New
Bookmarks
Year 2003 Quarter 3: July 1-September 30 Additions to Bob
Jensen's Bookmarks
Bob Jensen at Trinity
University
We're
moved to the mountains on July 15, 2003 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm
For earlier editions of New
Bookmarks, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Click
here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search
Site.
This search engine may get you some hits from other professors at Trinity
University included with Bob Jensen's documents, but this may be to your
benefit.
This is really a good way to start our your day! --- http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~blagger/the_duel.html
A
sad song for the anniversary of September 11 --- http://www.link4u.com/littledidsheknow.htm
God Bless America --- http://www.dayspring.com/movies/webmovies/america.html
Choose a Date Below for Additions to the Bookmarks File
September 30, 2003 September 20, 2003 September 12, 2003 September 7, 2003
Bob
Jensen's New Bookmarks on September 30, 2003
Bob
Jensen at Trinity
University
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Click
here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search
Site.
This search engine may get you some hits from other professors at Trinity
University included with Bob Jensen's documents, but this may be to your
benefit.
New
From Bob Jensen --- Video Tutorials on Accounting for Derivative
Financial Instruments and Hedging Activities per FAS 133 in the U.S. and IAS 39
internationally --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm#VideoTutorials
Quotes of the Week
My
vision is to make the most diverse state on earth, and we have people from every
planet on earth in this state.
Gray Davis, California Governor as quoted in Time Magazine, September 23,
2003.
One seems to be from a planet off the earth.
It
was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "always do
what you are afraid to do."
Ralph
Waldo Emerson
David
Hume's human nature: Have you seen the report recently published in Nature of
the experiments with Capucian monkeys indicating that in those primates (our
very close cousins) a sense of fairness is perhaps an evolutionary legacy? The
experiment with pairs of monkeys involved retrieving a stone in exchange for a
slice of cucumber. After a few trials, one monkey began to receive a grape
instead of a cucumber. The monkey who continued receiving the cucumber altered
its behavior in quite notable ways (in the vernacular, it got POed). The authors
of the study suggested that perhaps Hume hasn't got human nature quite right.
Justice isn't a socially constructed, learned behavior, but perhaps the
Friedmanesque rapaciousness is. Why else would their mantra continue to be that
avarice needs incentives?
Paul Williams at North Carolina State University (in a September 22, 2003 email
message)
You can read an abstract of the article at http://www.nature.com/nature/links/030918/030918-9.html
New
York State Attorney General Eliott Spitzer's charges of improper trading
practices by several leading mutual fund families are another blow to public
trust in financial institutions. Mutual funds have been the place you would
advise the most unsophisticated investors to go: Mutual funds were designed for
grandpa and grandma, and repeatedly recommended to them by all kinds of
benevolent authorities. Thus scandals in the mutual fund sector are potentially
much more damaging to public trust in our financial institutions than are
scandals in other sectors -- such as the one playing out in the New York Stock
Exchange right now.
See Robert Shiller's article --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud093003.htm
The
over-the-counter vanilla interest rate derivatives market grew 24% in the first
six months of the year, to $123.90 trillion
in notional outstanding, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives
Association. The growth alone in interest rate notionals represents almost nine
times the value of the entire credit derivatives market, which itself grew 25%
to $2.69 trillion. "The increase in interest rate derivatives outstanding
reflects the need by market participants for risk management tools during a
period of bond market and exchange rate volatility," said Isda chief
executive Robert Pickel. Equity derivatives - including equity swaps, options
and forwards – grew 14% to $2.78 trillion.
Risk News Weekly on September 26, 2003
This gives you some idea of how interest rate swaps have grown in popularity
since they were invented in 1984. Bob Jensen's latest video on accounting
for interest rate swaps can be found at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5341/fas133/WindowsMedia/
Click on 030FAS133InterestRateSwapAccounting.wmv
'Fred,
where is north?'
'North? North is there, my love.
The brook runs west.'
'West-running Brook then call it.'
(West-running Brook men call it to this day.)
'What does it think it's doing running west
When all the other country brooks flow east
To reach the ocean? It must be the brook
Can trust itself to go by contraries
The way I can with you--and you with me--
Because we're--we're--I don't know what we are.
What are we?'
'Young or new?'
"West Running Brook" by Robert Frost
I am fortunate to have the Robert Frost home and museum within a short walk from
my new house in the White Mountains. You can see some pictures of his old home
at http://www.simplybicycling.com/sugarhill.htm
Bob Jensen's working draft of accounting and finance scandals for September 2003 can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud093003.htm
Beware of the fine print in popular
gift cards issued by major stores --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud093003.htm
Each $50 card may decline by as much as 5% per month even though you paid full
value up front. Looks like a consumer rip off from the big chain
retailers.
When the
Manhattan Institute's researchers added it all up, the result was staggering:
Not only have tort costs risen much faster than either inflation or GDP, the
estimated $40 billion in revenues our tort warriors took in for 2001 was 50%
more than Microsoft or Intel and double that of Coca-Cola.
See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud093003.htm
The Specialist
Myth
Question
Who are the real bad guys that paid the NYSE's Richard Grasso nearly $180+
million per year to cover their evil ways? They willingly paid this
because Grasso was so darn good at his job protecting them.
Answer:
The best account of the inherent corruption in the NYSE system that I've read is
an editorial by John C. Bogle (founder of the huge Vanguard Group) that appears
on the Editorial Page (Page A10) of the September 19, 2003 edition of The
Wall Street Journal --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud093003.htm
From the Bottom of the Stairs: What You See Is What You Get --- to Keep!
Soon your sunglasses could help you capture all the important moments of your life --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3111004.stm
A prototype pair of sunglasses with a camera built in to them has been created by Hewlett Packard researchers.
"It means you now have a wearable camera which nobody will notice and can take pictures while being involved in events," said Huw Robson from Hewlett Packard.
But experts say there could be privacy implications if this sort of technology becomes part of everyday life.
Continued in BBC News, September 18, 2003
When I got an email with the following message, I was taken to a link that, in turn, said I had to install some Korean language software. Beware of any site that wants to install software on your computer. Check with your Webmaster or other expert before installing such software.
Spy on Anyone by sending them an Email-Greeting Card! Spy Software records their emails, Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook, ACTUAL Computer Passwords, Chats, Keystrokes. Check up on your SPOUSE, KIDS, or EMPLOYEES!
"Chat room charge sign of times," Dave Ebner, Globe and Mail, September 25, 2003 --- http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030925.wmsnn0925/BNStory/Technology/
Microsoft Corp.'s decision to eliminate free chat rooms on its MSN Web sites and replace them with subscription-only rooms is likely the beginning of a trend that will see companies charging for until-now free Internet services.
OYEZ, OYEA,
OOOYAAYY!
For years this has been one of my illustrations of a great multimedia site.
In addition to having audio files on many, many Supreme Court cases, the site
has become much more of a news and archive site for law.
The OYEZ Project http://www.oyez.org
Please forward this link to the President of your college or university.
FAQs
Is there a demo version of Virtual U available? Not anymore because download the entire product now from our download page. Press may order for free a boxed copy of the software, manuals and press kit by contact Beth Bryant at 1-888-286-3540.
Aside from the open-ended play, what are the specific scenarios to play in Virtual U?
Scenario 1 Pay Faculty Better
Scenario 2 Allocate New Money
Scenario 3 Teach Better
Scenario 4 Improve Research Performance
Scenario 5 Win Games
Scenario 6 Reduce Tuition
Scenario 7 Respond to Enrollment Shifts
Scenario 8 Enroll More Minority Students
Scenario 9 Hire More Minority Faculty Members
Scenario 10 Balance the Budget
Note from Jensen:
A new scenario should probably be added on how to deal with the complex problem
of health insurance!
Virtual U. 2.1 http://www.virtual-u.org
Virtual U is designed to foster better understanding of management practices in American colleges and universities.
It provides students, teachers, and parents the unique opportunity to step into the decision-making shoes of a university president. Players are responsible for establishing and monitoring all the major components of an institution, including everything from faculty salaries to campus parking.
As players move around the Virtual U campus, they gather information needed to make decisions such as decreasing faculty teaching time or increasing athletic scholarships. However, as in a real college or university, the complexity and potential effects of each decision must be carefully considered. And the Virtual U Board of Trustees is monitoring every move.
Virtual U models the attitudes and behaviors of the academic community in five major areas of higher education management: Spending and income decisions such as operating budget, new hires, incoming donations, and management of the endowment; Faculty, course, and student scheduling issues; Admissions standards, university prestige, and student enrollment; Student housing, classrooms, and all other facilities; and Performance indicators.
Virtual U players select an institution type and strive for continuous improvement by setting, monitoring, and modifying a variety of institutional parameters and policies. Players are challenged to manage and improve their institution of higher education through techniques such as resource allocation, minority enrollment policies, and policies for promoting faculty, among others. Players watch the results of their decisions unfold in real- time. A letter of review from Virtual U's board is sent every "year," informing players of their progress.
For persons in and around the San
Antonio area, there may be some interest in the Lost Maples State Park Home Page
at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/lostmap/index.htm
It will be beautiful up there about a month from now.
September 24, 2003 reply from Jacob Tingle
Bob
FYI…Outdoor Rec is offering a trip to Lost Maples on Friday, November 7 (returning in the evening of Nov. 8). As always Fac/Staff are more than welcome to go on the trips. It would be a great opportunity to interact with students outside the classroom.
Trip Cost is only $20. Trip limit is 8.
Jacob K. Tingle
Trinity Recreational Sports
jacob.tingle@trinity.edu
210.999.8281
Bob Jensen's threads on San Antonio are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/sanantonio.htm
For persons in New England, the fall foliage time is now in the north and soon in the southern part of New England.
New Hampshire (slide the mouse across a date) --- http://www.visitnh.gov/foliagereports.html
Maine --- http://www.state.me.us/doc/foliage/
Vermont (Click on The Foliage button) --- http://www.foliage-vermont.com/
Upstate New York --- http://www.roundthebend.com/nysfoli.html
The foliage is at its peak in Sugar Hill. I added the following September 20, 2003 picture of the golf club house that is beside our barn (barn not shown is getting new roof and siding). This is the view of the Green Mountains of Vermont on the back side of our home. We can't quite see the golf club house through the trees, but we can see the Green Mountains from a slightly different angle. The colors were not yet peaked at the time of this picture --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm
Over 30,000 Free Academic Literature and Multimedia Items from EServer (including some "Bad Subjects") --- http://eserver.org
The EServer, founded in 1990, is now based at Iowa State University. We are increasing efforts to publish new works (31846 so far).
The Academy miscellaneous resources for students and faculty Art/Architecture links to art, architecture, and aesthetic theory Audio and Video audio recordings of scholarly presentations Bad Subjects political education for everyday life Books book-length nonfiction and miscellaneous literatures Calls for Papers calls for conference papers and journal articles Cultronix a journal of contemporary art and cultural theory Cultural Logic an electronic journal of marxist theory and practice Cultural Theory readings in cultural studies and critical theory Cyber Tech/Culture discussing links between technology and culture Drama a collection of plays, modern works and classics Early Modern Culture works and discussions in Renaissance studies Education resources for both students and teachers Eighteenth Century a site for eighteenth-century cultural history Electronic Labyrinth a study of the implications of hypertext for writers Feminism select resources in feminism and women's studies Fiction novels and short fiction, classics and new works Film & Television works in film, television and other media studies Gender/Sexuality some resources on gender, sex and sexuality Government materials in government, law, and their social implications History works and links in history and historiography Home Pages the personal home pages of EServer members Internet resources about the internet: guides, essays and articles Journals links to academic journals and popular magazines Languages resources in language studies and theory Libraries links to worldwide library catalogues Literary Events events for any date from literature and the arts The Mamet Review the journal of the David Mamet Society Marx & Engels a collection of writings in economic and social theory Multimedia a small collection of artwork, audio, graphics and video Music a vast collection of works in music and music theory Philosophy writings by modern and classical philosophers Pittsburgh information about the city and its neighborhoods Poetry original and classic verse, literary and poetic theory Race materials on race and ethnicity in the U.S. Recipes vegetarian recipes, and links to good related sites Reference select reference materials useful for research Rhetoric scholarly and pedagogical resources for rhetoricians Software freeware and shareware for your computer Sparks a publisher of fiction, poetry, music, art and spoken word Sudden original poetry that reflects imagination and intelligence Tech Comm Library a web portal for tech, sci and professional communication Thoreau Reader the works of American philosopher Henry D. Thoreau Web Design a site for discussion of new media design Zine375 writings about contemporary American life
September 22, 2003 message from a Trinity faculty member concerning the above EServer.org site:
Bob: You just made my day. This A.M. I couldn't get into the site you had sent but after lunch I tried again. I stumbled around and discovered Mark Twain's "Awful German Language", and since I had never read it before (and had about three years of badly instructed German) I began reading and have laughed constantly ever since. We always made comments about German (never so wittily as Twain, of course,) and he pulls them all together here. And your mail to Tiger Talk got me there.
From the National Institute of Drug
Abuse (Science Facts and Learning Games)
The Science Behind Drug Abuse --- http://www.teens.drugabuse.gov/
The NIDA for Teens Web site is brought to you by the scientists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Learn more about NIDA for Teens.
Marijuana floods the brain with pleasure-causing dopamine, forcing neurons to produce less of it naturally. Learn more facts on drugs.
Can one-time drug use lead to addiction? Dr. NIDA answers this and other frequently asked questions. Read on!
Have Fun and Learn
Sooo, if all this info is now in your brain, show what'cha know and play a game:
Dr. NIDA's Challenge - Explore a body to find out what happens when someone uses drugs. Take the challenge and see if you can build a better body.
Sara's Quest - Join Sara Bellum to explore the brain's response to different drugs!
You will need the Flash plug-in to play this gameNIDA Libs - Marijuana - Fill in the blanks to create your own article about Marijuana.
"Academic fraud runs rampant at major universities," by Mike Finger, San Antonio Express-News, September 2, 2003 --- http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=200&xlc=1058365&xld=200
The first time a coed casually walked up to him, introduced herself and offered to do his homework, it would have been natural for Terrance Simmons to be taken aback.
When he learned that his basketball coach at Minnesota, Clem Haskins, was being forced out as a result of massive NCAA rules violations, Simmons understandably could have been shocked.
And when he read this spring about another seemingly endless string of new academic fraud cases — involving people who somehow didn't learn from the 1999 scandal that was supposed to be a national wake-up call — one might have expected Simmons to be a bit dismayed.
But he wasn't.
None of it surprised him.
Because the way Simmons sees it, he knew the kind of world he was getting into from the very beginning.
He remembers sitting in his family's living room in Louisiana as a prized high school recruit. He remembers college coaches — "and we're talking about coaches from major universities," he said — giving him all kinds of reasons to join their programs.
Most of all, he remembers many of those recruiters making it quite clear that scholastic integrity wasn't exactly their top priority.
"They didn't come right out and say I didn't have to go to class," Simmons said, "but it wasn't very hard to read between the lines."
Likewise, it doesn't take many code-breaking skills to figure out that academic fraud has become a scourge of epic proportions in major college athletics.
In the past four years alone, the NCAA has doled out punishment nine times for academic infractions, ranging from grade tampering to improper use of tutors. That number doesn't even include all of the schools involved in the latest outbreak.
In the span of just a few weeks at the end of last season, the men's basketball teams at Fresno State, Georgia and St. Bonaventure all removed themselves from postseason play amid reports of fraud.
Those scandals were followed by accusations of similar violations at Fairfield and Missouri. The possibility of academic infractions hasn't been ruled out at Baylor, where the basketball program is already under intense scrutiny after the alleged murder of a player, the ensuing cover-up and the resignation of coach Dave Bliss.
Simmons, who graduated from Minnesota with a degree in communications and economics and wasn't involved in the violations that occurred while he played for the Golden Gophers, thinks the frequency of reported similar transgressions will grow before it subsides.
Continued in the article
Bob Jensen's threads on academic fraud and plagiarism are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm
Question
In terms of jobs, who are the winners and losers in the current economic
"recovery"?
Answer:
Actually education and health care are not doing to badly on a relative basis!
"Things Are Looking Up ... Unless You Want a Job This economic recovery really is different—and that has a lot of people worried. Should they be?" by Justin Fox and Anna Bernasek, FORTUNE, September 15, 2003 --- http://www.fortune.com/fortune/subs/article/0,15114,485656,00.html
The economic news has been almost all good lately. Manufacturing is on the rebound. Corporate profits are up. So are retail sales. In the U.S., third-quarter economic growth is expected to clock in at a close to 5% annual clip. Other major economies—even Japan's!—are finally showing signs of economic life.
It's almost enough to make you believe that after three years of economic coughs, fits, starts, and disappointment, we're finally in the clear. That's certainly the consensus on Wall Street. "I'm highly confident about the economy," says Jim Glassman, senior economist at J.P. Morgan Chase. "There's been a distinct change in mood. And whenever confidence in the outlook changes, the economy takes off."
But there's one statistic that keeps getting in the way of such positive thinking. The U.S. economy employs 2.7 million fewer people now than it did when the recession started in March 2001. The layoffs continue: In August, even as other economic indicators were coming up roses, another 93,000 jobs disappeared. According to the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the recession ended in November 2001. But the jobs recession didn't—almost two million jobs have been lost since then. "We are in a recovery, because output is growing," says one veteran member of the recession-dating committee, Conference Board economist Victor Zarnowitz. "But normally, output and labor growth go together."
| Employment change in selected industries since December 2001. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TIAA-CREF, the investment company that
manages pension plans for teachers, colleges, universities and research
institutions, cut 500 jobs, or about 8% of its work force.
The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106434056062057700,00.html?mod=mkts_main_news_hs_h
Academic Responsibility and Dilemma
A referee for a submission to a journal discovered that the paper he was reviewing had been previously published. Some questions raised are as follows for the editor that submitted the paper to the referee (I assume that the refereeing process is blind such that the referee cannot identify the author of the submitted paper):
It always seems to me that authors who play this game should be punished more than merely having an editor reject the paper without any other form of punishment. In the above instances, I mailed copies of all previous rejection letters to each editor. E-mail and listservs had not yet been invented.
A second message from the referee reads as follows:
This paper does not seem to be an innocent error. Author has attempted to crudely change the title of the paper (this is the only attempt of change!). The other paper is published in 2001 and NOT any recent one. The most important of all is that the author(s) have lifted printed diagrams as it is in picture formats from this published paper and not a single diagram is hand created. The worst of all is that particular published paper too has similar kind of problems at some places but could not get into the eyes of the editor or reviewers.
Jagdish Pathak, PhD
Assistant Professor of Accounting Systems
Odette School of Business
University of Windsor
401 Sunset
Windsor, N9B 3P4, ON
Canada
September 20 reply from Jagdish
Oh Bob! Your fifth alternative is horrendous where everyone will have to make most unethical choices, i.e. referee to recommend-editor to accept-publisher to publish and in the end we never know (except the editor, of course) who is the real author . Is it the same published authorship trying to have one more number or somebody else simply lifting from others published stuff?
Other than author, all the related parties may have to bear a big potential legal liability!
Jagdish Pathak,
September 20 Reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Yet Again Jagdish,
As long as you got me into old plagiarism stories, I will tell you another one (I may have mentioned this some years back on the AECM).
One of my very close colleagues, Professor S, earned a PhD in Organization Behavior from one of the top ten universities of the nation, let's say Prestige University X. After he graduated his first job was at University Y before we both joined the faculty at University Z. Student S's thesis advisor at Prestige University X made him return for a hearing regarding whether his PhD degree should be revoked since evidence was raised that portions of Student S's thesis were plagiarized.
