1.3 million high-school graduates of 2007 who took the ACT examination were ready for college-level work in the core subjects of English, math, reading, and science.

Perhaps more surprising, even those high-school students who are fully qualified to attend college are increasingly unlikely to derive enough benefit to justify the often six-figure cost and four to six years (or more) it takes to graduate. Research suggests that more than 40 percent of freshmen at four-year institutions do not graduate in six years. Colleges trumpet the statistic that, over their lifetimes, college graduates earn more than nongraduates, but that's terribly misleading. You could lock the collegebound in a closet for four years, and they'd still go on to earn more than the pool of non-collegebound — they're brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections.

Also, the past advantage of college graduates in the job market is eroding. Ever more students attend college at the same time as ever more employers are automating and sending offshore ever more professional jobs, and hiring part-time workers. Many college graduates are forced to take some very nonprofessional positions, such as driving a truck or tending bar.

How much do students at four-year institutions actually learn?

Colleges are quick to argue that a college education is more about enlightenment than employment. That may be the biggest deception of all. Often there is a Grand Canyon of difference between the reality and what higher-education institutions, especially research ones, tout in their viewbooks and on their Web sites. Colleges and universities are businesses, and students are a cost item, while research is a profit center. As a result, many institutions tend to educate students in the cheapest way possible: large lecture classes, with necessary small classes staffed by rock-bottom-cost graduate students. At many colleges, only a small percentage of the typical student's classroom hours will have been spent with fewer than 30 students taught by a professor, according to student-questionnaire data I used for my book How to Get an Ivy League Education at a State University. When students at 115 institutions were asked what percentage of their class time had been spent in classes of fewer than 30 students, the average response was 28 percent.

That's not to say that professor-taught classes are so worthwhile. The more prestigious the institution, the more likely that faculty members are hired and promoted much more for their research than for their teaching. Professors who bring in big research dollars are almost always rewarded more highly than a fine teacher who doesn't bring in the research bucks. Ernest L. Boyer, the late president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, used to say that winning the campus teaching award was the kiss of death when it came to tenure. So, no surprise, in the latest annual national survey of freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, 44.6 percent said they were not satisfied with the quality of instruction they received. Imagine if that many people were dissatisfied with a brand of car: It would quickly go off the market. Colleges should be held to a much higher standard, as a higher education costs so much more, requires years of time, and has so much potential impact on your life. Meanwhile, 43.5 percent of freshmen also reported "frequently" feeling bored in class, the survey found.

College students may be dissatisfied with instruction, but, despite that, do they learn? A 2006 study supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below "proficient" levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks as understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare credit-card offers. Almost 20 percent of seniors had only basic quantitative skills. The students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the gas station.

Continued in article

April 28, 2008 reply from Flowers, Carol [cflowers@OCC.CCCD.EDU]

Another example of commitment to education -- I have researched and found that at least 40% of my students are carrying 16-21 units and working full time. I explain this is not realistic. They explain to me that they have to get this "degree" quickly. If they are doing poorly in my course -- it is because they don't have the time and I should understand this and take this into consideration when assigning a grade. Just this past semester, I had a student explain to me, though he barely earned a "C", that I had to assign him an "A" as he needed those grade points to get accepted at a college he wanted to transfer to. Besides, it wasn't his fault he only earned a "C", he was working two jobs and carrying 17 units! Somewhere along the way, reality has been lost -- they want it all and they want it NOW!!

April 28, 2008 reply from Abacus Capalini [abacuscapalini@YAHOO.COM]

The question that comes to my mind is, is this "devaluation" due to the marketing of colleges and/ or diploma mills? Where they focus on a quick degree turnaround or credit for work experience.

As a faculty member at a community college, I have also had students demand a higher grade because they had to work and go to school. It is an interesting position to be in.

April 28, 2008 reply from Patricia Doherty [pdoherty@BU.EDU]

I'm a bit put off by the article's bias toward the "bored" argument. Are we there to teach then something or entertain them? Do we have to make every class sound like MTV or an episode of Saturday Night Live? I don't find all aspects of accounting terribly entertaining. In fact I'd rather go get a filling done that listen to someone talk about the beauty of debits and credits. But I'm intelligent enough to understand that , although "boring," debits and credits serve a purpose, and the end results of the chain they begin ARE both useful and interesting.

There was a time when the value of a college education was considered to be a broadening of the mind, and the acquisition of knowledge that had value in and of itself, regardless of its ability to raise your salary. Isn't that still a good thing? I think so.

Maybe the problem (Haven't I ranted about this before? Stop reading if I have.) is the gradual shifting of the orientation from educational institution to trade school.

April 28, 2008  from Peter Kenyon [pbk1@HUMBOLDT.EDU]

While we're beating up students (largely deserved) we ought to save some indignation for ourselves.

Along with healthcare, higher ed runs near the front of the pack in price level increases. We've invented an education establishment were most faculty are rewarded for finding ways out of the classroom to do "more important" work. We create "mission creep" in co- and extra-curricular activities that come with massive overhead. We run up tuition and fees while lobbying for more financial aid passthroughs from our students. We encourage them to lard up with debt to earn our degrees.

It isn't just the student body that changed it values.

Peter Kenyon

April 29, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Abacus, 

Glad you joined us. My compliments to your parents if Abacus is the name on your birth certificate.

My parents weren’t as imaginative but then again they might've chosen “Sue” (as in the Johnny Cash classic."

Message to America's Higher Education Faculty
You are the reason the colleges are proud of what they do and your accomplishments represent the performance that colleges and universities point to in developing and justifying their reputation. Reputations are not developed in a vacuum. You, your parents, your children, your colleagues and your peers are the living remnants of the college experience. Your success justifies the massive resources poured by private Americans into supporting colleges and universities. And your success validates the vocation that characterizes the role of so many faculty members. There is something special about American higher education, which continues to produce some of the world’s greatest scientists and engineers, thinkers and scholars. There is something unique in the education we offer, which provides a breadth, an intellectual depth to accompany the skills and aptitudes of the specialist. And there are the human successes in sectors whose mission is to produce an involved, thinking efficiency... Not everyone agrees that American higher education is characterized by success. Numbers are quoted indicating that the quality of graduates is not what it used to be. But they forget that sometimes the numbers go down as the numbers go up. As American higher education welcomes people less prepared, less gifted and often less motivated, as the atmosphere at some colleges becomes less rarified by the proliferation of remedial education, the average accomplishment will go down.
Bernard Fryshman, "Grasping the Reins of Reality," Inside Higher Ed, August 16, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/08/16/fryshman

Today the United States ranks ninth among industrialized nations in higher-education attainment, in large measure because only 53 percent of students who enter college emerge with a bachelor’s degree, according to census data. And those who don’t finish pay an enormous price. For every $1 earned by a college graduate, someone leaving before obtaining a four-year degree earns only 67 cents.
Jensen Comment
These income statistics are misleading. For example, the reasons that make a student drop out of college may be the same reason that dropout will earn a lower wage. In other words, not having a diploma may not be the reason the majority of dropouts have lower incomes. Aside from money problems, students often quit college because they have lower ambition, abilities, concentration, social skills, and/or health quality, including drug and alcohol addictions. These human afflictions contribute to lower wages whether or not a student graduates, and a higher proportion of dropouts have such afflictions versus students who stick it out to obtain their diplomas. Nations who rank higher than the U.S. in higher-education attainment do so because they have higher admission standards for the first year of college.

The problem is that our students choose very bland, low nourishment diets in our modern day smorgasbord curricula. Their concern is with their grade averages rather than their education. And why not? Grades for students and turf for faculty have become the keys to the kingdom!
Bob Jensen

One of the more important documents to read is linked below:

"Our Compassless Colleges," by Peter Berkowitz, The Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2007; Page A17 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Berkowitz

Especially note http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#GradeInflation
Keep in mind that Cornell University is an Ivy League school that only admits cream-of-the-crop high school graduates.

Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i34/34b01701.htm

A very good professor (and a friend with a PhD in accountancy) with whom I corresponded in the past, albeit not recently, asked me to post the message below anonymously.

Of course I agreed to help her out.

Before reading the following message, you may want to become knowledgeable about the AACSB’s AQ-PQ classification scheme and statement about how vital clinical professors are becoming in virtually all colleges of business in the United States ---
http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/papers/PQ-facultypaper-updated11-2-06 06.pdf 

In some instances I think this is simply placing new tags on old faculty in an effort to possibly motivate them to provide a little more service to employers. But as Woodrow Wilson stated years ago, getting faculty to change is like moving a cemetery. In other instances these new schema deal with troubles in hiring/retaining faculty with doctorates in accounting who have NOT established adequate reputations for accounting research at the collegiate level. It also recognizes that faculty without doctorates may be capable of value added research and publication as well as teaching.

This is a relatively new AACSB accreditation framework that is untested in many universities. I truly am ignorant about such matters and have no knowledge of how this is working out in practice. It is of course a difficult thing to generalize about since faculty relationships vary so markedly between colleges and even in the same college over time as faculty come and go.

In some ways, adopting the AACSB’s new guidelines is simply a way of giving a new senior faculty member tenure in an accounting department without having the research faculty watchdogs (also called guardhouse lawyers) blocking the appointment due to that candidate’s short publication record. Presumably the candidate is being considered due to outstanding credentials along other lines such as an outstanding teaching record and/or outstanding executive experience such as having been on the PCAOB or the FASB.

I might add that I’m 100% certain that, unless there is massively destructive world war, shortages of research faculty in accountancy will get worse instead of better in this woman’s lifetime. This of course does not imply that many departments of accounting will not have two tiers of prestige and pay with respect to research versus clinical faculty.

Throughout most of the history of the Harvard Business School, which is only a graduate school, it was implicitly recognized that world-class teachers would NOT be punished for failing to publish in leading research journals of their disciplines. However, most of them published highly successful textbooks and case books. Others sometimes served high levels of government as executive consultants or as visiting full-time executives before returning to Harvard. They were in fact clinical professors without ever being designated as such in those days.

Across academic disciplines the use of the term “clinical faculty” varies. I think in colleges of education, clinical faculty educate K-12 teachers and are not held accountable for as much academic research. The same is true in nursing schools. In schools of psychology, however, being termed a “clinical professor” is more of a designation of the types of courses taught and types of journals where clinical psychology research is published. Clinical professors of psychology may be expected to have distinguished records for research and publication as great as the psychometrics faculty. I know this was the case in the Psychology Department at Trinity University where both clinical faculty and psychometric faculty must establish research records for tenure.

Of course what happens in education and psychology does not extrapolate to the newer concept of “clinical faculty” in university accountancy programs. I think pay and prestige will vary a great deal with respect to the type of clinical professor we’re talking about. A clinical professor who served for years on the PCAOB and has an established national reputation as an accountant or was a high level executive in the IRS is vastly different than a relatively-unknown MBA/CPA whose main duty will be to lecture and coordinate 34 sections of basic accounting. Pay and prestige will vary accordingly.

How many prestigious schools of accountancy would love to give the exiting top accountant of the Federal Government, David Walker, an endowed chair as a clinical professor of not-for-profit accountancy? Watch the Video interview with David on CBS Sixty Minutes Television ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS2fI2p9iVs 
David was also featured in cover stories of the Journal of Accountancy and CFO Magazine. No endowed research professor in any university of the world is as well known as this professional without a doctorate, although I know a few snooty accountics researchers who would argue that David’s not qualified to become a tenured accounting professor at their universities. But my guess is that, in David’s case, David would get an endowed chair anyway in economics departments where paranoia among researchers is seldom as severe as in accounting departments.

My hunch is that the questions raised by the woman below cannot be answered out of context. Clinical professorships vary all the way from endowed chairs to entry level assistant professorships where expectations are higher for teaching and service vis-à-vis research.

