Fifty years ago a sea mate took the top picture (that handsome dude on the left is me) on the main deck of  the USS Wisconsin which I think ultimately was the last battleship to be taken out of duty after firing cruise missiles in the 1990-91 Gulf War ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wisconsin_%28BB-64%29
The "Wisky" is now a museum ship in Norfolk, VA after the Navy decided that $1 million per day was too high to continue to keep her at sea. One day I hope to once again wander about its decks.

In the lower picture I'm second from the left in June, 1957 at sea heading out from the palm tree Navy Base in Guantanamo Bay toward the Panama Canal. The USS Wisconsin carried 2,600 sailors (alas no women aboard in those days), including us summer cruise midshipmen. We mostly played Cold War tag, especially in the Pacific, with Soviet submarines like it was childish fun and games using expensive toys on both sides.

Photographs from my Navy days are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/NavyDays/

Memories of the Way We Were --- http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/a001/waywere.html
 

A Personal Note About Mrs. Applegate and Her Boarding House

I wonder if there are any boarding houses remaining in the United States?

The other night one of my dreams drifted back to my days in Mrs. Applegate's boarding house. In late August of 1956 I drove my 1941 black Chevrolet (a heavy tank that cost me $75) to the campus of Iowa State University. On the front porch of a large wood-framed house on the very edge of the campus I spotted a sign reading "Room for Rent." Soon afterwards I rented a room from Mrs. Applegate, a widow, who was born sometime before the turn of the century.

The lower main floor of her house had front parlor, a large dining room, a kitchen, a pantry, and Mrs. Applegate's bedroom/bathroom. On the second floor were four rooms and a bathroom with a bathtub, and there were two added rooms and a half bath on the third floor. Each of five rooms had bunk beds and two small desks and bureaus. My room on the second floor had a single bed, a small desk, hooks on the wall to hang my clothes, and a dresser with drawers, a large mirror, and a wash basin. I stored most of my clothes in my car.

I was an incoming 18-year old Freshman at ISU. I rented the last available and slightly more expensive room in this very strategically-located boarding house on the edge of campus. All told there were 11 students in Mrs. Applegate's boarding house. They were good lads from humble backgrounds, mostly farm boys, who never caused trouble or disturbed others with loud music or drunkenness.

Between 7:00 and 7:30 each morning seven days a week, Mrs. Applegate set a table with two big bowls of scrambled eggs, two heaping plates of meat (bacon, ham, or sausage), apples, oranges, a bowl of oat meal, buttered toast from homemade bread, and jars of jam and apple butter. Sometimes the menu shifted to pancakes or French toast. Between 6:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. every day of the week she set a table with meat (varied from pork chops, ham, chicken, and roast beef), mashed potatoes, vegetables, and thick homemade pies and of course her wonderful bread.

I was a NROTC "Regular," which meant that that Navy paid for my uniforms, tuition, books, laboratory supplies, and a slide rule. More importantly, I also received a monthly cash allowance from the Navy that covered my room, board, and incidentals. I put my laundry in a large mailing box with belted straps. Each week my mother returned the box with clean laundry and fresh cookies.

In those days there was no "campus town" of note near the ISU campus, and fast food restaurants had not yet been invented. There was a cafe about five miles away in downtown Ames. But I don't recall ever going to downtown Ames. I spent most of my free time studying, because I did not want to let myself or my family down. Each summer I went on midshipman cruises to various parts of the world.

What impresses me more now than at the time is what a hard working, dreary life it must've been for Mrs. Applegate going through her daily chores of buying food, preparing meals, washing dishes, and mopping up our floors (which she did once each week in each of our rooms). She had a son in California who only contacted her when he needed money. She had no social security pension and no Medicare/Medicaid. All she had was her house and her two strong arms and, most importantly, a will to work each and every day all day long.

At the time her daily work routine did not strike me as unusual. I spent the early part of my life on a farm that did not have plumbing or refrigeration or even an ice box. Meals were cooked on a big iron stove fueled by corn cobs and coal.  It was also the only source of heat in the house. The big kitchen was comforting in the winter and very hot in the summer.

My dad and his brother Millen worked this dairy farm during WW 2. Aunt Blanch and my mother cooked three hearty meals every day for my dad and his brother and six boys and one girl. After big breakfasts of eggs, heavy cream, and thick slices of homemade bread, the women killed chickens in the morning, boiled off the pin feathers, and served up baked chicken by noon. There was never a day off from these and other chores on a farm where livestock  (cows, draft horses, saddle horses, hogs, and chickens) had to be tended every day of every year. After the war my parents moved to Algona, but I still returned to the farm in the summers. I loved living and working on a farm, but that's another story --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/max01.htm

Now of course times have changed. I doubt that there's been a boarding house near the ISU campus for many years, although there are still some homes that rent rooms and apartments without board to students. We now live in an era where fast food restaurants surround every campus for students who want variation from dorm and fraternity dining halls.

When I think back of things I miss about my college days. Mrs. Applegate's big smile, pride in her work, and bountiful table is one of the things I miss the most. After my first year at ISU, I joined a national fraternity where 25 "gentlemen" could sit in one sitting around an enormous and heavily-waxed oval table for meals. We were required to wear coats and ties for each evening meal and mind our manners. Our fraternity house meals were cooked by a succession of alcoholics with cigarettes hanging perpetually out of their mouths. They moved in and moved out somewhere in the bowels of the basement and never cooked a decent meal. I wonder why I didn't return to Mrs. Applegate's boarding house after my first Navy cruise. I guess I just wanted to be a big-deal "fraternity man" who partied with "sorority women" rather than remain a boarding house nerd. Boarding house nerds were viewed as one step below dorm nerds. But I can tell you this! The nerds in Mrs. Applegate's boarding house ate better and endured a whole lot less fraternity mickey mouse.

The biggest difference between Mrs. Applegate's generation and the modern generation is the way men and women cheerfully and willing accepted daily routines of little else but work without leisure day in and day out, week in and week out, and year in and year out until they died. I'm told that Mrs. Applegate died like my father died. One morning she just did not awaken and rise up from her bed to bake bread for her boarding students. In those days there was no television, and adults rarely took time to even put their feet up except at times of prayer, meals, and sleep. But there were signs that they were happier people with far fewer divorces and more sensitivity to the beauty of flower gardens and the nests of robins and thrushes in the heavy vines on the front and back porches. Children on farms were very close to their parents because they worked side-by-side all day long.

Some might view Mrs. Applegate's life as a tragedy. I'm absolutely certain that she'd never agree!

Tidbits on July 23, 2007
Bob Jensen

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

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

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

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

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

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

InstaPundent's links to videos --- http://www.instapundet.com/

Oceania - Kotahitanga (Music & Slide Show)--- Click Here

A Woman's Tiny Home --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmfUeYNR1TE

Jiffy Lube Warning --- Click Here

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

Many, Many, Many, Free Original-Recording Downloads from Barb --- http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/
With great graphics for each song!

Long listing of inspirational recordings --- http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/theindex_three.html

One of Bob's All Time Favorites
Feelings --- http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/c002/feelings.html

Another Romantic Favorite
When I Dream --- http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/c002/whenidream.html

From Celine
Wonderful World --- http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/c004/wonderful_celine.html

Remember Carousel by Rogers and Hammerstein (1945) --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You'll_Never_Walk_Alone_(song)
Never Walk Alone --- http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/h001/neverwalkalone.html

Amazing Grace (Anne Murray) --- http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/h001/grace_2.html
Also try http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/h001/grace.html

Frankie Laine had the most famous version of “I Believe” (for once he didn't go flat)---
http://www.barb-coolwaters.com/h001/believe_frankie.html

Many Original Recordings from Jesse --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/pity.htm
(Scroll down to see the wide selection. This site has some great graphics as well).

Many Original Recordings from Janie --- http://mjbreck.com/

Giacomo Puccini's 'Turandot' From Houston Grand Opera --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12012240

Woody Guthrie's Fertile Month on the Columbia River --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11918998
In May 1941, folk singer Woody Guthrie spent one month working for the federal government. His job was to travel to the Pacific Northwest and write songs promoting huge hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River. 

Photographs and Art

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Imagine a (wiki) library that collected all the world's information about all the world's books and made it available for everyone to view and update. We're building that library.
Open Library (Not yet fully operational) --- http://demo.openlibrary.org/about 

Classic Literature Library --- http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/

The Hypertexts of Writers and Poets --- http://www.thehypertexts.com/

First Chapter of Testimony by current French President Nicolas Sarkozy, July 22, 2007 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/books/chapters/0722-1st-sark.html

First Chapter of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Christian Jungersen ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/books/review/Theroux-t.html?ref=books

Beyond the City by Arthur Conan Doyle --- Click Here

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle --- Click Here

Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling --- Click Here

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson --- Click Here

The Most Banned Book in American Libraries
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain --- Click Here

The demand for accounting graduates is increasing, salaries are rising, and there aren't enough grads to fill the vacancies. Can you spell f-u-l-l e-m-p-l-o-y-m-e-n-t?
AccountingWeb, July 20, 2007 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=103729
Jensen Comment
More importantly can you spell S-a-r-b-a-n-e-s and S-e-c-t-i-o-n 4-0-4?