Student (by then Assistant Professor) S was entirely confused by all this and swore that he did not plagiarize those passages supposedly taken from an article published by Accounting Professor A at Prestige University X. Further investigation of timing of article refereeing, etc. revealed that it was the other way around. Professor A actually plagiarized passages of the thesis of Student S.
Like at the ending of a who-done-it movie, the revocation hearing was abruptly adjourned, and the entire matter was hushed over. I would never have learned about this except that Student S had a few too many cocktails one night at a party and revealed the entire incident to me and several other close friends.
Years ago, Professor A at Prestige University X was a casual friend of mine who used to attend every American Accounting Association annual meeting. Until Student S revealed his secret, I always wondered why Professor A abruptly stopped attending AAA meetings and seemed to disappear from the scene. However, he's still listed in the Hasselback Directory as being on the faculty of Prestige University X and is probably a rather invisible professor among his own colleagues.
Student S eventually became a very young President of State University C.
Bob
"Yahoo Hopes Its New Service Turns Searchers Into Shoppers," by Mylene Mangalindan, The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10642735647966500,00.html?mod=todays%255Fus%255Fmarketplace%255Fhs
Yahoo Inc. wants to shake up shopping.
The Internet company is revamping its online shopping services to make it easier for users to find merchandise such as electronics, baby goods and music CDs. Starting Tuesday it plans to add tools to help Internet surfers make better side-by-side comparisons by criteria such as brand, price, features and consumer ratings of merchants.
Online comparison shopping is hardly a new idea, and Yahoo already offers some comparison features. But the Web giant's stepped-up focus could affect smaller e-commerce players and even the strategies of big online merchants such as Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. Yahoo plans to add similar improvements to other content areas of its network, such as movies, music, travel and autos.
The landscape of comparison-shopping services, including DealTime.com, mySimon, BizRate, and PriceGrabber, is highly fragmented -- so much so that Web-search giant Google Inc. caused an industrywide buzz last year when it unveiled just a test version of a shopping site dubbed Froogle.
Yahoo's move is another example of Chief Executive Terry Semel's campaign to use improved search technology to generate additional revenue. By providing better tools for users, it hopes to deliver more likely buyers to merchants and advertisers, allowing it to charge more for Web ads and referrals.
Yahoo also is making a subtle change in its business model for shopping, which may affect both the company's fortunes and the comprehensiveness of the service. While Yahoo now mainly gets shopping revenue from commissions on sales that originated on its site, the company plans to start charging merchants to guarantee inclusion in its new shopping search engine. Yahoo says it won't identify in the search results which merchants have paid such a fee.
The company says it still will be possible for merchants who don't pay for listings to have their products show up in comparisons. But there is no guarantee such information will be up to date, since these unpaid listings will reflect Yahoo's regular sweeps of information on the Web rather than data the paying merchants submit to the service. Yahoo said the paid inclusion program doesn't taint its product results because the items that show up in response to a consumer query are listed by relevance, not by order of which merchant paid to be included in the program.
Yahoo's large audience may make the new service seductive to online stores. Amazon, in fact, has decided to join the "paid inclusion" service, and is one of more than 100 big-name merchants Yahoo hopes to lure.
Bob Jensen's threads on eCommerce and eBusiness are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce.htm
The digital cable-TV revolution has a
problem: Many subscribing households quit every month, with viewers reluctant to
pay extra for channels they don't watch.
"Digital World Churns As Cable Subscribers Ignore Many Channels." by
Peter Grant, The Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106435876653748300,00.html?mod=todays%255Fus%255Fmarketplace%255Fhs
Selected Online Calculators
Business Valuation Calculators
Online Forecasting Calculators
A really
comprehensive listing of financial calculators from MathTools.net ---
http://www.mathtools.net/Applications/Finance_and_Economics/Software_and_Tools/Calculations/On-line_Calculators/index.html
I shortened the above link to http://snurl.com/MathTools
Great financial calculators at http://www.accountingweb.com
Look under Resources and then Calculators
Martindale's Calculators (STOCKS, BONDS, OPTIONS, COMMODITIES, FUTURES) --- http://www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators1C_1_Stock.html
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Calculators for Investors --- http://www.sec.gov/investor/tools.shtml
Many Other Online Calculators --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#080512Calculators
"(Hard Drive) Size Does Matter," by Reuters, Wired News, September 18, 2003 --- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60505,00.html
A group of computer owners has filed a lawsuit against some of the world's biggest makers of personal computers, claiming that their advertising deceptively overstates the true capacity of their hard drives.
The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, was filed earlier this week in Los Angeles Superior Court against Apple Computer, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba.
An interview with an economist who won a Nobel Prize. He places a lot of blame for the latest economic downturn on the popularity of the accountant's "bottom line."
"The Dark Side of the Boom," Wired Magazine, October 2003
To the downsized or those with withered 401(k)s, the '90s were a golden age. But don't remember the Clinton years too fondly, says Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. In his new book, The Roaring Nineties, the ex-World Bank honcho argues that all the prosperity masked some troubling trends - like accounting tricks and the rise of the disposable employee - and left us with an overly volatile economy. So much for progress.
Who deserves the most blame for the crash?
I identify three or four culprits. The deregulation movement went too far, too fast. Then I have to give some blame to the Fed. Greenspan gave the "irrational exuberance" speech but didn't do anything about it. And there was the bad accounting framework, which emphasized stock options and created a series of perverse incentives. Wall Street and Silicon Valley conspired to maintain those bad standards.But that economic climate led to a lot of innovation, especially in the Valley. The majority of innovation comes from public investment. Where did the Internet come from? The government. Radar? Jet engines? Publicly funded.
You come down hard on deregulation in your book, especially in the telecom sector. What about airline deregulation, which led to lower ticket prices? I don't like the word deregulation. I like to say "finding the right regulatory structure." For example, you shouldn't have a regulation about where you can locate an ATM. But you have to think about the conflicts of interest that we saw in banking.You claim too much R&D money was wasted on "useless software" and "unused fiber" in the '90s. Isn't it kind of early to know?
Over the long run, yes, those will be productive. The point is that market signals - like price - only work if you have the right information. We didn't have the right information because of the distortions caused by stock options.Will doing away with stock options put an end to market volatility?
There's no way to eliminate volatility. In the '90s, though, we did things that made us more susceptible to it. Two of the most important economic stabilizers, unemployment insurance and welfare, have been reduced. Then there's a mentality that all that matters is the bottom line. That subjects us to a lot more volatility in a downturn.
Question
Which is the more economical platform, Windows or Linux?
Answer
From Mitch Wagner in Information Week, September 19, 2003
A Gartner study concludes that Linux isn't cheaper than Windows on the desktop. Gartner says the cost of switching eats up free-software savings. One of the major costs is rewriting Windows applications to run on Linux.
The Gartner study pairs off nicely with a recent study from Forrester Research that found that Linux was a more expensive development platform than Windows.
The other reason this study is suspicious is that it falls prey to the Pee Wee Herman Critique Of Analyst Reports: "Duh. Tell me something I DON'T know." Linux is still not QUITE ready for most desktops. The really exciting thing about Linux on the desktop is not where it is now, it's how far the operating system has come in the past three years or so, and how far it can be expected to go in the near future. My crystal ball for late 2006 shows me lots of interesting headlines about Windows' eroding market share on the mainstream desktop. But not today. Today, your mainstream operating system choices on the desktop are Windows, Windows and Windows.
Page down to the end of the newsletter for links to the earlier Forrester study, along with my earlier discussion of it.
Also on InternetWeek.com today: Open source weblogger Don MacVittie says Microsoft's plans to increase integration in Windows will fail to achieve the goal of increased security.
Question
Which is the better PC operating system: Windows versus Mac?
Answer
"Behind the Myth: Macs Aren't Miraculous, They're Just Better
PCs," by Jeremy Wagstaff, The Wall Street Journal, September 24,
2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106442486955959100,00.html?mod=technology%255Ffeatured%255Fstories%255Fhs
The PowerBook is a sleek, svelte machine that dominates the room, quietly: no whirring drives or clunky CD trays. Slide your CD into a slot an ant couldn't climb through, let alone a house lizard, and it just disappears -- no extraneous flashing lights; indeed it's hard to tell whether the computer is actually on. The screen and desktop are a marvel to behold and use. (New, lighter, versions of the PowerBook were launched earlier this month.)
The iPod MP3 player is also a delight. The buttons take five minutes to master, making you wonder why anybody designs buttons any other way. It's not perfect sailing of course: The PowerBook heats up quickly. While operating wireless technologies, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, are much easier than on a PC -- two small icons tell you when both are working, I found that the iTunes music-downloading and organizing software would crash if it had problems accessing the Internet through Wi-Fi.
But these are quibbles. Apple has designed products to be proud of, and Windows users should not feel that by moving over to Apple they will need to forget everything they learned. It may not be what Apple was looking to do, but if you buy yourself a Mac -- and you should seriously consider it -- you're buying a better PC. Nothing more, nothing less.
Football is
popular because stupidity is popular.
Jorge
Luis Borges
Don't Weep for the Cowboys
Question
Why is Dallas Cowboys NFL team owner Jerry Jones dumb like a fox?
Answers
"Ride 'Em Cowboy," by John Helyar, Fortune, September 29, 2003 --- http://www.fortune.com/fortune/ceo/articles/0,15114,485659,00.html
That is one reason there's no business like sports business. In bad times an owner sometimes feels like he's being gang-tackled by 320-pound linemen. An NFL franchise is a private enterprise that customers—the fans—treat like a public institution. When their team wins, fans shout, "We're No. 1!" When their team stinks, fans believe the owners should stand for a recall vote. "It's a very hard, unforgiving business," says Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and a friend of Jerry Jones's. "You've got to be on your toes, and you've got to be flexible, and all that does is give you a chance. Over time you get beaten up pretty bad." In great times it almost seems too much fun to be a business. When Jerry Jones is hosting Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who is a huge Dallas fan, or taking a call from the President, who wants to extend Super Bowl congratulations, he might as well be a head of state. He runs a $200 million business yet gets more attention for his product than CEOs of $200 billion businesses. If Exxon Mobil has a great year, its CEO, Lee Raymond, likely gets vilified for high gasoline prices. If the Cowboys have a great year, Jerry Jones hoists the Vince Lombardi Trophy before 134 million TV viewers. Then he hits up Dallas-based Exxon Mobil to be a sponsor. Hey, Lee, you need the goodwill.
The savvy owner makes hay while the sun shines, and Jones has been just about the savviest. He leads the league in corporate sponsors, having signed scads of them to long-term deals when the Cowboys were hot and companies were hot to be associated with them. Jones charges his sponsors top dollar—Pepsi is paying $20 million for ten years—but gives them not just the usual stadium signs but his own top effort. "Jerry speaks to our sales meetings at 6:30 in the morning," says Barry Andrews, a Texas beer distributor whose Miller brand is a Cowboys sponsor. "He's one of a kind." What Jones understands is that the Cowboys are a brand, as surely as Miller Lite is. In that respect, whatever its other differences, the sports business is like all consumer products. A smart team doesn't just open the stadium gates and play games. It tries to build brand equity in its market and make its logo stand for something, whether it be the Chicago Cubs (lovable losers), the Los Angeles Lakers (flashy winners), or the Green Bay Packers (small-town America).
Microsoft is discontinuing its employee stock options program!
September 19, 2003 message from Elliot Kamlet SUNY Account [mailto:ekamlet@BINGHAMTON.EDU]
I would love to see the results of the research that shows what would have happened if fair value had been applied say 5 years ago in a random sample of companies. In other words, would BS or some other pricing model have worked?
Elliot Kamlet
Binghamton University
September 19, 2003 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Elliot,
I doubt that
anything would have worked five years ago except the Wizard's Crystal Ball that
always predicts "nothin' ain't worth nothin'."
Remember, Enron's "collapse" (I was tempted to use a plural
"p" word with a better connotation) burst the world's equity bubble
about four years ago such that every options valuation model badly overshot the
mark five years ago. In the midst of
enormous valuation errors, differences in valuations most likely are just noise.
But "options
are worth somethin' " according to the following article:
"Why Stock Options Still Rule," by Michael S. Malone, Wired News, September 19, 2003 --- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.10/start.html?pg=2
Nothing lures top talent like the chance to get really rich. Watch out, Microsoft (Microsoft dropped its stock options compensation program.)
A cabal of very strange bedfellows - federal regulators, union organizers, cynical politicians, and Microsoft - have teamed up to crush the dream of economic freedom for every working stiff in America. In the process, they may be unwittingly kicking off the next great entrepreneurial boom.
I'm talking about stock options. You remember those. Way back in the last century, options were the ticket to personal liberation; the one chance, besides organized crime and Lotto, for an everyday person to get rich. In those balmy days, options - which give the holder the right to buy or sell a company's stock at a specific price, by a specific date - were celebrated as the great egalitarian tool, spreading wealth according to hard work and merit.
They were also recognized as the fuel of entrepreneurial fire, driving the creation of new technologies, new products, and new companies. The US tech sector had perfected the use of options as a recruiting device and employee incentive, and in doing so became the fastest-growing, most innovative economic force in history.
Lately, though, options have become the bête noire of 21st-century corporate life. Ken Lay and Frank Quattrone face prison time for abusing them. The Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets accounting guidelines for public companies, is preparing to force US corporations to report stock options through "fair value" expensing.
Now, in what pundits are calling the final nail in the coffin, Microsoft is discontinuing its options program. No wonder it seems like the end of an era. Bill Gates may be the Prince of Darkness, but he's also a genius. If he says options are dead, who's to argue? Entrepreneurs, for starters. They want the same powerful tool at their disposal that Gates used to attract top-flight talent to a budding Microsoft. But if they're smart, they'll keep their mouths shut.
Continued in the essay.
Why you should think twice about using computers at Kinkos, libraries, airports, and other public access locations. This also applies to having your computer serviced by someone you don't know and trust. This link was forwarded by Glenn Gray.
From Microsoft BCentral --- http://bcentral.com/articles/komando/140.asp
"Danger, danger: 5 tips for using a public PC," by Kim Komando
There's a guy in New York who may have gotten into your personal business. If he did, he probably looted your online bank account.
Juju Jiang is serving time now after pleading guilty. But for a couple years, he bugged public computers at Kinko's with software that logged keystrokes. He used it to capture usernames and passwords. Some he used to steal money; others he sold on the Web.
He got caught when he manipulated a victim's home computer while she was present. She watched incredulously as he methodically searched her computer. He was using GoToMyPC, which allows travelers to manipulate their computers from afar. The victim had used GoToMyPC previously from a Kinko's machine. Jiang stole her username and password.
This raises an issue which many people haven't considered. Spying software can easily be placed on public computers, such as those not only at Kinko's stores, but in Internet cafés, airports, libraries and other public places.
With spying software, a criminal can grab your passwords and usernames. Ultimately, you could lose your money or have your identity stolen. That should tell you enough to be wary of public PC terminals.
Software is unobtrusive
Spies usually use software because it is invisible to the untutored eye. Hardware to do virtually the same thing also can be used, placing it between the keyboard and computer. But using it is too obvious in a public place.
The software programs, however, can unobtrusively make a record of a victim's every keystroke. The keystroke loggers can then e-mail the collected information on a set schedule. It also can be downloaded. Other software programs take screen shots of places you go. These, too, send their collected information via e-mail.
Continued in the article.
Bob Jensen's threads on fraud are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm
Founded by Derek Bok (the former
president of Harvard University), the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations
was launched in 1997 with a mission "to expand understanding and accelerate
critical thinking about civil society among scholars, practitioners, policy
makers, and the general public."
The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations --- http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hauser/
The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations is an interdisciplinary research center at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The Center aims to illuminate the vital role that the nonprofit sector and nongovernmental organizations play in aiding societies to discover and accomplish important public purposes.
The Center seeks to expand understanding and accelerate critical thinking about civil society among scholars, practitioners, policy makers and the general public, by encouraging scholarship, developing curriculum, fostering mutual learning between academics and practitioners, and shaping policies that enhance the sector and its role in society.
Bob Jensen's threads on education and public policy are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
News Articles About Gender Equity Issues --- http://www.maec.org/gender-news.php
GenderNet (Women's Studies) --- http://www.worldbank.org/gender/
Breaking and Making Tradition: Women at the University of Virginia (History, Art) --- http://www.lib.virginia.edu/speccol/exhibits/women/
Questions
Why is blame squarely on corporate accounting for a lot of the mess that we are
into now in health care insurance?
Why have derivative financial instruments become so popular in the international
world of business?
Why are derivatives possibly under-used or misused by business firms?
How does insurance differ from hedging?
Answers (Note my new videos that are linked at the bottom of this message.)
You can also read the answers below at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000overview/mp3/133intro.htm#Arrow
I highly recommend Nina Mehta's FEN
interview with Nobel economist Kenneth Arrow --- http://fenews.com/fet_aug2003/one_on_one_interview/one_on_one_arrow.html
Arrow does not get into the FAS 133-type accountancy mess, but he does make a
good case for use of derivatives in managing risk.
Arrow's comments indicting corporate accounting for much of the health care mess comes at near the end of the interview, so be patient and read the article to the bitter end.
In his closing comment (last sentence), Arrow states: "It’s a general problem of accounting."
FEN: There’s been tremendous innovation in financial products in the last few decades and more risks are being transferred to those willing to shoulder them. What are the biggest economic risks that are not being transferred?
Arrow: It’s a surprise to me that ordinary business risks are not transferred to the extent one might have supposed, despite the existence of financial derivatives. Companies are engaged in all sorts of transactions that aren’t really hedged. A company will acquire another company, sometimes a competitor, sometimes a supplier or downstream business, and every now and then it turns out sour. Or a company will come out with new products and some will work and some won’t. There are good reasons why one can’t hedge everything—there are incentive effects and things like moral hazard and adverse selection. The result is that companies have rollercoaster rides on their earnings. The other problem is that derivatives and securities that offer methods of reducing risks are not necessarily used for that purpose. They are neutral and can be used to reduce risks, but people gamble on them.
FEN: On your last point, what about the argument that without speculators risk-transfer markets wouldn’t be large or deep enough?
Arrow: With derivatives, whether the risk-reducing aspects are predominant or the risk-enhancing aspects are predominant, they can be used for gambling. That means speculators are adding to the swings rather than reducing them. What you said is 100 percent correct: from a social point of view it’s important to have the speculators—they’re the ones who provide the liquidity that keeps the markets operating. But it doesn’t automatically follow that derivatives are risk-reducing.
FEN: Okay. So what risks should businesses or investors be able to hedge that they currently can’t?
Arrow: Consider, for example, mergers or acquisitions. These are risky from the point of view of all the stockholders involved. There’s room for risk-reducing products, not for the firms going through a merger but for stockholders. Firms should have inside information—that’s what you buy the services of a CEO for. If he can lay off the bets, you can see his incentives reduced. So you’d be a little leery of that. But stockholders in a merger should be able to acquire some kind of instrument for insurance purposes.
FEN: Would these products come from actual insurance companies or from other entities?
Arrow: I’m using the word “insurance” metaphorically. Insurance traditionally deals with a set of risks that are fairly well defined. It would have to be not a traditional insurance company. As a theorist, I’d think there’s room for third parties.
FEN: A lot of attention is now focused on the use of options in executive compensation and on how the options might influence the decisions executives make. Given your early, seminal work on moral hazard, what do you think of this issue?