My answer to all questions below are thus the unsatisfying --- “It all depends.”

I have a child who, on more than one occasion, said “poop on Depends.”

****************
April 29, 2008 message received from an anonymous woman

Bob,

I am wondering if you would do me a favor? Could you post a question that I have to the AECM list anonymously? I ask you for two reasons:

1. I have been on the listserv for several years and used to contribute, but now I am unable for some reason to respond. When I complete a response and hit send, the message gets lost somewhere in the ether. It never appears and never gets kicked back.

2. This is probably the most important reason that I would ask you to post my question anonymously. The question regards career matters and I know that my department chair reads and posts on the AECM board. For this reason asking this question could pose potential career suicide for me.

My question regards the use of clinical teaching professors in accounting. I have been approached by a doctoral institution about a position as a clinical teaching professor. The position intrigues me and is brought about by this university's inability to find tenure-track faculty in my area of teaching. I teach in tax, although audit is also experiencing this same situation.

My question is how these types of positions are perceived by the academic community in general. I am afraid that by taking a position such as this I would be forever forgoing many opportunities because the perception of future hiring committees awould devalue this type of a position. I understand that research is what drives most hiring and promotion decisions, so completely cutting off research is out of the question, besides, most institutions would require their clinical faculty to at least be AQ, which would require a modicum of research.

Other questions that I have regard the lists experience with these types of positions. Items such as : Are the clinicals treated as second-class citizens in the department? Do the clinicals receive raises and promotions other than just COLA type raises? Are these positions nothing more than full-time adjunct positions; the type of position that will be eliminated when or if the current market imbalances go away? Without tenure are there other methods to safeguard these clinical positions, or are some schools creating a separate tenure type track for clinical teaching professors?

I know that many of these items have been broached in the past, but I was hoping for an updated discussion and a sounding board for the pro's and con's of this type of a position.

If you feel uncomfortable with posting this question and protecting my identity I will understand.

I hope that everything is going well for you in New Hamprshire.

Thanks

The Daily Drucker ---
http://homepage.mac.com/bobembry/studio/biz/conceptual_resources/authors/peter_drucker/daily_drucker.html

Drucker's primary contribution is not a single idea, but rather an entire body of work that has one gigantic advantage: nearly all of it is essentially right. Drucker has an uncanny ability to develop insights about the workings of the social world, and to later be proved right by history. His first book, The End of Economic Man, published in 1939, sought to explain the origins of totalitarianism; after the fall of France in 1940, Winston Churchill made it a required part of the book kit issued to every graduate of the British Officer's Candidate School. His 1946 book The Concept of the Corporation analyzed the technocratic corporation, based upon an in-depth look at General Motors. It so rattled senior management in its accurate foreshadowing of future challenges to the corporate state that it was essentially banned at GM during the Sloan era. Drucker's 1964 book was so far ahead of its time in laying out the principles of corporate strategy that his publisher convinced him to abandon the title Business Strategies in favor of Managing for Results, because the term "strategy" was utterly foreign to the language of business.

A question was raised about foreign student trends in higher education business programs in the United States

Investment Theory versus Practice:  What are volatility "smiles" versus "smirks"?

From the Financial Rounds Blog on April 28, 2008 --- http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/

Informed Traders and Options Markets

If you were an informed trader, would you trade in the options market or in the market for the underlying asset? Finance theory says you'd trade in the options market because of increased leverage.

Now here's another paper that supports this idea. In their March 2008 paper Xiaoyan Zhang, Rui Zhao and Yuhang Xing look at whether relatively expensive put options can be used as "bad news" indicators. Here's the abstract of their paper:

The shape of the volatility smirks has significant cross-sectional predictive power for future equity returns. Stocks exhibiting the steepest smirks in their traded options underperform stocks with the least pronounced volatility smirks in their options by around 15% per year on a risk-adjusted basis. This predictability persists for at least six months, and firms with steepest volatility smirks are those experiencing the worst earnings shocks in the following quarter. The results are consistent with the notion that informed traders with negative news prefer to buy out-of-the-money put options, and that the equity market is slow in incorporating the information embedded in volatility smirks.

Read the whole thing here. --- http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1107464

In case you're not familiar with the term, the volatility "smile" refers to the phenomenon that implied volatility increases for options that are further out of the money. If the increase in implied volatility is greater on one side than on the other, the pattern is known as a volatility "smirk". In the case of this paper the smirk is used as an indicator of the degree to which puts or calls are relatively expensive. For example, if calls are relatively more expensive, that is taken as an indicator that informed traders have been buying calls because they have positive information about a stock, with expensive puts being an indicator that traders possess bad news.

In addition to predicting subsequent returns, the authors also find that firms with the most expensive put options are more likely to have the worst negative earnings shocks in the following quarter.

All in all, a pretty cool paper that indicates how information from one market can predict movements in another.

Jensen Comment
Do you suppose that Sony's Camera's new frown-fixing tool (called Happy Face Retouch) can be pointed at a volatility graph and turn a smirk into a smile?

Bob Jensen's investment and personal finance helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers

These New Cameras Are Truly Amazing:  The Can Literally Detect When a Person Smiles and Turn a Frown Into a Smile
I don't know if they can distinguish a "moon" from a face.
More importantly, to me, they can make appropriate picture quality setting for me!
But they will not sell as well as they could if they’d make us younger and thinner.

"New Cameras Guarantee A Smile on Your Face:  Devices Sense Night and Day And Detect Grinning Friends; Turning a Frown Upside Down," by Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2008; Page D1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120889435178135615.html
Also see http://www.wsbt.com/news/consumer/18302919.html

Most digital cameras have more settings than the average person knows what to do with -- from common adjustments for nighttime and face shots to obscure settings for sports, fireworks and snow scenes.

When the moment comes to take the perfect picture of a snowy mountaintop, Fourth of July fireworks or soccer goal in midkick, most people forget about these features or don't know how to use them. And while many digital cameras can now detect faces and make sure they are in focus, they can't tell whether that face is smiling or not. The results aren't bad, but they could be much better.

I tried out Sony's $300 Cyber-shot DSC-W170, Kodak's $250 EasyShare Z1085 IS and Olympus's $200 FE-340. Only the Sony includes all three of the aforementioned features; the Kodak has scene detection, and the Olympus camera has built-in smile detection. I found the automatic scene detection offered in the Sony and Kodak cameras to be the most useful feature for everyday photos. It improved my photos and didn't require any extra adjustments. I handed the cameras to other people to take pictures, without having to change any settings.

The automatic smile detection offered in the Sony and Olympus cameras was fun to use and could be especially helpful for families whose young kids never seem to smile at the right moment. But it didn't work consistently and had trouble detecting my bearded boss's smile and even that of a beard-free colleague.

I found Sony's frown-fixing tool, which is called Happy Face Retouch, to be rather unusual. It took already captured images of my friends' faces and turned their frowns or ambivalent looks into smiles, but didn't adjust the subjects' eyes. Though this was good for laughs, the eerie-looking grins pasted on faces reminded me of painted-on clowns' mouths. And some attempts to retouch a face couldn't detect the face to alter it. But a handful of the Happy Face Retouches looked somewhat natural.

Similar Specs

These cameras boast many similar specifications. All three use 5x optical zoom lenses, and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W170 and Kodak EasyShare Z1085 IS each have 10.1 and 10 megapixel image sensors while the least expensive Olympus FE-340 has 8 megapixels. The Sony and Olympus both have generous 2.7-inch viewing screens and almost identically sleek builds, though the Sony is the only one of these three cameras to have an optical viewfinder.

The Kodak's viewing screen is slightly smaller than the other two digital cameras, measuring 2.5 inches, but its build isn't nearly as compact as the others. It reminded me more of small, high-end SLR camera, with its comfortably large hand grip, a settings knob on the top edge of the camera, and a protruding

Kodak's EasyShare Z1085 IS takes Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, which are more common than the Memory Stick and xD cards that work in the Sony and Olympus cameras, respectively.

The Kodak and Sony digital cameras have different names for their automatic scene-detection features. By default, the Kodak camera works in Smart Capture Mode, which includes intelligent scene detection, capture control and image processing. I focused on the camera's scene detection, which automatically determines whether the photo should be taken in Macro, Text (for shots of text in a book, for example), Face, Landscape or Night settings.

Icon on the Screen

I snapped pictures around Washington, D.C., noting a tiny icon on the camera's screen that indicated which of the five scene modes was being used to capture the photo. A flower icon indicating Macro appeared on my screen when I stooped to get a close-up shot of a tulip, and an icon of a dark sky and stars showed on the screen when I took photos at night. The camera's flash, focus and exposure changed according to the type of photo.

The Sony camera uses what it calls Intelligent Scene Recognition to decide which settings should go along with certain photos. Like the Kodak, icons on the Sony's screen indicated the scene settings that were automatically deemed appropriate, including Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait and Twilight Using a Tripod.

The Sony's Intelligent Scene Recognition isn't on by default like Kodak's feature. Instead, it must be turned on from within a menu, but once on, it stays on until you turn it off. ISR can be used in either Auto or Advanced mode; Auto takes a single photo with automatically determined settings, while Advanced takes two shots -- one with manual settings you can choose and another shot immediately following the first with automatic settings according to what the camera thinks is best.

I experienced surprising results with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W170 and Olympus FE-340 while testing their automatic smile-detecting functions. My friends thought I was joking when I told them the camera would take their picture only if they were smiling. When the flash went off multiple times as they kept smiling, they were intrigued by this feature.

Sony's version, which it calls Smile Shutter Mode, is easy to switch into by turning a dial on the camera to a smiley face. Once this setting is chosen and the camera's shutter button is pressed, the Cyber-shot will search for smiles in its subjects, and will take photos whenever it detects a smile. Settings within this mode can be set to specifically detect an adult's smile or a child's smile, and the degree of smile can be set to low, medium or high; I kept things simple by leaving the smile detector on default settings.

Capturing Smiles

Olympus calls this feature Smile Shot, capturing three rapid shots in a row to make sure everyone's smiling. The idea of taking three shots would be extra helpful with an indecisive baby, but most of my friends were able to hold their smiles, which produced three almost exactly identical shots each time someone smiled. Smile Shot is harder to get to in a pinch compared with the Sony: it's buried in a list of 13 settings on the Olympus when the camera is set in Scene mode.

The Olympus seemed to be a bit slower than the Sony when it came to detecting smiles, but both had trouble with bearded men and even some folks without beards. And people felt silly standing around with a smile on their faces waiting for the camera to finally work. Closed-mouth, no-teeth smiles were harder for these cameras to detect, but not impossible. In group situations, the Olympus camera will focus on whoever's face appears largest, which could mean the person closest to the camera, while the Sony takes a picture whenever anyone in the group smiles.

Putting a Happy Face On

If someone isn't smiling, Sony's Happy Face Retouch tool can come in handy, but don't count on liking the results. In a group shot of five friends, two people who weren't smiling put a bit of a damper on the whole shot. I used Happy Face Retouch, but it picked up on only one of the nonsmiling faces, turning a confused look into a smile that looked passable. But other results weren't usable. A serious-looking shot of me deliberately not smiling looked freakishly unnatural after the touch-up, mostly because the rest of my face didn't join the smile. I looked more like someone who had received too many Botox treatments.

Sony says that, in group shots, it can detect and change up to eight faces, but in my tests it usually changed only one. This retouching tool is also difficult to find: It took me 16 button presses to change each image into a smile -- or what Sony calls a smile. A few times, Happy Face Retouch couldn't identify a face in the photo, even when just one person stood in the frame.

These digital cameras took good photos, overall, and are fun to use because they take pressure off the photographer. I found the automatic scene-detection tools of the Kodak and Sony to be the most realistic and useful offerings, and I'm sure it won't be long before automatic scene detection becomes as commonplace as an automatic flash.