Doing nothing is very hard to do
You never know when you are finished.
Leslie Nielsen --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Nielsen

For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed.
Clifton Fadiman (1904 - 1999)--- Click Here

Humanity is a parade of fools, and
I'm in front of it twirling a baton.
Dean Koontz in Brother Odd --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Koontz 

Hypocrisy: When a billionaire dictator denounces cab drivers for making a little money and calls that "self-criticism," there's no doubt he's out of touch. But Cuba's Castro still gets away with it. Mainstream media didn't make much of Fidel Castro's written diatribe a week ago against Cuba's poor. But he had plenty to say in the "self-criticism" that was directed not at himself, but at a scraggly, semi-legal Cuban private sector that he says makes too much money.
Investors Business Daily (IBD), July 14, 2007 --- http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=269478682541856

The difference between fiction and reality?
Fiction has to make sense.
Tom Clancy --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy

From the Claremont Review of Books: Arthur Schlesinger's "vital center" was neither vital nor a center.
William Voegeli, "Crisis of the Old Liberal Order," The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2007 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110010339

In an urgent effort to save a critical mass of scholars unlike any initiative undertaken since World War II, the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund is finalizing plans to rescue hundreds of Iraqi professors beginning in the coming months.
Elizabeth Redden, "Saving Iraq’s Scholars," Inside Higher Ed, July 17, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/07/17/iraq

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
Abba Eban --- Click Here

The University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, on Monday formally revoked an honorary degree it gave to Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, in 1984. Edinburgh is among several institutions that honored Mugabe in the early years of his rule, but where students and human rights groups have called for a new action in light of the dictatorship with which Mugabe runs his country. Edinburgh announced plans to withdraw the degree last month, but also said it would give Mugabe an opportunity to respond before any final action was taken. A spokesman for the university said via e-mail that the university received no response from Mugabe, and so withdrew the degree.
Inside Higher Ed, July 17, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/07/17/qt
Jensen Comment
Now if the world could so easily rid itself of the rubbish itself.

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
Charles De Gaulle --- Click Here

When I'm President, I will raise the minimum wage and make it a living wage by making sure that it rises every time the cost of living does. I'll start letting our unions do what they do best again – organize our workers and lift up our middle-class. And I'll finally make sure every American has affordable health care that stays with you no matter what happens by passing my plan to provide universal coverage and cut the cost of health care by up to $2500 per family.
Barak Obama, American Thinker, July 19, 2007 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
About the only difference between presidential candidates Obama and Edwards, is that Obama for some reason kept his liberal government spending intentions secret for a longer period of time. It will be painful before the 2008  elections for both candidates to come up with some way to fund the trillion dollars and more needed for their social programs without destroying the underpinnings of the U.S. economy  and employment in times of soaring energy prices, world competition, soaring food prices, and shortages of medical physicians and hospitals to meet surges in demand. Neither candidate, indeed none of the candidates, strikes me as being very savvy about economics and employment.

He (Presidential candidate John Edwards) excels, meanwhile, at the old-fashioned Democratic strategy of promising to shower voters with benefits at someone else's expense. Edwards is a fountain of ideas for what the government can do to solve every conceivable problem—paying for the first year of college for any student willing to take a part-time job, raising pay for teachers in rural schools and eradicating poverty. But when it comes to paying for all this, he is short on suggestions. Universal health care, a position paper says, "will be funded principally by repealing the Bush tax cuts," though apparently he means only those benefiting the wealthy. He also talks about raising the tax rate on capital gains, but he hasn't decided by how much.
Steve Chapman, "John Edwards and the Prevailing Winds: On the trail with the Democratic dark horse," Reason Magazine, July 19, 2007 --- http://www.reason.com/news/show/121481.html 

Say What?
His (Edward's) campaign says he won't increase the deficit, but Edwards says reducing it is not his top priority. That's a contrast from the candidate of 2004, who promised to "get us back on the path to a balanced budget." Then, he said, "We have a moral responsibility not to leave trillions of debt to our children and our grandchildren."
Steve Chapman, "John Edwards and the Prevailing Winds: On the trail with the Democratic dark horse," Reason Magazine, July 19, 2007 --- http://www.reason.com/news/show/121481.html 
Jensen Comment
Even if he confiscated all the assets of wealthy people, Edwards could not possibly fund his populist programs of free education, health care, and social welfare without massive deficits. He knows this, but now he's willing to mortgage future generations to get himself elected. This is more than a chicken in every pot. It's egalitarian opportunistic politics by any other "progressive" name that, if successful, will accelerate the total collapse of the U.S. economy with entitlements funded with debt never before imagined in the world.

No sector of our economy is more in need of innovation than health care, yet its many regulations handcuff entrepreneurs. A consumer-driven health-care system will unlock these shackles to bring about a much-needed entrepreneurial revolution. Health care's $2.2 trillion of costs (17% of GDP), breaks the backs of U.S. firms that compete with companies in countries spending, at most, 12% of GDP on health care. Yet, despite this torrent of cash, more than 40 million Americans lack health insurance, mostly because they cannot afford it. Although some claim we have the world's best health-care system, where are the quality outcome metrics to back this up? Don't try that one on the loved ones of the 300,000 people killed by hospital "medical errors" in the past few years.
Regina E. Herzlinger (Harvard Accounting Professor), "Where Are the Innovators in Health Care?" The Wall Street Journal,  July 19, 2007; Page A15 --- Click Here

Corporate success is not uncommon for women in Vietnam, where several big companies have top female executives. Women earned equal footing as a result of the war with the U.S., which forced the country to abandon strict gender roles.
Laura Santini, "Why, in Vietnam, Women Are at Top Of Corporate Heap," The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2007 ---
Click Here

And even when just buying securities owned by investors rather than issued by companies to raise capital, hedge funds and other investment companies contribute to a more accurate valuation of securities, which plays a vital role in directing economic resources to their most valuable uses and users. A company whose stock price rises because investors have correctly determined it to be undervalued can raise capital at lower cost and thus attract resources to an activity in which the resources will be worth more than they are worth in their present use.
Richard Posner, "Hedge Funds and Rent-Seeking--Posner," The Becker-Posner Blog, July 16, 2007 ---
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Although this differentiation between financial-based and product-based wealth is understandable, it is not justified. Hedge and private equity funds, and other modern asset management companies, provide a highly valuable service by discovering ways to separate, allocate, and manage risk. Developments in the theory of modern finance that began a half century ago made possible a sophisticated treatment of risk in ways that were unavailable even a few decades ago. Homeowners can hedge their housing risks with housing futures, companies can hedge their energy costs, and banks can originate mortgages and then sell them off to companies in aggregate mortgage packages that reduce and diversify the risk from slowdowns in regional or even national housing market. This diversification obviously did not prevent the collapse of the sub prime home lending market, but it did greatly reduce any overall fallout from this collapse . . . Some hedge funds may earn more than they deserve because it is so difficult with a limited time series on asset returns to determine whether good performance in the past was due to superior skills or good luck. Lucky funds would end up with not only more assets but also with higher fees per dollars of assets than their true performance merits. Unlucky funds would be in the opposite situation. This does not necessarily raise the overall earnings of the average fund manager, but it may increase the inequality of earnings among managers that would affect which men and women get attracted into the industry.
Gary Becker, Hedge Funds and Rent-Seeking--Posner," The Becker-Posner Blog, July 16, 2007 ---
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

BEIJING - Sharks could face extinction within a generation from overfishing for their fins, a conservation group said on Wednesday, calling on the Chinese government to lead the way in their protection. More than 90 percent of shark fin is consumed in China and demand is growing rapidly as the economy develops leading to more sharks being caught, many illegally in areas that are supposed to be protected, according to the group WildAid.
Reuters, MSNBC, July 20, 2007 --- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19827244/

One of the 256 terrorists slated for release Friday as part of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's "good will" gesture to the Palestinian Authority has said "Thanks, but no thanks" to the offer. The prisoner chose to remain in an Israeli prison, according to Pardons Department director Emmy Palmor, because he prefers to continue receiving free medication for arthritis.
Hana Levi Julian, "A Prisoner: ‘Thanks but No Thanks’ to Offer of Freedom," Israel Nation News, July 19, 2007 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123132

Turkish Test
In Sunday's parliamentary elections, it is the Islamist party that's carrying the banner of democracy and modernization.
Matthew Kaminski, The Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2007 --- Click Here

The loss of recognition for artists, thinkers and scientists has impoverished our culture in innumerable ways, but let me mention one. When virtually all of a culture's celebrated figures are in sports or entertainment, how few possible role models we offer the young. There are so many other ways to lead a successful and meaningful life that are not denominated by money or fame. Adult life begins in a child's imagination, and we've relinquished that imagination to the marketplace.
Dana Gioia, "The Impoverishment of American Culture And the need for better art education," The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2007 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110010352

A new survey reveals that 92 percent of the subjects of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's totalitarian government do not believe their nation's role is positive, and two-thirds would support a "Velvet Revolution" to remove him from power.
Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily, July 21, 2007 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56787