Arrow: Options have a legitimate place as one part of a package. When they become dominant, lots of problems arise. If the financial structure of a company were completely transparent, it wouldn’t matter. The market would know what the situation is. But there’s a lot of judgment in financial projections and even in the actual items on the balance sheet, so a CEO has incentives to put the most favorable—from his point of view—structure forward. However, I think the incentive effects have been greatly exaggerated. Aligning the interest of an executive or CEO with the company—well, the officers have a big stake in the success of the company even if they’re paid salaries, because of their reputation. Tax-handling is a big part of why CEOs have been shifting toward options. Plus, from a company’s point of view, stock options are not regarded as costing anything—which is absurd. People buy stock on the idea that it might go up, so part of their gain is being diluted if there are more options out there. The result is that it is a potential, uncertain hit to stockholders. It changes the terms on which they’re speculating, yet it doesn’t appear as a cost to the company.
Continued in the article
And a quote from the end of the article places the blame squarely on corporate accounting for a lot of the mess that we are into now in health care insurance.
FEN: In an interview a few years back with Ellen McGrattan at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, you made the point that there’s no natural or logical relationship between employment and health insurance. Can you expand on that?
Arrow: The need for economies of scale is why many small companies don’t elect to have insurance. Something like one-sixth of the country is uninsured. We have a peculiar, hybrid system of going through an employer for coverage. It’s an easy way to reach people, but why should a wife be covered on her husband’s policy? Why should she not have her own policy? If married people are covered, why not two people living together, or a homosexual couple? The issue shouldn’t arise at all. If we take a purely individualistic point of view, each person is responsible for his or her own insurance. One extreme is universal coverage. Most of the advanced world has this. By virtue of being a citizen of the United States, you’d be covered—this is the case in Great Britain, France, Canada and elsewhere. That would separate the accident of whether you’re employed from whether you are insured.
FEN: Many people in the insurance industry say the HMO system is not working now because prices are getting out of control and that this problem needs to be addressed.
Arrow: Where should a country spend its money? We’re a rich country. Fifteen percent of GNP [gross national product] goes to healthcare, and it’s rising. But what better to spend your money on? The problem is how it’s arranged. If this were something each individual bought on his or her own, it wouldn’t be a social problem. It would be handled through the price system or through contractual arrangements with corporations.
It’s not easy to see why corporations should be troubled right now. They knew they were taking on this obligation. They could calculate actuarially what the costs would be. The costs should have already been accounted for. When you hire a worker, part of the worker’s compensation is wages, another part is health benefits, a third part is retirement benefits, and a fourth part is retirement health benefits. So the compensation wasn’t $10 per hour but $15 per hour. The money should have been set aside as part of a worker’s compensation. For various accounting reasons companies didn’t do it. They resisted the idea that retirement health benefits should be taken as an expenditure when they hired the worker. Since it didn’t appear on their balance sheets, their profits looked bigger—but fictitiously, because there were these obligations. Now there are losses. FASB was looking into this 10 or 15 years ago and had hearings on this question. It’s a general problem of accounting.
Bob Jensen's threads on derivatives
and accounting for derivative financial instruments and hedging activity can be
found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm
New video helpers on this topic will soon be available.
Some of the preliminary videos are already posted at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5341/fas133/WindowsMedia/
Updates from Syllabus News on September 19, 2003
Beijing Students Enroll in Stevens Hybrid Telecom Masters
WebCampus, the online unit of Hoboken, N.J.-based Stevens Institute of Technology, will deliver a "hybrid" master's degree to 32 graduate students enrolled in a Stevens' degree program in China. The masters in telecommunications management is being offered to Chinese students--partly online and partly in conventional classrooms--at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), one of China's top engineering universities. The first students start classes in November. Instruction will be delivered a third online by Stevens faculty, a third by Chinese instructors in Beijing, and a third by Stevens faculty in intensive courses in China. The Stevens-BIT program, approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education and other government bodies, is the first such "hybrid" degree from a US university in China.
For more information, visit: http://www.webcampus.stevens.edu
Firm Promoting ‘Functional Verification” to Higher Ed
Verisity Ltd., a developer of “ verification process automation solutions,” said 22 schools around the world joined its University Program, which promotes “functional verification” of engineering designs and new standards for an electronic verification language. The company’s university members are using its tools to introduce functional verification to their undergraduate students and for projects ranging from e-based tool research, verifying complex designs, and tool and methodology instruction. Functional verification tools automate the process of identifying flaws in electronic designs, enabling technology developers to reduce their overall development costs and increase productivity and time-to-market.
For more information, visit: http://www.verisity.com/programs/university/index.html
Receive Your Undergraduate or Graduate
Diploma in Days Rather Than Years
September 22, 2003 message from Sheri Shipley [ynvbgay0l@excite.com]
Improve your income and your life, with increasing your earning power from a diploma within days from a prestigious non-accredited university based on life experience.
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#DiplomaMill
I vote no on
credit for "life experience"!
From Syllabus News on September 26, 2003
Online Service Launched for Crediting Professional Experience
A training services firm has launched an online method for preparing business professionals to take and pass College Level Examination Program (CLEP) method for assessing academic credit for students wishing to "place out" of college courses. The InstantCert Academy said the service could potentially lower the requirements and costs for working people seeking advanced degrees and certifications. The service is being offered on a monthly subscription basis for $19.95. One caveat is that not all universities accept CLEP results as a measure for their own credit equivalents.
For more information visit: http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=2921
InstantCert Academy specializes in helping adults from all walks of life achieve college-level proficiency. With our help, hundreds of students have saved time and money through course waivers, slashed tuition, and early employment.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance training and education alternatives are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Parents 'oblivious' to children's surfing," BBC News, September 16, 2003 --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3114114.stm
Do you know what your kids do online? A lack of knowledge about the internet means too many parents in the UK have no clue what their children are doing online.
Historic Tale Construction Kit --- http://www.adgame-wonderland.de/type/bayeux.php
You can create your own stories with the Historic Tale Construction Kit complete with pictures. It's like writing your own Prince Valiant.
The Historic Tale Construction Kit is based on Tapestry Bayeu, a masterpiece of the Middle Ages. It is a narration about the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D.
Interactively create your own city.
City Creator --- http://www.citycreator.com/
James Dickey in The Atlantic (Poetry and Other Literature, Including Audio Readings) --- http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/poetry/dickey/jdindex.htm
Forwarded by Mathis, Donald Mathis on September 19, 2003
The Australian 19 September 2003
Wine-drinking women 'more fertile' From correspondents in Copenhagen
Women who drink moderate quantities of wine become pregnant more easily than their teetotal or beer-supping sisters, a Danish medical review reported.
According to Dagens Medecin a study of 30,000 women showed that those who chose a glass of wine over beer or spirits were most likely to conceive. The least likely to become pregnant were those who drank no alcohol at all.
The research was carried out by a team headed by Mette Juhl of the state serology institute, Statens Serum Institut. They could not explain the reasons for their findings.
"We know that wine-drinkers eat more healthily and are of a higher social status than beer drinkers. But ability to become pregnant does not vary according to social class," Juhl commented.
"So we cannot rule out the possibility that wine contains substances that are beneficial for fertility."
South African Government Online --- http://www.gov.za/
September 25, 2003 message from editor jda [editor.jda@gmx.de]
Dear Professor Bob Jensen,
The Journal of Deivatives Accounting (JDA) is preparing to publish its first issue and I would be grateful if you could post the following announcement on your web site.
Regards
Mamouda
Dear Colleagues,
There is a new addition to accounting research Journals. The Journal of Derivatives Accounting (JDA) is an international quarterly publication which provides authoritative accounting and finance literature on issues of financial innovations such as derivatives and their implications to accounting, finance, tax, standards setting, and corporate practices. This refereed journal disseminates research results and serves as a means of communication among academics, standard setters, practitioners, and market participants.
The first and special issue of the JDA, to appear in the Winter of 2003, will be dedicated to:
"Stock Options: Developments in Share-Based Compensation (Accounting, Standards, Tax and Corporate Practice)"
This special issue will consider papers dealing with:
* Analysis of applicable national and international accounting standards * Convergence between IASB and FASB * Accounting treatment (Expensing) * Valuation * Corporate and market practice * Design of stock options * Analysis of the structure of stock options contracts * Executives pay incentives and performance * Taxation * Management and Corporate Governance
For more details on how to submit your work to the journal, please visit http://www.worldscinet.com/jda.html
Sincerely,
The Editorial Board Journal of Derivatives Accounting (JDA)
September 25, 2003 reply from Bob Jensen
Hello Mamouda,
I put the link on a number of documents, the most important ones being the following:
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000overview/mp3/133intro.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm
You might note that I am developing some video tutorials on accounting for derivative financial instruments and hedging activity under FAS 133 and IAS 39 standards --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5341/fas133/WindowsMedia/
COBRA Insurance Link --- http://www.cobrainsurance.com/
What is COBRA?
Congress passed the landmark Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) health benefit provisions in 1986. The law amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code and the Public Health Service Act to provide continuation of group health coverage that otherwise would be terminated.
COBRA contains provisions giving certain former employees, retirees, spouses and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates. This coverage, however, is only available in specific instances. Group health coverage for COBRA participants is usually more expensive than health coverage for active employees, since usually the employer formerly paid a part of the premium. It is ordinarily less expensive, though, than individual health coverage.
The law generally covers group health plans maintained by employers with 20 or more employees in the prior year. It applies to plans in the private sector and those sponsored by state and local governments.{2} The law does not, however, apply to plans sponsored by the Federal government and certain church- related organizations.
Group health plans sponsored by private sector employers generally are welfare benefit plans governed by ERISA and subject to its requirements for reporting and disclosure, fiduciary standards and enforcement. ERISA neither establishes minimum standards or benefit eligibility for welfare plans nor mandates the type or level of benefits offered to plan participants. It does, though, require that these plans have rules outlining how workers become entitled to benefits.
Under COBRA, a group health plan ordinarily is defined as a plan that provides medical benefits for the employer's own employees and their dependents through insurance or otherwise (such as a trust, health maintenance organization, self-funded pay-as-you-go basis, reimbursement or combination of these). Medical benefits provided under the terms of the plan and available to COBRA beneficiaries may include:
- Inpatient and outpatient hospital care
- Physician care
- Surgery and other major medical benefits
- Prescription drugs
- Any other medical benefits, such as dental and vision care
You can read the following at http://www.shiip.state.ia.us/FactSheet12.html
Age 65 or Older, and You or Your Spouse Works
- If the employer has 20 or more employees, you and your spouse must be allowed to continue any health insurance coverage you had before age 65.
- The employer health plan will be the first payer on claims.
- You or your spouse should enroll in Medicare Part A when eligible. It is free for most people and provides benefits in addition to an employer plan.
- Enrolling in Medicare Part B isn't necessary until you or your spouse quits working or drops out of the employer health plan. At that time you won't have to pay a higher premium, even though you are past age 65. You will also have the right to a Medicare supplement open enrollment at that point.
- If you or your spouse is enrolled in Medicare before retiring, employer group health coverage can be continued under the COBRA law. Medicare will pay first when you are retired even if you continue under COBRA. You will continue to pay the full premium for the employer plan, and it will supplement your Medicare. It is necessary to enroll in Medicare Part B when you retire, or you may pay a higher premium later.
- If you do not have a retirement health plan when you quit working, consider the need for a Medicare supplement policy. You will be eligible for a six-month open enrollment period that starts on the date your Medicare Part B coverage starts. During open enrollment you can buy any Medicare supplement a company sells in Iowa.
Age 65, Retired and No Working Spouse
- Medicare is your primary insurance regardless of any other health insurance you have. You should enroll in Medicare Part A and Part B. If you don't enroll at this time, you may pay a higher premium later.
- Call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 to enroll in Medicare.
- If you have retirement health insurance, it will pay after Medicare. If you need a Medicare supplement policy, you will have a six-month open enrollment period beginning on the date your Medicare Part B coverage starts.
Issues for a spouse
- Does the employer continue coverage for a spouse when an employee retires?
- Does the coverage continue when the spouse is eligible for Medicare?
- Does the spouse's coverage continue if the retired employee becomes eligible for Medicare or dies?
- Do any other limits apply to health insurance coverage for the spouse?
My colleague Billy Burke (Business Law) provided the following very helpful link --- http://biz.findlaw.com/employment_employee/newcontent/workingwoman/wmnchp4_g.html
G. COBRA HEALTH BENEFITS
Federal COBRA law requires most private employers to continue to make existing group health insurance available to workers who are discharged or resign from employment. All employees who are discharged as a result of voluntary or involuntary termination, such as for poor performance, negligence, or inefficiency (with the exception of those who are fired for gross misconduct), may elect to continue plan benefits currently in effect at their own cost provided the employee or beneficiary makes an initial payment within 30 days of notification and is not covered under Medicare or any other group health plan. The law also applies to qualified beneficiaries who were covered by the employer's group health plan the day before the discharge. Thus, for example, if the employee chooses not to continue such coverage, her spouse and dependent children may elect continued coverage at their own expense.
The extended coverage period is 18 months upon termination of the covered employee; upon the death, divorce, or legal separation of the covered employee, the benefit coverage period is 36 months to spouses and dependents.
The law requires that employers or plan administrators separately notify all employees and covered spouses and dependents of their rights to continued coverage. After receiving such notification, the individual has 60 days to elect to continue coverage. Additionally, employees and dependents whose insurance is protected under COBRA must be provided with any conversion privilege otherwise available in the plan (if such coverage exists) within a six-month period preceding the date on which coverage would terminate at the end of the continuation period.
Some employers run afoul of the law in failing to follow rules regarding notification requirements, conversion privileges, excluded individuals, and time restrictions. In the event the employer fails to offer such coverage, the law imposes penalties ranging from $100 to $200 per day for each day the employee is not covered and other damages.
Counsel Comments: Cases typically pit a former employee or an employee's dependent with substantial medical expenses against the employer or an insurance company. Courts are sometimes willing to interpret and apply COBRA with a view toward extending coverage wherever possible. For example, in one case, an employee incapacitated by a series of strokes was maintained on her employer's group insurance policy. After about a year, the employee was taken off the company's rolls. At that time she was in a coma, and the COBRA continuation notice was sent to her husband. Misunderstanding the intent of the offer and thinking that his wife was still covered under the employer's group plan without premium payments, he waived his wife's insurance continuation rights. Later, as legal guardian, the ex-employee's husband tried to regain the option of COBRA coverage, but the insurance company refused. The husband sued and won; the court ruled that the employer should have included the Summary Plan Description with the COBRA notice sent to the husband and that without the summary he was unable to make an informed decision.
Tip: Know your COBRA rights before accepting any job and in the event you resign or are fired. This is especially true if you or a spouse or dependent is sick and needs the insurance benefits to pay necessary medical bills. You are entitled to such protection even if you have worked for the employer for a short period of time. Most short-term employees can generally enjoy COBRA protection for periods exceeding the length of their employment. The only requirement is that you must have been included in the employer's group plan at the time of the firing and that the employer was large enough (i.e., employed 20 or more workers, including part-timers, independent contractors, and agents, during the preceding year) under federal law to qualify.
You cannot obtain benefits if you are fired for gross misconduct. This term is relatively ambiguous; the burden of proof is on the employer to prove that the discharge was for a compelling reason (such as starting a fight or stealing).
If an employer reduces your working hours to a point that makes you ineligible for group health coverage, refuses to negotiate continued health benefits as part of a severance package, or fails to notify you of the existence of such benefits, contact the personnel office immediately to protect your rights. If the employer refuses to offer continued COBRA benefits after a discharge for any reason, consult an experienced employment lawyer immediately.
Other points to remember are:
- A company's hands may not be tied in the event that a group health plan is modified or eliminated; an employer may be permitted to change or eliminate a current plan provided all qualifying beneficiaries and covered employees are allowed to participate similarly under new plans, if any.
- Coverage for adopted children, children born out of wedlock, and other dependents has been expanded under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 and recent court decisions.
- Speak to a lawyer if you or a dependent is excluded from COBRA protection because of the existence of a secondary health plan or other factors, such as because of an alleged discharge for gross misconduct.
- Never waive your COBRA rights when accepting severance payments or signing a release after a discharge.
- Be sure the company notifies you in a timely fashion so you can make the election properly before the short period of employer-provided coverage expires.
"Another Thing to Blame on Parents: Hang-Ups About Handling Money," by Jeff Zaslow, The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106443552037561600,00.html?mod=todays%255Fus%255Fpersonaljnl%255Fhs
On a serene plantation an hour outside Nashville, Tenn., eight people gathered this week to imagine themselves opening their mothers' purses and unlocking their fathers' safe-deposit boxes. Aided by two therapists and a financial planner, they returned to their childhoods to consider how the economic values they were taught created the adults they've become.
One businesswoman talked of her parents' insistence that rich people got that way by cheating and stealing; she now finds herself undercharging customers because she's afraid to be perceived as a wealthy thief. A man explained that his parents believed life was all about stockpiling money; he ended up making $100,000 a month on Wall Street but became so miserable that "dogs would notice and growl at me when I walked into a room -- and I'd growl back at them."
These eight people spent five days revealing such secrets, while role-playing as each other's parents, partners and siblings. They paid $1,500 for this "Healing Money Issues" workshop, an innovative effort that combines experiential therapy with nuts-and-bolts financial planning.
Perhaps 50 financial planners around the country now team with therapists. It's a trend fueled by investors' fearfulness in a rough economy, and by financial planners' recognition that clients need a better understanding of themselves in order to identify and meet financial goals. This intensive program in Tennessee, hosted by Onsite Workshops, is designed to help people find the deep-rooted causes of their troubled relationships with money. Organizers insist this is not "parent-bashing."
Continued in the article.
September 19, 2003 message from Internet Scout Project [scout@scout.wisc.edu]
New Internet Scout Web Site! The Internet Scout Project is pleased to announce our new Web site! Please check out our new look at http://scout.wisc.edu and let us know what you think. Feedback and comments are definitely welcome.
Editorial Cartoons: The Clifford H. Baldowski Collection at the Richard B. Russell Library http://callisto.gsu.edu:80/cgi-bin/door/link.cgi?dbs=bald
Especially Note This Site for Your Children
NATURE ON PBS --- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/index.html
NATURE: Horse and Rider (includes video downloads) --- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/horseandrider/index.html
Each of these remarkable animals shares an astonishing trait: the ability to implicitly trust, and perform complex tasks in tandem with, a human partner working toward a common goal. This teaming of horse and rider is arguably the most sophisticated and intriguing example of human-animal cooperation. NATURE explores and illuminates this absorbing phenomenon in "Horse and Rider."
The Reptiles: Alligators and Crocodiles show was aired on PBS on September 21.
Yawn! The new network television
shows have begun.
tvtattle.com --- http://www.tvtattle.com/
BBC History: Audio and Video --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/multimedia_zone/audio_video/
35th Infantry Division (History, Photographs) --- http://www.35thinfdivassoc.com/
Forgotten Detroit (History, Photography) --- http://www.forgottendetroit.com/
United State's 100 most important and
timeless documents.
Our Documents --- http://www.ourdocuments.gov/
Bob Jensen's threads on history are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#History
Cultural Policy & the Arts: National Data Archive --- http://www.cpanda.org/
Bob Jensen's threads on the arts are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#History
From The Wall Street Journal's Accounting Educators' Reviews on September 26, 2003
TITLE: Heard on the Street: Analyst
Gartner Aims to Convert Mistake Into Future Success
REPORTER: Ken Brown
DATE: Sep 19, 2003
PAGE: C1
LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10639190653359500,00.html
TOPICS: Debt, Financial Accounting, Revenue Forecast, Revenue Recognition
SUMMARY: "Gartner, Inc. makes money by analyzing technology companies and trends." This company issued a $300 million convertible bond to Silver Lake Partners, LP, a private equity firm specializing in technology, at the height of the technology boom, in the spring of 2000. Since the technology bust, that debt has been an onerous drag on the company, because of the debt-equity implications, interest charges, and a critical aspect of the deal: Gartner was required to issue a significantly increasing number of shares under the conversion feature as its share value fell from the fallout of the technology bust. The article discusses a plethora of accounting topics in debt and equity, earnings per share, and even the company's revenue recognition procedures.