"Computerized Combat Glove:  A new glove lets soldiers operate their wearable computer without putting down their weapons," by Brittany Sauser, MIT's Technology Review, April 28, 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20680/?nlid=1032

Some U.S. soldiers in Iraq are already equipped with wearable computer systems. But the lack of efficient input devices restricts their use to safer environments, such as the interior of a Humvee or a base station, where the soldier can set down his weapon and use the keyboard or mouse tethered to his body. Now RallyPoint, a startup based in Cambridge, MA, has developed a sensor-embedded glove that allows the soldier to easily view and navigate digital maps, activate radio communications, and send commands without having to take his hand off his weapon.

For soldiers carrying a plethora of equipment, finding and using electronic controls on their bodies can be awkward, says Forrest Liau, the president and cofounder of RallyPoint. "We wanted to make a device that would have all the necessary components in a combat-ready way," he says. The Natick Soldier Systems Center in Natick, MA, has a contract with RallyPoint and is currently testing a prototype of the glove, called a Handwear Computer Input Device (HCID), for use with its electronic systems.

A sensor-laden glove for wearable computing is not an entirely new concept. Researchers at MIT, the University of Toronto, and the Georgia Institute of Technology have been working on systems that focus on detecting hand and arm movements by using accelerometers, gyroscopes, and other high-tech sensors. But Gerd Kortuem, an assistant professor of computing at Lancaster University, in England, says that most of these prototypes "don't work reliably and are not robust enough." Microsoft and Sony have also worked on gesture recognition and wearable-mouse technologies, but their research has yet to yield usable devices.

RallyPoint has a "very clever design and has actually created something practical by focusing on a particular domain--the military," says Kortuem.

A typical wearable computer system consists of a helmet-mounted display and hardware the soldier wears around his waist. RallyPoint's engineers have designed their glove so that soldiers can grip other objects, such as their weapons or a steering wheel, and still be able to use their electronic systems. The glove has four custom-built push-button sensors sewn into the fingers near the tips. Sensors on the lower portion of the index finger and the tip of the fourth activate radio communications, a different channel for each finger. Another sensor on the tip of the index finger changes modes, from "map mode" to "mouse mode." In map mode, the fourth sensor, located on the pinky finger, is used to zoom in on and out of the map; in mouse mode, it serves as a mouse-click button.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
If the glove computer connects to the Internet and allows users to type wearing the glove (maybe the fingertips can be cut off the glove), this would be a great boost to writing and research. Users would not have to take their fingers off the keyboard to view Internet sites on a second computer screen while writing a paper or a book. Am I getting too Orwellian in my old age?

Bob Jensen's threads on ubiquitous computing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ubiquit.htm

"The Gender-Equity Hammer Comes Out Title IX at the door," by Christina Hoff Sommers, The National Review, April 24, 2008 --- http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=NjEwODUwOGZmY2U4ZGQyN2RiZjRkMGRmMTA4ZjQ0M2Y=

Women have surpassed men in most areas of education, but men continue to be more numerous in fields like math, physics and engineering. For more than a decade, feminist groups have been lobbying Congress to address the problem of gender “injustice” in the laboratory. Their efforts are finally bearing fruit. Federal agencies are now poised to begin aggressive gender-equity reviews of math, science, and engineering programs. Groups like the National Organization for Women must be celebrating — but American scientists should brace themselves for the destructive tsunami headed their way.

At a recent House hearing on “Women in Academic Science and Engineering” Congressman Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington State, asked a room full of activist women how best to bring American scientists into line: “What kind of hammer should we use?” The weapon of choice is the well-known federal anti-discrimination law “Title IX,” which prohibits sex discrimination in “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Title IX has never been rigorously applied to academic science. That is now about to change. In the past few months both the Department of Education and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have begun looking at candidates for Title IX-enforcement positions.

The feminist reformers acknowledge that few science departments are guilty of overt discrimination. They claim, however, that subtle, invisible “unconscious bias” is discouraging talented aspiring women. Therefore, the major focus of the equity movement is to transform the academic culture itself — to make it more attractive to women by rendering science less stressful, less competitive and less time consuming. Debra Rolison, a senior research chemist at the Pentagon’s Naval Research Laboratory and a leader of the equity campaign, describes the typical university chemistry department as “brutal to people who want to do something besides chemistry around-the-clock.” MIT biologist and equity-activist Nancy Hopkins says that contemporary science “is a system where winning is everything, and women find it repulsive.” Kathie Olsen, deputy director of the National Science Foundation, draws the revolutionary conclusion, “Our goal is to transform, institution by institution, the entire culture of science and engineering in America, and to be inclusive of all — for the good of all.” To this end, the National Science Foundation has launched a multi-million dollar grant program, called ADVANCE, devoted to “institutional transformation” through gender-sensitivity workshops, interactive theater and the like. ADVANCE is well named: it is the advance guard, softening up the hard sciences for the coming of Title IX enforcement.

Although Title IX has contributed to the progress of women’s athletics, it has done serious harm to men’s sports. Over the years, judges, federal officials, and college administrators have interpreted it to mean that women are entitled to “statistical proportionality.” That is to say, if a college’s student body is 60 percent female, then 60 percent of the athletes should be female — even if far fewer women than men are interested in playing sports at that college. But many athletic directors have been unable to attract the same proportions of women as men. So, to avoid government harassment, loss of funding, and lawsuits, educational institutions have eliminated men’s teams — in effect, reducing men’s participation to the level of women’s interest. That kind of regulatory calibration — call it reductio ad feminem — would wreak havoc in fields that drive the economy such as math, physics and computer science.

It is important to keep in mind that today’s academy is hardly inhospitable to women. Harvard, Princeton, Brown, MIT, and other top schools have women presidents. Women earn 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 59 percent of master’s degrees, and half the doctorates. If men were as gender-organized as women, they might lobby for Title IX reviews of the many departments — such as psychology, education, sociology, literature, art history, and the life sciences — where they are woefully “underrepresented.” And women now represent 77 percent of students in veterinary schools, so they can obviously manage hard technical science where it interests them.

The lower proportions of women in physics, mathematics, and engineering may be due in part to subtle factors of culture and “unconscious bias,” but facts point to simpler explanation. In a recent study by Neil Gross of Harvard and Solon Simmons of George Mason University, 1,417 professors were asked to explain the relative scarcity of female professors in these fields. Nearly three out of four respondents, 74 percent, attributed it to differences in the subjects that characteristically interest women, while 24 percent put it down to sexist discrimination and 1 percent to women’s lack of ability.

A large and growing quantity of social science literature supports the 74-percent opinion. According to this research, not bias but natural propensities and preferences explains the disparity. Yet the majority (some would say crushingly obvious) view has not been heard at the congressional hearings, where legislators have been inundated with testimony and petitions from equity activists presenting unsound advocacy research on “hidden sexism” against women.

At one recent hearing, Representative Vernon Ehlers, a Michigan Republican who calls himself a “recovering sexist” jokingly suggested we declare science a sport and regulate it the way we do college athletics. But science is not a sport. In science, women and men play on the same teams. In sports, no one suggested that women’s success required transforming the “culture of soccer” or cooling the passion for competing and winning. Most of all, the continued excellence of American science and technology is vital to our security and prosperity — and depends on an exacting meritocracy and, at the top, an intensity of vocational devotion that few men or women can achieve.

Congressmen like Ehlers and Baird, and National Science Foundation officials like Kathie Olsen are charged with protecting our scientific proficiency. Taking a feminist hammer to the nation’s science departments is recklessly at odds with that mission.

ASIMO Robot to Conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra --- http://physorg.com/news128267973.html
What will really be the day is when ASIMO becomes a world class violinist --- not in my lifetime.

Roger Collins forwarded the following video link:
Ckbot modular self assembly --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JG5GrAtalE
Jensen Comment
This reminds me a bit of what takes place in a singles bar (without the kicking apart which probably took place before entering the bar)

Before reading this article you may want to read about Second Life at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

"A New Vision for Second Life:  Linden Lab's new CEO outlines his plans to help Second Life mature," by Erica Naone, MIT's Technology Review, April 25, 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20678/?nlid=1029 

Earlier this week, Linden Lab, creator of the well-known virtual world Second Life, announced a new CEO: Mark Kingdon, currently CEO of digital marketing firm Organic. He will be taking over in mid-May. Kingdon inherits Linden Lab after a flood of press coverage last year made Second Life one of the best-known virtual worlds and got people excited about its potential. Major brands flocked to establish a presence in-world. But some, such as AOL and Wells Fargo, pulled out amid the turmoil created by some of Second Life's Wild West atmosphere. According to an official blog post by Linden Lab founder and outgoing CEO Philip Rosedale, Kingdon "will have an intense focus on improving the in-world experience and stability and reliability of Second Life." Kingdon's arrival is the most recent in a series of changes to Linden Lab's management. CTO Cory Ondrejka, who wrote the scripting language used in Second Life to create and control user-generated content, left the company in December. Rosedale announced his resignation in March, along with his intention to become Linden Lab's chairman of the board. Technology Review assistant editor Erica Naone spoke with Kingdon earlier this week about his plans for Second Life. Technology Review: How much time do you spend inside Second Life? Mark Kingdon: I'm spending a lot more time in-world now. I'm still in that place where I'm surveying the landscape, because it's pretty vast, and I'm collecting experiences that are amazing. It's just mind-blowing that this is all user-generated content. I haven't yet created anything myself other than clothing, but I think that's the next step for me because I like to make things. TR: Creating things seems like a Second Life rite of passage. MK: That's definitely the story of Second Life. Once you cross that magical "Aha!" place, it becomes very compelling. TR: A lot of new users seem to have trouble getting to that place. They get confused by the controls, and aren't sure what to do inside the world. Do you have any thoughts about how to make it easier to get started? MK: I've got a lot of background in the kind of user-centered design work that's going to be important for Second Life, especially as you look at the first-hour experience. I haven't come to any specific conclusions yet, but I think it starts with understanding what the resident needs in order to make a powerful experience, and looking at the kinds of people that you want to attract and bring in-world. The answers will emerge very clearly from that. TR: How do you plan to get different types of users acclimated? For example, business users might just want to get in-world quickly to have a meeting, while other users might be looking for a more playful experience. MK: I think the first thing that I need to do ... is really immerse myself in the different user bases and then think about if, by giving them additional tools, they can create that entry point for themselves, or if it's something we need to encourage, or if it's something that we need to create for them. I think the question is, how do you make that happen without becoming the primary content creator? Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads of learning in virtual worlds, including Second Life applications in accounting education are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

"Validation for RateMyProfessors.com?" by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, April 25, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/25/rmp

You’ve heard the reasons why professors don’t trust RateMyProfessors.com, the Web site to which students flock. Students who don’t do the work have equal say with those who do. The best way to get good ratings is to be relatively easy on grades, good looking or both, and so forth.

But what if the much derided Web site’s rankings have a high correlation with markers that are more widely accepted as measures of faculty performance? Last year, a scholarly study found a high correlation between RateMyProfessors.com and a university’s own system of student evaluations. Now, a new study is finding a high correlation between RateMyProfessors and a student evaluation system used nationally.

A new study is about to appear in the journal Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education and it will argue that there are similarities in the rankings in RateMyProfessors.com and IDEA, a student evaluation system used at about 275 colleges nationally and run by a nonprofit group affiliated with Kansas State University.

What is notable is that while RateMyProfessors.com gives power to students, IDEA gives a lot of control over the process to faculty members. Professors identify the teaching objectives that are important to the class, and those are the measures that count the most. In addition, weighting is used so that adjustments are made for factors beyond professors’ control, such as class size, student work habits and so forth — all variables that RateMyProfessors doesn’t really account for (or try to account for).