A Muslim civil rights group today blamed Bush administration policies for promoting "Islamophobia" and said the "war on terror" won't stop terrorists . . . Mr. Ahmed, who spoke at CAIR symposium at the National Press Club, said the war against terrorists is driven by an "irrational" fear that the Bush administration has inculcated in the American public. The chance of being killed in a terrorist attack, he said, is 1 in 80,000 over a lifetime.
Audrey Hudson and Sara A. Carter, "A Muslim civil rights group today blamed Bush administration policies for promoting "Islamophobia" and said the "war on terror" won't stop terrorists," The Washington Times, July 17, 2007 ---http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070717/NATION/107170083/1001
Jensen Comment
This is a phony-baloney statistic from get go. First of all, the probability of death by terror is highly non-stationary over a lifetime of, say, 80 years. Look at how probabilities have changed over the past decade. Militant Islamists are setting an accelerating time frame for capturing all of the oil reserves of the Middle East, annihilation of Israel, acquiring of weapons of mass destruction, destroying the economies and cultures of the West, and terrorizing anybody who gets in their way and innocents who are not even in their way. If unchecked, the probability of death and destruction certainly will soar dramatically in the next 80 years unless the West simply surrenders now to Islam militants.   It would be great if the moderate Islamic leaders had the guts to stand up Iran, Syria, and al-Qaeda bent on starting World War III  beginning with the total destruction of Israel. For starters, it would be wonderful if moderates commenced to voice outrage over the propaganda hate and recruiting tactics of militants on the Internet and in the media.

Mr. Peres bristled. "Pakistan did it before Israel, and India," he asserted, apparently referring to the nuclear tests of those two countries. (Israel has never acknowledged testing a weapon.) His comment would seem to be a departure, by the way, from Israel's steadfast refusal to publicly confirm or deny its possession of what analysts estimate is a nuclear arsenal of some 300 weapons. And "Dimona helped us achieve peace with Egypt," he added, referring to the site of the country's largest nuclear reactor. "Sadat said it openly."
Judith Miller, "Shimon Peres:  Veteran," The Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2007; Page A7 --- Click Here

Nike is concerned by the serious and highly disturbing allegations made against Michael Vick and we consider any cruelty to animals inhumane and abhorrent,' the company said in a statement yesterday. Nike added that it believes Mr. Vick should be 'afforded the same due process as any citizen' and hadn't yet terminated its relationship with the athlete at this time.
Nicholas Casey, The Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2007 --- Click Here

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, is it because Al Gore and a bunch of elderly rockers organized an all-star stadium gala on its behalf? The colossal flopperoo of Live Earth is a heartening reminder that there are some things too ridiculous even for global pop culture, and one of them is the Rev. Almer Gortry speaking truth to power ballads.
Mark Steyn, Orange County Register, July 16, 2007 ---
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/climate-change-one-1768463-children-rate

Question
What is the "bidders curse" that destroys the most fundamental assumption of classical economic theory?

But this is where eBay users fell prey to what Malmendier and her coauthor, Stanford University economist Hanh Lee, call 'bidder's curse.' Apparently, some bidders grew so enthusiastic about winning the auction that they lost sight of the 'buy it now' price..."We found that in 43% of the auctions the bidders ended up paying more than the 'buy it now' price," Malmendier says."
Chris Gaylord, "Economists puzzled by irrational eBay buyers," USA Today, July 17, 2007 --- Click Here

July 14, 2007
It's Been Ten Years Since the Blog Was Born Out of Something Called a Weblog --- http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Weblog
Google has a blog search tool --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm#Blogs

I fit into the category of an original NWAL blogger category meaning that I'm a Nerd Without A Life blogger. Now of course there are millions of bloggers who also have a life. I'm still stuck in the NWAL category.

To celebrate this tenth "blogiversary" on July 14, 2007, The Wall Street Journal on Pages P4-P5 ran a special column by Tunku Varadarajan that highlighted some of the leading blogs ---
http://blogs.wsj.com/onlinetoday/2007/07/14/pursuits-extras-for-saturday-july-14-2/

The WSJ blogiversary highlights the impact of some of selected blogs.

Christopher Cox, Chairman of the SEC, recommends searching for blogs at Google and Blogdigger ---  http://www.blogdigger.com/index.html
He points out that Sun Microsystems CEO Jack Schwartz in his own blog challenged the SEC to consider blogs as a means of corporate sharing of public information.
Jensen Comment
But more recently CEO John Mackey of Whole Foods got in trouble with the SEC for his anonymous blog.
See "Mr. Mackey's Offense," The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2007; Page A12 --- Click Here

Christopher Cox, a strong advocate of XBRL,  gives a high recommendation to the following XBRL blog:
For fast financial reporting, a recommended blog is Hitachi America, Ltd XBRL Business Blog --- http://www.hitachixbrl.com/

One of the great bloggers is one of the all-time great CEOs is Jack Bogle who founded what is probably the most ethical mutual fund businesses in the world called Vanguard. He maintains his own blog (without a ghost blogger) called The Bogle eBlog --- http://johncbogle.com/wordpress/

Nobel laureate (economics) Gary Becker runs a blog with Richard Posner called the Becker-Posner Blog --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Actress and humanitarian Mia Farrow maintains blogs on her visits to troubles pars of the world.
See  http://www.miafarrow.org/
One of her favorite blogs (not one that she runs) is BoingBoing.net --- http://www.boingboing.net/
She is also a heavy user of satellite phones --- http://www.gpsmagazine.com/

James Toranto discusses the powerful impact that blogs have had on politics and government.
He recommends the following political blogs:
KausFiles.com from the liberal/progressive UK media outlet called Slate --- http://www.slate.com/id/2170453/
InstaPundet.com from a liberatarian law professor --- http://www.instapundet.com/
JustOneMinute.typepad.com --- http://www.justoneminute.typepad.com/

Jane Hamsher founded a political blog at http://www.firedoglake.com/
She recommends the following leftest-leaning blogs:
CrooksAndLiars.com --- http://www.crooksandliars.com/
TBogg.blogspot.com --- http://www.tbogg.blogspot.com/
DigbysBlog.blogspot.com --- http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/

General Kevin Bergner is a spokesman for the Multi-National Force in Iraq and generally gives straight talk a world of distorted and biased media --- http://www.mnf-iraq.com/
Some of his favorite blogs are as follows:
Small Wars Journal --- http://smallwarsjournal.com/index.php
Blackfive --- http://www.blackfive.net/
The Mudville Gazette --- http://www.mudvillegazette.com/

Newt Gingrich recommends the following conservative-politics blogs:
RedState,com --- http://www.redstate.com/
Corner.NationalReview.com --- http://corner.nationalreview.com/
Powerline Blog --- http://www.powerlineblog.com/

Dick Costolo is a Group Product Manager at Google. He likes the following blogs:
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs by an imposter --- http://www.fakesteve.blogspot.com/
New Media and the Future of Online Publishing --- http://publishing2.com/
Photo Blogs --- http://www.photoblogs.org/

Tom Wolfe (popular novelist) grew "weary of narcisstic shrieks and baseless information."

Xiao Qiang, the founder of Chna Digital Times, recomments the following blogs:
ZonaEuropa for global news with a focus on China --- http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm
Howard Rheingold's tech commentaries on the social revolution at http://www.smartmobs.com/
DoNews from Keso (in Chinese) --- http://blog.donews.com/keso
(Search engines like Google will translate pages into English)

Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist recommends the following blogs:
One of the first tech blogs --- http://slashdot.org/
Metafilter (a wiki community blog that anybody can edit) --- http://www.metafilter.com/
Tech Dirt --- http://www.techdirt.com/

Elizabeth Spiers is the founding editor of the news/gossip blogs called Gawks/Jossip and the financial blog Dealbreaker.. She recommends the following blogs:
The liberatarian Reason Magazine blog --- http://www.reason.com/blog/
MaudNewton blog on literature and culture (and occasional political rants) --- http://maudnewton.com/blog/index.php
Design Observer --- http://www.designobserver.com/

How did they fail to overlook the following NWAL blogs?
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Tidbits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Bob Jensen's favorite free blogs (other than major newspaper, magazine, and  accountancy blogs that I track):
Aljazeera --- http://english.aljazeera.net
Commentary --- http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
New Republic --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse
Inside Higher Ed --- http://www.insidehighered.com/ 
The Finance Professor --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/
Financial Rounds --- http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/
Consumer Reports Web Watch --- http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/
Issues in Scholarly Communication --- http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
Knowledge@Wharton --- http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/
Multi-National Force --- http://www.mnf-iraq.com/
NPR --- http://www.npr.org/
PC World --- http://www.pcworld.com/columns/
PhysOrg --- http://physorg.com/ (Good coverage of happenings in science and medicine)
WebMD --- http://www.webmd.com/
Wired News --- http://www.wired.com/  (not as good as it used to be)
WorldNetDaily --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/  (watch for bias and the mixing of adds with news)
Y-Net News --- http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3083,00.html

I will probably be adding the following blogs on a less regular basis:
The Bogle eBlog --- http://johncbogle.com/wordpress/
Becker-Posner Blog --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/
CrooksAndLiars.com --- http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Small Wars Journal --- http://smallwarsjournal.com/index.php
Blackfive --- http://www.blackfive.net/
The Mudville Gazette --- http://www.mudvillegazette.com/
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs by an imposter --- http://www.fakesteve.blogspot.com/
New Media and the Future of Online Publishing --- http://publishing2.com/
Photo Blogs --- http://www.photoblogs.org/
Tech Dirt --- http://www.techdirt.com/

Listing of Accounting Blogs
 Among the millions of Web logs permeating the Internet, there are some by and for accountants worth checking out. This article includes an Accounting Blog List that you can download, bookmark or print.
 Eva M. Lang, "Accountants Who Blog," SmartPros, July 2005 --- http://accounting.smartpros.com/x49035.xml

For Newspapers and Magazines I highly recommend Drudge Links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/DrudgeLinks.htm
In particular I track Reason Magazine, The Nation, The New Yorker, Sydney Morning Herald, Sky, Slate, BBC, Jewish World Review, and The Economist

For financial news I like The Wall Street Journal and the Business sub-section of The New York Times

For Book Reviews I like --- http://www.booksindepth.com/period.html
Also see the blog of the national book critics circle board of directors ---
http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/

Much more of my news and commentaries comes from online newsletters such as MIT's Technology Review, AccountingWeb, SmartPros, Opinion Journal, The Irascible Professor, T.H.E. Journal, and more too numerous to mention.