QUESTIONS:
1.) What is convertible debt? Describe the provisions of the agreement between
Gartner, Inc. and Silver Lake Partners, LP.
2.) "...Because of the accounting treatment of the bond payoff, Gartner's shareholders' equity will go from negative to positive." In general, what are two possible ways to account for converting bonds into common stock?
3.) Access the company's June 30, 2003, quarterly and 2002 annual financial statements via their web site at www.gartner.com , by scrolling down the page and clicking on "investor relations." Using footnote disclosure about the convertible debt in Note 10 to the annual financial statements, the balance for the debt at 6/30/2003, and other information about the company's stock available in the financial statements, provide the journal entries that the company will record for the bond conversion under each of the two possible methods you gave in question 2. Which of these methods do you think the company will use?
4.) "For Gartner, the implications of putting the bond deal behind it could be major." Why does the author say that the company can extinguish debt without any further dilution of earnings per share beyond current disclosure? Will fully diluted earnings per share be affected by this conversion? Will basic earnings per share be affected? Explain.
5.) "Without any debt on its balance sheet, the company can use $167 million in cash...on hand" to buy back common stock. Why not just use the cash to pay off the debt? Who will receive cash under each of these alternatives? Will Silver Lake Partners receive any cash if they convert the bonds into stock? What would other stockholders' preferences be, do you think?
6.) Describe Gartner, Inc.'s business. Summarize Gartner's revenue recognition practices, as they are described late in the article. What does the author mean when he refers to "contract value"? Where in the accounting records would you find the amounts reported as "contract value" in the article?
7.) What is incremental revenue? Why do you think that "80% to 90% of each incremental dollar of research revenue can fall to the bottom line"? Why does this fact, combined with the changes in the company's capital structure, bode well for next year's earnings?
8.) The author states that revenue was down 2% in the second quarter from the first, and contract value was down 1% on the same basis. How can these results be described as "improvements over the past few quarters"? Why is appropriate to compare results for consecutive quarters, when we usually see comparisons of quarterly results to the same quarter one year earlier?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University
of Rhode Island
Reviewed By: Benson Wier, Virginia Commonwealth University
Reviewed By: Kimberly Dunn, Florida Atlantic University
Bob Jensen's threads on revenue accounting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/eitf01.htm
Hi Dave,
You asked whether I vote for valuing options at A-Fair (Full) Value or B-Intrinsic Value that excludes time value. I vote for A.
I have some new compressed videos on accounting for derivative financial instruments and hedging activities that can be downloaded and played in the Windows Media Player --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5341/fas133/WindowsMedia/
One of the video files, 015FAS133options.wmv, explains how FAS 133 and IAS 39 require that purchased options be booked at full value and adjusted for changes in full value on all reporting dates. If the options are speculations, the change in full value is offset by a debit or credit to current earnings. If the options are qualified and effective hedges, the change is full value is partitioned into that part that is the change in time value (debited or credited to current earnings) and that part that is the change in intrinsic value (debited or credited to OCI). This was one of the many compromises the FASB and IASB made to reduce earnings volatility in hedging situations. In the case of options, however, it may increase volatility.
Keep in mind that in the case of options, intrinsic value is simply the amount by which the options are "in the money" such that the difference between spot and strike prices favor the option purchaser. Options that are not yet "in the money" have no intrinsic value. Before they expire, however, such options can have time value because of the time remaining for them to go into the money before they expire.
Valuing options at intrinsic value rather than full market value makes little sense to me for the following reasons.
1. Valuing options at intrinsic value would be inconsistent with how other derivative instruments such as futures, forwards, and swaps are valued at full value rather than only intrinsic value.
2. Valuing options at intrinsic value means carrying them at zero value until they go into the money. This leads to absurd accounting. Suppose I pay $50,000 for a put option on September 19. This $50,000 premium is all time value since the option is not in the money when I purchase the option. I must credit cash $50,000 since I am writing a check to buy the option. What do I debit? Under FAS133/IAS39 I debit an asset (e.g., Option Contracts) for full value of $50,000. If I only carry options at their intrinsic values, I could not debit an asset whenever I buy options. Instead, I would have to treat the entire purchase price as a loss at the time of purchase. This is absurd since I am buying the options because they have future value that just happens to be all time value at the date of purchase.
Hence I vote no to intrinsic value accounting for options.
Bob Jensen
Blind Dates Aren't What They Used to Be!
"Friendster faces competition and criticism," by Matt Marshall, Mercury News, September 17, 2003 --- http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/6791540.htm
Friendster, the Sunnyvale Web site that offers a reservoir of dating possibilities by giving you access to friends of your friends, and friends of their friends, has become so popular that it is spawning critics, copy-cats and protesters.
Try Vanitydate.com: The Los Angeles-based start-up calls itself the Anti-Friendster. It's only for the good-looking.
To be accepted, you need to submit a photo -- and be from good-looking to drop-dead. In other words, rank from a 7 to a 10 -- on a scale of 1 to 10. (To get onto the Friendster network, all you need is an invitation from a friend.)
The 100 or so people already on the Vanitydate.com site cast their votes -- thumbs up or thumbs down -- on whether to let you in. A four-person good-looks committee has final say.
``Everyone wants to be with some hot guy,'' said CurvyLatina, a 31-year-old photographer whose killer smile, dancing eyes and vital statistics won immediate approval when she applied last week. She requested her real name not be used.
Just 3 weeks old, Vanitydate.com had, as of Friday, rejected more than half of the 220 people who have applied.
Rejection comes in the form of a message from Vanitydate.com's founder, who calls himself Mr. Vanity, saying that if the rejectee is upset by the decision, they should click on www.vanitydate.com/biteme.php .
Continued in the article.
Bob Jensen did not sign up to be part of the database, because there was no Nursing Home Vanitydate category.
Marriage is Still What It Used to Be!
Forwarded by Bob Overn
Two guys are moving about in a supermarket when their carts collide.
One says to the other, "I'm sorry - I was looking for my wife."
"What a coincidence. I'm looking for my wife, and I'm getting a little desperate."
"Well, maybe I can help you. What does your wife look like?"
"She's tall, with long hair, long legs, big boobs and a tight butt. What's your wife look like?"
"Never mind my wife, let's look for yours!"
Forwarded by Dr. D.
Question
Why was a quarter moon traditionally cut in outhouse doors?
Answer
On early estates of the well-to-do, the quarter moon
cut was equivalent to "Ladies". A sun cut or simple circle meant
"Men". But many a household didn't have time enough and money to build
two outhouses,so they built one for the ladies and told the men to make do. And
thus the door with the sun cut became extinct.
L.M.Boyd Revisited San Antonio Express-News
Forwarded by Dick Haar
You're My Friend
When you are sad... I will get you drunk and help you plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.
When you are blue... I'll try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
When you are scared... I will rag you about it every chance I get.
When you are worried... I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and to quit whining.
When you are confused... I will use little words to explain it to your dumb ass.
When you are sick... stay away from me until you're well again. I don't want whatever you have.
When you smile... I'll know you finally got laid.
When you fall... I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.
This is my oath; I pledge 'till the end. Why you may ask? Because you're my friend!
Forwarded from the Readers Digest by Debbie
Hear about the teacher who was in a car wreck?
He was grading on the curve.
Forwarded by the Happy Lady
S.A.T.
TEST QUESTIONS
The following questions and answers were actually collected from SAT
tests given in Springdale, Arkansas in 2000 to 16-year-old students!
(Don't laugh too hard----one of these kids may be the President someday.)
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large
pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.
Q: What is a planet?
A: A body of earth surrounded by sky.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and
nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.
Q: In a democratic society, how important are elections?
A: Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.
Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.
Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow.
Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? (E.g., abdomen.)
A: The body is consisted into three parts -- the brainium, the borax and
the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains
the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels,
A, E, I, O, and U.
Q: What is the Fibula?
A: A small lie.
Q: What does "varicose" mean?
A: Nearby.
Q: What is the most common form of birth control?
A: Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.
Q: Give the meaning of the term "Caesarian Section."
A: The caesarian section is a district in Rome.
Q: What is a seizure?
A: A Roman emperor.
Q: What is a terminal illness?
A: When you are sick at the airport.
Q: Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
A: Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.
Q: What does the word "benign" mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
Q: What is a turbine?
A: Something an Arab wears on his head.
Q: What is a Hindu?
A: It lays eggs.
Her essay answers probably exhausted graders all the way through school (however far she got):
Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever,"
Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest.
Absolutely Hilarious!
Philosophical humor Compiled by David Chalmers --- http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/phil-humor.html
Also see http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/morehumor.html
Also see http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/philosophy/humor.html
And that's the way it was on September 30, 2003 with a little help from my friends.
I highly recommend TheFinanceProfessor (an absolutely fabulous and totally free newsletter from a very smart finance professor) --- www.FinanceProfessor.com
In
March 2000, Forbes named AccountantsWorld.com as the Best Website on the
Web --- http://accountantsworld.com/.
Some top accountancy links --- http://accountantsworld.com/category.asp?id=Accounting
For
accounting news, I prefer AccountingWeb at http://www.accountingweb.com/
I also like SmartPros at http://www.smartpros.com/
Another leading accounting site is AccountingEducation.com at http://www.accountingeducation.com/
Jack Anderson's Accounting Information Finder --- http://www.umsl.edu/~anderson/accsites.htm
Gerald Trite's great set of links --- http://www.zorba.ca/bookmark.htm
Paul Pacter maintains the best international accounting standards and news Website at http://www.iasplus.com/
The Finance Professor --- http://www.financeprofessor.com/about/aboutFP.html
Walt Mossberg's many answers to questions in technology --- http://ptech.wsj.com/
How stuff works --- http://www.howstuffworks.com/
Bob
Jensen's video helpers for MS Excel, MS Access, and other helper videos are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/
Accompanying documentation can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default1.htm
and http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm
Click on www.syllabus.com/radio/index.asp for a complete list of interviews with established leaders, creative thinkers and education technology experts in higher education from around the country.
Professor
Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
Bob
Jensen's New Bookmarks on September 20, 2003
Bob
Jensen at Trinity
University
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Click
here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search
Site.
This search engine may get you some hits from other professors at Trinity
University included with Bob Jensen's documents, but this may be to your
benefit.
Quotes of the Week
See the "Train of Life" (Great Music Pickin' forwarded by Dr. Wolff) --- http://www.plantinghisseeds.com/trainoflife.htm
I want to feel the winds of change,
Blowing in my face,
I want to see what life unfolds,
As I move from place to place
Good
accounting serves as a check on speculation. Good accounting challenges
the pyramid scheme that bubbles perpetuate. Bad accounting perpetuates
pyramid schemes. Bad accounting creates false earnings momentum that feeds
price momentum. GAAP , unfortunately, does have features that can be used
to perpetuate bubbles.
Stephen H. Penman, Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation
(McGraw-Hill, 2004, Page 48).
WorldCom
internal and external auditors testified in U.S. Bankruptcy Court [yesterday]
that the company's books remain a tangled mess and that it may be impossible to
properly apportion close to $1 trillion in transactions between more than 200
subsidiaries. WorldCom has argued that its books are so confused that it has
little choice but to scrap much of the past three years of accounting records
and begin anew on a consolidated basis. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur J.
Gonzalez is holding a hearing on the company's reorganization plan, one of the
last stages in the bankruptcy process. If Gonzalez approves the plan the company
could exit bankruptcy later this fall. I have significant doubts the company
could ever prepare accurate accounting statements for its various subsidiaries,
testified Joseph L. DAmico, senior managing director of FTI Consulting, an
Annapolis-based forensic accounting firm. DAmico testified that WorldCom's own
accountants failed to keep accurate records of a blizzard of transactions
between the company's various entities. Also testifying was WorldCom's interim
corporate controller, Robert L. Pierson, who confirmed DAmicos assessment of the
company's financial recordkeeping. We have never balanced our internal accounts,
Pierson said.
Christopher Stern, Washington Post, Page E1, September 16, 2003
--- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud093003.htm
Thinking is the hardest
work there is.
Henry
Ford
All the world's a
stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
William Shakespeare in As You Like It
Avarice, envy, pride,
Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all on fire.
Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy
This life's dim windows of
the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye.
William Blake in The Everlasting Gospel
Because I could not stop
for Death
He kindly stopped for me
The carriage held but just ourselves
And immortality.
Emily Dickinson in Because I Could Not Stop For Death
The woods are lovely, dark
and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening --- http://www.bartleby.com/118/index2.html
I am fortunate to have the Robert Frost home and museum within a short walk from my new
house in the White Mountains. You can see some pictures of his old home at http://www.simplybicycling.com/sugarhill.htm
Bob Jensen's updated working draft of accounting and finance scandals for September 2003 can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud093003.htm
Surprise of the Week!
"Hillary's Favorite General," The Wall Street Journal,
September 18, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106384956852480000,00.html?mod=todays%255Fus%255Fopinion%255Fhs
Wesley Clark has finally joined the Democratic Presidential race, but even more interesting are the people who are urging him on. The Democratic Establishment, very much including Bill and Hillary Clinton, is pushing the retired general as its stop-Howard Dean candidate.
"Putting Junior Under Surveillance: Satellite-Guided Gadget Claims to Track Stray Kids," by Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106375623987522300,00.html?mod=technology%255Ffeatured%255Fstories%255Fhs
For parents of young children, few feelings are worse than the sickening realization that a child has gone missing, even if briefly. Visions of kidnappers, horrible accidents and the like quickly arise. So parents naturally wish they knew their children's location at all times.
Now, a Silicon Valley company called Wherify Wireless is offering a high-tech gadget that it claims can ease those worries. The device is aimed at parents of kids from four to 12 years old. But just how well does it work?
The Wherify GPS Locator for Kids fits on your child's wrist like a watch and communicates with Global Positioning System satellites and Sprint's wireless network to locate or page your child, or trace her travels. It can also be used by the child to send a page for help in an emergency and provide authorities with the wearer's approximate location.
Parents can communicate with the device, and locate their children, by either calling Wherify's toll-free number, or using the www.wherify.com Web site. Parents must pay for both the gadget itself, and a monthly subscription to a special 24-hour locator service, which can be ordered on the company's Web site.
My assistant Katie Boehret and I tested the GPS Locator for Kids in Washington, D.C., and New York City this week, and had some serious reservations about it. First of all, like other GPS-based systems, the Wherify Locator isn't precisely accurate. It can be off by up to 33 yards, and doesn't work if the child is inside certain kinds of structures. That sort of inaccuracy may be fine when using GPS to navigate a car, but it could be agonizing when you're trying to find a child.
Also, the gadget seems a little too much like one of those electronic anklets the courts use to keep track of criminals under house arrest. It can even be locked to a child's wrist.
And then there's the hefty cost. The Locator device is $199.99, which is plenty, but that's just the cost of the device itself. Each locator also requires an additional $35 activation fee and a monthly service plan. The four monthly plans (which are amusingly named Liberty, Independence, Freedom and High Usage) range from $19.95 to $44.95 according to how many location checks (called "locates") and pages you think you'll use. Add up these three factors, and the total cost actually ranges from $474.39 to $774.39 for a year of service.
Continued in the article.
The Whereify home page is at http://www.wherifywireless.com/corp_home.htm
"Apple Unveils New Notebooks," Wired News, September 16, 2003 --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60464,00.html
A series of powerful new laptops will help Apple Computer generate more sales from portable computers than desktops, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said on Tuesday.
The revamped notebook computers, with 12-, 15- and 17-inch displays, faster processors and CD and DVD burners, will be available starting Tuesday, well ahead of the key end-of-year holiday and sales periods.
Jobs, dressed in his trademark jeans, sneakers and black sweater, said Apple's popular iTunes Music Store on the Internet would not be launched in Europe this year.
"We're clearly working on it (but) I think we'll do it next year," he told journalists on the fringes of the annual Apple Expo in Paris. He said it took time to sort out distribution rights with the music publishers who own the songs.
Jobs reiterated that, before the end of the year, Apple would bring iTunes and the online music store which has sold 10 million songs since its launch four months ago, to owners of personal computers that run on Microsoft's Windows operating system.
"We're very much on track to execute iTunes for Windows," he said.
So far only those who own a Apple computer and have a U.S. credit card can buy the songs over the Web and download them onto their computer.
Apple's computers have a U.S. market share of just under 4 percent while Windows machines, manufactured by the likes of Dell and Hewlett-Packard, have over 90 percent of the personal computer market.
Analysts expect a big revenue boost when Apple brings the iTunes Music Store to Windows PCs. Part of that would come from the songs it sells for 99 cents each, some 10 cents of which it keeps for itself, according to analysts. The other part would come from the additional portable iPod music players Apple is likely to sell.
Apple generated $111 million in iPod revenue in the last quarter, which ended in June, compared with $22 million a year earlier. It has sold one million of the devices, which can store thousands of songs since the first series was launched 20 months ago, Jobs said. In the last quarter alone, since the music store opened, it sold 304,000 units.
During his keynote address, Jobs enjoyed the usual cheers from the 5,000-strong crowd when he unveiled the new series of laptop computers.
Continued in the article.
Free Literature (Stories and Poems From
Famous Authors of the Past)
Literature Online --- http://www.volny.cz/helpforenglish/lit_online.html
It's the Bassist That Makes a
Difference
Listen to some jazz featuring a great base player named Charles Mingus --- http://www.mingusmingusmingus.com/flash.htm
Question
What do economists do all day?
Answer --- This is really, really
cute. Note the frenzy they get into
when you guide the mouse to the bottom of the chart.
Go to http://www.foulds2000.freeserve.co.uk/economists.htm
"Virtual School Daze Online Tech Offers New Choices in Education," by Paul Eng, ABC News, September 16, 2003 --- http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/FutureTech/virtualschools030916.html
When 11-year-old Heather Ellis goes to school, she doesn't have to pack a lunch or bundle up at the bus stop in the cool air of Pueblo, Colo.
Instead, she and her siblings — 9-year-old Heather, 7-year-old Brian, and 4-year-old Matthew — trundle down to her family's living room where they will get their latest lessons from their mom Angie.
But the Ellises are not just one of millions of American families that have decided to home-school rather than send their children off to public or private classrooms.
In fact, Angie Ellis and her brood aren't out of the local school system's loop at all. Instead, they are part of a growing experiment called "virtual schooling" — education systems that use Internet technology to bring a local kindergarten to 12th-grade classroom curriculum into students' homes.
The systems — run by private, for-profit companies such as Connections Academy in Baltimore or K12 Inc. in McLean. Va. — are gaining interest among home-schooling families as well as overburdened school districts partly because of new education standards and guidelines tied to federal education dollars.
"We believe that the No Child Left Behind [Act] is providing the framework for a whole new way of thinking in education," says Barbara Dreyer, president of Connections Academy. "You're really focused more on outcomes."
And, Dreyer says, the way virtual schools work is the key to helping districts to boost educational results and maintain federal funding.
Setting up a Virtual School Zone
The private companies running the virtual schools must first be approved by local legislation to offer educational services within a district. Once cleared, the companies work with the education boards to develop a curriculum that meets local and federal guidelines.
The virtual schools then hold "open houses" — local gatherings where parents can meet with company representatives and discuss the curriculum and requirements of parents and their kids. Much like a charter or specialized school, prospective students are given placement exams to determine their eligibility and placement within the "school."
When the students are approved and enrolled, the local district diverts the funds that would normally have gone to the student's local school to the private organization.
Parents are then given a computer with Internet access, material such as textbooks and workbooks, and instructions to download daily lessons from the company's private online network. The parents or guardians then become "teaching coaches," presenting the lesson plans to their children.
The children perform the required homework — reading passages, writing in journals, creating maps — which are then submitted via postal mail or electronically for grading and assessment by licensed educators at the company.
