New Bookmarks
Year 2003 Quarter 2:  April 1-June 30 Additions to Bob Jensen's Bookmarks
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

This will be the last edition of New Bookmarks until I return to Trinity University in September 2003.
We're moving to the mountains on June 10, 2003 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.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.
This search engine may get you some hits from other professors at Trinity University included with Bob Jensen's documents, but this may be to your benefit.

For date and time, try The Aggie Digital Clock --- http://yugop.com/ver3/stuff/03/fla.html
Time anywhere in the world http://www.worldtimeserver.com/ 

Bob Jensen's Dance Card
Some of My Planned Workshops and Presentations --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations 

Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Language Other Goodies --- http://dictionary.reference.com/|
Cknow.com: Definitions/ Acronyms/ Abbreviations http://www.cknow.com/ckinfo/  

Lists of Bests --- http://www.listsofbests.com/ 

 

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Choose a Date Below for Additions to the Bookmarks File

May 31, 2003         May 15, 2003  

April 15, 2003         April 30, 2003                     

 

 

May 31, 2003  

 Bob Jensen's New Bookmarks on May 31, 2003
Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

Quotes of the Week

Our current economy system is a global machine that is destroying the environment and producing millions of losers that nobody knows what to do with.
Susan George

Now throw into the mix Microsoft's plans for a virtual brain. The plan: put everything which constitutes your life, livelihood and memories - from important documents to invaluable photographs and videos to important emails and any other kind of electronic data which defines you - onto the one system. A one-stop shop for everything you will ever need to recall and reuse .  
Silicon.com --- http://www.silicon.com/news/500011/1/1036498.html  

When we get really, really frustrated with our college students for not being able to follow third-grade level instructions, we should consider how many of them are (let's be blunt here) suffering from drug and alcohol induced idiocy.
Tina Blue, University of Kansas --- http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-05-20-03.htm 

The trouble with born-again Christians is that they are an even bigger pain the second time around.
Herb Caen
 
Every day people are straying away from church and going back to God.
Lenny Brucen
 
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoleon
 
Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation or creed.
Bertrand Russell

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
Mahatma Gandhi

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
Unknown

Don't be humble. You're not that great.
Golda Meir

When the cat and mouse agree, the grocer is ruined.
Persian Proverb

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.
Gene Fowler

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.
Mark Twain

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.
Thomas Jefferson

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.
Robert Orben

Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.
Charles Lamb

It is better to be a mouse in a cat's mouth than a man in a lawyer's hands.
Spanish Proverb

We all have the strength to endure the misfortune of others.
La Rochefoucauld

Avarice is the sphincter of the heart.
Matthew Green

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Derek Bok

The United States is like the guy at the party who gives cocaine to everybody and still nobody likes him.
Jim Samuels

A man can't get rich if he takes proper care of his family.
Navajo Saying

An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought.
Simon Cameron

All great truths begin as blasphemies.
George Bernard Shaw

Animals have these advantages over man: they have no theologians to instruct them, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.
Voltaire

If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be --- a Christian.
Mark Twain

Christian:  One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.
Ambrose Bierce

A cult is a religion with no political power.
Tom Wolfe

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
Eric Hoffer

If you talk to God you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
Thomas Szasz

A politician thinks of the next election - a statesman of the next generation.
James Freeman Clarke

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Alfred Adler

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
Adlai E. Stevenson

If I have written such a long letter, it means that I did not have enough time to make it shorter.
Blaise Pascal

My May 31, 2003 updates on the accounting and finance scandals can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud033103.htm
(The above document also includes updates on tax frauds, scams, identity theft, and similar updates.)

FASB Improves Accounting for Financial Instruments with Characteristics of both Liabilities and Equity --- http://www.fasb.org/news/nr051503.shtml 

Norwalk, CT, May 15, 2003—The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued Statement No. 150, Accounting for Certain Financial Instruments with Characteristics of both Liabilities and Equity. The Statement improves the accounting for certain financial instruments that, under previous guidance, issuers could account for as equity. The new Statement requires that those instruments be classified as liabilities in statements of financial position.

Statement 150 affects the issuer’s accounting for three types of freestanding financial instruments. One type is mandatorily redeemable shares, which the issuing company is obligated to buy back in exchange for cash or other assets. A second type, which includes put options and forward purchase contracts, involves instruments that do or may require the issuer to buy back some of its shares in exchange for cash or other assets. The third type of instruments that are liabilities under this Statement is obligations that can be settled with shares, the monetary value of which is fixed, tied solely or predominantly to a variable such as a market index, or varies inversely with the value of the issuers’ shares. Statement 150 does not apply to features embedded in a financial instrument that is not a derivative in its entirety.

The End of IT? --- http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1098455,00.asp 
eWeek, May 21, 2003
By Lisa Vaas
 
In an article in this month's issue of the Harvard Business Review, author Nicholas Carr claims that, due to technology commoditization, "IT doesn't matter" as a strategic advantage.

"By now, the core functions of IT—data storage, data processing, and data transport—have become available and affordable to all," the article claims, turning expenditures on such technologies into mere costs of doing business—an evolution similar to that of the steam engine, the telegraph, the telephone and the internal combustion engine. Similarly, the report said, overinvestment in technology in the 1990s echoes overinvestment in railroads in the 1860s.

The scary question is whether "people have already bought most of the stuff they want to own," according to Bill Joy, the chief scientist and co-founder of Sun Microsystems Inc., who was quoted in the article. Vendors that are evolving to survive in this commoditized environment include Microsoft Corp., which turned its Office software suite into an annual subscription service—a "tacit acknowledgement that companies are losing their need—and their appetite—for constant upgrades," the report said.

The report had three pieces of IT spending-related advice for enterprises. One: Spend less. Studies show that companies that spend the most on IT don't always post the best financial results.

Two: Follow, don't lead. Waiting means an enterprise gets more for its money, according to Moore's Law, and decreases the risk of buying buggy products.

Three: Focus on vulnerabilities, not opportunities. It's hard to gain competitive advantage through use of mature technology, but it's easy to get taken to the cleaners when systems go down.

 

Cknow.com: Definitions/ Acronyms/ Abbreviations http://www.cknow.com/ckinfo/  

MakingMusic 2 [Encyclopedia of musical instruments] http://homepage.mac.com/davidahmed/makingmusic.html

Bob Jensen's bookmarks for technology abbreviations are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245gloss.htm 

Bob Jensen's bookmarks for definitions, etc. are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#08051Glossaries 

EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research --- http://www.educause.edu/ecar/ 

The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) provides timely research and analysis to help higher education leaders make better decisions about information technology (IT). The current environment is characterized by a lack of reliable information on IT in higher education. While there are ample anecdotes, there is little factual information and even less analysis. And the central issue may not be IT.

Although controversy often accompanies large-scale information technology projects, in many cases it is not the technical aspects of these projects that are the most problematic. Outsourcing, network security, e-procurement, and e-learning are examples of complex issues that may have been triggered by information technology, but whose resolution cannot focus on IT alone.

ECAR assembles leading scholars, practitioners, researchers and analysts to focus on issues of critical importance to higher education, many of which carry increasingly complicated and consequential implications. ECAR provides educational leaders with high-quality, well-researched, timely information to support institutional decision-making.

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

NationMaster.com --- http://www.nationmaster.com/ 

Interactive Country Comparisons Welcome to NationMaster.com, a handy way to graphically compare nations. Using the form above, you can generate graphs with ease on all kinds of statistics. What's more, you can select exactly which countries you want to have included. We now have 335 stats, and this number is increasing all the time. If you know of some other stats, please don't hesitate to tell us. We hope to have drug, sporting and more entertainment stats up soon.

Bob Jensen's bookmarks on economic and other statistics can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics 

Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#080512Encyclopedias 

Teaching Technology of the Week:  The SMART Camfire Whiteboard Camera ---  http://www.smarttech.com/products/camfire/index.asp 

Transform your dry-erase whiteboard into the next-generation digital copyboard. The SMART Camfire whiteboard camera captures high-resolution images of everything written, drawn and posted on your whiteboard. Publish notes to your Web site, print them or save them for students, parents or meeting attendees

The SMARTer Kids Foundation (includes college "kids") --- http://www.smarterkids.org/ 

The SMARTer Kids Foundation is a private organization that provides opportunities for students and teachers to learn new skills and grow in self-confidence by placing technology, grants and programs at their service. The Foundation helps equip classrooms with technology products and generates practical research on the impact and effectiveness of technology in the classroom. The challenges and opportunities that teachers and students face in accessing and using technology drive us to ensure our efforts make a difference in education.

Code Orange: CyberCrime Center to Open in DC --- http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1104230,00.asp 
It's gotten so bad that even the feds are worried. So the Department of Homeland Security plans on opening a Cyber-Security Center in DC to address the problem. We're not just talking about nabbing script-kiddies, either—big-time criminals are flocking to the Web. But one key piece is missing—and our experts think the new center will flop until it's addressed. Find out what the fatal flaw is and learn details of this new government bureaucracy in our special coverage.

Option Pricing : Modeling and Extracting State-Price Densities A New Methodology by Christian Perkner
Haupt Verlag
ISBN 3-258-06101-7  http://www.haupt.ch/asp/titels.asp?o=f&objectId=3372 

The focus of this book is on the valuation of financial derivatives. A derivative (e.g. a financial option) can be defined as a contract promising a payoff that is contingent upon the unknown future state of a risky security. The goal of this book is to illustrate two different perspectives of modern option pricing:

Part I: The normative viewpoint: How does (how should) option pricing theory arrive at the fair value for such a contingent claim? What are crucial assumptions? What is the line of argument? How does this theory (e.g. Black-Scholes) perform in reality?

Part II: The descriptive viewpoint: How are options truly priced in the financial markets? What do option prices tell us about the expectations of market participants? Do investor preferences play a role in the valuation of a derivative?

To answer both questions, the author introduces an insightful valuation framework that consists of five elements. Its central component is the so called state-price density - a density that represents the market's valuation of $1 received in various states of the world. It turns out that the shape of this density is the crucial aspect when determining the price of an option.

The book illustrates several techniques allowing the flexible modeling of the state-price density. Implementation issues are discussed using real datasets and numerical examples, implications of the various modeling techniques are analyzed, and results are presented that significantly improve standard option pricing theory.

Bob Jensen's threads on option pricing theory --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm#FairValue

DOES A ROSS ECONOMY LUNCH REALLY COST AS MUCH AS
HIRSHLEIFER CUISINE COMPLETE WITH sm2 DESSERT?  
Bob Jensen's unpublished Working Paper 149 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/149wp/149wp.htm 

Bob Jensen's threads on valuation of derivative financial instruments can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133swapvalue.htm

May 29, 2003 message from Scott Bonacker [scottbonacker@MOCCPA.COM] 

Starting in July 2003, non-European sellers of broadcasting and electronically delivered services must begin collecting value added tax on sales to customers in Europe. Despite a storm of protest in the United States over this new tax regime, the process of enforcing the new rules is moving inexorably forward. Already, major sellers of such services have begun making arrangements to comply. The United Kingdom’s Custom & Excise has released taxpayer information bulletins to assist both European and non-European sellers in understanding and complying with the new rules.

This is a reminder to check the abstracting, database, and article services that your university's library pays for as a service to students, faculty, and staff.  If you've not checked lately, you might be amazed at the expensive subscription services that are available free online to you if your library recognizes your password.

For example, Trinity University is a very small school, but the subscription services of its library are rather extensive --- http://lib.trinity.edu/dbs/ 

Bob Jensen

-----Original Message----- 
From: Paul Apodaca [mailto:paul@PAPODACA.COM]  
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 6:52 PM 
To: AECM@LISTSERV.LOYOLA.EDU  
Subject: Re: Bad News from the New York Times

Neal,

A possibility might be http://www.rsicopyright.com/ . 
They allow keywork tracking of 300 sources using their "clip&copy" service. This is free, but only provides an abstract of the article. If you want the actual article, there is a charge to get it through them. I have it set up for daily reports on "xml or xbrl" and "PCAOB", but you can set your own frequency.

In addition, you can access articles at:

1) http://www.accountantsworld.com/ . I use them to host my website (http://www.papodaca.com) and find the articles are quite useful. I point my students to my website and have them check the "Daily News", but you can access the same information directly. Access to the articles is generally free.

2) http://www.accountingweb.com/  
Articles often duplicate the ones on AccountantsWorld, but that isn't a surprise as they both use search bots to pull relevant articles.

3) http://www.smartpros.com   
Another good source.

4) http://www.dushkin.com/powerweb/  
PowerWeb  is free with many textbooks. PowerWeb has a "Dynamic Accounting Profession" section as well. Very good. The card that comes with the text gives you a code to register (for that text), but so far, all of the accounting items that I have accessed have not required me to register. Registration also gives you access to the Northern Light premium sources. Lots of good tips for the students as well.

I put these links in my syllabi, and require the students to bring in an article sometime during the semester. The only requirement is that it have some vague connection to the course (and some of them are VERY vague), and they give the class a brief verbal abstract. It is part of their participation.

Not terribly successful, but it is working better each semester.

I hope that this information is useful.

Bob Jensen's accounting and business bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm 

There will soon be more viruses than SARS in Canada!

College plans virus-writing course --- http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-1010538.html?tag=fd_top 
 
By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 28, 2003

While many students would be expelled from their computer science programs for writing a virus, the University of Calgary plans to make writing such malicious programs a part of the curriculum.

This fall, the Canadian school is offering a class for fourth-year students titled "Computer Viruses and Malware," in which students will write and test their own viruses. The move has touched off a wave of criticism within the antivirus community.

Ken Barker, head of the school's computer science department, contends that such a class is needed to better understand what motivates those who write malicious software, which he says is a growing problem. In just the past 24 hours, McAfee has discovered some 190,000 new infected files, Barker said.

Continued in the article

"Blogs: The Next Big Thing," by John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine, May 27, 2003 --- http://www.pcmag.com/article2/1,4149,1109531,00.asp 

The Blogging phenomenon, which recently drew much attention because of the purchase of Blogger by Google, will become the next big computer fad if it hasn't already. And I don't mean fad in a bad way. I don't want to argue with various bloggers about the fact that blogging has been going on for years already. That's beside the point, as is clear if we compare blogging to two similar über-fads—the CD-ROM business and the dot-com phenomenon. Both had been going on for years before they were suddenly catapulted into the mainstream in a big way. Blogging is following this exact path. (If you haven't seen my previous commentaries on blogging, please read these three columns: "The Blog Phenomenon", "Cult of the Cluetrain Manifesto", and "Deconstructing the Blog".

Let me stop here for a moment and make some specific predictions. Within the next year, both David Letterman and Jay Leno will make jokes about blogs and even discuss them. "Nightline" will do an entire show on blogging. San Jose journalist and blog promoter Dan Gillmore will be a guest for the episode. This is the point where blogging will become mainstream. Shortly thereafter, we will see blogging millionaires, as venture capitalists figure out ways to make money from the trend.

Although I'm seen as some sort of enemy of blogdom, I'm actually more of a critic—mostly of the more inane diary blogs. The Web logs, née blogs, that are oriented toward pre-research, such as Wi-Fi Networking News or even the intensely fun sites like boingboing have my deepest respect. But the vanity sites such as Anti-Bloggies are just asking for ridicule. Who can resist? This is especially true now that the cat fanciers and ersatz poets have come on strong in the blog world.

Anyway, there are intriguing commonalities between the latest of the super-fads that came and went (CD-ROMs, and dot-coms) and the blog scene. The parallels are interesting and obvious. Let's go over them one by one.

1. The San Francisco Connection. Here is the coincidence that triggered the notions in this column. The CD-ROM trend, the dot-com trend, and blogging all have deep roots not in Silicon Valley, but in San Francisco. From the era of New Media Gulch or whatever the South-of-Market scene was called during the CD-ROM age, to the dot-com reign (who can forget the huge Red Gorilla building on Market Street that ended up abandoned?), San Francisco has been a nexus for these trends. It's no coincidence that a lot of the so-called A-list bloggers and blog software developers are in and around San Francisco.

2. The Macintosh Connection. (This is a user's connection, not an Apple thing.) San Francisco is also a nexus for Mac users, and Mac users are at the core of these fads. All the major national Macintosh magazines were based in San Francisco, too. The CD-ROM fad, which required a lot of complex graphical manipulations, required a large Mac contingent. This carried over to the dot-com scene, which was populated by people who fell out of the CD-ROM business. Now if you look at the core bloggers in the San Francisco area, you find the Mac to be their dominant platform. Lots of writers who blog know how to use Macs only, in fact. There are constant references to the Mac in many of the top blogs.

3. The Microsoft Connection. (This is a corporate connection, not a user's thing.) Microsoft got involved in the CD-ROM game early on and sponsored the earliest CD-ROM conferences. The company promoted "information at your fingertips" as part of a CD-ROM strategy and produced numerous titles under the Microsoft at Home label. During the dot-com era, Microsoft jumped on the bandwagon and changed its catch phrase to "where do you want to go today?" Microsoft became Web-oriented and began numerous dot-com initiatives, such as Sidewalk, and a slew of failed online magazines, including an online computer magazine. Now as blogging is beginning to emerge, we hear that Microsoft is going to incorporate blogging software into MSN and other products. A slew of insiders at Microsoft are now blogging. Steve Ballmer is supposed to have a secret blog someplace. I'm waiting for a new blog-centric catch phrase any minute. How about "All your blog are belong to us?" Naw, too obvious.

4. Longevity. While the promise of the CD-ROM revolution was never fulfilled, the whole arena remains powerful. Almost everything is provided on CD-ROM, and there is plenty to be had on CD-ROMs. Although the elaborate, snazzy, over-produced ones are gone, the practical ones remain. The same holds for the dot-coms. Sure, eToys and Pets.com are gone, but the online world has hardly been killed off by the dot-com collapse. The mania is what's gone, thank goodness. Can we expect the same from blogdom? Yes, of course.

The unanswered question at this point is what direction the blog scene will go in. What will blogging be like in five years? You also have to wonder if the current blog scene is part of a series of individual changes in the computer landscape or a precursor to something new. One could argue, for example, that the CD-ROM scene was a precursor to the dot-com trend. There were a lot of connections. Did dot-coms lead to blogging? They had to, since Web logs are all about the Web. But is blogging just a jumping-off point for something even bigger? After all, the CD-ROM business generated a lot of new and VC-funded start-ups, but not as many as came out of the dot-com scene. Is blogging a stepping stone to something else? If so, what?

While the smug I-told-you-so–type bloggers out there (you know who you are) find themselves on the crest of a wave, I'm not so sure that the shore ahead isn't rocky, as it was for the CD-ROM vogue and the dot-com phenomenon. But at least the ride is fun.

Bob Jensen's threads on weblogs and blogs are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245glosf.htm#Weblog 

A Simple Tool to Protect Your Web Server --- http://security.ziffdavis.com/article2/0,3973,1108363,00.asp 
Afraid of hackers attacking your Web site with long or binary URLs? Did you know that there's a simple little tool that will keep those longer URLs from attacking your system? It's Microsoft's UrlScan, and it really can keep you safe—if you use it. We've got more details about this and other URL blockers. If you run a Web site, you should use one!

Windows Defraggled
Disk Fragmentation More Dangerous Than You Might Think --- http://storage.ziffdavis.com/article2/0,3973,1108850,00.asp 
 I used to think that disk fragmentation problems were like smallpox—wiped off the face of the earth by newer and more intelligent operating systems. But it turns out that with Windows XP, your problems multiply even faster than with 98 or 2000. If you're wondering why boot times are so slow or files take so long to load, a fragmented disk might be the problem. Find out whether you're suffering from fragmentation woes and what to do about it!

Einstein Archives Online (Science, Physics, Astronomy) --- http://www.alberteinstein.info/ 

Invention Disillusion
Ever heard of a personal hovercraft? --- http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1098506,00.asp 
What about a combination cell phone/gun? Perhaps you'd find a camcorder/cell phone combination more interesting? PC Magazine's Lance Ulanoff finds all these inventions ultimately disappointing—particularly the overhyped Segway from Dean Kamen. Take a look at the weird stuff he's found, and then let him know what you think. And if you've uncovered any wacky inventions yourself, send 'em along too, either to Lance or directly to me!

Donald Rumsfeld may have his share of critics, but Bruce Sterling isn't one of them. The outspoken defense secretary and "gnomic futurist" knows what's right for America, Sterling writes in a commentary from Wired magazine --- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.06/view.html?pg=4 

What search engines know about you when you search. Part one of a two-part series. http://www.clickz.com/search/opt/article.php/2207951 
ClickZ Today, May 21, 3003
By Danny Sullivan

Some scary statements have been made about the privacy of search requests. You may have heard Google was nominated for a Big Brother Award award. You may also have read Google knows everything you ever searched for. Should you be afraid? Is it time to boycott Google, as blogger Gavin Sheridan called for?

Relax. Yes, there are privacy issues when you do a search at Google. These are concerns at other search engines, too. Fear that you, personally, will be tracked isn't realistic for the vast majority of users.

What exactly does Google know about you when you come to search? You needn't be worried -- for the moment. Next week, we'll continue the privacy discussion with a look at Yahoo! and search engine privacy policies.

Fact or Fiction?

No wonder people worry about search privacy after reading statements like these:

Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years. Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is. --BBC technology commentator Bill Thompson, February 21, 2003

I don't like that its cookies expire 35 years from now, and that it records all my searches, including the embarrassing ones. --Technology writer and blogger Chris Gulker, March 7, 2003

Reality: Google doesn't know who you are as an individual. Its use of cookies, hardly unique, doesn't give it a magical ability to see your face and know your name through your monitor.

All Google knows is specific browser software, on a particular computer, made a request. A cookie gives it the ability to potentially see all requests made by that browser over time. Google doesn't know who was at the browser when the request was made.

When I search at Google, this is how it identifies me: 740674ce2123e969.

No name, no address, no phone number. If someone else is at my computer, Google can't tell someone new is searching.

What Does Google Record?

Here's how that unique cookie number is given to you and why it tells Google nothing about who you are.

Assume you've never been to Google before. You visit the site and search for "cars." What's recorded?

As stated in its privacy policy, Google records the time you visited, your Internet address, and your browser type in a log file. It's standard practice for Web servers to keep track of this information.

Here's a simplified example of how a search for "cars" might appear in Google's logs:

inktomi1-lng.server.ntl.com - 25/Mar/2003 10:15:32 - http://www.google.com/search?q=cars - MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1 - 740674ce2123e969

When broken down:

My Internet Address

If Google wants to know who I am, the most important element is my IP address. That address says nothing about me as Danny Sullivan. NTL is a large UK Internet access provider. The IP address represents the NTL computer serving my requests. (Inktomi is mentioned probably as a remnant from when it provided Internet caching services to ISPs.)

Continued in the article

Bob Jensen's threads on search engines can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm 

From Syllabus News on May 27, 2003

Stanford B-School to Broadcast Via CNET News.com

Stanford Knowledgebase, a business journal published by Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, will republish its content electronically through the computer media site CNET News.com. The resource is the fifth business editorial content site to offer free access to its material via the site. CNET also announced a "Business Elites" Web page featuring analytical work by Knowledge@Wharton from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, "The McKinsey Quarterly," and Booz Allen Hamilton's "strategy+business." Barbara Buell, director of communication at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, said the relationship with CNET "helps us deliver information about the knowledge developed at Stanford Business School to a wider business audience that is looking for thoughtful insights and ideas about complex issues in business."

Wow Site of the Week

The Dynamic Earth (Science, Geology) --- http://www.mnh.si.edu/earth/ 

Maybe it's my ignorance, but I could not get parts of this wonderful site to work for me from the upper menu.

Rocks and Mining

Rocks At Earth's Surface
Earth's history is written on pages of stone. Since our planet's birth 4.6 billion years ago, rocks have been continually forming and, over time, changing from one kind to another. Every rock preserves part of this ancient and ongoing story.

May 27, 2003 message from Sikka, Prem N [prems@essex.ac.uk] 

Dear Bob,

You may be aware of the Association for Accountancy & Business affairs (AABA) which has now been functioning for five years in the UK. It engages with public policy issues, publishes research, runs free journals, collaborates with NGOs, organises seminars and runs a web site. Further details are on the AABA website ( http://visar.csustan.edu/aaba/aaba.htm )

Regards

Prem Sikka 
Professor of Accounting 
University of Essex 
Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ, UK

Tel: +(0)1206-873773 
Fax: +(0)1206-873429 
E-mail: prems@essex.ac.uk  
Internet  http://visar.csustan.edu/aaba/aaba.htm 

The big blackout Surprise, surprise: The TV networks that will benefit from the new FCC rules on media ownership have been keeping their viewers in the dark about the changes." by Eric Boehlert, Salon.com, May 22, 2003 --- http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/05/22/fcc_blackout/index_np.html 

On June 2, the Federal Communications Commission will make a decision that will probably radically change how Americans receive their news. But if, like most people, you rely on television as your primary information source, chances are you haven't heard a word about it.

At stake are the current rules on how many different properties a media conglomerate can own. Eager to create new economic efficiencies, media companies such as Viacom, AOL Time Warner and the Tribune Co. have been pressing the FCC for years to relax limits on cross-ownership on such things as TV stations and newspapers in the same city. Meanwhile Congress has held several high-profile hearings discussing the likely ramifications of the FCC's decision to invite greater media consolidation.

But to date, most network and cable news operations have all but ignored the story; a story their parent companies have taken extraordinary interest in and spent millions of dollars paying lobbyists to make a reality. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the two television news operations most reluctant to cover the FCC debate -- CBS and Fox -- are owned by the two media conglomerates with the most to gain from a lenient FCC ruling: Viacom and the News Corp.

"The broadcast media has been absolutely atrocious on this issue," says Robert McChesney, author of "Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communications Politics in Dubious Times." "The coverage has been virtually nonexistent."

Continued for a fee at http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/05/22/fcc_blackout/index_np.html 

"Keeping the Web Royalty-Free:  W3C unveils its formal policy for handling Web patents," by David Legard, PCworld.com, May 22, 2003  --- http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110839,00.asp 

The World Wide Web Consortium announced Wednesday its formal policy for ensuring that key Web technologies, even if patented, are made available on a royalty-free basis.

In a statement, the consortium said that the W3C Patent Policy is designed to reduce the threat that key components of Web infrastructure may be covered by patents which block further development.

The policy states that:

Keeping Its Commitment

The policy formalizes a commitment to a royalty-free process which has driven the development of the Web since its beginning, according to W3C. The process has seen input from companies, researchers, and independent developers which have created technical interoperability standards upon which a worldwide information infrastructure has been built, W3C said in the statement.

"W3C members who joined in building the Web in its first decade made the business decision that they, and the entire world, would benefit most by contributing to standards that could be implemented ubiquitously, without royalty payments," Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director, said in the statement.

Some concern has been raised that companies seeking royalty payments for their patented work--particularly in the area of Web services--may choose to bypass the W3C approval process and use another standards body such as the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards.

A brief history of the WWW is provided at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#World2 

How does your water rate?  Not good if you live in Las Vegas

The 10 undergraduates in Stanford's Geophysics 104: The Water Course probably can answer that question. The students tracked the flow of drinking water from precipitation to tap in various areas of the world, and sampled the results in the most practical way possible: by drinking it. Bottled water from Fiji's volcanic highlands was voted No. 1. The nastiest? Las Vegas tap water --- http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2003/mayjun/farmreport/news.html#lecturehall 

Wow Technology of the Week --- The Logitech Virtual Digital Pen with up to 40 pages of memory!

Take digital notes while you are away from your computer.  Thank you Debbie Bowling for telling me about this product.

Make handwriting an effective tool for the digital world—without changing the way you work. With the Logitech io pen, everything you write can be saved, organized, and shared. Notes, ideas, calendar items, sketches, charts, emails, signatures... if you've written it down in a digital notebook or Post-it® Note pad, you can have a record of it forever --- http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&CRID=1541&CONTENTID=6150&countryid=19&languageid=1 

"Five Most Disruptive 'Free' Applications Can Cost Businesses Plenty," by: SmartPros Editorial Staff, May 16, 2003 --- http://www.smartpros.com/x38262.xml 

SEATTLE, May 16, 2003 — All those "free" applications employees are downloading at record rates can end up costing businesses plenty, according to Internet filtering company N2H2, Inc.

N2H2 released a list of the "Five Most Disruptive Free Applications" based on the number of downloads, feedback from N2H2 customers, and by measuring security and productivity impact in the workplace:

Peer-to-peer file-sharing programs. 
Users are currently downloading file-sharing programs at the rate of over four million a week, according to CNET. Many of these applications are landing on corporate desktops. One study of 15,000 work computers conducted in 2000 by eMarketeer found file-sharing software installed on 20 percent of work computers, and there is every reason to believe the problem is growing. File-sharing applications are often used to trade copyrighted materials, and can lead to expensive liability for companies, as well as create security problems by opening up employee hard drives to outsiders.

The liability concerns associated with file-sharing programs in the workplace are not hypothetical. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently sent a letter to all of the FORTUNE 1000 companies warning of "injunctions, damages, costs and possible criminal sanctions," for trading illegal files. The RIAA has already pursued legal action against an Arizona company, winning a $1 million dollar settlement after employees were found to have downloaded thousands of music files on company computers.

Online games. 
Coming in at number two were PC games, which are also being downloaded millions of times per week. Many of these "free" downloads are extended free trials of the most popular games, which when played at work aren't free to employers. According to a survey of 6,000 office workers conducted by the SBT Corp. in 2000, U.S. workers playing online games at work costs $10 billion in lost productivity.

Desktop movie players. 
Free movie players are being downloaded at a rate of over 100,000 copies per week, and placed third on the list. These applications not only pose a productivity drain, but waste company bandwidth as well. With just 15 percent of homes wired for broadband Internet access, many employees rely on their employer's high-speed connections to download movie files. Research suggests the problem of employee bandwidth misuse is large and widespread. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, 22 million people used streaming media in the workplace in 2001, and 46 million American office workers logged on to the web in August 2002. One movie player even features a "Quick Hide from Boss" mode that employees can use to evade detection of movie-viewing while on the job.

Password helpers. 
Coming in at number four was free "password helper applications" that manage passwords and user IDs. But collecting and managing passwords isn't all these programs do. Many of them serve up advertisements based on "computer usage and web surfing behavior," including the URLs of Web pages viewed by users and other criteria. Password-helper applications often appear on employee's computers after they visit certain websites, where the software will immediately offer to install itself in what some security experts call a "drive by download" -- causing headaches for IT support staff.

Browser toolbars. 
Even bigger headaches await IT departments with employees that have installed innocuous-sounding "browser toolbars" which rounded out the list at number five. Some of these programs take the "drive by download" one step further and actually take control of Internet browsers in what security experts call "browser hijacking."

"JavaScript Slide Show," by Alanna Spence, Webmonkey, May 22, 2003 --- http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/03/18/index3a.html 

JavaScript slide shows are great for a lot of reasons. You can use them to spice up photo albums, add a little pizzazz to your home page, or even show a story, stop-motion-animation style. And one of the beauties of JavaScript is its reusability: Once you create your script, building a new slide show is just a matter of copying the code and pointing it at a new image folder.

To get an idea of the magic I'm talking about here, take a look at the slide show I made of the pics from my friend Azure's going away party. While Azure's parting was sweet, sweet sorrow, my loss is your gain: The script I used to create this slide show is easy to learn and modify. Just you wait and see!

Yes, in the lessons that follow, I'll show you how to build your very own slide show, then how to tweak it to your liking. (A hearty thanks goes out to Robert Bui — several parts of the JavaScript code I'm about to share are "inspired" by his script, which can be found at JavaScript.internet.com.)

Continued in the article.

"Intro to Photoshop Filters," by Joshua Allen, Webmonkey, May 7, 2003 --- http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/03/16/index2a.html 

OK, you've created your own weblog and your hands are shaking with excitement and terror. You just posted an excellent new piece that details your grievances with that jerk Kelly at work, an essay that is by turns insightful and thrillingly alive with a kind of erotic frisson. But where are your readers? Where are the hits? Why aren't people falling over themselves to get at your sweet, sweet words?

There are many possible explanations, but one is that people are shallow, crass, and easily distracted by shiny objects. If they come to your site and just see a page full of text, their eyes will glaze over and they'll head right on back to the Nude Animated GIFs site.

But, but, it's the content that's important, right? Shouldn't your razor-sharp writing be enough to keep their attention? Wouldn't dressing up the text with pretty pictures almost be an insult? Isn't it what's in here [gesturing toward heart] that matters most of all?

Yes, truly, but in the real world people like to see their content all gussied up, preferably as sextastically as possible. Sure, you can give them a few well-cropped and color-adjusted photos. But your blog also needs its fair share of arty, distorted, eye-searing pictures! And what about a zany logo?

Enter filters!

You may not be an artist — so what if your talent lies in crafting the written word? — but I'm here to tell you that while technology can't yet generate interesting writing (check back in 2006 when Microsoft Grisham comes out of beta), it can do a lot of artistic legwork for you. It's a secret that Web designers have known for years: If you can score a copy of the 800-pound behemoth known as Adobe Photoshop, you can fake artistic ability with the best of them.

Continued in the article.

Nanotechnology could help futuristic battle suits protect troops from bullets and chemical weapons. But for now, simply keeping grunts dry would be a big accomplishment for MIT's new Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58970,00.html 

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- Thanks to their sleek, form-fitting battle suits, ordinary soldiers may someday turn into supermen.

Bullets won't stop them; neither will chemical attacks. Their nanotech-made muscles might let them jump higher and kick more butt than their opponents. And if they do somehow get hurt, the suit could immediately start to heal them and report their injuries back to headquarters. At least, that's what a collection of industrial, academic and military bigwigs promise, as they gather here this week for the official launch of MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.

The reality is, many bugs have to be worked out before the U.S. puts super soldiers on the field. A good start for ISN would be simply keeping their electronics-laden outerwear dry in the rain.

The 125-person-plus Institute, started last year with a $50 million grant from the Army, got its official kickoff Thursday at MIT's Technology Square. Under a pair of large white tents, and in the Institute's new offices, a battalion of generals and vice presidents heralded the dawn of the über-soldier with high-end videos, slick brochures and a buffet lunch.

Grunts paraded around in mock-ups of their new uniforms. And Army Specialist Jason Ashline, shot in the chest during the Afghan conflict, briefly mentioned how body armor saved his life.

But it was the nervous, smiling MIT graduate students and professors in the ISN labs upstairs who gave the most realistic assessments of what to expect from the Institute.

Yes, they've developed molecular structures that can swing open and shut like a hinge when hit with an electric field. And sure, someday, if they can figure out how to coordinate millions and millions of these hinges, they could maybe turn them into exo-muscles on a soldier's battle suit that could "provide additional muscle strength for lifting or jumping."

But right now, they can't even get the hinges to line up, "even on a micron (1,000th of a millimeter) scale," said graduate student Nathan Vandesteeg. It's a long way from a micron to a muscle.

"We're always confronted with the fact that the people we're working for are coming up with these crazy ideas," he continued. "It gets you excited. But then there's the whole realization of whether this will happen when I'm here -- or ever."

The challenge the Institute is taking on -- to build better defenses for the individual soldier -- is critically important, military officials say.

Continued in the article.

From Stanford University on May 14, 2003
In combating digital piracy, the film, music and software industries have supported legislation and developed technologies that threaten the health of the public domain, free speech and ultimately our cultural heritage, according to Stanford law Professor Lawrence Lessig, speaking at the May 5 Aurora Forum, titled "Public Life in a Wired World." --- http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/may14/public-514.html 

May 30, 2003 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu] 

NEW MODELS OF SCHOLARSHIP

In 2002, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) hosted a meeting of scholars, librarians, technologists, publishers, and others interested in the preservation of digital scholarly resources. Their goal was to identify stakeholders' needs and how to meet their needs. A product of this meeting is the report, "New-Model Scholarship: How Will It Survive?" by Abby Smith, director of programs at CLIR. Smith describes the "new-model scholarship" as "the variety of Web sites and other desktop digital objects that faculty and graduate students are creating that fall somewhere short of 'published' but are worthy of access into the future." While the report does not provide definitive answers to the questions raised in the workshop, it does point to several projects and proposals that merit examination by the research community. The complete report is available on the web at http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub114abst.html 

The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, non-profit organization that, in partnership with other organizations, "helps create services that expand the concept of 'library' and supports the providers and preservers of information." For more information, contact: CLIR, 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-939-4750; fax: 202-939-4765; email: info@clir.org ; Web: http://www.clir.org/ 

New-Model Scholarship: How Will it Survive? [pdf] http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub114/pub114.pdf

NEW MODELS FOR RESEARCH PUBLISHING

"There is significant evidence that traditional university presses are continuing to face financial crises. Outlets for research monographs are drying up, print runs are being reduced and monograph costs are increasing." In "Phoenix Rising: New Models for the Research Monograph" (LEARNED PUBLISHING, vol. 16, no. 2, April 2003, pp. 111-22), Colin Steele, Director of Scholarly Information Strategies, Australian National University, outlines how these problems could be mitigated by adopting new networked models of access and distribution while keeping established editing and refereeing practices.