The study looked at the rankings of 126 professors at Lander University, in South Carolina, and compared the two ratings systems. The findings:

• Student rankings on the ease of courses were consistent in both systems and correlated with grades.
• Professors’ rankings for “clarity” and “helpfulness” on RateMyProfessors.com correlated with overall rankings for course excellence on IDEA.
• The similarities were such that, the journal article says, they offer “preliminary support for the validity of the evaluations on RateMyProfessors.com.”

The study was conducted by Michael E. Stonntag, who formerly taught at Lander and who is now vice president for academic affairs at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, and by two psychology professors at Lander, Jonathan F. Bassett and Timothy Snyder.

Sonntag said that there are two ways to read the results: One is to say that RateMyProfessors.com is as good as an educationally devised system and the other would be to say that the latter is as poor as the former. But either way, he suggested, it should give pause to critics to know that the students’ Web site “does correlate with a respected tool.”

William H. Pallett, president of IDEA, said he was “surprised a bit” by the correlation between his organization’s rankings and those of RateMyProfessors.com. That’s because much of the criticism he has heard of the student oriented site is that rankings aren’t representative, while much of the effort at IDEA is based on assuring representative samples.

“I am surprised, given that we do attend to issues of reliability and validity and they acknowledge that they don’t,” he said.

Pallett cautioned, however, that IDEA is not intended to be a sole basis for evaluating a course or professor. He said that he would always advise departments to have professors evaluate on another, and to use student evaluations as just one part of that review.

Sonntag said that his current institution uses a home-grown student evaluation system, and that he has no plans to seek a change to IDEA or RateMyProfessors.com — and that the evaluation system is covered by a collective bargaining contract anyway. But he said that he hoped the study might prompt some to think about the online rankings in new ways.

For his part, Sonntag acknowledged that some RateMyProfessors.com reviews are “so mean-spirited” that they aren’t worth anyone’s time. But he said that if you cast those aside, there are valuable lessons to be learned. He said that he does check what the site says about his teaching — and has found reinforcement for some innovations and reason to question whether some of his tests were too difficult.

“I’ve been an instructor for 10 years. I look at it,” he said, adding that he has found insights “that weren’t on my teaching evaluations and I have thought: ‘Wow. I believe what the student has said is valid and perhaps I can change the way I teach.”

Bob Jensen's threads on the dysfunctional aspects of teacher evaluations on grade inflation --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#GradeInflation

Bob Jensen's threads on RateMyProfessor are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#RateMyProfessor

I get free online access to Encyclopaedia Britannica':  Is this my just reward?

'Encyclopaedia Britannica' Is Now Free to Bloggers," by Catherine Rampell, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 21, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2923&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Encyclopaedia Britannica, which apparently fears being nudged into irrelevance by the proliferation of free online reference sources, has started giving bloggers free access to its articles, TechCrunch reports.

Reference sites such as Wikipedia, which are often criticized for their amateur (if zealous) authorship sources, have made the expensive, expert-vetted, hard-bound book set a less popular purchase. (Comscore analysis, also reported on TechCrunch, found that “[f]or every page viewed on Brittanica.com, 184 pages are viewed on Wikipedia,” or 3.8 billion v. 21 million page views per month).

Under a new program entitled Britannica WebShare, the encyclopedia publisher is allowing “people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers,” to read and link to the encyclopedia’s online articles. The company seems to hope that by offering its services free to Web publishers, links to Britannica articles will proliferate across the Internet and will persuade regular Web surfers to cough up $1,400 for the encyclopedia’s 32-volume set, or perhaps $70 for an annual online subscription.

Posted Comments as of April 21, 2008

“What’s that laugher?” Sir Colin wondered aloud to no one in particular. The entire room sat in nervous silence.
“I say, what is that laughter?”
— S. Britchky Apr 21, 12:50 PM #

The Encyclopedia Britannica print edition is worth every penny of the $1400 I paid for it. Other readers should note that the print edition of the set is marked down each year, to below $1000, near the end of its run, as the next year’s edition approaches publication. I don’t work for Britannica, but in my opinion, every home library should have a set. I’d be lost without it., even though I have full access to the Internet.
— Richard    Apr 21, 08:49 PM  

Jensen Comment
Woe is me! Should I continue to be one of the billions or join the millions?

This is the classic issue of open source versus refereed publishing. Refereed articles, including Encyclopaedia Britannica, assign a few highly qualified referees to pass judgment on the accuracy and relevance of each module once and some modules are not reviewed again for many years. Wikipedia freely allows the entire online world to edit each module in real time. Do you have more faith in one-time decisions of experts or real-time decisions of possibly millions of people with expertise ranging from dunder heads to the best experts in the world on a given topic.

What Encyclopaedia Britannica has going for it is that it prevents dunder heads from messing up the module. What Wikipedia has going for it is that experts generally override the dunder heads of most topics, although errors may remain indefinitely in modules that nobody online is particularly interested in to a point of searching for the module on Wikipedia.

There also is the "problem" in Wikipedia that organizations and individuals such as the CIA, FBI, IRS, Hamas, Israel, Russia, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and the Fortune 500 largest corporations are "maintaining" certain modules about themselves and sensitive terms. This is both good and bad. It prevents kooks and dunder heads from spreading lies and poisons about these organizations/individuals, but it also affords these organizations/individuals to present their own biased accounts of themselves. Fortunately Wikipedia added a Discussion Tab to each module where even the kooks are allowed to express opinions on the modules. Readers can then choose whether to read the discussions or not.

By way of example, take a look at Wikipedia's Cendant module at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cendant
The module is motherhood and apple pie with no mention of a $3.27 billion settlement for accounting fraud in 2005 ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/03/AR2005080302177.html
If there ever was mention of this fraud, chances are that Cendant officials or their friends wiped it out in Wikipedia. But if you turn to the Discussion tab, some mention is made of this fraud.

Now what about scholarly journals. Should the refereeing be done by two or three experts (sometimes cronies) selected by the Editor or should the working papers be exposed open source to online people of the world who can then publish feedback regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the research paper or other scholarly work? Me, I'm an open source kinda guy!

Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Open Encyclopedia, and YouTube as Knowledge Bases --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm#KnowledgeBases

"Professors Should Embrace Wikipedia," by Mark A. Wilson. Inside Higher Ed, April 1, 20058 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/04/01/wilson

Nothing's Perfect But what Consumes you?
Poems at the Poetry Free for All --- http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/archive/index.php/t-24023.html

Tax Index 2008 ranks state tax systems --- http://www.sbecouncil.org/uploads/BusinessTaxIndex2008.pdf

•Personal Income Tax. State personal income tax rates affect individual economic decisionmakingin important ways. A high personal income tax rate raises the costs of working, saving, investing, and risk taking. Personal income tax rates vary among states, therefore impacting crucial economic decisions and activities. In fact, the personal income tax influences business far more than generally assumed because roughly 90 percent of businesses file taxes as individuals (e.g., sole proprietorship, partnerships and S-Corps.), and therefore pay personal income taxes rather than corporate income taxes. Measurement: state’s top personal income tax rate.1

Jensen Comment
The above tax rates are a little misleading in some states. For example, New Hampshire shares Rank 1 with a zero percent rate. However, New Hampshire has a five percent tax on dividends and interest payments above a $5,000 exemption and excluding all interest and dividends embedded in pension payments. The New Hampshire tax does include interest payments on municipal bonds, exempt from Federal income tac, issued outside the state of New Hampshire. Some other states have some sneaky ways of taxing without calling it an "income tax."

Of course a huge tax often overlooked when locating or relocating is the property tax.

Jensen Comment
New Hampshire came out better than I expected based upon my experience. One thing I noticed since moving to New Hampshire is that property is reappraised much less often. In 2006 my home was re-appraised after the previous appraisal in 1996. When I lived in San Antonio, homes were re-appraised at least every year. Frequent appraisals can be good news or bad news, but they are mostly bad news for people who live in desirable neighborhoods (read that gated neighborhoods in San Antonio) since these neighborhoods tend to go up in value much more frequently than poorer neighborhoods.

Faced with revenue shortfalls, local governments across the U.S. are raising property-tax rates, angering homeowners already hit by the housing slump and economic slowdown.
Conor Dourgherty, "Rising Property Taxes Fill Gaps, Pinch Homeowners Pain Is Worsened By Housing Slump, Economic Slowdown," The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2008; Page A4 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120908356294543499.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Jensen Comment
The problem is that analysts in general tend to compare average before-tax salaries and living costs. Although Wisconsin is slightly low in terms of state-supported university salaries, on an after-tax basis they are very low due to high taxes in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's State/Local Tax Burden Among Nation's Highest in 2007 --- http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/67.html
During the past three decades Wisconsin's state and local tax burden has consistently ranked among the nation's highest. Estimated at 12.3% of income, Wisconsin’s state and local tax burden percentage ranks 7th highest nationally, well above the national average of 11.0%. Wisconsin taxpayers pay $4,736 per capita in state and local taxes, and per capita state income is $38,639.
Wisconsin's State-Local Tax Burden, 1970-Present

On the other hand, some states that also pay lower than average faculty salaries are winners in terms of letting faculty keep more of their income. For example, consider Delaware:

Delaware's State/Local Tax Burden Fourth Lowest in Nation in 2007 --- http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/18.html
Consistently over the past two decades, Delaware has had one of the nation’s lowest state and local tax burdens. Estimated at 8.8% of income, Delaware’s state-local tax burden percentage ranks 47th highest nationally, well below the national average of 11.0%. Delaware taxpayers pay $3,804 per-capita in state and local taxes, and per capita state income is $43,471.
Delaware's State-Local Tax Burden, 1970-present

States like New York, New Jersey, and California that have relatively high average salaries for their major research universities can be losers in terms of taxes and real estate costs. Real estate costs in those states are still high even after the bursting of the sub-prime bubble. High taxes are also bummers in Maine and Vermont. States like Florida that used to be good deals for taxes and real estate costs have seen property taxes and insurance costs soar.

You may feed in the name of any state you choose and get state and local tax burden comparisons --- http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/18.html

You probably should go to the above site before comparing the average salaries (by faculty rank) of U.S. colleges and universities (public and private) that are listed in several sections of  Chronicle of Higher Education, April 18, 2008"

• Page A19:  Leading private universities, public universities, community colleges, and liberal-arts colleges.
• Page A 20:  Expanded table and graphs.
• Pages A22-24:  More than 1,300 major universities and colleges listed by each of the 50 states in the U.S. (averages by faculty rank)

If you are attracted to or turned off by the average salaries (by faculty rank) in a given school, don't forget to compare taxes and real estate costs. There are also other cost considerations like the cost of private schools in some urban areas that have low cost or dangerous public schools K-12.

Compare taxes for all 50 states of the U.S. at --- http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/18.html 

Compare the living costs of any two locales in the United States in terms of how far your salary will go in these to locales (such as where you live now versus where you might want to move to) --- Click Here  --- http://snipurl.com/comparelivingcosts       
[www_salary_com] 

Bob Jensen's threads on Salary Compression, Inversion, and Controversies --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Salaries

Bob Jensen's tax comparison helpers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#010304Taxation

Deisel fuel tax rates are quite different --- http://www.sbecouncil.org/uploads/BusinessTaxIndex2008.pdf
Note that states do not tax deisel and gasolene for off-road use such as in farm tractors. However, this fuel is colored such that drivers who cheat on the road are subjected to heavy fines if caught with the wrong color in a fuel tank.

