Bob Jensen's technology, business, economics, and
accounting glossaries ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245gloss.htm
Free pass to the "most comprehensive online research storehouse"
It's a lofty ambition -- the Internet equivalent of
nonprofit public television: a user-supported resource that pays top
academics to create authoritative maps, articles, and links to third-party
content related to virtually any scholarly topic. But the vast scope of the
project hasn't stopped former high-flying Silicon Valley entrepreneur Joe
Firmage from building Digital Universe, a commercial-free storehouse of
information four years in the making.
"A Free Online Encyclopedia: Digital Universe, a nonprofit website,
aims to be the most comprehensive online research storehouse," MIT's
Technology Review, March 6, 2006 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/TR/wtr_16512,323,p1.html
The Digital Universe site is at
http://www.digitaluniverse.net/
Of course never forget the open sharing encyclopedia blockbuster
called Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
And then if you want to know who stuff really works, go to
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
Bob Jensen's links to electronic literature
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Bob Jensen's
Search Helpers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm
Search for Websites
Search for People and Missing Persons
Searching for Companies
Librarian's Index to the Internet
Library Spot
Electronic Books Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Thesauruses, and Glossaries
In particular note the electronic book and journal finders at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#ElectronicBooks
Literary Terms ---
http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/index.html
GREAT HELPERS FOR WRITERS: ADD
THESE TO YOUR LIST OF FAVORITES
Question
How can you find a word's definition, synonym, antonym, rhymes, and many
other helpers related to the word, including where it appears in literature?
Answer
This is a GREAT helper site!
Go to Lycos Zone's RhymeZone ---
http://www.rhymezone.com/
Find rhymes
Find synonyms
Find antonyms
Find definition
Appears in definition of
Find related words
Find similar sounding words
Find homophones (two words pronounced in the same way that have different
meanings and/or spellings)
Find similar spellings
Match consonants only
Match these letters
Search in Shakespeare
Search for quotations
Search for Quotations ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default.htm#quotations
RHYMING DICTIONARY AND THESAURUS ---
http://rhyme.poetry.com
Another GREAT site is from the Link Grammar Group at Carnegie Mellon
University ---
http://bobo.link.cs.cmu.edu/dougb/playground.html
Elook Dictionary -
http://www.elook.org/dictionary/ Design with speed in mind, its
all about finding definitions fast. It also features a FireFox extension so
that users can look up definitions directly -
http://www.elook.org/firefox.html
Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools ---
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/
Resources offered by the Link Grammar Group
at Carnegie Mellon
Resources offered by other groups at Carnegie Mellon
Resources offered by other institutions worldwide
ArtLex Art Dictionary ---
http://www.artlex.com/
"Vocabulary on the Web," by Carol S. Holzberg, Technology &
Learning, September 2003, pp. 46-47 ---
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=13100803
Words constitute the stuff and fluff of all oral
and written communication. Without them, there could be no
self-expression, theatrical performance, or song. They create binding
contracts, establish political borders, and cast magical spells. Countries
go to war over thoughtless words uttered in haste. Children make life
choices based (in part) on grownups' words of praise and encouragement.
Poems weave word tapestries of intense emotions. SAT and other
standardized tests measure individual word skill. The Internet can help
students develop a strong vocabulary. For increased word power, visit the
following Web sites:
Vocabulary
University
Free word puzzles and other vocabulary enrichment tools build word skills
at this Web site suitable for individuals interested in developing a
richer personal vocabulary, teachers looking to enhance classroom
curriculum, and students in home-schooling and ESL programs. Interactive
puzzles, fill-in-the-blank games, definition match activities, "rootonyms"
and thematic content tied to calendar events turn word-building work into
play.
A.Word.A.Day
Subscribe to this free word service and receive a daily Email from the
Wordsmith.org "wordserver" with a special word, its definition,
voiced pronunciation, etymology, usage in context example, quotation and
other interesting vocabulary tidbits. Visit the site to explore the
archives, which date back to March, 1994
Oxford
English Dictionary: Daily Word
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), with its 20-volume print or CD-ROM
format, is the unquestioned authority on words. Visit OED Online to
explore the site's free "word of the day." Each day, it features
a new word with pronunciation, spellings, etymology, quotations, and the
date this word entered the English language. You can also take advantage
of Welcome
to OED Online supporting simple and advanced search techniques to help
you find the meaning of any word in the OED dictionary.