A preprint of Steele's article is available at

http://eprints.anu.edu.au/archive/00001032/index.html

Learned Publishing [ISSN 0953-1513 ] is a quarterly publication of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP). Articles from volume 10 (1997) to volume 15 (2002) are freely available online. For more information, contact: The Editor, Learned Publishing, 7 High Street, Saffron Walden CB10 1AT, UK; tel and fax: +44 01799 522272; email: editor@alpsp.org.uk; Web: http://www.alpsp.org.uk/journal.htm

ALPSP "represents the interests of all those involved in the publication of academic and professional information in all media. It was formed in 1972, as an association of learned and professional organizations involved in publishing." For more information see their website at http://www.alpsp.org/

RECOMMENDED READING

"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column.

Infobits reader David Hitchcock publishes "El.pub - Interactive Publishing R & D - News and Resource," a web-based resource and information service for the growing community of networked publishers, with particular emphasis on their research and development efforts. El.pub features three free services: El.pub Weekly (covering interactive electronic publishing), VREfresh (weekly service covering virtual reality and interactive 3D), and El.pub Analytic (a more detailed bi-monthly analysis service). Links to all El.pub services are available at http://www.elpub.org/

Anthropology Sharing Site of the Week --- http://www.qozi.com/anthropology/ 

Hi Stephen

I added your link to the file that you requested.  However, I also added it to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#Social 

Thanks for sharing your anthropology materials.

Bob Jensen

May 30, 2003 message from anthropology@qozi.com 

I'm Stephen Green and this is my site: "qozi.com/anthropology". I contact you because I would like to exchange links with your site: http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ebooks.htm. I think our sites are related. My site contains community groups, news, and books about anthropology.

So, if you decide to do that you can use this information in order to link to us:

URL: http://www.qozi.com/anthropology/
Title: Anthropology Resources
Description: anthropology related news, books and web resources

Thank you very much!
Stephen Green

The Spirit of Islam: Experiencing Islam Through Calligraphy http://www.moa.ubc.ca/spiritofislam/ 

The Student-Run Investment Fund at Stanford University (Not so much money as at Trinity's student-managed fund but a much longer run at it) Senior Charles Najda's experience at Stanford's student-run investment fund has been full of ups and downs. Of course, so has the stock market. Established with $75,000 in 1978 to give undergraduates practice at investing, the fund now has about $72,000, down from a peak of $130,000. But the fund was up 25.63 percent in the first quarter of 2003 -- far outpacing the major indexes --- http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2003/mayjun/farmreport/news.html#activities 

It appears that Stanford students gambled more in the Silicon Valley surrounding the campus.

Trinity University's student-managed fund is described at http://www.trinity.edu/smf/ 

"Despite U.S. Efforts, Web Crimes Thrive," by Ariana Eunjung Cha, The Washington Post, May 20, 2003; p. A01 --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12984-2003May19.html 

Here in his hometown, Michael is a respected computer programmer. In the United States, he's a wanted man.

Two and a half years ago, his former boss Vasiliy Gorshkov and co-worker Alexey Ivanov were arrested for hacking and extorting a string of American businesses. Michael, who spoke on the condition that he be identified only by an English translation of his first name, said he helped them.

Shortly after his associates were captured, the FBI determined that Michael might be part of the same hacking ring and tried to go after him, too. An agent sent him an e-mail telling him what had happened to Gorshkov and Ivanov and asking him what he knew about the men's criminal activities. Michael responded that by tricking the two men to travel to Seattle so they could be arrested, the agency had just started a war.

"We'll keep stealing just like we did in the past," he wrote. "If you try to stop us there will be more of the same. Better just leave us alone."

The FBI man, Michael said, apologized and said the agency wouldn't bother him anymore. And so far it hasn't.

Michael, now 21, still lives in the same downtown apartment he purchased with funds from the hacking scheme he says he participated in with Gorshkov and Ivanov. While his compatriots are sitting in prison, Michael is shopping for a car, a Honda Prelude, with his illicit profits. He said he continues hacking into company databases in his spare time, at the rate of about one a week. His recent bounty: documents from a corporate site for a computer-chip company, a medium-size Internet access provider and an agency within the government of Uruguay.

It's impossible to determine how many of the hackers who are responsible for the chaos that now seems to regularly erupt on the Internet remain at large. Many use multiple aliases and electronically hop from country to country, making it difficult to determine who or where they are. Statistics on cybercrime show a huge disparity between the number of attacks reported and the number of people who are caught. The CERT Coordination Center, a federal clearinghouse, logged more than 80,000 incidents of break-ins, viruses and other attacks in 2002, up from around 50,000 the year before. Meanwhile, U.S. law enforcement arrests only several hundred alleged perpetrators each year.

In a series of interviews with U.S. authorities, Ivanov identified Michael and six others as co-conspirators; the complete document is still under seal in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, but portions of the transcript were obtained by The Washington Post. Justice Department lawyers in Washington and Connecticut declined to comment on the investigation because it is continuing. In exchange for Ivanov's cooperation and in response to his fears that his loved ones might be in danger, the government flew his mother, his sister and his girlfriend, Lena, to the United States last fall.

Continued in the article.

Update on ToolBook
May 17, 2003 message from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU] 

Marcio D'avila - one of my favorite Brazilian programmers has moved his web site dedicated to all things multimedia and Toolbook:

http://www.mhavila.com.br/link/toolbook/ 

Richard Campbell

May 23, 2003 message from Kawaller and Company [kawaller@lb.bcentral.com] 

Years ago, when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange first introduced Brazilian Real futures contracts, I wrote a strategy paper that explained how these contracts could be used to manage Real-denominated investments. This article was resently revised, and an update is now available on the Kawaller & Company site. To view the article, click on the link --- http://www.kawaller.com/ 

While the paper focuses on Brazilian Real futures (which, in fact, have some ideosyncratic features), the concepts apply to all non-dollar currency exposures.

Ira Kawaller

Disney found a way to rent DVDs without needing a system to get the discs back. Using self-destruction technology, Disney will begin "renting" DVDs this August that become unplayable after two days and do not have to be returned --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58883,00.html 

Environmentalists consider Disney's plan to sell DVDs that can be watched for two days and then thrown out "illogical" and "absurd." Many consumers don't see a need for them, either --- http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58906,00.html 

League of Nations Photo Archive (History) --- http://www.indiana.edu/~league/ 

Face to Face explores what it means to be an American with the face of the enemy. These are real stories of fear, anger, hatred, loyalty and trust --- http://www.itvs.org/facetoface/intro.html 

Explore Chicago (History, Music, Travel) --- http://www.suba.com/~scottn/explore/mainmenu.htm 

Mildred's House of Signage (Graphics, Photography, Art, Advertising, Humor) --- http://signs.misstracyjo.com 

* New signs Added since April 12, 2003 
* Good names * Bad spelling 
* Lovely fonts 
* Born Again Why invest in a new sign when you can just use the old one? 
* Ghosts The business is long gone, but the sign lives on. 
* Other signage sites and related silliness

Obsessive Consumption (Marketing, Psychology, Sociology) --- http://www.obsessiveconsumption.com/ 

Watch and listen to a coed spend her way through her graduate school years.  Kate Bingaman is on a mission plans to track and photograph everything she buys during grad school.  Sounds a little boring, but there may be some useful anecdotal evidence of consumption and culture in this documentary.

Break Eggs (food recipes) --- http://www.breakeggs.com/ 

Lists of Bests --- http://www.listsofbests.com/ 

Autism: As the Incidence Rises, Possible Answers and Solutions Emerge (Medicine, Health) --- http://www.naturalhealthline.com/ 

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

 

Oil Change instructions for Women:

Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3000 miles since the last oil change. 

Drink a cup of coffee. 

15 minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle. 

Money spent:

Oil Change $20.00
Coffee $1.00
Total $21.00 

Oil Change instructions for Men:

Wait until Saturday,
drive to auto parts store and buy a case of oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and a scented tree,
write a check for $50.00. 

Stop by 7 - 11 and buy a case of beer,
write a check for $20.00, drive home. 

Open a beer and drink it. 

Jack car up.
Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands. 
Find jack stands under kid's pedal car. 
In frustration, open another beer and drink it. 

Place drain pan under engine. 
Look for 9/16 box end wrench.  |
Give up and use crescent wrench. 
Unscrew drain plug. 
Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil: splash hot oil on you in process.
Cuss. 
Crawl out from under car to wipe hot oil off of face and arms.
Throw kitty litter on spilled oil. 

Have another beer while watching oil drain.
Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench .
Give up; crawl under car and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off. 

Crawl out from under car with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties.

Drink a beer. 

Buddy shows up; finish case of beer with him.
Decide to finish oil change tomorrow so you can go see his new garage door opener. 

Sunday:
Skip church because "I gotta finish the oil change."
Drag pan full of old oil out from underneath car.
Cleverly dump oil in hole in back yard instead of taking it back to Kragen to recycle. 
Throw kitty litter on oil spilled during step 18. 

Beer? No, drank it all yesterday.
Walk to 7-11;
buy beer. 

Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface. 
Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine. 
Remember drain plug from step 11. 
Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan. 
Remember that the used oil is buried in a hole in the back yard, along with drain plug. 

Drink beer. 
Shovel out hole and sift oily mud for drain plug.
Re-shovel oily dirt into hole. Steal sand from kids sandbox to cleverly cover oily patch of ground and avoid environmental penalties.
Wash drain plug in lawnmower gas. 
Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor.
Throw kitty litter on oil spill. 

Drink beer. 
Crawl under car getting kitty litter into eyes.
Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug.
Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame.
Bang head on floorboards in reaction to step 31. 
Begin cussing fit. 
Throw stupid crescent wrench. 
Cuss for additional 10 minutes because wrench hit Miss December (1992) in the left boob. 

Beer. 

Clean up hands and forehead and bandage as required to stop blood flow. 

Beer. 
Beer. 

Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.

Beer. 

Lower car from jack stands. 
Accidentally crush remaining case of new motor oil. 
Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during steps 23 - 43. 

Beer. 

Test drive car. 
Get pulled over: arrested for driving under the influence. 

Car gets impounded. 
Call loving wife, make bail.
12 hours later, get car from impound yard. 

Money spent:

Parts                    $50.00
DUI                 $2500.00
Impound fee         $75.00
Bail                 $1500.00
Beer                    $40.00
Total--            $4165.00  --

But you know the job was done right.

Forwarded by Kate Ruckman

RULES FOR THE DOG

1. Dogs are never permitted in the house. The dog stays outside in a specially built wooden compartment named, for very good reason, the dog house.

2. Okay, the dog can enter the house, but only for short visits or if his own house is under renovation.

3. Okay, the dog can stay in the house on a permanent basis, provided his dog house can be sold in a yard sale to a rookie dog owner.

4. Inside the house, the dog is not allowed to run free and is confined to a comfortable but secure metal cage.

5. Okay, the cage becomes part of a two-for-one deal along with the dog house in the yard sale, and the dog can go wherever the hell he pleases.

6. The dog is never allowed on the furniture.

7. Okay, the dog can get on the old furniture but not the new furniture.

8. Okay, the dog can get up on the new furniture until it looks like the old furniture and then we'll sell the whole damn works and buy new furniture...upon which the dog will most definitely not be allowed.

9. The dog never sleeps on the bed. Period.

10. Okay, the dog can sleep at the foot of the bed.

11. Okay, the dog can sleep alongside you, but he's not allowed under the covers.

12. Okay, the dog can sleep under the covers but not with his head on the pillow.

13. Okay, the dog can sleep alongside you under the covers with his head on the pillow, but if he snores he's got to leave the room.

14. Okay, the dog can sleep and snore and have nightmares in bed, but he's not to come in and sleep on the couch in the TV room, where I'm now sleeping. That's just not fair.

15. The dog never gets listed on the census questionnaire as "primary resident," even if it's true.

Forwarded by Dick Haar

TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND MATH...... A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into perspective in one of its releases:

A billion seconds ago it was 1959

A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive

A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.

Forwarded by Barb Hessel

THE WAY IT IS

Because of misunderstandings that frequently develop when Easterners and Californians cross states such as Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, etc., those states' Tourism Councils have adopted a set of information guidelines.

In an effort to help outsiders understand the Midwest, the following list will be handed to each driver entering the state:

(1) That farm boy standing next to the feed bin did more before breakfast than you do all week at the gym.

(2) It's called a gravel road. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Navigator. I have a 4-wheel drive because I need it. Drive it or get it out of the way.

(3) We all started hunting and fishing when we were seven years old. Yeah, we saw Bambi. We got over it.

(4) Any references to "corn fed" when talking about our women will get you whipped--by our women.

(5) Go ahead and bring your $600 Orvis Fly Rod. Just don't cry to us if a flathead catfish breaks it off at the handle. We have a names for those little trout you fish for--bait.

(6) Pull your pants up. You look like an idiot.

(7) If that cell phone rings while a bunch of mallards are making their final approach, we will shoot it. You might hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.

(8) That's right. Whiskey is only two bucks. We can buy a fifth for what you paid in the airport for one drink.

(9) No, there's no "Vegetarian Special" on the menu. Order steak. Order it rare. Or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the two pounds of ham and turkey.

(10) You bring Coke into my house, it better be brown,wet and served over ice.

(11) So you have a $60,000 car you drive on weekends. We're real impressed. We have quarter of a million dollar combines that we use two weeks a year.

(12) Let's get this straight. We have one stoplight in town. We stop when it's red. We may even stop when it's yellow.

(13) Yeah, we eat catfish. Carp too, and turtle. You really want sushi and caviar? It's available at the bait shop.

(14) They are pigs. That's what they smell like. Get over it. Don't like it--Interstates 80 and 90 go two ways; and interstate 29 and 35 go the other two. Pick one and use it accordingly.

(15) So every person in every pickup waves. It's called being friendly. Understand the concept?

(16) That Highway Patrol Officer that just pulled you over for driving like an idiot--his name is Sir--no matter how old he is.

Now enjoy your visit and then go home!

Foirwarded by David Spener

-------------------------- Missing texts from Genesis --------------------------

In the beginning God populated the earth with broccoli and cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives. Then using God's bountiful gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's and Krispy Creme. And Satan said, "You want chocolate with that?" And man said "Yes!" and woman said, "I'll have another with sprinkles." And lo they gained 10 pounds. And God created the healthful yogurt that woman might keep the figure that man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane, and combined them. And woman went from size 2 to size 6. So God said, "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented Thousand-Island Dressing and garlic toast on the side. And man and woman unfastened their belts following the repast. God then said, "I have sent you hearty healthy vegetables and olive oil in which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep fried shrimp and catfish and chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof. God then brought forth running shoes so that his children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan came forth with a cable TV with remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And man and woman laughed and cried before the flickering light and piled on the pounds. Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with potassium and good nutrition. Then Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fried them and added copious quantities of salt. And man put on more pounds. God then gave lean beef so that man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald's and the 99-cent double cheeseburger. Then Lucifer said, "You want fries with that?" and man replied, "Yes! And super size 'em!" And Satan said "It is good." And man went into cardiac arrest. God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery. And Satan created HMOs.

Forwarded by Dr. D.

1. Jesse Jackson, Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggert have written an impressive new book. It's called "Ministers Do More Than Lay People."

2. Transvestite: A guy who likes to eat, drink and be Mary.

3. The difference between the Pope and your boss.... the Pope only expects you to kiss his ring.

4. My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash and it is gone.

5. The only time the world beats a path to your door is if you're in the bathroom.

6. I hate sex in the movies. Tried it once. The seat folded up, the drink spilled and that ice, well, it really chilled the mood.

7. It used to be only death and taxes were inevitable. Now, of course, there's shipping and handling, too.

8. A husband is someone who, after taking the trash out, gives the impression that he just cleaned the whole house.

9. My next house will have no kitchen -- just vending machines and a large trash can.

10. A blonde said, "I was worried that my mechanic might try to rip me off. I was relieved when he told me all I needed was turn signal fluid."

11. I'm so depressed. My doctor refused to write me a prescription for Viagra. He said it would be like putting a new flagpole on a condemned building.

12. My neighbor was bitten by a stray rabid dog. I went to see how he was and found him writing frantically on a piece of paper. I told him rabies could be cured and he didn't have to worry about a Will. He said, "Will? What Will? I'm making a list of the people I want to bite."

13. Definition of a teenager? God's punishment for having once enjoyed sex.

14. As we slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way.(Ouch!!)

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

I knew it, I knew it. They finally released the ingredients in Viagra:

                  3% Vitamin E
                  2% Aspirin
                  2% Ibuprofen
                  1% Vitamin C
                  5% Spray Starch
                  87% Fix-A-Flat!!!

History Lessons Forwarded by Barb Hessel

 I don't know if this is true or not, but interesting.

The next time you're washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s: Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women, and finally the children -- last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water,"

Houses had thatched roofs (thick straw piled high), with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs." There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house, which posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. 

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a "threshold," 

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old." 

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat." 

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust." 

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a "wake." 

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer." And that's the truth...... 

Now , whoever said that History was boring ! ! ! !

Great Signs!
 
Friends don't let friends
take home ugly men
Women's restroom
Starboard, Dewey Beach, DE

The best way to a man's heart
is to saw his breast plate open.
Women's restroom
Murphy's, Champaign, IL

Beauty is only a light switch away.
Perkins Library, DukeUniversity, Durham, NC

I've decided that to raise my grades
I must lower my standards.
Houghton Library
HarvardUniversity, Cambridge, MA

If life is a waste of time,
and time is a waste of life,
then let's all get wasted together
and have the time of our lives.
Armand's Pizza, Washington, DC

Remember, it's not,
"How high are you?"
it's
"Hi, how are you?"
Rest stop off Route 81, West Virginia

To do is to be. - Descartes
To be is to do. - Voltaire
Do be do be do. - Frank Sinatra
Men's restroom
Greasewood Flats, Scottsdale, AZ

At the feast of ego
everyone leaves hungry.
Bentley's House of Coffee and Tea, Tucson, AZ

It's hard to make a comeback
when you haven't been anywhere.
Written in the dust
on the back of a bus,
Wickenburg, AZ

Make love, not war.
-Heck, do both
GET MARRIED!
Women's restroom
The Filling Station, Bozeman, MO

If voting could really change things,
it would be illegal.
Revolution Books
New York, New York.

If pro is opposite of con,
then what is the opposite of progress?
Congress!
Men's restroom
House of Representatives, Washington, DC

Express Lane:
Five beers or less
Sign over one of the urinals
Ed Debevic's, Phoenix, AZ

You're too good for him.
Sign over mirror in Women's restroom
Ed Debevic's, Beverly Hills,CA.

No wonder you always go home alone.
Sign over mirror in Men's restroom,
Ed Debevic's, Beverly Hills,CA

Forwarded by Team Carper

The following questions and answers were collated from SAT tests given in Springdale, Arkansas in 2000 to 16-year-old students!  (Don't laugh too hard - one of these may be the president someday.)

Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.

Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.

Q: What is a planet?
A: A body of earth surrounded by sky.

Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.

Q: In a democratic society, how important are elections?
A: Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.

Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.

Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.

Q; Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death

Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow.

Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? (E.g., abdomen.)
A: The body is consisted into three parts - the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The branium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels, A,E,I,O and U.

Q: What is the Fibula?
A: A small lie.

Q: What does "varicose" mean?
A: Nearby.

Q: What is the most common form of birth control?
A: Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.

Q: Give the meaning of the term "Caesarean Section."
A: The caesarean section is a district in Rome.

Q: What is a seizure?
A: A Roman emperor.

Q: What is a terminal illness?
A: When you are sick at the airport

Q: Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
A: Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.

Q: What does the word "benign" mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

Q: What is a turbine?
A: Something an Arab wears on his head.

Q: What's a Hindu?
A: It lays eggs

Forwarded by Team Carper

This is greatMorning Chuckles...

Snappy Answer #1 A flight attendant was stationed at the departure gate to check tickets. As a man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket, and he opened his trench coat and flashed her. Without missing a beat she said, "Sir, I need to see your ticket, not your stub."

Snappy Answer #2 A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store, but couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a stock boy, "Do these turkeys get any bigger?" The stock boy replied, "No ma'am, they're dead."

Snappy Answer #3 The cop got out of his car and the kid who was stopped for speeding rolled down his window. "I've been waiting for you all day," the cop said. The kid replied, "Yeah, well I got here as fast as I could." When the cop finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his way without a ticket.

Snappy Answer #4 A truck driver was driving along on the freeway. A sign comes up that reads low bridge ahead." Before he knows it the bridge is right ahead of him and he gets stuck under the bridge. Cars are backed up for miles. Finally, a police car comes up. The cop gets out of his car and walks around to the truck driver, puts his hands on his hips and says, "Got stuck, huh?" The truck driver says, "No, I was delivering this bridge and ran out of gas."

and finally

#5, THE TEACHER Snappy Answer OF THE YEAR A college teacher reminds her class of tomorrow's final exam. "Now class, I won't tolerate any excuses for you not being here tomorrow. I might consider a nuclear attack or a serious personal injury or illness, or a death in your immediate family but that's it, no other excuses whatsoever!" A smart-ass guy in the back of the room raised his hand and asks, "What would you say if tomorrow I said I was suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?" The entire class does its best to stifle their laughter and snickering. When silence is restored, the teacher smiles sympathetically at the student, shakes her head, and sweetly says, "Well, I guess you'd have to write the exam with your other hand.

Forwarded by Team Carper

20 Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a hair
    Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your  Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with That.

4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone Has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch To Espresso.

6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Sexual  Favors"

7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."

8. Don't use any punctuation

9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

10. Ask People What Sex They Are. Laugh Hysterically After They Answer.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme

14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play Tropical Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.

16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name,  Rock Hard.

17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking Lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives, they're Loose!!"

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We  Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."

And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity.......

20. Send This E-mail To Someone To Make Them Smile.. Its  Called Therapy...

Forwarded by Team Carper

GAMES FOR WHEN WE'RE OLDER


 

Chapter 1:
Games We Play

  1. Sag, You're It.
  2. Hide and go pee.
  3. 20 Questions shouted into your good ear.
  4. Kick the bucket
  5. Red Rover, Red Rover, the nurse says Bend Over.
  6. Musical recliners.
  7. Simon says something incoherent.
  8. Pin the Toupee on the bald guy.

 

Chapter 2:

Signs of Menopause

1. You sell your home heating system at a yard sale.

2. Your husband jokes that instead of buying a wood stove, he is using you to heat the family room this winter. Rather than just saying you are not amused, you shoot him.

3. You have to write post-it notes with your kids' names on them.

 

4. You change your underwear after a sneeze.

5. You're on so much estrogen that you take your Brownie troop on a field trip to Chippendales.


Chapter 3:

Signs of Wear


"OLD" IS WHEN..... Your sweetie says, "Let's go upstairs and make love," and you answer,  "Pick one, I can't do both!"

 

"OLD" IS WHEN.....Going bra-less pulls all the wrinkles out of your face.

 

"OLD" IS WHEN.....You don't care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don't have to go along.

 

"OLD" IS WHEN..... A sexy babe catches your fancy and your pacemaker opens the garage door. 

 

"OLD" IS WHEN..... "Getting a little action" means I don't need fiber today. 

 

"OLD" IS WHEN..... "Getting lucky" means you find your car in the parking lot.

 

"OLD" IS WHEN.....An "all-nighter" means not getting up to pee!

Forwarded by Team Carper

Big Brother Government is our enemy, especially when liberals (of any party) are in control...!!!

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -- G. Gordon Liddy

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -- Douglas Casey (1992)

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -- Frederic Bastiat

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -- Ronald Reagan (1986)

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. -- Pericles (430 B.C.) A man whose ideas were far beyond his time.

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. -- Mark Twain (1866)

Talk is cheap--except when Congress does it. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -- Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. --Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -- Mark Twain

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. --Winston Churchill

Forwarded by Team Carper

WHY GOD CREATED CHILDREN

Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort in the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to his own children.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing He said was, "DON'T!"

"Don't what?" Adam asked. "Don't eat the forbidden fruit," God said. "Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve...we have forbidden fruit!!!!!" "No Way!" "Yes way!" "Do NOT eat the fruit!" thundered God.

"Why not?" "Because I am your Father, and I said so!" God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after mking the elephants.

A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break, and He was really ticked off! "Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?" God asked. "Uh huh," Adam replied. "Then why did you?" inquired the Father. "I don't know," said Eve.

"She started it!" Adam said

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"DID NOT!"

Tired of them both, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus, the pattern was set, and it has never changed.

BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.
2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.
3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.
4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.
5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more horrible than your own. 
6. We child-proofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

TODAY'S ADVICE : Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home.

AND FINALLY: IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE: "TAKE TWO ASPIRIN" AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"

Forwarded by Team Carper

WHAT IS A GRANDMOTHER?

Enjoy! What is a grandmother? ( taken from papers written by a class of 8-year-olds)

A grandmother is a lady who has no little children of her own. She likes other people's.

A grandfather is a man grandmother.

Grandmothers don't have to do anything except be there when we come to see them. They are so old they shouldn't play hard or run. It is good if they drive us to the store and have lots of quarters for us.

When they take us for walks, they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars.

They show us and talk to us about the color of the flowers and also Why we shouldn't step on "cracks."

They don't say, "Hurry up."

Usually grandmothers are fat, but not too fat to tie your shoes.

They wear glasses and funny underwear.

They can take their teeth and gums out.

Grandmothers don't have to be smart.

They have to answer questions like "why isn't God married?" and "How come dogs chase cats?".

When they read to us, they don't skip. They don't mind if we ask for the same story over again.

Everybody should try to have a grandmother, especially if you don't have television, because they are the only grown ups who like to spend time with us.

They know we should have snack-time before bedtime and they say prayers with us every time, and kiss us even when we've acted bad.

Forwarded by Bob Overn

Ole was stopped by a game warden in Northern Minnesota recently leaving a lake well known for its Walleye. He had two buckets of fish.

 As it was during the spawning season, the game warden asked, "Do you have a license to catch those fish?"

Ole replied, "No, sir! Dese here are my pet fish."

"Pet fish?" the warden replied.

 "Ya sure, you betcha." answered Ole. "Every night I take dese fish here down to da lake and let dem svim around for a while. Den I vhistle and dey yump back into deir buckets and I take dem home."

That's a bunch of hooey. Fish can't do that." said the game warden.

 Ole looked at the game warden with an expression of great hurt, and then said, "Yumpin Yimminy! Vell den, I'll just show you den. It really does vork, don'tcha know?"

"O.K. I've got to see this!" The game warden was really curious now.

 So Ole poured the fish into the lake and stood waiting.

After several minutes, the game warden turned to Ole and said, "Well?"

"Vell what?" responded Ole..

 "When are you going to call them back?"

"Call who back?" asked Ole.

 "The fish!"

"What fish?"

Forwarded by Paula Ward

The Senile Virus --- http://cartoons-etc.com/senile.htm 

Symptoms of Senile Virus

1. Causes you to send same e-mail twice.

2. Causes you to send blank e-mail.

3. Causes you to send to wrong person.

4. Causes you to send back to person who sent it to you.

5. Causes you to forget to attach the attachment.

6. Causes you to hit "SEND" before you've finished the

 

And that's the way it was on May 31, 2003 with a little help from my friends.

 

I highly recommend TheFinanceProfessor (an absolutely fabulous and totally free newsletter from a very smart finance professor) --- www.FinanceProfessor.com 

 

In March 2000, Forbes named AccountantsWorld.com as the Best Website on the Web --- http://accountantsworld.com/.
Some top accountancy links --- http://accountantsworld.com/category.asp?id=Accounting

 

For accounting news, I prefer AccountingWeb at http://www.accountingweb.com/ 
I also like SmartPros at http://www.smartpros.com/ 

 

Another leading accounting site is AccountingEducation.com at http://www.accountingeducation.com/ 

 

Gerald Trite's great set of links --- http://iago.stfx.ca/people/gtrites/Docs/bookmark.htm 

 

Paul Pacter maintains the best international accounting standards and news Website at http://www.iasplus.com/

 

The Finance Professor --- http://www.financeprofessor.com/about/aboutFP.html 

 

How stuff works --- http://www.howstuffworks.com/ 

 

Bob Jensen's video helpers for MS Excel, MS Access, and other helper videos are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/ 
Accompanying documentation can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default1.htm and http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

 

Click on www.syllabus.com/radio/index.asp for a complete list of interviews with established leaders, creative thinkers and education technology experts in higher education from around the country.

 

Lists of Bests --- http://www.listsofbests.com/ 

 

Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134  Email:  rjensen@trinity.edu  

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May 15, 2003  

 Bob Jensen's New Bookmarks on May 31, 2003
Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

Quotes of the Week

Using statistics and logic, Stuart Hurlburt, a Professor at San Diego State University, demonstrates that the diversity rationale set forth by the University is Michigan is phony.
Stuart Hurlbert, The Austin Review, April 29, 2003 --- http://www.austinreview.com/articles/2003_04/diversity.htm 

Postmodernism and cultural relativism assert that art cannot be judged objectively and all art is equally good. Matthew Galbraith argues this mantra that now dominates academia is taking a heavy toll on the humanities.
Matthew Galbraith, The Austin Review, May 5, 2003 --- http://www.houstonreview.com/0303/theory.htm 

Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter (As Quoted in the AccountingWeb Newsletter on May 6, 2003)

Visa followed MasterCard's lead and settled a lawsuit filed by thousands of major U.S. retailers over their increasingly popular debit cards. The two card issuers agreed to pay $3 billion and lower transaction fees.
SmartPros --- http://www.smartpros.com/x38101.xml 

It's understandable that business people would look at schools -- or hospitals or politics -- from a business perspective. The good news is that after all the widget talk most business folks are looking for sound, common sense schools. The better news is that those are the schools the rest of us -- parents and teachers -- want, too.
Peter Berger at http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-05-09-03.htm 

To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.
Erich Fromm

My May 31, 2003 updates on the accounting and finance scandals can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud033103.htm
(The above document also includes updates on tax frauds, scams, identity theft, and similar updates.)

Canadian Regulators Okay Use of US GAAP
AccountingWeb on May 16, 2003 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/item/97568

From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Educators' Edition on May 16, 2003

TITLE: Corporate-Bond Issuance Gets Hot 
REPORTER: Christine Richard 
DATE: May 13, 2003 
PAGE: C13 LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105276069584236700,00.html  
TOPICS: Accounting, Debt, Foreign Currency Exchange Rates

SUMMARY: Despite a weaker dollar, the demand for U.S. corporate bonds remains strong. Questions focus on accounting for debt issuance and the relation between foreign currency exchange rates and bond prices.

QUESTIONS: 
1.) What are the major differences between debt and equity? List three issues that should be considered in determining whether to issue debt or equity?

2.) What factors influence the demand for debt? According to the article, why is the current demand for debt especially strong?

3.) What factors determine the interest rate on corporate debt? Explain the relation between the yield on corporate debt and the yield on Treasury securities.

4.) Explain the difference between the market rate and the stated interest rate on bonds. If the market rate increases, what happens to the selling price of the bond?

5.) Why is the foreign currency exchange rate important to international investors when purchasing U.S. corporate bonds? If the dollar weakens after a foreign investor purchases a U.S. dollar denominated bond, what happens to the investor's return? How could a foreign investor reduce risk associated with fluctuations in currency exchange rates?

Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island 
Reviewed By: Benson Wier, Virginia Commonwealth University 
Reviewed By: Kimberly Dunn, Florida Atlantic University

Use Caution When Jumping Over the Net
Nude tennis tourney set for Webcast --- http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/05/09/offbeat.naked.tennis.reut/index.html 

This clock is just too clever for words --- http://www.suite101.com/files/mysites/AskAlice/Clock.htm 
The link was forwarded by my good friend Paul Golliher.
It is coded in JavaScript. You can go to the site and then click on the menu choice (View, Source). Then you can copy the code and send it anywhere you like.

May 15, 2003 reply from Jim McKinney [jim@MCKINNEYCPA.COM] 

It isn't so amazing in Netscape - you have to use Internet Explorer for the clock to work.

Question
How can I clean up my hard drives and/or defragment those drives in Windows XP?

Answer
Go to [Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools] and then choose the file you want to execute?

May 18, 2003 reply from Scott Bonacker [scottbonacker@moccpa.com] 

The default defragger in WinXP is a lite version of DisKeeper by Executive Software. We have been using the full version on our server, but unfortunately it is not very good at consolidating free space so the MFT becomes badly fragmented.

A better defragger seems to be PerfectDisk2000 by Raxco, it does appear to consolidate freespace which helps keep the MFT from becoming fragmented.

Scott

May 15, 2003 message from NANCY BAGRANOFF [BAGRANNA@MUOHIO.EDU] 

I have seen (and like very much) software that can be used in business schools to manage databases of faculty information. It's called Sedona. A faculty member accesses it via the Internet (I think) and updates their data. Administration can then download the data and use it for merit evaluations, AACSB reports, etc. Faculty members can also keep their vitae on it.

My question is, does anyone know of any other similar software for this purpose?

Thanks.

Nancy

Nancy A. Bagranoff 
Professor of Accountancy 
RT Farmer School of Business Admin. Miami 
University Oxford, Ohio 45056

DisabilityInfo.gov http://www.disabilityinfo.gov/ 

"Accounting Majors Holding Their Own," by: SmartPros Editorial Staff, May 6, 2002 --- http://www.smartpros.com/x38128.xml  

BETHLEHEM, P.A., May 6, 2003 — New college graduates with degrees in the business disciplines, particularly accounting, are seeing some increases in their starting salary offers, according to a report published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

NACE's Spring 2003 Salary Survey shows that accounting majors' average offer rose 2.6 percent to $41,360. The majority of their offers were for public and private accounting positions, but those receiving offers in the areas of consulting and financial analysis were more likely to be offered bigger paychecks. These grads were offered, on average, $42,145 for private accounting, $42,191 for public accounting, $45,680 for consulting, and $45,761 for financial analyst positions.

Among the business disciplines, business administration graduates received the highest increase. Their average salary offer stands at $36,515 -- 3.7 percent higher than the average offer of $35,209 in Spring 2002. Many of their job offers were for sales and management trainee positions.

Additionally, economics/finance majors received 1.8 percent more than last year, pushing their average offer up to $40,764, while marketing graduates received a 1.3 percent increase, raising their average offer to $35,822.

Management information systems (MIS) graduates were hit hardest among the business disciplines; their average offer dropped five percent, to $41,543. Although this degree is classified within the business disciplines, it contains many technical components, which may be one explanation for the decrease. A few years ago computer science majors were in demand, and their average salary offers, which increased steadily, reflected that demand. Currently, their average offer has decreased 7.6 percent to $46,536.

A separate report by NACE found that employers expect to hire about the same number of new college graduates for 2002-03 as they hired in 2001-02. By type of employer, overall, those projecting the highest increases in college hiring are construction companies (35.7 percent increase), consulting services organizations (14.3 percent increase), and public accounting firms (14 percent increase). Those looking at the steepest cuts in college hiring include utilities companies (31 percent decrease), engineering/surveying firms (29.1 percent decrease), and chemical manufacturers (22.8 percent).

Trueblood Case Study Series – The Deloitte and Touche Foundation offers a wide variety of excellent case studies for use in the classroom. I highly recommend you check out their website at www.deloitte.com/more/DTF/cases_subj.htm. 

TUTORIAL AVAILABLE FOR NEW COMPUTERIZED CPA EXAM http://www.cpa-exam.org/ 

Bob Jensen's accounting educator links are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm 

The Psychology of Humans Bonding to Machines --- http://www.discover.com/june_03/breakdialogue.html 
Discover Dialogue: Social Scientist Sherry Turkle
A Psychologist in Cyberspace

Until the advent of modern technology, our closest bonds were with our fellow humans. These days, millions of people develop close relationships with robot dogs, Tamagotchi toys, and virtual characters and kingdoms they encounter or create on the Internet. Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who directs the Initiative on Technology and Self at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has spent decades studying the intimate bonds we form with our artifacts and how they shape who we are. She shared her insights into "cyber-analysis" with senior associate editor Josie Glausiusz.

