The Deadline for a Free Download of Suzi Orman's Latest Book is January 15, 2009 (only free until midnight tonight)
http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081119_tows_bookdownload

A Great Dog Enjoying Deep Snow (video) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUL0KCIc48

Although they're hibernating in this cold, we anticipate more bears on our deck this spring.
Up and down the East Coast, residents and naturalists alike have been scratching their heads this autumn over a simple question: Where are all the acorns? In far-flung pockets of northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other states, scientists have found no acorns whatsoever. "I can't think of any other year like this," said Alonso Abugattas, director of the Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington, Virginia.
Marsha Walton, "Scientists Baffled by Mysterious Acorn Shortage," CNN, December 15, 2008 --- http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/12/12/acorn.shortage/index.html
Jensen comment
Up here in the White Mountains, the food staple of black bears is the acorn crop in the forest. When there are fewer acorns, our timid bears must trek longer distances and even into villages for food. On occasion a big bear has ripped out the bird feeders on our back deck. I guess we can anticipate this to happen again in the spring.

Aside from Bed and Breakfast inns, there are only two retail businesses in Sugar Hill. In the January 5 edition of Tidbits I featured Polly's Pancake Parlor out on Hildex Farm.  In the this edition of Tidbits I feature Harmon's General Store and Cheese House, the only business establishment on Main Street.

Harman's Cheese and Country Store --- http://www.harmanscheese.com/

Started as a mail order business by John and Kate Harman in 1955, Harman's Cheese & Country Store has long been known for old-fashioned quality, reasonable prices and personal service. The business continues to operate in this same tradition with the guidance of Maxine Aldrich and her family.

Our little red country store is nestled in the quiet New Hampshire village of Sugar Hill, but the store is anything but quiet. Our mail order business reaches all across the USA, Canada, and other countries. We have had orders from as far away as Saudi Arabia and as close as next door - both are handled with special personal service. Customers call to place their orders and chat about the weather - we take the time to do both!

More than a mail-order business, our store is open year round to welcome and serve you. We are open seven days a week May through October, and open Monday through Saturday from November through April. The products we offer are both unusual and unusually good. They are one-of-a-kind items found rarely, if ever, in markets or specialty food shops.

We have been featured in newspaper articles from the Boston Globe to the San Francisco Chronicle, and also in many gourmet-minded publications such as Satisfaction Guaranteed and Mail-Order Gourmet. We don't seek the publicity, but it finds us. People seem to think (and we agree) that we have a special little store. Often we don't know about the publicity until you, our customer, tell us.

Come visit and enjoy our cheese. We sell more than 11 tons of the "World's Greatest Cheddar" each year. We invite you to check out all of our products and see for yourself why our little business is more than just a quiet country store. Please continue your online visit, and do stop in to browse, shop, visit and sample the next time you are in New Hampshire's north country!

Tidbits on January 15, 2009
Bob Jensen

For earlier editions of Tidbits go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.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/.

Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/

Bob Jensen's Search Helpers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm
Free Telephone Directory (you must listen to an opening advertisement) --- 800-FREE411
Free Online Telephone Directory --- http://snipurl.com/411directory    [www_public-records-now_com] 
Free online 800 telephone numbers --- http://www.tollfree.att.net/tf.html
Google Free Business Phone Directory --- 800-goog411
To find names addresses from listed phone numbers, go to www.google.com and read in the phone number without spaces, dashes, or parens
To find some cell phone numbers (for a fee):
The "Free Cell Phone Tracer" only indicates that it has found the cell phone owner's name and address. Then your must pay to see that name and address.
http://www.b2byellowpages.com/directory/b2b_directory_guide/800-phone-directory.shtml

Bob Jensen's essay on the financial crisis bailout's aftermath and an alphabet soup of appendices can be found at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm

Essay

• Introductory Quotations

• The Bailout's Hidden, Albeit Noble, Agenda (for added details see Appendix Y)

• A Step Back in History Barney's Rubble

Appendix A: Impending Disaster in the U.S.

Appendix B: The Trillion Dollar Bet in 1993

Appendix C: Don't Blame Fair Value Accounting Standards This includes a bull crap case based on an article by the former head of the FDIC

Appendix D: The End of Investment Banking as We Know It

Appendix E: Your Money at Work, Fixing Others’ Mistakes (includes a great NPR public radio audio module)

Appendix F: Christopher Cox Waits Until Now to Tell Us His Horse Was Lame All Along S.E.C. Concedes Oversight Flaws Fueled Collapse And This is the Man Who Wants Accounting Standards to Have Fewer Rules

Appendix G: Why the $700 Billion Bailout Proposed by Paulson, Bush, and the Guilty-Feeling Leaders in Congress Won't Work

Appendix H: Where were the auditors? The aftermath will leave the large auditing firms in a precarious state?

Appendix I: 1999 Quote from The New York Times ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Appendix J:  Will the large auditing firms survive the 2008 banking meltdown?

Appendix K:  Why not bail out everybody and everything?

Appendix L:  The trouble with crony capitalism isn't capitalism. It's the cronies.

Appendix M:  Reinventing the American Dream

Appendix N: Accounting Fraud at Fannie Mae

Appendix O: If Greenspan Caused the Subprime Real Estate Bubble, Who Caused the Second Bubble That's About to Burst?

Appendix P:  Meanwhile in the U.K., the Government Protects Reckless Bankers

Appendix Q: Bob Jensen's Primer on Derivatives (with great videos from CBS)

Appendix R:  Accounting Standard Setters Bending to Industry and Government Pressure to Hide the Value of Dogs

Appendix S: Fooling Some People All the Time

Appendix T:  Regulations Recommendations

Appendix U: Subprime: Borne of Sleaze, Bribery, and Lies

Appendix V: Implications for Educators, Colleges, and Students

Appendix W: The End

Appendix: X: How Scientists Help Cause Our Financial Crisis

Appendix Y:  The Bailout's Hidden Agenda Details

Appendix Z:  What's the rush to re-inflate the stock market?

Personal Note from Bob Jensen

On May 14, 2006 I retired from Trinity University after a long and wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm

Bob Jensen's Search Helpers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm
Free Telephone Directory (you must listen to an opening advertisement) --- 800-FREE411
Free Online Telephone Directory --- http://snipurl.com/411directory    [www_public-records-now_com] 
Free online 800 telephone numbers --- http://www.tollfree.att.net/tf.html
Google Free Business Phone Directory --- 800-goog411
To find names addresses from listed phone numbers, go to www.google.com and read in the phone number without spaces, dashes, or parens
To find some cell phone numbers (for a fee):
The "Free Cell Phone Tracer" only indicates that it has found the cell phone owner's name and address. Then your must pay to see that name and address.
http://www.b2byellowpages.com/directory/b2b_directory_guide/800-phone-directory.shtml

Chronicle of Higher Education's 2008-2009 Almanac --- http://chronicle.com/free/almanac/2008/?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on economic and social statistics --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics

Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

NOVA: Absolute Zero --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/

Smithsonian's History Explorer --- http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu/

BBC Prison Study --- http://www.bbcprisonstudy.org/

Working in Paterson [Industrial History] --- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/paterson/

3D Organic Chemistry Animations --- http://138.253.125.24/~ng/external/ 
3D Organic Chemistry Animations --- http://www.chemtube3d.com/ 

National Anthropological Archives --- http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/index.htm

How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolution (and any other one for that matter) from Scott Stratten ---
http://thankgoodnessitsmonday.com/2008/12/30/resolution/

Seasonal Change in 40 Seconds --- http://vimeo.com/2639782

Free music downloads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

TheRadio (My Favorite, Enter singer, song title, composer, or category such as opera) --- http://www.theradio.com/

Celine Dion & an Elvis ghost perform together before a LIVE Studio Audience --- http://thehumorzone.co.uk/Videos/elvis_celine.wmv

Forwarded by James Don Edwards
Songs and Poems --- http://www.llerrah.com/dreams.htm