The problem is that analysts in general tend to compare average before-tax salaries and living costs. Although Wisconsin is slightly low in terms of state-supported university salaries, on an after-tax basis they are very low due to high taxes in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's State/Local Tax Burden Among Nation's Highest in 2007 --- http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/67.html
During the past three decades Wisconsin's state and local tax burden has consistently ranked among the nation's highest. Estimated at 12.3% of income, Wisconsin’s state and local tax burden percentage ranks 7th highest nationally, well above the national average of 11.0%. Wisconsin taxpayers pay $4,736 per capita in state and local taxes, and per capita state income is $38,639.
Wisconsin's State-Local Tax Burden, 1970-Present

On the other hand, some states that also pay lower than average faculty salaries are winners in terms of letting faculty keep more of their income. For example, consider Delaware:

Delaware's State/Local Tax Burden Fourth Lowest in Nation in 2007 --- http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/18.html
Consistently over the past two decades, Delaware has had one of the nation’s lowest state and local tax burdens. Estimated at 8.8% of income, Delaware’s state-local tax burden percentage ranks 47th highest nationally, well below the national average of 11.0%. Delaware taxpayers pay $3,804 per-capita in state and local taxes, and per capita state income is $43,471.
Delaware's State-Local Tax Burden, 1970-present

States like New York, New Jersey, and California that have relatively high average salaries for their major research universities can be losers in terms of taxes and real estate costs. Real estate costs in those states are still high even after the bursting of the sub-prime bubble. High taxes are also bummers in Maine and Vermont. States like Florida that used to be good deals for taxes and real estate costs have seen property taxes and insurance costs soar.

You may feed in the name of any state you choose and get state and local tax burden comparisons --- http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/18.html

You probably should go to the above site before comparing the average salaries (by faculty rank) of U.S. colleges and universities (public and private) that are listed in several sections of  Chronicle of Higher Education, April 18, 2008"

• Page A19:  Leading private universities, public universities, community colleges, and liberal-arts colleges.
• Page A 20:  Expanded table and graphs.
• Pages A22-24:  More than 1,300 major universities and colleges listed by each of the 50 states in the U.S. (averages by faculty rank)

If you are attracted to or turned off by the average salaries (by faculty rank) in a given school, don't forget to compare taxes and real estate costs. There are also other cost considerations like the cost of private schools in some urban areas that have low cost or dangerous public schools K-12.

Compare taxes for all 50 states of the U.S. at --- http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/18.html 

Compare the living costs of any two locales in the United States in terms of how far your salary will go in these to locales (such as where you live now versus where you might want to move to) --- Click Here  --- http://snipurl.com/comparelivingcosts       
[www_salary_com] 

Bob Jensen's threads on Salary Compression, Inversion, and Controversies --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Salaries

Bob Jensen's tax comparison helpers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#010304Taxation

"Harvard Acquires Papers of Norman Mailer's Mistress," by Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 23. 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/news/article/4359/harvard-acquires-papers-of-mailers-mistress?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Norman Mailer, Harvard Class of 1943, shut his alma mater out of the contest for his literary remains. The Mailer papers went to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, which opened them to the public in January.

But Harvard just made its own score in the Mailer-memorabilia market. The university has spent an undisclosed sum to acquire the papers of Carole Mallory, the writer’s mistress from 1983 until the early 1990s, according to a report in The New York Observer (“Mailer Mistress Makes a Move”) and an item in the New York Post’s gossip column, Page Six (“Mailer’s Lust Goes to Harvard”).

“Mailer is a Harvard graduate, and I felt it was important to have him represented in some way in the collections here,” Leslie Morris, the Harvard curator who handled the deal, told the Observer.

The collection includes letters, photographs, and transcriptions of interviews Ms. Mallory conducted with the writer, whom she credits with teaching her how to write.

Portions are — to use Ms. Mallory’s word — “steamy.” For instance, the archive contains two unpublished manuscripts — one a memoir, one a novel — that include long descriptions (20 or 50 pages, according to the Post and the Observer, respectively) of the couple’s sexual encounters.

“Norman was a real man, and he knew what he was doing,” Ms. Mallory told Page Six.

Jensen Comment
Younger women (trophy wives), who get married to a rich old guy subject to a lousy prenup contract, might use Carole Mallory as a role model and remember to take a lot of notes and maybe a few videos before the old geezer kicks the bucket.

Anita Campbell's Small Business Blog on the AccountingWeb --- http://www.accountingweb.com/blogs/anita_campbell_blog.html

Bob Jensen's small business helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#SmallBusiness

Bob Jensen's threads on blogging are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

From the Financial Rounds Blog on April 21, 2008 --- http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/

The latest new finance blog note is titled Empirical Finance Research, which is intended to (in the authors' own words):

• Highlight research from the academic finance archives that may be useful to investors.
• Serve as a venue for the contributors to share our thoughts and insights with others who enjoy empirical finance research.
• Act as an outlet for authors or readers who would like to showcase their latest research.

It's authored by three guys (two of which are currently pursuing Ph.D.s in finance), and focuses on applications of current academic finance research. Good job, gentlemen, and keep up the good work. The world needs more blogs by finance PhDs.

The Empirical Finance Research blog is at http://empiricalfinanceresearch.blogspot.com/

"Making a Big Point (in class) With Your PC," by Josh Fischman, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 23, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2932&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Pen Kenrick J. Mock says he loves recording lectures for his classes using his tablet PC. And the associate professor of computer science at the University of Alaska at Anchorage also loves projecting computational problems using PowerPoint or the writing program OneNote.

What Mr. Mock does not love is the inability to point to a specific part of the problem for his class. “It’s always bothered me that the pen cursor is a tiny little dot,” he writes in his blog on technology and teaching. “The problem is that I like to use the pen to “point” at things as I give the lecture, but it doesn’t help if the class can’t see it.”

He looked, in vain, for a program that would enlarge the cursor. And finally he gave in, remembered he was a computer scientist, and wrote a program himself.

The result is PenAttention, and it turns that minuscule dot into a minuscule dot with a big colored spotlight around it. It’s a little more distracting to write with this kind of cursor, but his class can finally see what he is doing.

The program is free, works on tablet PCs running XP and Vista, and can be downloaded from a link in Mr. Mock’s blog post describing it.

See http://www.math.uaa.alaska.edu/~afkjm/techteach/?q=node/52

Bob Jensen's threads on tools and tricks of the trade are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

"Socrato: Online Test-Prep Materials Uploaded by Web Users," by Catherine Rampell, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 18, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2920&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Socrato, a Massacusetts-based company, is offering a free, crowd-sourced test-prep service online, TechCrunch reports. Educators can upload sample test questions and study guides in various formats, and students can then use them for practice at home.

The site currently has test-prep questions for national academic standardized tests (SAT, GRE, LSAT, etc.), as well as for the U.S. citizenship test and individual course exams. In an upcoming release, Socrato will “be able to track how students deliberate on questions by analyzing which answers they cross off first,” TechCrunch says.

Is it possible to extrapolate from this Harvard student's study? I don't think so!

"Harvard Survey Shows Undergraduates -- but Not Graduate Students -- Like Video Lectures," by Andrea L. Foster, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 17, 2008 --- Click Here

A technology report by a Harvard University student shows that of all the digital tools that professors use, Harvard students find most useful online course material and syllabi.

 

The report said students want courses to have “a Web site that contains readings, notes and other content so they can be accessed easily during the semester,” wrote Anthony A. Pino in a blog post about the report. It is based on responses last December from 328 undergraduates and 120 graduate students.

Students were asked to rate the usefulness of about 16 technologies, including RSS Feeds, wikis, blogs, podcasts, and videos.

One of the most noticeable difference between undergraduates and graduate students was over video lectures. Undergraduates valued them but graduate students worried that undergraduates would use them as a substitute for attendance, wrote Mr. Pino.

Jensen Comment
This is pretty hard to generalize given the wide ranging topics covered in videos and the wide ranges of quality of those videos. For example, the PBS Nova video on "The Trillion Dollar Bet" was one of my graduate students' most favorite (and my favorite) video on financial risk and details of how the Black-Scholes Model works and fails in valuing options. At the other extreme some of the filmed lectures provided as supplements to introductory accounting textbooks are antidotes to insomnia.

"The Trillion Dollar Bet" transcripts are free --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2704stockmarket.html
However, you really have to watch the graphics in the video to appreciate this educational video --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stockmarket/

A Hedge Fund Manager's Indictment of Accountants (and the regulators)
The book also shows why good accounting really matters. It is easy to mock finicky people with green eyeshades who worry about financial footnotes. But reliable numbers are essential if capital is to be allocated properly in our economy. Otherwise good projects starve and foolish ones burn up money.

Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, by David Einhorn (Wiley, 379 pages)
Reviewed by George Anders, "The Money Kept Vanishing," The Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2008, Page A15 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120891268398036495.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

Most of David Einhorn's ideas work out brilliantly. He is a 39-year-old hedge-fund manager in Manhattan who oversees $6 billion. Bull markets? Bear markets? It hardly matters. His stock portfolio has averaged 25% annual returns since 1996, when he opened Greenlight Capital.

Now Mr. Einhorn has written a book. But instead of packaging the real or contrived "secrets" to his success – as cliché would have it – he has tried to do something less triumphant and far gutsier. In "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time," he turns the spotlight on a single, stubborn investment play that never made much money for him but created six years of headaches.

It is a surprisingly dark story, in which Mr. Einhorn's usual winning touch vanishes for most of the narrative. As he struggles to figure out why, he appears naïve at certain times, petulant at others. But he presses on anyway, confident that vindication will come. It never really does.

The story starts in 2002, with Mr. Einhorn rightly proud of his ability to spot companies with shoddy accounting practices. He sells their shares short, betting on a stock-price collapse. Generally he wins big within months. Convinced that he has found another juicy target, he zeroes in on Allied Capital, a business- financing company that seems to dawdle when it comes to marking down the value of its troubled loans.

Bad call. Allied eventually did take big write-downs – but only after the overall economy had improved, allowing Allied to enjoy offsetting gains from other investments. Allied's stock, rather than sinking from Mr. Einhorn's short-sale price of $26.25 a share, climbed past $30 over the next few years.

Mr. Einhorn didn't retreat, though. He grew so irate about the company's accounting that he alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC did little with his complaint; in fact, it investigated him instead for spreading negative views about Allied.

Mr. Einhorn survived that episode and kept hammering away. He found evidence that one of Allied's affiliates, Business Loan Express, was making what appeared to be excessive, poorly documented loans to operators of shrimp boats and service stations. The deals looked like fraud to him. He tried to tip off journalists and regulators but was mostly met with yawns.

Large chunks of "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" amount to an angry man's recital of his grievances – and Mr. Einhorn has some good ones. An SEC lawyer who quizzed him aggressively about his short-selling methods later went into private practice and registered as a lobbyist for Allied. Mr. Einhorn, understandably, regards such a career move as an ethics violation.

Allied also ended up with purloined copies of Mr. Einhorn's phone records, something he had long suspected. Allied had originally told him that it had no evidence that his phone records had been grabbed but later admitted to getting them. He labels the company "dishonest" at one point and expresses the hope that regulators and auditors may still "remedy the situation." For its part, Allied calls Mr. Einhorn's book "a self-serving rehash of the same discredited charges that Mr. Einhorn has made for the past six years."

Without some broader significance, Einhorn v. Allied Capital would be small beer in the chronicles of modern-day corporate showdowns. There is no lurid scandal here involving drugs, bimbos or $6,000 shower curtains. There is no cataclysmic ending. Allied stock has faded to about $19 in the current credit crunch but hasn't fared worse than many of its rivals. After a long tug-of-war, Mr. Einhorn's initial short sale has proved neither disastrous nor especially lucrative.

What gives the book a special value, beyond its backstage look at the life of an elite trader, is its insight into two important but usually neglected aspects of the investment business. First, Mr. Einhorn's carefully documented battles with Allied Capital say a lot about the temperament needed to be a great investor. Tenacity is vital. So is patience. And so, too, is an ability to keep a sane perspective.