What first triggered your interest in the ways humans bond with machines?
I came to MIT in 1976 to teach the sociology of science and saw the intensity and passion of my students' relationships with computers. They used computer metaphors to think about their minds, like "debugging a problem." I realized that the computer is a very evocative object, and the idea of studying the technological world opened up for me.

Why are people so eager to imbue inanimate objects, such as robots and computers, with human emotions?
From the earliest stages of life, we have a very profound need to connect. Infants experience themselves as if the objects in the world are part of them and they are part of the objects in the world. These objects, such as Linus's baby blanket or a teddy bear, are perceived as being imbued with the self. A computer, too, can evoke in its users a sense of connection and personality.

Why would anyone experience deep feelings for an object like a robot?
Toys like the Tamagotchi—those little egglike digital toys that need you to feed them and clean up after them—ask for nurturance. By doing so, they push a very profound button in us. As a species, we're programmed to attach to the things that we take care of and that blossom under our care. People don't just love their plants or talk to them because they have a connection with plants. It's because those are the plants that we nurture.

Could we ever come to care for robots in the way we care for friends or siblings?
We do care for robots. People who have Sony AIBO robot dogs are teaching them tricks, are thinking about their welfare, are bonded with them, and want to take them places. Children who have created pets online are worrying about those pets, and whether they've taken care of them, and whether they should get them a new coat. But it's a different kind of caring. Just because you have a robot dog doesn't mean that a biological dog should lose all of its allure.

Is it possible to reverse this psychology? For instance, could robots someday nurture us?
A lot of people are very excited about the use of robots for the elderly. They see this as a humanitarian application of robotics, to help people who need companionship and to give them their medicine, take their blood pressure, and so on. To me, it's important to study not just what kind of new relationship an elderly person has with the robot but what that relationship is doing to us as people. It used to be very meaningful for children to hang out with their grandmothers. The danger is that we may legitimize taking some of those interactions out of the human experience.

Where else do you imagine that robots might replace people?
We already seem to have decided that we want robots to be our cash machines. Are we going to have robots as nurses and nannies? Are we going to have robots as our soldiers? Because it's a different world if war is not about killing people but rather machines in combat. At a certain point, one could imagine that the machines would be fighting other machines. So the moral, ethical and human dimensions of what war is about would change.

Would you want to live in a world in which intelligent robots were integrated into our lives?
Intelligent robots are going to be an integral part of our lives. The question is what roles they are going to have in the human life cycle, and what aspects of that life cycle we are going to preserve as a "sacred space" that belongs to humans. Nurturing children is something we would want to aggressively keep for ourselves. If you give your child a robot nanny, or robotic dolls as playmates, that's done something to you as well as your child. But there are some things, like ATMs, that are better than a person. Maybe we'd rather have robots collecting the garbage, or certainly working in dangerous environments.

Has society been changed by our interactions with the Internet?
Definitely. The ability to join online communities, or being able to play out aspects of self that are different than what your physical self permits, has profoundly changed what is available to the human psyche. One of my students formed a friendship on the Internet with a person who turned out to be profoundly physically impaired. Certain aspects of that person's self—the vivaciousness, the sense of exploration, of risk-taking—would not have had an opportunity to express themselves without the sociability the Internet provides.

Continued in the article.

From kindergarten to grad school, boys are becoming the second sex http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_21/b3834001_mz001.htm?c=bwinsidermay16&n=link1&t=email 

The female lock on power at Lawrence is emblematic of a stunning gender reversal in American education. From kindergarten to graduate school, boys are fast becoming the second sex. "Girls are on a tear through the educational system," says Thomas G. Mortenson, a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education in Washington. "In the past 30 years, nearly every inch of educational progress has gone to them."

Just a century ago, the president of Harvard University, Charles W. Eliot, refused to admit women because he feared they would waste the precious resources of his school. Today, across the country, it seems as if girls have built a kind of scholastic Roman Empire alongside boys' languishing Greece. Although Lawrence High has its share of boy superstars -- like this year's valedictorian -- the gender takeover at some schools is nearly complete. "Every time I turn around, if something good is happening, there's a female in charge," says Terrill O. Stammler, principal of Rising Sun High School in Rising Sun, Md. Boys are missing from nearly every leadership position, academic honors slot, and student-activity post at the school. Even Rising Sun's girls' sports teams do better than the boys'.

At one exclusive private day school in the Midwest, administrators have even gone so far as to mandate that all awards and student-government positions be divvied equally between the sexes. "It's not just that boys are falling behind girls," says William S. Pollock, author of Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "It's that boys themselves are falling behind their own functioning and doing worse than they did before."

It may still be a man's world. But it is no longer, in any way, a boy's. From his first days in school, an average boy is already developmentally two years behind the girls in reading and writing. Yet he's often expected to learn the same things in the same way in the same amount of time. While every nerve in his body tells him to run, he has to sit still and listen for almost eight hours a day. Biologically, he needs about four recesses a day, but he's lucky if he gets one, since some lawsuit-leery schools have banned them altogether. Hug a girl, and he could be labeled a "toucher" and swiftly suspended -- a result of what some say is an increasingly anti-boy culture that pathologizes their behavior.

If he falls behind, he's apt to be shipped off to special ed, where he'll find that more than 70% of his classmates are also boys. Squirm, clown, or interrupt, and he is four times as likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. That often leads to being forced to take Ritalin or risk being expelled, sent to special ed, or having parents accused of negligence. One study of public schools in Fairfax County, Va., found that more than 20% of upper-middle-class white boys were taking Ritalin-like drugs by fifth grade.

Once a boy makes it to freshman year of high school, he's at greater risk of falling even further behind in grades, extracurricular activities, and advanced placement. Not even science and math remain his bastions. And while the girls are busy working on sweeping the honor roll at graduation, a boy is more likely to be bulking up in the weight room to enhance his steroid-fed Adonis complex, playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on his PlayStation2, or downloading rapper 50 Cent on his iPod. All the while, he's 30% more likely to drop out, 85% more likely to commit murder, and four to six times more likely to kill himself, with boy suicides tripling since 1970. "We get a bad rap," says Steven Covington, a sophomore at Ottumwa High School in Ottumwa, Iowa. "Society says we can't be trusted."

As for college -- well, let's just say this: At least it's easier for the guys who get there to find a date. For 350 years, men outnumbered women on college campuses. Now, in every state, every income bracket, every racial and ethnic group, and most industrialized Western nations, women reign, earning an average 57% of all BAs and 58% of all master's degrees in the U.S. alone. There are 133 girls getting BAs for every 100 guys -- a number that's projected to grow to 142 women per 100 men by 2010, according to the U.S. Education Dept. If current trends continue, demographers say, there will be 156 women per 100 men earning degrees by 2020.

Overall, more boys and girls are in college than a generation ago. But when adjusted for population growth, the percentage of boys entering college, master's programs, and most doctoral programs -- except for PhDs in fields like engineering and computer science -- has mostly stalled out, whereas for women it has continued to rise across the board. The trend is most pronounced among Hispanics, African Americans, and those from low-income families.

The female-to-male ratio is already 60-40 at the University of North Carolina, Boston University, and New York University. To keep their gender ratios 50-50, many Ivy League and other elite schools are secretly employing a kind of stealth affirmative action for boys. "Girls present better qualifications in the application process -- better grades, tougher classes, and more thought in their essays," says Michael S. McPherson, president of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., where 57% of enrollees are women. "Boys get off to a slower start."

The trouble isn't limited to school. Once a young man is out of the house, he's more likely than his sister to boomerang back home and sponge off his mom and dad. It all adds up to the fact that before he reaches adulthood, a young man is more likely than he was 30 years ago to end up in the new and growing class of underachiever -- what the British call the "sink group."

Continued in the article.

From Syllabus News on May 13, 2003

Study Finds Wireless Content Enhances Higher Ed Learning

A study by the Mobile Learning Consortium, a group of college-level institutions, educational publishing and technology companies, has found that digital content helped first-year college accounting students to learn accounting. The study objective was to gain insights on the effectiveness of integrating wireless technology into the classroom. The consortium includes: Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT); Seneca College, Ontario; McGraw-Hill Education; Bell Mobility; Blackboard; Hewlett-Packard; Avaya; and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Students in the pilot consistently reported that online interactive exercises accessible via wireless were useful to student learning. In addition, instructors noted that wireless technology enabled them to encourage independent student learning because they could adopt a coaching role in the classroom.

For more information, visit: http://www.mcgrawhill.ca/mlearning 

From THEnews Newsletter on May 14, 2003

Digi-Block Offers Free Online Math Lessons

Online training is now being offered for free from Digi-Block Inc., a leading online developer of math products for elementary schools. Teachers using the award-winning Digi-Block Learning System can now view lessons and Digi-Block demonstrations online at www.digi-block.com/video  . "We're constantly striving to help teachers improve their effectiveness when teaching mathematics and raise student test scores," said Bill Rosenthal, CEO of Digi-Block, in a press release. "We already offer in-service workshops and personalized professional development. Now with our free online lessons, our consultants are available to our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week." The online learning videos cover topics such as getting started with the Digi-Block program, addition, subtraction, multiplication, operations with decimals and more. Each video includes instructions on how to use the product and concise demonstration of the material. Educators can follow along in their classrooms with their own Digi-Blocks.

XanEdu Launches OriginalWorks to Help Instructors Publish Their Own Works

XanEdu has unveiled its latest offering, a new publishing service to help faculty publish their own course materials. XanEdu's OriginalWorks was created in response to instructors' requests to assist them in publishing their own works for use in their courses, while retaining copyright ownership. This gives faculty the ability to publish their own manuscripts, lab manuals and class notes in a form that reflects the same quality, value and professionalism as the work itself. If the work has been previously published, but is now out-of-print and faculty own the copyright, XanEdu can also reproduce it. This service also allows faculty authors to collect royalties on their works. OriginalWorks offers faculty the option of a royalty on every copy of the book sold. "Adding OriginalWorks to XanEdu's comprehensive course content offerings strategically expands XanEdu's already robust educational, curriculum-based content and services," said Lew Gossage, general manager of XanEdu, in a news release. "Giving faculty the ability to tailor their materials specifically for their course ensures the highest quality and most current content for their courses." 
For more information, visit http://www.xanedu.com/erudition  .

'Integrating Technology' Book Seeks Authors

Educators are being sought to submit chapters or proposals for chapters in the "Integrating Technology in Higher Education" book that will provide experience-based, interesting and innovative ideas for integrating technologies in diverse disciplines. The book is being edited by M.O. Thirunarayanan of Florida International University's Graduate School and Aixa Perez-Prado of Florida International University's College of Education. Book chapters will present practical and realistic ideas that can be used by others who wish to integrate technologies into their teaching. The chapters and chapter proposals should be 15 to 25 double-spaced pages, including any images and references. For more information on topics, e-mail thiru@fiu.edu  or pereza@fiu.edu . 
The deadline is July 30.

Mayflower is going to move our furniture from San Antonio to New Hampshire.  I hope this long-established company is reliable.  In general, however, you must be cautious when choosing a moving company.  Some warnings and horror stories are given by the Realty company who sold us our New Hampshire cottage.  See  http://realtytimes.com/c/PeabodySmithRealty 

In May 2003, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Statement No. 149, Amendment of Statement 133 on Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities. The Statement amends and clarifies accounting for derivative instruments, including certain derivative instruments embedded in other contracts, and for hedging activities under Statement 133 --- http://www.fasb.org/news/nr043003.shtml 

Norwalk, CT, April 30, 2003—Today the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Statement No. 149, Amendment of Statement 133 on Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities. The Statement amends and clarifies accounting for derivative instruments, including certain derivative instruments embedded in other contracts, and for hedging activities under Statement 133.

The new guidance amends Statement 133 for decisions made:

The amendments set forth in Statement 149 improve financial reporting by requiring that contracts with comparable characteristics be accounted for similarly. In particular, this Statement clarifies under what circumstances a contract with an initial net investment meets the characteristic of a derivative as discussed in Statement 133. In addition, it clarifies when a derivative contains a financing component that warrants special reporting in the statement of cash flows. Statement 149 amends certain other existing pronouncements. Those changes will result in more consistent reporting of contracts that are derivatives in their entirety or that contain embedded derivatives that warrant separate accounting.

Effective Dates and Order Information

This Statement is effective for contracts entered into or modified after June 30, 2003, except as stated below and for hedging relationships designated after June 30, 2003. The guidance should be applied prospectively.

The provisions of this Statement that relate to Statement 133 Implementation Issues that have been effective for fiscal quarters that began prior to June 15, 2003, should continue to be applied in accordance with their respective effective dates. In addition, certain provisions relating to forward purchases or sales of when-issued securities or other securities that do not yet exist, should be applied to existing contracts as well as new contracts entered into after June 30, 2003.

Copies of Statement 149 may be obtained through the FASB Order Department at 800-748-0659 or by placing an order on-line at the FASB website.

Bob Jensen'a tutorials on FAS 133, 138, etc. are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm 

From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Educators' Review on May 9, 2003

TITLE: FASB Rules Derivatives Must Be Part of Financing Cash Flow 
REPORTER: Cassell Bryan-Low 
DATE: May 01, 2003 
PAGE: C4 
LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105174180092459600,00.html  
TOPICS: Debt, Derivatives, Financial Accounting

SUMMARY: The FASB issued this ruling "in an attempt to crack down" on companies that undertake transactions requiring prepayments by a customer. Some companies have been including those prepayments in cash flows from operations.

QUESTIONS: 

1.) Define financing, investing, and operating cash flows--be specific by referring to authoritative literature for these definitions. Cite your source.

2.) How do financial statement users utilize the three sections of the statement of cash flows to assess a companies financial health? Cite all ways you can think of in which these amounts are used.

3.) Summarize the transaction addressed in the article. Why does the headline define these items as derivatives? What is the support for including the cash flows associated with these transactions in the operating section of the statement of cash flows? What is the argument supporting presenting these cash flows in the financing section?

4.) What is free cash flow? Is this concept defined in authoritative accounting literature? How do financial statement readers use this concept in assessing a company's financial health?

5.) How do the transactions described in this article impact a company's free cash flow? How will they impact free cash flow after implementing the new requirements issued by the FASB?

6.) What does the author mean when he writes of the fact that, because banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup financed delivery of commodities, companies using these transactions, such as Dynegy and Enron, were "able to bury that financing in their trading accounts..."

Bob Jensen’s tutorials on accounting for derivatives are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm

"E-Commerce Continues To Grow Very Nicely," Information Week, May 1, 2003 --- http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=9400266 
A new report indicates that the growing availability of broadband is boosting acceptance of E-commerce.

Minority enrollments in MBA programs are not growing nicely.

May 7, 2003 message from BusinessWeek MBA Insider [MBA_Insider@newsletters.businessweek.com] 

B-SCHOOLS: A FAILING GRADE ON MINORITIES After a decade of outreach and effort, the percentage of minority MBAs has barely budged

When Angel Martin signed on last year to get an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business, she knew she'd be one of only a dozen minority students in her class of 250. The six African-American and six Hispanic students quickly formed a bond, helping one another along and, says Martin, working to boost the number of minority applicants to the B-school, which plummeted after a 1996 California proposition against affirmative action in higher ed. "We didn't come here to pick up a cause, but you get here and you don't have a choice, because there's nobody else to fight for it but you," says the 26-year-old Martin.

Now Berkeley's minority MBA students will feel even lonelier. In March, Haas Dean Thomas J. Campbell announced that the school would effectively be quitting a consortium that gives scholarships to minority MBAs. Because the move came after Haas had sent out acceptance letters for next fall, the school had to tell about two dozen prospective students that they would not be eligible for scholarships after all -- prompting many to switch to other schools.

FOR THE FULL VERSION, VISIT: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_19/b3832065_mz056.htm?c=bwmbamay07&n=link1&t=email 

Similar stories may soon play out at other top B-schools. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court is to decide two University of Michigan cases that represent the most significant challenge to affirmative action in higher ed in more than two decades. Already, the suits have prompted some colleges and B-schools to reconsider their affirmative-action efforts. Even if the court chooses not to toss out the current approach, the close scrutiny may chill efforts to lift minorities' share of college enrollment. "Not only have the hurdles to entry been increasing, but getting that good job and being connected to the fast track is tough for most people of color," says James H. Johnson, a professor of management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School, who mentors many minority alums.

The result is likely to be a deterioration in B-schools' already lackluster record with minorities. To be sure, B-schools are diverse -- Asian Americans are well represented, women make up about 29% of MBA students, and another 30% hail from outside the U.S. But B-schools have been largely unsuccessful in attracting U.S. blacks and Hispanics.

Indeed, those two groups, plus Native Americans, comprise only 11.9% of the top private schools last year, up from 9.9% in 1990, according to an analysis of BusinessWeek's biennial survey of the Top 30 MBA programs (chart). The top public schools, more vulnerable to attacks on affirmative action, have done worse: Their enrollment of these groups has plunged to just 8.4%, from 14.5% in 1990. Taken together, minority enrollment at BusinessWeek's Top 30 private and public schools actually dropped from 11.3% in 1990 to 10.7% in 2002. By contrast, a globalization push led to a doubling of international students over the same period.

The problem isn't much better outside of the elite B-schools. Among all accredited schools, only about 10% of the 108,000 MBAs enrolled in 2001-02 were minority, according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the accrediting body for B-schools. "We're going to have to start doing some very different things because the numbers are nowhere near where they should be," says Ella Bell, an associate professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, whose 460 full-time students are 18% minority.

Hi Cameron,

Thanks for the information. I will not be at the AAA annual meetings in Hawaii this August. However, Amy Dunbar will be running a workshop on this topic. I am forwarding her a copy of this message at ADunbar@SBA.UCONN.EDU 

Her workshop is on August 2, 2003 and is described at http://aaahq.org/AM2003/cpe/cpe01.cfm  Note that David Cottrell from BYU is on her outstanding program.

I really like what you are doing in the way of video learning at BYU, and I am especially pleased with your double speed video option. It’s fabulous! This should be made available to other disciplines in the university.

Thanks,

Bob Jensen

-----Original Message----- 
From: Cameron Earl [mailto:cameronearl@byu.edu]  
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 5:26 PM 
To: Jensen, Robert Subject: PriceWaterhouseCoopers Webcast and BYU's intro accounting course

Bob,

Thank you for your past interest in our innovative new approach to introductory accounting here at Brigham Young University. Our mission to promote excellence in accounting education throughout the world has been our driving force and we have been very pleased with our efforts over the last year. We have received many referral from you and we are speaking in Hawaii due to your suggestion to the AAA. Thanks for all your help.

As you know, PriceWaterhouseCoopers recently released a report called "Educating for the Public Trust." Here PWC outlines their position on accounting education and the vital role that it plays in regaining the public trust. They feel the introductory accounting course is one of the most significant elements in accounting education, as that class is usually the deciding factor for students who are considering accounting as a major and career. If a student has a positive experience in that first class then the chances of them choosing to major in accounting greatly increases.

At BYU, we know this to be true and we have aligned our program to promote this ideal. Our new introductory accounting Value-Added Teaching Model has been so successful in recruiting the best and brightest students on campus into our accounting major. At the completion of the introductory course, we poll our students and we consistently observe the number of students who are interested in the accounting major doubles from the beginning of the course. Additionally, after we instituted our new teaching model, we observed a dramatic increase in the average GPA of students who were admitted into the major, jumping from an average of 3.4 to 3.75.

A few days ago, Jean Wyer at PWC contacted us and told us PWC highlighted our introductory course in an Education for the Public Trust Webcast. We have viewed this webcast and are very excited about the praise our course received. We urge all faculty to watch this webcast. To view the webcast please go to:

PWC "Education for the Public Trust" Webcast http://www.pwcglobal.com/forfaculty 

1. Click on the webcast link under the heading "Educating for the Public Trust"

2. Next, follow the steps to register (It is free) for the webcast by clicking on "click here" under step 2.

3. Next, you will need to login. (If you are a new user, you will need to register by clicking on the "New Users" button toward the top of the screen.)

4. Next, click on the desired stream (60K, 56K, or audio only)

5. The webcast will load

We encourage you to watch the entire 90-minute webcast. However, if you do not have that much time, then you may want to skip to the portion that talks about our course. To watch the portion of the webcast that deals with our course, please do the following:

1. Under the yellow text, "Click on arrow(s) to view topics by module" you will find a small right-pointing arrow next to the text: "Educating for the Public Trust." Click on the small arrow.

2. A list of topics appears

3. Scroll down and click the topic, "The First Course in Accounting."

4. Our course begins to be discussed at about the sixth minute.

The instructor they are referring to is Norm Nemrow. The CD-ROMs they mention are our "Language of Business: Introductory Accounting CDs." We were excited to present our accounting program to Clif Conrad (the researcher in the webcast) when he visited our campus several months ago. Additionally, we were also pleased to hear that he has never been so impressed with an introductory accounting course in all of his 27 years of research.

We appreciate you sharing some time with us in the past. We look forward to speaking with you again soon about our course, including our introductory accounting CDs. We are confident you can achieve the same results that we have achieved. Thank you for your time.

Cameron Earl

Brigham Young University Office: 801-836-5649 cameronearl@byu.edu 

From Syllabus News on May 16, 2003

U. of Zaragoza to Advance European Data Interoperability

The University of Zaragoza, Spain, is building a Web-based, national spatial data infrastructure that will enable public sector information to be tapped for applications supporting economic development and environmental management of the country. A key objective of the project is to improve interoperability of spatial data -- reference geographic data, metadata, and diverse Web services -- allowing scientists, businesses, and the general public to more easily and quickly locate and access spatial data. The project is being funded in part by GIS developer Intergraph Inc. and the Association of Geographic Information Laboratories for Europe (AGILE). The project will also collaborate with INSPIRE (INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe), an initiative to create European legislation to guide national and regional spatial data infrastructure development.

May 5, 2003 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu] 

AACE DIGITAL LIBRARY OPENS

The AACE (Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education) Digital Library is a "valuable online resource of peer-reviewed and published international journal articles and proceedings papers on the latest research, developments, and applications related to all aspects of Educational Technology and E-Learning." Users can fully search and access abstracts, as a free service, for 1,000s of AACE journal articles and conference proceedings. Full-text article access requires a subscription either to the journal (for that journal's articles) or to the Digital Library (for ALL journals & proceedings). The library is on the web at http://www.aace.org/DL/

AACE is an international, educational, and professional not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge, theory, and quality of learning and teaching, at all levels, with information technology. For more information, contact AACE, PO Box 3728, Norfolk, VA 23514 USA; tel: 757-623-7588; fax: 703-997-8760; email: info@aace.org; Web: http://www.aace.org/

PROPOSED CUTS TO ERIC SERVICES

As part of reorganization of the U.S. Department of Education begun in 2002, major cuts are proposed for the department's ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) services. Founded in 1966, ERIC hosts a database of more than a million records on education topics. A network of 16 clearinghouses and 10 adjunct clearinghouses located at academic institutions around the country provide a free, personalized "virtual reference desk service" to users called AskERIC. The clearinghouses and AskERIC are slated to be eliminated in the proposed plan.

For more information about these changes, see http://saveeric.org/ or http://www.lib.msu.edu/corby/education/doe.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on virtual libraries are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#LibraryAndReference

Interested in photography, ay? Nudge, nudge? Mike walks us through the tools and tricks you can use to craft stellar-looking snaps for your site --- http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/03/14/index2a.html 

SmartDraw Tutorial

See attached for new features of Camtasia Theater and Converter. The Converter converted my videocam video of me into Flash video, Now this video is large (8 megs)and too dark. If you want to bypass my video (unless you are my mother or one of my girlfriends I suggest you do that), just click on Step1. I'll get the file size down in the near future.

http://tinyurl.com/atyw 

Richard J. Campbell

Bob Jensen's tutorials using Camtasia are linked at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

Reply from Amy Dunbar on May 2, 2003

Richard, that is really nice. I need a tutorial like that for Flash. I am using Flash to create self-tests for my content modules, which required me to learn how to use actions in connection with buttons. I'm now trying to figure out how to record my voice saying, "You are kidding, aren't you. You didn't really mean to select that answer, did you?" and other similar responses. For some reason, my wav files keep turning into windows media files, which Flash doesn't recognize. Steep learning curve for me.

I recently learned how to use Microsoft Producer, and I converted a powerpoint presentation to a video. Producer is a free add-on to Powerpoint, but learning to use it wasn't obvious. The help files are abysmal. Through trial and error, I finally figured it out. Producer dominates Real Producer, imo. The video is long, but there is a clickable TOC so students can go directly to any section. http://www.sba.uconn.edu/users/msacct/ACCT_305/WebCT_Tutorial/WebCT%20Tutori

Amy Dunbar
Department of Accounting School of Business
University of Connecticut
2100 Hillside Road, Unit 1041
Storrs, CT 06269-1041

May 7, 2003 message from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU] 

On the Macromedia web site ( www.macromedia.com ), there is a white paper about how Hong Kong Baptist University customized some macromedia tools to facilitate remote class meetings. This elearning case study is featured in the Macromedia Breeze presentation on financial highlights.

I personally prefer using Camtasia in conjunction with Toolbook Instructor. As far as inexpensive synchronous training, I like www.webtrain.com  - I'll do a demo later on for those interested on the list. My goal - using Camtasia, Toolbook to do a live accounting lecture for my summer school students when I am presenting at the AIS Educators conference in Colorado in June and the AAA in August in Hawaii. The answer to your needs is best addressed by using multiple tools.

Richard Campbell

Thomas Jones, vice chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASSB) and former primary financial officer at Citigroup.  The following quotation from the FEI's Year 2003 Summit, "Financial Leadership in Turbulent Times," is provided in the FEI Express Newsletter on May 6, 2003.

Jones reviewed some of the current movement toward international accounting standards convergence. "I am a passionate believer that the world needs one set of high-quality accounting standards," he said, adding that the IASB would never ascribe to weakened standards in the interest of getting consensus.

. . .

Jones cautioned his audience that they would like some of the resulting changes and not like others, but that "they should earn your support." To an audience question, he agreed that the Black-Scholes model of valuing stock options does appear to exaggerate swings in value, but that it seems certain that options will be expensed, and that the IASB is looking for better ideas and a focus on how to value long-term, non-tradeable options.

"Court Date Set For $500 Billion Law Suit Against The IRS," The AccountingWeb Newsletter on May 6, 2003

AccountingWEB US - May-2-2003 - It's a "go." Two national membership organizations that provide estate planning services will face the IRS in a courtroom next February. Heritage America and The Aegis Company filed a $500 billion lawsuit against the IRS in May, 2001, claiming the federal agency violated the civil rights of the 5,500 members of the two organizations when it raided the organizations' offices.

The lawsuit stems from a March 2000 raid on the offices of the two organizations during which, according to a press release by the organizations, armed IRS agents, "with guns in the air," allegedly separated staff members into separate rooms and "interrogated them for as long as two hours without ever reading them their rights or informing them they were not required to provide information." The lawsuit states that the IRS seized all files, computer files, and computers of the two organizations. The government tried to dismiss the case, but the federal court for the Southern District of Illinois has set a court date in February, 2004.

May 8, 2002 message from FERF [mailmanager@feiexpress.fei.org] 

What is COSO?

Ask a Researcher Resource - Improving Internal Control Executive Comments Update on the 30-Year Treasury Bond Rate New Projects in Process

Read an HTML copy of this issue of What's New in Research, and browse our archive of past issues, at http://www.fei.org/newsletters/RFWhatsNew/

WHAT IS COSO?

The SEC has responded to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 with proposed rule 33-8138, "Disclosure Required by Sections 404, 406 and 407 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002." This proposal referred to the COSO framework, so many FEI members have asked FERF about COSO.

COSO is the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations. FERF recently published an Issue Alert, "What is COSO? Defining the Alliance That Defined Internal Control," that describes how COSO became the defining voice for internal control issues. This Alert is available as a free download for FEI members at the FERF bookstore: http://www.fei.org/rfbookstore/

For more information on COSO, visit the COSO home page: http://www.coso.org/

The COSO home page provides the definition of Internal Control under "Key Concepts." COSO also provides the following publications:

* Press Release on COSO Risk Management Framework Project

* "Report of the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting" (October 1987)

* Executive Summary of "Internal Control - Integrated Framework" (September 1992)

* Executive Summary of "Internal Control Issues in Derivatives Usage" (1996)

* Executive Summary of "Fraudulent Financial Reporting: 1987 - 1997 An Analysis of U.S. Public Companies" (November 1999)

The complete publications are available from the AICPA: "Internal Control - Integrated Framework" (September 1992) https://www.cpa2biz.com/CS2000/Products/Product+Detail.htm?cs_id={1DC6F23C-70C6-4816-A3CD-AE70236B7992}&cs_catalog=CPA2Biz

"Internal Control Issues in Derivatives Usage" (1996) https://www.cpa2biz.com/CS2000/Products/Product+Detail.htm?cs_id={746515E9-F888-4D3C-B3E8-80D4675B3C05}&cs_catalog=CPA2Biz

"Fraudulent Financial Reporting: 1987 - 1997 - An Analysis of U.S. Public Companies" (November 1999) http://www.theiia.org/ecm/guidance.cfm?doc_id=97

ASK A RESEARCHER RESOURCE - IMPROVING INTERNAL CONTROL

Section 404 has focused corporate attention on internal control once again. A number of FEI members have sent questions to "Ask FERF" ("Ask Us" on the FEI home page), asking for explanations of Section 404 and suggestions for compliance. We have found a number of useful resources that explain Section 404 and provide strategies to develop, strengthen, and assess companies' systems of internal controls. These resources are available as free downloads.

First, FEI's Committee on Corporate Reporting (CCR) has conducted a survey on how its member companies plan to respond to Section 404. Here are the results: http://www.fei.org/financetools/404_survey.cfm

Later this week, FERF will publish an Issue Alert on "Internal Control Reports Required by Sarbanes-Oxley." Look for it at the FERF Bookstore: http://www.fei.org/rfbookstore/

Protiviti offers its "Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Internal Control Reporting Requirements": http://www.fei.org/download/Section404FAQ.pdf

This publication answers over 100 frequently asked questions about Section 404 and Section 404 compliance, internal controls over financial reporting, disclosure controls, identifying and assessing controls, and reporting requirements.

PricewaterhouseCoopers offers a white paper on "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: Strategies for Meeting New Internal Control Reporting Challenges": http://www.pwcglobal.com/pl/eng/ins-sol/publ/2003/corp_sorbanes.pdf

This white paper focuses on Sarbanes-Oxley reporting challenges and strategies for compliance.

Deloitte & Touche offers "Moving Forward - A Guide to Improving Corporate Governance Through Effective Internal Control": http://www.fei.org/download/MovingForwardDT203.pdf

This publication provides detailed, step-by-step procedures for implementing an internal control program.

Deloitte & Touch also offers "Meeting the Challenge: How Financial Institutions are Responding to Sarbanes-Oxley": http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/Sarbanes-Oxley.07.pdf

This publication describes the special challenges that the internal control requirements of Section 404 pose for companies in the financial services industry, and what well-managed firms are doing in response.

EXECUTIVE COMMENTS

It has been a busy and rewarding month for the Foundation. We have been actively participating in chapter academic nights by providing certificates of achievement, along with copies of our recent financial leadership study. These pieces have made welcome additions to the scholarship checks that may be the only items otherwise offered by the chapters. I was also able to be present at the Milwaukee and Iowa chapter dinners where scholarships were presented.

We also had a wonderful opportunity to be a part of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) annual meeting. It was a great feeling when I woke up Tuesday morning to see our study as a wrapper on the Chicago Tribune outside my hotel room door. Thanks to FM Global for making this event possible. Ken Smith, Chief Risk Officer for Dell Computer, Chris Johnson, Senior Vice President at FM Global and I presented the results of our study. Copies of the study and our power point presentation are available at the FERF bookstore: http://www.fei.org/rfbookstore/PubDetail.cfm?Pub=145 I again made a similar presentation at the FEI Iowa Chapter dinner in Des Moines on April 24, 2003.

This whirlwind tour concluded with the FEI Annual Summit, where FERF provided the content and speaker for the May 6th breakfast session on financial ethics (sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb). At breakfast we had about 125 people present. Fred Militello of FinQuest Partners, a FERF researcher, discussed the dynamics of the "financial integrity crisis" and how financial executives can secure the necessary tools to foster integrity-based leadership, restore investor and broader stakeholder confidence, and promote the highest standards of conduct within their organizations. Then, in the afternoon breakout session, Christina Stercken, the head of M&A for Siemens, and Chuck Sheffield of FinQuest led an exciting workshop on what makes a successful acquisition of a US company by an international company. Pre-order your copy of our report now: http://www.fei.org/rfbookstore/PubDetail.cfm?Pub=147 .

We also received some excellent suggestions for new research projects that we will be lining up over the next month. Please let me know your suggestions or needs, and remember, we want to provide you with information you cannot receive from your auditors or consultants, but information we can obtain from your peers and other third parties.

Marla Markowitz Bace

Heroes To Zeroes Two support specialists found child porn and reported it. Then they got fired. What happened? http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eLyi0BcUEY0V20Bygt0AJ 

After his book on a legendary murder case was published, a Canadian journalist posted his archived background material online -- and then was arrested. The book criticized the investigation. Are police trying to muzzle him or uphold a ban against publishing certain prurient material? --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58779,00.html 

Science and Engineering for the 21st Century: The Role of the National Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/documents/2003/start.htm 

EDUCAUSE Review

Why IT Matters to Higher Education

MAY/JUNE 2003

Volume 38, Number 3

FEATURES

"Research Universities and the Central IT Organization:

Rebuilding the Partnership"

by BILL DECKER and BONNIE NEAS

The partnership between the research university and its central IT organization must be rebuilt and strengthened. Research universities should be reassessing their involvement with and planning for technology as a critical resource for research activity and success. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0330.pdf

"The Status of Ubiquitous Computing"

by DAVID G. BROWN and KAREN R. PETITTO

The lessons learned at ubiquitous computing campuses will be a rich resource for the building of whole societies based on continuous, appropriate access to the Internet by all. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0331.pdf

"Presidential Leadership for Information Technology"

by DAVID WARD and BRIAN L. HAWKINS

The shared ownership of information technology is essential if campuses are to move ahead strategically and economically. The president or chancellor, along with the executive team, must be actively involved in defining the goals and objectives of the campus and how these relate to key IT initiatives. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0332.pdf

BOOK EXCERPT

"The Development of Institutional Strategies"

by JAMES J. DUDERSTADT, DANIEL E. ATKINS, and DOUGLAS VAN HOUWELING From "Higher Education in the Digital Age: Technology Issues and Strategies for American Colleges and Universities" http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0333.pdf

DEPARTMENTS

techwatch

Information Technology in the News http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm033a.pdf

Leadership

"Bats, Owls, Vampires, and Other Creatures of the Night"

by GRAHAM B. SPANIER http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0339.pdf

E-Content

"Digital Preservation: An Individual Responsibility for

Communal Scholarship"

by ABBY SMITH http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0338.pdf

New Horizons

"Multi-User Virtual Environments"

by CHRIS DEDE http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0337.pdf

policy@edu

"Privacy, Security, and Anonymity: An Evolving Balance"

by STEVE WORONA http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0336.pdf

Viewpoints

"Network Security versus Personal Computing: Which Will Win?" by GREGORY A. JACKSON http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0335.pdf

Homepage

"E-Mail: Our Love-Hate Relationship"

by CYNTHIA GOLDEN http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0334.pdf

Philippine Golden Links http://www.filipinolinks.com/ 

One Scotland, Many Cultures http://www.onescotland.com 

Labor Unions Resist Efforts to Require Truthful Financial Disclosures

The U.S. Department of Labor's homepage is at http://www.dol.gov/ 
Near the bottom of the page, there are useful economic statistics.

Among other things, you can read short paragraphs about 290 convictions of Labor Union officials since October 2000.  In Time Magazine on May 12, 2003, Page 68 George Will discusses how Labor Unions are fighting the current Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao, in her efforts to make labor unions provide truthful information to their members.  Will states:  "Hypocrisy of an unusual purity is on display as union leaders try to avoid disclosing truthful financial information to their members.

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

If you're tired of the old drab bills in your wallet, I'll be glad to take them off your hands.