Parents and the company's teachers — who may be located in another state — stay in touch via phone and e-mail. The daily communication allows parents to ask for help or advice on difficult lesson material. It also allows the virtual teacher to monitor the child's progress and adjust lesson plans accordingly.
Since the virtual school receives funding from the district, every student is also given the same standardized tests as other local students at the end of the school year. But, proponents of virtual schools say their students do much better since they're given the one-on-one attention of their "teaching coaches."
Win-Win for All?
Angie Ellis, 31, says she's noticed the positive impact last year's virtual schooling has had on her daughter.
"She did very well — much better than when she was in public school," says Ellis. And she credits the performance boost to the well-structured curriculum and supportive communication of Connection Academy's virtual school setup.
"In public school, I would send notes to the teacher about Heather's progress and never get anything back," says Ellis. But with the virtual school system, she and Heather are in regular touch with Connection Academy's educators. "If there are questions on how to teach something, I can log in or call and ask."
What's more, the virtual school is a money-saver for Ellis and her family. Based on past experience in home-schooling Heather, Ellis estimates she would spend about $350 to $400 a year in educational materials for herself and her four children. But under the virtual school program all the costs are covered by her local Pueblo school district.
"It's a win-win situation, if your family is able to do it," says Ellis.
Money Matters
Dreyer says virtual schools could be a win-win for local school districts too.
"The kids we serve are the ones that costs the districts more — the ones that need more tutoring, attention, etc.," says Dreyer. "[Virtual schools] are cost-efficient for them."
And the savings for the county can be quite significant if a participating district works out the right contract with the private companies.
According to Karen Harkness, chairwoman of the Connection Academy virtual school board in Wisconsin, some school districts in the Milwaukee area can get up to $5,000 in federal funding for each student enrolled in its public schools. Under its contract, the company charges only $3,500 for each student enrolled in a virtual school.
"[It's] not a money-making venture, but it helps them in terms of the bottom line and several districts see that as a benefit," says Harkness. "Their students get good education, the parents are happy, the districts are happy and the superintendents are happy."
Going the Distance?
The matter of virtual schools is getting some attention from the federal government.
"From an overall education strategy, the secretary [of education] has been excited by the virtual school programs in general," says John Bailey, director of educational technology at the U.S. Department of Education. "We're very strong supporters of distance learning and virtual schools."
Part of the reason, says Bailey, is that unlike earlier technology-based education options such as televised classrooms of the early 1980s, Internet-based instruction is cheap and becoming widely accepted.
"These [virtual school] courses are easy to distribute over the Net and students can participate in class discussions," says Bailey. And since most of the material is digital, "there's an economy of scale in developing it and pushing it out to anyone, no matter where they're located."
Study Period
Bailey notes, however, that despite all the enthusiasm, there are still plenty of unknowns when it comes to virtual schools.
For one, there's a lack of official statistical research on the impact of virtual schools and other distance learning efforts.
"There really are just a handful of studies, none of which were done by the Department of Education," says Bailey. "How many schools, how many grades, how many courses, how effective are they versus traditional learning methods? We need that data."
Bailey adds the Education Department has been trying to gather such data and hopes to soon release some of its findings later this month.
New legislation and policy among all levels of educational regulation need to be considered as well.
For now, only a handful of states — such as Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — have put policies and funding regulation in place to handle the still-experimental virtual school concept. But if the online education concept takes off, some particularly troubling issues could arise.
Continued in the article.
Bob Jensen's threads on virtual schools are embedded in various places at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Major Electronic Encyclopedias
I shortened this link to http://snurl.com/JensenBritannica
Other links to encyclopedias are available at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Questions
Which sex has the worst hangovers --- men or women?
Which sex requires less alcohol to become legally drunk --- men or women?
Does a parental history of alcohol abuse alter the answers?
Answers
"Women Get Worse Hangovers Than Men," by Lee Bowman, Chicago Sun Times, September 15, 2003 --- http://www.suntimes.com/output/health/cst-nws-hang15.html
In the life-is-not-fair category, new research finds that women not only get drunk on fewer drinks than men but women also suffer from worse hangovers.
A team at the University of Missouri-Columbia developed a new scientific scale for measuring hangover symptoms and severity.
Even accounting for differences in the amount of alcohol consumed by men and women, hangovers hit women harder.
''This finding makes biological sense, because women tend to weigh less and have lower percentages of total body water than men do, so they should achieve higher degrees of intoxication and, presumably, more hangover per unit of alcohol,'' said Wendy Slutske, an associate professor of psychology who led the team.
The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health, is being published today in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
The researchers asked 1,230 drinking college students, only 5 percent of whom were of legal drinking age -- to describe how often they experienced any of 13 symptoms after drinking. The symptoms in the study ranged from headaches and vomiting to feeling weak and unable to concentrate.
Besides women, the study found that the symptoms were more common in students who reported having alcohol-related problems or who had one or both biological parents with a history of alcohol-related problems.
Continued in the article.
From the National Institute of Mental
Health (Medicine, Psychology)
Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Violence and Disasters --- http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/violence.cfm
Helping young people avoid or overcome emotional problems in the wake of violence or disaster is one of the most important challenges a parent, teacher, or mental health professional can face. The National Institute of Mental Health and other Federal agencies are working to address the issue of assisting children and adolescents who have been victims of or witnesses to violent and/or catastrophic events. The purpose of this fact sheet is to tell what is known about the impact of violence and disasters on children and adolescents and suggest steps to minimize long-term emotional harm.
"Online health sites a worldwide worry," by Jenny Sinclair, smh.com.au, September 16, 2003 --- http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/15/1063478109311.html
Getting medical information from the internet could be a health hazard, according to a study by a Melbourne researcher.
Holly Cardamone, a Melbourne communications consultant and qualified nurse, found that most websites with health information failed to meet basic standards, some were commercially driven and others could mislead patients.
Cardamone checked the top 100 sites returned on the Yahoo! search engine in the categories of breast cancer, diabetes and depression. She found that only a minority conformed to an international standard on how information should be given.
She said people tended to be likely to believe online information because "the quality of (websites') appearance may lead to the content itself appearing credible", leading to a risk of people taking action that could harm their health, such as abandoning medication.
There were also concerns about the way negative aspects of some conditions were highlighted in ways that didn't make it clear that those effects were relatively rare and could frighten users. One diabetic who suffered kidney failure had visited a website that described unusual and severe side effects, often controllable by treatment, but the site failed to point out that the case was not a common one.
Cardamone checked all the sample sites against the international Health On the Net Foundation's code of conduct, which has eight main points relating to the authority of information given, user confidentiality, openness about sponsorship and, importantly, making sure that users treat the information as complementary to proper medical treatment, rather than replacing it.
Although 58 of the sites that Cardamone checked contained unverified information, she said the other 42 sites had potential to help improve a sufferer's health.
"Such sites contained quality, appropriate information with potentially lifesaving content such as explanations of the symptoms of depression, and healthy recipes for diabetics."
Cardamone completed the study in 2001 as part of a Masters degree in communications at Swinburne University. She said she was interested in changes under way in health care where the "top down" approach was being replaced by greater patient understanding and control. The idea for her thesis came to her after a patient asked her if she thought fluid coming from the patient's nose could be cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The patient had read about CSF on the web and mistaken a runny nose for a potentially serious complication of her injuries.
A phenomenon of "cyberchondria" had also been identified by other researchers, where people already prone to hypochondria used the greater amount of information on the web to feed their health obsession. Such people were vulnerable to "multiple choice" quizzes that gave diagnoses based on a list of symptoms.
But online health information had its upsides; many breast cancer sites contained good information, and Cardamone said well-run support groups could help feelings of isolation, particularly with stigmatised conditions such as mental illness, or rare conditions. A career for a person with Alzheimer's disease would be helped by always being able to go online and talk to others in a similar situation, even if it was 3am, she said.
Continued in the article.
Question
How did recruiters of students (mostly MBA recruiters) rank this year's top
schools of business?
How do these rankings differ from rankings by Deans of business schools?
Answers
"A New Winner," The Wall Street Journal Reports, September 17, 2003, Section R --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106372530386078900-search,00.html?collection=wsjie%2F30day&vql_string=Top+Business+Schools%3Cin%3E%28article%2Dbody%29
Wharton jumped to the top of our third annual survey of business schools, from fifth place last year. And that wasn't the only surprise. By RONALD ALSOP Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The world's oldest business school took top honors in this year's Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive ranking of corporate recruiters' favorite M.B.A. programs.
The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, founded in 1881, jumped to first place from fifth last year, largely on the strength of students' financial and analytical skills. Wharton unseated Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, which slipped to No. 2 after two consecutive years as the most popular M.B.A. program.
This year's survey reflected the new era of financial and ethical accountability. Recruiters repeatedly praised schools that produce principled graduates and accounting whizzes. The Wharton School is a leader in both areas, with a long history of business-ethics courses and research and some of the top professors in the accounting field. In fact, recruiters named Wharton the second-best school for accounting, after the University of Chicago.
Wharton continues to attract the premier investment-banking and management-consulting recruiters, even in this weak M.B.A. job market. "Our track record at Wharton is one of unparalleled success," says Frank Pometti, a management consultant at A.T. Kearney Inc. "It's critical as a consultant to understand what's driving a company's financial performance, and you never have to worry about a Wharton student getting it."
. . .
In addition to Wharton, two other Ivy League schools moved up in this year's ranking. Columbia University's business school advanced three spots to No. 7. "Columbia students tend to be interesting and well-rounded, and there's an international flavor to the M.B.A. program," says Mr. Pometti. "You want people who can relate to consulting clients in any situation, including multicultural settings." The largest Ivy League M.B.A. program, Harvard Business School, moved up one notch to eighth place, but it still stirs mixed feelings with many recruiters, who repeatedly cite students' arrogance as its chief shortcoming.
Mass Appeal
Some big schools ranked higher because they scored well on mass appeal. The weak job market also has clearly affected recruiters' feelings about some of the large M.B.A. programs. Recruiters who visited the bigger schools, particularly the most prestigious programs, reported greater success in hiring students and more considerate treatment from both the graduates and the career-services office during the 2002-03 academic year.
But one large school -- the University of Texas at Austin -- dropped out of the top 10 this year for the first time. Some recruiters cited inconsistent performance from Texas graduates they had hired recently.
The biggest decliners in this year's ranking include New York University, Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas (ESADE) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Many recruiters commented that student quality is "uneven" at NYU's Stern School of Business and that they sometimes feel as if they are interviewing "Columbia rejects." As for Spain's ESADE and Illinois, recruiters called for more student work experience and a stronger international perspective at
Schools making the biggest advances in the ranking: Brigham Young University, Vanderbilt University, and Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM). Brigham Young's Marriott School of Management stood out for its students' integrity in this era of corporate scandals. "Our recruiters return to Brigham Young year in and year out because of the school's high ethical standards," says Roger McCarty, corporate strategy development leader for Dow Chemical Co.
Recruiters singled out Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management for its finance program and its graduates' strong character and team orientation. And Mexico's ITESM, which topped the list of international schools in this year's ranking, earned kudos for its students' strategic thinking and analytical skills, as well as its global vision. "I've been working with ITESM graduates for the past 10 years," says Francisco Trevino Reyes, administration manager at the New Zealand Milk Distribution Center in Monterrey, Mexico. "Believe me, you can rely on the quality of their work, decision making, ethical values and leadership."
Continued in the article.
Question
How do these rankings differ from the better-known U.S. News rankings based upon
perceptions of Deans of business schools?
Answer
See for yourself at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex_brief.php
01. Harvard University
02. Stanford University
03. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
04. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
05. Northwestern University (Kellogg)
06. Columbia University (NY)
07. Duke University (Fuqua)
08. University of California–Berkeley (Haas)
09. University of Chicago
10. Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH)
Message for My Trinity University Students
Although
you cannot access Drive J off campus, I want to point out that you can access my
course video tutorials from anywhere in the world. The
link is http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/
You will
find avi, rm, and wmf versions of most every video. I
recommend that you choose the wmf version that will play in the Windows Media
player that should be on your home computer.
If you have speakers on your home computer, there is an advantage of running these videos at home. On campus in the computer labs, you must first check out earphones from IMS and then hope the ear phones will work in a particular lab computer. It is a lot less hassle to run my tutorial videos on your home computer.
Life is different on weekends, a
distinction that seems to affect Mother Nature as well as people. Climate
researchers studying records at thousands of locations have discovered that, in
many communities, the temperature range between the daily high and low changes
on the weekend. And, as with some people, there seems to be a little hangover of
this weekend effect on Mondays --- http://www.msnbc.com/news/967198.asp?cp1=1
This link to MSNBC News on September 15, 2003 was forwarded by Debbie
Bowling.
"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, 1994Oxford 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.
Bob Jensen's vocabulary bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Free from Bartleby.com
The American Heritage® Book of English Usage --- http://www.bartleby.com/64/
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary EnglishWith a detailed look at grammar, style, diction, word formation, gender, social groups and scientific forms, this valuable reference work is ideal for students, writers, academicians and anybody concerned about proper writing style.
CONTENTS Bibliographic Record Staff Usage Panel Introduction Word Index Subject Index BOSTON: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN, 1996
NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 2000
1. Grammar 2. Style 3. Word Choice 4. Science Terms 5. Gender 6. Names and Labels 7. Pronunciation Challenges 8. Word Formation a. Plurals
b. Forming Possessives
c. Affixes
d. Word Compounding9. 10. A Grammar Toolkit
Free at Judy Vorfield's WebGrammar --- http://www.webgrammar.com/
Need help with spelling, grammar, homonyms, punctuation, capitalization, and style? Or information in the areas of writing, education, typography, academic research, or Web development?
You may wish to go right to The Writing Center, which includes style guides and many writing resources. To find a specific word or phrase on the site, try the Search Function.
Judy also has a huge set of links under the following index terms:
Aquaria
Arts
Best General Learning
Botanical Gardens
Business/Economy
Countries/Areas
Current Events
Index
Grammar
Health
History
Holidays
Literature
Math
Military
Museums
Physical Education
References
Science/Technology
Special Education
Storytelling/Kid Fun
World's Creatures
ZoosMiscellaneous
Contact Us
FAQ
Free Dictionary
Judy's Business Site
Media Coverage
Privacy Policy
Recommend Us
Search Site
Bob Jensen's threads on spelling, grammar, and English helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#English
From Syllabus News on September 12, 2003
Bellarmine University unveiled a multi-use smart card that allows the 2,400 students and 200 faculty and staff on its Louisville, Ky.-based campus to check out books from libraries, purchase meals without cash, and gain access to campus fitness facilities and other amenities. The card also can be used as an ATM card on and off campus. The school’s banking vendor is U.S. Bank, which has targeted higher ed as a market. It offers a line of products and services to universities, including campus ID cards, student loans, Internet banking, and pre-paid spending cards.
University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: Ecology and Natural Resources Collection http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/EcoNatRes/
"Black-Scholes models lose favour for employee stock options," Risk News, September 11, 2003
Companies around the world are likely to come under increasing pressure to change their valuation methodologies for employee stock option schemes from traditional Black-Scholes models to binomial approaches, according to the research department of Bear Stearns in New York.
In a research report released today, the US bank said the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) had indicated that it planned to draft new mark-to-market rules on employee stock options to “encourage companies to use a binomial model if the information is available to do the calculation”. But FASB has hinted that it would not specifically mandate any particular approach. However, Bear Steans said all but eight companies in the S&P 500 index may come under pressure to switch to binomial pricing. Only Ameren, AIG, Boeing, Cincinnati Financial, Dow Chemical, Goldman Sachs, MeadWestvaco and Washington Mutual have used such an approach to date.
It is unclear what has underpinned FASB’s thinking. But both binomial and Black-Scholes models are limited in requiring implied volatility inputs that can prove highly subjective.
But the US accounting standards-setter has co-ordinated its activities with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in this area. So companies adopting IASB reporting standards are also likely to come under increasing pressure to use binomial models.
There are many, many online option valuation calculators and illustrations. For example, go to http://www.hoadley.net/options/BS.htm
For the tree structure binomial calculator, go to http://www.hoadley.net/options/BS.htm#Binomial
Bob Jensen’s links to other online calculators and illustrations are given at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#080512Calculators
September 15, 2003 reply from David Johnstone [djohnsto@UOW.EDU.AU]
Dear Bob and Dan,
A recent paper of mine in the Journal of Financial Education Summer 2002 pp.72-78 titled “Risk-Neutral Option Valuation from EPV Without CAPM” includes a very revealing and helpful explanation of the binomial model of option valuation and its reconciliation with the more familiar notion of expected present value. This paper is about understanding (rather than simply doing) risk-neutral option valuation, which is what the binomial model does. The conceptual basis of option valuation is according to Wilmott’s best-seller on quantitative finance, the most confusing and misunderstood topic in finance.
David
Bob Jensen's threads on derivatives valuation can be found in the following two links:
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133swapvalue.htm
Hi Erin,
I don't really have much more to help you. You should be aware that the FASB postponed FIN 46 and put three new Proposed Staff Positions FIN 46a, FIN 46b, and FIN 46c out for discussion. These are on the current first page of http://www.fasb.org/
You might take a look at the following documents:
I shortened that horrible URL to http://snipurl.com/GrantThorntonFAS46
"FIN 46 may build up business' balance sheet," Grant Thornton, June
24, 2003
http://www.vinodkothari.com/fin46vk.htm
"FIN 46: consolidation of variable interest entities under US GAAPs,"
by Vinod Kothari
A Deloitte and Touche Slide Show on FIN 46 --- http://www.cbe.uidaho.edu/Acct592/CourseMaterials/Lecture%20Notes/Deloitte%20&%20Touche_fin46_012903%5B1%5D.ppt
I shortened the above URL to http://snurl.com/DTSlideShowFIN46
My threads on SPEs are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/speOverview.htm
Bob Jensen
-----Original Message----- From: XXXXX
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 9:12 PM
To: Jensen, Robert
Subject: SPE helpDr. Jensen, My name is Erin XXXXX an I am an undergraduate Accounting student at The University of YYYYY. I have been doing some research on Special Purpose Entities for an Accounting Thesis that I am writing this semester and I came across your page titled "Bob Jensen's Overview of Special Purpose Entities." I found some very helpful information, but I was wondering if you had any links to information on the current FASB exposure draft, "Qualifying Special-Purpose Entities and Isolation of Transferred Assets." I am trying to decipher it, but it is difficult for me to understand because I do not have a good background in Finance and this is my first assignment involving reading actual FASB statements. I have found the topic to be interesting although very complex, but unfortunately I am far from an expert in this field and need some clarification on some of the terms in the draft. I would greatly appreciate any information you may have.
Thank you,
Erin
September 13, 2003 message from Peter Mccracken [Pmccracken@stc.com.sa]
Bob,
The URL for VentureLine on your page: http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbus.htm (Bob Jensen's Accounting, Finance, and Business Glossaries) has changed. The new URL: http://www.ventureline.com/glossary.asp .
Regards,
Peter
Forwarded by Carl Hubbard on September 12, 2003
I would like to bring to your attention Analysis of Derivatives for the CFA(r) Program by Don M. Chance, CFA, recently published this year by the Association for Investment Management and Research(r). While designed for the CFA program, this publication is a terrific text for academic derivatives and risk management courses.
The treatment in this volume is intended to communicate a practical risk management approach to derivatives for the investment generalist. The topics in the text were determined by a comprehensive job analysis of investment practitioners worldwide. The illustrative in-chapter problems and the extensive end-of-chapter questions and problems serve to reinforce learning and understanding of the material.