Dictionary.com
Another free Word of the Day Email service offering daily Emails with a
definition and sample sentences from literature, newspapers, magazines,
and other published sources showing how the word is used in context. Other
free vocabulary learning activities include crossword and word search
puzzles (updated daily) which provide access to word definitions contained
in the numerous dictionaries hosted at the site, including older editions
of the American Heritage Dictionary, Webster's Revised Unabridged
Dictionary, WordNet, The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing, Jargon
File, and Acronym Finder. Dictionary.com's featured word games (e.g.,
Cryptogram, Hangman, Maze, Phrase Invaders and Slide Solve) are available
only to subscribers who pay $3/month or $20/year.
Merriam-Webster
OnLine: The Language Center
Several vocabulary building tools available free of charge here include a
searchable dictionary keyed to the print version of Merriam-Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition. Other no-cost services include a Word
of the Day (via Email), Word Games (Definition Demolition, Transform
Brainstorm, Flip Flop, and Match Maker) and Word from the Lighter Side
featuring articles on word usage in different times and places. Paid
subscribers gain access to premium content at
Merriam-WebsterCollegiate.com,
which hosts the recently published Eleventh Edition of the Merriam-Webster
Collegiate Dictionary, in addition to the Collegiate Thesaurus, Collegiate
Encyclopedia, and Merriam-Webster's Spanish-English Dictionary.
Merriam-Webster's
Vocabulary Builder
Many English words we use today come from Greek and Latin. At the free
Vocabulary Builder Web site (based on a book and CD-ROM of the same name)
you can brush up on those English words complete with pronunciations,
definitions, and contextual examples, and discover the meanings of 200
words which derive from mythological names. Once you've mastered the
content at this site, take the online quiz to see how much you know!
TravLang
Travel & Language Services
Gain entry to the magical world of other cultures by taking advantage of a
host of free foreign language services at this Web site. You can explore
Travlang's
Word of the Day with its multi-language translations and
pronunciations of a new word each day, and Ergane, a Windows-based
multilingual translation dictionary that uses the artificial language of
Esperanto to translate words and phrases from one natural application to
another. Travlang also markets several low-priced foreign language
learning products including pocket voice translators, linguistic
microcomputers, and software dictionaries.
SuperKids
Educational Software Review
This site provides a powerful combination of tools for educational play.
You'll find several entertaining tools and games to improve spelling and
vocabulary skills, including Word of the Day (organized by grade level and
offering SAT vocabulary review), Hangman, Hidden Word Puzzles (PC only),
Word Scrambler, TextTwist, and WHATword? The games are interactive and
played online. For example, WHATword (a Java applet) challenges players to
rearrange letters on a grid to form as many words as possible before time
runs out. Higher points are awarded if words match target game words.
Hangman offers theme-based puzzles using words from Shakespeare, SAT
tests, history, geography and science.
ARTFL
Project: Roget's Thesaurus Search Form
Search the full text of the 1911 edition of Roget's Thesaurus
(supplemented July 1991) for synonyms to use in your writing projects and
check out the collection of synonyms available at
Lexical
FreeNet: Connected Thesaurus offering several tools for point and
click access including RhymeZone, Onelook Dictionary, and Shakespeare
Search, in addition to a conventional thesaurus. There's also an online
dictionary-thesaurus at
Wordsmyth.
Roget's
II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. 1995
The online version of Houghton Mifflin's popular word book includes a
searchable database of 35,000 synonyms and more than 250,000
cross-references. However, it's only one of several components in
Bartleby's
American Heritage Reference Collection which also features the
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4rth edition (2000)
containing more than 90,000 entries and 70,000 audio pronunciations and
the American Heritage Book of English Usage, 1996 offering an inside look
at grammar, word formation, gender, and scientific forms.