"A New Color of Money to be Unveiled This Month," The AccountingWeb Newsletter on May 6, 2003

AccountingWEB US - May-1-2003 - "Greenbacks" may soon become an obsolete term. A new addition of background color on currency is on the way to the United States, starting with the newly designed $20 bill, which will be unveiled May 13. The design has not been announced yet, but one thing is certain - we will soon see some hint of color in our wallets. Originally, the bill was to be displayed to the public on March 27, but the war in Iraq delayed the unveiling.

The new bill will feature the same security features as in the current $20, including a security strip, a watermark that is visible when you hold the bill up to the light, tiny print visible with a magnifying glass, and an ink process that looks black at one angle and green at another. In addition, there will be colors. The U.S. Treasury Department isn't saying what colors will be added, but they have announced that there will be subtle background colors.

Accounting Instructor Catches UW Students Cheating --- http://www.smartpros.com/x38003.xml 

Apr. 29, 2003 (Associated Press) — As many 60 University of Wisconsin accounting students apparently cheated on take-home exams, school officials say.

The students were told to take the midterm tests individually but some worked in groups, accounting department chairman John Eichenseyer said.

The instructor had allowed the students to take the tests home so they could attend a presentation April 2 by Sherron Watkins, the Enron employee who blew the whistle on its questionable accounting practices.

Students who had done their own work told the instructor they had heard about widespread cheating on the test, Eichenseyer said this week.

The instructor, whom Eichenseyer declined to name, made all students retake the test and it turned out many didn't know the material.

Many students have admitted cheating since the instructor confronted them, Eichenseyer said. Students who did much worse on the in-class test will get that score as their grade for the test.

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

May 2, 2003 message from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU] 

Macromedia has a very interesting presentation that might be of interest

http://tinyurl.com/av5a  

Richard Campbell

May 1, 2003 message from Wouter Vanden Hove [wouter.vanden.hove@pandora.be] 

Dear professor Jensen,

Recently I came across your "Threads Regarding Professors Who Share".

I wish you inform you about our new initiative Open-Education.org . So, I invite you to take a look at http://www.open-education.org or at our mailinglist http://groups.yahoo.com/group/opensourcecontent/

The idea is to extend to concept of Free Software/Open Source to

educational materials.

I refer to George Siemens articles for some further explanation: "Open Source Content in Education" (10 march) http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/open_source_part_2.htm

"Open Education: Moving From Concept to Reality"

(summary of a webconference 29 april) http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/OE_presentation.htm

 

Greetings,

Wouter Vanden Hove

http://www.opencursus.be [Flemisch open course portal and advocacy-site]

"Pre-harvest Marketing Strategies May Increase Net Returns for Corn and Soybean Growers: Iowa and Ohio Case Study, 1985 - 1996," by Robert N. Wisner, E. Neal Blue, and E. Dean Baldwin --- http://www.econ.iastate.edu/agrisk/module/module14.htm 

For years, economists have debated whether income gains are possible from pre-harvest pricing. One view is that, with efficient markets, traders would soon discover that such gains were possible and they would disappear. Two papers outlining specifics of contrasting views are available: "Can Pre-harvest Marketing Strategies Increase Net Returns for Corn and Soybean Growers?" by Wisner, Blue, and Baldwin; and "Market Efficiency and Marketing to Enhance Income of Crop Producers, " by Zulauf and Irwin. (Please use the 800 telephone number that appears on the front page of Managing Risks and Profits to request either or both of these papers.) Our contribution to the debate was to look at actual possibilities for a corn and soybean farm with various pricing strategies over the last several years. In the main part of this lesson, the procedures for our analysis are described and pre-harvest pricing results are reported. Impacts on net income are reported for 1,000 acre Iowa and Ohio farms, consisting of 500 harvested acres each of corn and soybeans. To get specific results for your farm situation, you would need to include your 10-year moving average corn and soybean yields, costs of production, and financial status. (Methods for calculating your cost of production and financial status were described in prior lessons). Within the next year, we will have a computer program that allows you to simulate specific outcomes for your farm.

Weekly Addiction Gambling Education Report http://www.thewager.org/  National Center For Responsible Gaming http://www.ncrg.org/ Casino Gambling Causes Crime  

Plagiarism: Yet Another Way to Cheat on Your Lover or Cop a Sonnet for English Literature 101

"Cyrano at Your Lovelorn Service," by Jenn Shreve, Wired News, May 6, 2003 --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58537,00.html 

Few emotions inspire us to put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, more often than love. Yet few feelings are more difficult to convey in words than those that love inspires -- be they jealousy, longing, joy or sorrow.

Often what's intended to read like a Shakespearean sonnet comes off like a Viagra commercial or worse.

Two websites offer help to lovers who are struggling to put their feelings into words. The Love Letter Collection features nearly 70 love letters sent anonymously to the site's creator, Chicago installation artist Cindy Loehr. Oozing with raw feeling yet stripped of specific details that might reveal the sender's or receiver's identities, these letters are remarkably universal. "Every time I read one I think, is that written to me?" says Loehr.

Subscribers to Library Online, on the other hand, can employ the services of a modern-day Cyrano to put their feelings into better-sounding words than they ever could.

"A lot of people who struggle with letter writing can't make it flow," explains Library Online's president Emilie Johnston. "They have random thoughts thrown all over the place. We're piecing it together. We're giving you the flow."

The 3-year-old website offers dozens of love letter templates covering various aspects of relationships, including love at first sight, Internet courtship, apologies, long-distance, drifting apart, breakups and even secret romances.

Subscribers to the site, who pay an annual rate of $40, can download a letter, add their own personal touches and send it to their special someone who's none the wiser.

Continued in the article

Accurate Monitor 1.2 --- http://www.sowsoft.com/search-engines.htm

Accurate Monitor for Search Engines is a powerful Web promotion software designed for search engine specialists and webmasters. It allows you to find position of your web site in major search engines like Google and Altavista for popular keywords and get more traffic to your site. Accurate Monitor offers advanced statistics, export functions, notes, plugins and an easy to use, convenient interface.

AdvancingWomen.net
Career Advancement for women in the financial services industry, with free, anonymous resume posting! --- http://www.advancingwomen.net/ 

AICPA Awards
Congratulations to Dr. Holder at USC --- http://www.smartpros.com/x38079.xml 
Also congratulations to Mary Montoya of Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Forwarded on May 11, 2003 by Patrick E Charles [charlesp@CWDOM.DM] 

Mark-to-market rule should be written off

Richard A. Werner Special to The Daily Yomiuri

Yomiuri

Since 1996, comprehensive accounting reforms have been gradually introduced in Japan. Since fiscal 2000, the valuation of investment securities owned by firms has been based on their market value at book-closing. Since fiscal 2001, securities held on a long-term basis also have been subjected to the mark-to-market rule. Now, the Liberal Democratic Party is calling for the suspension of the newly introduced rule to mark investments to market, as well as for a delay in the introduction of a new rule that requires fixed assets to be valued at their market value.

The proponents of so-called global standards are up in arms at this latest intervention by the LDP. If marking assets to market is delayed, they argue, the nation will lag behind in the globalization of accounting standards. Moreover, they argue that corporate accounts must be as transparent as possible, and therefore should be marked to market as often and as radically as possible. On the other hand, opponents of the mark-to-market rule argue that the recent slump in the stock market, which has reached a 21-year low, can at least partly be blamed on the new accounting rules.

What are we to make of this debate? Let us consider the facts. Most leading industrialized countries, such as Britain, France and Germany, so far have not introduced mark-to-market rules. Indeed, the vast majority of countries currently do not use them.

Nevertheless, there is enormous political pressure to utilize mark-to-market accounting, and many countries plan to introduce the standard in 2005 or thereafter.

Japan decided to adopt the new standard ahead of everyone else, based on the advice given by a few accountants--an industry that benefits from the revision of accounting standards as any rule change guarantees years of demand for their consulting services.

However, so far there has not been a broad public debate about the overall benefits and disadvantages of the new standard. The LDP has raised the important point that such accounting changes might have unintended negative consequences for the macroeconomy.

Let us first reflect on the microeconomic rationale supporting mark-to-market rules. They are said to render company accounts more transparent by calculating corporate balance sheets using the values that markets happen to indicate on the day of book- closing. Since book-closing occurs only once, twice or, at best, four times a year, any sudden or temporary move of markets on these days--easily possible in these times of extraordinary market volatility--will distort accounts rather than rendering them more transparent.

Second, it is not clear that marking assets to market reflects the way companies look at their assets. While they know that market values are highly volatile, there is one piece of information about corporate assets that have an undisputed meaning for

firms: the price at which they were actually bought.

The purchase price matters as it reflects actual transactions and economic activity. Marking to market, on the other hand, means valuing assets at values at which they were never transacted. The company has neither paid nor received this theoretical money in exchange for the assets. This market value is hence a purely fictitious value. Instead of increasing transparency, we end up increasing the part of the accounts that is fiction.

While the history of marking to market is brief, we do have some track record from the United States, which introduced mark-to-market accounting in the 1990s.

Did the introduction increase accounting transparency? The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board last November concluded that the new rule of marking to market allowed Enron Energy Services Inc. to book profits from long-term energy contracts immediately rather than when the money was actually received.

This enabled Enron executives to create the illusion of a profitable business unit despite the fact that the truth was far from it. Thanks to mark-to-market accounting, Enron's retail division managed to hide significant losses and book billions of dollars in profits based on inflated predictions of future energy prices. Enron's executives received millions of dollars in bonuses when the energy contracts were signed.

The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board task force recognized the problems and has hence recommended the mark-to-market accounting rule be scrapped. Since this year, U.S. energy companies will only be able to report profits as income actually is received.

Marking to market thus creates the illusion that theoretical market values can actually be realized. We must not forget that market values are merely the values derived on the basis of a certain number of transactions during the day in case.

Strictly speaking, it is a false assumption to extend the same values to any number of assets that were not actually transacted at that value on that day.

When a certain number of the 225 stocks constituting the Nikkei Stock Average are traded at a certain price, this does not say anything about the price that all stocks that have been issued by these 225 companies would have traded on that day.

As market participants know well, the volume of transactions is an important indicator of how representative stock prices can be considered during any given day. If the index falls 1 percent on little volume, this is quickly discounted by many observers as it means that only a tiny fraction of shares were actually traded. If the market falls 1 percent on record volume, then this may be a better proxy of the majority of stock prices on that day.

The values at which U.S. corporations were marked to market at the end of December 1999, at the peak of a speculative bubble, did little to increase transparency. If all companies had indeed sold their assets on that day, surely this would have severely depressed asset prices.

Consider this: If your neighbor decides to sell his house for half price, how would you feel if the bank that gave you a mortgage argued that, according to the mark-to- market rule, it now also must halve the value of your house--and, as a result, they regret to inform you that you are bankrupt.

We discussed the case of traded securities. But in many cases a market for the assets on a company's books does not actually exist. In this case, accountants use so-called net present value calculations to estimate a theoretical value. This means even greater fiction because the theoretical value depends crucially on assumptions made about interest rates, economic growth, asset markets and so on.

Given the dismal track record of forecasters in this area, it is astonishing to find that serious accountants wish corporate accounts to be based on them.

There are significant macroeconomic costs involved with mark-to-market accounting. As all companies will soon be forced to recalculate their balance sheets more frequently, the state of financial markets on the calculation day will determine whether they are still "sound," or in accounting terms, "bankrupt." While book value accounting tends to reduce volatility in markets to some extent, the new rule can only increase it. The implications are especially far-reaching in the banking sector since banks are not ordinary businesses, but fulfill the public function of creating and providing the money supply on which economic growth depends.

U.S. experts warned years ago that the introduction of marking to market could create a credit crunch. As banks will be forced to set aside larger loan-loss reserves to cover loans that may have declined in value on the day of marking, bank earnings could be reduced. Banks might thus shy away from making loans to small or midsize firms under the new rules, where a risk premium exists and hence the likelihood of marking losses is larger. As a result, banks would have a disincentive to lend to small firms. Yet, for all we know, the small firm loans may yet be repaid in full.

If banks buy a 10-year Japanese government bond with the intention to hold it until maturity, and the economy recovers, thus pushing down bond prices significantly, the market value of the government bonds will decline. Banks would thus be forced to book substantial losses on their bond holdings despite the fact that, by holding until maturity, they would never actually have suffered any losses. Japanese banks currently have vast holdings of government bonds. The change in accounting rules likely will increase problems in the banking sector. As banks reduce lending, economic growth will fall, thereby depressing asset prices, after which accountants will quickly try to mark down everyone's books.

Of course, in good times, the opposite may occur, as we saw in the case of Enron. During upturns, marking to market may boost accounting figures beyond the actual state of reality. This also will boost banks' accounts (similar to the Bank for International Settlements rules announced in 1988), thus encouraging excessive lending. This in turn will fuel an economic boom, which will further raise the accounting values of assets.

Thus does it make sense to mark everything to fictitious market values? We can conclude that marking to market has enough problems on the micro level to negate any potential benefits. On the macro level, the disadvantages will be far larger as asset price volatility will rise, business cycles will be exacerbated and economic activity will be destabilized.

The world economy has done well for several centuries without this new rule. There is no evidence that it will improve anything. To the contrary, it is likely to prove harmful. The LDP must be lauded for its attempt to stop the introduction of these new accounting rules.

Werner is an assistant professor of economics at Sophia University and chief economist at Tokyo-based investment adviser Profit Research Center Ltd.

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory.htm 
In particular, note the fair value accounting section at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#FairValue 

Einstein and Newton showed signs of autism --- http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993676 

Inching closer to the dream of electronic newspapers and books, scientists have created an ultra-thin computer screen that can be bent, twisted and even rolled into a cylinder without losing its image quality. Its creators say it's the first flexible computer screen of its kind --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58765,00.html 

"Making Intelligence a Bit Less Artificial," by Lisa Guernsey, The New York Times, May 1, 2003 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/01/technology/circuits/01reco.html 

When Mike Kellogg of Chicago shops at Amazon.com, he can view a list of recommended products that match his taste in music with uncanny precision. The store knows he loves Wilco, a folksy rock band, and offers him CD's with a similar sound.

When Anne Heilemann of Iowa City visits Amazon, she is immediately reminded how clueless the recommendations can be. A few months ago she bought a book about flower girls for a friend's 7-year-old daughter, who will be in her wedding this month. Now Amazon offers her more flower-girl books (one is more than enough, Ms. Heilemann said), and assumes that she must also need a book about bargains on baby products.

"I would freak if I needed a baby-bargains book right now," she said.

Mr. Kellogg's experience is a dream come true for developers of recommender systems - software that analyzes patterns in a customer's choices to predict what else that person might want or need. In addition to Amazon's system, the better-known examples include TiVo, the digital television recorder, and NetFlix, the online DVD rental service.

But Ms. Heilemann's experience may ring truer to most people. Only 7.4 percent of online consumers who noticed these systems said they often purchased recommended products, according to a report issued in February by Forrester Research. About 22 percent said they found the recommendations valuable, and about 42 percent said the products listed were not of interest.

To improve the recommendations, many software developers are doing an about-face from the mid-1990's, when they put their energy into getting computers to do all the work. Today they say that automated programs that look for patterns in customer data are not smart enough to detect a gaffe. Something more sophisticated is required: the human mind.

People are becoming a critical component: analysts who understand why a particular type of music appeals to some people, categorization experts who know how to cross-reference material, retail executives who tweak the system to improve the bottom line and reviewers who check for nonsensical or offensive results.

"The holy grail is to be able to capture all the customer's interactions in detail and get smarter about what not to recommend," said Usama Fayyad, chief executive and president of digiMine, the software company behind the online recommendations of J. Crew and Barnes & Noble. "We can recommend very well. Knowing when not to bother someone is much harder."

Odd pitches and poor matches have led to an outpouring of anecdotes. A discussion on a bulletin board at Salon.com this year titled "When Customer Profiling Goes Wrong" described people's befuddlement upon receiving off-the-wall recommendations from Amazon. Someone named Molly wrote that she bought "a single trashy romance novel" and is now "branded for life."

"The best results are achieved from powerful technology and human intervention," said Matt Turck, president of TripleHop Technologies, a company that has built recommendation engines for USA Today's online travel section and SkiMatcher, which advises travelers on ski resorts.

All this talk of human intervention sounds very different from the hype of the dot-com boom, when startup companies spun visions of computer programs that could help people discover their yet-to-be-revealed tastes in books and music. Imaginative online software was more coveted than gold, and recommendation systems looked like a step toward the creation of artificial intelligence. It was hard not to be intrigued by the idea that with the right data and the right mathematical formula, a computer might be able to grasp a person's preferences better than friends and family, suggesting books or movies that the consumer would not have discovered otherwise.

"There is a sense that with people you are perceived stereotypically, but that the system might give you a totally different chance," said Rashmi Sinha, the founder of Uzanto Consulting, a company that focuses on end-user experiences with technology. She is also a cognitive psychologist who has conducted studies of how people respond to recommender systems.

In the mid-1990's, much attention was drawn to collaborative filtering, a technique that matches a user to a group of others who have purchased or praised similar products, then analyzes the group's data to predict what else the user might like. Patti Maes, an expert in the field and a professor at the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called it "automating word-of-mouth." Firefly, a company she helped start, became the symbol of the technology's promise. The New York Times Magazine ran a 4,200-word article in 1997 about Firefly, which was then valued at $100 million, Microsoft bought the company the following year.

It turned out that Microsoft hadn't bought Firefly for its collaborative filter. It wanted the software that kept track of user profiles, which Firefly had called "passport," for what became Microsoft's own Passport software for the quick transfer of personal data.

"They weren't so much interested in the recommendation engine," Dr. Maes said in an interview last month. "It wasn't because they didn't believe in it, but it wasn't as good a match for their strategy."

Continued in the Article

A federal judge listened to arguments Thursday in a lawsuit filed by Hollywood studios against a maker of DVD-copying software. The case could determine whether DVD owners can legally copy portions of videos. Katie Dean reports from San Francisco --- http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58845,00.html 

A Great Music Site (History, Education, Performance) 
Experience Music Project --- http://www.emplive.com 
This a great site from Bill Gate's former partner Paul Allen that highlights over 80,000 pieces.

Jazz Institute of Chicago (Music, History)  http://jazzinstituteofchicago.org/ 

Hi Chuck,

One of my major professors at Stanford was Yuji Ijiri. One of his major research contributions was a monograph on triple-entry accounting. But the theory never took off in practice. Perhaps all that is needed is this new Adobe Atmosphere software.

Thanks,

Original Message----- 
From: White, Charles 
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 12:07 PM 
To: Jensen, Robert Subject: 3D authoring tool

Bob:

Check this one out. The beta download is available for us to use. Our new NMC participation brought this to my attention as the consortium is looking for collaborative projects involving this software.

http://www.adobe.com/products/atmosphere/main.html 

May 8, 2003 reply from Paul Williams [williamsp@COMFS1.COM.NCSU.EDU] 

Succinctly: Ijiri analogized the wealth process to Newtonian mechanics. The third dimension was force (his monograph and Star Wars were near contemporaries, so Professor Ijiri heard "let the force be with you" more times than he probably cared to). The general idea is that earnings are the first derivative of capital, so, by analogy, the second derivative (the rate of change in income) is a logical extension and the logical third dimension of an accounting recording system (Ijiri posed the problem of whether there were logically more dimensions beyond two in his Theory of Accounting Measurement and multiple-classifications did not qualify as a solution. As Bob Jensen has noted elsewhere, Professor Ijiri was intrigued by mathematical puzzles, notably the 4-color map problem, and he puzzled over whether accounting logically had more than two dimensions (causal double entry, not merely classificatory double entry). Triple entry accounting was his proposed solution to the problem. Practically speaking it likely never caught on because analogizing to the natural world, we have learned, can be dangerous to understanding, particularly when it is to 18th century models of the natural world (Adam Smith, for example). The randomness of the phenomenon accounting attempts to measure (represent) makes it doubtful that wealth has a second derivative (or first one for that matter) in any practical sense for an individual firm. I make my students in my Masters Class read Professor Ijiri's Theory of Accounting Measurement. His work, I believe sadly, has been lost to new accounting scholars. He was nearly unique as a scholar who thought deeply about accounting problems using concepts and ideas from other fields to enhance rather than replace reasoning in the terms that belong to accounting. In light of the recent accounting scandals, perhaps the SEC and FASB should visit some of Ijiri's ideas (hardness, for example, and the notion that accounting is about accountability!!!). 
PFW

May 9, 2003 reply from Richard Dull [rdull@CLEMSON.EDU] 

My dissertation (Virginia Tech, 1997) used "triple entry" (aka "momentum accounting") as a problem space for looking at 2D & 3D visualizations. I found that when I talked about the "momentum accounting" part of the study, there were polar reactions -- "it's an interesting idea" and "it's totally off-the-wall".

I still believe the concept has significant merit, and believe Dr. Ijiri will be someday be better recognized for his contribution, as technology makes his ideas feasible.

Far from a "succinct summary" my dissertation is available on line at http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-81197-165010/  . It not only gives some background, pro's and con's regarding momentum accounting, it also offers some visualization ideas. (Side note: There was a paper published from it, with David Tegarden, in JIS, Fall 1999.)

Richard Dull

Bob Jensen's threads on this topic are at "Visualization of Multidimensional Data (A Preliminary Working Draft)" --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpVisual/000DataVisualization.htm 

The Resource-Event-Agent Model (Accounting Information Systems) --- http://www.4thresource.com/content/iii_1_rea_model.htm 

Internet Geography http://www.internetgeography.co.uk/ 

FirstGov.Gov Web Site Wins 'Oscar' of Good Government --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32750-2003May8.html 
The site is at http://www.firstgov.gov/ 

      Information by Topic »
      Especially For »
     Consumer Help »

 

A new invention that makes a person feel full while eating less food is being tested as an alternative to surgical treatments for morbid obesity. The pill expands in the stomach after being swallowed --- http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,58705,00.html 

Do you suppose there will be alternative models giving us choices?
Paris - Doctors who have grown penile tissue in animals to demonstrate the possibility of organ replacement have now gone one better - they have added nerve cells --- http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1353789,00.html 

Psychiatry On-Line http://www.priory.com/psych.htm 

Do you want to publish your baby picture?

When I Was Little --- http://www.wheniwaslittle.net/ 

New York City / Amsterdam (Photography) --- http://www.nycasd.com/ 

Question
Who was the legendary "deep throat" in the Nixon era Watergate scandal?

Answer:
This question is "fielded" at Deep Throat Uncovered --- http://deepthroatuncovered.com/ 

Trinity University has a jogging trail which I never go near (sigh). And spring is long gone in Texas (sigh again).

But in March and early April, the Texas wild flowers are spectacular. Although it has nothing to do with accounting, I thought some of you might like to see some Texas wild flowers on our campus. These photographs were taken by Mike Schweitzer (who works in the physical plant) --- http://www.trinity.edu/departments/physical_plant/Wildflowers/Wildflowers2003.htm 

In the ranches and roadways of Texas, there are enormous fields of wild flowers. Preserving these was Lady Bird Johnson’s passion in life. The Johnson Ranch between Johnson City and Fredericksburg may be of interest to some visitors to Texas. It is a national park that features bus tours through the park --- http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/lbj/lbj.htm 

Also see http://www.k5kj.net/texas.htm 

If you are planning a visit to San Antonio, you may want to take a look at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/SanAntonioJensen.htm 

May 2, 2003 reply from E. Scribner [escribne@NMSU.EDU] 

Here are some wild poppies by Las Cruces--picture taken by a friend in the math department about a month ago: http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~ClassAcct/rabbit_ears-2.jpg 

Dave Albrecht will remember these desert mountains from his visit to our campus.

Ed

Forwarded by Team Carper

How to Increase Your Vocabulary

This is truly appreciated by those in the construction business!

 This is truly a heartwarming story about the bond  formed between a little girl and some construction  workers. This makes you want to believe in the  goodness of people and that there is hope for the  human race.  

A young family moved into a house next door to a  vacant lot. One day a construction crew turned up to  start building a house on the empty lot.  The young family's 5-year-old daughter naturally took  an interest in all the activity going on next door and  started talking with the workers.   She hung around and eventually the construction crew,  all of them gems-in-the-rough, more or less adopted  her as a kind of project mascot. They chatted with  her, let her sit with them while they had coffee and  lunch breaks, and gave her little jobs to do here and  there to make her feel important. At the end of the  first week they even presented her with a pay envelope  containing a dollar.  

The little girl took this home to her mother who said  all the appropriate words of admiration and suggested  that they take the dollar pay she had received to the  bank the next day to start a savings account.   When they got to the bank the teller was equally  impressed with the story and asked the little girl how  she had come by her very own pay check at such a young  age.  

The little girl proudly replied, "I worked all last week  with a crew building a house."  

"My goodness gracious," said the teller, "and will you  be working on the house again this week, too?"  

The little girl replied, "I will if those useless  sons-a-bitches at Home Depot ever bring us any drywall  that's worth a shit!"

Forwarded by Bob Overn

A very attractive blonde lady arrived and bet twenty thousand dollars on a single roll of the dice.

She said, " I hope you don't mind, but I feel much luckier when I'm nude."

With that she stripped from her neck down, rolled the dice and yelled, "Mama needs new clothes!"

Then she hollered..."YES! YES! I WON! I WON!" She jumped up and down and hugged each of the dealers. With that she picked up all the money and clothes and quickly departed. The dealers just stared at each other dumbfounded.

Finally, one of them asked, "What did she roll?"

The other answered, "I thought YOU were watching!"

Moral of the story: Not all blondes are dumb.

Forwarded by Dr. Digiovani

A farmer named Clyde had a car accident and sued a trucking company.

In court, the defendant trucking company's fancy lawyer was questioning Clyde.

Didn't you say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine,' asked the lawyer.

Clyde responded, "Well, I'll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule, Bessie, into the..."

"I didn't ask for any details", the lawyer interrupted. "Just answer the question.? Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine!'?

Clyde said, "Well, I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road...."

The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine.

Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client.? I believe he is a fraud.?

Please tell him to simply answer the question."

By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Clyde's answer and said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule, Bessie"

Clyde thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting, real bad and didn't want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.

Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her.

After he looked at her, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes.

Then the Patrolman came across the road, gun in hand, looked at me, and said "How are you feeling?"

"Now what would you say?"

Forwarded by Barb Hessel

BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL WOMAN IS HERSELF

OH MY GOD, I THINK I'M BECOMINGTHE MAN I WANTED TO MARRY!

GINGER ROGERS DID EVERYTHING FRED ASTAIRE DID, BUT SHE DID IT BACKWARDS AND IN HIGH HEELS

A WOMAN IS LIKE A TEA BAG... YOU DON'T KNOW HOW STRONG SHE IS UNTIL YOU PUT HER IN HOT WATER

I HAVE YET TO HEAR A MAN ASK FOR ADVICE ON HOW TO COMBINE MARRIAGE AND A CAREER

SO MANY MEN, SO FEW WHO CAN AFFORD ME

COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, MEN. SOME THINGS ARE JUST BETTER RICH

DON'T TREAT ME ANY DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU WOULD THE QUEEN

I'M OUT OF ESTROGEN And I HAVE A GUN

WARNING: I HAVE AN ATTITUDE AND I KNOW HOW TO USE IT

OF COURSE I DON'T LOOK BUSY... I DID IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME

DO NOT START WITH ME. YOU WILL NOT WIN

ALL STRESSED OUT AND NO ONE TO CHOKE

I CAN BE ONE OF THOSE BAD THINGS THAT HAPPENS TO BAD PEOPLE

HOW CAN I MISS YOU IF YOU WON'T GO AWAY?

DON'T UPSET ME! I'M RUNNING OUT OF PLACES TO HIDE THE BODIES

And last but not least:

IF YOU WANT BREAKFAST IN BED, SLEEP IN THE KITCHEN

Also forwarded by Barb Hessel

Subject: Baseball Detective Story  

This is a detective story so pay close attention!!!  

Three lil' ole ladies are excited about seeing their first Giants  baseball game. They smuggle a bottle of Jack Daniel's into the ball  park. The game is real exciting and they are enjoying themselves  immensely mixing the Jack Daniel's with soft drinks.

Soon they realize  that the bottle is almost gone and the game has a lot of innings to go.  

Based on the given information, what inning is it and how many players  are on base?       Think!      Think some more!!        

You're gonna love it......    

 

 

Answer:  It's the bottom of the fifth and the bags are loaded.

Forwarded by The Happy Lady

THE HORMONE WARNING:
   
 The Hormone Hostage knows that there are days when all a man has to do is open his mouth and he takes his life in his own  hands! This is a handy guide that should be a common as a driver's license in the wallet of every usband, boyfriend, or significant other!
   
   
     DANGEROUS: What's for dinner?
     SAFER: Can I help you with dinner?
     SAFEST: Where would you like to go for dinner?
     ULTRASAFE: Have some chocolate
   
   
   
     DANGEROUS: Are you wearing that?
     SAFER: Gee, you look good in brown.
     SAFEST: WOW! Look at you!
     ULTRASAFE: Have some chocolate
   
   
     DANGEROUS: What are you so worked up about?
     SAFER: Could we be overreacting?
     SAFEST: Here's fifty dollars.
     ULTRASAFE: Have some chocolate
   
   
     DANGEROUS: Should you be eating that?
     SAFER: You know, there are a lot of apples left.
     SAFEST: Can I get you a glass of wine with that?
     ULTRASAFE: Have some chocolate
   
   
   
     DANGEROUS: What did you do all day?
     SAFER: I hope you didn't over-do it today.
     SAFEST: I've always loved you in that robe!
     ULTRASAFE: Have some more chocolate

Beer Drinking
Now we know what makes The Happy Lady happy!

http://www.mikeleo.com/beer/beer.swf

And that's the way it was on May 31, 2003 with a little help from my friends.

 

I highly recommend TheFinanceProfessor (an absolutely fabulous and totally free newsletter from a very smart finance professor) --- www.FinanceProfessor.com 

 

In March 2000, Forbes named AccountantsWorld.com as the Best Website on the Web --- http://accountantsworld.com/.
Some top accountancy links --- http://accountantsworld.com/category.asp?id=Accounting

 

For accounting news, I prefer AccountingWeb at http://www.accountingweb.com/ 
I also like SmartPros at http://www.smartpros.com/ 

 

Another leading accounting site is AccountingEducation.com at http://www.accountingeducation.com/ 

 

Gerald Trite's great set of links --- http://iago.stfx.ca/people/gtrites/Docs/bookmark.htm 

 

Paul Pacter maintains the best international accounting standards and news Website at http://www.iasplus.com/

The Finance Professor --- http://www.financeprofessor.com/about/aboutFP.html 

 

How stuff works --- http://www.howstuffworks.com/ 

 

Bob Jensen's video helpers for MS Excel, MS Access, and other helper videos are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/ 
Accompanying documentation can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default1.htm and http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

 

Click on www.syllabus.com/radio/index.asp for a complete list of interviews with established leaders, creative thinkers and education technology experts in higher education from around the country.

 

Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134  Email:  rjensen@trinity.edu  

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April 30, 2003

 Bob Jensen's New Bookmarks on April 30, 2003 (My Birthday)
Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

Quotes of the Week

Ten years ago, who would have guessed the following?
--The best golfer in the world would be a black man. 
--The most popular rapper in the world would be a white man. 
--The tallest guy in the NBA would be a Chinese man. 
--That the French would be accusing Americans of being arrogant. 
--That the Germans actually wouldn't want to go to war. 
--And that the three most powerful men in the U.S. would be named Bush, Dick and Colin?
As quoted from an April 28, 2003 email message from mikegasior@afs-seminars.com 

Playing Catch Up Many educators would like to halt the development of instructional resources, or at least hold back information about new instructional options while they catch up with what is already available. But the impact of rapid technology obsolescence and the all-too-human desire to discover new tools ensures a continuous stream of new instructional options. What’s more, competition among publishers and academics eliminates the possibility of a moratorium on new instructional materials, making it almost impossible to develop standards for building these items.
Steven W. Gilbert, "Collections, Convections, and Confections," Syllabus, April 2003, Page 20 --- http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7476 

Is it not ironic that those who gaze for the stars cannot see the pot hole they are about to step in!
I'm not sure if he authored this, but it was forwarded in an email message from Murat Tanju [MTanju@WWW.BUSINESS.UAB.EDU]

I love to cook with wine and sometimes I even put it in the food ! 
Lottie Digiovanni (who is a gourmet cook and an outstanding neighbor and friend)

What we have in common is that we are all unique.
Author unknown

Pacifists are like sheep who believe that wolves are vegetarians.
Yves Montand

Deloitte Study Finds $356 Billion Outsourcing Trend; India to Benefit Most
SmartPros --- http://www.smartpros.com/x37941.xml 

Stetson University suspended publication of its student newspaper and fired the editorial staff because an April Fools' Day issue (2003) included profanity, racist jokes and a sex column advocating rape and domestic violence.
CNN.com, April 12, 2003 --- http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/04/12/student.newspaper.ap/index.html 

Security experts tout their industry's ever-stronger worm blockers and virus filters, but their bread and butter may depend on their ability to instill the very fear they promise to assuage.  
Wired News, April 16, 2003 --- http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,58492,00.html 
Sniff:  Do I smell moral hazard here?

Not everyone who is offline is too poor to get connected to the Internet. A growing number of so-called Internet dropouts are staying away because of frustration over technical problems, according to a recent study on the digital divide.  
Wired News, April 15, 2003 --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58498,00.html  
Or maybe it's because some folks live in remote areas (like New Hampshire's White Mountains) and can't get any bandwidth.  Sigh!

The Perilous Fight:  Then and Now in Iraq

I Am the Flag of the United States of America --- http://unkarock.addr.com/unkarock/flag.htm 

66,033 Americans are Buried or Missing in France. Many thousands more died fighting for France but are buried and honored here in the US.

Note the John McCusker quotations!
"Victory is No Panacea," by Robert J. Samuelson, Newsweek, April 21, 2003, Page 51.

The theory's (i.e., the theory that economic boom immediately follows victory in a war) other big flaw is that it ignores history.  Wars usually bring surprises and disappointments in their wake.  A harsh depression--one of the nation's worst, says historian John McCusker of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas--followed the Revolution.  Trade with Britain had shriveled; hard money (meaning silver and gold coin) was scarce.  The government, operating under the Articles of Confederation, couldn't cure the country's commercial problems.  The Constitutional Convention was one consequence.

The war left the "country in a condition that people couldn't deal with and hadn't planned for," says McCusker.  This was no fluke; wars often do that.  Gradual deflation followed the Civil War; World War I fostered inflation, which led to a deep recession (1920-21); Vietnam helped cause rising inflation.  Only after World War II has the economy escaped the curse.

April 14, 2003 message from David Spener

A Trinity student studying at the London School of Economics forwarded this link to a page on the Independent Media Center’s website.

http://vancouver.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/41871.php 

It suggests that the famous photo of Iraqis in Baghdad tearing down the statue of Saddam was not part of a spontaneous uprising on the part of Iraqi masses, but rather a photo-op staged by the U.S. military.

See the link and decide for yourself.

David Spener

How Sanford Pinsker Almost Became a Celebrity Intellectual, or His "Factor" Fantasy.  This refers to the "The O'Reilly Factor," --- http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-04-24-03.htm 

The media are toys in the hands of the rich, and the rich use them to become even richer.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

Many in the press dismissed Iraq's Information Minister as a liar or a crackpot, but he's fast becoming an online celebrity thanks to his sense of black humor --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58452,00.html 

The Conspiracy Theory (I like to know what it is even if I don't believe it.) --- http://www.ocnsignal.com/ 

CNN's Anti-US Bias --- http://gracebroadcast.com/CNN_anti-US_bias.htm 

The following meeting takes place very close to my new mountain home in New Hampshire:
Forwarded by Debbie Bowling

Since 1941, a group of practical dreamers have been meeting every summer in the hills of New Hampshire to discuss the weighty topics of the day and try, in a small way, to advance the cause of world peace --- http://www.msnbc.com/news/896732.asp?cp1=1 

My April 30, 2003 updates on the accounting and finance scandals can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud043003.htm
(The above document also includes updates on tax frauds, scams, identity theft, and similar updates.)