We believe that this text responds to the need for a globally relevant guide to applying derivatives analysis to the investment process. We hope you will consider adopting Analysis of Derivatives for the CFA(r) Program for a future course.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Helen K. Weaver
Associate
AIMR656 PAGES
0-935015-93-0
HB 2003
Bob Jensen's threads on references for derivative financial instruments can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Educators' Reviews on September 12, 2003
TITLE: Popular Stock Perk Faces
Cutbacks
REPORTER: Ruth Simon
DATE: Sep 04, 2003
PAGE: D1
LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10626259431205000,00.html
TOPICS: Financial Accounting, Stock Options
SUMMARY: Companies, including Citigroup and Mellon specifically mentioned in the article, have cut back on employee stock purchase plans by reducing the discount percentage allowed off of market value and the maximum amount employees can invest, among other strategies. These changes are happening because market value accounting for stock based compensation includes not only employee stock option, but also stock purchase, plans.
QUESTIONS:
1.) Compare and contrast employee stock option plans and employee stock purchase plans. How do each of these plans transmit value to employees? How do employers benefit by offering these plans? What standards govern the accounting and reporting for these plans?
2.) Must compensation expense be recorded for employee stock purchase plans? Using journal entries, show how accounting for stock issuances under employee stock purchase plans can avoid reporting compensation expense on the income statement. Then, show how the accounting could be done to result in compensation expense shown on the income statement.
3.) If a company records compensation expense for its employee stock option plan benefits, should it also show such expense for stock purchase plans? Support your answer.
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University
of Rhode Island
Reviewed By: Benson Wier, Virginia Commonwealth University
Reviewed By: Kimberly Dunn, Florida Atlantic University
Bob Jensen's threads on FAS 123 are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory/sfas123/jensen01.htm
Hi Paul,
I think the users approach sometimes replaces bookkeeping fundamentals (including computerized bookkeeping) out of fear that bookkeeping is terribly boring to some of the brightest and most promising students who purportedly are sidetracked from majoring in accounting due to perceptions that accounting is bookkeeping and bookkeeping is boring.
The users approach taken to an extreme (e.g., Core Concepts of Accounting Information, a course designed by Karen Pincus) receives high criticism by some instructors and high praise by other instructors --- http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infoipa/Gazette/1994/Gazette,%20April%2013,%201994/Accounting%20students%20now%20face%20ANITA
I shortened the above link to http://snurl.com/Pincus
Critics of the users approach contend that it is analogous to throwing a Freshman into a varsity football game before learning how to block and tackle. An even more extreme analogy is learning to be a pianist by listening to piano concertos without learning the scales and chords.
In my opinion, neither an extreme user approach nor an extreme preparer approach is best suited to basic accounting. There are some basic textbooks that attempt to build financial statement analysis into modules on the terminology and recording process of traditional bookkeeping. It may even be a good idea to throw in a few systems basics such as very elementary relational database accounting system advantages over traditional bookkeeping (the main advantage being the recording of non-financial as well as a wider scope of financial data).
There are some textbooks that build a limited amount of user orientation into basic bookkeeping for introductory courses in both financial and managerial accounting. In fact, I think most popular texts do that these days. Much depends upon what part of the text material you want to emphasize in your course. But I would always stress that to play the piano, you've got to endure dull practice, practice, and more practice to master scales and chords.
Bob Jensen
-----Original Message-----
From: Fisher, Paul [mailto:PFisher@ROGUECC.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 10:04 AM
Subject: Financial Accounting II am taking a brief and informal poll on how we should be teaching Financial Acounting I. Presently we use the preparer approach at our community college, but the nearby university uses the user approach.
Does the differences in approaches cause difficulty for the student? Are more institutions reverting back to the preparer model?
Regarding the preparer approach, we use Quickbooks in conjunction with our course. In their documentation, Quickbooks specifically tells the reader not to close the books at the end of an accounting period. Yet many textbooks have elaborate learning schemes to explaining the closing process in a manual system. Should we continue teaching the closing process, or should we move to a "closeless society"?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
Paul Fisher
Rogue Community College Medford, OR
September 15, 2003 reply from John L. Rodi [jrodi@IX.NETCOM.COM]
I for one am an advocate of teaching accounting from the users approach. We implemented this approach several years ago at my former university, Cal State University Los Angeles. However, we constantly encountered resistance because everyone wanted to teach "bookkeeping." At least initially it is more difficult to teach from a users approach simply because we are all products of the preparer approach; however, students seem to have a greater appreciation of the subject when taught from the users approach. The composition of Financial accounting 1 is generally comprised of students who will never make a journal entry and definitely will never make a closing entry. It is simply a waste of time to discuss the matter of ledgers, general journals, posting, unadjusted trial balance, and adjusted trial balances on a worksheet when the only one that a student will ever see is in the textbook. All of these functions are part of accounting programs that are being used, which is why the Quickbooks says that you don't need to make the closing entries. The program does it automatically at the end of the period. However, the students do need to know that at the end of an accounting period the balances in the nominal accounts disappear and why they do so. In my opinion it is better for students to understand the value and usefulness of the financial statement rather than how "the computer" processes the data. I know that many, many of my colleagues will disagree with me. The data that we had clearly demonstrated that we had more students choose accounting as a major after implementing the users approach than we did before its implementation. I can assure you that if you should adopt the users approach you will encounter much opposition from your colleagues.
John Rodi,
El Camino College
September 16 reply from Dennis Beresford [dberesfo@TERRY.UGA.EDU]
I teach an "introductory" financial accounting class - but in the MBA program. After listening to many of these arguments for a couple of years and looking hard at a number of textbooks, I've decided that somewhere in the middle of the preparer and user view is needed, even at the graduate level. I'm pretty much in the same camp as Bob Jensen (that's usually a pretty good place to be).
I tell the MBA students that if they don't understand a reasonable amount about debits and credits they will have a false sense of security in thinking they understand the financial statements that result from the accounting process. I spend about 30 seconds on the closing process, although it's still hard to get students to understand how the revenue and expense accounts produce vital information during a year and then "disappear" into retained earnings. One way to get students' attention with some of the simple adjusting entries is to point out how easy it is to manipulate earnings by doing so (e.g.,. WorldCom) and that they need to understand how to manage earnings in order to know how to prevent it when they are business managers.
With respect to the user side of things, one thing I usually hear from several students is that my financial accounting class (taught in the first semester of the two year MBA program) does more to introduce them to a general understanding of "business" than any other class. I think it's because in every class I stress how the information could be useful (or not) in certain real world situations. This includes asking the students to think about the decision usefulness (or uselessness) of the answers to even very simple "debit and credit" problems in the textbook.
As an educator in training, I still know relatively little about the contents of other introductory business school courses. But it seems that, as accountants, we have a great opportunity to show how much better we know the "big picture" than many other disciplines. A fair amount of user approach is necessary to achieve this.
In the past week I've had two people tell me that they counseled their child to major in accounting because it would prepare them to do anything in the business world, whereas a marketing, MIS, or marketing major, for example, wouldn't give nearly the same background. (The fact that accountants can get jobs may also influence their views.) I like this kind of thinking and believe we could convince more students to be accounting majors if we stressed this broader perspective rather than telling them of the more narrow (but still rewarding) opportunities as practicing accountants.
Denny Beresford
University of Georgia
September 16, 2003 reply from Rohan Chambers [rchambers@CYBERVALE.COM]
At the AAA meeting in Hawaii, Brigham Young University discussed how a new approach to Introductory Accounting was being used by them . This hybrid approach achieves the objective of mainting some of the rigours of accounting, while at the same time addressing the usefulness of accounting information.
The technical stuff (preparer oriented) is covered by the students outside of class time. This is done using a self-paced CD in most cases. While the anaytical stuff (user oriented) is covered in a face to face classroom thus adding value to the technical material.
For more see the following link http://www.business.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/AAA-CPE/agenda.htm and click on the pdf file "A New Model for Introductory Accounting"
Regards,
Rohan Chambers,
Programme Director - Accounting
School of Business Administration
University of Technology,
237 Old Hope Road,
Kingston 6. Jamaica
September 18 message from Bob Jensen to Sweden's Anders Grönlund [ag@fek.su.se]
Hi Anders,
We do really enjoy mountain life and a slower pace of life. Erika is still in the mountains, but I had to return to teach at Trinity University. Sigh!
Rule-based versus Principles based learning is only part of the issue. In fact rules are derived from principles such that the distinction is not always too clear. You should also consider preparer-based basic accounting (usually principles-based bookkeeping) versus user-based accounting (usually financial statement analysis-based introductory accounting that is generally more rules-based).
Probably the best place to start in your search is the Accounting Change Commission set of experiments at http://accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/facdev/aecc.htm
In particular, look at the monographs at http://aaahq.org/AECC/
The AAA also has some teaching aids available at http://accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/teach.htm
I think the users/rules approach sometimes replaces bookkeeping/principles fundamentals (including computerized bookkeeping) out of fear that bookkeeping is terribly boring to some of the brightest and most promising students who purportedly are sidetracked from majoring in accounting due to perceptions that accounting is bookkeeping and bookkeeping is boring. The users approach taken to an extreme (e.g., Core Concepts of Accounting Information, a course designed by Karen Pincus) receives high criticism by some instructors and high praise by other instructors --- http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infoipa/Gazette/1994/Gazette,%20April%2013,%201994/Accounting%20students%20now%20face%20ANITA
I shortened the above link to http://snurl.com/Pincus
Critics of the users approach contend that it is analogous to throwing a Freshman into a varsity football game before learning how to block and tackle. An even more extreme analogy is learning to be a pianist by listening to piano concertos without learning the scales and chords. In my opinion, neither an extreme user approach nor an extreme preparer approach is best suited to basic accounting. There are some basic textbooks that attempt to build financial statement analysis into modules on the terminology and recording process of traditional bookkeeping. It may even be a good idea to throw in a few systems basics such as very elementary relational database accounting system advantages over traditional bookkeeping (the main advantage being the recording of non-financial as well as a wider scope of financial data).
There are some textbooks that build a limited amount of user orientation into basic bookkeeping for introductory courses in both financial and managerial accounting. In fact, I think most popular texts do that these days. Much depends upon what part of the text material you want to emphasize in your course. But I would always stress that to play the piano, you've got to endure dull practice, practice, and more practice to master scales and chords.
I am forwarding you some recent messages regarding the preparers versus users based controversy, which is often a heated debate in the U.S. One reason has been pointing to too many rules in accounting courses that, in turn, turn students off when considering to major in accounting. Especially note the following reference:
Albrecht, W. S. and R. J. Sack. 2000. Accounting Education: Charting the Course through a Perilous Future, Accounting Education Series, Volume No. 16. Sarasota, Florida: American Accounting Association --- http://aaahq.org/pubs/AESv16/toc.htm
Stay well!
Bob Jensen
Bob,
I am working on a basic textbook on principle based accounting and I would like to get some texts about the basic differences between the two approaches. Can you recommend some papers or websites?
Eva and I do hope that Erika and you now enjoy your new life in a
"Norwegian/German environment" instead of the Texas sun and heat. We think
often about you and have seen the nice pictures from your house. Enjoy it and give my best regards to Erika. Hope everything is well with you.
Best regards
Anders ( and Eva)
Question
What do garage door openers and copyright law have in common?
Answer
"Garage Doors Raise DMCA Questions," by Katie Dean, Wired News, September 17, 2003 --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60383,00.html
Manufacturers of a seemingly innocuous product -- a garage door opener -- are embroiled in a battle that tests the limits of a controversial copyright law.
Skylink Technologies manufactures a universal garage door opener that can be used to open and shut any type of garage door. Its competitor, the Chamberlain Group, claims that Skylink violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, by selling such a product.
Chamberlain alleges Skylink's handheld portable transmitter can activate Chamberlain's garage door openers and, in doing so, unlawfully bypasses a technology-protection measure built into the device's software.
Skylink disagrees, and recently filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for summary judgment, whereby a judge decides the case instead of going to trial.
"When Chamberlain sells (its) garage door openers, there is no restriction prohibiting the consumer from operating the garage door with a third-party transmitter," said David Djavaherian, an attorney for Skylink. "For a violation to occur under the DMCA, access to the copyright work must be unauthorized."
Neither representatives of Chamberlain nor its lawyers returned repeated calls for comment.
The case has been closely monitored by digital rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has argued that the DMCA is being abused by companies that want to stifle their competitors. The DMCA, the groups contend, also impedes innovation.
Continued in the article.
Bob Jensen's threads on the DMCA can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
Flowcharting Software
September 12, 2003 message from Richard Campbell
[campbell@rio.edu]
Here is a link that I provided earlier on using Smartdraw to create document flowcharts:
http://www.virtualpublishing.net/smartswf/smartstep1.html
Richard J. Campbell
Bob Jensen's threads on flowcharting software can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm#Resources
Tensions over the euro and its rules are beginning to reveal centuries-old
fault lines and raise questions about Europe's resolve to become a united
economic and political power.
"Rising Deficits in Europe Give Euro Its Toughest Challenge Yet," The
Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2003, Page 1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106357038672163200,00.html?mod=todays%255Fus%255Fpageone%255Fhs
In the past week, France made it clear it would look after its own interests first, with French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin dismissing the rules underpinning Europe's currency as obscure "accounting equations." The European Central Bank warned that unless France and Germany limit their surging budget deficits, as European Union rules require, the credibility of the euro could be damaged. The Netherlands threatened to sue the European Commission -- the EU's budget watchdog -- to make sure it requires the big countries to follow the rules they themselves wrote.
In Sweden Sunday, voters soundly rejected the euro and kept the krona, despite a wave of last-minute sympathy following the stabbing death of the nation's popular and pro-euro foreign minister, Anna Lindh. Among the reasons for the defeat: Fears that adhering to EU budget rules would force Sweden to slash its generous cradle-to-grave social welfare system.
Media giants have discovered that owning both broadcast and cable outlets
provides powerful new leverage over advertisers and cable- and satellite-TV
operators.
"How Media Giants Are Reassembling The Old Oligopoly, by Martin Peers, The
Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106357548527696300,00.html?mod=todays%255Fus%255Fpageone%255Fhs
Viacom and its big media peers have been snapping up cable channels because they're one of the few entertainment outlets generating strong revenue growth these days. More broadly, the media giants have discovered that owning both broadcast and cable outlets provides powerful new leverage over advertisers and cable- and satellite-TV operators. The goliaths are using this advantage to wring better fees out of the operators that carry their channels and are pressuring those operators into carrying new and untried channels. They're also finding ways to coordinate promotions across their different holdings.
Marketing Behind the Iron Curtain 1986-1990 (Photography)
Windows Through the Curtain --- http://www.photoarts.com/journal/Hlynsky/hlynskyindex.html
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Director's Choice (included video downloads) --- http://americanart.si.edu/tours/index.html
Bob Jensen's threads on art, history, and museums are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#History
September 15, 2003 message from BNFL [list_admin@ethicalperformance.com]
The international nuclear energy business BNFL has published its first corporate social responsibility report, setting out how it intends to achieve its goal of being economically strong, environmentally aware, socially caring and fully accountable for its impact on the world.
The report stresses that BNFL believes the principles of CSR, particularly in terms of its responsibility for employees and the communities in which it operates, is core to the way the company is managed and to its long-term business success.
An electronic version of the report and accompanying video can be accessed at http://www.bnfl.com/csr
For a printed copy of the report, please e-mail mailto:www.bnflliterature.com
Gardiner Black and White Photography of New York and London --- http://www.nyclondon.com/
Corporate Accountability: A Toolkit for
Social Activists
The Stakeholder Alliance (ala our friend Ralph Estes and well-meaning social
accountant) --- http://www.stakeholderalliance.org/
The Post Punk Kitchen (Food and Recipes for Vegetarians) --- http://www.theppk.com/
The Sandwich Project (Not necessarily for vegetarians) --- http://www.iliveonyourvisits.com/sp/
"Hotel Pay-Per-View And Other Pitfalls Of Expense Reports," by Jared Sandberg, The Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10637523932898200,00.html?mod=todays%255Fus%255Fmarketplace%255Fhs
When he was a salesman, Zak Burkons filed more than 200 expense reports. In those eight years, he learned it's better to stiff yourself than risk a run-in with the accounts-payable department. Here are some of his other observations:
1. Accounts payable, or AP as the department employees like to call it, is more likely to pick on the little guy than higher-ups. One AP staffer admits: "The higher you go the less scrutiny there is." That explains a lot of the headlines over the past couple of years.
2. "If you get caught, you'll get on the Most Wanted list in accounting," Mr. Burkons says, sounding more than a little paranoid.
There is a list, another supervisor confirms. "We know who our problem children are."
3. In-room movies are not reimbursed, period. "And they're convinced you're watching porn," says Mr. Burkons, even if you don't.
"Yes," admits another accountant, "We assume it's pornography."
The people in AP departments, a kind of IRS B-team in every company, have to be the most fed-up employees around. Imagine having to deal with people who sometimes like to stretch the truth, or at least feel entitled; then having to go beg, nag, or bust them
Continued in the article.
Have Your Own Time Capsule: Send a message to yourself and have it saved for long-term future delivery.
FutureMe --- http://www.futureme.org/
Hi Robert,
I have some threads on ROI and ROE at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/roi.htm
The expert on ROCE is Al Rappaport (a former accounting professor at Northwestern)
Take a look at http://www.financeandprofitabilitybooks.com/Finance-and-Profitability-Books/Creating-Shareholder-Value.htm
I shortened the above URL to http://snurl.com/Rappaport01
Amazon's link to his book is at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684844109/002-5624921-2805626?v=glance
I shortened the above URL to http://snurl.com/RappaportAmazon
Al carefully studies the differences between ROI and ROCE. He has a consulting firm with offices in Europe. Most any member of the accounting faculty at Northwestern University can probably give you a lead on how to contact his company.
Bob Jensen
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert XXXXX
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 3:31 PM
To: Jensen, Robert Subject: ROCEI recently came across this term and it seems comparable to the ROI except for certain views, e.g. what one wants to convey or have interpreted by various stakeholders.
Would like to learn more since one of our main clients in Europe has turned to ROCE recently as its main management indicator for various profit centers. Can you help, please.
Best regards,
Bob XXXXX
September 12, 2003 message from Jim Morrison
Bob,
Please forward this announcement to colleagues who are interested in using information technology tools more effectively in their work. Also, please encourage your organizational librarians to add The Technology Source to their e-journal collections.
As always, we seek illuminating articles that will assist educators as they face the challenge of using information technology tools in teaching and in managing educational organizations. Please review our call for manuscripts at http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=call and send me a note if you would like to contribute an article.
Many thanks.