As Mr. Einhorn's own firm prospered, he could have jammed far more money into his Allied Capital short position, determined to prevail by brute force. He didn't. He kept 3% of assets in that position but invested most of his money in other ideas that worked out better. Such discipline, we come to realize, is what distinguishes the wisest long-term investors from obstinate short-timers who veer between triumph and ruin.

The book also shows why good accounting really matters. It is easy to mock finicky people with green eyeshades who worry about financial footnotes. But reliable numbers are essential if capital is to be allocated properly in our economy. Otherwise good projects starve and foolish ones burn up money.

Mr. Einhorn is a hard-liner, wanting strict accounting standards that punish missteps quickly. Allied Capital, to judge by his version of events, liked living in a more lenient world, where there was plenty of time to patch up problems quietly. Regulators were comfortable with an easy-credit philosophy, too, to a degree that startled Mr. Einhorn.

In the current financial shakeout, people like Mr. Einhorn are entitled to say: "I told you so." It's to his credit that, telling the Allied story, he is often angry but never smug.

"Giant puzzle exposes Germany's communist secrets," PhysOrg, April 25, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news128320597.html

It is painstaking work, almost a labour of love, but help is close for the nine people who have spent years sticking together millions of pieces of paper to decipher the workings of East Germany's once-feared Stasi secret police.

Almost two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the actions of the communist government still fascinates and scares Germans. Who worked with them? And why?

Stasi employees started to destroy their secret files as the Berlin Wall fell. Initially they shredded them. But as the machines broke down under the strain, they were forced to tear documents by hand.

The waste was to be pulped or burnt, but "citizen committees" stormed Stasi offices across East Germany, seizing millions of files, along with 15,500 bags of torn-up documents.

"One of the main reasons why the citizen committees occupied Stasi offices was to prevent the destruction of these archives," said Andreas Petter, a chief archivist at the office now responsible for their preservation.

Since 1995, experts working near Nuremberg in Bavaria have been sifting through the bags, extracting the torn shreds, strata by strata, and taping them back together to reconstruct the documents.

"On average, a worker gets through about a bag a year," said Joachim Haeussler, another archivist.

Bags contain 3,000 pages on average, ripped into 12 to 15 pieces, and some 400 bags have so far been dealt with, accounting for about 900,000 pages or three percent of the total volume.

Initially up to 45 people worked on the project, but "it's clear that with just nine people now involved, it's going to take a long, long time to reconstruct the contents of all the 15,500 bags," said Petter.

But help might at hand in the form of a computer system which digitally recreates hand-torn and machine-shredded documents.

The German parliament last year voted to spend just over six million euros (nearly 10 million dollars) on a two-year project which, according to its director, Bertram Nickolay, an engineer at the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin, will allow the reconstruction effort to be completed in five to six years.

The digital system simultaneously scans both sides of the torn documents before comparing shapes, colour, and pattern of script to work out how they fit together.

Four hundred bags have been sent to the Fraunhofer Institute for the project, and "testing of original material started just a few weeks ago," said Nickolay.

"We have learnt a lot from the people who do that by hand," he added.

"About 90 percent of the content of each bag comes from the same material" so the machine, like the people sifting by hand, tackle the shreds layer by layer, much as would an archeologist.

"We find bits that quickly fit together and what is left stays in the system to be compared with new pieces," said Nickolay.

"It's the biggest puzzle in the world," he added with pride.

In addition to speed, the computerised system should also allow for reconstruction of documents torn into very small pieces.

"One in five bags cannot be processed manually because the bits are too small," according to the engineer who said some pages were torn into 50 to 60 pieces, "suggesting they contained really explosive material".

Recreating the documents "is important to bring back to life what the powers-that-be of the time thought should best be done away with," said Petter.

Reconstructed material has already allowed some Stasi informers to be uncovered, said Petter pointing to one Heinrich Fink, a theologian who spied on both the Church and his students when he taught at Berlin's Humboldt University.

After the fall of the communist regime, Fink was appointed to head the university and was elected to parliament. His past caught up with him in 1995 when his file was finally pieced together.

Many documents still waiting to be reassembled likely deal with spying by the Stasi in the final years of the regime, not only against the political opposition at home, but against targets abroad, according to Petter.

Some other Stasi files were secretly whisked away by the CIA after the fall of the communist regime. They were only returned to Germany in 2003.

"Why Is Airline Service So Bad?" by Richard Posner, The Becker-Posner Blog, April 21, 2008 --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Why Is Airline Service So Bad? Posner Airline delay has increased in the last five years, and the statistics understate the amount of delay because airlines have increased scheduled flight times--the flight from Chicago to Washington used to be scheduled for an hour and a half; now it is scheduled for two hours. Flights are horribly crowded, food and beverage service has deteriorated in first class and virtually disappeared in coach, and the incidence of mislaid baggage has increased.

Delay is the main problem, and the one that I shall focus on. Many culprits have been named--high fuel costs that have contributed to deferred maintenance that results in cancellations, the failure of the Federal Aviation Administration to upgrade the air traffic control system so that it can handle more traffic with less spacing between aircraft, more turbulent weather perhaps due to global warming, and crowded aircraft that result in delays in boarding and hence in departure. But all these seem to me to miss the point. Persistent delay is usually the result of a failure to use price to equate demand and supply. When demand increases in advance of an increase in supply, failure to raise price results in buyers' incurring cost in the form of delay rather than in the form of a higher price. The cost of delay is a deadweight loss, whereas a higher price would be merely a wealth transfer to the sellers and would finance an increase in supply.

Some delay in the provision of services is unavoidable because of fluctuations in demand; it usually is wasteful to increase supply to the point at which every spike in demand can be accommodated without rationing (i.e., queuing, delay). But the persistent delays that airline passengers have been encountering for many years now cannot be explained by demand uncertainty. The delays impose enormous costs, particularly but not only on business travelers. The value of Americans' time is high.

So why are airline prices so low? The answer may lie in the lumpiness of airline service. (This was pointed out many years ago by the Chicago economist Lester Telser, and was repeated last week by Holman Jenkins in the Wall Street Journal.) The fixed costs of modern passenger aircraft are very high, but the marginal costs--the costs of carrying one more passenger if the plane is not full--are very low. At any price above marginal cost, the airline is better off selling a ticket than flying with the seat empty. Competition between airlines will therefore exert strong downward pressure on price. Prices tend to be pushed down to a level at which the airlines find it difficult to finance the purchase of new planes. As the existing planes age, equipment failures become more frequent, contributing to delays and cancellations. Airlines prefer delays to cancellations, because they get to keep the fares, and they resist raising prices to reduce congestion because that will make it more difficult to fill the planes, and an empty seat is, as explained, very costly in revenue forgone. Furthermore, airline service is quite uniform across airlines, which makes travelers more sensitive to airline prices than, say, to hotel prices, since hotels compete in many other dimensions besides price.

Another aspect of lumpiness that should be noted is the difficulty of adjusting prices to different passenger time costs. Business travelers have higher time costs than leisure travelers, but there are not enough business travelers to fill a plane of efficient size, and even if there were, no one airline could significantly reduce the problem of delay, just as no one driver can affect traffic congestion by reducing the number of his trips.

I am not aware that the delay costs of airline service, and the costs of the other disamenities (the very crowded airplanes and slow boarding and deplaning in coach) in the current market, have been quantified, but assuming that they are, as I suspect, very substantial, the question arises what if anything should be done to alleviate the problem.

One possibility would be to allow the airlines to agree on minimum prices: in other words, to exempt the airlines from section 1 of the Sherman Act, which forbids competitors to agree on prices. The problem is that the airlines would fix a profit-maximizing minimum price, and it probably would exceed the price necessary to reduce congestion to the optimal level. Moreover, any increase in the price level would attract inefficient entry.

Another possibility would be to return to the regulatory system administered by the Civil Aeronautics Board before the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978. The CAB did not regulate rates, but it controlled entry into city pairs and used that control to limit entry to the point that flights were frequent and uncrowded. If a flight was canceled or delayed, it was usually easy to get a seat on another flight leaving soon. But with entry tightly limited, prices were above the competitive level; planes were not just uncrowded, they flew nearly empty. Prices have fallen sharply since deregulation. Competition has also led the airlines to adopt a variety of cost-saving measures. Pilots' wages are now much lower. Before deregulation, the powerful pilots' union (powerful because of the enormous costs of a work stoppage to a company that cannot produce for inventory and thus make up some of the revenue that it loses from a strike) was able to extract some of the airlines' regulation-enabled cartel profits, in the form of supracompetitive wages for pilots.

Another option would be to encourage, or at least place no antitrust or other obstacles in the way of, mergers between airlines. If there were only two airlines on every route, tacit collusion between them would probably keep prices high but not so high as if there were a single airline or an explicit price-fixing agreement. But any increase in prices would attract entry, pushing prices back down. Moreover, mergers often result in higher rather than lower costs.

A better alternative than any I have discussed thus far would be a heavy tax on airline transportation, with the tax rate varying according to the contribution of a particular route, time, or type of plane to congestion (for example, in general large planes would be taxed less heavily per passenger than small ones, because for a given number of passengers there are fewer big planes to clog the airways and runways than there would be small ones). To the extent effective, the tax would eliminate the deadweight cost of congestion.

"Why Is Airline Service So Bad?" by Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, The Becker-Posner Blog, April 21, 2008 --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Airline delay has increased in the last five years, and the statistics understate the amount of delay because airlines have increased scheduled flight times--the flight from Chicago to Washington used to be scheduled for an hour and a half; now it is scheduled for two hours. Flights are horribly crowded, food and beverage service has deteriorated in first class and virtually disappeared in coach, and the incidence of mislaid baggage has increased.

Delay is the main problem, and the one that I shall focus on. Many culprits have been named--high fuel costs that have contributed to deferred maintenance that results in cancellations, the failure of the Federal Aviation Administration to upgrade the air traffic control system so that it can handle more traffic with less spacing between aircraft, more turbulent weather perhaps due to global warming, and crowded aircraft that result in delays in boarding and hence in departure. But all these seem to me to miss the point. Persistent delay is usually the result of a failure to use price to equate demand and supply. When demand increases in advance of an increase in supply, failure to raise price results in buyers' incurring cost in the form of delay rather than in the form of a higher price. The cost of delay is a deadweight loss, whereas a higher price would be merely a wealth transfer to the sellers and would finance an increase in supply.

Some delay in the provision of services is unavoidable because of fluctuations in demand; it usually is wasteful to increase supply to the point at which every spike in demand can be accommodated without rationing (i.e., queuing, delay). But the persistent delays that airline passengers have been encountering for many years now cannot be explained by demand uncertainty. The delays impose enormous costs, particularly but not only on business travelers. The value of Americans' time is high.

So why are airline prices so low? The answer may lie in the lumpiness of airline service. (This was pointed out many years ago by the Chicago economist Lester Telser, and was repeated last week by Holman Jenkins in the Wall Street Journal.) The fixed costs of modern passenger aircraft are very high, but the marginal costs--the costs of carrying one more passenger if the plane is not full--are very low. At any price above marginal cost, the airline is better off selling a ticket than flying with the seat empty. Competition between airlines will therefore exert strong downward pressure on price. Prices tend to be pushed down to a level at which the airlines find it difficult to finance the purchase of new planes. As the existing planes age, equipment failures become more frequent, contributing to delays and cancellations. Airlines prefer delays to cancellations, because they get to keep the fares, and they resist raising prices to reduce congestion because that will make it more difficult to fill the planes, and an empty seat is, as explained, very costly in revenue forgone. Furthermore, airline service is quite uniform across airlines, which makes travelers more sensitive to airline prices than, say, to hotel prices, since hotels compete in many other dimensions besides price.