 

Background Reference Links for Frauds and Accountancy Scandals
Bob Jensen's homepage --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ 
Bob Jensen's accounting theory documents --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory.htm 
Issues in the accounting, finance, and business scandals --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm 

Many of the scandals are documented at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm 

Accounting faculty around the country are taking to the Internet in a grassroots campaign to fight for an educational resource they hold dear - "Accounting Horizons" and "Issues in Accounting Education" - two education journals, published by the American Accounting Association, whose future is in the crosshairs of the associations' Executive Committee. http://www.accountingweb.com/item/97403 
Bob Jensen's threads on this controversial issue can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AAAjournals.htm 

AICPA Book Tells Firms, Women How to Shatter the Glass Ceiling --- http://www.smartpros.com/x37850.xml 

The AICPA reports that during the last 20 years the proportion of women entering the accounting profession has grown dramatically from 45 percent in 1982 to 56 percent in 2002. However, women represent only 38 percent of the new hires and a mere 14 percent hold the position of partner, shareholder, or owner of their firm.

Promoting Your Talent by Professor Nancy Baldiga, associate professor of accounting at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, sheds light on this imbalance. The book features interviews with more than 50 successful women, human resource directors, and managing partners about the obstacles faced by women and the practices that both women and firms can adopt to help facilitate advancement in the accounting profession.

Bob Jensen's accountancy career bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#careers

Bummer of the Week:  They Still Don't Get It
Protection of Employees That Need it the Least

"Top Executives’ Pensions Protected in Bankruptcy Filings," by the Editors of The Accounting Web, April 14, 2003 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=97425&u=ee2eC47&m=4518 

AccountingWEB US - Apr-14-2003 - Even in the wake of significant layoffs, some companies are reportedly making use of trusts and other creative arrangements to protect their top executives’ huge pensions, which are not usually covered by pension insurance when a company declares bankruptcy.

Airlines such as Delta and United have taken steps to protect their top executives’ pensions as the airline industry struggles to regain its footing after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Delta, which is working hard to stay afloat, disclosed recently that it had formed retirement trusts that will guarantee pension payments to its top 33 executives, a move that infuriated rank and file employees who may see their pensions cut as the airline strives to reduce costs.

UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines, used a similar arrangement to attract its Chairman and Chief Executive Glenn F. Tilton last September. UAL put $4.5 million in three trusts in Tilton’s name to compensate him for the pension benefits he gave up by leaving ChevronTexaco Corp. The agreement was designed to protect Tilton if the company ended up filing for bankruptcy court protection, which did in fact occur in December. Tilton will keep the money if he puts in three years with UAL or if the company emerges from bankruptcy.

While these arrangements clearly afford top executives even more security than regular employees enjoy, industry defends the practice by noting that when tough times are coming, it is better for the company to ensure its top people will stay put to ride out the storm.

LTV Corp., Conseco, Altria Group Inc. (formerly Philip Morris) and Abbott Laboratories are just a few of the companies that have disclosed similar arrangements in the last year.

They Still Don't Get It

CEO performance stank last year, yet most CEOs got paid more than ever. Here's how they're getting away with it.

But the pigs were so clever that they could think of a way round every difficulty.
--George Orwell, Animal Farm

Who says CEOs don't suffer along with the rest of us? As his company's stock slid 71% last year, one corporate chief saw his compensation fall 12%. Sure, he still earned $82 million, making him the second-highest-paid executive at an S&P 500 company in 2002, according to the 360 proxy statements that had rolled in as of April 9. And yeah, he's under indictment for the wholesale looting of his company, Tyco. But at least Dennis Kozlowski set a better example than the top-paid executive, who pulled in a whopping $136 million. That was Mark Swartz, his former CFO.

Unusual, you might say, for one company to produce the two top earners in a given year. But three of the top six? Now that's truly striking--especially since the other person isn't part of Kozlowski's gang at all. It's Ed Breen, the guy hired to clean up the mess.

You'd think that in the aftermath of a scandal that made Tyco a symbol of cartoonish greed, its board might want to make a point of frugality. Yet even as it was pressuring its former officers to "disgorge" their ill-gotten gains, it was letting its new man, who became CEO last July, gorge himself on $62 million worth of cash, stock, and other prizes. By all accounts Breen is doing a fine job so far (see Exorcism at Tyco), but still. And the gravy train didn't stop there. Tyco's board of directors dished out another $25 million for a new CFO, plus $25 million to a division head, putting them both on a par with the CEOs of Wal-Mart and General Electric. At least the company, now with a new board of directors, seems to recognize the need for some limits: Its bonus scheme "now caps out at 200% of base salary," notes Breen, "whereas before it was more like 600% or 700%."

That, in a nutshell, is what a year of unprecedented uproar and outrage can do. Before, CEOs had a shot at becoming very, very, very rich. Now they're likely to get only very, very rich. More likely, in fact. FORTUNE asked Equilar, an independent provider of compensation data, to analyze CEO compensation at 100 of the largest companies that had filed proxy statements for 2002. Their findings? Average CEO compensation dropped 23% in 2002, to $15.7 million, but that's mostly because the pay of a few mega-earners fell significantly. A more telling number--median compensation, or what the middle-of-the-road CEO earned--actually rose 14%, to $13.2 million. This in a year when the total return of the S&P 500 was down 22.1%.

"The acid test for reform," wrote Warren Buffett in his most recent letter to shareholders, "will be CEO compensation." With most of the results now in, the acid strip is bright red: Corporate reform has failed. Not only does executive pay seem more decoupled from performance than ever, but boards are conveniently changing their definition of "performance." "From a compensation point of view," says Matt Ward, an independent pay consultant, "it's a whole new bag of tricks."

What did fall last year were monster grants of stock options, like the 20 million awarded to Apple's Steve Jobs in 2000. The declining use of options (which even Kozlowski once called a "free ride--a way to earn megabucks in a bull market") would seem cause for reformers to rejoice. But delve more closely into the data for those 100 big companies and what do you find? That every other form of compensation--including some burgeoning forms of stealth wealth--has grown.

Continued in the article.

Also see Enron's Cast of Characters at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnronCast.htm

From FEI Express on April 23, 2003

FASB To Require Fair Value Expensing of Stock Options
At its April 22 public Board Meeting, the FASB decided to require all companies to expense the fair value of employee stock options. The decision was reached during deliberations on the FASB's recently-added agenda project on stock-based compensation. The FASB also reached tentative decisions to measure "employee equity-based awards" at grant date. The FASB will strive to work with the IASB on its similar project to achieve maximum convergence on final U.S. GAAP and IAS Standards on Accounting for Employee Stock Options. For additional details on the FASB decisions read KPMG's Defining Issues on the topic.

Congress is reacting to the FASB's move. Reps. David Drieir (R-CA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) have introduced the "Broad-Based Stock Option Plan Transparency Act of 2003," directing the SEC to require enhanced reporting disclosures of stock options, and preventing the SEC from recognizing any new accounting standard related to stock options until they have submitted a report to Congress on the effectiveness of the new disclosures, following a three year period of study. The bill would also require that the Secretary of Commerce spend a year studying the economic impact of stock option plans. Click here to view H.R. 1372. Also Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) will introduce a bill sending the whole matter to the SEC for review before proposed rules are adopted.

ENRON'S CAST OF CHARACTERS AND THEIR STOCK SALES*
Proving Once Again That White Collar Crime Pays 
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnronCast.htm 

Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Why hold up a gas station for $150 when you can work a deal for stock options, cheat on the accounting to run up the price of the stock, exercise the options, and resign before the price plunges?  Particularly depressing to me are the stock sales of Robert Jaedicke.  He was once my major professor at Stanford University.  In the years preceding the collapse of Enron, he was head of Enron's Audit Committee and a member of the Board of Directors.  Don't stock options create moral hazards for members of audit committees?  I do not know that Dr. Jaedicke cheated anybody intentionally.  However, his stock sales proceeds have a tainted smell.  As for Lou Pai and the rest, I highly recommend that you read Pipe Dreams:  Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron by Robert Bryce (PublicAffairs, 2002).
NAME POSITION AT ENRON

SHARES SOLD

 GROSS PROCEEDS
J. Clifford Baxter Vice-Chairman 619,898 $34,734,854
Robert Belfer Member of Board of Directors 2,065,137 $111,941,200
Norman Blake Member of Board of Directors 21,200 $1,705,328
Rick Buy Chief Risk Officer 140,234 $10,656,595
Rick Causey Chief Accounting Officer 208,940 $13,386,896
Ronnie Chan Member of Board of Directors 8,000 $337,200
James Derrick General Counsel 230,660 $12,563,928
John Duncan Member of Board of Directors 35,000 $2,009,700
Andy Fastow Chief Financial Officer 687,445 $33,675,004
Joe Foy Member of Board of Directors 38,160 $1,639,590
Mark Frevert Chief Executive Office, Enron Europe 986,898 $54,831,220
Wendy Gramm Member of Board of Directors 10,328 $278,892
Kevin Hannon President, Enron Broadband Services Unknown Unknown
Ken Harrison Member of Board of Directors 1,011,436 $75,416,636
Joe Hirko CEO, Enron Communications 473,837 $35,168,721
Stan Horton CEO, Enron Transportation 830,444 $47,371,361
Robert Jaedicke Member of Board of Directors 13,360 $841,438
Steve Kean Executive Vice President, Chief of Staff 64,932 $5,166,414
Mark Koenig Executive Vice President 129,153 $9,110,466
Ken Lay Chairman, Enron Corp. 4,002,259 $184,494.426
Charles LeMaistre Member of Board of Directors 17,344 $841,768
Rebecca Mark Chief Executive Officer, Azurix 1,895,631 $82,536,737
Michael McConnell Executive Vice President 32,960 $2,506,311
Jeff McMahon Treasurer 39,630 $2,739,226
Cindy Olson Executive Vice President 83,183 $6,505,870
Lou Pai CEO, Enron Energy Services 3,912,205 $270,276,065
Ken Rice CEO, Enron Broadband Services 1,234,009 $76,825,145
Jeffrey Skilling Chief Executive Officer, Enron Corp. 1,307,678 $70,687,199
Joe Sutton Vice-Chairman 688,996 $42,231,283
Greg Whalley Chief Operating Officer, Enron Corp. Unknown Unknown
TOTALS 20,788,957 $1,190,479,472
*All listed sales occurred between October 19, 1998 and November 27, 2001. The number shown under
gross proceeds indicates the number of shares times the price of Enron stock on the day the shares were
sold. It does not reflect any costs the Enron officials incurred in exercising the sale of the stock. Therefore,
the net proceeds to the listed individuals is likely less than the amount shown.

SOURCES: Mark Newby, et al. vs. Enron Corp., et al., Securities and Exchange Commission filings,
Congressional testimony, Enron Corp. press releases.

Question 1
Who owns 77,000 acres in Colorado and is the only person to own a 14,000 foot mountain?  I wish he'd take a flying leap from it!
Who at Enron refused to commute from Sugarland on the outskirts of Houston to catch flights on Enron's corporate jets departing out of Houston's International Airport?  Instead that former Enron executive required that a corporate jet be dispatched for him to commute from Sugarland.  Mostly the longer flights out of Houston for this executive were to his vacation home.

Answer
See Page 264 of Pipe Dreams by Robert Bryce cited above.

Question 2
Relative to the executive mentioned above, what woman was an even worse abuser of Enron's corporate jets?

Answer
See Page 262 of Pipe Dreams by Robert Bryce cited above.

 

Click here to go to Bob Jensen's main document on fraud --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm

Move out of the way professor!
Video games, not school, are teaching children how to think. So says James Paul Gee in this commentary for Wired magazine --- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/view.html?pg=1 

The US spends almost $50 billion each year on education, so why aren't kids learning? Forty percent of students lack basic reading skills, and their academic performance is dismal compared with that of their foreign counterparts. In response to this crisis, schools are skilling-and-drilling their way "back to basics," moving toward mechanical instruction methods that rely on line-by-line scripting for teachers and endless multiple-choice testing. Consequently, kids aren't learning how to think anymore - they're learning how to memorize. This might be an ideal recipe for the future Babbitts of the world, but it won't produce the kind of agile, analytical minds that will lead the high tech global age. Fortunately, we've got Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Deus X for that.

After school, kids are devouring new information, concepts, and skills every day, and, like it or not, they're doing it controller in hand, plastered to the TV. The fact is, when kids play videogames they can experience a much more powerful form of learning than when they're in the classroom. Learning isn't about memorizing isolated facts. It's about connecting and manipulating them. Doubt it? Just ask anyone who's beaten Legend of Zelda or solved Morrowind.

The phenomenon of the videogame as an agent of mental training is largely unstudied; more often, games are denigrated for being violent or they're just plain ignored. They shouldn't be. Young gamers today aren't training to be gun-toting carjackers. They're learning how to learn. In Pikmin, children manage an army of plantlike aliens and strategize to solve problems. In Metal Gear Solid 2, players move stealthily through virtual environments and carry out intricate missions. Even in the notorious Vice City, players craft a persona, build a history, and shape a virtual world. In strategy games like WarCraft III and Age of Mythology, they learn to micromanage an array of elements while simultaneously balancing short- and long-term goals. That sounds like something for their résumés.

The secret of a videogame as a teaching machine isn't its immersive 3-D graphics, but its underlying architecture. Each level dances around the outer limits of the player's abilities, seeking at every point to be hard enough to be just doable. In cognitive science, this is referred to as the regime of competence principle, which results in a feeling of simultaneous pleasure and frustration - a sensation as familiar to gamers as sore thumbs. Cognitive scientist Andy diSessa has argued that the best instruction hovers at the boundary of a student's competence. Most schools, however, seek to avoid invoking feelings of both pleasure and frustration, blind to the fact that these emotions can be extremely useful when it comes to teaching kids.

Also, good videogames incorporate the principle of expertise. They tend to encourage players to achieve total mastery of one level, only to challenge and undo that mastery in the next, forcing kids to adapt and evolve. This carefully choreographed dialectic has been identified by learning theorists as the best way to achieve expertise in any field. This doesn't happen much in our routine-driven schools, where "good" students are often just good at "doing school."

How did videogames become such successful models of effective learning? Game coders aren't trained as cognitive scientists. It's a simple case of free-market economics: If a title doesn't teach players how to play it well, it won't sell well. Game companies don't rake in $6.9 billion a year by dumbing down the material - aficionados condemn short and easy games like Half Life: Blue Shift and Devil May Cry 2. Designers respond by making harder and more complex games that require mastery of sophisticated worlds and as many as 50 to 100 hours to complete. Schools, meanwhile, respond with more tests, more drills, and more rigidity. They're in the cognitive-science dark ages.

We don't often think about videogames as relevant to education reform, but maybe we should. Game designers don't often think of themselves as learning theorists. Maybe they should. Kids often say it doesn't feel like learning when they're gaming - they're much too focused on playing. If kids were to say that about a science lesson, our country's education problems would be solved.

Consumer Alerts

At a time when interest rates are low and personal bankruptcies are high, credit card companies have come up with new ways to boost revenues. Increasingly, customers are seeing new income- generating tactics, such as increased late fees and surcharges for overseas purchases. http://www.accountingweb.com/item/97461 

Beware Mystery Fees for Web Services --- http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110349,00.asp 
Web firms face investigations of 'cramming'--charging via telcos for unordered services.

CyberStalking Is Increasing --- http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2193131 

Management perceives major threats from viruses and teenage hackers. But bigger threats come from organised crime involving fraud and commercial espionage, argues David Love, former head of security at NATO and current Head of Security Strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Computer Associates --- http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=organisedcrimeont1050497394&area=news 

Look what's happening in my new home state! --- http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,58651,00.html 
A proposed law could legalize the unauthorized use of open wireless connections in the Granite State. Digital rights activists hail the law as "enlightened."

"Licensed to War Drive in N.H.," by Brian McWilliams, Wired News, April 29, 2003

DURHAM, New Hampshire -- A land where white pines easily outnumber wireless computer users, New Hampshire may seem an unlikely haven for the free networking movement.

But the state, known for its Live Free or Die motto, could become the first in the United States to provide legal protection for people who tap into insecure wireless networks.

A bill that's breezing through New Hampshire's legislature says operators of wireless networks must secure them -- or lose some of their ability to prosecute anyone who gains access to the networks.

House Bill 495 would, experts say, effectively legalize many forms of what's known as war driving -- motoring through an inhabited area while scanning for open wireless access points.

Increasingly popular with businesses and consumers, wireless networks use radio waves to transmit data between computers in a network. The convenient, low-cost equipment often is deployed to allow employees or household members to share a single Internet connection.

To simplify installation, wireless systems typically ship without any security features enabled. Because the radio waves broadcast by wireless base stations are relatively powerful, it's not uncommon for residential neighbors or adjacent businesses to inadvertently connect to each other's wireless networks.

Some wireless owners leave their access points unsecured on purpose. A grassroots effort known as the open network movement is attempting to create a worldwide grid of Internet-connected wireless access points. A computer enthusiast with a DSL or cable modem at home may, for example, intentionally provide free wireless access to the connection while he's away at work.

New Hampshire's proposed wireless law was hailed as "enlightened" by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a California-based digital rights advocacy group.

Lee Tien, a lawyer for the EFF, said the bill would help clarify the legality of the open networking movement.

"It seems like a fairly clean way of accommodating the geek-culture practice of having open wireless access points without doing anything bad for security," said Tien.

The appeal of tapping into free Internet connections while on the go has led to an activity known as war chalking, in which wireless fans scratch special markings on pavement to indicate open connections. Thousands of wireless "hotspots" offered by hotels, restaurants and other commercial establishments also are listed in online databases such as 80211hotspots.com.

To understand the genesis of New Hampshire's proposed law, just boot up a wireless-enabled laptop at the Fusion Internet Cafe and Espresso Bar on Elm Street in Manchester, the state's largest city.

Fusion has been offering free wireless access to coffee drinkers for the past four months. But co-owner Carlos Pineda said he sometimes turns on his laptop at the cafe and finds himself connected instead to a wireless local-area network, or WLAN, operated by the CVS drugstore located across the street.

"I don't even think their employees are aware the signal from their Internet is being broadcast outside of their space," said Pineda. "That means I have access to their (Internet protocol) address so I can break into their system. Personally I can't, but other, more-savvy people could do it."

The legality of such inadvertent wireless network intrusions is murky. Last year, a Texas man was indicted, but later cleared, on charges that he illegally gained access to the wireless network of the Harris County district clerk.

Like most state and federal computer crime laws, New Hampshire's existing statute says it is a crime to knowingly access any computer network without authorization. By analogy, just because someone leaves his house unlocked doesn't mean you are authorized to walk inside, sit on the couch or help yourself to the contents of the fridge.

Continued in the article.

"Probing for Plagiarism in the Virtual Classroom," by Lindsey S. Hamlin and William T. Ryan, Syllabus, May 2003 --- http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7627 

Virtual learning in higher education has seen enormous progress in both public and private universities. Has the growth of online education made it difficult for educators to ensure that the student who earns the credit for the course is the one who actually did the work?

Colleges venturing into online education face a great deal of scrutiny among educators over the question of academic integrity. They often assume that Internet technology and online classrooms provide students with new and easier ways to cheat. However, the potential for cheating in online courses is about equal to that in traditional courses. In fact, with the Web sites and software now available, educators have a better ability to detect and battle plagiarism and cheating in virtual and traditional classrooms alike. And various online assessment tools, assignments, and activities available within a virtual course, including threaded discussions, chats, quizzes, and group presentations, are by their very nature a deterrent to cheating.

Virtual vs. Traditional Cheating
Unfortunately, cheating has always existed and will continue as long as there is temptation to do so. In 2002, 47 students at Simon Frasier University turned in nearly the same economics paper. According to a 1999 study conducted by the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University, of 2,100 students surveyed on 21 campuses across the country, about one-third of the participating students admitted to serious test cheating, and half admitted to one or more instances of serious cheating on written assignments.

(Portion of article not quoted here)

Selected Anti-Plagiarism Sites

 

Plagiarism.org
Self-described "online resource for educators concerned with the growing problem of Internet plagiarism."
www.plagiarism.org and www.turnitin.com

Plagiarized.com
"The Instructors Guide to Internet Plagiarism."
www.plagiarized.com

EVE (Essay Verification Engine)
A downloadable application that performs complex searches against text, Microsoft Corp. Word files, and Corel Corp. WordPerfect files.
www.canexus.com

The Center for Academic Integrity
An association of more than 225 institutions that provides a forum for identifying and promoting the values of academic integrity.
www.academicintegrity.org

What is Plagiarism?
Guidelines from the Georgetown University Honor Council.
www.georgetown.edu/honor/plagiarism.html

Avoiding Plagiarism
Guidelines from the Office of Student Judicial Affairs at the University of California, Davis.
http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm

Detecting Plagiarism
Plagiarism.org maintains a database of thousands of digitally "fingerprinted" documents including papers obtained from term paper mills. When an instructor uploads a student's paper to the site, the document's "fingerprint" is cross-referenced against the local database containing hundreds of thousands of papers. At the same time, automated Web crawlers are released to scour the rest of the Internet for possible matches. The instructor receives a custom, color-coded "originality report," complete with source links, for each paper. For a fee, this service will detect papers that are entirely plagiarized, papers that include plagiarism from different sources, or papers that have bits and pieces of plagiarized text.

Web-based Internet detection services, both fee-based and non-fee-based, are on the rise. Many educators would find this growth positive. However, a March 2002 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that two plagiarism-detection Web sites, PlagiServe.com and EduTie.com, appeared to have ties to Web sites that sell term papers to students. Apparently, the company that was checking student papers for plagiarism was also selling those same papers through its term paper mill. Although the allegations were denied by both companies, the possible conflict of interest is a reminder to educators to be cautious in submitting student papers to unsubstantiated sites.

Many software companies have developed innovative programs for detecting plagiarism. Glatt Plagiarism Services Inc. produces the Glatt Plagiarism Screening Program, which eliminates every fifth word of the suspected student's paper and replaces the words with a blank space. The student is asked to supply the missing words. The number of correct responses, the amount of time intervening, and various other factors are considered in assessing the final Plagiarism Probability Score. This program is based on Wilson Taylor's (1953) cloze procedure, which was originally used to test reading comprehension.

Educators may also find the more popular Internet search engines to be a useful tool in plagiarism detection. Google, Yahoo!, Excite, AskJeeves, HotBot, GoTo, AltaVista, and MetaCrawler are just a few of the search engines that can aid an instructor in detection.

When an instructor suspects a student of copying text or notices an inconsistency in a student's writing style, he or she can enter the suspected phrase into the search engine. The search engine will return a listing of all Web sites that contain an exact match of the entered text. Instructors can broaden their results by searching a few different search engines. A simple search can summon up more than 50 sources for papers that students can copy and present as their own, according to a New York Times report. If a student copied text from the Internet, there is a good possibility that the instructor will locate the source by using an Internet search engine.

Deterring Cheating
Maintaining academic integrity is a challenge for educators in both the traditional and virtual classroom. Although it is nearly impossible to eliminate cheating in either type of classroom, educators can deter it by using the tools available to them. Instructors who advise their students that writing samples will be collected, term papers will be filtered through plagiarism-detecting software, pop quizzes will be given throughout the semester, and weekly participation in the discussion boards is a class requirement are setting up a virtual environment that will deter cheating.

Continued in the article.

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

Wow Technology of the Week (if it really works)

Ray M. Alden has designed a system of tiny lenses and mirrors he says could be used to camouflage almost any object - a tank, a Humvee or an individual soldier - in any environment.
NewsObserver.com, April 27, 2003 --- http://www.newsobserver.com/24hour/technology/story/869944p-6070193c.html 

Alden's idea may not be as Buck Rogers as it seems. A Japanese company already has developed a system that can make individual objects "disappear" from certain vantage points, and simple versions have been used by illusionists to make audiences think islands can vanish from the landscape. Alden's more complex concept would obscure objects from any perspective.

It would require covering the surface with lenses or "pixels" that receive, transmit and reflect light from the object's surroundings. Made into a suit, for example, the pixels could absorb light coming from a soldier's left and emit it at the same trajectory to the soldier's right, and vice versa. The result would be that a person looking at the soldier would see "through" him, observing colors in the shapes of whatever is on the other side.

"Not only can it be done," said Alden, "it will be done. It probably already is being done" in the well-guarded laboratories where military advances are made.

He has exhausted his savings pursuing the development of these and other potentially useful products.

The U.S. military has long looked for ways to make its personnel and equipment less obvious in the field of battle, a goal it calls "signature management." The most primitive technique might be painting a tank yellow before driving it into the desert, or dressing a soldier in shades of green and dropping him into the jungle to fight. Radar blocking is a little more sophisticated.

Alden, who has a business degree and has done marketing for a handful of software companies in North Carolina, said he quit his job a year ago to pursue his dream of becoming an inventor. He has five patents in hand and has another 20 pending, including the pixels-and-mirrors camouflage. Each U.S. patent costs at least $1,000 in fees. He has spent thousands more on patent applications abroad.

Continued in the article.

April 17, 2003 message from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU] 

AECMers: For those of you looking for graphical tools to spice up your accounting labs - look at the following links to various interactive Java charts - I was doing a search on cost / volume / profit and got the hit on a Java breakeven calculator.

http://dinkytown.com/business.html 

Richard Campbell

Bob Jensen's threads on calculators can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#080512Calculators 

Bob Jensen's threads on tools can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm 

"Educational Applications of a Whiteboard,"  by Dr. Geoffrey Fletcher ( gfletcher@thejournal.com ) Executive Vice President of T.H.E. Institute --- www.thejournal.com/institute 

From Syllabus News on April 29, 2003

Gallaudet U. to Join in Video Relay Service for Deaf

Gallaudet University said it would partner with the developer of a video relay translation system to help improve interpretation services for the nation’s 28 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people. The school, which offers over 50,000 hours of interpreting services every year, will work with Sorenson Media to offer a free video relay service. The system enables both deaf and hard-of-hearing users to place video relay calls through a certified American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter and broadband Internet connection. The call is placed using the Sorenson VP- 100 videophone appliance and a TV or using a personal computer with Sorenson EnVision SL or Microsoft NetMeeting video relay software and a Web camera. The Sorenson VRS Call Center routes the incoming video relay calls to an available ASL interpreter. The interpreter then contacts the hearing user via a standard phone line and relays the conversation between the two parties. The system captures the facial expressions, gestures, and emotions that are vital in sign language communication.

Users can call (866) FAST-VRS toll-free to place a video relay call to deaf or hard-of-hearing people.

COURSE ASSESSMENT -- eCollege is offering an Online Course Assessment application that was developed with input from the University of Dallas. The Online Course Assessment evolved from eCollege's one-on-one course auditing services. The product is structured as an online exam, providing faculty, instructional designers, course auditors, and an institution's review committee with an assessment guideline. Assessment results and specific enhancement strategies are presented in the Gradebook feature, along with links to "Best Practices" and "How-To" instructions. Additionally, institutions can modify the Online Course Assessment to include information specific to their school.

Also see the following from T.H.E. Newletter on April 23, 2003

eCollege Expands Resources With Addition of Houghton Mifflin Content

Customers of eCollege now have access to Houghton Mifflin's online supplements for introductory courses in business, humanities, mathematics, science, social science, student success and world languages. Houghton Mifflin and eCollege, a provider of technology and services for online higher education programs, have partnered to offer these services to a broader base of clients. "It's important that faculty members have access to the kind of resources they need to best engage and challenge their students, and we believe the Houghton Mifflin content can ideally support them in this effort," said Oakleigh Thorne, chairman and CEO of eCollege, in a press release. "As we continue to solidify content partnerships with leading publishers, our customers can take their online courses to a whole new level." Coupled with eCollege's easy-to-use self-authoring tools and extensive course development services, the available content enables faculty to quickly and easily build and enhance quality online courses. For more information about these or other courses, visit www.eCollege.com or www.hmco.com.

From Syllabus News on April 18, 2003

McGraw Hill, CMU, Team Up for Econ Online Program

McGraw-Hill/Irwin, which provides business educational materials for the higher education market, and Carnegie Mellon University have struck a deal to market online exercises and interactive experiments that help teach economics. Through the interactive system, students will have the ability to trade in online markets to learn economic principles. In the program, dubbed Online Experiments in Economics, the student is both participant and observer. In pilot tests, students have reported that they learned nearly as much about economic principles from their experience as a participant as they did from their analysis of the experiment as an observer. The program is part of the Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative (OLI), which is seeking to make effective online education widely accessible.

NetRipper 2.0 (Photographs, Graphics, Education) http://www.net-ripper.com/index.php 

Net-Ripper Features Net-Ripper Features
Net-Ripper turns your favorite Web gallery into a slide show WHILE IT DOWNLOADS! Images are RESIZED TO YOUR SCREEN, and there's NO CLICKING on popups and links! View previously captured images OFF-LINE.
How does Net-Ripper work? How does Net-Ripper work?
1. Rips The Best Images from Web Sites.
Net-Ripper is an enhanced web browser which instantly turns images from web pages into slide shows. Multiple pages are searched at once for images and movies, annoying popup message and banner adverts are skipped, meaning more efficient use of connection time. Net-Ripper also remembers where it's up too, and will carry on grabbing where it left off when a site is visited again.
2. Creates a Slide show as it Rips.
The slideshow is created as soon as the first image is downloaded, and plays while Net-Ripper continues to download and add images to the slide show. Images are re-scaled to fit the screen as they are played, there is no need to scroll to see all of a large image, or to reduce screen resolution to make small images a reasonable size.
3. An Offline Browser. 
Net-Ripper automatically archive images downloaded for later offline access, displaying all the sites grabbed using thumbnail images. Users can browse through the sites and individual images, deleting those that are no longer required. Any of the archived images can also be displayed as a slide show.

Bob Jensen's summary of resources is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm#Resources 

The American Academy of Accounting and Finance (AAAF) --- http://www.aaafonline.org/ 

In 1993 a group of accounting and finance professors at a small, teaching oriented, public university started discussing the idea of a cross-disciplinary organization for academicians in the accounting and finance disciplines.

AACSB - International had only recently revised its accreditation standards to make accreditation a realistic option for smaller schools. Even those revised AACSB accreditation standards required faculty to be active in the production of intellectual contributions, i.e. research.

Given the increased emphasis that many teaching oriented schools began to place on research as a result of the change in AACSB standards, the organizers believed there were insufficient research outlets then available to faculty at primarily teaching institutions with limited resources. Accordingly, the organizers decided to move forward with the creation of organization that would give faculty at smaller, primarily teaching institutions access to an organization with a process that would assist them in achieving their research goals.

Also see the following accrediting organizations and summaries:

Specialized Accrediting Agencies --- http://yeah.indstate.edu/hypermail/archive/elaf686/elaf686.9903/0002.html 

AACSB --- http://www.aacsb.edu/ 

ACSBP --- http://www.acbsp.org/ 

Bob Jensen's threads on these topics are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#FacultyAppraisal 

The AAA Teaching and Curriculum Section is pleased to announce that the Spring 2003 edition of The Accounting Educator, the Section Newsletter, is available on the T&C web site at http://raw.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/tccomm/newsletters/index.htm 

T&C Section 2003 Best Paper Awards

The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business
Business 2.0's third annual send-up of the most ill-conceived, embarrassing, and downright appalling developments of the past year. 
By Mark Athitakis, April 2003 Issue

No. 1: 
Naked Grannies. 
Six months after Midas (MDS) hires marketing firm Cliff Freeman & Partners, lauding its "strategic insight into our business," that insight shows itself in the form of a TV ad featuring an elderly woman in a Midas shop. Told of the company's lifetime guarantee, the woman rips open her blouse and asks, "So what can you do with these?" Strategically and insightfully, the ad is quickly pulled.

No. 2
Law-sooooooooooot! Wylie Gustafson, better known as the yodeler featured in Yahoo ads, sues the company for $5 million, saying he was paid only for limited use. Yahoo (YHOO) settles for an undisclosed sum.

No. 3 
What the hell. It worked with that Chaucer term paper they "wrote" in college. After hyping its new disposable cell phone as "innovative" and "technologically advanced," Hop-On (HPON) sends a sample to a San Francisco Chronicle reporter, who cracks open the casing to uncover the phone's "revolutionary" secret: Nokia parts. The company explains that it had run into glitches and had missed its deadline.

No. 4
As for what's in it, we're guessing Nokia parts. In an attempt to show that, no, really, they're serious about this cloning thing, Clonaid sells the RMX 2010, a $9,220 contraption that ... well, nobody's quite sure what it does. To help clarify the matter, Clonaid lends one to a British science museum -- under strict orders not to open it to find out what's inside.

No. 5 
Celebrating the can-do spirit that continues to make American capitalism the envy of the world. At a developers conference in September, Microsoft (MSFT) senior vice president Brian Valentine describes the state of the art in OS security: "Every operating system out there is about equal.... We all suck."

No.6 
Timmy can have his juice box when Timmy starts hitting his productivity targets. Soon after a summer stock plunge, Chris Whittle, CEO of Edison Schools (EDSN), suggests a unique solution to stanch his company's bleeding: Have Edison students put in an hour of free work per day.

No. 7
$23.4 billion, that's a big number. Big numbers are good, right?

"We built a good company ... with a bad balance sheet."

- Barclay Knapp, CEO of telecommunications firm NTL (NTLI), shortly before filing for bankruptcy; the company's debts totaled nearly $23.4 billion 

No. 8
Milton Friedman declined to comment. 
In October, employees at a floundering car plant in Romania announce that they've arrived at a method to erase the company's $20 million debt: Donate their sperm and give the proceeds to their employer. One report estimates that each employee would have to, er, donate to the cause 400 times. "[Management] told us to come up with a solution," says a union spokesperson. "Now we've found one that even the best economists never thought of."

No. 9 
Because nobody understands 12-year-old girls quite like a cattle rancher. The National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. launches www.cool-2b-real.com, a site designed to "steer" young girls away from vegetarianism. Featuring enlightening articles and insightful quizzes ("What type of beef do you most like to eat with your friends?"), the tweener-empowerment site also has recipes for snacks like Easy Beef Chili, Nacho Beef Dip, and Beef on Bamboo.

No.10 
And there's another €5,000 in it if you can somehow work in strudel. In December, German real estate tycoon Rolf Eden, 72, announces that he is willing to pay €125,000 to any woman who can kill him through sexual intercourse, saying he plans to fly interested women to his home in Berlin for a trial run. "I don't care why they make love to me," Eden says, "as long as I have my fun."

No.11 
Whiffed pitch No. 2: swiping your competitor's idea and completely screwing it up. In an attempt to blunt Apple's (AAPL) "Switch" campaign, Microsoft posts a page on its website, titled "Confessions of a Mac to PC Convert," featuring a woman touting the Windows XP operating system. It's soon revealed, however, that the woman pictured is a model and the touting comes from a freelance writer paid by Gates & Co.

Gerald Trite's great set of links --- http://iago.stfx.ca/people/gtrites/Docs/bookmark.htm 

Mathematics Help Central --- http://www.mathematicshelpcentral.com/ 

Bob Jensen's other links to math helpers can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics 

A wee cuppa tea may help keep the doctor away --- http://home.iwon.com/  
Study: Tea Boosts the Body's Defenses
Apr 21, 10:43 PM EST

Threads on the Classroom Use of Laptops --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Laptops 

Wow Sharing Site of the Week
Project Guttenberg --- http://gutenberg.net/ 

"Where Did All the Books Go?" by Steven L. Epstein, Syllabus, April 2003, pp. 12-16 --- http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7474 

In the year 2000, an ad for Qwest Communications had a very weary traveler arriving at an out-of-the-way motel. He asks if they have movies in the rooms. A bored motel clerk captures the dream of the modern communications industry while barely lifting her eyes from the pages of a paperback book: "We have every movie ever made, in every language, any time, night or day," she deadpans to a startled guest.

Qwest is not there yet. But it is not going alone. Joining Qwest are members of several digital federations who are working on an interrelated set of objectives: creating, preserving, sharing, and providing access to digital content in a cost-effective manner.

For librarians, the bandwidth issue is but one of the challenges. Members of the Internet2 (www.Internet2.org) project are working with librarians to address issues of data rates. Other problems relate to ways of dealing with information that is licensed and not owned. The librarians want to know that after a license expires there will continue to be access to archives of previously available material.

It Began with Gutenberg
Many readers are familiar with some of the early projects designed to open access to content via the World Wide Web. Notable is Project Gutenberg (PG), http://gutenberg.net/, begun by Michael Hart when he received a grant of computer time at the University of Illinois in 1971. He decided that the greatest value created by computers would not be computing, but would be the storage, retrieval, and searching of what was stored in our libraries.

From the first document he typed in, the "Declaration of Independence," the project has grown to over 6,267 full-text electronic books available for free distribution. PG has been successful at attracting worthwhile content and a loyal following. At the current rate of growth, it's been projected that PG's 10,000th book will be added sometime in 2003.