And I also get a great deal of information from various listservs and private messages that people just send to me, many of whom I've never met.

I would love to learn about your favorite blogs!

Potential Roles of ListServs and Blogs
Getting More Than We Give --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

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

Hype Versus Reality in Hedge Fund Investing

From Jim Mahar's blog on July 17, 2007 --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/

Given all the attention hedge funds have been getting over the past few years, it is good to be reminded occasionally that when measured against a proper benchmark most hedge funds do NOT outperform. The following is from Ramit Sethi writing at Iwillteachyoutoberich.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich » Behind-the-scenes New Yorker article on hedge funds reveals they aren’t so sexy:

"...people with access to hedge funds — even they may be getting substandard returns in exchange for their participation in hedge funds. This is just another example of investor psychology and the importance of realizing that people are not always rational with their investments."

Sethi also cites Malkiel and Saha:

"After examining results of now defunct firms, Malkiel and Saha found that between 1996 and 2003 hedge funds made an average return of 9.32 per cent, significantly less than the 13.74-per-cent average return of funds included in the published databases."

Defnitely a good reminder and definitely not what you would expect if you just listened to popular press.

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

Some Possibly Unintended Uses of Material on MySpace

July 19, 2007 message from Trinity University Biology Professor Robert Blystone [rblyston@trinity.edu]

Attached is an interesting piece on My Space --- http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=49184 

Increasingly and right now is prime time, I am finding faculty who are visiting My Space to check out students. These faculty are beginning to incorporate things said or claimed in My Space as they write a letter of recommendation. Some faculty look up new advisees on My Space to get a better grasp of the person before they ever meet these teenagers. The attached considers the implications of such actions.

I wonder if Walter Mitty would have a listing on My Space. I also find it amusing and perhaps appalling that some folks use My Space as a personal digital diary complete with JPEGs.

Bob Blystone

Terry Calhoun, "Admissions of Guilt," Campus Technology, 7/19/2007
http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=49184

Back from the (Curriculum) Brink: Harvard Gets It Right

July 19, 2007 message from Carnegie President [carnegiepresident@carnegiefoundation.org]

A different way to think about ... undergraduate education One of the Carnegie Foundation's original board members is reputed to have said, "It's easier to move a cemetery than to change a curriculum." That board member was Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton, who would later move on to the easier challenges of leading the nation during World War I and creating the League of Nations. I would add that it's far too easy to proclaim that you've changed a curriculum when all you've done is a few nips and tucks.

Carnegie Senior Scholar Tom Ehrlich (who also knows something about leading universities) was unforgiving in his critique of the first version of Harvard's curriculum reform nearly two years ago. As a Harvard alum he expressed embarrassment with the character of the proposed reform and its lack of structure and coherence. He has reviewed the revised report and finds it a dramatic improvement over its predecessor. He also praises the simultaneous publication of Harvard's report on needed improvements in teaching—its quality and its rewards. Changing the curriculum without addressing the need to teach it very well can be an empty gesture. Let's hope that our colleagues at Harvard take both the transformation of the curriculum and the improvement of teaching seriously.

Carnegie has created a forum—Carnegie Conversations—where you can engage publicly with the author and read and respond to what others have to say about this article at http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/perspectives/july2007 

Or you may respond to Tom privately through carnegiepresident@carnegiefoundation.org

Lee S. Shulman, President
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Carnegie Foundation for Advancement in Teaching, July 2007 --- Click Here

Bob Jensen's threads on how students may take the easiest way out in customizable curricula --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#CustomizedCurricula

"A Punch Line of a University Gets the Hook," by George F. Will, The Washington Post, July 16, 2007 --- Click Here

During the campus convulsions of the late 1960s, when rebellion against any authority was considered obedience to every virtue, the film "To Die in Madrid," a documentary about the Spanish Civil War, was shown at a small liberal arts college famous for its dedication to all things progressive. When the narrator intoned, "The rebels advanced on Madrid," the students cheered. Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, had been so busy turning undergraduates into vessels of liberalism that it had not found time to teach them tedious facts, such as that the rebels in Spain were Franco's fascists.

That illustrates why it is heartening that Antioch will close after the 2007-08 academic year. Its board of trustees says the decision is to "suspend operations" and it talks dottily about reviving the institution in 2012. There is, however, a minuscule market for what Antioch sells for a tuition, room and board of $35,221 -- repressive liberalism unleavened by learning.

Founded in 1852, Antioch was, for a while, admirable. One of the first colleges to enroll women and blacks, it was a destination for escaped slaves. Its alumni include Stephen Jay Gould and Coretta Scott King.

In 1972-73, Antioch had 2,470 students. In 1973, a protracted student and employee strike left the campus physically decrepit and intellectually toxic. By 1985, enrollment was down 80%. This fall there may be 300 students served by a faculty of 40.

In 1993, Antioch became an international punch line when it wrote rules to ensure that all sexual conduct would be consensual, step by step: "If the level of sexual intimacy increases during an interaction...the people involved need to express their clear verbal consent before moving to that new level."

Continued in article

When 0.5+0.5=2.0
How should credit be allocated among academic coauthors?

In academic accounting research, co-authorships were rare fifty years ago. Now single-authorship is rare. In part this is because of the rise in varied specialties in database analysis. To a certain degree this is also game playing in the sense that three authors on three papers increase the probability of having their names on a published paper relative to three authors each writing only one single-authorship paper in the current environment of high frequency of rejected submissions. There are also some instances where a joint author contributes mostly reputation and/or the prestige of his/her employer vis-a-vis authors who do most of the research and writing.
"An Analysis of the Contributions of The Accounting Review Across 80 Years: 1926-2005" --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm
Co-authored with Jean Heck and forthcoming in the December 2007 edition of the Accounting Historians Journal.

"Who Gets Credit?" by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, July 20, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/07/20/credit

In the physical and biological sciences, it’s common for papers in journals to have multiple authors — sometimes dozens of them — and departments have long accepted that C.V.’s will be full of jointly produced work. In many other fields, work has traditionally been more solitary. Look at this year’s issues of the American Historical Review, for example, and not a single article or review essay has more than one author.

Political science historically has been a field more like history, with single-author work the norm. But increasingly, political scientists are writing together — and that has led the American Political Science Association to start a discussion on the implications this has for the faculty members and graduate students involved.

The association wants to talk about such issues as whose name goes first in a paper — a question that might seem minor, but may not be to a candidate up for a job or for tenure. More broadly, the association wants professors to talk about how collaboration is taught to graduate students. A physicist or biologist can only go so far before being part of a lab team — should the same be true of a political scientist?

The American Political Science Association appointed a special panel to consider these and other issues, and its report has just been released. The report documents the shifts in political science, tries to summarize the issues that these shifts raise, and offers some suggestions on policy areas. The association will sponsor a special discussion of these issues at its annual meeting later this summer as well.

“What we are trying to do is to document the patterns and think through the ethics of these issues,” said Kanchan Chandra, a political scientist at New York University who led the panel.

Befitting a discipline that studies power, one of the key issues raised by project so far is that much of the collaboration is “asymmetrical,” meaning that its involves a tenured and a non-tenured professor, or a professor and graduate student. Generally, the panel’s report suggests issues for discussion rather than seeking to specify certain policies as appropriate.

But the importance of the issue of unequal partnerships to the panel is evident in that it was one of the few places where it made a specific recommendation: The panel says that given the awkwardness of discussions about who gets credit for what, junior partners should not have to be the ones to raise the issue, and that it should be considered the responsibility of a senior partner to do so.

Political scientists are not the only discipline to think about the impact of collaboration — although fields include some where discussions are far less developed and others where issues are largely taken for granted. A report on tenure policies issued last year by the Modern Language Association, noted that “solitary scholarship, the paradigm of one-author-one-work, is deeply embedded in the practices of humanities scholarship,” but questioned whether that paradigm is always appropriate. The MLA panel noted that digital scholarship has led more professors to work together and called on departments evaluating candidates for tenure and promotion to focus on the quality of work. Jointly produced work, the report said, “should be welcomed rather than treated with suspicion because of traditional prejudices or the difficulty of assigning credit.”