Another aspect of lumpiness that should be noted is the difficulty of adjusting prices to different passenger time costs. Business travelers have higher time costs than leisure travelers, but there are not enough business travelers to fill a plane of efficient size, and even if there were, no one airline could significantly reduce the problem of delay, just as no one driver can affect traffic congestion by reducing the number of his trips.

I am not aware that the delay costs of airline service, and the costs of the other disamenities (the very crowded airplanes and slow boarding and deplaning in coach) in the current market, have been quantified, but assuming that they are, as I suspect, very substantial, the question arises what if anything should be done to alleviate the problem.

One possibility would be to allow the airlines to agree on minimum prices: in other words, to exempt the airlines from section 1 of the Sherman Act, which forbids competitors to agree on prices. The problem is that the airlines would fix a profit-maximizing minimum price, and it probably would exceed the price necessary to reduce congestion to the optimal level. Moreover, any increase in the price level would attract inefficient entry.

Another possibility would be to return to the regulatory system administered by the Civil Aeronautics Board before the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978. The CAB did not regulate rates, but it controlled entry into city pairs and used that control to limit entry to the point that flights were frequent and uncrowded. If a flight was canceled or delayed, it was usually easy to get a seat on another flight leaving soon. But with entry tightly limited, prices were above the competitive level; planes were not just uncrowded, they flew nearly empty. Prices have fallen sharply since deregulation. Competition has also led the airlines to adopt a variety of cost-saving measures. Pilots' wages are now much lower. Before deregulation, the powerful pilots' union (powerful because of the enormous costs of a work stoppage to a company that cannot produce for inventory and thus make up some of the revenue that it loses from a strike) was able to extract some of the airlines' regulation-enabled cartel profits, in the form of supracompetitive wages for pilots.

Another option would be to encourage, or at least place no antitrust or other obstacles in the way of, mergers between airlines. If there were only two airlines on every route, tacit collusion between them would probably keep prices high but not so high as if there were a single airline or an explicit price-fixing agreement. But any increase in prices would attract entry, pushing prices back down. Moreover, mergers often result in higher rather than lower costs.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
This should be on interest to accounting researchers since the airlines' number one problem in recent years is a "cost" that accounting systems, to my knowledge, do not have the ability to measure under accounting systems available today. In some sense it is an ABC Costing system where policies regarding tight schedule are like engineering design decisions where costs back flush back to the to the design rooms. But the problem is significantly more problematic in terms of flight scheduling since delays are subject to many more uncontrolled events (e.g., weather, flight crew illness, and so many little and big parts of an airplane that might fail a pre-flight test just before takeoff).

Another complication is the cost of slack capacity needed to reduce long delays. Stage coaches generally had enough extra horse power such that if a team went down the remaining horses could still haul, albeit more slowly, the load. Trains could generally re-route to alternate tracks when rail beds were out of order. But with airlines there are no longer enough empty seats on alternate flights when a full flight is cancelled. It's too expensive to keep spare aircraft on hand at each airport so that there's slack capacity in the system.

Generally in accounting courses we praise cost efficiencies and curse idle capacity, but we also teach that "idle" capacity may in fact be cost effective. In the airline industry, however, this appears not to be the case.

Bob Jensen's timeline on financial markets scandals and the evolution of regulations and accounting rules can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm
(Click on the first link)

From the Scout Report on April 18, 2008

MozBackup 1.4.7 --- http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ 

This tiny application allows users to back up, save, and restore bookmarks from Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey. Visitors can also use choose which parts of the profile they want to save or restore, including various emails and address books. This version of MozBackup is compatible with computers running Windows 95 and newer.

---

Google Earth 4.3 --- http://earth.google.com/ 

If visitors haven't already taken a look through Google Earth, the new version of this mapping application may pique their interest. The visual interface for the application displays a rendering of the globe, and return visitors will notice that the control panel is now translucent and rests in a corner of the map. The application also integrates with Google's 3-D rendering program, so users can place their new building in a real-life setting to see how it looks in context. This version is compatible with Mac OS X 10.4.

From the Scout Report on April 25, 2008

Avira AntiVir Personal-Free Antivirus 8 --- http://www.free-av.com/en/products/index.html 

Viruses are quite pesky, and the free version of Avira AntiVir Personal can help those bedeviled by such afflictions. This application will help users locate and remove Trojans, worms, and backdoor programs. Users can customize their scans and they can elect to fully scan all hard drives. This version is compatible with computers running Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.

---

A-Z Free Video Converter 6.81 --- http://www.cnn-video.com/download.html

A-Z Free Video Converter allows users to convert a wide range of file formats (such as WMV, MPEG, and DIVX) to the popular MOV formats (especially good for Quicktime players). The converter can be helpful for a range of media projects, including classroom presentations and the like. This particular version is compatible with computers running Windows 95 and newer.

Related Jensen Links

Technology --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#Technology

Streaming Media --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#StreamingMedia

You can also make these conversions in Camtasia Producer, but this software is not free like the A-Z Video Converter software.
You can read about Camtasia at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm

Free online videos, textbooks, cases, and tutorials in accounting, finance, economics, and statistics --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

Education Tutorials

The Visual Dictionary --- http://www.infovisual.info/

CSPAN Television has some excellent archived tutorial videos (free) --- http://www.cspan.org/classroom/

Center for Academic Integrity --- http://www.academicintegrity.org/

Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch

Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

The Visual Dictionary --- http://www.infovisual.info/

Open Science Directory --- http://www.opensciencedirectory.net/

Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology --- http://tiee.ecoed.net/index.html

Ecology, Art, and Technology --- http://www.ecoarttech.net/

BioPortal --- http://www.bioportal.gc.ca/

The Biology Corner --- http://www.biologycorner.com/

Science: Embryos and stem cells --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/stemcells

Aggie Horticulture --- http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/

University of Alabama Digital Collections (including agriculture history) ---  http://content.lib.ua.edu/cdm4/about.php

Tracking Progress in Maternal, Newborn & Child Survival: The 2008 Report --- http://www.who.int/entity/pmnch/Countdownto2015FINALREPORT-apr7.pdf

GeoSearch News --- http://geosearch.metacarta.com/

Spiders In and Around the House --- http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-Fact/2000/2060.html

The International Year of the Potato --- http://www.potato2008.org/en/index.html

Bob Jensen's threads on free online science, engineering, and medicine tutorials are at --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Science

Social Science and Economics Tutorials

CSPAN Television has some excellent archived tutorial videos (free) --- http://www.cspan.org/classroom/

World Press Freedom Committee --- http://www.wpfc.org/

Taking Back Our Fiscal Future --- http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/04_fiscal_future/04_fiscal_future.pdf

The International Year of the Potato --- http://www.potato2008.org/en/index.html

Tracking Progress in Maternal, Newborn & Child Survival: The 2008 Report --- http://www.who.int/entity/pmnch/Countdownto2015FINALREPORT-apr7.pdf

Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Philosophy tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social

Law and Legal Studies

Center for Academic Integrity --- http://www.academicintegrity.org/

Online Searching for Law, Accounting, and Finance --- http://securities.stanford.edu/

Stanford University Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse --- http://securities.stanford.edu/

Legal Searches --- http://www.bespacific.com/index.html

Securities Law Archives --- http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/cat_securities_law.html

Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Law

Math Tutorials

A First Course in Linear Algebra (free online textbook)  http://linear.ups.edu/opentexts.html

Math Gateway of the Mathematical Association of America --- http://mathgateway.maa.org/do/Home

The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive --- http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/

Math in Daily Life --- http://www.learner.org/interactives/dailymath/index.html

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics --- http://www.nctm.org/tips.aspx?ekmensel=c580fa7b_44_398_btnlink

For Teens
The Thirteen/WNET home page is at http://www.thirteen.org/index.php 

For Ages 8-12
The CyberChase link is at http://pbskids.org/cyberchase /

From Texas A&M University
College Algebra Online Tutorials --- http://www.wtamu.edu/academic/anns/mps/math/mathlab/col_algebra/index.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics

History Tutorials

Canada Year Book Historical Collection --- http://www65.statcan.gc.ca/acyb_r000-eng.htm 

The National Institute for Conservation --- http://www.heritagepreservation.org/

A Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures: Poland's Heritage --- http://www.commonwealth.pl/

The International Year of the Potato --- http://www.potato2008.org/en/index.html

Garibaldi and the Risorgimento (Italian Military History) --- http://dl.lib.brown.edu/garibaldi/

American Civil War History Site --- http://www.factasy.com/

Arkansas in the Civil War --- http://www.lincolnandthecivilwar.com/Activities/Arkansas/Arkansas.asp 

Great Chicago Stories --- http://www.greatchicagostories.com/

Center for Academic Integrity --- http://www.academicintegrity.org/

Powerhouse Museum: Online Resources --- http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/online/index.asp

Charting America: Maps from the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection and Others ---
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=history&col_id=149

History of the United States --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Library 

University of Alabama Digital Collections (including agriculture history) ---  http://content.lib.ua.edu/cdm4/about.php

American Experience: The Center of the World: Philippe Petit --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/newyork/sfeature/sf_int_pop_08_01_qt.html

Hampton Dunn Postcards Collection --- http://www.lib.usf.edu/public/index.cfm?Pg=HamptonDunnPostcardsCollection

West Side Story: Birth of a Classic --- http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/westsidestory/

Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm  

Language Tutorials

Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Languages

Writing Tutorials

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

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

April 22, 2008

• Worst Menopause Symptom?
• Do Migraines Cause Painful Skin?
• Life Expectancy Falls for Some
• Neck, Scalp Melanoma More Deadly
• Heart Attack Care Better By Day

April 23, 2008

• Older People Are Happier (Jensen thinks so!)
• New Hope for Insulin Pill
• Panel Finds Smog, Deaths Linked
• FDA Approves Compact Heart Pump
• U.S. Cancer Prevention Stalling?

Features

• The Truth About Bisphenol A
• Easing Fibromyalgia and Fatigue
• 5 Weight Gain Shockers
• 6 Embarrassing Women's Problems
• Election ’08: Compare Candidates

 

April 24, 2008

• Ants for Rheumatoid Arthritis?
• How to Win Negotiations
• Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Contested
• New Hope for Insulin Pill
• Does Mom's Diet Sway Baby's Sex?

April 25, 2008

• Vaccine May Treat Lung Cancer
• Ending Gene-Test Discrimination
• Does Wealth Lower Stroke Risk?
• Viruses Raise Lung Cancer Risk
• Ants for Rheumatoid Arthritis?

April 26, 2008

• Rise in Pre-Pregnancy Diabetes
• 100 Worst Spring Allergy Cities
• Vaccine May Treat Lung Cancer
• Viruses Raise Lung Cancer Risk
• How to Win Negotiations

April 29, 2008

• Are You a Prescription Sharer?
• Grapefruit May Curb Hepatitis C
• Many Tots Improperly Vaccinated
• FDA Eyes Bisphenol A Concerns
• Boost Memory to Up Intelligence

April 30, 2008

• Sick Economy Strains Health Care
• What Saps Your Well-being?
• Cancer Costs Billions for Elders
• Genes Tied to Osteoporosis
• Are You a Prescription Sharer?

"My Brain on Booze:  A unique EEG test reveals how alcohol sets the brain aglow," by Emily Singer, MIT's Technology Review, April 29, 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20689/?nlid=1035 

It's noon on a sunny day in San Francisco, and I'm trying to down a double vodka cranberry as fast as I can. Despite reporters' reputation, drinking is not my typical lunchtime activity. Today I'm visiting neuroscientist Alan Gevins, who has spent the past 40 years developing better ways to analyze the electrical signals emanating from our brains and, in turn, to study how our ability to remember and pay attention changes with different drugs, with the neural glitches of disease, and with the decay of age. In 20 minutes or so, when the alcohol has brought my brain to its peak boozy state, Gevins's team will measure how it has impacted my neurons as they struggle through a series of memory tests.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a decades-old technology used to measure electrical activity produced by the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp. In recent years, enhanced computing power and increasingly sophisticated software have allowed scientists to more precisely record and analyze these signals, giving a much greater insight into the meaning behind the brain's electrical storms. Currently, EEG is used both clinically--to identify the source of seizures in epilepsy patients, for example--and for research, such as to characterize the brain's rhythmic activity during sleep, relaxation, and concentration.