Bob Jensen listens to music free online (and no commercials) --- http://www.slacker.com/ 

Photographs and Art

Louvre Slide Show --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/Louvre01.pps

Museum of Arts and Design --- http://www.madmuseum.org/

Map of Where the U.S. Imports Foreign Oil --- http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/22474/?nlid=1636

One Life: The Mask of Lincoln (picture history focus) --- http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/lincoln/

A Year in the Life of President Bush --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2162094/posts

Charlie Parker's historic photographs --- http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/

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

From the University of Chicago
How to Find Learning Resources from Around the World
The Fathom Archive --- http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/

Food Timeline --- http://www.foodtimeline.org/index.html

Forwarded by James Don Edwards
Songs and Poems --- http://www.llerrah.com/dreams.htm

Humorous Epitaphs --- http://clothos-web.com/ThisOldHaunt/LastLaugh_02.html

Old English Poetry --- http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/alpha.html 

Charles Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal (poetry about society) --- http://fleursdumal.org/ 

Charles Bukowski (Poet) --- http://home.swipnet.se/~w-15266/cultur/bukowski/ 

Collected Poetry by Winston Churchill --- http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=463 

Poetic Waves: Angel Island [San Francisco) --- http://www.poeticwaves.net/

Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889) --- http://www.romanianvoice.com/poezii/poeti_tr/eminescu_eng.php 

Random poems penned by Barbara Fletcher --- http://www.barbarafletcher.com/ 

Kay Ryan, a prize-winning poet who teaches remedial English at the College of Marin, will today be named poet laureate of the United States, The New York Times reported. The article includes links to some of her writing. Inside Higher Ed, July 17, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/07/17/qt 

The Poet's View --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFCP5dCfynI

Casa Romantica --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czWFAOMNLH 

Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) --- Click Here

John Keats Poetry --- http://www.john-keats.com/ 

Works and Life of T.S. Eliot --- http://www.whatthethundersaid.org/ 

James Joyce's Poems Get a Musical Facelift --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91757715  

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

I just saw 'Blazing Saddles' on CNNMSNBCBSABC At least I think it was Blazing Saddles. The story was a little bit different than the 1974 classic by Mel Brooks. But the plot was the same. It begins with an idiot governor And then the governor decided to appoint a black man I thought for sure the appointment was designed to drive the racists in Rock Ridge out of their minds. But no - it was to drive the senators in Washington DC out of their minds. Anyway, the new mayor (or was it senator?) heads off to Washington DC. (Or...
Free Republic, January 6, 2008 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2159789/posts

"You can see that the neighborhood was divided into three areas of fighting, according to color, and inside the terrorists spread out a number of posts, planted explosive devices, and posted sharpshooters," he said. "Hamas makes cynical use of civilian homes, the entrances of which were booby-trapped in order to hurt IDF soldiers." Explosive devices were also planted near gas stations despite the immediate danger to civilians, Halamish added. He said the layout had been thoroughly planned in preparation for a ground operation.
Hanan Greenberg, "IDF discovers Hamas booby-trap map," ynet News, January 8, 2009 --- http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3653059,00.html

"Why Does The New York Times Love Hamas?" by Steve Emerson, The Daily Beast, January 6, 2008 ---
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-06/why-does-the-times-love-hamas

In the past week, the Fourth Estate’s Hamas cheerleaders have stripped away any pretense of being honest or neutral, with the New York Times continuing to take the side of the terrorist group in one of the most shameful journalistic episodes I have ever seen. In following the Times coverage for the past six months and checking external sources of information, one can see a clear pattern of propagandistic reporting favoring Hamas that selectively suppressed or willfully misrepresented information.

Even the Times knows it has a bias problem. Readers who detected it got a chilling confirmation of their suspicions in the December 13 column by Ombudsman Clark Hoyt. Addressing a public outcry over the paper’s failure to use the term “terrorist” for the attackers who executed some 170 people in Mumbai, India in late November (and mutilated the six Jews killed in the Chabad House—a fact never reported by the Times), Hoyt quoted several reporters and editors making extraordinary admissions that shed some light on the newspaper’s most recent dispatches from Gaza.

. . .

This is a familiar ruse by Islamic terrorist groups (including the non-profit Islamic charities in the United States, which were shut down after 9/11): create humanitarian branches to distract from the true nature of their organizations. But has Ethan Bronner ever stepped inside one of these Hamas hospitals or schools? I have, several years ago, in Gaza, where I saw murals on the wall of Palestinians stabbing Israelis to death.

In the stories filed this past week, Gaza-based Times reporter Taghreed El-Khodary, has also fallen for another classic tactic of terrorist groups:, embedding their fighters and facilities in residential areas to incur more civilian casualties. El-Khodary’s dispatches have decried the “shocking” nature of the Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians, sidestepping the fact that Hamas purposely locates its infrastructure among civilians—in effect holding them hostage.

This post follows up on last night's NewsBusters post ("They Never Learn: CNN Withdraws Apparently Faked Video of CPR Attempt on 'Dead' Palestinian Child"). CNN has reposted a video it withdrew yesterday. That video purports to show the death and hasty burial of a cameraman's 12 year-old younger brother, one of two children allegedly killed on the roof of their home in rocket fire from an Israeli drone. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, Bob Owens of Confederate Yankee, and several NB commenters yesterday all questioned the credibility of the video. Johnson, Owens, and Morrissey.
Tom Blummer, Newsbusters, "CNN Doubles Down; Reposts Withdrawn Video of Apparently Faked CPR Attempt on 'Dead' Palestinian Child," Newsbusters, January 9, 2009 --- http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/01/09/cnn-doubles-down-reposts-withdrawn-video-apparently-faked-cpr-attempt-de

An Opinion The New York Times Would Never Print
So how did Israel do it? The only possible explanation is that people in Gaza have been informing the Israelis exactly where Hamas fighters and leaders are hiding, and where weapons are stored. No doubt some informers are merely corrupt, paid agents earning a living. But others must choose to provide intelligence because they oppose Hamas, whose extremism inflicts poverty, suffering and now death on the civilian population for the sake of launching mostly ineffectual rockets into Israel. Hamas completely disregards the day-to-day welfare of all Gazans in order to pursue its millenarian vision of an Islamic Palestine. Some in Gaza must also resent Iran's role in instigating the barrage of rockets fired on Israel. And all must know that the longer-range rockets are supplied by Iran along with money for Hamas leaders, while ordinary Palestinians languish in poverty. Senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan, killed on Jan. 1, was a poorly paid academic, yet he died with his four wives and 10 of his children in spacious quarters. He obviously had enough money to heed the Quranic injunction against marrying more wives than one can afford. That too must arouse bitter opposition among poor Palestinian civilians, inducing some to help Israel target Hamas. Perhaps these informers include Fatah members, further antagonized by persecution. Last week alone, some 50 were reportedly tortured by Hamas.
Edward N. Luttwak, "Yes, Israel Can Win in Gaza Israel is significantly weakening Hamas – with Palestinian help," The Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2009 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146309313766581.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

Questions are being raised that The New York Times had a hidden agenda in its biased support of Obama. It may well be that the NYT was working to get a government bailout to prevent bankruptcy of the NYT --- http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/new_york_times_Obama/2009/01/08/169322.html