If collaborative work is still new for some disciplines, it is standard elsewhere and protocols are generally understood, even if they aren’t codified. Of the major articles in the latest issue of American Economic Review, six are by single authors, seven by two authors, two by three authors, and one by four authors. All of the multiple author pieces list names alphabetically.

Robert Moffitt, editor of the journal and a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University, said that journal editors in economics almost always leave such questions to authors to decide themselves and that there is “a strong social norm” to list names alphabetically. There are “occasional deviations,” he said, “where the relative contributions of the authors is particularly disproportionate,” and he estimated that in his career, maybe 3-5 percent of the articles on which he was a co-author didn’t list names in alphabetical order.

Part of the motivation for political science taking up these questions is that the shifts in that field — from solo being the norm to joint papers becoming common — have happened gradually over decades, and aren’t the same in all parts of the discipline. As a result, there is less of the social norm than in economics.

The panel that studied the issue analyzed journal articles across political subfields, and found that while less than 10 percent of articles had multiple authors in the decade of 1956-65, about 40 percent did in 1996-2005. Combining fields, however, may understate the relatively recent change in key subfields. Journals in political theory have never embraced collaborative work and only about 5 percent of articles have more than one author. But in the last decade, the report notes, co-authorship has become the norm, and covers a majority of articles in top journals in American politics.

Another change the panel noted is the proliferation of “team” research projects. The concept of such projects isn’t new and some have been around for decades, the panel said, citing such examples as American National Election Studies, based at the University of Michigan. But the APSA panel said that there are many more large-scale research programs now, citing as an examples work at Columbia University on the initiation and termination of war.

On the issue of who collaborates, the panel analyzed the papers presented at the association’s annual meeting and found that most do not involve academics on equal footing.

Collaborations on APSA Meeting Papers, 2006

Type of Collaboration	Percentage
Equals of any rank	41.73%
Students and faculty members	37.63%
Faculty with and without tenure	20.20%
Students, faculty with tenure, and faculty without tenure	0.44%

After documenting that collaboration has arrived in political science, the association’s panel identified five key questions that it thinks merit more consideration:

• How should the contribution of assistants be acknowledged in collaborative work?
• What are the criteria by which an assistant’s contribution to a project should be acknowledged as co-authorship?
• What should the order of authors in a co-authored work be?
• How can we integrate collaborative work with graduate training in a way that encourages independent thinking?
• What should the procedures be for a discussion of any of these questions and for the resolution of disputes.

Continued in article

When 0.5+0.5=2.0
July 20, 2007 reply from Robin A. Alexander [alexande.robi@UWLAX.EDU]

Unfortunately, in our school, co-authorship was often common because the paper counted as one whole paper for each author (and those numbers ruled).

Robin Alexander

July 20, 2007 reply from Richard C. Sansing [Richard.C.Sansing@DARTMOUTH.EDU]

Email and electronic file transfer has greatly facilitated joint work with colleagues at other institutions, which is an important factor as well.

Richard Sansing

July 20, 2007 reply from Richard C. Sansing [Richard.C.Sansing@DARTMOUTH.EDU]

I agree wholeheartedly with Professor Sansing's observation that co-authorship is greatly facilitated with newer communications technologies. However, I might note that Heck, Cooley, and Jensen (1990, 1991) found that joint authorship in academic accounting research exploded long before email was invented --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm

I think game/probability playing soared upward when publication became more important for tenure, promotions, and pay raises relative to the days when teaching performance (coupled with involvement in the profession) was king.

Bob Jensen

July 20, 2007 reply from J. S. Gangolly [gangolly@CSC.ALBANY.EDU]

Bob,

I too agree that the internet has has made long distance collaborations possible, to facilitate publications. I also agree that joint-authorship precedes the internet.

I think one of the important causes of meaningful joint-authorship has been the rise of inter-disciplinary research which requires scholars from many fields to collaborate. In the old days, (I mean pre-WWI days), the domain knowledge in any discipline was not overwhelming, and so it was still possible for a person to research in more than one field. That has not been the case in a long time.

The situation changed a bit before WWII, which required multi-disciplinary teams to conduct research. The earliest effort at inter-disciplinary research, from our point of view in business schools, was the Tizard committee in Britain (also known as the Committee for the Scientific Study of Air Defense, and later referred to fondly as Blackett's circus), formed in 1934. It consisted of a later Nobel laureate Physicist from Cambridge (Sir Patrick M.S. Blackett), a chemist and WWI test-pilot from the Imperial College (Henry Tizard), a physiologist Nobel Laureate from University College, London (A.V. Hill), an engineer and inventor from the Air Ministry (Wimperis). The work of this team was the begining of the interdisciplinary field that became known subsequently as Operations Research. Perhaps no single member of the team could have accomplished what they did accomplish as a team. Those interested may like to read:

The Beginnings of Operations Research: 1934-1941 Joseph F. McCloskey, Operations Research, Vol. 35, No. 1. (Jan. - Feb., 1987), pp.143-152.

Unfortunately, since the time I got into accounting (1973), accounting has evolved into a parochial, almost narcissistic discipline. I wish we got out, and smelled the flowers more often.

Most of my own research has been done in teams. I have worked with economists, operations researchers, computer scientists, i ndustrial engineers, ... It has been very satisfying.

I am sure there are some who play the game to reach the top of the greasy pole. But those of us who are outsiders (or have given up the craving to reach the top of the greasy pole) don't have to play the game.

Jagdish

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

Fraud Casebook: Lessons from the Bad Side of Business
by Joseph T. Wells
ISBN: 978-0-470-13468-9
Hardcover 624 pages July 2007
 

Fraudulent Advanced Placement (AP) Credits

"College Board Tries to Police Use of ‘Advanced Placement’ Label," by Tamar Lewin, The New York Times, July 17, 2007 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/education/18ap.html

When Bruce Poch, the dean of admissions at Pomona College, sees a high school transcript listing courses in AP Philosophy or AP Middle Eastern History, he knows something is wrong. There is no such thing. Neither subject is among the 37 in the College Board’s Advanced Placement program.

“Schools just slap AP on courses to tag them as high-level, even when there’s no Advanced Placement exam in the subject,” Mr. Poch said. “It was getting to be like Kleenex or Xerox.”

But now, for the first time, the College Board is creating a list of classes each school is authorized to call AP and reviewing the syllabuses for those classes. The list, expected in November, is both an effort to protect the College Board brand and an attempt to ensure that Advanced Placement classes cover what college freshmen learn, so colleges can safely award credit to students who do well on AP exams.

“We’ve heard of schools that offered AP Botany, AP Astronomy, AP Ceramics, and one Wyoming school with AP Military History,” said Trevor Packer, director of the board’s Advanced Placement program. “We don’t have those subjects. One of the reasons colleges called for the audit was that they wanted to know better what it means when they see an AP on a transcript.”

Schools seeking approval for their Advanced Placement courses must submit their syllabuses. Those found lacking are returned, but schools have two more chances to revise them.

Developed 50 years ago for gifted students in elite high schools, the Advanced Placement program now exists in almost two-thirds of American high schools. In May, about 1.5 million students took 2.5 million Advanced Placement exams, hoping to earn college credit and impress college admissions offices, which often give applicants extra points on the transcript.

But with so many more APs — real and fake — admissions officers have difficulty assessing them, especially since admission decisions are made before the May exams.

“When you look at transcripts, what you see is often not what you get,” said William Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions. “It could be AP Powerlifting next, who knows? In my view, it’s misleading to call something AP if it’s not a College Board AP. And even in legitimate College Board AP courses, it’s hard to know what was taught until one sees the exam results. If students are getting watered-down AP courses, this audit will help bring them up to the standard.”

As APs have spread, it has become clear that the name is no guarantee of rigor; an AP course at a wealthy suburban high school may be far more ambitious than one at a poor rural school. And in many struggling high schools, nearly all the students in Advanced Placement classes fail the exam.

The College Board concedes that the audit will do nothing to change that. “By no means do we anticipate that this will result in higher exam scores,” Mr. Packer said. “The audit allows us to know one thing only, and that is, does the AP teacher know what elements are expected in a college-level course. It’s not proof that students are prepared for college-level work.” But, he said, the audit allows the board to give teachers more guidance and practice materials, and to pinpoint areas where APs do not mirror college courses.

In AP Art History courses, the audit found, the most common flaw in the syllabuses was a narrow focus on Western art. In physics, atomic and nuclear physics were often left out. In psychology, statistical analysis and measurement needed bolstering. And in government and politics, many high schools left out Iran and Islam.

Continued in article

How to recognize and avoid Advanced Placement (AP) credits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#AP

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

Greeks on Campus:  A Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall, a Hundred Bottles of Beer, if . . .
A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research is unlikely to shock many: It found that fraternity membership correlates with higher levels of drinking — measured by intensity, frequency and recency. The study may be purchased online.
Inside Higher Ed, July 19, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/07/19/qt

Question
Guess which academic discipline advocates abandoning standardized admission tests (SAT/ACT) for admission in elite universities?