Web
Thesaurus Compendium
This user-friendly thesaurus portal provides easy access to several Web
based synonym collections. You can search for a particular thesaurus
alphabetically or by subject. Topics include aerospace, archeology,
chemistry, government, Egypt, geography, and folk culture.
SuperVoca.com:
Your Vocabulary Builder Site
It's easy to build word power using the tools available at this Web site.
Test your word skills (20 questions at a time) by taking timed analogy,
antonym, GRE Vocabulary and TOEFL/TOEIC Vocabulary multiple-choice
quizzes. To review missed questions or view your scores, you'll need to
register for a free subscription. You can also play Hangman (without
hints), view GRE word lists (complete with definitions provided by
Merriam-Webster Online and take word frequency tests using data derived
from popular newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post,
Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and USA Today.
Cknow.com: Definitions/ Acronyms/
Abbreviations http://www.cknow.com/ckinfo/
There's
a great Australian Slang Dictionary at
http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html
Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun ---
http://www.vocabulary.co.il/
For difficult terms or phrases, I sometimes have better luck at
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
The Old Farmer's Almanac
http://www.almanac.com/index.php
National Climatic Data Center ---
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html
MakingMusic 2 (Encyclopedia of Musical
Instruments)
http://homepage.mac.com/davidahmed/makingmusic.html
A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names
http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/
The World Fact Book 2002
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Encyclopedia
http://www.glbtq.com/
Wiley Interscience: Scientific and
Technical Acronyms, Symbols, and Abbreviations ---
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/st
Facts and statistics (Fast Facts) ---
http://gwu.edu/~gprice/handbook.htm
Economic Statistics
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics
The Glossarist --- http://www.glossarist.com/
My minor disappointment is that under the category "Business"
there is no sub-category for accounting. My major disappointment is
that The Glossarist misses many of our most important Business
glossaries. But credit must be given where credit is due. The
Glossarist links us to thousands of excellent glossaries.
Links to Nearly 5,000 Glossaries
|
|
Perseus Greek and Latin Vocabulary Tool ---
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/PR/vocab.ann.html
Visual Thesaurus ---
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/desktop/index.jsp
Bob Jensen's helpers for finding glossaries, may of which are missed by
The Glossarist, can be found at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245gloss.htm
Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
No longer do you have to install
Guru
(now called Atomica)
to look up a word instantly on your browser screen. I used to look up
words with Guru's free online dictionary, but the required (Alt click) key stroke would
override some of the functionality of other software such as Photoshop that uses
the same key stroke combination. I had to uninstall Guru for that reason.
Free Dictionary and Thesaurus Lookup (You may want
to add this link to your Browser Favorites/Bookmarks)
I find it slow and limited as to terms, but you can enter a word and get a free
dictionary definition (with audio pronunciation) or thesaurus listing of
synonyms at http://www.m-w.com/home.htm
You can also get a free browser dictionary link for Web pages ---
http://www.m-w.com/promos/button/button.htm
The free dictionary from Merriam-Webster is quick and easy to install and
use. And there are no dedicated keystroke overrides. However, to be
honest with you, I prefer to type or paste in the word at
http://www.m-w.com/promos/button/button.htm
Looking up Words on the Web Just Got Easier and
Better --- http://www.m-w.com/promos/button/button.htm
Home Collegiate Dictionary Collegiate Thesaurus Word
of the Day Word Games Word for the Wise Books and CDs Network Options The
Lighter Side Language Info Zone Inkwell to Internet Customer Service Site Map
with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Lookup Button! Add this helpful new tool
to your browser's toolbar, then just highlight a word in a Web page and click
the button.
It's free -- and easy to install. Just follow the
instructions to add the Dictionary Lookup Button to your Internet Explorer or
Netscape Communicator toolbar. (Macintosh users, see our Mac FAQ.)
Warning:
The Dictionary Lookup Button may not operate properly when used with Web pages
that include frames or other dynamic features.