I agree with Becker that it would be a mistake to raise gasoline taxes. We're in the midst of a depression and threatened with deflation, which would be an especially ominous development. Deflation occurs when the price level falls, as can happen--as may be happening now--when demand falls so far that sellers, to avoid complete ruination, slash the prices of their goods by extreme percentages, such as 50 or 75 percent. With prices depressed, a given amount of dollars buys more goods--money thus is more valuable. Credit tends to dry up, since even if the nominal interest rate is zero, the real interest rate may be very high. Imagine, to take an extreme case, that a dollar will buy you a loaf of bread today but two loaves of bread in a year. Then to borrow a dollar today for repayment in a year at a nominal interest rate of zero amounts to borrowing at a real interest rate of 100 percent, because to have the loaf of bread today you will have to give up two loaves in a year.
Richard Posner, The Becker-Posner Blog, January 4, 2008 --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Gone are term limits for committee chairmen, a big comeback for seniority over merit. Cost containment measures on Medicare, one of the fastest growing programs, are simply suspended for this Congress . . . Ironically, some of the biggest losers from the Pelosi rules changes will be fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats. The "pay-go" rules they fought so hard for two years ago -- to require new spending proposals be balanced with additional revenue or cuts elsewhere -- have been gutted. And no term limits will mean they will have to stand in line for a taste of real power. "All those nice pro-life, gun-owning young Democrats recruited to run by Rahm Emanuel will never have any real influence now," says Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. "They were useful in getting Democrats a majority but now they'll be in the back of the bus."
"Pelosi Turns Back the Clock on House Reform Moderate Democrats will be frozen out," by John Fund, The Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2009 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146274483166511.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

Stunned at the prospect of a $1.2 trillion deficit this fiscal year, lawmakers in Congress are taking a harder look at how big a stimulus plan America can afford. Until Wednesday’s release of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate, the main topic on Capitol Hill was how big the recovery package needs to be to reverse the economy’s slide. Now, there’s a second theme: Is there a tipping point between the stimulus needed to revive the economy and a level of borrowing and debt that’s too much for future generations to bear? “There’s a consensus among economists that we need to do something big,” says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “But we need to calibrate between creating jobs – green jobs, long-term jobs – and not getting weighed down with too much burdensome debt.” But lawmakers – and economists advising them on Capitol Hill this week – also note that the economy is in uncharted territory and that “calibrating” will be tough.
Gail Russell Chaddock, "Deficit projection ’stuns’ Congress: Red-ink forecast could make it a lot harder to craft an economic stimulus package," The Christian Science Monitor, January 8, 2009 --- http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/01/08/deficit-projection-stuns-congress/

The Connecticut Senator got favored treatment from the subprime mortgage purveyor, even as he was a power broker on the Banking Committee that regulates the industry. When the news broke, the Senator first denied that he sought or expected preferential treatment. He later admitted that he knew he was considered a VIP at the firm but claimed he thought it was "more of a courtesy." He also promised the Connecticut press that he'd come clean with the documents and details of the loans. But six months later -- nada, zip, nothing.
"Waiting for Dodd:  Where are those Countrywide papers?," The Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2009 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123128800174259195.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Gov. Bill Richardson tried to return to the public routine of being governor last week, cutting ribbons and making announcements, but at every turn reporters peppered him with questions about a federal investigation into whether his aides had steered a consulting contract to a political backer. The investigation forced Mr. Richardson to forgo a cabinet post in the Obama administration and focused attention on the state’s loose campaign-finance laws. New Mexico is one of a handful of states with no caps on campaign donations and no independent ethics commission to look into conflicts of interest.
James C. McKinley, "Business, Not as Usual, in New Mexico as U.S. Inquiry Goes On," The New York Times, January 10, 2009 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/us/11newmexico.html?_r=1&hp

Equal Sweetener Turns Sour
Merisant Worldwide, a maker of low-calorie tabletop sweeteners like Equal and Canderel, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, weighed down by increased competition and too much debt. The company, based in Chicago, and five affiliates filed for protection from creditors with the United States Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Merisant’s market share had declined in recent years amid competition from Splenda and other sweeteners.
"Maker of Equal Sweetener Files for Bankruptcy," The New York Times, January 9, 2009 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/business/10bizbriefs-MAKEROFEQUAL_BRF.html?ref=business
Jensen Comment
I got a chuckle out a a segment of the above link that contains Equal BRF which sounds a bit like Equal Barf.

The Mob Needs Greater Stimulous
After taking a hail of bipartisan bullets in recent days over the suggestion that a federal stimulus package should help pay for a proposed $50 million museum here on the history of organized crime, the project’s godfathers are returning fire, complaining that Washington pols are scapegoating the museum and the city.
Steve Freiss, "Stimulus Money for a Mob Museum. Got a Problem?" The New York Times, January 9, 2009 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/us/10mob.html?ref=business

Joe Johnson’s family has lived and worked on the same property near Columbus, N.M., for almost 100 years. “Our grandfather came here in 1918, right behind Pancho Villa,” he says proudly. Yet he also admits, “If it wasn’t home, I would move away from it.” The Johnson ranch lies right up against the Mexican border, and illegal immigration has turned what was already a hard way to make a living on drought--plagued rangeland into a nightmare of stolen cattle, broken water lines,ruined fences and grass fi res. “In 2005, we had 500-plus people crossing our ranch every day,” explains housewife, Teresa Johnson. “In 2006, we had 1,000-plus people crossing every day. These are not our numbers; these are Border Patrol numbers. They had counted foot draff c and the numbers of people they caught and things like that. So, you can just imagine what our fences look like. “We were afraid for our kids to even walk out to the barn to feed animals. We had to go as a group. One time we walked into the barn and found 15 people sitting there. And the trash is unreal.”
Sharla Ishmael, "Life on the Border," Townhall, December 5, 2008 --- http://townhall.com/columnists/SharlaIshmael/2008/12/05/life_on_the_border

His Wife Always Called Him Hard-Headed
Police Chief Kenneth Ray said he never would have believed it if he hadn't seen it: A murder suspect was shot in the head by police, and the bullet bounced off the man's skull. That considered, 32-year-old Daniel Tice was lucky to be in a hospital room Friday. But he still must face charges stemming from a seven-hour standoff Thursday night in which his estranged wife was killed.
Michael Sangiacomo, "Police bullet bounces off skull of murder suspect Daniel Tice," The Plain Dealer, January 10, 2009 ---
http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/summit/123157986157950.xml&coll=2

Denny Beresford forwarded the following link. I don't know how long it will be a free download.
"The Crash: What Went Wrong? How did the most dynamic and sophisticated financial markets in the world come to the brink of collapse? The Washington Post examines how Wall Street innovation outpaced Washington regulation.," The Washington Post, January 2009 ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/risk/index.html
Jensen Comment
The above site has three links to AIG and what went wrong with their credit default swaps.
Part 1 "The Beautiful Machine" --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/28/AR2008122801916.html
Part 2 "A Crack in the System"--- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/29/AR2008122902670.html
Part 3 "Downgrades and Downfall"--- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/30/AR2008123003431.html
Bob Jensen's threads on credit default swaps and the disaster at AIG --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm#Bailout
 

Forwarded by Dr. Wolff

Linda R. Monk, J. D., is a constitutional scholar, journalist, and nationally award-winning author. A graduate of Harvard Law School , she twice received the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, its highest honor for law-related media. Her books include The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution, Ordinary Americans: U. S. History Through the Eyes of Everyday People, and The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide. For more than 20 years, Ms. Monk has written commentary for newspapers nationwide, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune

THE PARTY'S OVER

By Linda Monk

The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.

The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America . The 'Omnipower' and 'Indispensable Nation' we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history.

Seizing on the crisis, the left says we are witnessing the failure of market economics, a failure of conservatism. This is nonsense. What we are witnessing is the collapse of Gordon Gecko ('Greed Is Good!') capitalism.

What we are witnessing is what happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophy and principles that made it great.

A true conservative (Rep or Dem) cherishes prudence and believes in fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets and a self-reliant republic. He believes in saving for retirement and a rainy day, in deferred gratification, in not buying on credit what you cannot afford, in living within your means.

Is that really what got Wall Street and us into this mess -- that we followed too religiously the gospel of Robert Taft and Russell Kirk? 'Government must save us!' cries the left, as ever.

Yet, who got us into this mess if not the government -- the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy? For years, we Americans have spent more than we earned. We save nothing. Credit card debt, consumer debt, auto debt, mortgage debt, corporate debt -- all are at record levels. And with pensions and savings being wiped out, much of that debt will never be repaid.

Our standard of living is inevitably going to fall. For foreigners will not forever buy our bonds or lend us more money if they rightly fear that they will be paid back, if at all, in cheaper dollars. We are going to have to learn to live again within our means.