The Gutenberg Project has long attracted gifted programmers and visionaries to its cause. In 1993, World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee pondered how best to get PG's ASCII wares out to the public. Others have written scripts to better handle proofing issues, formatting, FTPing, etc. Recently, Charles Franks has applied technology in a manner that completely redefines the editing process. He has enlisted the help of a loyal army of volunteer proofreaders to help in the effort—one page at a time. Dubbed "Distributed Proofreading in Support of Project Gutenberg" (http://texts01.archive.org/dp/), this project expects to be a major contributor to Hart's effort to have more than one million books available in the Project Gutenberg archive. They post the daily upload count on their Web site and have recently exceeded 5,000 pages proofread and uploaded in one day.

Hart has an ambitious goal. It may seem impossible, but with people like Franks on his side, and a new means by which anybody can help create eBooks by producing even one page per day, it could well happen in the PG founder's lifetime. Fortunately, there are more than 50 mirror sites around the world that will be able to share the load as added content will result in additional searches and downloads.

Sources: "Distributed Proofing site goes through the roof" by David Moynihan.
http://gutenberg.net/Proof_Article_Nov2002.html; originally posted at www.theinquirer.net/?article=6167 Nov. 11, 2002.

If You Build it, Will They Come?
With a growing number of sites placing e-content online, John Mark Ockerbloom, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, realized that a key bottleneck to widespread use of the content was the lack of a central "card catalog" that would allow people to find content. He conceived the Online Book Page (OBP), http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/ , as a gateway that would not merely be a place where people could get content, but would also be a guide to the vast number of other sites that were providing similar services.

Now housed at the University of Pennsylvania, the OBP includes links to more than 18,000 books, more than 110 serials, and 300-plus archives of material. The archives are large, general-purpose collections with substantial English-language listings, topical collections, and foreign-language collections.

"We are now at the point where so much information is ‘born digital' that it makes sense the libraries provide a way to easily archive and search this information," says Ockerbloom, now a digital architect at the University of Pennsylvania. He recognizes that the issues are many and beyond the scope of any one library to tackle by itself.

Beyond Books and Access
The work of projects, such as PG and the OBP, are only a part of the growing world of the digital library movement. Leaders of the movement not only want to digitize books and serials, but want to make sure information is preserved, easily accessed, and assembled into topical collections across domains. However, much work needs to be done if library systems are to talk with each other and be able to meet the needs of teachers, scholars, and publishers. With goals and challenges like these, it is not surprising that the movement has spread beyond the early adopters to groups of libraries and colleges working collaboratively. The need for a federated approach is understandable when one realizes that the objective is sharing library holdings, as well as the costs of converting, preserving, and providing access.

One of the groups leading the way to the "library of the future" is the Digital Library Federation (DLF). The DLF is a consortium of libraries and agencies that are pioneering the use of electronic information technologies to extend their collections and services. Funded in large part by the government and foundations, the DLF operates through its members to provide leadership for libraries by identifying standards and best practices for digital collections and network access. The organization also helps coordinate research and development in libraries' use of information technology and helps start projects and services that libraries need but cannot develop individually.

Members include the Library of Congress and the National Archives along with 25 university libraries across the country. Other members are the New York Public Library and the California Digital Library. The goal of the DLF is to transform library services and the way libraries handle their patrons, their content providers, and each other.

As the DLF notes on its Web site (http://www.diglib.org/collections.htm): "In the digital library, collections are transformed through the integration of new formats, licensed (as opposed to owned) content, and third-party information over which the library has little or no direct curatorial control. Collection strategies and practices are not yet fully developed to take account of these changing circumstances, nor are their legal, organizational, and business implications fully understood."

As an academic federation, the DLF promotes strategies for developing sustainable, scaleable digital collections and encourages the development of new collections and collection services. Although it is fairly young, the federation and its members have already produced a number of Digital Library architectures, systems, and tools that are being used by its members and affiliates. The synergy is already producing enhancements to digital collections of members that can be used by the public.

Making Rare Books Accessible
One of the major goals of the DLF is to make available the rare book and artifact material that can only be accessed under restricted-use conditions. One has only to think of the rare book room in most university libraries to remember the books held in climate-controlled conditions that had to be read while wearing gloves.

Continued in the article.

From Computerworld Honors Program--- http://www.cwheroes.org/home.asp 
"A Search for New Heroes"  (Year 2003 Awards, Including Audio History of Some Really Innovative Heroes in Technology)

For fifteen years, the Computerworld Honors Program has been cataloguing examples of how information technology is being used to benefit society. Today, over 4,000 case studies later, this collection is archived in 35 countries around the world and is used not only by the academics for whom it was designed, but also by enterprises of all sizes to find ideas to help them address problems and challenges of their own.

“The extent of the global impact of positive change created by information technology is truly astounding since we began archiving case studies in the 1988-89 academic year,” said Dan Morrow, executive director. “From election systems in South Africa to the human genome to chips riding on the wings of peregrine falcons to help city planners avoid their habitat in South America, there is absolutely no question about the contribution this technology has made to improve our lives.”

Patrick J. McGovern, founding chairman of International Data Group and co-founder of the Computerworld Honors program emphasized the significance of the collection. “When Roger Kennedy, then Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and I decided that we should combine forces to create a record of how IT was being used to benefit society for future historians, we hoped within 12-15 years we would begin to see clear patterns of usage that really touched citizens around the world in significant ways. Quite frankly, I think the resulting archive far exceeds our expectations as a primary source for future historians. And we really did not anticipate how valuable these stories would be to people around the world who share the challenges that our Laureates addressed and described intheir case studies.”

A committee of leading IT industry chairmen serves as the nominators for inclusion in the archive. The original 32-member chairmen’s committee now includes almost 100 IT leaders from around the world.

Chairmen nominate in ten categories which have not changed since the program began, and, once reviewed, nominees are asked to submit a case study about the work for which they were nominated. Once the case studies are received, they become part of the global archive which originally resided only in the National Museum of American History, but are now archived in more than 125 of the leading museums, archives, libraries and other academic institutions around the world (members of the Global Archive can be viewed at the following URL: http://www.cwheroes.org/globalarchive.pdf ).

Included in the 2003 collection are 313 case studies originating from 33 countries, ranging from Australia to Venezuela, and include notable entries from the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Nigeria and Russia. These case studies and other press-related materials are available in our Briefing Room, which can be found at the following web link:

http://www.cwheroes.org/briefingroom 

Once nominees submit their case studies, they are regarded as Laureates and are honored at a Medal Presentation Ceremony in San Francisco. The 2003 Medal Ceremony takes place at noon, April 6th at San Francisco City Hall. A black tie dinner honors them that evening.

Hi Steve,

I added your email message below to my professionalism document at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fees.htm 
This will allow readers to find your link and go directly to your articles on the following topics (to date):

What makes a client change adviser?

11 Common faults with accounting firms web sites

4 basic rules for growing your CPA firm

The Bottom Line:

Thanks so much for sharing these with us!

Bob Jensen

Dear Bob

I noticed That you used one of my published articles on Trinity University's web site last fall, and thought I'd drop you a quick not to see if you would want to look at any of my other articles for inclusion in any projects in the future.

It is good to know you are moving to new Hampshire - a beautiful part of the world. I often go through there on my way to visit old friends in Kennebunk, Maine (at least twice a year).

Good luck with the move.

To find a directory of all my published articles, please visit:

http://www.marketingforaccountants.com/articles.htm 

and help yourself to any you might find useful for publication in any way you see fit - subject to the usual attribution credits, with web site link.

My regular email address is: steve@marketingforaccountants.com  (but I'm away from my office today so thought I'd write straight away after discovering your email address).

Sincerely

Steve McIntyre-Smith

Bob Jensen threads on these issues can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fees.htm  

Bob Jensen's accountancy bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm 

Question
What is COSO?

Answer --- http://www.coso.org/ 

COSO is a voluntary private sector organization dedicated to improving the quality of financial reporting through business ethics, effective internal controls, and corporate governance. COSO was originally formed in 1985 to sponsor the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting, an independent private sector initiative which studied the causal factors that can lead to fraudulent financial reporting and developed recommendations for public companies and their independent auditors, for the SEC and other regulators, and for educational institutions.

The National Commission was jointly sponsored by the five major financial professional associations in the United States, the American Accounting Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Financial Executives Institute, the Institute of Internal Auditors, and the National Association of Accountants (now the Institute of Management Accountants). The Commission was wholly independent of each of the sponsoring organizations, and contained representatives from industry, public accounting, investment firms, and the New York Stock Exchange.

The Chairman of the National Commission was James C. Treadway, Jr., Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Paine Webber Incorporated and a former Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Hence, the popular name "Treadway Commission"). Currently, the COSO Chairman is John Flaherty, Chairman, Retired Vice President and General Auditor for PepsiCo Inc.

Bob Jensen's accounting bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm 

"Getting in Deep: After Google, the Invisible Web," by Dale Vidmar, Syllabus, April 2003, pp. 26-27 --- http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7477 

For most of us, Web searching continues to take the form of searching Google. A simple click to Google.com produces relevant results. When Google was first released by two Stanford Ph.D. candidates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in 1998, the search tool transformed Internet searching almost immediately. Google incorporated linking structures into its algorithm—the code that determines the ranking of pages within a retrieval list—and, thereby, retrieved better and more accurate information. Since that time Google has added features to an index that now includes more than two billion pages.

With all this and more, Google has become the search tool of choice for most information specialists and novices alike. So why use any other search tool?

Google searching became synonymous with Web searching because it works. Brin and Page believed there were no "bad" searches when using Google. Whatever the search, Google could retrieve better information based on the relationship of link structures—in other words, good sites are linked to more often by other sites. Google quickly became the best place to look for top-level Web sites such as business, institutional, and personal homepages.

But there is more. Google organizes a query within subject categories when applicable, provides links to language translations, maintains cached links to original pages, and lists similar pages. Other features include access to street maps when typing an address with a city or state, dictionary definitions of search terms, and specialized databases, such as Google Uncle Sam for government information and University Search for information from specific institutions. With all these features and added accuracy, it becomes difficult to use anything else but Google.

What You Don't See is What You Don't Get
Ah, but there's the rub. Neither Google nor any other search tool can index all the information on the Internet. Conventional search tools such as Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, All the Web, or meta-searchers like Ixquick, Vivísimo, and SurfWax often access more than a couple billion pages in their databases. However, a large portion of available information has been difficult or impossible to search. Material that is not accessible using conventional search tools has become known as the "Invisible Web." Other names for the Invisible Web include the Deep Web, Opaque Web, and searchable databases.

Such information is not accessible to conventional search tools because it is inside databases such as the U.S. Census, Amazon.com, or a library's online catalog. The locations of these pages can be found through resources such as Gary Price's Direct Search, Complete Planet: The Deep Web, http://www.invisibleweb.com/ , and Invisible-web.net. Or the information can be located via subject directory tools like Infomine, Librarians' Index to the Internet (LII), Best Information on the Net, and AlphaSearch.

The reality is that many information specialists, as well as the general public, use the Invisible Web already. Most Web surfers have accessed an Invisible Web site at one time or another. However, they access only a portion of the Invisible Web, typically the portion found in three general forms:

First, the Fee Group, or paid databases, such as EBSCO, OVID, ProQuest, and Medline. These databases have a cost associated with use.

Second, the Free Group: government databases such as the Census, AskERIC, PublicMed, the Currency Converter, FindArticles, and library online catalogs. These databases are free for anyone to access.

And the Hybrid Group: UnCoverWeb, online newspapers like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, which currently take this form. These databases have both free portions and fee portions.

The Not-So-Invisible Web
For the past two years, the Invisible Web has been the "next big thing" in Internet searching. The truth is, it is still a big thing. When it comes to more than 500 billion Web pages located in searchable databases, how can it be anything but big? But the Invisible Web is still unwieldy for most. Resources such as Infomine, Librarians' Index to the Internet, and Direct Search have been underused by both information specialists and novice searchers in part because they are difficult to use. However, the increasing exposure of the Invisible Web is helping to bring these resources to the surface. As more searchers use them, access will become better, driven by the demand to find and use relevant information.

Continued in the article.

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

The Top Five Education Related Things That Bugged Felice Prager Since She Woke Up --- http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-04-17-03.htm 

"Google's Brave New World," by Vincent Ryan, Newsfactor.com, April 15, 2003 --- http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21267.html 

Search engine Google is virtually revered by the Internet community and is often profiled as a pure technology company that does not take commercial interests to heart. But those days are over. In the past two years, Google has inked revenue-generating deals with almost every major player on the Internet, stepped up efforts to secure the lion's share of Internet advertising dollars, and tested the waters in the news and e-commerce sectors.

Where are these ventures taking Google, and where is Google taking the Internet? It is more than an academic question: Google processes more than 150 million Web searches per day. By some accounts, 75 percent of the outside traffic to any given Web site originates on Google. Where Google goes, so goes the Web.

Searching for Advertising

Google's primary emphasis in the past year has been on developing its offerings and reach in Internet advertising. The company's text-based AdWords program has been a big success since its inception a year ago. And it is easy to see why: For text-based ads related to searches, click-through rates tend to be four to five times higher than for traditional banner advertising.

To place a text ad, advertisers choose which keywords they want to target. On Google, keywords are auctioned off: The higher the bid, the higher the ad will appear on the search results page. Click-through performance also factors in. The higher the click-through rate, the less costly the text link. "Irrelevant ads are dropped down the page, and advertisers who are more relevant will save money," Andrew Goodman, principal at search engine optimization firm Page Zero Media, told the E-Commerce Times.

But for revenue, nothing beats Google's premium sponsorship program, in which advertisers purchase prime real estate at the top of a search results page. "Google's probably looking to get 40 percent to 50 percent of [its] revenue [by] targeting big companies with those premium spots," Goodman said.

Eye off the Ball?

In addition, the company has expanded its advertising offerings by placing cost-per-click advertising on content-targeted Web pages. So far, the program has been piloted on such sites as HowStuffWorks and Knight-Ridder properties the San Jose Mercury News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN)  is the latest partner to sign up, giving Google advertisers a prime high-traffic site on which to attract customers. But the jury is still out on how effective this marketing program will be.

"I think the content targeting will be less lucrative because click-through rates are much lower," Goodman said.

Google also has moved into syndicating ads to ad networks such as FastClick and Burst Media, which serve smaller clients. With all this activity, Google and its competitors actually are running out of spots to place ads, according to Goodman. "There's a finite pie they're all fighting over."

Google was unavailable for comment

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

Bob Jensen's bookmarks on advertising are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#Marketing 

AACSB Career Guides

AACSB International, the premier business school accreditation agency worldwide, has more than 925 higher education members. These colleges and universities employ a significant number of business school faculty.

What's happening in the b-school employment marketplace? Visit M.E. Jobs, AACSB's powerful online Web site for business school faculty and higher education administration employment classifieds at http://www.aacsb.edu/jobs2.

Why M.E. Jobs?  The only site dedicated solely to management education, M.E. Jobs offers user-friendly features:

            - Jobs displayed by locations and category

            - Links to designated contact persons

            - Links to school Web pages

            - Printable position descriptions

            - Access to a world-wide market

            - Email ads to a friend

            - No cost to job seekers, easy to use

 For additional information, email kim@aacsb.edu

Bob Jensen's career helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#careers 

From Syllabus News on April 11, 2003

Kent State U. Opens High-Tech Futures Exchange

Last week Kent State University opened a Financial Engineering Trading Floor designed to give business students hands-on experience in risk management and derivatives trading by replicating trading floor conditions. The facility, housed within the university’s College of Business Administration, has 30 HP Workstations xw6000 with dual TFT 1825 flat panel monitors, each with live exchange data feeds to the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, BrokerTec, the Singapore Exchange, Tokyo Grain Exchange, and Eurex, an international exchange in Frankfurt. The facility also includes 10 HP ProLiant DL-360 servers and 10 HP ProLiant DL380 servers that support high-speed data connections.

April 25, 2003 message from Dan [dan@htmlcodetutorial.com] 

I saw your link to hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/ on your webpage http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/booknew.htm and thought that our site www.HTMLCodeTutorial.com may be of help to your visitors. Our users commonly comment that HTML Code Tutorial is one of the best on the web; and we recently added a Help Forum, which you can click on from the home page and get personalized help. We would be grateful for a link to our site from your site.

Email me if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Dan

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

April 14, 2003 message from Seamus Fitzroy [englishjobmaze@mail.com] 

Dear Bob,

I would like to submit for your consideration an ESL/EFL job & info site for possible inclusion in the 'Program Search' (or other relevant) section of your informative area of the Trinity website.

The English Job Maze (http://www.englishjobmaze.com) is an

International ESL/EFL job & information site for ESL/EFL teachers and schools around the world. But it is also much more than 'just another' ESL/EFL job site. It contains a wealth of free TESL industy-related info for teachers, including one of the largest ELT bookstores on the Internet, plus 'Countries @ a Glance' - the most comprehensive TESL guide to pay, taxes, visas, travel, etc, in 50 of the world's most popular teaching destinations.

I hope you find this site useful. Hundreds of ESL/EFL teachers, schools and university/college graduates around the world have told us they do.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Warm regards

Seamus Fitzroy
English Job Maze
info@englishjobmaze.com 

"Bubble Redux," by Andrew Bary, Barron's, April 14, 2003, Page 17.

Amazon's valuation is the most egregious of the 'Net trio.  It trades for 80 times projected "pro forma" 2003 profit of 32 cents a share.  Amazon's pro forma definition of profit, moreover, is dubious because it excludes re-structuring charges and, more important, the restricted stock that Amazon now is issuing to employees in lieu of stock options.  Amazon's reported profit this year under generally accepted accounting principles (which include restricted-stock costs) could be just 10 cents to 15 cents a share, meaning that Amazon's true P/E arguably is closer to 200.

Yahoo, meanwhile, now commands 70 times estimated 2003 net of 35 cents a share, and eBay fetches 65 times projected 2003 net of $1.35 a share.

What's fair value?  By our calculations, Amazon is worth, at best, roughly 90% of its projected 2003 revenue of $4.6 billion. That translates into $10 a share, or $4.1 billion.  This estimate is charitable because the country's two most successful brick-and-mortar retailers, Wal-Mart Stores and Home Depot, also trade for about 90% of 2003 sales.

Yahoo ought to trade closer to 15.  That's a stiff 43 times projected 2003 earnings and gives the company credit for its strong balance sheet, featuring over $2 a share in cash and another $3 a share for its stake in Yahoo Japan, which has become that country's eBay.

Sure, eBay undoubtedly is the most successful Internet company and the only one that has lived up to the growth projections made during the Bubble.  As the dominant online marketplace in the U.S. and Europe, eBay saw its earnings surge to 87 cents a share last year from three cents in 1998, when it went public at a split-adjusted $3.00 a share.

Why would eBay be more fairly valued around 60, its price just several months ago?  At 60, eBay would trade at 44 times projected 2003 profit of $1.35 a share and 22 times an optimistic 2005 estimate of $2.75.  So confident are analysts about eBay's outlook that they're comfortable valuing the stock on a 2005 earnings estimate.

Fans of eBay believe its profit can rise at a 35% annual clip in the next five years, a difficult rate for any company to maintain, even one, such as eBay, with a "scalable" business model that allows it to easily accommodate more transactions while maintaining its enviable gross margins of 80%.  If the company earns $5 a share in 2007--nearly six times last year's profit--it would still trade at 18 times that very optimistic profit level.

Continued in the article.

Bob Jensen's threads on pro forma earnings are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#ProForma 

USDA Agriculture Fact Book: 2001-2002 ---  http://www.usda.gov/factbook/2002factbook.pdf 

April 25, 2003 message from rjeger@uwm.edu 

CensusCD 1990 Long Form in 2000 Boundaries normalizes all of the official 1990 Long Form data into the 2000 boundaries. The 1990 Long Form includes about 3,500 variables covering such topics as population, race, income, housing, housing value, employment, education, poverty, ancestry, and commute to work.

This product is ideally used in conjunction with the CensusCD 2000 Long Form - thus making time series analysis a snap. With these two products you can compare the 1990 data to the 2000 data without having to account for all of the spatial changes that have occurred. Included are all of the 2000 Long Form geographic boundary levels from the Nation to the Block Group and every one in between. This product is $895 for the nation or $449 for a single state.

For a complete list of variables or to learn more about this product go to http://www.us-census.biz  and then select "Normalized Data" and you will find a complete write up for CensusCD 1990 Long Form in 2000 Boundaries.

Hi Chris,

I added your link to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#BookFinders 

I also added it to my home page ---  http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen  

Thanks,

Bob Jensen

-----Original Message----- 
From: Chris [mailto:chris@directtextbook.com]  
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 5:15 PM 
To: Jensen, Robert 
Subject: Suggested site

I came across your site and see that you have links to some other book companies. We have a book comparison site that you may be interested in adding a link to.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me and thank you in advance for your consideration.

Also you can use the following code for our link if you like

http://www.directtextbook.com   Find Cheap Used College Textbooks at Direct Textbook</a>

Chris Lindgren
www.directtextbook.com 
chris@directtextbook.com 

Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#BookFinders 

Knitty (Arts and Crafts) --- http://www.knitty.com/ 

Cars In Barns (Antiques, History) --- http://www.carsinbarns.com/ 

LACMA: The Legacy of Genghis Khan (History, Asia) --- http://www.lacma.org/khan/index_flash.htm 

Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains (History) --- http://libmuse.msu.montana.edu/epubs/nadb/ 

Japanese Streets (Culture, History, Travel) --- http://www.japanesestreets.com/ 

Ancient Near East.net  --- http://www.ancientneareast.net/ 
Includes links to museums that specialize in the antiquities and archaeology.

Slant (Poems, Essays, Stories, Reviews, Literature) --- http://www.slantreview.com/ 

American Photojournalist (Photography, News, History) --- http://www.americanphotojournalist.com/ 

Modern Haiku (Poetry) ---  http://www.modernhaiku.org/ 

Apple Computer shares dropped almost 9 percent Friday due to fears that its talks with Vivendi Universal to buy the Universal Music Group would lead to a deal that would bleed Apple dry. Analysts warn that it could risk pulling Apple from its roots as a technology company with a cash hoard that investors like --- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58453,00.html 

Will Apple's new paid music service put a dent in free file-trading services like Kazaa and Gnutella? No, because most files being traded on P2P sites aren't music files at all. Surprise -- they're porn --- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58665,00.html 

"How e-junk poses global hazard," The New Zealand Herald, April 11, 2003 --- http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3400424&thesection=technology&thesubsection=general 

The Nature of Things: A Look at Pain ---  http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/pain/pain_flash.html 

Question
Who was the "dark lady" Rosalind Franklin and why was her work so important to science?

Answer
NOVA: Secret of Photo 51 (DNA) --- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/ 

Potted Meat Museum --- http://www.pottedmeatmuseum.com/ 

Bunny Bass Stringed Instruments (Music, History) --- http://www.bunnybass.com/ 
Includes advice to students who want to learn how to play a stringed instrument.

Online Journalism Review http://www.ojr.org/ojr/page_one/index.php 

National Women's History Project ---  http://www.nwhp.org/ 

Lewis and Clark 200 --- http://www.lewisandclark200.com/ 
The Lewis and Clark Trail Directory

Bob Jensen's travel helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#Travel 

More than two decades of war kept Afghanistan out of the IT and Internet revolution, but graduates of a new Kabul University program hope to bring the country into the digital age and boost opportunities for women, in what remains a heavily male-dominated society --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58389,00.html 

Henry James Scholar's Guide to Web Sites ---  http://www2.newpaltz.edu/~hathaway/ 

Below is a description of the May/June 2003 issue of The Technology Source, a free, refereed e-journal published as a public service by the Michigan Virtual University at http://ts.mivu.org

INSIDE THE TECHNOLOGY SOURCE

Badrul Khan directs an educational technology leadership program at George Washington University and does research on e-learning environments. In an interview with Editor James Morrison, Khan identifies the factors critical to e-learning success, describes a framework for the creation of customized online courses, and touts the remarkable potential of the new worldwide communications. (See http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1019 )

Mark Kassop has taught for 31 years on a traditional college campus and offered more than 50 courses online. He draws upon his experiences in both learning environments to discuss 10 ways in which online education excels. (See http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1059 )

 

A cultural divide exists between Information Age students and the older, less technologically savvy generation in charge of their instruction. Does it reflect a fundamental difference in the way our youth learn? If so, what are the implications for current pedagogical practice? In a fascinating debate, two educators address these questions from different viewpoints. Timothy VanSlyke argues that an overhaul of established pedagogy is not needed to engage students born in the digital era. He supports a selective infusion of technology to aid knowledge construction, but warns against the complete sacrifice of traditional mechanisms of teaching and learning. In a rebuttal commentary, Marc Prensky maintains that the current gap between students and teachers is truly unprecedented. He explains why educators can ill-afford to ignore or reject the technological developments--among them instant messaging, massive multiplayer online games, and alternate realities--embraced by the new ! generation. The dialogue between VanSlyke and Prensky is sure to reverberate beyond TS pages. (See http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1011 and http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=2013 )

 

Quizzing and grading functions within course management systems can seem like a godsend to instructors. Unfortunately, the promising technology of computerized testing has its share of practical problems. Thomas Brothen and Cathrine Wambach suggest ways to cope with these problems and minimize frustration for students and faculty members alike. (See http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1024 )

As an instructional technologist at a New Jersey community college, Cheryl Knowles-Harrigan helped support more than 90 Web-based course sections each semester. In the process, she found that students needed an online orientation to the institutional course management system--so she created one herself. Knowles-Harrigan describes the development of her tutorial from the planning stages to completion of the beta version. (See http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=936 )

 

For an online course in instructional design, David Cillay created synchronous and asynchronous learning environments, used both audio and video components to enhance lessons, and offered content in both graphic and text form to reach students with a wide range of learning styles and technical expertise. Cillay describes his “multi-modal” approach and offers tips to instructors interested in such rich course delivery. (See http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1000 )

Wireless networking frees users from traditional academic spaces and enables them to work anywhere, anytime. To investigate the potential advantages of such flexibility for group projects, Susana M. Sotillo enlisted the help of five graduate students working on theses or dissertations. Over 16 weeks, they met online to collaboratively critique and revise each other’s writing. Sotillo shares the successes of this project with TS readers. (See http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=950 )

At the University of Delaware, a sustainable model for educational reform has emerged from two sources working in tandem. Janet de Vry and George Watson describe the dynamic partnership of a faculty-led institute that promotes problem-based learning and a technology support center that connects course goals to custom design. Their combined work impacts not just the local campus, but a global community. (See http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1018)

Reduced library budgets, as well as general frustration with the proprietary nature of academic publishing, have prompted many educational institutions to consider developing their own digital archives of scholarly research. In acknowledgement of this movement, Stephen Downes profiles the Open Archives Initiative: an organization dedicated to the effective dissemination of academic content. (See http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=2005 )

Forwarded by Dr. Digiovanni

 A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Broni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd, "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

 The shepherd looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answered, "Sure."

The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his notebook and connected it to a cell phone, then he surfed to a NASA page on the internet, where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, and then opened up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He sent an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a response. Finally, he prints out a 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized printer then turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1586 sheep."

"That is correct; take one of the sheep." said the shepherd.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and bundle it into his car.  Then the shepherd says: "If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?"

"OK, why not." answered the young man.

"Clearly, you are a consultant." said the shepherd.

"That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?" "No guessing required." answers the shepherd. "You turned up here although nobody called you. You want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, and you don't know crap about my business. Now give me back my dog."

Yuk!
Ugly Dress.com --- http://www.uglydress.com/ 

Bad Patterns, Bad Color, Bad Shape, Out of Date --- I think you've got the message.

ThreeStooges.net (Humor, Comedy, Entertainment) --- http://www.threestooges.net/ 

Forwarded by Bob Overn

The owner of a drug store walks in to find a guy leaning heavily against the wall. The owner asks the clerk "What's with that guy over there by the wall?"

The clerk says, "Well, he came in here this morning to get something for his cough. I couldn't find the cough syrup, so I gave him an entire bottle of laxative."

The owner screams, "You idiot! You can't treat a cough with a bottle of laxative!"

The clerk replies, "Of course you can!  Look at him.  He's too afraid to cough!"

Forwarded by Bob Overn

An old farmer had owned a large farm for several years. He had a large pond in the back fixed up really nice for recreational use; picnic tables, horseshoe courts, basketball court, etc. The pond was properly shaped and fixed up for swimming with a diving board and a water slide. One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while, and look it over. As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee.

As he came closer he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny dipping in his pond. He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end of the pond. 

One of the women shouted to him, "We're not coming out until you leave!"

The old man replied, "I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim or make you get out of the pond naked. I only came down to feed the alligator!!"

Forwarded by Bob Overn

It will take less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation.

It took less time to find evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.

 It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Teddy Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sunk at Chappaquiddick.

It will take less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida in the year 2000!

The last time we saw looting like this was when Bill and Hillary Clinton left the White House in 2001.

Forwarded by 

THINGS YOU'D LOVE TO SAY AT WORK, BUT CAN'T...

1. I can see your point, but I still think you're full of s___

2. I don't know what your problem is, but I'm sure it's hard to pronounce.

3. How about never? Is never good for you?

4. I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.

5. I'm really easy to get along with once people learn to worship me.

6. I'll try to be nicer if you try being smarter.

7. I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.

8. I don't work here. I'm a consultant.

9. It sounds like English, but I can't understand a word you're saying.

10. Ahhh... I see the screw up fairy has visited us again.

11. I like you. You remind me of myself when I was young and stupid.

12. You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.

13. I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't give a damn.

14. I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.

15. I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.

16. Thank you. We are all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.

17. The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you’re an artist.

18. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidence.

19. What am I? ... Flypaper for freaks!

20. I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant.

21. And your cry-baby whiny-butt opinion would be what?

22. Do I look like a people person?

23. This isn't an office, it's hell with fluorescent lighting.

24. I started out with nothing and it turns out I still have most of it left.

25. Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.

26. If I throw a stick, will you leave?

27. Errors have been made, others will be blamed.

28. Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.

29. I'm trying to imagine you with a personality.

30. A cubicle is a padded cell without a door.

31. Can I trade this job for what's behind door #1?

32. So many freaks, so little time.

33. Nice cologne. Must you marinate in it?

34. CHAOS, PANIC &DISORDER - my work here is done.

35. How do I set the laser printer to stun?

36. I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted the paychecks.

Forwarded by Vidya

The Dog

 Notice to people who visit my home:

1. The dog lives here... you don't.
2. If you don't want dog hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.
3. Yes, he/she has some disgusting habits. So do I and so do you. What's your point?
4. OF COURSE she/he smells like a dog.
5. It's his/her nature to try to sniff your crotch. Please feel free to sniff his/hers.
6. I like her/him a lot better than I like most people.
7. To you he/she is a dog. To me he/she an adopted son/daughter, who is short, hairy, walks on all fours, doesn't speak clearly, and hates cats. I have no problem with any of these things.
8. Actually, she/he is my partner. I spend more waking time with him than I do the rest of my family. I trust her/him implicitly.
9. Dogs are better than kids: They eat less, don't ask for money all  the time, are easier to train, usually come when called, never drive your car, don't hang out with drug using friends, don't smoke or drink,don't worry about whether they have the latest fashions, don't wear your clothes, don't need a gazillion dollars for college,
10 If they get pregnant you can sell the pups.

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

Since history began, the Chinese always believed in the significance of one's name. They have developed a very comprehensive system of naming one's children as it is believed that the name of a person strongly influences one's destiny and fate. Astrologers, fortune tellers, academics and monks are consulted when choosing a name for the new born. Most other cultures, however do not really believe in it and tend to brush it off as superstition.

Whether you believe it or not, however, the other cultures are not spared of this correlation.

One very good example is Lee Iacocca, whose name IACOCCA stands for :

I 
Am 
Chairman 
Of Chrysler 
Corporation 
America

coincidence?..........

Look at the following familiar examples.

Bush stands for :

Beat 
Up 
Saddam 
Hussein !

Clinton stands for :

Call 
Lewinsky, 
Interns
Needed 
To 
Oblige 
Now !

However, no one can beat this latest casualty in bad naming

Osama stands for :

Oh 
Sh**, 
American 
Missiles 
Again!

With all these, you better believe in the 5000 year old Chinese culture and make sure you choose a good name for your children.

Jensen Comment:  For example, if it looks like a difficult birth, a recent quip in the Readers Digest suggests naming the baby SLAB:

Shaped
Like
A
Bullet

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

Some things to think about --- 
If you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he's the guy who once said:
"I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen... and replaced by exact duplicates."
Here are some more of his gems:

I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back.
Half the people you know are below average.
99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand.
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
(Think about it some more.)
I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.
OK, so what's the speed of dark?
How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.
I intend to live forever - so far, so good.
If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."
Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

Forwarded by Cynthia Little,

Think about this..

You may not realize it, but it's 100% true.

1. At least 2 people in this world love you so much they would die for you.

2. At least 15 people in this world love you in someway.

3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.

4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you..

5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep..

6. You mean the world to someone.

7. If not for you, someone may not be living.

8. You are special and unique.

9. Someone that you don't even know exists, loves you.

10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.

11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look--you

most likely turned your back on the world.

12. When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you believe in yourself, probably, sooner or later, you will get it.

13. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.

14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know.

15. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great.

Forwarded by Dr. Digiovani

A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell.  He painted a sign advertising the 20 pup and set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy. 

"Mister," the boy said, "I want to buy one of your puppies." 

"Well," said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat of the back of his neck, "These puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money." 

The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer. 

"I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?" 

"Sure," said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle

"Here, Dolly!" he called. Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur. The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence. His eyes danced with delight. As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse. Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up.... 

"I want that one," the little boy said, pointing to the runt. The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said, 

"Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would." With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers.  In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe.

Looking back up at the farmer, he said, "You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands."

The Road of Life --- http://www.godswork.org/emailmessage164.htm 

Remember the Good Old Days --- http://calskp.50megs.com/1-Remember.html 

Forwarded by Barb Hessel

You know you're from Iowa if (Bob Jensen grew up in Iowa and still has a family farm in Iowa)

  You are from a town that has nearly as many churches and bars as houses.
 
  You live in a beautiful  old house with transparent plastic sheeting over  the storm windows.
 
  "Vacation" means driving through the Amanas, going to Adventureland or Okoboji.
 
  You've seen all the biggest bands ten years after they were popular.
 
  You "go into town".
 
  Snow tires are standard on your car.
 
  The only reason you go to Missouri is for fireworks.
 
  Detassling was your first job.  (Yep says Bob Jensen)
 
  You say catty wampes instead of kitty-corner.
 
  You drink "pop".
 
  You consider being called a "Pork Queen" and honor.
 
  You carry jumper cables in your car.
 
  Your school classes were canceled because of cold.
 
  Your school classes were canceled because of heat.
 
  You know what "Hawks" and "Clones" are.
 
  You've ridden the school bus for an hour each way.
 
  You know what's knee-high by the Fourth of July.
 
  You have no problem spelling or pronouncing "Des Moines".
 
  You've gone trick-or-treating in 2 feet of snow.
 
  Down south to you means Missouri.
 
  You know the answer to the question, "Is this Heaven?"
 
  You've had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
 
  You "warsh" your clothes.
 
  State Wrestling was a big deal in your high school.
 
  You know several people who have hit a deer.
 
  You wear shorts when it's 50 degrees out in March, but bundle up and
  complain in August when it goes below 60 degrees.
 
  You were allowed to get a "school permit" to drive at age 14 if you
lived
  more than a mile from school.
 
  Stores don't have bags, they have sacks.
 
  You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in
it,
no
  matter what time of year.
 
  You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. (Example:  "Where's my coat at?" or If you go to the mall "I wanna go with.")
 
  Going to Target is you idea of fun.
 
  You learn your pickup will run without a muffler.
 
  When asked how your trip was to any foreign or exotic place, you say,"It was different."
 
  Your idea of a really great tenderloin is when the meat is twice as big as
  the bun and accompanied only by ketchup and a dill pickle slice.
 
  You bought a case of beer in one of those little towns when you were 16.
 
  People from other states love to hear you say Iowa and other words with "Os" in them.
 
  You think of the four major food groups as beef, pork, beer and Jell-O salad with marshmallows.
 
  Your idea of a traffic jam is when ten cars are waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.