Jim
James L. Morrison
Editor-in-Chief
The Technology Source
http://ts.mivu.orgHome Page: http://horizon.unc.edu
INSIDE THE TECHNOLOGY SOURCE
James L. Morrison interviews author and software developer Clark Aldrich, who discusses the educational potential of simulation technology. Aldrich argues that computer games have provided the foundation for new, customized forms of software that enhance learning through simulated scenarios, and that this technology will soon change the landscape of education. (See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=2032 )
Going wireless has appeared as the next advance on the educational horizon. But is it a practical option for teachers who conduct large lecture courses? H. Arthur Woods and Charles Chiu point such instructors toward one relatively simple but useful innovation: the wireless response pad, a tool that allows for immediate, comprehensive student feedback. (See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1045 )
Pamela L. Anderson-Mejías describes how a creative use of traditional print media can support online learning. To promote greater engagement with textbooks, Anderson-Mejías allowed students to choose from a list of acceptable texts, so that they did not all use the same text for the class. She then required students to compare and evaluate their sources in specialized online assignments. (See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1053 )
Many instructors who make the move to online teaching are concerned that this medium will undermine student engagement with each other and with the subject matter. Thomas Berner reports that, to the contrary, students in his online literature of journalism course participate much more actively in group discussions than their classroom-based counterparts. (See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1036 )
Most experienced online instructors would agree that they adopted the tools of the trade not in one fell swoop, but in a gradual series of stages. Grover C. Furr III describes the development of his teaching in terms of five stages, each of which led to a greater level of integration between technology, subject matter, and pedagogical goals. (See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1033 )
James Kilmurray argues that online education should more effectively address the needs of working adults. He proposes three major requirements to meet this goal: recognizing the distinctive characteristics of the adult learning population, instituting a shared-responsibility system of instruction, and supporting research and experimentation on Web-tailored pedagogy. (See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1014 )
Bonnie B. Mullinix and David McCurry provide a helpful road map for online education—-in the form of an annotated "webliography" of resource centers, professional organizations, and other sites that promote the discussion and development of technology-enhanced teaching and learning environments. See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1002
The value of faculty development programs at many institutions is limited due to a lack of focus. How can such programs offer practical knowledge to educators and simultaneously address the larger goals of the institution? Anne Agee, Dee Ann Holisky, and Star Muir describe how their program assists faculty members in a "targeted" approach to technology training. (See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1067 )
Finally, in our Spotlight Site section, Stephen Downes reviews BBC Learning, a Web site that offers extensive online resources for teachers, parents, and students of all ages, including tips on study skills, foreign language tutorials, lesson plans, specialized newsletters, and a limited (but growing) list of online courses. (See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=2029 )
Forwarded by Barb Hessel
A passenger in a taxi tapped the driver on the shoulder to ask him something. The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb and stopped just inches from a large plate glass window. For a few moments everything was silent in the cab, then the driver said, "Please, don't ever do that again. You scared the daylights out of me."
The passenger, who was also frightened, apologized and said he didn't realize that a tap on the shoulder could frighten him so much, to which the driver replied, "I'm sorry, it's really not your fault at all. Today is my first day driving a cab, I have been driving a hearse for the last 25 years.
Also forwarded by Barb Hessel
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny imropetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Austin City Limits (The State Capitol of Texas)
Forwarded by Dick Haar
Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the Archangel found him, resting on the seventh day.
He inquired of God. "Where have you been?" God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds. "Look, Michael. Look what I've made." Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance." "Balance?" Inquired Michael, still confused. God explained, pointing to different parts of earth. "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth but cold and harsh while southern Europe is going to be poor but sunny and pleasant." I have made some lands abundant in water and other lands parched deserts. "This one will be extremely hot and while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land mass and said, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God. "That's Texas -- the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful beaches, streams, ! hills, and forests. The people from Texas are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent and humorous and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking and high achieving and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there would be balance!"
God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the idiots I put in Austin."
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Forwarded by Bob Overn
A
fourth-grade teacher was giving her pupils a lesson in
logic.
"Here is the situation," she said.
"A man is standing up in a boat in the middle of a river,
fishing. He loses his balance, falls in, and begins
splashing and yelling for help.
His wife hears the commotion, knows he can't swim, and
runs down to the bank. Why do you think she ran to the
bank?"
A little girl raised her hand and asked, "To draw out all
his savings?"
Forwarded by The Happy Lady
President George Bush and Vice President Cheney are enjoying lunch at a fancy Washington restaurant. The waitress approaches their table to take their order. She is young and very attractive. She asks Cheney what he wants, and he replies,"I'll have the heart-healthy salad.
" Very good, sir," she replies, and turning to Bush she asks, "And what would you like, Mr. President?" Bush smiled at the waitress and responded,
"How about a quickie?"
Taken aback, the waitress slaps him and says, "I'm shocked and disappointed in you. I thought you were bringing in a new administration that was committed to high principles and morality. I'm sorry I voted for you."
With that, the waitress departed in a huff. The President was shocked and sat in stunned silence. Cheney leaned across the table and in a quiet voice said to the stunned president, "Mr. President, I believe that's pronounced quiche".
Forwarded by Auntie Bev,
Words to Live By
Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
Eat a live toad in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.
If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
Never buy a car you can't push.
Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you don't have a leg to stand on. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
The early worm gets eaten by the bird, so sleep late. But remember: The second mouse gets the cheese.
When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
Birthdays are good for you; the more you have, the longer you live.
Ever notice that the people who are late are often much jollier than the people who have to wait for them?
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?
You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened.
We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors but they all have to learn to live in the same box.
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.
Forwarded by Auntie Bev
FASHION DO'S AND DON'TS FOR SENIORS
Despite what you may have seen on the street the following combinations DO NOT go together
A nose ring and bifocals
Spiked hair and bald spots
A pierced tongue and dentures
Miniskirts and support hose
Ankle bracelets and corn pads
A belly button ring and a gall bladder surgery scar
Unbuttoned disco shirts and a heart monitor
Midriff shirts and a midriff bulge
Bikinis and liver spots
Short shorts and varicose veins
Incline skates and a walker
But, otherwise, YOU'RE LOOKING GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And that's the way it was on September 20, 2003 with a little help from my friends.
I highly recommend TheFinanceProfessor (an absolutely fabulous and totally free newsletter from a very smart finance professor) --- www.FinanceProfessor.com
In
March 2000, Forbes named AccountantsWorld.com as the Best Website on the
Web --- http://accountantsworld.com/.
Some top accountancy links --- http://accountantsworld.com/category.asp?id=Accounting
For accounting news, I prefer
AccountingWeb at http://www.accountingweb.com/
I also like SmartPros at http://www.smartpros.com/
Another leading accounting site is AccountingEducation.com at http://www.accountingeducation.com/
Jack Anderson's Accounting Information Finder --- http://www.umsl.edu/~anderson/accsites.htm
Gerald Trite's great set of links --- http://www.zorba.ca/bookmark.htm
Paul Pacter maintains the best international accounting standards and news Website at http://www.iasplus.com/
The Finance Professor --- http://www.financeprofessor.com/about/aboutFP.html
How stuff works --- http://www.howstuffworks.com/
Bob
Jensen's video helpers for MS Excel, MS Access, and other helper videos are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/
Accompanying documentation can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default1.htm
and http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm
Click on www.syllabus.com/radio/index.asp for a complete list of interviews with established leaders, creative thinkers and education technology experts in higher education from around the country.
Professor
Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
Bob
Jensen's New Bookmarks on September 12, 2003
Bob
Jensen at Trinity
University
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Click
here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search
Site.
This search engine may get you some hits from other professors at Trinity
University included with Bob Jensen's documents, but this may be to your
benefit.
Quotes of the Week
I watched the flag pass by one day, It fluttered in the breeze --- http://www.fromtheheartpostcards.com/ICQ/FreedomIsNotFree.html
There
is no sincerer love than the love of food.
George
Bernard Shaw
Now I see the secret of
making the best persons: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with
the earth.
Walt
Whitman
I've
Got You Back
I posted this page, so many can understand the feelings of
loss and separation of families of Military Men and Women. I am a Widow of a 20
year Military Husband, A Sister of a great Navy Man, an Aunt of a dear nephew
that may be in "Harms Way" as I write this, A daughter of WWII Vet, a
granddaughter of a WWI and WWII Vet and many more. I am proud to be an American
and I thank our Allies, also. This page is dedicated to all who serve.
Samantha --- http://samanthaslifeandtimes.com/ivegotyourback.html
Goodbye
to Mr. Exxon
Exxon, a $200-billion-a-year enterprise, is on track to be the world's most
profitable company this year. It owns the world's largest private collection of
oil and gas reserves, is the largest refiner, and is the biggest private
producer of natural gas. And soon, the company will have a new leader. Who will
replace legendary oilman CEO Lee Raymond?
Fortune, September 15, 2003 --- http://www.fortune.com/fortune/ceo/articles/0,15114,480206,00.html
The
big August blackout has energized Congress to try to pass the first
comprehensive energy bill in more than a decade. Experts say a finalized bill
will increase ethanol demand, benefiting Midwest corn farmers --- http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60346,00.html
(This just had to be announced a few days after Bob Jensen sold his corn farm in
Iowa --- I'M NOT KIDDING!.)
Each
year, hundreds of marriageable Moroccan Berbers gather for a three-day dating
ritual -- one that has developed into a major Berber bazaar and a tourist
attraction.
"The Mating Game Is a Three-Day Event For Moroccan
Berbers," by Gautam Naik, The Wall Street Journal, September 10,
2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106314420394123500,00.html?mod=todays%255Fus%255Fpageone%255Fhs
For
many workers, a visit to the workplace bathroom can turn into an undignified tug
of war with a stingy toilet-paper dispenser. Many building owners and managers
like it that way.
"Why U.S. Workers Are Losing Tug of War Over Toilet Paper," by Jared
Sandberg, The Wall Street Journal, September 10, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106314295688132400,00.html?mod=todays%255Fus%255Fmarketplace%255Fhs
If you are going through hell, keep going.
Sir Winston Churchill (forwarded by Patricia A. Doherty)
Perhaps we should think about this in Iraq and other places where our armed
forces are unwelcome.
Bob Jensen's working draft of accounting and finance scandals for September 2003 can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud093003.htm
September 10, 2003 message from Tracey Sutherland [tracey@aaahq.org]
The 88th Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association was held August 3-6, 2003, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Opening speaker Arthur R. Wyatt's presentation garnered a standing ovation. So that his comments can be shared beyond those able to attend the meeting the full text of his challenging speech, "Accounting Professionalism--They Just Don't Get It!" is available online at http://aaahq.org/AM2003/WyattSpeech.pdf
You can also read and excerpt from this speech at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud093003.htmTuesday morning featured Presidential Lecturer, Joel S. Demski, immediate past president of the Association. Joel's speech, "Endogenous Expectations," stimulated considerable discussion during the rest of the meeting. So that the conversation can continue, the full text of his comments is available online at http://aaahq.org/AM2003/expectations7.pdf
Soon video and slides will be available on the AAA website for all plenary sessions for the 2004 Annual Meeting, as well as for the outstanding follow-up panel session to Art Wyatt's address.
THE JIM BULLOCH AWARD FOR INNOVATIONS IN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING EDUCATION http://accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/awards/MASInnovation.htm
IRS Employees Steer Taxpayers Wrong on Tax Law, Study Finds --- http://www.smartpros.com/x40453.xml
Bonnie B. Mullinix and David McCurry provide a helpful road map for online education—-in the form of an annotated "webliography" of resource centers, professional organizations, and other sites that promote the discussion and development of technology-enhanced teaching and learning environments --- http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1002
Bonk, C. J. (2003). CourseShare.com: Welcome. Retrieved August 30, 2003, from http://www.courseshare.com/Welcome.php
Bonk, C. J., Cummings, J. A., Hara, N., Fischler, R. B., & Lee, S. M. (2000). A ten level web integration continuum for higher education: New resources, activities, partners, courses, and markets. Retrieved August 30, 2003, from http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/paper/edmdia99.html
Carlén, U. (2002, November). Typology of online learning communities. Paper presented at the NetLearning2002 conference, Ronneby, Sweden. Retrieved August 30, 2003, from http://www.learnloop.org/olc/typologyOLC.pdf
Carroll, T. G. (2000). If we didn't have the schools we have today, would we create the schools we have today? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 1(1). Retrieved August 30, 2003, from http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss1/currentissues/general/article1.htm
Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S. C. (1996, October). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 3-6. Retrieved August 30, 2003, from http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html
Lago, M. E. (2000, November). The hybrid experience: How sweet it is! Converge. Retrieved August 30, 2003, from http://www.convergemag.com/Publications/CNVGNov00/hybrid/index.shtm
McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Stammen, R. M. (2001, January). Basic understandings for developing learning media for the classroom and beyond. Learning Technology, 3(1). Retrieved August 30, 2003, from http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/issues/january2001/#18
Testa, A. M. (2000). Seven principles for good practice in teaching and technology. In R. Cole (Ed.), Issues in web-based pedagogy: A critical primer (pp. 237-245). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Vest, C. M. (2003). MIT OpenCourseWare: A message from the president. Retrieved August 30, 2003, from http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/presidentspage.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the shocking future of technology in education are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
Have some fun with your students courtesy of David Fordham
September 11, 2003 message from David R. Fordham [fordhadr@JMU.EDU]
For several years, I have been doing some fun things with PowerPoint, more than simply using it as a "bullet-pointed" slide show.
One of the simplest, yet most unusual, applications I use for PowerPoint is my own parody of the Jeopardy game. If you download it and try it, I think you'll have to agree it is ultra-simple, downright embarrassingly so, yet the students get a kick out of it, since it is so unlike any PowerPoint session they've ever seen. Class participation a la mode! Not a lot of new learning takes place on the day I play the game, but the students have a good time! I use Snickers bars for the winners, and a homework review sheet for the losers!
Please don't take this game as an indication of how simplistic I make my PowerPoint presentations! I have many better examples of more powerful PowerPoint features. But this game is fun, entertaining, and provides a break from the day-to-day class. You are free to download it, try it, and even use it in your class, changing the questions and answers to your heart's desire. Just be sure to mention me as the original author, and be sure to tell the students that Jeopardy is a registered trademark of the Sony Pictures corporation! (And if you get some good ideas and do your own new presentation game, you don't even have to mention me anymore!)
Some other learning innovations can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#IdeasForMaterialsModification
Computer gaming isn't just for
teenagers or 20-somethings enamored with virtual violence. Walt Mossberg tests a
RealNetworks product specializing in "games for grown-ups."
"Gore-Free PC Games Can Help While Away Those Senior Moments," Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106323038086874500,00.html?mod=gadgets%5Fprimary%5Fhs%5Flt
A specialized online service caters to fans of these games. It's RealOne Arcade, from RealNetworks, and runs on Microsoft Windows. It sells inexpensive, downloadable games either one at a time or via subscription. More than 150 games are available. You can study detailed descriptions and reader reviews before you buy them, and even try them out free of charge.
The games cost no more than $20 each. If you don't buy them a la carte, you can subscribe to the service for $6.95 a month. That gives you a game each month, plus $5 off any additional games you buy. Subscribers must commit to a minimum three-month term, at $20.85 upfront. People who buy one game get a one-month free trial subscription, including one free game.
The service has an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 subscribers, and the company says it has sold nearly 1.5 million games. Real says its clientele for the game service averages 40 years old, and more than half are women.
I have been testing RealOne Arcade, and I like it. I downloaded six games, tried them all and bought two. The service is convenient, easy to use and does what it promises. It provides a source for the type of games that are often hard to find in stores, or are scattered around various Web sites. And the games cost much less than most of the popular shooting, fighting and sports games.
Like Apple's online music store, RealOne Arcade isn't accessed from a Web browser, but from a special program that connects directly to RealNetworks' game servers.
This Arcade program is nicely organized, easy to use, and provides clear, detailed information about downloading, installing and playing each game. It even checks your PC to tell you whether it is capable of running each game. And it searches your hard disk for games you already own, even if they weren't purchased from Real, and lists them along with the games you've downloaded from Real, to provide a sort of cockpit for launching all your games.
When you download the trial version of a game, you can test it as often as you like, free of charge, up to a total of one hour of playing time. You don't need to be connected to the Internet to play a game you've purchased or are testing once it has been downloaded.
Any game you actually buy is yours forever, even if you cancel your subscription. And if you remain a subscriber, you can redownload any game you've bought, on multiple PCs, for up to a year. You can also get free updates to the games you own for a year.
Most of the games are meant to be played on a Windows PC, but some are for Palm hand-helds. There are also about 50 "teaser" games, essentially stripped-down promotional versions, that can be played directly from the Web.
The games offered by RealOne Arcade are reminiscent of old, classic titles like Breakout, Missile Command, Tetris and Solitaire. The company pointedly tries to avoid games featuring graphic violence. The six games I downloaded were Compulsive Solitaire, which includes lots of solitaire variations; Mahjonng Towers, featuring multilevel boards; Gutterball 3D, a bowling game; AirStrike 3D, a helicopter-battle simulation; SuperCollapse II, a Tetris-like puzzle; and Word Jolt, in which you try to make words out of random, scrambled letters.
I liked them all, and spent several hours playing them on a cross-country flight. All worked fine on my Windows XP laptop. I bought Compulsive Solitaire and Word Jolt. My favorite was Word Jolt, which can be played in either a fast-paced arcade mode or an untimed mode.
Continued in the article.
James Kilmurray argues that online education should more effectively address the needs of working adults. He proposes three major requirements to meet this goal: recognizing the distinctive characteristics of the adult learning population, instituting a shared-responsibility system of instruction, and supporting research and experimentation on Web-tailored pedagogy. (See http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1014 )
Bob Jensen's threads on video games as a new type of pedagogy for learning are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#VideoGames
Personal technology reviews by Walter Mossberg --- http://ptech.wsj.com/
Bob Jensen's technology bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm
"You Can Merge MP3 Tracks To Avoid Hearing Gaps in Music," by Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, September 7, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106323053792236900,00.html?mod=gadgets%5Fprimary%5Fhs%5Flt
There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.
Here are a few questions about computers I've received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about listening to music on an iPod, Wi-Fi interference, and protecting your computer from viruses.
Q: Apple's iPod plays songs with a slight pause between the tracks. What this means is that, on an album such as the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper," certain songs don't play with seamlessly mixed segues as originally released, but instead with annoying gaps in the flow of the music. Is there any way to fix this?
A: There is no setting on the iPod, or on any other player I know of, to eliminate the gap between tracks. But it's possible to get rid of the gaps by merging, or "joining," MP3 tracks on the computer before transferring them to portable players. This procedure turns two or more tracks into one, either during the process of converting songs from a CD, or afterward.
Apple has added a feature to its iTunes music program, free of charge on all Macs, that allows you to join CD tracks during the conversion process. When you insert a CD to be converted into MP3 files, you just select two or more tracks and then go to the Advanced menu and select "Join Tracks." The program will draw a link between the names of the tracks, and will then merge them into a single MP3 file.
There are a number of programs for Windows that do something similar. One is a $20 shareware program called "MP3 Splitter & Joiner," from EZ Softmagic Inc., at www.ezsoftmagic.com . Another is "Twins File Merger," from Twins Software Online, a $15 shareware program found at www.twins-software.com . Both programs work on MP3 files that already are on your hard disk. The Twins Software Inc. program also can merge other types of files, including video clips, text files and Word files.
Continued in the article.
Personal technology reviews by Walter Mossberg --- http://ptech.wsj.com/
Bob Jensen's technology bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm
"H-P Has an Easy Way to Let You Convert Old Videos Into DVDs," by Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10614140399004700,00.html?mod=Personal+Technology
Using a computer to transfer old videos onto DVDs should be simple, but it's a hassle. Older camcorders and VCRs are analog devices and can't translate the contents of a video into the digital format computers understand. You need an extra gadget called an analog-to-digital converter to put between the camcorder or VCR, and the computer.
A number of converter products are on the market. But they are often complicated or unreliable. I recently tested three of them that worked poorly, or not at all. Some new digital camcorders can act as converters, but they are expensive and tricky to use in this way. And you still need a DVD recorder, something most PCs lack, to actually create the discs and finish the job.
Now, Hewlett-Packard is attacking the problem with a gadget called the DVD Movie Writer dc3000. It's an external accessory for Windows computers that combines, in one integrated box, an analog-to-digital converter and a DVD recorder. It will be sold late next month at $399.
H-P promises that the DVD Movie Writer will allow users to convert old videos from their camcorder or VCR tapes to DVDs in just a few simple steps. In my tests, I found the claim to be true.
But there is one huge caveat: Microsoft's Windows Messenger, an unrelated product that comes with every copy of the Windows XP operating system, interferes with the video transfer and must be disabled for the DVD Movie Writer to work correctly. H-P says there is a new patch for Windows that fixes the problem, and that the patch will be included in the installation software for the product. If the fix really works, the company will have a winner on its hands.