THE PARTY'S OVER! Up through World War II, we followed the Hamiltonian idea that America must remain economically independent of the world in order to remain politically independent. But this generation decided that was yesterday's bromide and we must march bravely forward into a Global Economy, where we all depend on one another. American companies morphed into 'Global Companies' and moved plants and factories to Mexico , Asia, China , and India , and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs, planes, computers.

As the trade deficits began inexorably to rise to 6 percent of GDP, we began vast borrowing from abroad to continue buying from abroad. At home, propelled by tax cuts, war in Iraq and an explosion in social spending, surpluses vanished and deficits reappeared and began to rise. The dollar began to sink, and gold began to soar. Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come. Barack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2 percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the federal income tax load.

Who are we kidding?

What we are witnessing today is how empires end. The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars, or balance its budget.

Medicare and Social Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars. What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system. Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy Pelosi says she had nothing to do with it. Congress is paralyzed and heading home. President Bush is nowhere to be seen. Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U. S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages. They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves. Unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation. We are just spectators.

What the Greatest Generation handed down to us -- the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved -- the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away. Added Comments: How do WE THE PEOPLE put the villains who are responsible under oath and sit them down at public hearings to determine whose necks should meet the guillotine? Hypocritically, those who had oversight responsibility such as Senator Chris Dodd [Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee] and Barney Frank [Chairmen, House Financial Services Committee] who helped get us into this mess are on every TV channel voicing their righteous indignation and pompously sitting on their elevated platform glaring down at those they are chastising and grilling, trying to pass the blame to others.

WE THE PEOPLE should be on the elevated platform in judgment and execution of the likes of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and the rest of the band of thieves and conspirators who are responsible for the financial collapse of the USA . To name just a few of the culprits:
Henry Paulson Jr, Secretary of the Treasury
Alan Greenspan & Ben Bernanke -- Chairman Federal Reserve
Christopher Cox, SEC Chairman.

But not to worry -- YOUR PUBLIC SERVANTS who fear being voted out of office will take their self-awarded Golden Parachute Congressional Retirement, give WE THE PEOPLE the finger one last time and head for their safe havens as the World Citizens they are. However, before they waddle off into the sunset, they will go on record one last time denouncing corporate greed, lavish salaries, and bonuses for their key felons at Fannie May, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers & AIG Meanwhile, WE THE PEOPLE fiddle while Rome burns and were too lazy and indifferent to vote them out of office.

But the death of Lehman Brothers was "the day Wall Street died," as the Journal put it this week, and the day the great abundance did, essentially, too. That is a very big thing to happen in a single year. The proper attitude with which to approach the new reality? Consider it "a nudge from God," a priest said this week. Consider him to be telling us what's important and what's not, what you need and what you don't, what—who—can be relied on, and can't. We will always have politics. (We will always have awkward segues.) In fact in the future we'll have more of it, because we'll have more government . . . The thing about America is it is always ahead of the clichés, always one step ahead of an assumed limit. It has been, for all our woes, a good year for ground breaking. And so: onward.
Peggy Noonan, "In With the New And out, once again, with the 'inevitable'," The Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2008 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123075478723346265.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Reinventing the American Dream --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm#AmericanDream

Bob Jensen's threads on the forthcoming entitlements disaster are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/entitlements.htm

Questions that have stumped the experts at Snopes --- http://www.snopes.com/humor/question/requests.asp

"Guest Blogger: 5 Key Issues in IT Security," Chronicle of Higher Education, January 9, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3546&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Here’s another installment from our guest blogger, Tracy Mitrano.

For a number of years now, college technology leaders have identified security as one of the top five concerns for an IT organization, according to surveys by Educause. As a policy director I have certainly felt the impact of that concern. I started my position here at Cornell in April of 2001. At almost exactly the same time, the number of information-technology security incidents began to go through the proverbial roof. The proliferation of viruses and the availability of “script kiddies” — free software that can be used by non-programmers to hack into computers — were the main problems.

Consequently, my task as policy director was to focus on a suite of security policies. When Steve Schuster came on board here two years later as director of IT security, he and I worked together to create the security side of what we now call the Information Technology Policy Framework.

Bob Jensen's helpers regarding network and computer security are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#SpecialSection

The Deadline for a Free Download of Suzi Orman's Latest Book is January 15, 2009 (only free until midnight tonight)

January 10, 2009 message from Scott Bonacker [lister@BONACKERS.COM]

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081119_tows_bookdownload 

"This book is copyrighted. You may view and download the file, but you may not copy the file or share or forward it to any other person. Offer expires at 11:59 p.m. CT on Thursday, January 15."

I heard that Ms Orman had substantial holdings in municipal bonds, and that reminded me of this article:

Investing Experts Urge 'Do as I Say, Not as I Do'

If you think it is hard to stick to your New Year's resolutions, consider how some of the investing world's leading experts don't always take their own advice.

Heath HinegardnerOften, they diversify by the seat of their pants, fail to adjust their portfolios to changing values, ignore tax issues and take a flier on individual securities even when they know better. Nobody -- and I mean nobody -- is perfect.

I once asked Harry Markowitz, who shared the Nobel Prize in economics in 1990 for his mathematical explorations of the relationship between risk and return, how he diversified his portfolio.

Dr. Markowitz first got to choose how to divide his assets between a stock fund and a bond fund not long after publishing his pioneering article "Portfolio Selection" in the prestigious Journal of Finance. Following his own breakthroughs, he should have made intricate calculations, based on historical averages, to find the optimal trade- off between risk and return. But, Dr. Markowitz told me, that isn't what he did: "Instead, I visualized my grief if the stock market went way up and I wasn't in it -- or if it went way down and I was completely in it. My intention was to minimize my future regret."

Dr. Markowitz paused, then added wryly: "So I split my contributions 50/50 between bonds and equities."

He is just the tip of the iceberg.

Read the rest at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123093692433550093.html 

Scott Bonacker CPA
Springfield, MO

January 10, 2009 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the heads up that Suze Orman’s new book can be downloaded free before January 15 --- http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081119_tows_bookdownload 
Suze's home page is at http://www.suzeorman.com/

It’s interesting that you say that Suze Orman is heavy into municipal bond investments. Rep. Barney Frank has a lot of influence on banking and markets. He reports that he invests mostly in Mass. Municipal Bonds.

I invest some (including re-invested interest yields) in a Vanguard huge Insured Mutual Bond Fund. For sake of blood pressure it’s probably best to buy into this type of tax-exempt fund for the very long term and never peek at current values. Current values (like unrealized exit values in general) may needlessly lead to euphoria or depression for a going concern. I have a checkbook for my tax-exempt fund but only use it for very infrequent liquidity needs such as when I buy a tractor or an occasional property tax bill.

F. William McNabb III, the President of Vanguard (a really good guy amidst a den of thieves) stated the following in the December 31, 2008 Annual Report for Seven Tax-exempt Funds that varied in return depending upon maturities and risks:

The broad U.S. taxable bond market registered a return of 0.30% for the 12 months, but this unremarkable result obscured extreme dislocations within the market. The strong performance of the U.S. Treasury and government securities were offset by double-digit declines in the corporate bond market. These dynamics led to unusually large differences between the yields of Treasuries and their corresponding private-sector securities --- both a cause of the credit market’s distress.

Despite their generally high credit worthiness, municipal bonds also fell in price, driving yields higher. The broad tax-exempt market registered a 12-month return of -3.30% (where price declines offset interest yields). At the close of the period, (non-taxable) municipal securities yielded more than (taxable) U.S. Treasuries of similar maturities, an inversion of the typical relationship. On a taxable-equivalent basis, municipal yields were unusually high.

Put in another way, if you own an apartment building that you’ve no intention of selling for years down the road, you don’t much care about the short-term transitory up and down returns of the land and building value apart from the general long-term trend. However, you are very concerned about the amount of cash rent net of cash expenses each month. My cash return on my tax-exempt fund has never gone down. I’m very happy with the monthly tax-exempt cash flows into my fund and don’t pay much heed to transitory changes in value up or down in the short term.