Hog Heaven: Celebrating 100 Years of the Harley-Davidson --- http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/harley100/ 

Forwarded by An Aging Professor

SIGNS OF WEAR

"OLD" IS WHEN ... Your sweetie says, "Let's go upstairs and make love," and you answer, "Pick one, I can't do both!"

"OLD" IS WHEN ... Your friends compliment you on your new alligator shoes and you're barefoot.

"OLD" IS WHEN ... A sexy babe catches your fancy and your pacemaker opens the garage door.

"OLD" IS WHEN ... Going bra-less pulls all the wrinkles out of your face.

"OLD" IS WHEN ... You don't care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don't have to go along.

"OLD" IS WHEN ... You are cautioned to slow down by the doctor instead of by the police.

"OLD" IS WHEN ... "Getting a little action" means I don't need to take any fiber today.

"OLD" IS WHEN ... "Getting lucky" means you find your car in the parking lot.

"OLD" IS WHEN ... An "all-nighter" means not getting up to pee.

Forwarded by The Happy Lady

Two young boys walked into a pharmacy one day, picked out a box of Tampax and proceeded to the check-out counter. The man at the counter asked the older boy, "Son, how old are you?" 

"Eight", the boy replied. 

The man continued, "Do you know how these are used?" 

The boy replied, "Not exactly, but they aren't for me. They are for my brother, he's four. We saw on TV that if you use these you would be able to swim and ride a bike. He can't do either one."

"To Everybody Back Home:  If I Die Before You Wake" --- http://www.andiesisle.com/If-I-Die-Before-You-Wake.html    

And that's the way it was on April 30, 2003 with a little help from my friends.

 

I highly recommend TheFinanceProfessor (an absolutely fabulous and totally free newsletter from a very smart finance professor) --- www.FinanceProfessor.com 

 

In March 2000, Forbes named AccountantsWorld.com as the Best Website on the Web --- http://accountantsworld.com/.
Some top accountancy links --- http://accountantsworld.com/category.asp?id=Accounting

 

For accounting news, I prefer AccountingWeb at http://www.accountingweb.com/ 
I also like SmartPros at http://www.smartpros.com/ 

 

Another leading accounting site is AccountingEducation.com at http://www.accountingeducation.com/ 

 

Gerald Trite's great set of links --- http://iago.stfx.ca/people/gtrites/Docs/bookmark.htm 

 

Paul Pacter maintains the best international accounting standards and news Website at http://www.iasplus.com/

 

The Finance Professor --- http://www.financeprofessor.com/about/aboutFP.html 

 

How stuff works --- http://www.howstuffworks.com/ 

 

Bob Jensen's video helpers for MS Excel, MS Access, and other helper videos are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/ 
Accompanying documentation can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default1.htm and http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

 

Click on www.syllabus.com/radio/index.asp for a complete list of interviews with established leaders, creative thinkers and education technology experts in higher education from around the country.

 

Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134  Email:  rjensen@trinity.edu  

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April 15, 2003

Quotes of the Week

We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Abraham Lincoln

I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
Sir Isaac Newton, 1721 as quoted by William Lanberg in "Fear, Greed and the Madness of Markets," Journal of Accountancy, April 2003, Page 79.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
Thomas Jefferson

But it's easy to forget that these problem students aren't the whole story. The good students can be, and often are, ignored. They don't present us with problems that need to be solved; they do not demand our attention in the same way. I want to spend a few words giving some recognition to the good students. They deserve it. They provide me with inspiration and hope for the future of our society.
Beth Clarkson --- http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-04-02-03.htm 

Only he who is without expectation is truly free.
Edward Young

Remember the days when Microsoft seemed to punctuate every pronouncement with ".Net"? A few years ago, the company couldn't stop talking about .Net, even though the precise definition of this grab-bag of Web-related technologies seemed prone to wander further afield than the American buffalo. Now, Microsoft Watcher Mary Jo Foley notes, the .Net brand itself seems to be an endangered species: Redmond has apparently decided that end users ain't never gonna get it (to paraphrase the always diva-licious En Vogue). So what's left of Microsoft's big-bang platform? Mary Jo points out the pieces you need to know.
Mathew Rothenberg  in What's New Now from Ziff Davis [whatsnewnow@eletters1.ziffdavis.com] 
Also see http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,989331,00.asp 

Canada has dramatically extended its global lead in the delivery of electronic government, and has now emerged as the only country where on-line delivery has become an integral part of public services, a new international study has found.
Simon Tuck --- http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030409.rgove0409/GTStory 

Equality...is the result of human organization. We are not born equal.
Hannah Arendt as quoted in a recent email message from Mark Shapiro

Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.
Author Unknown, Quoted in an email message from Loyce Bernhard

The U.S. Taxpayers Are Expected Once Again to Pay France for Reconstruction:  This Time in Iraq
Alarmed by reports that the Bush administration may award the lion's share of Iraqi reconstruction contracts to U.S. companies, the French are positioning to help rebuild Iraq by leveraging their longstanding business ties to the country.  Although France has led the diplomatic opposition to the war, the country's Finance Ministry, and France's largest business federation, have set up a joint working group to determine how French companies can land lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq after the conflict. "France is opposed to war but intends to fully participate in the reconstruction" of Iraq, said a spokesman for the ministry.
April 8, 2003 message from The Wall Street Journal Global Educators' Views, Page 1
I assume that "fully participate" in France includes fully participating in receiving U.S. taxpayer dollars  but not donating French taxpayer francs for reconstruction.  But then I might be wrong about the willingness of French taxpayers to help in the aftermath of this war.  (P.S. George Boyd and Nina Ekstein reminded me that francs have been replaced by Euros --- Sigh!)
Vive la France

 

The Perilous Fight:  Then and Now in Iraq

High-Tech Army Division Heads to Iraq --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19043-2003Apr3.html 

Iraq: The Cradle of Civilization at Risk http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~museum/iraq.html 

She led a campaign during the 1980s to thwart scientific research on biological weapons. Now peacenick Nancy Connell is running a biodefense lab funded by the Pentagon --- http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,58266,00.html 

Notes on Osama Bin Laden --- http://www.spongobongo.com/her9989.htm 

Psychological Operations in Afghanistan --- http://www.psywarrior.com/Herbafghan.html 

Bill Moyer's Interview With Robert Jay Lifton --- http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_lifton.html 

I don't believe some of this article, but it pays to know what others are writing.
In defense of al-Jazeera --- http://www.msnbc.com/news/643471.asp 

Chinese hacker groups are planning attacks on U.S.- and U.K.-based Web sites to protest the war in Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security warned in an alert that it unintentionally posted on a government Web site --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60363-2003Mar31.html 
Question:  What's a honker?

The messages cited in the NIPC alert were posted on several hacker Web sites thought to be affiliated with the "Honker Union of China," a cadre of Chinese hackers that launched an assault against dozens of U.S. government Web sites in May 2001, after the collision of a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. surveillance plane on April 1, 2001. "Honker" is Chinese slang for "hacker."

The group at that time claimed responsibility for defacements at the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Navy, the California Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Labor and other government and business Web sites.

One Internet security expert said the April 1 anniversary cannot be overlooked.

"Anniversaries are very important to Chinese hackers, and if they're planning on something in protest of the war in Iraq and to coincide with the anniversary of the April 1 collision, I think we can expect to see something fairly soon," said Jim Melnick, director of threat intelligence for iDefense, an Internet security firm based in Reston, Va.

Melnick said the Honker group was rumored to be one the top suspects behind the "Slammer" worm, a fast-moving Internet virus that spread to hundreds of thousands of servers almost instantaneously in January.

"The exploit code for Slammer was very similar to code they had posted on a Web site earlier, but no one was ever able to verify the two were related," he said.

The Homeland Security Department's warning comes amid a flurry of antiwar hacking activity. Approximately 10,000 Web sites have been marred with digital graffiti by protesters and supporters of U.S.-led war in Iraq, according to F-Secure, a Finnish Internet security firm.

War in Iraq May Torpedo America’s Wealth, Says New Stanford Business School Study
Eric Zitzewitz, assistant professor of strategic management, and Justin Wolfers estimate that by early March the U.S. economy had lost over $1 trillion in value in anticipation of a war in the Middle East. The study uses Saddam Securities, traded on an Irish betting site that pays off if the Iraqi leader is not by in power by June 30, 2003. March 19, 2003
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/econ_iraqwar.shtml

U.S. Not Prepared for A Terrorist Anthrax Attack
Despite the fatal anthrax attack in the U.S. mail in 2001, no government response plan exists in the event of another attack. Research by Business School Professor Larry Wein and two colleagues recommends the rapid deployment of antibiotics and a series of other precautionary steps to reduce the death toll in the event of an attack. March 12, 2003
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/pubpolicy_anthrax.asp
Video and More Articles:  http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/alumni/lifelonglearning/research_ideas/

My April 30, 2003 updates on the accounting and finance scandals can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud043003.htm
(The above document also includes updates on tax frauds, scams, identity theft, and similar updates.)

 

Background Reference Links for Frauds and Accountancy Scandals
Bob Jensen's homepage --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ 
Bob Jensen's accounting theory documents --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory.htm 
Issues in the accounting, finance, and business scandals --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm 

Many of the scandals are documented at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm 

Comparisons of IAS Versus FASB Standards --- http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/pocketiasus.pdf 

The San Jose newspaper contained an interesting story on internal auditors in last Sunday's edition. They are in great demand given Sarbanes-Oxley and other recent developments. The article is at: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/5571474.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Denny Beresford

Experience is the best teacher, especially for con artists.
Online Fraud Complaints Triple Internet auction fraud continues to lead the list at IFCC, but the Nigerian oil minister scam actually rips off the most money on a per-complaint basis. http://ecommerce.internet.com/news/news/article/0,,10375_2179261,00.html 
Complaints about fraud perpetrated online tripled in 2002, and auction fraud continues to be the most frequently reported offense, according to figures from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center 

Experience is the best teacher, especially for con artists.
Online Fraud Complaints Triple 
Internet auction fraud continues to lead the list at IFCC, but the Nigerian oil minister scam actually rips off the most money on a per-complaint basis. http://ecommerce.internet.com/news/news/article/0,,10375_2179261,00.html 
Complaints about fraud perpetrated online tripled in 2002, and auction fraud continues to be the most frequently reported offense, according to figures from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center 
Bob Jensen's threads on this are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#ThingsToKnow 
Included is a section about what to know before making a purchase on eBay.

 

FBI report that Internet Fraud is up sharply --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58409,00.html 

Bob Jensen's threads on Internet Fraud are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#ThingsToKnow
The above link contains things to know before buying on eBay.

Accounting faculty around the country are taking to the Internet in a grassroots campaign to fight for an educational resource they hold dear - "Accounting Horizons" and "Issues in Accounting Education" - two education journals, published by the American Accounting Association, whose future is in the crosshairs of the associations' Executive Committee. http://www.accountingweb.com/item/97403 
Bob Jensen's threads on this controversial issue can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AAAjournals.htm 

Update on Accounting for Credit Derivatives

April 11, 2003 message from Risk Waters Group [RiskWaters@lb.bcentral.com] 

Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the Bank of France, said transparency is essential to prevent a "herd mentality" in the financial market that can create artificial swings in market prices. During a keynote address at the Professional Risk Managers' International Association 2003 European Summit in Paris this week, Trichet called for a "strengthening of market transparency" and the disclosure of "complete and reliable information". He added that "no satisfying disclosure" yet exists for the credit derivatives market-place, and that while a January study by the Bank for International Settlements cast "some light" on this market, "these efforts should be pursued by central banks as well as market participants". Trichet said transparency is not just an issue for investors and savers but a fundamental tenet underpinning anti-cyclicality. "If information is not transparent, behaving as a 'herd' is a natural reaction," Trichet said.

Bob Jensen's threads on credit derivatives can be found by scrolling down at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm#C-Terms 

Logical Positivism --- http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/l/logpos.htm 

An Innovative Course on Human Computer Interaction --- http://www.trinity.edu/gmeyer/hci.html 
Especially note the outline and references put together by Professor Glenn Meyer at Trinity Unviversity.

Newly Launched in 2003
From the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education --- the Keystone University Network --- http://www.keystoneu.net/ 

HARRISBURG (April 4, 2003) - More than 1,900 workforce-training and professional-development courses, adult basic education, and specialized training areas for healthcare, maintenance technology and government employees are among the first offerings of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education's online university, Keystone University Network.

Affordable, high-quality education is the hallmark of the 14 universities of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Keystone University Network brings the educational offerings of those great universities to you - anywhere - anytime. For organizations seeking to enhance employees' skills, we offer a robust portfolio of online job training and professional development. We also are growing to be your lifelong learning partner - from preparing you for a GED to earning a master's degree. Bookmark our site - many new programs will be coming online for you!

Bob Jensen's threads for online training systems are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm 

April 1, 2003 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu] 

The latest JOURNAL OF DIGITAL INFORMATION (vol. 3, issue 4, March 2003) is a special issue on "E-education: Design and Evaluation for Teaching and Learning." Papers in this issue include:

"E-nhance Lectures," by Larissa Naber and Monika Kohle, Vienna University of Technology, reports on a learning environment designed for usability by both lecturers and students.

"E-Book Technology and Its Potential Applications in Distance Education," by Norshuhada Shiratuddin, Monica Landoni, Forbes Gibb, and Shahizan Hassan, University of Strathclyde, provides information on acquiring and creating e-books and an evaluation of e-book compiler software.

"Personalising Electronic Books," by James Ohene-Djan and Alvaro Fernandes, Goldsmiths College, University of London, discusses how e-books could be "designed to possess characteristics that in some ways supersede those of paper-based books."

The Journal of Digital Information (JoDI) [ISSN: 1368-7506] is a peer-reviewed electronic journal published only via the Web. JoDI is currently free to users thanks to support from the British Computer Society and Oxford University Press. Current and past issues are available at http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/

THE PROCESSED BOOK

"The intriguing aspect of electronic publishing is not simply whether we will all someday dump print in favor of screens or what file format will become the standard, but how electronic publishing will affect what goes inside of books. It is my view that our current notion of books is naive, raw, and that what electronic publishing will give us is something that is highly thought out, cooked and processed. To the world of processed food and processed hair, we now add the processed book." Joseph J. Esposito, President and CEO of SRI Consulting, defines it (in "The Processed Book," FIRST MONDAY, vol. 8, no. 3, March 2003) by its content, rather than physical, attributes. These attributes

include:

-- the book as portal, encouraging readers to use it as a link to other resources;

-- the book as network node, connecting it with other books, commentary, catalogs;

-- the book as self-referencing text, changing its organization to create new versions of the content.

The paper is available online at http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue8_3/esposito/index.html

First Monday [ISSN: 1396-0466] is an online, peer-reviewed journal whose aim is to publish original articles about the Internet and the global information infrastructure. It is published in cooperation with the University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information, contact: First Monday, c/o Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor, PO Box 87636, Chicago IL 60680-0636 USA; email: ejv@uic.edu; Web: http://firstmonday.dk/

RECOMMENDED READING

"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column.

The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing, edited by William E. Kasdorf (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003; ISBN: 0231124996; $34.95 paperback)

For anyone involved in electronic publishing, this reference work will explain every aspect of the technologies to organize, format, publish, distribute, and archive content. The guide is also available in an online version at http://www.digitalpublishingguide.com/ that includes links to a glossary, bibliography, and indexes. Libraries, academic institutions, and corporations can purchase network-wide access to the online version.

Why not faculty and staff as well?

From Syllabus News on April 8, 2003

Ball State Provides Live Video Health Consultations

Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., is making available to students a service that will provide medical consultations with students via their dorm PCs. Using the interactive "iSeeTV" technology, students will be able to consult with an onscreen nurse, while speaking by phone. A nurse can show customized multimedia content to the student. Because the nurse cannot see the student, privacy is maintained, which is crucial to teens who might not seek needed treatment otherwise. iSeeTV, created by UK-based Media Logic, is a service that enables audio, visual, and multimedia contact between an organization's call center adviser and an end-user, who converse by telephone. The consumer sees the adviser and personalized content on TV or PC. Unlike broadcast, which delivers one signal to many homes, iSeeTV is narrowcast, delivering one signal to one home device.

The computer-networked, digital world poses enormous threats to humanity that no government, no matter how totalitarian, can stop. A fully open society is our best chance for survival --- http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/03/31/knowledge/index.html?x 

The authors are from Michigan State University
INFLUENCE OF NON-MODERATED AND MODERATED DISCUSSION SITES ON STUDENT SUCCESS" Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, February 2003 --- http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v7n1/v7n1_kashy.asp 

ABSTRACT 
One of the most successful applications of networked technology in education has been the development of individualized homework assignments. Such assignments provide immediate feedback to students and discourage copying. However, networked technology also allows students to develop sophisticated schemes designed to beat the system. This paper, supported in part by Andrew W. Mellon and Alfred P. Sloan Foundations, reports the educational outcomes for introductory physics students who used two web sites, one designed by the course instructor to provide assistance to students and the other a site designed by a third party to provide students with the solutions to problems. Results indicated that students who used the third-party site more tended to perform more poorly on all measures of success in the course, and that these relationships held even after accounting for students' academic ability. On the other hand, students who more often used the site designed by the instructor tended to perform better in the course.

KEY WORDS Learning Effectiveness, Education, Personalized Homework

"Six Factors to Consider when Planning Online Distance Learning Programs in Higher Education,"  by Suzanne Levy, Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Spring 2003 --- http://www.westga.edu/%7Edistance/ojdla/spring61/levy61.htm 

Introduction

The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) have made the process of obtaining an education without regard to time or location easier for the student. At the same time, they have provided more challenges for the colleges providing this education. In online distance learning, not only does the instruction occur via a computer system, usually over the Internet, but other educational processes occur via the computer as well. These educational processes are student services, training, and support. The transition to online distance learning, primarily driven by social change, is creating a paradigm shift in the way colleges are viewing teaching and learning (Rogers, 2000). Administrators, faculty, staff, and students realize that in order to successfully implement ODL, their colleges will need to reassess their programs (Chen, 1997; Garrison, 1989; Inglis, Ling, & Joosten, 1999; Moodie & Nation, 1993; Rumble, 2000). This paper reviews the literature as it pertains to six factors to be considered when planning and developing an online distance learning program. These six areas are: vision and plans, curriculum, staff training and support, student services, student training and support, and copyright and intellectual property.

Statement of Problem

In 1998, 51% of the institutions of higher learning in the United States included a plan for information technology in their strategic plan. By 1999, this number increased to 61% (Council for Higher Education Accreditation, 1999). Yet, many of these same institutions have not made a similar plan for their online distance learning programs (Hache, 2000), and for those that have, many key components of the plan, such as plans for student services, training, and support, are missing (McLendon & Cronk, 1999).

The 2001 Campus Computing Survey (Green, 2001) found that 11.8% of the nation’s colleges and universities included e-commerce, such as bookstores and online tuition payments, in their strategic plan. Colleges have done little, if any, planning as they implement online programs (Buchanan, 2000). Planning an online distance learning program needs to become a central focus of a college’s strategic planning process because student expectations regarding ODL programs will continue to grow (Boettcher & Kumar, 2000). Colleges need to be prepared to react to the internal and external changes caused by technological advances while maintaining the mission of their college (Hache, 2000).

Until the first online class was offered in 1994, the schools that participated in distance learning used taped lectures for video or TV classes (Daniel, 1997). The development of personal computers led to a sudden increase of campus financial resources being used to support technology. Technology needs continued to dominate as the Internet and the World Wide Web came into being. It was not until online classes started to exist that the educational issues came into focus for the online classroom instructor. Technology is important, for ODL cannot be implemented without it, but curriculum development and student support are just as important and need to be considered (Daniel, 1997). Given that online classes have been taught for less than a decade, few studies have been done on the factors that have influenced the successful implementation of an ODL program (Stone, Showalter, Orig, & Grover, 2001). Crumpacker (2001) stated that hardly any successful models for ODL programs are available due to its relatively new nature. Kriger (2001) has been concerned with the way ODL is organized and being conducted. Therefore, knowing what makes ODL successful and having considered ODL when developing a strategic plan is essential in order to avoid unnecessary costs, wasted time, confusion, frustration, and stress for those who are involved with ODL. A successful ODL program needs to focus not on computers and networking in the technology infrastructure that simply support the educational process (Chute, Thompson, & Hancock, 1999; Noble, 2002; Rogers, 2001), but on six distinct and specific areas that are part of the total education system.

The Six Areas of Consideration

Vision and Plans

Many authors have written about the necessity of having a vision and plan for the implementation of ODL (Aoki & Pogroszewski, 1998; Hache, 2000; Miller, 1998; Moore, 1994, Richart, 2002; Saba, 2000). Hache (2000) made it clear that when college faculty, staff, and administration start with a vision, it is necessary for them to understand that this vision will result in a change in the organizational culture. ODL cannot be molded into the image of existing campus-based programs (Miller, 1998; Saba, 2000) in which administrative and support systems were built for the traditional on-campus student (Aoki & Pogroszewski, 1998; Moore, 1994). Administrative support structures, student services, technology support, and faculty training and support needs are all areas that need to be analyzed and perhaps changed in order to successfully implement ODL. By accepting a vision statement and its implications, those at the forefront of ODL at the college acknowledge that physical, organizational, and programmatic changes will be occurring, with the inevitable shift of resources (Bloomfield, 1993).

Berge and Mrozowski (2001), Care and Scanlan (2001), Chute et al. (1999), Robinson (2000), Verduin and Clark (1991), Walton (2001), and Willis (2000) stated that the planning phase is of major importance in ODL, and Gellman-Danley and Fetzner (1998) agreed that advanced planning and policy development are the key to a well-run distance learning program. This planning will allow money to be spent more efficiently such as buying one software package to serve multiple purposes, rather than several packages over several years. Planning will also facilitate better use of existing resources and time, for example, developing technical training programs for all faculty rather than having faculty contacting technical support one at a time. Most plans for ODL are incorporated into existing strategic planning documents at colleges and are not separate documents. Hache (2000) studied ODL strategic planning and determined that it is a vital tool for growth that will integrate technology into teaching and learning without having to sacrifice the foundations of education. Stone et al. (2001) also found that an ODL program will be more successful if it is strategically planned. A systematic approach to planning must be taken in order to provide a quality education for the diverse learning community of the 21st century (Frances, Pumerantz, & Caplan, 1999; Kemp, 2000).

In creating the college's vision and plan for ODL, the respect, value, and experience of all the stakeholders should be considered (Drucker, 1986; Hache, 2000; Morrow, 1999; Ohler & Warlick, 2001). Many ODL programs are implemented based on a vision that is not universally shared and where the goals are not clearly stated (Bothel, 2001). By including administration, faculty, staff, and students in this process, it will be easier to obtain a campus-wide consensus on the vision (Bloomfield, 1993; Hughes, 2001). Tosh, Miller, Rice, and Newman (2000) verified this in reporting that faculty should be involved in determining the priorities, policies, and procedures for implementing ODL from the very beginning. Without the commitment of those involved in ODL, many issues may not be resolved, and questions may remain unanswered, causing frustration, confusion, and discontentment (Collis, Veen, & De Vries, 1993).

The WWW has caused the biggest change in education and learning since the advent of the printed book a little over 500 years ago (Draves, 2000). It is often difficult for people to adapt during times of rapid change. People tend to defend their methods, values, and beliefs and are not willing to take risks, so a solid resistance to the changes that may be created by implementing an ODL program should be expected (James, 1996; Robinson, 2000). Draves (2000) declared that the rate of adopting ODL would improve if revised policies and procedures and strategies to address critical issues existed. By involving all the stakeholders, determining the purpose or goal for an ODL program (Kemp, 2000), and understanding the issues concerning ODL from everyone involved, administrators can determine the priorities and constraints with ODL that will lead to strategies to minimize the resistance to the changes being made. Yet, who should take the leadership role in developing a vision and plan for ODL is disagreed upon within the literature. According to Care and Scanlan (2001) and Mills and Paul (1993), the academic administrators must provide the guidance and leadership to developing a plan for ODL. Strategic planning is proactive, dynamic, and directed toward a culture of change (Hache, 2000), so the processes involved in planning need to be led by administrators whose job it is to facilitate change. On the other hand, in order to move forward with ODL, others believe that the plan needs to have a commitment of everyone involved. Schifter (2000), Kriger (2001), Myers and Ostash (2001), and Rockwell, Schauer, Fritz, and Marx (2000) argued that without faculty leadership, faculty would tend not to be supportive. Weigel (2000) believed that faculty leading change would only work if the academic quality of the courses were improved. George and Camarata (1996) felt that leadership, and therefore, ownership of ODL, should come from all areas of the college, and not rely simply on administration leadership or faculty leadership.

Continued in the article.

April 9, 2003 message from Business Week

Find out today what books top B-school professors recommend in our updated and expanded list. Here's an excerpt:

David Dranove - Northwestern (Kellogg) - Walter McNerney Distinguished Professor of Health Industry Management: • ECONOMICS, ORGANIZATION, AND MANAGEMENT by Paul Milgrom and John Roberts "There are more ideas about strategy and organizations on any one page of this book than there are in a hundred pages of most every other strategy book. These Stanford professors were the first to translate modern microeconomics into a book about business strategy. The book may be rough sledding for the casual reader, but the payoff is enormous. This is the book that inspired many other academics, including David Besanko, Mark Shanley, and myself at Northwestern, and Garth Saloner, Andrea Shepard, and Joel Podolny at Stanford, to write a new generation of economics-oriented strategy texts and change the way that strategy is taught at top business schools."

• CO-OPETITION by Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff "The traditional MBA teaching of business strategy begins with Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy. In Porter's classic work, firms are surrounded by threats from competitors, entrants, powerful buyers and suppliers. In sharp contrast to Porter's gloomy view of the firm's environment, Brandenburger and Nalebuff introduce the concept of complementors- the same firms that might threaten your own firm's profitability can, under the right circumstances, enhance it. They also introduce the concept of the value net - the set of firms which, collectively, determine the overall value of the goods and services delivered to the market. This is a must read for any firm that is wants to succeed by making peace, not war."

Although Iraqi dinars don't buy much in the real world, bank notes containing images of Saddam Hussein are generating significant interest online among currency collectors --- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58402,00.html 

A new treatment could be the first to prevent the debilitating dementia that results from Alzheimer's. It could also shed light on the inner workings of this mysterious disease --- http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,58221,00.html 

A shunt implanted in the skull of a patient with Alzheimer's could be the first treatment that actually fixes what's broken in the brain rather than simply masking symptoms of the debilitating disease.

The device, called a CogniShunt, stops proteins suspected of causing the dementia associated with Alzheimer's from reaching the brain.

Internet2 is like the Internet's big brother -- stronger, smarter, and more accomplished. So when do we get our hands on it? --- http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/03/08/index4a.html 

Global Climate Change Student Information Guide ---  http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/Resources/gcc/index.html 

In suing four college students who allegedly operated large-scale file-trading networks, the Recording Industry Association of America sends the message: The consequence for illegally trading files stings more than a slap on the wrist --- http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58351,00.html 

The Recording Industry Association of America apparently took a page from the military handbooks of coalition forces in Iraq this week when it attempted to "shock and awe" college music pirates by hitting them with hefty lawsuits.

The trade group is suing four students for operating Napster-like file-sharing services on their campus networks.

"This round of suits is intended to send a message to other students who are engaging in this type of behavior," said Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president of business and legal affairs at the RIAA. "There will be no one free pass.

"You cannot expect to infringe until you get a cease-and-desist letter and then stop and assume that life will go on. Stealing is stealing, and people shouldn't do it in the first instance."

Until now, the RIAA alerted schools to possible copyright violations on their networks and expected the universities to take the disciplinary action. But because the four students named in the lawsuits were committing such serious offenses, the RIAA took matters into its own hands, Oppenheim said.

"This is massive infringement and it's not the case that you can brazenly engage in this type of behavior and expect that it's OK to do so until a letter is sent," Oppenheim said.

The students named in the complaints are Aaron Sherman and Jesse Jordan of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Daniel Peng of Princeton and Joe Nievelt of Michigan Technological University. It seeks to recover $150,000 for each copyrighted work that was downloaded.

The students allegedly set up sites using the programs Flatlan, Phynd or Direct Connect, that, like the now-defunct Napster, indexed and executed searches for copyrighted songs on the closed networks. The RIAA charges that one network operator distributed 27,000 music files, while the other three students ran networks offering 500,000 music files, 650,000 files and over 1 million files.

Officials at one of the colleges were clearly annoyed that the RIAA didn't alert them first.

Michigan Technological University President Curtis Tompkins wrote a sharp letter to the RIAA's Cary Sherman upon receiving the news that the industry group was suing student Nievelt.

"You have obviously known about this situation with Joe Nievelt for quite some time," Tompkins wrote. "Had you followed the previous methods established in notification of a violation, we would have shut off the student and not allowed the problem to grow to the size and scope that it is today.

"As a fully cooperating site, we would have expected the courtesy of being notified early and allowing us to take action following established procedures, instead of allowing it to get to the point of lawsuits and publicity."

Still, while frustrated with the RIAA, the school is also disappointed with Nievelt's alleged actions.

"Part of me says, how could somebody so smart be so dumb?" said Dean Woodbeck, director of news and information for MTU.

Continued in the article.

Bob Jensen's threads on P2P file sharing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/napster.htm 

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

"Putting a Faculty Face on Distance Education Programs," by William H. Riffee,, Syllabus, February 2003 --- http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7233 

Good distance learning programs can range from well-designed and well-written text to streaming video and accompanying media of various types. But media alone does not offer guidance and personal engagement. A blended or hybrid approach, using faculty facilitators or mentors, adds a human touch to distance learning. These faculty are not necessarily content experts, but facilitators or mentors who have a degree in the appropriate academic discipline. They participate with a physical presence, or in certain circumstances, a virtual presence.

I am fortunate to be associated with distance education programs that are very successful from the point of view of learning outcomes and that have been academically successful. It is my opinion that much of that success comes from using a hybrid model of distance education that involves the electronic delivery of content coupled with face-to-face contact by a faculty facilitator or mentor.

The Role of the Facilitator
The functions associated with facilitators have been categorized over the years. They include: facilitator, teacher, organizer, grader, mentor, role model, counselor, coach, supervisor, problem solver, and liaison.

In almost every program developed at the University of Florida, potential faculty facilitator/mentors have been identified in geographical regions located relatively close to cohorts of our distance learners. Regional activities occur, normally once a month, in which the facilitators meet face-to-face with students to carry out academic exercises that are designed to enhance the learning of the electronically delivered content. For example, the facilitators may review problem-based case studies or critique student presentations.

The most ideal ratio of distance students to facilitator/mentor faculty is approximately 12:1. If there are 36 students in a particular city or region of the country—defined as a distance that would require no longer than one hour drive time—three part-time facilitators would be recruited for that city or region. These facilitators are identified through recommendations from current or former students, current or former facilitators, university faculty in a particular locale, and through advertisements in professional journals.

The credentials of the faculty facilitators are vetted through the faculty of the home department, and the facilitators are appointed through the University Personnel System. The selection process involves interviews by at least two members of the administrative team of a program. During these interviews, assessment is made of teaching skills and experience, clinical experience (requisite in particular professional areas), time availability (in addition to the full-time employment they may now hold), and compatibility with the "safe learning environment" philosophy we hold for all of our programs. The candidate's curriculum vita is reviewed and references are checked thoroughly.

Once a facilitator/mentor is selected, there is a period of initial training involving several required components:

The most obvious value of facilitator/mentor faculty is the addition of the human touch to far-flung distance learning programs. It establishes a very valuable connection to the university and gives the learner a greater sense of intimacy with the program. In addition, if facilitators do their jobs properly, they can create a cohort relationship among their regional students or even spawn virtual cohorts of students.

Geographical Distances
In some cases, it is not possible to build a regional cohort due to the geographical distances among students. In those cases, the territory is divided into east and west regions with a single facilitator for each region. The students then meet virtually each week, using PlaceWare collaborative software (see PlaceWare.com) and a 1-800 conference call. (We determined that voice and data would be separated due to the fact that many of the students are located in geographical areas where high-speed Internet connections are not yet possible—we did not want to compromise the connections for either voice or data.) During these virtual sessions, the same types of exercises that would normally be carried out monthly during the regional face-to-face meetings are done once a week in virtual space.

Continued in the article

From the Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Scrooge May Really Want to Help
The prevailing cultural norm in the United States bears out the belief that most individuals act primarily out of self-interest. Challenging that belief, Professor Dale Miller argues humans often claim to be acting in self interest to hide deeper feelings of compassion and urges toward altruism. March 2003
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/ob_whypeoplegive.shtml

War in Iraq May Torpedo America’s Wealth, Says New Stanford Business School Study
Eric Zitzewitz, assistant professor of strategic management, and Justin Wolfers estimate that by early March the U.S. economy had lost over $1 trillion in value in anticipation of a war in the Middle East. The study uses Saddam Securities, traded on an Irish betting site that pays off if the Iraqi leader is not by in power by June 30, 2003. March 19, 2003
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/econ_iraqwar.shtml

When Good Brands Do Bad Things
A new study by Jennifer Aaker, an associate professor of marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, suggests that miscues by a business can actually reinvigorate flagging customer interest and loyalty. March 2003
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/mktg_goodbrands.shtml

Debt Relief Doesn't Help Some Small Countries
Professor Peter Henry finds for 42 of the world's poorest countries, debt relief will not produce the salutary effects that it did for the successfully developing nations. March 2003
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/ssir.shtml

More Research and Ideas
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/alumni/lifelonglearning/Research_ideas

U.S. Not Prepared for A Terrorist Anthrax Attack
Despite the fatal anthrax attack in the U.S. mail in 2001, no government response plan exists in the event of another attack. Research by Business School Professor Larry Wein and two colleagues recommends the rapid deployment of antibiotics and a series of other precautionary steps to reduce the death toll in the event of an attack. March 12, 2003
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/pubpolicy_anthrax.asp
Video and More Articles:  http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/alumni/lifelonglearning/research_ideas/

Guttentag Wins Oscar
Bill Guttentag, who for three years has co-taught the Business School elective Working in the Film and Television Industries, has received the 2003 Oscar for documentary short subject.
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/guttentag_oscar.shtml

Looting Mutual Funds
Mutual-fund investors are losing $5 billion a year to arbitrageurs who trade fund shares at outdated prices, finds a new study by Stanford Graduate School of Business economics professor Eric Zitzewitz. Forbes, March 19, 2003
http://www.forbes.com/2003/03/19/cz_ic_0319beltway.html

Valuing Stock Options
GSB faculty member Paul Oyer offers a simple across-the-board solution for valuing employee options: "Take 75 percent of the Black-Scholes value. That will be as good as any scientific method because there is no scientific answer. SF Chronicle, March 13, 2003
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/13/BU223126.DTL&type=printable

"Many websites break anti-discrimination laws," by Dinah Greek, Vnunet.com, April 4, 2003 --- http://www.vnunet.com/News/1139983 
Disability Rights Commission launches investigation into accessibility

Home office considerations --- http://www.gohome.com/ 

Valuation Resources For Business Appraisers --- http://www.valuationresources.com/ 

What's New highlights recent additions to this site. For a complete list, please select the "More new products and services . . ." link below.
Small Business Valuation Formula Multiples, 2002 Edition
Cost of Capital: Estimation and Applications, 2nd Ed., Shannon Pratt
Valuation for Financial Reporting: SFAS 141 & 142
Industry Resources Reports Expanded To Cover More Than 200 Industries
More new products and services . . .  
 