Hint
It's not the Mathematical Association of America

"Provocative Theory on Merit," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, July 17, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/07/18/sat

If you had to name the hot-button issues in admissions these days, they would almost certainly include affirmative action, standardized tests and rankings. Research released Tuesday in the flagship journal of the American Sociological Association combines those three issues in a way that challenges many assumptions.

The research argues that colleges with competitive admissions, motivated by the desire to improve their rankings, have put steadily increasing emphasis on SAT scores in admissions decisions. While this shift in emphasis was taking place, the colleges were also increasing their reliance on affirmative action in admissions, especially with regard to black students who, on average, do not do as well as other groups on the SAT. Further, the research argues, if elite colleges abandoned the SAT, they could achieve levels of diversity similar to what they have now — without using affirmative action in admissions decisions. Not only that, the research goes on to say, but doing so would not result in a diminution of student quality.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on affirmative action controversies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#AcademicStandards

The Power of Fiction in an Imaginary World
A confession: I have never read any of the Harry Potter novels nor seen even one of the movies. Aficionados should not take this personally, for it has not been a matter of cultural snobbery or high principle, or even of deliberate policy. It is simply an effect of the scarcity of time — of hesitation before a body of work that will, in due course, run to some 4,000 pages and (by my estimate) more than 17 hours of film. On the other hand, I’ve long been intrigued by how certain works of fiction create such powerful force-fields that readers go beyond enthusiasm, developing relationships with characters and their world that prove exceptionally intense, even life-changing. Examples would include C.S. Lewis, Thomas Pynchon, Ayn Rand, and J.R.R. Tolkien. (They are listed in alphabetical order, so no angry letters on slights implied by the sequence, please.) And one regular product of such fascination is the desire not only to study the fiction ever more closely, but to create works of analysis that, so to speak, map and chronicle the imaginary world. In effect, the fiction creates its own nonfiction supplement.
Scott McLemee, "Pottering Around," Inside Higher Ed, July 17, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/07/18/mclemee 

July 18, 2007 message from Andrew Piest [a.priest@ECU.EDU.AU]

"Oxford Uni fines students for Facebook photos," By Daniel Grabham, Tech.Bool.com, July 17, 2007 Click Here

Jensen Comment
The photos are mostly photos celebrating the end of examinations with students doing such things as tossing champaign over each other. The fines seem to me to be an over reaction on the part of the college.

"How's Vista doing? Analysts say it's fine; users still annoyed," MIT's Technology Review, July 16, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/19052/

Nearly six months after it launched, gripes over what doesn't work with Vista continue, eclipsing positive buzz over the program's improved desktop search, graphics and security.

With Vista now shipping on most new computers, it's all but guaranteed to become the world's dominant PC operating system -- eventually. For now, some users are either learning to live with workarounds or sticking with Vista's predecessor, Windows XP.

Pirillo is geekier than the average user. He runs a network of technology blogs called Lockergnome, and was one of several ''Windows enthusiasts'' Microsoft asked for Vista feedback early on.

Still, Vista tested even Pirillo's savvy. He fixed the hobbled printer and other problems by installing VMware, a program that lets him run XP within Vista. But when his trial copy expired, he decided the solution was too clunky -- and too expensive.

He ''upgraded,'' as he called it, back to XP.

Users' early complaints aren't likely to threaten Microsoft's dominance in operating systems. The various flavors of Windows today run 93 percent of PCs worldwide, according to the research group IDC. Last fiscal year, Windows accounted for about a third of Microsoft's total revenue of $44.3 billion.

Industry analysts say Vista adoption is plodding along as expected, with most consumers and businesses switching over as they replace old hardware with new. IDC analyst Al Gillen said he expects Vista will be installed on the vast majority of computers in about five years, the time it took for XP to reach 84 percent of PCs.

It's too early for industry watchers to know exactly how many people are using Vista. At the same time, it's hard to gauge Vista's success by comparing it to XP, because the PC market has grown tremendously in the last six years.

In early May, Microsoft said it had distributed 40 million copies of Vista, which costs $199 to $399 depending on the version. But it did not specify the number actually sold through to consumers, versus those shipped to computer makers like Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc.

Analysts noted that as many as 15 million of those copies could represent upgrade coupons given to XP buyers during the holidays, before Vista went on sale. Microsoft would not say how many of those customers installed the program, but Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder estimated just over 12 million U.S. consumers would have Vista by the end of the year, out of about 235 million PCs in the country.

Continued in article

Crumbling Buildings on Campus

"Halls Of Ivy—And Crumbling Plaster:  Amid a building boom, colleges scramble for funds to keep up aging facilities," Business Week, July 23, 2007 --- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_30/b4043056.htm 

College students and their parents have come to expect flashy campus amenities: towering research labs, sprawling B-school trading floors, and recreation centers with 50-foot rock-climbing walls. And the nation's universities have in recent years launched a multibillion-dollar construction frenzy akin to an arms race.

What you may not realize is that many existing buildings on the nation's campuses are falling apart. Blame old age and less-than-diligent maintenance. "When dollars are flowing into new facilities," says Terry W. Ruprecht, director of energy conservation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "they aren't flowing into old facilities. It's taking an existing problem and making it worse."

The issue is how schools will pay for this. According to conservative estimates, the nationwide repair bill could reach $40 billion. Asking well-heeled contributors to open their wallets isn't an answer since most philanthropists want to see their names on a fancy new building, not a fixer-upper. "Maintenance doesn't have that allure to a private donor," says James E. Alty, director of facilities services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a result, students and their parents are more and more expected to foot the bill, especially at state schools where funding is tight.

More than half the buildings on U.S. campuses were slapped up in the 1960s and '70s, a period when enrollment nearly doubled. Today those buildings are pushing 40. It's not a pretty picture. At Kansas State University, limestone exteriors are crumbling, the electrical system shoots sparks on humid days (workers call the control room the Frankenstein room), and the wind whistles through the eight-foot, single-pane windows at Waters Hall, whose deteriorating frames date back to 1923. The University of Illinois, meanwhile, has just completed a new $80 million institute for genomic research but has a backlog of repairs that will consume as much as $600 million. Chapel Hill's outstanding maintenance bill: $400 million, on top of 25 new building projects. And so it goes, from coast to coast.

To deal with the problem, schools are hiring consultants to conduct on-site assessments and prioritize maintenance projects. Others are seeking additional state funding, borrowing cash, or diverting existing budgetary funds to the most pressing projects. Several universities are adding a surcharge to tuition fees to help cover the outlay. At the Illinois campus of 41,000, students were hit with a $500 annual maintenance fee last fall--raised to $520 this year--to bring in more than $20 million a year for the campus' $573 million worth of high-priority repairs and replacements.

Sometimes the buildings are so outmoded that fixing them is just not worth it. The University of Texas at Houston is simply demolishing five buildings in need of updates and building anew. But even that is not a solution. Tearing down the 17-floor, limestone-and-steel Houston Main building next year will cost $6 million, not to mention the $250 million to build a new medical research and treatment facility in its place.

Having learned their lesson from the '60s building boom, universities these days are planning new projects with long-term costs in mind and investing in energy-efficient, low-maintenance designs. But there's only so much they can do. The shorter lifespan of the electronic gizmos found on the modern campus--interactive whiteboards, motorized window shades, and remotely operated lighting--means frequent upgrades. And with enrollments rising, the cost of accommodating additional students will rise, too. William A. Daigneau, head of facilities at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, says considerations such as these must be top of mind. "Once you've got that brand-new asset," he says, "you've got a liability."

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

20 Great, Free, Open Source Downloads
They're free, but that doesn't mean these apps aren't powerful. Created by folks who welcome help and improvements to their work, many of these programs are superior to packaged software.
Preston Gralla, PC World via The Washington Post, July 18, 2007 --- Click Here

Question
Should you drop your traditional phone service for a VOIP Internet Service?

It has been possible for several years now for Americans to dump their landline phone companies and pay much less with services that route calls over the Internet instead of over the regular phone network. For instance, the leader in this business, Vonage, charges just $25 a month for unlimited local and long-distance calling in the U.S. and Canada, much less than most traditional plans. But relatively few Americans have adopted these alternatives, which are called voice over Internet protocol services, or VOIP, for short. Some consumers avoid the move because VOIP services can't connect to 911 emergency call centers in the traditional manner, and must use workarounds. Others worry that if their Internet service goes out, so does their phone service.
Walter S. Mossberg, "Ooma Puts Out a Call To Ditch Landlines For Web-Based Service," The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2007, Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118479961688970874.html
Jensen Comment
This article also has a video by Walt Mosberg.

"Better Digital Photos at Your Fingertips:  Two Cameras Use Big Touch Screens To View, Edit Shots," by Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal, July 18, 2007; Page D3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118471291497769547.html

This week, I tested two $300 digital cameras from Hewlett-Packard Co. and Pentax Imaging Co. that use large touch screens: the HP Photosmart R937 and the Optio T30. Both took gorgeous photographs, but I focused on how touch screens changed the way I used each camera, and found it took me far less time to become acquainted with functions thanks to the more direct nature of on-screen buttons. For example, left and right arrows that appeared on-screen beside an image could be touched to move from one photo to the next, while a tiny on-screen trash bin icon deleted pics once pressed. In-camera editing was also made simpler with these screens.