As I’m sure you know full well Scott, the interest in these funds is tax-exempt only for Federal tax returns. Many states like New Hampshire charge a tax on municipal cash interest earned on investments outside the state. My Vanguard fund reports no New Hampshire municipal investments such that I must pay 5% (after a $5,000 exclusion) on all my reported tax-exempt interest. Bummer! However, if I should have a capital gain on the entire fund down the road, there is no New Hampshire tax on the capital gain. There is a Federal capital gains tax on tax-exempt funds. New Hampshire likes to say it has no income or sales tax, but it does have a sneaky “Interest and Dividends Tax” on all such cash inflows above $5,000 for the taxable year. This is offset by not having to pay any other income tax or a sales tax on new vehicles, booze, and toothpaste.

I think that Suze, Barney, and Jensen like municipal bond funds for relatively high cash after-tax cash yields, but it would probably be a mistake if we treated this like short term investments that we must dip heavily and frequently into for booze and wild women (well maybe not in Suze’s and Barney’s cases). Also long-term bond funds of any type are not good inflation hedges unless they are indexed for inflation like Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (or TIPS) that I discussed at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2008/tidbits081202.htm 

Now that the U.S. Government is proposing budget deficits of over a trillion dollars a year and has commenced printing money to spend that is neither tax revenue nor borrowed revenue, the long-term inflation prospects look dire. I would probably move more money into a better inflation hedge, but at my age this may not be as important as it would be for young whippersnappers. Of course most young professors are worried about paying their credit card bills, so the question of investment in anything is probably moot except for what they are building in employer contributions to TIAA-CREF.

But what’s a good inflation hedge? It certainly does not look like hedge funds or real estate investments or even individual stocks for my remaining years. It might be better to go relatively safe into high after-tax yields that can be re-invested as an inflation hedge. Of course there are some risky equity investments with the potential for high capital gains, but I dare not mention any names here since the bottom may really fall out in these precarious times. Firms almost certain to do well in the forthcoming massive bailout may be good investments, e.g., bridge building contractors and Interstate Highway resurfacing companies.

By the way, there’s a really serious price fixing investigation going on in the municipal bond market. “Nationwide Inquiry on Bids for Municipal Bonds,” by Mary Williams Walsh, The New York Times, January 8, 2008 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/09insure.html?ref=us 

I might also note that my Vanguard Fund probably does not invest in New Hampshire for good reason. The outlook for economic growth in New England in general is zilch since the Democrats literally (I don't mean virtually) took over the entire region with monopoly powers. This means that there will be more taxing without much economic growth opportunity up here. Prospects are better for municipalities in the south and west (but not California which is now taxing companies out of the state). Californians may move to Nevada in droves.

Bob Jensen

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

Social Networking

What is social networking? --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networking

Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace and Facebook being the most widely used in North America; Nexopia (mostly in Canada); Bebo, Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, Tagged, Xing; and Skyrock in parts of Europe;^[Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America;^[ and Friendster, Orkut, Xiaonei and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

2009 Updates on Social Networking Advantages, Disadvantages, and Sites for Educators and Students

January 10, 2009 message from Barry Rice [brice@LOYOLA.EDU]

This is from an excellent article on the National Education Web site about how educators are using social networking to build community and collaboration online:

 

"By now, you've heard the buzz about MySpace and Facebook, but you may still be wondering what all the fuss is about. Maybe you're a little mystified by the whole social networking craze, or you're a little wary about venturing into your students' territory. But what if we told you it can actually be good for your career?..."

 

The complete article is available at http://www.nea.org/home/ns/20746.htm.

 

Barry Rice

AECM Founder

 

_________________________

E. Barry Rice, MBA, CPA
Director, Instructional Services
Emeritus Accounting Professor
Loyola College in Maryland
BRice@Loyola.edu
410-617-2478
www.barryrice.com
 

Facebook me! www.facebook.com/p/Barry_Rice/20102311

"Online Social Networking for Educators:  Educators build community and collaboration online," by Cindy Long, National Education Association, January 2009 --- http://www.nea.org/home/ns/20746.htm

"There are lots of negative connotations surrounding social networking," says Steve Hargadon, an educational technology expert and founder of Classroom 2.0, a popular social network for teachers. "But we're showing that it can provide productive professional development opportunities that were previously available only to those lucky enough to attend conferences."

. . .

An active community is key, because social networks are only as good as the conversations that take place within them, says Hargadon of Classroom 2.0. "The conversations that used to happen in the hallways or teacher's lounges or at conferences are now happening all the time on the Web, and the more conversations you can have about your work, the more you can develop your specific professional interest," he says. "Putting these tools together in an environment that encourages community and collaboration creates enormous potential for history teachers, or Latin teachers, or music teachers to build a network of colleagues at their fingertips."

Hargadon recommends that educators take a look at Ning.com, where you can create your own social network around a specific topic without having to join the larger networks where your students most likely spend their time (see sidebar on MySpace/YourSpace). Ning groups can be as open or exclusive (even invitation-only) as you like.

Dubbles's Ning network, "Video Games as Learning Tools," is a community of educators exploring the potential of gaming in the classroom. The network has expanded his professional development in ways he never predicted. Through the connections he's made on Ning, he's been invited to write and share curriculum, to speak at major conferences on video gaming in the classroom, and to participate as a source in a Christian Science Monitor article on social networking.

Continued in article

Below is a list of several social networks for educators. Share your own ideas in the comments box below.

The Apple
Where teachers meet and learn.

Classroom 2.0
Steve Hargadon's popular social networking site for educators.

Classroom Earth
A social network for environmental education created in partnership between the Weather Channel and the National Environmental Education Foundation, submitted by an NEA Today reader.

Educate Interactive
Provides the educational community with opportunities to connect and collaborate in order to share resources, lessons, and best practices.

English Companion
A social network for English teachers, submitted by an NEA Today reader.

NextGen Teachers
Educators connecting to explore the next generation of teaching and learning.

Ning in Education
Using Ning for educational social networks.

TeachAde
The Online Community for Teachers

Teachers Recess
A social network developed to provide everyday teaching solutions.

Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm

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

Writers now outnumber readers (especially in humanities)
If you consider our numbers in the abstract, you might think we are about the right size for a harmonious and productive intellectual life. How many of us are there in the humanities? How many members does the Modern Language Association have? There must be at least twenty thousand active people. [Twenty years later, it is thirty thousand, according to the MLA website.-SM] We complain about the indifference of the outside world. The public pays no attention to us; it is not interested in criticism; yet our numbers correspond, more or less, to the actual audiences of Shakespeare or Racine at the time they were writing. Our sector of the academic world is as large as the entire cultivated public of Elizabethan England or the France of Louis XIV.“And yet our cultural world is a far cry from Elizabethan England or la cour et la ville in seventeenth-century France. There is a reason for this, so simple and yet so obvious that no one ever mentions it. At the time of Elizabeth and Louis, one percent, perhaps, of the educated people were producers, and ninety-nine percent were consumers. With us, the proportion is curiously reversed. We are supposed to live in a world of consumerism, but in the university there are only producers. We are under a strict obligation to write, and therefore we hardly have the time to read one another’s work. It is very nice, when you give a lecture, to encounter someone who is not publishing, because perhaps that person has not only enough curiosity but enough time to read your books.
Scott McLemee, "This Year’s Model (at the MLA annual meetings in San Francisco), Inside Higher Ed, January 7, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/01/07/mclemee

Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm

"Educause Names Top Teaching with Technology Challenges for 2009," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 9, 2009 --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3547&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Educause, the higher-education technology group, has released its list of top teaching and learning challenges of 2009.

The top five challenges were selected by a combination of focus groups, surveys of interested professionals, face-to-face brainstorming, and a final vote. The challenges are:

1. Creating learning environments that promote active learning, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and knowledge creation.
2. Developing 21st-century literacies — information, digital, and visual — among students and faculty members.
3. Reaching and engaging today’s learners.
4. Encouraging faculty members to adopt, and innovate with, new technology for teaching and learning.
5. Advancing innovation in teaching and learning with technology in an era of budget cuts.