Publications 
Publications provides a comprehensive listing of publications covering valuation and valuation-related topics. Please select the appropriate subject heading from the list below.
General Valuation Economic Data
Industry-Specific Valuation Transaction Data
Professional Practice Valuation Valuation Discounts and Premiums
Estate & Gift Tax Valuation Economic Value Added (EVA)
Limited Partnership Valuation Real Options
Divorce Valuation Litigation Support
ESOP Valuation Lost Profits and Damages
Mergers & Acquisitions Appraisal Standards & Definitions
Intangible Assets Valuation Sample Valuation Reports
SFAS 141 & 142 Valuation Valuation Software
Technology Valuation Practice Management
Real Property Valuation Valuation Newsletters
 
Industry Resources
Industry Resources provide links to industry overview and outlook, financial benchmarking, and compensation resources for a wide variety of industries. For resources specific to a particular industry, see Industry Resources Reports which cover over 200 individual industries.
Industry Resources Reports Financial Ratios
Industry Overview and Outlook Salary Surveys
 
Economic Data
Economic Data provides links to cost of capital, risk premiums, royalty rates, interest rates, inflation, and economic forecast resources.
Cost of Capital Inflation / CPI Index 
Risk Premiums Economic Forecasts
Bond Yields and Interest Rates Royalty Rates
 
Public Company Data
Public Company Data provides resources for identifying public guideline companies by industry, shows where to find business and financial information on these companies, lists sources for current and historical price quotes, and how to obtain research reports for public companies and their industries.
Identifying Guideline Companies  Finding Company Information
Current & Historical Price Quotes Investment Research Reports
Closed-End Funds REITs
 
Transaction Data
Transaction Data provides links to various sources of merger and acquisition transaction data for public and private companies and secondary market data for limited partnerships.
Merger & Acquisition Data    Limited Partnership Interests
Valuation Formula Multiples
 
Legal and Tax Resources
Legal and Tax Resources provides links to legal resources directories, federal tax code and regulations, state and federal case law, and Tax Court decisions.
Legal Resources Directories Federal Tax Code and Regulations
State and Federal Case Law Tax Court Decisions
 
More Resources
More Resources provides links to business publications libraries, market research reports, company profiles and credit reports, trade association directories, appraisal associations, appraiser directories, valuation newsletters, and valuation forums.
Business Publications Libraries Appraisal Associations
Market Research Reports Appraiser Directories
Company Profiles Valuation Newsletters
D&B Business / Credit Reports Valuation Forums
Trade Association Directories  

Bob Jensen's threads on valuation can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/roi.htm 

A free distance education journal from the Sloan-C consortium of learning organizations --- http://www.aln.org/publications/view/ 
Much of what is available is a digest of listserv communications.  This is quite good.

The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning organizations continually improve quality and scalability 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. Created with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Sloan-C encourages the collaborative sharing of knowledge and effective practices to improve online education in learning effectiveness, access, affordability for learners and providers, and student and faculty satisfaction.

Sloan-C maintains a catalog of degree and certificate programs offered by a wide range of regionally accredited member institutions, consortia, and industry partners; provides speakers and consultants to help institutions learn about online methodologies; hosts conferences and workshops to help implement and improve online programs; publishes a newsletter, the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), and annual volumes of applied research studies; and conducts research, surveys and forums to inform academic, government and private sector audiences. Sloan-C also offers services such as awards, conferences and workshops, an effective practices database, and listing in the Sloan-C catalog for members with online degree and certificate programs.

Sloan-C generates ideas to improve products, services and standards for the online learning industry, and assists members in collaborative initiatives. Members include (1) private and public universities and colleges, community colleges and other accredited course and degree providers, and (2) organizations and suppliers of services, equipment, and tools that practice the Sloan-C quality principles. Associate membership is available to institutions that share an interest in online education and Sloan-C goals, but currently offer no online courses.

Bob Jensen's documents on accounting for derivative financial instruments and hedging activities are linked at 
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm 

In particular, you can read more about accounting for credit derivatives at 
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm#CreditDerivatives 

From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Educators' Review on April 3, 2003

TITLE: Lending Less, "Protecting" More: Desperate for Better Returns, Banks Turn to Credit-Default Swaps 
REPORTER: Henny Sender and Marcus Walker 
DATE: Apr 01, 2003 
PAGE: C13 
LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB104924410648100900,00.html  
TOPICS: Advanced Financial Accounting, Banking, Fair Value Accounting, Financial Analysis, Insurance Industry

SUMMARY: This article describes the implications of banks selling credit-default swap derivatives. Firtch Ratings has concluded in a recent report that banks are adding to their own risk as they use these derivatives to sell insurance agains default by their borrower clients.

QUESTIONS: 1.) Define the term "derivative security" and describe the particular derivative, credit-default swaps, that are discussed in this article.

2.) Why are banks entering into derivatives known as credit-default swaps? Who is buying these derivatives that the bank is selling?

3.) In general, how should these derivative securities be accounted for in the banks' financial statements? What finanicial statement disclosures are required? How have these disclosures provided evidence about the general trends in the banking industry that are discussed in this article?

4.) Explain the following quote from Frank Accetta, an executive director at Morgan Stanley: "Banks are realizing that you can take on the same risk [as the risk associated with making a loan] at more attractive prices by selling protection."

5.) Why do you think the article equates the sale of credit-default swaps with the business of selling insurance? What do you think are the likely pitfalls of a bank undertaking such a transaction as opposed to an insurance company doing so?

6.) What impact have these derivatives had on loan pricing at Deutsche Bank AG? What is a term that is used to describe the types of costs Deutsche Bank is now considering when it decides on a lending rate for a particular borrower?

Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island 
Reviewed By: Benson Wier, Virginia Commonwealth University 
Reviewed By: Kimberly Dunn, Florida Atlantic University

"Banks' Increasing Use of Swaps May Boost Credit-Risk Exposure, by Henny Sender and Marcus Walker, The Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB104924410648100900,00.html 

When companies default on their debt, banks in the U.S. and Europe increasingly will have to pick up the tab.

That is the conclusion of Fitch Ratings, the credit-rating concern. Desperate for better returns, more banks are turning to the "credit default" markets, a sphere once dominated by insurers. In a recent report, Fitch says the banks -- as they use these derivatives to sell insurance against default by their borrowers -- are adding to their credit risk.

The trend toward selling protection, rather than lending, could well raise borrowing costs for many companies. It also may mean greater risk for banks that increasingly are attracted to the business of selling protection, potentially weakening the financial system as a whole if credit quality remains troubled. One Canadian bank, for example, lent a large sum to WorldCom Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year. Rather than hedging its loan to the distressed telecom company by buying protection, it increased its exposure by selling protection. The premium it earned by selling insurance, though, fell far short of what it both lost on the loan and had to pay out to the bank on the other side of the credit default swap.

"The whole DNA of banks is changing. The act of lending used to be part of the organic face of the bank," says Frank Accetta, an executive director at Morgan Stanley who works in the loan-portfolio management department. "Nobody used to sit down and calculate the cost of lending. Now banks are realizing that you can take on the same risk at more attractive prices by selling protection."

Despite its youth, the unregulated, informal credit-default swap market has grown sharply to total almost $2 trillion in face value of outstanding contracts, according to estimates from the British Bankers Association, which does the most comprehensive global study of the market. That is up from less than $900 billion just two years ago. (The BBA says the estimate contains a good amount of double counting, but it uses the same method over time and thus its estimates are considered a good measuring stick of relative change in the credit-default swap market.) Usually, banks have primarily bought protection to hedge their lending exposure, while insurers have sold protection. But Fitch's study, as well as banks' own financial statements and anecdotal evidence, shows that banks are becoming more active sellers of protection, thereby altering their risk profiles.

The shift toward selling more protection comes as European and American banks trumpet their reduced credit risk. And it is true that such banks have cut the size of their loan exposures, either by taking smaller slices of loans or selling such loans to other banks. They also have diversified their sources of profit by trying to snare more lucrative investment-banking business and other fee-based activity.

Whether banks lend money or sell insurance protection, the downside is generally similar: The bank takes a hit if a company defaults, cushioned by whatever amount can eventually be recovered. (Though lenders are first in line in bankruptcy court; sellers of such protection are further back in the queue.)

But the upside differs substantially between lenders and sellers of protection. Banks don't generally charge their corporate borrowers much when they make a loan because they hope to get other, more lucrative assignments from the relationship. So if a bank extends $100 million to an industrial client, the bank may pocket $100,000 annually over the life of the loan. By contrast, the credit-default swap market prices corporate risk far more systematically, devoid of relationship issues. So if banks sell $100 million of insurance to protect another party against a default by that same company, the bank can receive, say, $3 million annually in the equivalent of insurance premiums (depending on the company's creditworthiness).

All this comes as the traditional lending business is becoming less lucrative. The credit-derivatives market highlights the degree to which bankers underprice corporate loans, and, as a result, bankers expect the price of such loans to rise.

"We see a change over time in the way loans are priced and structured," says Michael Pohly, head of credit derivatives at Morgan Stanley. "The lending market is becoming more aligned with the rest of the capital markets." In one possible sign of the trend away from traditional lending, the average bank syndicate has dropped from 30 lenders in 1995 to about 17 now, according to data from Loan Pricing Corp.

Some of the biggest players in the market, such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., are net sellers of such insurance, according to J.P. Morgan's financial statements. In its annual report, J.P. Morgan notes that the mismatch between its bought and sold positions can be explained by the fact that, while it doesn't always hedge, "the risk positions are largely matched." A spokesman declined to comment.

But smaller German banks, some of them backed by regional governments, are also active sellers, according to Fitch. "Low margins in the domestic market have compelled many German state-guaranteed banks to search for alternative sources of higher yielding assets, such as credit derivatives," the report notes. These include the regional banks Westdeutsche Landesbank, Bayerische Landesbank, Bankgesellschaft Berlin and Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen, according to market participants. The state-owned Landesbanken in particular have been searching for ways to improve their meager profits in time for 2005, when they are due to lose their government support under pressure from the European Union.

Deutsche Bank AG is one of biggest players in the market. It is also among the furthest along in introducing more-rational pricing to reflect the implicit subsidy in making loans. At Deutsche Bank, "loan approvals now are scrutinized for economic shortfall" between what the bank could earn selling protection and what it makes on the loan, says Rajeev Misra, the London-based head of global credit trading.

Update on Derivative Financial Instruments and Hedging Activities

New from Kawaller & Co. --- http://www.kawaller.com/

"Interest Rate Swaps -- A Primer ... and a Caution." --- http://www.kawaller.com/pdf/AFPSwaps_mar_apr03.pdf 

Hedging On The Edge
CFOEurope.com,
March 2003

New Study of the Volatility of Calendar Spreads
Hedge Fund Daily News,
January 2003

AFP Publishes Guide to Preparing FAS 133 Documentation
Association for Financial Professionals ,
November 2002

A Selected Bibliography, Futures & Options Law Review
The OTC Derivative Lawyer's Bookshelf,
September 2002

FAS 133: Routing or Ruinous?
Risk,
September 2002

Kawaller, Koch, and Peterson paper receives the Guy O. and Rosa Lee Mabry Research Fellow Award
March 2002

Unlike U.S. business firms, governmental organizations do not necessarily have to report derivative financial instruments are fair (mark-to-market) values.  However, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) proposed some new disclosure rules for derivatives, including rules for disclosing more about current values --- http://www.gasb.org/news/nr040203.html 

Governmental Accounting Standards Board Issues Technical Bulletin To Improve Disclosures About Derivatives

Norwalk, CT, April 2, 2003—In an effort to improve disclosures about the risks associated with derivative contracts, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has released for public comment accounting guidance that would provide more consistent reporting by state and local governments. The proposed Technical Bulletin, Disclosure Requirements for Derivatives Not Presented at Fair Value on the Statement of Net Assets, is designed to increase the public’s understanding of the significance of derivatives to a government’s net assets and would provide key information about the potential effects on future cash flows.

While state and local governments use a vast array of increasingly complex derivative instruments to manage debt and investments, they also may be assuming significant risks. Governments must communicate those risks to financial statement users and the proposed Technical Bulletin would help clarify existing accounting guidance so that more consistent disclosures can be made across all governments.

In commenting on why the GASB believes this issue is so important, GASB Project Manager, Randal J. Finden, remarked, “The market for derivative instruments has recently exploded for state and local governments as current financing needs have changed in connection with a more constrained budgetary environment. Some derivative contracts may pose substantial risks, and we want to help governments better disclose those risks in their financial statements.”

Governments would be required to disclose the derivative’s objective, its terms, fair value and risks. The proposed accounting guidance would require governments to disclose in their financial statements credit risk, interest rate risk, basis risk, termination risk, rollover risk and market access risk.

This Technical Bulletin would be effective for periods ending after June 15, 2003. The proposed Technical Bulletin is available from the GASB’s website. Comments on the proposed documents may be made through May 16, 2003.

The proposed Technical Bulletin can be downloaded from http://www.gasb.org/exp/tb2003-a.pdf 

Some of the previous derivative financial instruments frauds and scandals have centered around governmental organizations such as the Orange County fraud --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#DerivativesFraud 

Bob Jensen's documents on accounting for derivative financial instruments and hedging activities are linked at 
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm 

 
GAAP Differences in Your Pocket:  IAS and US GAAP
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/pocketiasus.pdf 
Topic IAS 39 from the IASB FAS 133 from the FASB
Change in value of non-trading investment Recognize either in net profit or loss or in equity (with recycling). 
May be changed in IAS 39 Amendments.		 Recognize in equity (with recycling).
Accounting for hedges of a firm commitment Cash flow hedge. 
May be changed in IAS 39 Amendments.		 Fair value hedge.
Use of partial-term hedges Allowed.  Prohibited.
Effect of selling investments classified as held-to-maturity Prohibited from using held-to- maturity classification for the next two years. Prohibited from using held-to- maturity classification (no two year limit).
Use of "basis adjustment" Gain/loss on hedging instrument that had been reported in equity becomes an adjustment of the carrying amount of the asset.
May be changed in IAS 39 Amendments.		 Gain/loss on hedging instrument that had been reported in equity remains in equity and is amortized over the same period as the asset.
 Derecognition of financial assets No "isolation in bankruptcy" test.
May be changed in IAS 39 Amendments.
May be changed in IAS 39 Amendments.		 Derecognition prohibited unless the transferred asset is beyond the reach of the transferor even in bankruptcy.
Subsequent reversal of an impairment loss Required, if certain criteria are met
May be changed in IAS 39 Amendments.		 Prohibited.
Use of "Qualifying SPEs" Prohibited. Allowed.

IAS 39 history --- http://www.iasc.org.uk/cmt/0001.asp?s=6941204&sc={CB32B469-886C-4486-86B7-36E49358DDE5}&sd=617116004&n=3306 

Limited Revisions to IAS 39, Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement (E66) --- http://www.iasc.org.uk/cmt/0001.asp?s=6941204&sc={CB32B469-886C-4486-86B7-36E49358DDE5}&sd=268256258&n=3222

Recognition and Measurement (E66)
E66, Proposed Limited Revisions to IAS 39 and Other Related Standards, proposed the following limited revisions to IAS 39, Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement, and other related Standards:
  • changes to require consistent accounting for purchases and sales of financial assets using either trade date accounting or settlement date accounting. IAS 39 currently requires settlement date accounting for sales of financial assets, but permits both trade date and settlement date accounting for purchases;
  • elimination of the requirement in IAS 39 for a lender to recognise certain collateral received from a borrower in its balance sheet;
  • improvement of the wording on impairment recognition;
  • changes to require consistent accounting for temporary investments in equity securities between IAS 39 and other International Accounting Standards; and
  • elimination of redundant disclosure requirements for hedges in IAS 32, Financial Instruments: Disclosure and Presentation.
None of the proposed revisions represents a change to a fundamental principle in IAS 39. Instead, the purpose of the proposed changes is primarily to address technical application issues that have been identified following the approval of IAS 39 in December 1998. The IASC Board’s assessment is that the proposed changes will assist enterprises preparing to implement IAS 39 for the first time in 2001 and help ensure a consistent application of the Standard. No further changes to IAS 39 are contemplated.

Bob Jensen's glossary on IAS 39 and FAS 133 can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm 

Museums of the World (History) --- http://www.museum.com/ 

Bishop Museum: Ethnology Database (Hawaii) --- http://www2.bishopmuseum.org/ethnologydb/index.asp 

Carthalia - Theatres on Postcards (Buildings, History, Architecture) http://www.andreas-praefcke.de/carthalia/index.html 

Bob Jensen's bookmarks for history and museums are at --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#History 

Relax with a Book (Literature, History, Art, Science, Philosophy) --- http://www.relaxwithabook.com/home/index.cfm 
Includes Top 10 Authors of the Week

Women of Our Time (History, Sociology, Art, Literature) --- http://www.npg.si.edu/cexh/woot/ 

Elvis Concert History --- http://www.elvisconcerts.com/ 

April 8, 2003 Message from the New CEO of Financial Executives International (FEI) --- http://www.fei.org/ 

From: Colleen Sayther

As I complete my first week, I am extremely excited to be FEI's new President and CEO. I began my tenure by visiting two of our most progressive chapters on my first day - Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Due to missed connections and lost luggage, we may not have been "fresh," but we made it on time. The view from the meeting room was spectacular, and it was only fitting that a beautiful rainbow appeared shortly after our arrival! Almost 300 members and prospective members came to the dinner to hear Rajiv Dutta, the CFO of eBay, talk about eBay's unique business model, and more particularly, how finance has played an important role in the company's spectacular growth. Rajiv also shared some suggestions with me as to how FEI might be able to expand our current Career Services offerings to help our member companies source prospective candidates for job openings more effectively (more to come on that!). These two chapters have been especially hit hard by the economic downturn, with about 15% of their current members in transition. Special thanks to Jan Berger, Richard Brounstein, and all the chapter officers, board and committee members for their efforts for making the evening such a success! (csayther@fei.org or 973.765.1001)

My goal in my first few months at FEI is to get out and meet as many of the members as possible before I am arrogant enough to present my vision for FEI. After all, FEI belongs to its members. Please feel free to e-mail or call me at any time to provide me with your input, especially in my early days!

EITF Issue 01-8: Determining Whether an Arrangement Contains a Lease
On March 20, the EITF Task Force continued discussions on the proposed Working Group deliberations on Issue 01-8. The Working Group is defining proposed guidance to use in the determination whether an arrangement (e.g., contract) contains a lease within the scope of FASB 13. Under the proposed model, an agreement contains a lease if the purchaser (lessee) has the ability to operate, control physical access OR take substantially all of the output from specified property, plant and equipment. Application of the proposed model could require lease accounting for many arrangements that are currently accounted for as purchases of product or services, including outsourcing arrangements, access rights to network capacity and product take or pay contracts.

We encourage FEI members to familiarize themselves with this issue because the current proposal is far-reaching and may bring many purchase and sales agreements into the scope of leases under FASB 13. Please direct any comments you may have on the proposal directly to the EITF Task Force in a timely manner, as the matter could be included in the May14-15 agenda, and the working group will be working on the issue prior to that. The EITF website summarizes current deliberations.

What's New in (FEI) Research --- http://www.fei.org/newsletters/RFWhatsNew/ 

Managing Business Risks: The 2003 Protecting Value Study --- http://www.fei.org/newsletters/RFWhatsNew/WhatsNew14.cfm 

The 2003 Protecting Value Study is based on a survey of FEI members and corporate risk managers. The survey asked financial executives and risk managers to identify their top earnings drivers, the top hazards to those earnings drivers, the impact of a major disruption to an earnings driver, and how well prepared they are to recover from such a disruption.

The survey was done in conjunction with FM Global and the National Association of Corporate Treasurers. The research results were presented at the annual conference of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) by Ken Smith, Risk Manager of Dell Computer, Chris Johnson, Senior Vice President of FM Global, and Marla Markowitz Bace, Executive Vice President of FERF.

FERF contributors of $250 or more will be sent a hard copy of the research study. FEI members can download a free copy from the FEI Web site.

Both the 2002 and 2003 Protecting Value studies are also available here.

For more information on FM Global, our research partner for this project

IT "Smart Stops of the Web" from the April 2003 edition of the the Journal of Accountancy --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/apr2003/news_web.htm 

IT Lessons and Links
www.toejumper.net
Dedicated to offering troubleshooting guidance, this Web site provides information on crashproofing and maintaining PCs, as well as speeding up computer functions. CPAs also can link to search engines, business advice, new product information and Toejumper’s newsletter archives.

Tune It. Tweak It. Fix It.
www.langa.com
Freelance technology consultant and writer Fred Langa’s Web site offers users a subscription to his free biweekly newsletter “The LangaList” and access to previous issues dating back to 1997. Tech-minded CPAs and IT professionals can read about “Easy, Foolproof Small Networks” and “Power-Line Networking,” as well as find free downloads for Windows backups and cleaning up hard drives.

A Most Fitting Moniker
www.geek.com
This site offers tech-savvy CPAs information on building a PC, buyer’s guides for technology products, the latest news, a glossary and Web-based computer support. Users also can browse or add their own technical input in the sections Rants and Raves and Tips and Tricks. Computer enthusiasts will have fun with the GeekToons and GameGeek areas.

A Virtual Postman
www.freetechmail.org
IT professionals who don’t have time to keep up with the latest industry advances can sign up for free as a member of this site, which compiles links to hundreds of e-newsletters. Registered users receive e-mailed news updates on topics such as software development, Internet business and product information.

Surf Here to Save
www.smallbiztechtalk.com
Computer consultants, small business owners and CPAs can find ways to save their organizations or clients from high IT expenses at technology consultant Joshua Feinberg’s Web site. Users can subscribe to a gratis technology tips newsletter and read checklists including “10 Simple Ways to Lower Your Computer Support Bills.”

Advice From an Expert
www.computerconsulting101.com
Joshua Feinberg has struck again with another Web site for IT consultants in small business. In addition to a frequently asked questions section, users can find inexpensive downloadable reports on topics such as selling and marketing consulting services.

 

Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Unicorn Tapestries (Art History)  --- http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Unicorn/unicorn_splash.htm 

Alice In Wonderland --- http://www.alice-in-wonderland.fsnet.co.uk/ 

From topless photos to serious insults, plenty of people are getting messages meant for other people's eyes. It causes a lot of embarrassment and has been known to cost people their jobs or their clients --- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58290,00.html 

E-mail Bullying on the Rise --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2902777.stm 

One in six workers in the UK has been bullied via e-mail, according to a new study.

Other People's Stories --- http://www.otherpeoplesstories.com/ 

Please send stories (or comments) to clarencebeeks@otherpeoplesstories.com. The requirements for submissions are as follows:

1) That it is a story you heard from someone else
2) That it is not boring
3) That it is either submitted in, or easily converted to, a form that you can see on the internet

All submissions will be posted in our Story Exchange; and a featured story will be posted every Tuesday.

To contribute photographs, cartoons, drawings, paintings and anything else visual, please email Catherine Talese.

OPS reserves the right not to post
anything slanderous, hateful, or otherwise unpleasant to the editors.

A doctor at a Chicago cardiology meeting says some congestive heart failure patients experience dramatic improvements after receiving experimental cell therapies using cells from the patients' own bone marrow. Several other teams around the world are working on similar approaches --- http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,58295,00.html 

The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly  to ban pornographic Internet sites with misleading addresses and computer-generated child pornography --- http://news.com.com/2100-1028-994460.html?tag=fd_top 

Walking Tours of Manhattan Streets --- http://www.nysonglines.com/ 

A unique travel site (simulation?) that you have to see to believe.  
AA Roads --- http://www.aaroads.com/ 

USA CityLink (Travel and Other Information About U.S. Cities, including hotel reservations, car rentals, etc.) --- http://usacitylink.com/ 

A great site for hikers!
The Trail Database --- http://www.hejoly.demon.nl/ 

Pick A Trail (hiking, travel, recreation, geography) ---  http://www.pickatrail.com  

Run the USA.com (Travel, Health) --- http://www.runtheusa.com/ 

Travel and sniff in the back streets of famous cities
Ruavista Signs of the City --- http://www.ruavista.com/ 

Where are the parking lots around the world?
Parking Spots --- http://dubster.com/cars/ 

Vagabonding (Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Africa.) --- http://www.vagabonding.com/ 

Bob Jensen's bookmarks for other walking tours are available at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#Travel 

Thread Tracker 0.8.7 http://www.oranged.net/software/S/ThreadTracker.html 

ThreadTrackerNotifies you of replies made to your posts and threads. All you have to do is simply enter your user name, and ThreadTracker will list your most recent posts and count the replies to each post. It will then tell you how many replies are new since the last time you visited that post through ThreadTracker.

This program was made to help frequent forum users. No longer will you have to check each post you have made, looking for a reply.

Pennsylvania is using its law against distributing child pornography to force ISPs to block access to hundreds of websites. The state attorney general refuses to disclose which sites have been blocked, however, because doing so would itself be disseminating such pornography, which is illegal --- http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,58336,00.html 

April 7, 2003 from Wired News
Rolling out a souped-up search engine Monday, Yahoo makes a bid to supplant its business partner, Google, as the most popular place to find things on the Internet. The company says its search engine will be more useful and simpler to use than Google --- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58368,00.html 

According to the industry newsletter, Google handles an average of 112 million searches a day and Yahoo handles about 42 million. Most of Yahoo's results are generated by Google's software.

With its success, Google has introduced other services, such as news and shopping pages, that traverse Yahoo's turf.

To lessen its dependence on Google, Yahoo last month bought search engine specialist Inktomi for $279.5 million. Yahoo plans to incorporate Inktomi's tools in to its search engine by year's end.

Success also has thrust privately held Google into the cross-hairs of Microsoft, which last week said it would improve its online search prowess.

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

Forwarded by Michelle Bushey
"Colleges Worth Considering" by Jay Mathews, The Washington Post, April 1, 2003 --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1454-2003Apr1.html 

A year ago, in a column in this space ["Singing the Praises of Guidance Counselors"], I asked you to help me compile a list of colleges and universities that deserve bigger reputations. I called them the hidden gems, the lesser known jewels, the wallflower colleges that students fall in love with only after they get to know them. I hoped that readers would send the column to high school counselors or teachers they knew and ask them to send me names of colleges that their graduates rave about.

Below is the result of your efforts. Based on this very informal and unscientific survey I have put together a list of 100 schools that deserve more attention than they are getting.

This is, admittedly, a very fluid and idiosyncratic way to look at higher education. Reputations can change quickly. Schools that might have been on such a list a generation ago are now recognized to be first-class institutions that have nowhere near enough room for all the students who want to get in. Many schools listed below may soon find themselves in that situation, and some are there already. Colleges like Occidental and Grinnell have become so popular I was reluctant to include them here. But the counselors and teachers know more than I do. They say these schools are under-appreciated, so here they are.

I have ranked the 100 schools, but I would not put much stock in my order of merit. I did it mostly for fun. You can't lure people into a friendly argument over which school is best unless you do some ranking. I have stacked them based on how often they were mentioned by counselors and teachers. I broke ties after assessing the fervor of the comments I received from the people I surveyed.

A complete account of this survey, with longer descriptions of each school, can be found in the appendix of my book, "Harvard Schmarvard: Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College That Is Best for You."

Please be assured that all 100 colleges below are excellent and deserve to be put on your own list if they offer something that pleases you. The April 6 Washington Post Magazine will have a top-20 mid-Atlantic version of this list including St. Mary's College of Maryland, which just missed the top 100 nationally.

Anyone who writes about schools that rise above name recognition owes a debt to Alexandria resident Loren Pope, former New York Times education editor and college administrator and now one of our nation's leading educational consultants and experts on college admission. His books, particularly Looking Beyond the Ivy League and Colleges That Change Lives, identify many schools that put teaching and character development ahead of public relations and high placement on the U.S. News and World Report list. Colleges That Change Lives names 40 schools, many of which appeared on the lists counselors and teachers sent me.

In your own journey through the world of American colleges and universities, you will find splendid schools that I have not mentioned. Please give them serious consideration, and then tell me about them. Here is my list of hidden gems:

Jay Mathews's list of 100 colleges that deserve a second look:

01. Elon University
0 2. Earlham College
0 3. Clark University
0 4. College of Wooster
0 5. Kalamazoo College
0 6. Rhodes College
0 7. Guilford College
0 8. Occidental College
0 9. Washington College
10. Illinois Wesleyan University
11. Trinity University
12. Kenyon College
13. Whitman College
14. Grinnell College
15. Wheaton College
16. Dickinson College
17. Christopher Newport University
18. Truman State University
19. Westminster College
20. Loyola Marymount University
21. Macalester College
22. Hartwick College
23. Goucher College
24. Hendrix College
25. Austin College
26. Berry College
27. St. Olaf College
28. Bates College
29. Allegheny College
30. Davidson College
31. Colorado College
32. Gettysburg College
33. Quinnipiac University
34. Millsaps College
35. Bard College
36. York College of Pennsylvania
37. Muhlenberg College
38. Keene State College
39. Ursinus College
40. University of Puget Sound
41. Spelman College
42. St. Lawrence University
43. St. John's College
44. Savannah College of Art and Design
45. Wabash College
46. University of Tampa
47. Hope College
48. Evergreen State College
49. Centre College
50. Mary Washington College
51. Beloit College
52. Bucknell University
53. Depauw University
54. Flagler College
55. Ithaca College
56. Johnson & Wales University
57. Nazareth College of Rochester
58. Western Carolina University
59. University of Redlands
60. Paul Smith's College
61. Saint Louis University
62. Santa Clara University
63. Western New England College
64. University of Tulsa
65. Lewis & Clark College
66. Manhattanville College
67. Willamette University
68. Texas Christian University
69. Birmingham-Southern College
70. College of St. Scholastica
71. University of the Pacific
72. Lawrence University
73. Agnes Scott College
74. Berea College
75. Augustana College
76. Bowling Green State University
77. Adelphi University
78. University of Denver
79. Hobart & William Smith College
80. University of the South
81. Xavier University of Louisiana
82. St. Andrews Presbyterian University
83. Saint Joseph's College of Maine
84. Seattle Pacific University
85. Western Washington University
86. Eckerd College
87. Drew University
88. Chapman University
89. Alfred University
90. Carroll College
91. Loyola College in Maryland
92. Knox College
93. Miami University
94. Samford University
95. University of Scranton
96. Randolph-Macon College
97. Siena College
98. Lambuth University
99. Ohio University
100. Dean College

I've found the best way to find a college' home page is to simply enter the college's name into the "Exact phrase" ribbon at http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

Truck Driver's Gear Change Hall of Shame (Bad taste song titles and lyrics) --- http://www.gearchange.org/

Forwarded by Barb Hessel

This has worked for me and I think it may work for you as well. I have found Inner Peace. Recently, I read an article that stated: The best way to achieve inner peace is to "Finish Things You Have Started." So today I finished two large bags of potato chips, the last half of a chocolate cream pie, a nearly full bottle of Jose Cuervo, a small box of Godiva chocolates, and I slapped the living crap out of someone I have never liked. I feel better than I have felt in a long time.

Please pass this along to a friend who is in need of Inner Peace.

Forwarded by Denny Beresford

A coed at UGA calls the fire house in Athens and says "we've got a kitchen fire at the sorority house can you get right over ?"

How do we get there says the fireman. 

Don't you still have those big red trucks asks the UGA student ?

Forwarded by Dr. Digiovani

Will Rogers, who died in a plane crash with Wylie Post in 1935, was probably the greatest political sage this country has ever known.

Enjoy the following quotes----

1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.

2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

3. There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman ... neither works.

4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

5. Always drink upstream from the herd.

6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket.

8. There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence

9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

10. If you're riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.

12. AND FINALLY After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him... The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GROWING OLDER............

First, Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

Second, The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third, Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.

Fourth, When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.

Fifth, You know you are getting old when every thing either dries up or leaks.

Sixth, I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

Seventh, One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young.

Eighth, One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth, Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Tenth, Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf.

And finally, If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you are dead!

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

The Cost of Kids

I have seen repeatedly the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice, really nice!!

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock!  That doesn't even touch college tuition.  But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into $8,896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. That's a mere $24.24 a day! Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice says don't have children if you want to be "rich." It is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140?  Naming rights. First, middle, and last! Glimpses of God every day. Giggles under the covers every night.  More love than your heart can hold. Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.

A hand to hold, usually covered with jam. A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sandcastles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain. Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.  You have an excuse to keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies, and wishing on stars.  You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filling a wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel.  You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.

You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.  In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God.

You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

************************
But in case you're doing the accounting, the bottom line is that they each cost $2.00 per hour if you're also planning for college.

God, hold our troops in your loving hands. 
Protect them as they protect us. 
Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. 
Amen. 
Sherri Jaeger

And let's bow our heads for the people on all sides who suffered gravely so that others may live!  Let's hope that, in the future,  money spent on weapons of destruction (including those of the U.S. weapons) will instead be spent upon creating a better life for all species sharing this planet.

From the Liberal Press

The Pope is visiting DC and President Bush takes him out on the Potomac for an afternoon of sailing aboard the Presidential yacht. They're admiring the sights when, all of a sudden, the Pope's hat (zucchetto) blows off his head and out into the water. Bush says "I'll take care of this. Don't worry."

Bush steps off the yacht onto the surface of the water and walks out to the Holy Father's little hat, picks it up, then walks back to the yacht and climbs aboard. He hands the hat to the Pope amid stunned silence.

Next morning, the Washington Post carries a story, with front page photos, of the event. The banner headline is "Bush Can't Swim."

Type A personalities could learn a few health saving tips from this guy!
Dullest Blog in the World --- http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull/ 

AccountingWEB US - Apr-1-2003 - In true Late Show fashion, here are the "Top Ten Craziest Sales Tax Laws" (courtesy of Taxware)

  1. In Minnesota, non-edible cake decorations are taxable, but edible cake decorations are exempt.
  2. In California, chewing gum is considered candy, or a "nonfood" product, and taxed at between 7.25 - 8.75%. In Pennsylvania, however, it is exempt as it qualifies as food for human consumption.
  3. In Illinois, cooking wine is taxable as an alcoholic beverage, even though it's only a nominal amount and most of the time considered an "ingredient."
  4. In Texas, plain nuts are exempt food, however, once a candy coating is added, they become taxable candy.
  5. In Connecticut, ice is considered food, thus untaxed, whereas in Washington, it is not and is therefore taxable.
  6. In Rhode Island, fruit juice that is less than 100% pure is taxable. The exception is cranberry juice cocktail, which is a mixture of juice and water or concentrate, yet is exempt.
  7. In Minnesota, cough drops are taxable as "candy."
  8. In California, fresh fruit is exempt, but an apple purchased through a vending machine is taxable at 33%.
  9. In New Jersey, naturally carbonated water is exempt, but artificially carbonated water is taxable.
  10. In Pennsylvania, State and U.S. flags are not subject to tax. However, if either of these flags is sold with "accessories" (i.e. a pole), the entire purchase becomes taxable..

The Stripped Down Version of a Cybergame
The makers of a video game which features cyber women playing volleyball have been angered by attempts to remove the digital bikinis --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2904877.stm 

This is not the first time that a video game featuring a cyber babe has been altered by game enthusiasts. Patches to remove the clothes of the most famous virtual heroine of all, Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider games, are widely available on the internet.

The first thing a woman should do when she wants a man is to start to run.
Molière 

Forwarded by Barb Hessel

We rarely get a chance to see another country's editorial about the USA
 Read this excerpt from a Romanian Newspaper.
 The article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title "C"ntarea Americii meaning "Ode To America") on September 24,
 2002, in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul zilei ("The Daily Event" or "News of the Day").

An Ode to America- Why are Americans so united?

 They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all  one color!

 They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.

 Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart.

Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, and the  secret services that they are only a bunch of losers.

Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts.

Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about.

The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping  hand.

After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag.

They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing.

On every occasion they started singing their traditional song: "God Bless America!"

 I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours  listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and
prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.

 How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being?

Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy.

 What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way?
 Their land?
 Their galloping history?
 Their economic Power?
 Money?
 I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring
 phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace.

I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion... Only freedom can work such miracles!

"To Everybody Back Home:  If I Die Before You Wake" --- http://www.andiesisle.com/If-I-Die-Before-You-Wake.html    

And that's the way it was on April 15, 2003 with a little help from my friends.

 

I highly recommend TheFinanceProfessor (an absolutely fabulous and totally free newsletter from a very smart finance professor) --- www.FinanceProfessor.com 

 

In March 2000, Forbes named AccountantsWorld.com as the Best Website on the Web --- http://accountantsworld.com/.
Some top accountancy links --- http://accountantsworld.com/category.asp?id=Accounting

 

For accounting news, I prefer AccountingWeb at http://www.accountingweb.com/ 
I also like SmartPros at http://www.smartpros.com/ 

 

Another leading accounting site is AccountingEducation.com at http://www.accountingeducation.com/ 

 

Gerald Trite's great set of links --- http://iago.stfx.ca/people/gtrites/Docs/bookmark.htm 

 

Paul Pacter maintains the best international accounting standards and news Website at http://www.iasplus.com/

 

The Finance Professor --- http://www.financeprofessor.com/about/aboutFP.html 

 

How stuff works --- http://www.howstuffworks.com/ 

 

Bob Jensen's video helpers for MS Excel, MS Access, and other helper videos are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/ 
Accompanying documentation can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default1.htm and http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

 

Click on www.syllabus.com/radio/index.asp for a complete list of interviews with established leaders, creative thinkers and education technology experts in higher education from around the country.

 

Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134  Email:  rjensen@trinity.edu  

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