But because these camera screens are multifunctional, they must be clearly visible at all times -- even in bright light or sunshine -- and I found myself squinting to see both screens in the sunlight. In situations like this, an optical viewfinder would at least let you clearly see the subject of photos. On both cameras, the review or playback buttons remained as physical buttons, rather than touch-screen buttons.

The touch technology in these camera screens isn't as advanced as "multi-touch," which is used in Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Microsoft Corp.'s Surface Computing. But it is incredibly useful and will change the way you use your digital camera.

While the HP Photosmart R937 turns heads with its giant 3.6-inch screen, this device is too big and heavy to be categorized as a pocket camera. The Pentax Optio T30's generous three-inch screen is smaller than that of the HP, helping this camera retain the fashionably thin look sought after in the pocket camera category.

The technical specifications of the H-P and Pentax cameras are quite comparable. They offer 8 and 7.1 megapixels, respectively, with 3x optical zoom lenses and digital image stabilization technology to aid shaky hands. Pentax says its Optio T30 will last for 200 shots on a full battery, while H-P claims 190 shots.

Continued in article

"States quick to take advantage of new nexus non-rules," AccountingWeb, July 18, 2007 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=103779

It was only a couple of weeks ago that we reported the U.S. Supreme Court had refused to hear two cases that would have addressed the issue of substantial economic presence in a state being enough to constitute nexus. In Lanco, Inc. v. Director U.S. and FIA Card Services N.A. f/k/a MBNA America Bank, N.A. v. Commissioner, U.S., NJ and West Virginia chose to apply income taxes on corporations that had no physical presence in the state. In Lanco, A Delaware-based company licenses trademarks to women's apparel stores in New Jersey. In MBNA, West Virginia took the position that the bank had an economic presence in the state through its credit card customers.

Other states are joining New Jersey and West Virginia with legislation supporting taxation without physical presence. In New Hampshire, a new law defines in-state business to include business with a "substantial economic presence" and permits the state to collect its business profits tax on such out-of-state companies doing business in the state. This provision of the New Hampshire law is effective July 1.

Continued in article

A bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that would require businesses to have a physical presence in a state in order to be subject to income and "other business activity taxes." This proposed legislation is offered in direct response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court refusal to consider two cases wherein states assessed income and franchise taxes on companies with no physical presence in the state.
"Senate fights back on recent Supreme Court nexus issue," AccountingWeb, July 2007 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=103743

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes Are the rule.

Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat.

Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he Tries to think.

Tax his cigars, Tax his beer s, If he cries, then Tax his tears.

Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways To tax his ass

Tax all he has Then let him know That you won't be done Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers, Then tax him some more, Tax him till He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in Which he's laid.

Put these words upon his tomb, "Taxes drove me to my doom..."

When he's gone, Do not relax, Its time to apply The inheritance tax.

Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax CDL license Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Excise Taxes Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax, Fuel permit tax Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon) Gross Receipts Tax Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Interest expense Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Luxury Taxes Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Personal Property Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service charge taxes Social Security Tax Road usage taxes Sales Tax Recreational Vehicle Tax School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone federal excise tax Telephone federal universal service fee tax Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax Telephone state and local tax Telephone usage charge tax Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax

COMMENTS: Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperou s in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids

What the hell happened?

Can you spell "politicians!"

From The Washington Post on July 21, 2007

Which company became the top online destination after Nielsen/NetRatings changed the way it rates Web sites?

A. Yahoo
B. Google
C. AOL
D. MSN

From The Washington Post on July 17, 2007

When will global mobile phone use equal about half the world's population?

A. 2007
B. 2008
C. 2009
D. 2010

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

July 16, 2007

• High-Sugar Foods Threaten Sight?
• U.S. Obesity Set to Boom
• Mixed Report for Kids' Health
• New Meningitis Vaccine Schedule
• Memory Suppression Probed

July 18, 2007 

• Lung Surgery for TB Patient
• Veggie Booty Recall Broadened
• Gerber Recalls Organic Cereals
• Old Diabetes Drug Has Advantages
• High-Sugar Foods Threaten Sight?

Features

• Hot Days Can Make People Sicker
• The New Beverly Hills Diet
• 13 Habits to Improve Your Life
• Women and Heart Disease
• Avoid Kidney Stones This Summer

Healthy Living A-Z

July 20, 2007

• Botulism Risk Sparks Chili Sauce
• Easy-Bake Ovens Recalled
• 6 Heart Disease Genes Found
• Junk Food Ads Won’t Target Kids
• Implantable Birth Control Works

 

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.
Mark Twain --- Click Here

Stealing from the Poor
Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan of George Washington University said the U.S. must stop looking elsewhere to fix its problems. He compared the practice to "poaching" and said it amounts to poor citizenship in the world community. At least 20 countries export more than 10 percent of their physician work forces to richer nations, Mullan said.Every doctor that leaves a poor nation leaves a hole that likely won't be filled, he said. "That creates enormous problems for the (source) country and for the educational and health leaders in the country who are attempting to provide healers," Mullan said.
PhysOrg, July 20, 2007 --- http://physorg.com/news104162752.html 

New technology transforming life for the deaf
Multi-function phones, webcams and other new technological innovations have transformed the lives of the hard of hearing, delegates at an international congress of the deaf said Tuesday. "Technology is important for the deaf community. There's the internet, internet, webcams, email, SMS and chat systems," said Amparo Minguet, director of training at the institute for the deaf in the eastern city of Valencia. Minguet finds her little multi-function phone a godsend and like other participants at the congress of the World Federation of the Deaf under way in Madrid, finds new technology a boon bolstering face-to-face communication at an event such as this. Communicating via sign language, she points to her small flatscreen phone which she has placed on her knees after first activating the vibration mode. "Thanks to that I can easily stay in touch through receiving texts and checking my voice mail," Minguet reveals.
PhysOrg, July 17, 2007 --- http://physorg.com/news103887393.html

Bob Jensen's threads on education technologies for handicapped people are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped

Research study describes the role part of the brain plays in memory
A research with experimental rats carried out by the Institute of Neuroscience of the UAB describes the brain region connected to how our declarative memory functions.
PhysOrg, July 17, 2007 --- http://physorg.com/news103886624.html

Ten politically incorrect truths about human nature?

"Why blokes like blondes," by Ian Steward, Stuff.co.nz, July 18, 2007 --- http://www.stuff.co.nz/4131343a4501.html

Men like Barbie-doll blondes, beautiful people have more daughters and a mid-life crisis is not about a man getting old – it's about his wife getting old.

. . .

The authors billed their book on the Psychology Today website as "Ten politically incorrect truths about human nature".

The book contains justifications for other gems such as "Most women benefit from polygyny", "Most suicide bombers are Muslim" and "Having sons reduces the likelihood of divorce".

Kanazawa was a post-doctoral fellow at Canterbury University in evolutionary psychology. He now works at the London School of Economics.

Evolutionary psychology is the branch of psychology that seeks to understand humans by looking at the evolutionary goals the human brain evolved to meet.

Men's attraction to busty blondes is a manifestation of the evolved male desire to mate with young, healthy, fertile women, Kanazawa and Miller argue.

A small waist and large chest are signs of fertility, and blonde hair is a marker of youth as it normally turns to brown as a woman ages.

Natural selection has programmed humans to make the most of their assets reproductively.

Wealthy people have more boys because wealth and power are particularly useful to males, and beautiful people have more daughters as beauty is more useful to females.

The authors said this had been recognised and recorded all over the world. Royal families were typically male-heavy and "Americans who are rated `very attractive' have a 56 per cent chance of having a daughter for their first child compared with 48% for everyone else".

Kanazawa and Miller, an academic at Hokkaido University in Japan, admit their book could be seen as controversial but human nature was not "politically correct".

Canterbury University Professor Ken Strongman, formerly in the psychology department, said he had worked with Kanazawa and knew him to be a good scholar, although the book looked to be "popularised" and an attempt to "pull in the punters".

"A lot of the things he says are speculative," Strongman said. In evolutionary psychology, an "imaginative mind" could come up with justifications for just about anything, he said.

Associate Professor Victoria Grace, from Canterbury's sociology and anthropology department, said the explanations read like "just-so stories".