Educause officials say they will now begin soliciting a volunteers to collaborate on solutions for each challenge using the project’s wiki.

Bob Jensen's threads on education technology --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm

Suggested Words to Add To or Delete From Your Vocabulary and Writings

Lake Superior State University is known for its annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. Now a new site at Wayne State University, Word Warriors, aims to draw attention to “words of style and substance that see far too little use.” Among the first words identified for this list: cahoots, defenestrate, insouciance, mendacious and quixotic.
Inside Higher Ed, January 6, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/06/qt
 

Somalia Pirates are Financially Ignorant
They should've held on to that Saudi oil tanker --- contangowise

"Contango in the Oil Market," Financial Clippings, January 9, 2009 --- http://financeclippings.blogspot.com/2009/01/contago-in-oil-market.html

Bloomberg reports that Investment Banks (I thought that they were extinct) are looking to rent super tankers to store oil for future delivery. They want to take advantage of the contango in the futures market for oil. Contango is the amount a futures price exceeds the spot price.

Ordinarily, you shouldn't be able to buy the oil today and sell a futures contract for future delivery and then make money by storing the oil. But apparently, because traders are worried about a severe cut in OPEC supply in the future, the futures price is much higher.

An interesting data point from the article reveals that it costs about 80-90 cents per month to store a barrel of oil on a super tanker. So, given that:
 

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March delivery are trading at $45.98 a barrel, about $4.78 more than the February contract.

This means that you could make well over $4 a barrel just storing Oil in March. An example of a supertanker mentioned in the article holds a million barrels. Of course there is also the cost of borrowing to pay for the oil up front, but with interest rates as low as they are, this shouldn't be too significant.

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting for contangos are under the C-Terms at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm#C-Terms

December 19, 2008 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]

2008 SURVEY OF ONLINE EDUCATION IN THE U.S.

"Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008" by I. Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman, is the sixth in a series of annual reports on a study conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group for the Sloan Consortium. Using responses from over 2,500 colleges and universities, the study sought answers to several questions on online education:

-- How many students are learning online?

-- What is the impact of the economy on online enrollments?

-- Is online learning strategic?

-- What disciplines are best represented online?

The complete report is available at http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/pdf/staying_the_course.pdf 

The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is a consortium of institutions and organizations committed "to help learning organizations continually improve quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. For more information, go to http://www.sloan-c.org/

The Babson Survey Research Group at Babson College (Wellesley, MA, USA) "conducts regional, national, and international research projects, including survey design, sampling methodology, data integrity, statistical analyses and reporting." For more information, go to http://www3.babson.edu/eship/aboutblank/

......................................................................

STUDY OF ASYNCHRONOUS AND SYNCHRONOUS E-LEARNING METHODS

"The debate about the benefits and limitations of asynchronous and synchronous e-learning seems to have left the initial stage, in which researchers tried to determine the medium that works 'better' -- such studies generally yielded no significant differences. Consequently, instead of trying to determine the best medium, the e-learning community needs an understanding of when, why, and how to use different types of e-learning."

In "Asynchronous and Synchronous E-Learning" (EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY, vol. 31, no. 4, October–December 2008), Stefan Hrastinski writes on the "benefits and limitations of asynchronous and synchronous e-learning." He provides useful tables comparing the two to help instructors understand when, why, and how to use these delivery modes.

The paper is available at http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EQM0848.pdf  (PDF format) and http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/AsynchronousandSynchronou/47683  (HTML format).

EDUCAUSE Quarterly, The IT Practitioner's Journal [ISSN 1528-5324] is published by EDUCAUSE, which has offices in Boulder, CO, and Washington, DC. Current and past issues are available online at http://www.educause.edu/eq/ 

See also:

"Exploding the Myths of Synchronous E-Learning" By Clive Shepherd INSIDE LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, November 2008 http://www.learningtechnologies.co.uk/magazine/article_full.cfm?articleid=291&issueid=29 

"Live events have immediacy, they facilitate networking, they act as targets by which activities must be completed, and they're simpler to design and support."

Bob Jensen's threads on asynchronous learning are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm

......................................................................

"ACADEMIA.EDU" NETWORKING SITE

Earlier this fall, a team of people from Oxford, Stanford, and Cambridge Universities launched the website, Academia.edu, which does two things:

-- It shows academics around the world structured in a "tree" format, displayed according to their departmental and institutional affiliations.

-- It enables academics to see news in their area of research.

The site's founders are hoping that Academia.edu will eventually list every academic in the world, including faculty members, post-docs, graduate students, and independent researchers. People can add their departments and themselves to the tree. Individual entries can list the academic's research interests, papers and books, websites, talks, courses taught, and CVs.

To view the site and to add your entry and/or department, go to http://www.academia.edu/ 

......................................................................

COPYRIGHT LECTURE AND BOOK AVAILABLE ONLINE

Last month, as part of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain Information Ecology Lecture series, Duke Law Professor James Boyle gave a talk titled "A Song's Tale: Mashups, Borrowing and the Law." You can watch the webcast of the lecture online at http://realserver.law.duke.edu/ramgen/fall08/cspd/11242008.rm 

The lecture was held in conjunction with Boyle's new book, THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: ENCLOSING THE COMMONS OF THE MIND (Yale University Press, 2008), which he is making available for reading online at http://www.thepublicdomain.org/ 

......................................................................

NEW JOURNAL FOR EDUCATIONAL DESIGNERS

EDUCATIONAL DESIGNER [ISSN 1759-1325], a free online journal published by the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE), "is intended to promote excellence in the research-based design, development, and evaluation of educational products and processes in the fields of mathematics, science, engineering and technology."

Areas in which contributions are expected include:

-- What can good educational design achieve? -- What makes a good design? -- Issues in design and design research -- The roles of evaluation -- Research methods, including documentation of outcomes -- Theory of design -- Long term strategies

The journal is available at http://www.educationaldesigner.org/ 

The goals of ISSDE are to "improve the design and development of educational tools and processes; increase the impact of good design on educational practice; build a design community that will move forward toward these goals." For more information contact: Hugh Burkhardt, Chair, ISSDE; tel: +44 115 951 4411; email: hugh.burkhardt@nottingham.ac.uk ; Web: http://www.isdde.org/isdde/

"Learning With 'Clickers' Gets Better After Peer Discussions," by Ruth Hammond, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 7, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3540/peer-discussion-improves-learning-with-clickers?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

College students who use wireless handheld devices called “clickers” to register answers to instructors’ questions during lectures are more likely to give correct responses after discussion with their peers, studies have found. But, researchers wondered, were students improving merely because they copied the answers of fellow students? Or had they actually gained a greater understanding of the material?

The findings of a new study published in the latest issue of Science suggest that improvement after peer discussion reflects real learning. And, surprisingly, students “don’t even need somebody who knows the right answer” in their discussion group in order to do better, says Michelle K. Smith, a research associate in biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder who led the study.

Three hundred and fifty students in a genetics course were first asked to answer a thought-provoking multiple-choice question individually, using a clicker. They were then invited to discuss that question with their neighbors, after which they answered it again. Next, they answered, individually, a second question that required applying the same principles needed to solve the first one.

When students respond to questions using clickers, generally their responses are displayed on a projection screen in the classroom, so instructors can highlight the correct answer. But for this study, the responses to the first question and the right answer were not shown until after students had answered the second question.

On average, the students improved when answering the first question for the second time, from 51 percent correct to 68 percent. But they improved even more when they answered the new, similar question, with 72 percent getting the answer correct. Because the second question was never discussed in peer groups, it could not be answered by copying the response of another student. So the higher rate of success suggests that giving students the opportunity to talk to one another and practice their cognitive skills makes them more prepared to analyze problems, Ms. Smith says.