Continued in the Article
Personal technology reviews by Walter Mossberg --- http://ptech.wsj.com/
Bob Jensen's technology bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm
Hedging on the Recovery
"Put Action Shows Buyers Chasing Stock Rally Seek to Protect Gains," by Kopin Tan, The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106331289879361500,00.html?mod=mkts%5Fmain%5Fnews%5Fhs%5Fh
Stocks rose despite rising jobless claims and an analyst downgrade of International Business Machines Corp., but stock buyers continued to use options to hedge their exposure and guard their gains.
The put activity is most pronounced in stocks and sectors that have enjoyed large increases -- a sign that investors chasing the rally are continuing to buy downside insurance.
For instance, the Nasdaq 100 Tracking Stock, or QQQ, and the Semiconductors Holdrs Trust, or SMH, have climbed about 11% and 18%, respectively, during the past month. But at the same time, the ratio of puts outstanding accumulated to calls in both the QQQ and the increasingly popular SMH options have crept up steadily and are at their highest levels of the past year.
Some contrarian traders see such caution as a positive sign. To be sure, some investors are playing it safe because the price of put protection has fallen substantially. In addition, many market watchers believe expectations of an economic recovery already are factored into stock prices, and are guarding against possible pullbacks should companies fail to surpass those expectations when they report earnings.
Short-term calls traded actively in several networking stocks. Shares of Ciena Corp., Linthicum, Md., closed up 22 cents to $6.96. Its September 7.50 calls traded 19,700 contracts, compared with open interest of 11,721 contracts, and gained 15 cents to 25 cents at the International Securities Exchange.
Continued in the article
Helper Site if You Are Looking for a Book to Read --- Slide the Pointer
Whichbook --- http://www.whichbook.net/index.jsp
Note that you click on a category-pair row and then slide a pointer. However, you may want to print the listing of the findings in your search. In that case, I suggest that immediately upon entering the site you click on the "Text Only" option. This will make it possible to print a list of titles and authors after you choose the categories and degree of intensity that you want within each category.
Happy - Sad
Funny - Serious
Safe - Disturbing
Expected - Unpredictable
Larger than Life - Down to Earth
Beautiful - Disgusting
Gentle - Disturbing
No Sex - Sex
Conventional - Unusual
Optimistic - Bleak
Short - LongChange to:
Character (Race, Age, Sexuality, Gender)
Plot Setting (Success against the odds, Conflict, Lots of twists & turns, Open, Quest, Revelation, generations)
Setting (Point to a country on the globe)
You will find a listing in each category or category combination. Included is a very brief description of each book.
Bob Jensen's book finding helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#Books
Question
Are eBooks dead?
Answer
I think there is still a big market in textbooks, but the market for popular
fiction and non-fiction has dwindled.
September 9, 2003 message from Barnes & Nobel
Dear eBook Newsletter Subscriber,
As of September 9, 2003, Barnes & Noble.com will no longer sell eBooks. At this time, we will also be terminating our eBook Newsletter service.
"Barnes & Noble's Online Arm Pulls the Plug on E-Book Sales," by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, The Wall Street Journal, September 10, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106312780219656500,00.html?mod=technology%5Fmain%5Fwhats%5Fnews
Publishers, she added, failed to make enough of a pricing distinction between hardcovers and their e-book counterparts. Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest retailer, owns 38% of Barnes&Noble.com and is in the midst of buying Bertelsmann AG's 37% stake in the business. That purchase is expected to close within two weeks.
Some e-book publishers tried to play down the company's decision to exit from e-book retailing. Arthur Klebanoff, co-founder and chief executive of New York-based Rosetta Books LLC, an e-book publisher that has released 117 titles from such writers as George Orwell and John Updike, said the company's strongest retailer is Palm Digital Media, a unit of PalmGear Inc.
"On a sales basis, Barnes&Noble.com contributed a tiny percentage of Rosetta's revenue," said Mr. Klebanoff. "But they had an early leadership role in e-books. My guess is that they still believe in e-books in the long term, but that the economics in the short term don't make sense."
Barnes&Noble.com's decision comes at a difficult juncture for the e-book business. "Any defection is going to be a negative," said Mike Segroves, director of business development at Palm Digital Media. "While it will certainly be a reduction in revenue for some publishers, our business has been growing. We'd like to think that we can make up for the revenue publishers will lose from this -- but time will prove whether we are right or wrong."
Continued in the article.
Barnes and Nobel University still
seems to be up and running as of September 9, 2003!
Free courses from Barnes & Noble University --- http://www.barnesandnobleuniversity.com/
Bob Jensen's threads on electronic
books and alternative sources can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ebooks.htm
I slightly updated the listing of places to find electronic books.
Many publishers will tell you when an electronic version is available.
Though print media and paper use in offices are greatly declining, it won't be a paperless world anytime soon. However, a professor tells a Seybold audience, publishers still must adapt --- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60348,00.html
Banned Books
Mark Twain. John Steinbeck. Judy Blume. Steven King. All have authored one or
more books that have been formally banned from library bookshelves or challenged
by concerned patrons --- http://www.smartpros.com/x40467.xml
The American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom has recorded more than 7,000 book challenges since 1990, including 515 in 2002. A "challenge" is defined as a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school about a book's content or appropriateness. The majority of challenges (roughly 60 percent) are brought by parents, followed by library patrons and administrators. Each challenge represents an effort to remove books from school curricula or library shelves.
The 10 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000
1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds NaylorFor the full 100 challenged books list, click here. More information on Banned Books Week can be found at http://www.ala.org/bbooks/
I read the following for a scheduled program of the 29th Annual Accounting Education Conference, October 17-18, 2003 Sponsored by the Texas CPA Society, San Antonio Airport Hilton.
WEB-BASED AND FACE-TO-FACE INSTRUCTION:
A COMPARISON OF LEARNING OUTCOMES IN A FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING COURSEExplore the results of a study conducted over a four-semester period that focused on the same graduate level financial accounting course that was taught using web-based instruction and face-to-face instruction. Discuss the comparison of student demographics and characteristics, course satisfaction, and comparative statistics related to learning outcomes.
Doug Rusth/associate professor/University of Houston at Clear Lake/Clear Lake
Bob Jensen's threads on comparisons and assessment are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on asynchronous learning are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Hi John,
This "click and mortar" issue is a complex question, and there are now junk yards filled with abandoned distance education programs (e.g., Fathom at Columbia, online teachers education at McGill, etc.). The problems are enormous. The most enduring programs are those that already had successful extension programs such that there is an established reputations and market (e.g., the enormous extension program in the University of Wisconsin system). Alternately, there has to be an on-campus market where students and faculty are willing to experiment in Web-based courses for full-time resident students on campus (e.g., the purported success of such courses at the University of North Texas and the Scale Program at the University of Illinois).
Secondly, there has to be revenue commensurate with the cost. Some programs are highly profitable because students are willing to pay enormous fees for relatively inexpensive online programs. The highly successful ADEPT Masters of Engineering degree program at Stanford University is the best example. Highly qualified students who work in the Silicon Valley are willing to pay high tuition for the prestige of a Stanford engineering graduate degree, and Stanford delivers such an online degree to a select group of students asynchronously in a very inexpensive manner. The learning materials are mostly downloadable videos that were initially expensive to develop but dirt cheap to deliver over and over. The students are highly motivated and require very little online hand holding in that they do not have to communicate intensively with an instructor. A somewhat similar example is the asynchronous video delivery of basic accounting to undergraduates at Brigham Young University. You can download learn more about BYU's materials in Amy Dunbar's workshop materials linked below in this message.
At the opposite extreme you have an extremely costly and labor intensive instant messaging delivery by Amy Dunbar and her colleagues at the University of Connecticut. If faculty and graduate teaching assistants are available for instant messaging for eight to ten hours a day (and at hours that working students really need for learning interactions on nights and week ends), the cost can be enormous. Of course there are programs with varying degrees of online communication intensity and cost.
An intense communication pedagogy also has another huge drawback. It tends to burn out faculty, especially if the courses are asynchronous to a point where students are progressing at vastly different rates in the lesson plans. Few programs have the quality of Stanford's graduate school engineering students who can progress asynchronously without much communication with an instructor. I think most programs have had to restrict the course pace to weekly learning modules such that the learning paces are relatively uniform and easier to manage from a communication standpoint.
I have threads on cost of online programs at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/distcost.htm
To be on the leading edge, you should probably think of using more video and or video games in online learning. Camtasia is a relatively inexpensive start. Then you might consider Flash video or something similar such as the types of things in Amy Dunbar's workshop in Hawaii in August. Links of possible interest in these areas are shown below:
Video (including links to Amy's workshop materials) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm
Video Games --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#VideoGames
Bob Jensen's other helpers in education technology are linked at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm
Bob Jensen
-----Original Message----- From: Merrie & John Hayden [mailto:m.j.hayden@PRODIGY.NET] Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 8:04 PM To: AECM@LISTSERV.LOYOLA.EDU Subject: Online education
Up until now, our school has been strictly brick and mortar, face-to face instruction. We are considering becoming "click and mortar". can any of you give me the heads up on the process? Where to start? What are the typical pitfalls? What is the cost involved? Has it been successful financially and academicaly? Whatever advice anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.
John Hayden, CPA
Managing Director
The PJA School
Upper Darby, PA 19082 (610) 789-6700
September 10, 2003 reply from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU]
Bob: Here are links Flash animation on "Using Microsoft Excel for Linear Regression":
http://www.virtualpublishing.net/lin_swfs/linreg01f.swf
http://www.virtualpublishing.net/lin_swfs/linreg02f.swf
Richard Campbell
Meeting of Frontiers (Russian History, Art, Language) --- http://frontiers.loc.gov:8081/intldl/mtfhtml/mfhome.html
This site may be useful in history, art, and Russian language courses (since it
is bilingual). The database also includes audio recordings.
Meeting of Frontiers is a bilingual, multimedia English-Russian digital library that tells the story of the American exploration and settlement of the West, the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
It is intended for use in U.S. and Russian schools and libraries and by the general public in both countries. Scholars, particularly those who do not have ready access to major research libraries, also will benefit from the mass of primary material included in Meeting of Frontiers, much of which has never been published or is extremely rare.
The project grew out of discussions in 1997-98 between members of Congress, in particular Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, and James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress. The collapse of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union created new opportunities for American educators and scholars to interact directly with their counterparts in Russia, as well as new demands in the United States for information about Russia. Nowhere was the new situation more apparent than in Alaska, where the end of the Cold War led to a revival of ethnic, religious, and economic ties going back to the Russian settlement of Alaska in the late eighteenth century.
The development of the Internet and the explosion of the World Wide Web in the 1990s offered a new technology for establishing contacts and exchanging information among individuals and institutions throughout the world. The Library of Congress National Digital Library Program, initiated in 1995, was one of the first large-scale efforts to use the Internet to disseminate high-quality educational and cultural content--digital versions of manuscripts, maps, films, photographs, sound recordings, and printed material--for use in schools and by the general public. Meeting of Frontiers uses the technologies pioneered in the National Digital Library Program to tell the parallel and interacting stories of America's West and Russia's East through digitized images and texts of original source materials.
The Meeting of Frontiers site was unveiled in December 1999. It included more than twenty-five hundred items, comprising some seventy thousand images, from the rare book, manuscript, photograph, map, film, and sound recording collections of the Library of Congress. Expansions of the site took place in September 2000, January 2001, May 2001, December 2001, September 2002 and May 2003, adding many thousands of items and accompanying explanatory text.
In November and December 1999, the Library of Congress concluded agreements with the Russian State Library (Moscow) and the National Library of Russia (St. Petersburg) regarding their participation in the project. In May 2000, joint Library of Congress-Russian teams completed the installation of high-resolution scanning equipment, on long-term loan from the Library of Congress, at both institutions. The Library of Congress also concluded a cooperative agreement with the Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. The first digital images from the Alaskan and Russian partner institutions-rare maps, photograph albums, and sheet music–were added to the site in January 2001.
In April 2001, the Library of Congress and the Open Society Institute of Russia agreed to establish a cooperative regional scanning center in Novosibirsk to digitize selected collections from libraries and archives in Western Siberia. OSI funded and administered a grant competition through which collections were identified and selected for digitization. Equipment was delivered to Novosibirsk in May 2001 and scanning began shortly thereafter. A second OSI grant competition identified collections in Irkutsk and Central Siberia for digitization in 2002. In addition, the Library of Congress and the Staats- and Universitaets-Bibliothek (SUB) of Goettingen, Germany concluded an agreement concerning digitization of SUB’s famous Asch Collection for inclusion in the project.
Meeting of Frontiers was prominently featured in the curriculum and contest materials for National History Day 2001 (Grades 6-12), the theme of which was “Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas.” It also is being used by the Foundation for Internet Education in its Internet training programs throughout Russia.
Suggestions and comments are welcome, and should be sent to MoF@loc.gov
WebCT Versus Blackboard
I
don’t know all the details regarding why WebCT is better, because I really
don’t use either Blackboard to any great extent except to house copyrighted
materials such as American Accounting Association journal articles and textbook
solutions manuals that I’m allowed to share with students but not make
available to the world. I shy away
from Blackboard because I like to share my learning materials with the world on
a Web server rather than on a password protected Blackboard server.
I have some earlier (dated) threads on these issues at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/blackboard.htm
Search for Domain Names
Hello Dr. Jensen,
Since you mention greatdomains.com on your Search Helpers, I was wondering if your visitors would also like our site www.Register-DomainNames.com . We have some awesome domain finder and information tools. Check it out to see if your visitors would like it. You can add your site to our directory if you are interested in exchanging links, at http://www.register-domainnames.com/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi .
Please email me if you have any questions.
Regards, Dan [dan@register-domainnames.com]
Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm
September 8, 2003 message from Jon Entine (forwarded by Richard Campbell)
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Entine [mailto:runjonrun@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 11:11 AM
Subject: Research audit on "Body Shop" availableFor anyone studying or teaching The Body Shop, I've posted on my website my internal 48-page audit of the company, which I've previously only provided by email.
http://www.jonentine.com/reviews/Body_Shop_Roddick_audit.doc
It's an extremely detailed account of the practices of this company. It analyzes Body Shop over a range of areas including its environmental practices, its marketing and ethics, its franchise relations, corporate governance, product quality, etc. It's based on more than 100 interviews, most of them recorded (and available for fact checking).
It was first written in 1996 and has been updated slightly. A lot of it deals with the historical practices of the company, such as Anita Roddick's brazen stealing of the concept, name, logo, and products from the original Body Shop, the one founded in Berkeley and San Francisco in 1970 that Roddick visited, then ripped off without attribution, then lied about. The report is very revealing about the character of Roddick and the sad, dysfunctional, ethically-challenged multi-national corporation she has created and continues to oversee.
The backgrounder was prepared when Body Shop's lawyers (Lovell White Durrant...Robert Maxwell's ex corporate swat team) and its PR team (Hill & Knowlton ... The tobacco lobbyist PR firm) were hired to counter articles by me, New Consumer in England, In These Times, Stephen Corry of Survival International, and other progressives who published fact-based accounts of the ethical dysfunctionality of this company.
Please feel free to use it in your research.
Regards,
-- Jon Entine
Miami University
6255 So. Clippinger Dr.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45243 (
513) 527-4385 [FAX] 527-4386
http://www.jonentine.com
Bob Jensen's threads on video game pedagogy can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#VideoGames
September 11, 2003 message from
Check out this site for an interactive "whodunit" created using Flash. This is an intriguing promo for Reebok, but it has given me ideas for an audit case simulation using Flash and Toolbook.
http://www.zugara.com/whodunit
Richard J. Campbell
College for Financial Planning --- http://www.fp.edu/
There are now three distance learning masters degree programs.
The College for Financial Planning, the oldest and most widely respected provider of financial planning education in the United States, offers an accredited online master’s degree program as well as several industry education and certification programs. In 1972, we created the country's first financial planning education program—the CFP® Certification Professional Education Program—still our most popular, with over 55,000 graduates. In addition, the College also offers continuing education and professional development courses for financial services professionals.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance learning programs can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
"What's wrong with PowerPoint--and
how to fix it," by David Coursey, Executive Editor, AnchorDesk September
10, 2003 --- http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2914637,00.html
(Thank you Ed Scibner for pointing to this link.)
Are PowerPoint slides making us stupid? Are all problems really just a few bullet points away from their solutions? Or is the medium having a bad effect on the message? I'm no Marshall McLuhan or Edward Tufte (I will pause here to let you all shout, "Damn straight!"), but I do know something about business presentations and how they're put together. And I know that PowerPoint too often gets in the way of the message, replacing clear thought with unnecessary animations, serious ideas with 10-word bullet points, substance with tacky, confusing style.
I DON'T KNOW what McLuhan would think about PowerPoint, him being dead and all. But Tufte is very much alive and, in an essay appearing in the September issue of Wired, minces no words: "PowerPoint is evil," says the Yale professor whose books have set the standard for graphic presentation in the computer age.Tufte says that slideware programs like PowerPoint (there aren't many others left) "may help speakers outline their talks, but convenience for speakers can be punishing to both content and audience." The standard PowerPoint deck, he says, "elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch."
This is especially true given that many presenters--who really shouldn't be presenting in the first place--use PowerPoint as a crutch. PowerPoint becomes a tool to separate the presenter from the audience and from the message.
But it doesn't have to be this way. It's possible to use PowerPoint as a tool (just like the projector you probably use to display your presentation), and as a real complement to what you're saying, without dumbing down your ideas. Today I'd like to offer some advice to help you do just that.
My point here is that PowerPoint glitz alone does not an effective presentation make. While your decks shouldn't be boring, they aren't entertainment, either. A few staging and showbiz skills help, but most presentations are won or lost in the actual content. Your job is to control PowerPoint. If you don't, PowerPoint will control your presentation.
- Do the presentation first, then the slides. Many people draft and write their presentation in PowerPoint itself. It's far better to prepare the presentation in Word (or whatever other tool you use to write)--including all the detail you want to present--and then transfer the highlights to PowerPoint. The one problem with using Word for this: It doesn't have a very good outlining tool.
- Artwork has killed more presentations than it's saved. You're not a graphic artist, and neither am I. PowerPoint makes it too easy to add confusing graphics to presentations. Use restraint.
- Animation is for cartoons. Animation tends to take over the presentation, which then becomes more about the presenter trying to make all the builds and transitions work properly than actually presenting the content.
- Present more than the slide. Don't you hate it when presenters stand at the front of a room and read their slides ? Slides are supposed to convey the major points of the presentation, reinforcing the speaker's points. Use them as prompts to talk about specific topics, as an outline, not as the substance of the presentation itself.
- Use the notes pages. Many people are unaware that PowerPoint lets you attach notes to slides, which can then be printed and used to guide you or to give to the audience. Search for "notes" in the Help file to find out more about this feature.
- Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. No, you don't have to stand in front of a mirror and do your entire presentation. But a sit-down with some colleagues can answer the questions, "Do these slides make sense?" and "Is this the information people care about?"--before you find out the hard way.
Reply from Charlene Davis on September 10, 2003
Bob
Excellent points! I have seen PowerPoint abused, at professional conferences and by students, to the point where I am very leery of using it myself for fear I am doing the same mindless, stupid things I've witnessed others do. In my promotion management class, I encourage students to actively minimize the PowerPoint part of their presentation and it is amazing how much more creative and active their work is without this crutch. I will share the list of tips with my class as they prepare for their major presentations this term.
Charlene
Dr. J. Charlene Davis
Associate Professor of Marketing
Trinity University
September 10 Reply From Fred Loxum (Physics at Trinity University)
Bob,
I agree and have a really good PowerPoint presentation about this.
Fred
September 10 reply from Bob Jensen