Gevins, founder of SAM Technology and the San Francisco Brain Research Institute, has developed a system that combines EEG with cognitive testing--computer tests that assess a person's memory or ability to multitask--to get a more direct measure of the brain's ability to remember and pay attention. He is now aiming to commercialize the technology, with the eventual goal of using it to more precisely assess cognitive decline and tailor drug prescriptions to minimize cognitive side effects. The technology incorporates both new hardware, to measure electrical activity, and new software, to process those signals.

Previous research by the group suggests that drinking may be more detrimental to our ability to function than previously thought. The brain effects of alcohol remain two to three hours after the behavioral effects have disappeared, even when blood alcohol level is as low as 0.02 percent, about a quarter of the legal limit for driving in most states. "You might be able to summon short bursts of attention and perform well on a short test, but the brain is still abnormal," says Aaron Ilan, principal neuroscientist at SAM Technology. "You won't be able to fully focus on a task like driving for several hours."

The team is now finishing a large study looking at the effects of alcohol, marijuana, caffeine, and diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, on simulated driving, as well as on attention, working memory, and the ability to multitask. The findings should shed light on the cognitive effects of these drugs. While alcohol's effect on driving is well studied, the same is not true for most prescription drugs.

Scientists lose hope over AIDS vaccine
A survey of leading U.S. and British AIDS researchers said many scientists see little hope of an effective vaccine against HIV in the near future. Just two of the 35 scientists surveyed said they were more optimistic about the prospects for an HIV vaccine than they were a year ago, while only four said they were more optimistic now than they were five years ago, the survey by Britain's Independent newspaper said. The survey found that nearly two-thirds believed an HIV vaccine will not be developed within the next 10 years. Some of the scientists said it may take at least 20 more years of research. Researchers said the direction of AIDS research needs to change after the failure last year of a promising prototype vaccine used as an animal model for more than a decade. AIDS researcher Robert Gallo told the newspaper the vaccine's failure is similar to the Challenger disaster that forced the space agency to ground its space shuttle fleet for years.
PhysOrg, April 25, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news128338277.html

Heart derived stem cells develop into heart muscle
Dutch researchers at University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute have succeeded in growing large numbers of stem cells from adult human hearts into new heart muscle cells. A breakthrough in stem cell research. Until now, it was necessary to use embryonic stem cells to make this happen. The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Stem Cell Research. The stem cells are derived from material left over from open-heart operations. Researchers at UMC Utrecht used a simple method to isolate the stem cells from this material and reproduce them in the laboratory, which they then allowed to develop. The cells grew into fully developed heart muscle cells that contract rhythmically, respond to electrical activity, and react to adrenaline. “We’ve got complete control of this process, and that’s unique,” says principal investigator Prof. Pieter Doevendans. “We’re able to make heart muscle cells in unprecedented quantities, and on top of it they’re all the same. This is good news in terms of treatment, as well as for scientific research and testing of potentially new drugs.”
PhysOrg, April 23, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news128166207.html

Pistachios reduce inflammation, cardiovascular disease factors
A Penn State-led study shows that snacking on pistachios has proved to have a positive impact on improving cardiovascular health by significantly reducing inflammation in the body, a prominent cardiovascular disease risk factor. A study, led by researcher Penny Kris-Etherton, distinguished professor of nutritional sciences, looked at the effects of pistachios on multiple CVD risk factors, some of which include cholesterol, blood pressure and the genetic expression of various genes related to inflammation. The study positively supports other recent studies that show a diet rich in pistachios has nutritional benefits.
PhysOrg, April 23, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news128181221.html

Shocking attitudes to Great War’s wounded revealed
Diaries written by working class soldiers wounded in World War One have revealed how they silently endured brutal treatment by military nurses, doctors, physiotherapists and stretcher bearers. Historian Dr Ana Carden-Coyne from The University of Manchester says the material penned by British and Australian squadies explodes an officially sanitised view of military service in the Great War. Dr Carden-Coyne, who is writing a book on the subject, argues the soldiers privately resisted military medical authorities - many of whom were untrained -using eloquent prose in their diaries and compelling cartoons she found in hospital magazines of the time. One Australian Private describes in his diary how he felt the need to “keep quiet” when a doctor probed two inches into his leg wound for a piece of loose bone “with all the instruments of torture” including tongs. And in another, a British patient records his shame when a nursing sister “nearly fell down laughing” after she unbandaged a wounded arm that had suffered severe muscle wastage, because it “looked barely bigger than a child’s”. One patient penned a poem with a sinister depiction of the surgeon blowing an even larger hole through the entrance of a shell wound. Though the patient ‘howled like a pup’ and ‘shrieked like an eight inch howitzer’, ‘Captain Scalpel’ said: “All is well!”. Another comes to terms with his rough treatment by a physiotherapist by using sexual fantasy in poetry.
PhysOrg, April 28, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news128612437.html

"Part II: Brain Trauma in Iraq Soldiers with traumatic brain injuries face an uncertain future," by Emily Singer, MIT's Technology Review, May/June 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20645/?nlid=1023

Read Part I

Part II
Mixed Signals
On May 20, 2004, Jerry Pendergrass's convoy was ambushed. The National Guard sergeant was standing outside his Humvee when a rocket-propelled grenade landed a few feet behind him and exploded, launching him 15 feet in the air. A few moments later, Pendergrass found himself lying on the ground, shrapnel lodged in his leg and his helmet several yards away. He was conscious but unsure of where he was, classic signs of concussion. Another member of his unit pulled him behind the protective barrier of the disabled Humvee, where they awaited evacuation to a medical checkpoint in a secure zone down the road.

Pendergrass soon returned to duty, ignoring the persistent headaches and the sleep, memory, and balance problems that plagued him after the blast. When his tour was up and he returned home to North Carolina, he took prescription painkillers and drank, trying to wash away both his memories of war and the reality of his health problems. It wasn't until he began a second tour--and was evacuated two months later for spinal damage linked to the earlier blast--that he realized the full extent of his injuries. He was diagnosed with both mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)--a condition, first defined in Vietnam veterans, that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event. "Big bangs scare the living fart out of me," says Pendergrass, in a conference room at the Lakeview Virginia NeuroCare center in Charlottesville, VA. He seems startled by even small noises, jumping as a nearby copy machine is jostled into action.

Pendergrass has spent the last three months at NeuroCare, which is partnered with the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. The small in-patient clinic, with an adjacent residence for patients, offers intensive therapy and is staffed by occupational and physical therapists, speech and language therapists, and clinical psychologists. Pendergrass is getting psychological counseling for PTSD and rehabilitation for his brain injury.

He expects to return home soon, but his recovery is complicated by his dual diagnosis. In blast-injured soldiers, PTSD and mild brain injury often occur together. The two conditions also share symptoms--including depression, memory and attention deficits, sleep problems, and emotional disturbances--and research suggests that they can aggravate each other. A 1998 study of veterans with PTSD found that those exposed to blasts were more likely to have lingering attention deficits and abnormal brain activity that persisted long after the injury. And a study published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the 15 percent of soldiers who reported having suffered concussions had a much greater risk of developing PTSD: 44 percent of soldiers who had lost consciousness on the battlefield met criteria for PTSD, compared with 16 percent of those in the same brigades who suffered other injuries.

However, the two conditions can have different prognoses. While PTSD is a serious anxiety disorder, it can often be treated effectively with psychological and drug therapies. Patients with moderate to severe TBI have a far grimmer prognosis. Even ­people with concussions, who often get better on their own, can have enduring damage: symptoms that linger more than six months may be permanent. No drug treatments have proved effective for curing long-term symptoms, and other therapies are limited. For the most part, patients are simply taught new strategies for dealing with their impairments, such as carrying notepads to help them remember important tasks or designating specific spots for their keys.

Forwarded by Niki, she has the "gift"

Old Age, I decided, is a gift

I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.

I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon ?

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things..

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think.. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)

MAY OUR FRIENDSHIP NEVER COME APART ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART!

MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A RAINBOW OF SMILES ON YOUR FACE AND IN YOUR HEART FOREVER AND EVER!

FRIENDS FOREVER!

Forwarded by Reverend Hahn

Niki's Gift Model

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, 'Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?'

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, 'Of course you may!' and she gave me a giant squeeze.

'Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?' I asked.

She jokingly replied, 'I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids...'

'No seriously,' I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

'I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!' she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this 'time machine' as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.

Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone e and simply said, 'I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.'

As we laughed she, cleared her throat and began, ' We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.'

She concluded her speech by courageously singing 'The Rose.'

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the year's end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.

One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

Forwarded by Paula

Forwarded by Debbie

Question
What were severe drug problems before the 1960s?

Forwarded by Paula for Older Women (really funny)
Mrs. Hughes Live at the Ice House --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWrj9TaA0Mc

Forwarded (again) by Auntie Bev for Older Men (I think it's funny)
Dear Penis (country song) --- http://www.igc.be/igc/dearpenis.htm

Forwarded by Aaron Konstam
Jokes About Americans --- http://www.jokesaboutamericans.com/american_joke_four.html

Forwarded by James Don Edwards

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25. 00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason what so ever, your car would crash........Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally , executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

I love the next one!!!

7. The air bag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simul taneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again b because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

Tidbits Archives --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.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/

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.

Three Finance Blogs

Jim Mahar's FinanceProfessor Blog --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/
FinancialRounds Blog --- http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/
Karen Alpert's FinancialMusings (Australia) --- http://financemusings.blogspot.com/

Some Accounting Blogs

Paul Pacter's IAS Plus (International Accounting) --- http://www.iasplus.com/index.htm
International Association of Accountants News --- http://www.aia.org.uk/
AccountingEducation.com and Double Entries --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/
Gerald Trite's eBusiness and XBRL Blogs --- http://www.zorba.ca/
AccountingWeb --- http://www.accountingweb.com/   
SmartPros --- http://www.smartpros.com/

Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://www.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://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Shared Open Courseware (OCW) from Around the World: OKI, MIT, Rice, Berkeley, Yale, and Other Sharing Universities --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Free Textbooks and Cases --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

Free Mathematics and Statistics Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics

Free Science and Medicine Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Science

Free Social Science and Philosophy Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social

Free Education Discipline Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm

Teaching Materials (especially video) from PBS

Teacher Source:  Arts and Literature --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/arts_lit.htm

Teacher Source:  Health & Fitness --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/health.htm

Teacher Source: Math --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/math.htm

Teacher Source:  Science --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/sci_tech.htm

Teacher Source:  PreK2 --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/prek2.htm

Teacher Source:  Library Media ---  http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/library.htm

Free Education and Research Videos from Harvard University --- http://athome.harvard.edu/archive/archive.asp

VYOM eBooks Directory --- http://www.vyomebooks.com/

From Princeton Online
The Incredible Art Department --- http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/

Online Mathematics Textbooks --- http://www.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.html 

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives --- http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/doc/intro.jsp

Accountancy Discussion ListServs:

For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for free) go to   http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

AECM (Educators)  http://pacioli.loyola.edu/aecm/  AECM is an email Listserv list which provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets, multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc Roles of a ListServ --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

CPAS-L (Practitioners) http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/  CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments, ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed. Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or education. Others will be denied access.

Yahoo (Practitioners)  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA. This can be anything  from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA.

AccountantsWorld  http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1  This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and taxation.

Business Valuation Group BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com  This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag [RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM]

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