Although the same peer-discussion method evaluated in the study could be put in place without clickers, students enjoy using the device as long as they’re given challenging questions, Ms. Smith says.

The device is used in college classrooms across the country, especially in large lecture courses in the hard sciences and mathematics, says Jane E. Caldwell, a biology instructor at West Virginia University who has published a paper in CBE—Life Sciences Education reviewing research on clickers. She says the new paper in Science “made a great stride in pinning down the cause of improvement in performance,” showing it was not just the result of “persuasion by bright students that happened to be sitting nearby."

Bob Jensen's threads on Response Pads and Clickers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#ResponsePads

Do Econ Grad Students Need a Teaching Bailout?
The authors of the study — William B. Walstad of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and William E. Becker of Indiana University at Bloomington — write that they are “perplexed as to why more economics departments do not require that their graduate student instructors take a credit course on teaching.” Noting that teaching “can be difficult to master on your own,” the authors write that without “effective” training, “the goal of becoming a teacher for most graduate students is likely to focus on the simple mastery of lecturing to the exclusion of other teaching methods or strategies.” And Walstad and Becker note that the quality of undergraduate teaching can affect enrollment patterns and have a key impact on whether new students are inspired by a field.
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, January 5, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/05/econ

"Undergraduate Economics Major Mustn't Become Too Technical, Report Urges," by David Glenn, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 5, 2008 ---
Click Here 

The undergraduate major in economics is generally healthy, but it would be stronger if faculty members had better skills in presenting the discipline to the vast majority of their students who do not want to become academic economists. That is the verdict of a draft report to be discussed here Saturday during the annual meeting of the American Economic Association.

The report was drafted by David C. Colander, a professor of economics at Middlebury College, and KimMarie McGoldrick, a professor of economics at the University of Richmond. It is one of a series of reports supported by the Teagle Foundation in an effort to promote “fresh thinking” about various undergraduate majors.

The good news, according to Mr. Colander and Ms. McGoldrick, is that most undergraduate economics departments continue to offer a broad education that speaks to students who might pursue business, public policy, or academic careers. A new national survey has found that a large majority of economics majors are satisfied with their programs.

But the authors fear that as doctoral education in economics becomes more technical and abstract — a trend Mr. Colander has criticized elsewhere — new faculty members are badly prepared to teach economics to undergraduate students with diverse interests.

Doctoral economics programs, the authors write, are “more and more reliant on mathematics and statistics and less and less focused on ideas relevant to teaching undergraduate majors who are interested in a liberal education, rather than learning economics as a technical science.”

The danger, Mr. Colander and Ms. McGoldrick write, is that the undergraduate major will start to mirror the doctoral programs, becoming “far more technical than it currently is,” which would in turn make it “a much smaller undergraduate major with fewer direct links to liberal education goals.”

The authors suggest that some undergraduate programs might divide into an “economic science” major and an “economic policy” major. They also urge doctoral programs to offer more training in pedagogy.

Continued in article

Where Highest Ranked Colleges Don't Excel --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DoNotExcel

What if failing more than half of each basic course becomes commonplace?
I wonder, sometimes, at the conclusion of a course, when I fail nine out of 15 students, whether the college will send me a note either (1) informing me of a serious bottleneck in the march toward commencement and demanding that I pass more students, or (2) commending me on my fiscal ingenuity—my high failure rate forces students to pay for classes two or three times over. What actually happens is that nothing happens. I feel no pressure from the colleges in either direction. My department chairpersons, on those rare occasions when I see them, are friendly, even warm. They don’t mention all those students who have failed my courses, and I don’t bring them up. There seems, as is often the case in colleges, to be a huge gulf between academia and reality. No one is thinking about the larger implications, let alone the morality, of admitting so many students to classes they cannot possibly pass. The colleges and the students and I are bobbing up and down in a great wave of societal forces—social optimism on a large scale, the sense of college as both a universal right and a need, financial necessity on the part of the colleges and the students alike, the desire to maintain high academic standards while admitting marginal students—that have coalesced into a mini-tsunami of difficulty.
Professor X, "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower," The Atlantic, June 2008 --- http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200806/college
Joe Brady forwarded this link to me.

January 5, 2009 reply from AMY HAAS [haasfive@MSN.COM]

I find myself thinking the same way. Here at a community college in the City of NY, at least 1/3 of my Introductory Acct students fail, or drop. In addition, I find that I keep lowering the bar, so that more students can pass. This is not so surprising for Intro courses, but I find that in my more advanced accounting classes, an equal amount of students do not belong there and I have to keep on lowering the bar for these students too. For example in order to prop up their grades I add extra credits, and bonus points. I ended up with some (just a few students) earning a GPA in the class of over 115. And then of course I get the begging emails for students who earn less than 60% ( D grade, but still passing). They want to know what can they do to "pass" the course. Of course, they have done very little all semester to end up with below a 60% in my class.Sometimes, I think I should just fail those that should fail and not care about the outcome, but somehow I do. What is the answer? Perhaps we should be teaching "bookkeeping" not accounting?

Amy Haas

Jensen Comment

There are very few colleges that are fully “competency-based” where examinations independently determine grades. In modern times, Western Governors (accredited undergraduate) University in the U.S. and the Chartered Accountancy (accredited graduate) School of Business in Western Canada are two such institutions. Instructors may have some input into the examination question database, but instructors themselves do not assign course grades in a true competency-based pedagogy --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#Education 

I think at one time the University of Chicago was competency-based to a point where students did not even have to take courses, although most had little chance of succeeding on examinations without taking courses. Without even taking courses students could simply take competency-based examinations much like correspondence courses were offered in a box of mailed materials. In the earliest correspondence programs in England, students could spend as much time as they wished studying the course materials mailed to their homes. The proof-of-the-pudding came from passing the examinations that were separately mailed to village vicars who were paid to administer the examinations. Vicars were chosen in those days because vicars were assumed to have such a degree of integrity that they would not accept bribes from students who wanted to pay bribes to cheat on examinations. Vicars were not instructors and probably knew almost nothing about the subject matter of the examinations they administered. Sylvan Testing Centers around the U.S. have taken the place of vicars for some online programs.

Competency-based programs are often despised in modern times by students who’ve become used to getting some credit for effort (as opposed to performance) in courses and others who are skilled at brown nosing their way through college.

Instructors often despise such programs because they feel that they must teach the courses to particular sets of examinations much like CPA review courses teach to the CPA examination. This limits to a certain extent course content creativity and inspirational aspects of courses.

Both WGU and CASB were controversial and were put to the test by accrediting agencies and the need to attract students for funding. Both have become highly successful in spite of skepticism that still exists among faculty at traditional universities. Success of these two competency-based institutions is attributed largely to the rigors of the examinations and the tremendous effort that must be made by students in the programs. After being one of the formal reviewers of the CASB program, I’m convinced that CASB is probably more difficult than most comparable masters degree programs in North America. CASB is a very tough alternative to getting a masters degree in accounting.

Bob Jensen

January 6, 2008 reply from Barbara Scofield [barbarawscofield@GMAIL.COM]

When I taught at Southeastern Louisiana University 1993-1996, it had one important component competency based: Freshman English. At the end of the second semester course, students wrote an essay as their "final exam." It was then evaluated by two trained evaluators, one English faculty member and one faculty member from a non-English department on a pass / fail basis. If the student failed the writing competency test, then the student failed the course no matter what his or her class grade was. There was additional review of all essays in which the initial evaluators disagreed with each other and an appeals process and pretesting of the essay topics etc., so it was a strong and fair program that produced good results.

Barbara W. Scofield, PhD, CPA
Professor of Accounting
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin
4901 E. University Dr.
Odessa, TX 79762
432-552-2183 (Office))
BarbaraWScofield@gmail.com

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

From the Scout Report on January 7, 2009

ALLPlayer 3.6 --- http://www.allplayer.org/index_en.htm 

Some media players can play a few formats, but ALLPlayer does many of them one better by playing just about any format imaginable. Perhaps the most compelling feature of this latest version is that users can also watch films with embedded subtitles. This particular function works by linking up to the Opensubtitle website, which then delivers the subtitle to the player. Also, the program contains a subtitle speaker function, which allows users to hear the subtitles. This version is compatible with computers running Windows 95 and newer.