"Present at the Creation:  These works indelibly portray the lives of artists," by Meryle Secrest, The Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2007 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/fivebest/?id=110010366 

1. "William Morris" by Fiona MacCarthy (Knopf, 1995). Artist, poet, lecturer, businessman, politician, social reformer and environmentalist--no single description could encompass William Morris, who dominated the art world in the Victorian age. It is difficult nowadays to imagine why Morris's furious nostalgia for the medieval should have seemed so revolutionary. But he was appalled by the flood of cheap, ugly manufactured goods that followed the Industrial Revolution in Britain, and he campaigned to restore traditional crafts that had been a source of pride for generations. The poet and mystic in him revered the beautiful; the humanist worked selflessly for workers' rights. In Fiona MacCarthy's wonderful book, lavishly illustrated with drawings and black-and-white and color plates of Morris's designs, she writes: "When Morris was dying, one of his physicians diagnosed his disease as 'simply being William Morris and having done more work than most ten men.' " 2. "A Life of Picasso" by John Richardson (Random House, 1991, vol. 1; 1996, vol. 2). John Richardson, the author, editor, curator and all-around aesthete, has the ability to combine superb scholarship with a delicious style and unfailing wit. In the mid-1980s, then about 60, he embarked on a four-volume study of Pablo Picasso's life. It took him six years to publish the first volume (with a staggering 900 illustrations), covering the artist's life from 1881 to 1906. The second (1907-17) came five years later. At last, after more than a decade in the making, the third volume (1917-32) arrives this fall. It is joyous news, for Richardson's work so far is a paragon of biography-writing, rich with research and inspired in its insights. Richardson gives us Picasso in all his sensitive, brutal, vulnerable and cruel complexity. 3. "Savage Messiah" by H.S. Ede (Literary Guild, 1931). This portrait of French sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska begins in 1910, when he became infatuated with Sophie Brzeska, a 38-year-old Pole who had come to Paris determined to kill herself. She dropped that idea after meeting the 18-year-old artist. From this maternal figure Gaudier took not only a new last name but also a priceless confidence in his talent. He and Sophie soon moved to London, where Gaudier-Brzeska's sculpting increasingly took on an abstract quality that reflected his interest in primitive cultures--and, not incidentally, helped pioneer modern art in Britain. In 1914, he was a signatory (along with Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis and others) of the Vorticist Manifesto embracing the dynamism of modern life. With the outbreak of World War I, Gaudier-Brzeska joined the French army; he was killed in the trenches in June 1915 at age 24. After Sophie died a decade later in a mental asylum, British art collector H.S. Ede acquired much of the estate and went on to produce this fascinating account of a gifted artist's tragically short life. 4. "Augustus John" by Michael Holroyd (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1974). Michael Holroyd, a biographer's biographer, is particularly attuned to the problem of writing about the lives of artists. They tend to "translate all their energies into their work," he writes, leaving behind precious few clues about what they thought and felt. Then again, some artists save a bit of energy--as did Augustus John (1878-1961)--for living the sort of life outside bourgeois morality that is often expected of them. John was, to be sure, notoriously absent-minded about money and careless about women. The result was that over time the British painter, as Holroyd puts it, was "simplified into a myth." Holroyd's accounting of John's life (a subject he revisited in 1996 with "Augustus John: The New Biography") reflects the author's relentless dedication to undoing this simplification. With meticulous attention to the facts, Holroyd gives us an Augustus John who spent much of his long career trying to come to terms with the rapturous reception--and corresponding expectations--that greeted his work as a young man. The messy personal affairs are all here, to be sure, but so is Johns's brilliant, troubled life as an artist--presented by Holroyd with sublime intelligence. 5. "Edward Hopper" by Gail Levin (Knopf, 1995). There is something about the work of Edward Hopper that uncannily evokes a decade. Look at "Nighthawks," his famous painting of a deserted street lit at night by a café, its inhabitants frozen on their bar stools. Once again it is the early 1940s. It took years for Hopper to refine his signature style, which infused seemingly innocent images, whether of small towns or of the Cape Cod landscapes he loved so much, with an inner intensity. Who he was, how he painted and why--these matters are exhaustively explored by Gail Levin, who has written widely about Hopper and based her authoritative account of his life on the diary of his wife, Jo. Levin's analyses of Hopper's work are astute and telling. But ultimately any study of such an introspective personality can take us only so far. In the end, we have to return to the evidence of the work itself and to its reflection of a universal truth that Hopper understood--that is, the essential loneliness of the human spirit. Ms. Secrest, who has written biographies of Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Rodgers and Salvador Dalí (among others), is the author of "Shoot the Widow: Adventures of a Biographer in Search of Her Subject" (Knopf, 2007).

 

Mandolin maker's killer had been deported 14 times
Mexican citizen receives 25 year prison sentence, will be eligible for parole in 7-1/2 years
Sheila Burke, Tennessean.com, July 20, 2007 --- Click Here

Mayor George Darden won't be facing state civil or criminal charges for hiring illegal aliens to work on an urban revitalization project in his village, but Department of Labor officials informed him yesterday that the $10 an hour he paid 10 men doesn't comply with the state's prevailing wage law and taxpayers will have to pay the illegals the difference of about $30 an hour.
"Illegals hired for $10, state says pay them $40:  New York Department of Labor cracks down on village official employing aliens for cash," WorldNetDaily, July 17, 2007 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56788 

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

CHEAP LABOR? 

Isn't that what the whole immigration issue is about? 

Business doesn't want to pay a decent wage 

Consumers don't want expensive produce 

Government will tell you Americans don't want the jobs performed by illegals

But the bottom line is cheap labor 
The phrase "cheap labor" is a myth, a farce, and a lie 
~ there is no such thing as "cheap labor." 

Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. 

He takes a job for $5.00 or $6.00/hour. 

At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the 
end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return,  
he gets an "earned income credit" of up to $3,200 free. 

He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent. 

He qualifies for food stamps. 

He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care for emergencies and maternity. 

His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school. 

He requires school districts to provide bilingual teachers and books. 

He qualifies for relief from high energy bills. 

If he becomes, aged, blind or disabled, he qualifies for SSI disability benefits. 

Once qualified for SSI he can qualifies for Medicare the rest of his life. 

His children born on U.S. soil are U.S. citizens with full benefits that citizenship entails.

But he does work hard at jobs citizens shun and his employers exploit his "cheap" labor at the 
expense of taxpayers.

Jensen Comment
Messages like the one above cut both ways. Those against amnesty and guest worker legislation
sometimes fail to see that the taxpayer subsidies are going, in huge measure, to the employers
rather than the workers themselves. Taxpayers are paying the benefits that employers would 
otherwise have to pay for such things as health insurance, worker compensation,etc. But such 
messages do point out that there may be no such thing as cheap labor following humanitarian 
legislation providing substantial added tax collections to illegal workers above and beyond 
the low wages often paid by illegally by stingy employers. Sadly a whole lot of illegal 
employment takes place using cash in ways that denies workers some of the legislated benefits
extended to illegal immigrant workers. With so little economic opportunity in Mexico for
honest and hard workers, it's terrible that they're forced to make illegal entry into the U.S.

I never could figure out why being born on U.S. soil in and of itself is all that's needed 
for full citizenship. 

Scroll down to the Letter to Grownups --- http://www.abeautifulrevolution.com/

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

ADULT: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.

BEAUTY PARLOR: A place where women curl up and dye.

CANNIBAL: Someone who is fed up with people.

CHICKENS: The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE: A body that keeps minutes and wast es hours.

DUST: Mud with the juice squeezed out.

EGOTIST: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

HANDKERCHIEF: Cold Storage.

INFLATION: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

MOSQUITO: An insect that makes you like flies better.

RAISIN: Grape with a sunburn.

SECRET: Something you tell to one person at a time.

SKELETON: A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.

TOOTHACHE: The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW: One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

YAWN: An honest opinion openly expressed.

WRINKLES: Something other people have. (I have character lines.)

Found in Restaurants --- http://rinkworks.com/said/restaurants.shtml

Menus:

• "Ham and Cheese - $2.50. Cheese and Ham - $2.90." -- On a menu.

   

• "Our whipped butter is made with margarine." -- On a menu.

   

• "7 ounces of choice sirloin steak, boiled to your likeness and smothered with golden fried onion rings." -- On a menu.

   

• "We dare you Burger for two (Served on a Stretcher) - A Whole Loaf of Crunchy French Bread running end to end with Broiled Hamburger topped with melted Yellow American Cheese, Lettuce, and Tomato. Accompanied by a mound of French Fried Potatoes, Red Pepper Relish, Ketchup, and Pickle Wedges. Delivered to your Table by Two Waitresses on a stretcher." -- On a menu of a restaurant in Danvers, Massachusetts.

Signs:

• "Open seven days a week. Closed Sundays." -- On the bottom of a pizza parlor's take-out menu.

   

• "Parking for drive-through customers only." -- A sign at a McDonald's in California.

   

• "We are Handicapped - Friendly. For example, if you are blind, we will read the menu for you." -- A notice in a restaurant.

   

• "Eat Here - Get Gas" -- A sign at a gas station.

   

• "Hot drinks to take out or sit in." -- A sign on a cafe.
  
   
• "Our Infamous Steaks" -- A sign at a restaurant in Raleigh, NC.

   

• "Now Hiring
  Sausage Biscuits
  $1"
  -- A sign at a McDonald's.

   

• "NOW HIRING
  TWO FRENCH DIPS
  FOR TWO DOLLARS."
  -- A sign at an Arby's in North Bend, Washington.

   

• "Please consume all food on premises." -- A sign at a Souplantation restaurant.

More --- http://rinkworks.com/said/restaurants.shtml

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

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Three Finance Blogs

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

Some Accounting Blogs

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

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

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaching Materials (especially video) from PBS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accountancy Discussion ListServs:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Emeritus Accountancy Professor from Trinity University
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone:  603-823-8482 
Email:  rjensen@trinity.edu