Some installation pointers from Bob Jensen
- Click on (View, Toolbars) and make sure your Links Toolbar is visible in
Internet Explorer
- Clean up your Links Toolbar by eliminating unwanted links
- Read the Dictionary installation instructions at
http://www.m-w.com/promos/button/button.htm
- Point to the underlined word "Dictionary"
and drag the word to the Links Toolbar.
To look up a word while you are in Internet Explorer, you should do as
follows:
- While on a Web page in Internet Explorer, select the entire word that you
want to look up
- Click on the Dictionary icon in the Links Toolbar of Internet Explorer
- Wait for the definitions page to pop up and read the definitions
- Click on the Internet Explorer Back button to return to the page your were
reading
Encyclopedia Britannica: The 1911 Edition (History)
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/
Dictionary of Victorian London
http://www.victorianlondon.org/
A great listing of links ---
http://www.jefferson.lib.la.us/reftestp.htm
Show Number 407 of the Digital Duo has a nice summary of online encyclopedias
and dictionaries. Go to
http://www.digitalduo.com/407_dig.html
Major Electronic Encyclopedias
I shortened this link to
http://snurl.com/JensenBritannica
Earlier links are as follows:
Britannica CD 2001 Deluxe Edition
Britannica
Chicago, IL
(800) 323-1229
www.britannica.com
Encarta Encyclopedia 2001
Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2001
Encarta Interactive World Atlas 2001
Encarta World English Dictionary 2001
Microsoft
Redmond, WA
(425) 882-8080
www.encarta.msn.com
War Collection Media Packs
ABC-CLIO Schools
Santa Barbara, CA
(800) 368-6868
www.abc-clio.com
Encyclopedia Mythica (An
Encyclopedia of Ancient Mythology, Folklore, and Legend)
http://www.pantheon.org/mythica.html
Bob Jensen's threads on history and
literature are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#History
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2004-2005 edition available now!
--- http://www.census.gov/statab/www/
Bob Jensen's threads on economic statistics are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics
CIA: The World Factbook 2005
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
Bob Jensen's bookmarks for economic statistics are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics
"Not Your Father's Encyclopedia," by Kendra Mayfield, Wired News,
January 28, 2003 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57364,00.html
One of the Web's first open-source encyclopedias
has reached a milestone, just two years since its inception.
Last week, the English-language version of
Wikipedia,
a free multilingual encyclopedia created entirely by volunteers on the
Internet, published its 100,000th article. More than 37,000 articles
populate the non-English editions.
Unlike traditional encyclopedias, which are
written and edited by professionals, Wikipedia is the result of work by
thousands of volunteers. Anyone can contribute an article -- or edit an
existing one -- at any time.
The site runs on
Wiki
software, a collaborative application that allows users to
collectively author Web documents without having to register first.
"People from very diverse backgrounds can
agree on what can be in an encyclopedia article, even if they can't agree
on something else," said Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.
Wikipedia topics range from Internet terms, such
as spamming and
trolling,
to more mundane subjects, such as
unicycling.
Each page on the site contains an "Edit
this page" link, which users can click on to edit, reposition and
revise passages created by other writers. Once a user has made an edit,
those changes are posted immediately.
Users can also view older versions of a page,
discuss the page, view links on a page or see related changes. These
options allow contributors to constantly refine and comment upon entries.
All articles are covered by the Free Software
Foundation's
GNU
Free Documentation License, which allows anyone to reuse the entries
for any purpose, including commercially, as long as they preserve that
same right to others and provide proper credit to Wikipedia. This
open-content license ensures that Wikipedia's content will always remain
free.
"It's a guarantee to contributors that their
work is non-proprietary," Wales said. "It's not something that
any one person or organization can take and restrict in any way. It really
encourages people to contribute."
The project employs a
Neutral
Point of View policy, which encourages contributors to write articles
without bias, represent all views fairly and to attribute controversial
opinions, rather than stating them as fact.
"This makes it possible for political and
philosophical foes to work together, often with excellent results,"
agreed Larry Sanger, co-founder and former chief organizer of Wikipedia.