---

Foxit Reader 3.0 --- http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/index.php 

Foxit Reader was created to provide an alternative to Adobe Reader, and it seems to succeed quite nicely on all fronts. Foxit Reader allows users to draw graphics, highlight text, type text, and make notes on PDF documents, and then save the entire thing (or print it out). This version is compatible with computers running Windows Me and newer.

---

In difficult economic times, libraries become even more popular with the general public Books fly off shelves as library use soars
http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090108/NEWS0107/901080426/1001/NEWS01&nav_category=NEWS01 

The Santa Barbara Independent Libraries Busy in Faltering Economy
 http://www.independent.com/news/2009/jan/08/libraries-busy-faltering-economy/

The Public Library Renaissance
 http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/the-public-library-renaissance/

Judge orders libraries to stay open
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20090106_Judge_orders_libraries_to_stay_open.html 

Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Libraries http://andrewcarnegie.tripod.com/ 

Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Wiki http://booklust.wetpaint.com/

 

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

Education Tutorials

From the University of Chicago
How to Find Learning Resources from Around the World
The Fathom Archive --- http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/

Practical Tips for Managing Challenging Scenarios in Undergraduate Research [math focus] http://www.maa.org/columns/resources/resources_12_08.html

The Pew Center on the States: Trends to Watch http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/trends.aspx

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

Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

NOVA: Absolute Zero --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/

McGraw-Hill Online Biology Labs --- http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072437316/student_view0/online_labs.html

3D Organic Chemistry Animations --- http://138.253.125.24/~ng/external/ 
3D Organic Chemistry Animations --- http://www.chemtube3d.com/ 

The World Health Report 2008 --- http://www.who.int/whr/2008/en/index.html

Food Timeline --- http://www.foodtimeline.org/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

NOVA: Absolute Zero --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/

BBC Prison Study --- http://www.bbcprisonstudy.org/

Working in Paterson [Industrial History] --- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/paterson/

National Anthropological Archives --- http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/index.htm

The World Health Report 2008 --- http://www.who.int/whr/2008/en/index.html

Food Timeline --- http://www.foodtimeline.org/index.html

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

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

Math Tutorials

Practical Tips for Managing Challenging Scenarios in Undergraduate Research [math focus] http://www.maa.org/columns/resources/resources_12_08.html

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

History Tutorials

Smithsonian's History Explorer --- http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu/

Working in Paterson [Industrial History] --- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/paterson/

Food Timeline --- http://www.foodtimeline.org/index.html

BlackPast: Remembered and Reclaimed (African American History) --- http://www.blackpast.org/

King's Last March [civil rights history) http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/king/

The National Archives: The Cabinet Papers, 1915-1977 --- http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/

The Civil Rights Digital Library --- http://crdl.usg.edu/voci/go/crdl/home/

Early Advertising of the West, 1867-1918 --- http://content.lib.washington.edu/advertweb/index.html

Papers of the War Department, 1784-1800 --- http://wardepartmentpapers.org/

Museum of Arts and Design --- http://www.madmuseum.org/

One Life: The Mask of Lincoln (picture history focus) --- http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/lincoln/

University of Rochester shares its Abraham Lincoln letters online --- http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=379
Also see http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/20364/?nlid=912

C-Span: Lincoln 200 Years (Video)  http://www.c-span.org/lincoln200years/

goSmithsonian: Lincoln --- http://www.gosmithsonian.com/lincoln

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/

January 5, 2008

• Fosamax: Jawbone Death Risk?
• Eat Less or Weigh More
• Which Kids Need Antidepressants?
• Grape Seed Extract for Leukemia
• Phosphates Linked to Lung Cancer

January 6, 2008

• Does Garlic Cut Cancer Risk?
• Daredevils Admit Risky Business
• CFS Linked to Childhood Trauma
• Diabetes Slows Brain Function
• Steve Jobs' Hormonal Imbalance

January 7, 2008

• Teen Birth Rates on the Rise
• Labels to Note Dye Made From Bug
• Brain Device to Ease Parkinson's
• Out-of-Pocket Medical Costs Up
• Does Garlic Cut Cancer Risk?

January 8, 2008 

• Salmonella Outbreak in 42 States
• Early Planned C-Sections Risky
• Child's Death 1st of Flu Season
• Teen Birth Rates on the Rise
• Labels to Note Dye Made From Bug

January 9, 2008

• Some Vitamin D Tests Flawed
• Melanoma Increase Is Real
• Saliva Test for Autism in Works
• Salmonella Outbreak in 42 States
• Patrick Swayze Discusses Cancer

January 12, 2009

• High BP Climbs in Winter
• Light on Sleep, Heavy on Snacks?
• Spouses Share Heart Risks
• Is Too Much Overtime Unhealthy?
• Autism Cases on the Rise

January 14, 2009

• Is There a 911 Gender Gap?
• Antidepressants vs. Fibromyalgia
• No Cell Phone, Eye Cancer Link
• Chlamydia, Syphilis Rates Rising
• VapoRub Misuse May Hurt Kids

 

The National Sleep Research Project
40 FACTS ABOUT SLEEP YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW --- http://www.abc.net.au/science/sleep/facts.htm

"Study: Alzheimer’s Drugs May Raise Death Risk in Elderly," The New York Times, January 8, 2009 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/08/health/AP-EU-MED-Alzheimers-Drugs.html

Anti-psychotic drugs commonly used to treat Alzheimer's disease may double a patient's chance of dying within a few years, suggests a new study that adds to concerns already known about such medications.

''For the vast majority of Alzheimer's patients, taking these drugs is probably not a worthwhile risk,'' said Clive Ballard, the paper's lead author, of the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases at King's College London.

''Would I want to take a drug that slightly reduced my aggression but doubled my risk of dying? I'm not sure I would,'' Ballard said.

Continued article

Jensen Comment
If and when I'm diagnosed with Alzheimer's curse, bring on double doses of the anti-psychotic drugs.

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

Forwarded by Maureen

What Is Butt Dust???

What, you ask, is 'Butt dust'? Read on and you'll discover the joy in it! These have to be original and genuine. No adult is this creative!!

JACK (age 3) was watching his Mum breast-feeding his new baby sister. After a while he asked: 'Mum why have you got two? Is one for hot and one for cold milk?'

MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied she was so old she didn't remember any more. Melanie said, 'If you don't remember you must look in the back of your pants. Mine say five to six.'

STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mum good night. 'I love you so much that when you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom window.'

BRITTANY (age 4) had an ear ache and wanted a pain killer. She tried in vain to take the lid off the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her Mom explained it was a child-proof cap and she'd have to open it for her. Eyes wide with wonder, the little girl asked: 'How does it know it's me?'

SUSAN (age 4) was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. 'Please don't give me this juice again,' she said, 'It makes my teeth cough.'

DJ (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: 'How much do I cost?'

MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and kissing in a restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: 'Why is he whispering in her mouth?'

CLINTON (age 5) was in his bedroom looking worried When his Mum asked what was troubling him, he replied, 'I don't know what'll happen with this bed when I get married. How will my wife fit in it?'

JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read : 'The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was turned to salt.' Concerned, James asked: 'What happened to his flea?'

TAMMY (age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled woman her Mum knew. Tammy looked at her for a while and then asked, 'Why doesn't your skin fit your face?'

The Sermon I think this Mum will never forget...this particular Sunday sermon...'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust...' He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little four year old girl voice, 'Mum, what is butt dust?'

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 Trites'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

Accounting program news items for colleges are posted at http://www.accountingweb.com/news/college_news.html
Sometimes the news items provide links to teaching resources for accounting educators.
Any college may post a news item.

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]

Many useful accounting sites (scroll down) --- http://www.iasplus.com/links/links.htm

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