But since neutrality is hard to maintain,
"it's understandable if a sizeable number of articles have noticeable
biases," said Sanger, who is also editor in chief of the free online,
peer-reviewed encyclopedia Nupedia.
Ensuring accuracy is also difficult. A core group
of regular contributors help monitor the site's
recent
changes page to quickly correct any errors and ensure that entries
aren't vandalized.
Continued at
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57364,00.html
The Wikipeda homepage is at
http://www.wikipedia.org/
Wikipedia
is a multilingual
project to create a complete and accurate
open
content encyclopedia. We started on January 15, 2001 and are already
working on 101702
articles
in the English version. Visit the
help
page and experiment in the
sandbox
to learn how you can edit any article right now.
Note that Wikipedia also has news documents and biographies of people
currently in the news.
Wikipedia has a short document about the history of accounting (that
still includes Arthur Andersen as one of the Big Five) ---
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting
There is also a document (with great links) on
accounting reform ---
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_reform
Note that anybody can edit this page and add new things to improve the page.
Accounting reform
is change to
accounting
rules that goes beyond the enforcement of
standard
accounting practices and the elimination of "creative
accounting". It is advocated by those who consider the present
standards and practices of the profession wholly inadequate to the task of
measuring and reporting the activity, success, and failure of modern
enterprise, including government. "Accounting", says
Baruch
Lev, a notable proponent of such reform, "is about
accountability".
He notes that the present regime of accounting rules dates back about 500
years to Renaissance Italian practices.
Any comprehensive scheme of accounting reform is
a major professional and academic enterprise; Typically it requires
examination of the role of each of the fundamental
factors
of production, an analysis of
capital
indicating how many types there are and how each supports each factor of a
production process.
Limited reforms within professional
management
circles have led in the past to
activity-based
costing,
executive
value added,
regret
and risk
measures. A comprehensive scheme that would affect, for instance, the
United
Nations standards for national accounts, the rules of the
Bank
for International Settlements, or listing requirements on the major
stock
exchanges, would have to defend any change against critics that
advocated lesser reforms - making it extraordinarily difficult to achieve
simultaneous consent.
Marilyn
Waring, who deeply criticized the UN account system for systematically
under-valuing the social and economic contributions of women, stated also
that she had to read literally an entire room full of books in order even
to understand the standards applied today. It seems unlikely that most
advocates of reform have the stamina to do so, nor the background required
to debate each issue with
economists
or accountants
that build their careers on the detailed extension and improvement of
standards that already exist. Most critics considered reform prospects
bleak.
The critique from
ecological
economics was even more fundamental, claiming that most means of
measuring
well-being indicated that the
developed
nations were in a state of "uneconomic
growth" through the 1980s and 1990s, due mostly to failures of
measurement, most or all of which could be tracked back to the practice of
using the
Gross
National Product as a means of making
money
supply decisions. This is perhaps the most obvious and widely-held
critique of current national accounting and economic growth reporting
systems - the creators of the GNP and GDP measures themselves advise
against its use as a single measure of economic growth - but politicians
and press typically do so without caveat nor apology.
Not only do most businesses raise capital based
on numbers derived from current standards, here are extensive lobbying
efforts by the accounting industry to keep those standards roughly as they
are: complex, loopholed, and unable to be applied or audited easily by
laymen.
Heads of the
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission since the 1980s have
consistently complained that this lobbying makes it impossible for them to
apply meaningful reform, even in the wake of
accounting
scandals, e.g. that which felled
Arthur
Anderson in
2002.
Robert
Costanza,
Paul
Hawken,
Amory
Lovins and others who advocate a consistent global system for valuing
natural
capital, note that failures in this area are particularly grim:
promoting
extinction,
loss of
biodiversity,
climate
change and
destructive
weather for the sake of such "growth".
John
McMurtry characterized this as "the
cancer
stage of
capitalism".
What makes "economic sense" under
current standards, they argue, is in fact leading to ecological
catastrophe, social conflict, and economic chaos.
Notable advocates of accounting reform:
See also:
standard
accounting practices,
activity-based
costing,
executive
value added,
regret
and risk
Quotations
The
List:
