New Bookmarks
Year 2003 Quarter 4:  October 1-December 31 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.

Once again Trinity University receives a top ranking --- http://www.trinity.edu/departments/public_relations/news_releases/usnews_ranking2003.htm 

 

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Choose a Date Below for Additions to the Bookmarks File

December 16, 2003     December 3, 2003   

November 15, 2003     November 1, 2003     

October 21, 2003        October 15, 2003     

 

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December 16, 2003 

 Bob Jensen's New Bookmarks on December 16, 2003
Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

Year 2003 Jensen Christmas Letter --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/XMAS2003.htm 
(The pictures I took in October load very slowly.  Please be patient.)

To hear the wonderful music at Jesse's site, you must click on your selection and wait until it opens in a new window.  If the music does not start automatically, scroll clear down to the bottom of the page (I mean the very bottom of the page following a large black space) and click the on button on the control bar at the bottom of the page.  Then scroll back up to the top to watch the animation while the music plays.

Romantic music provided by Jesse --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/  
Bob Jensen ' s Christmas present (requires computer audio) in the White Mountains --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/chev.htm
Those that know me realize that this is not far fetched!
I especially like the graphics and the music at “Games People Play” --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/house.htm
But the best is The Irish Blessing --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/blessing.htm 

Quotes of the Week

ANYTHING WORTH DOING, IS WORTH DOING TO EXCESS.
Karl Pizzolatto (As quoted in a recent email message from Auntie Bev)
Bob Jensen's email philosophy.

Aged to Perfection:  More Companies Seek Older Leaders
Joann S. Lublin, The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2003, Page B1
Now we're talkin'.

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Edgar Allan Poe

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
Ralph Waldo Emerson 

... the award-winning chemistry professor (from Hendrix College) offers the following metaphor:  "I think of myself like I'm up in a helicopter and I'm flying over my students who are wading through a swamp.  I have a bullhurn and I'm saying, 'Don't go that way, there's an alligator over there!  Watch out!'"
As quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 12, 2003, Page A9.
Tom Goodwin, professor of chemistry at Hendrix College, was honored as one of the nation's top professors by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching --- http://www2.hendrix.edu/newscenter/GoodwinPOTY/ 

GM, despite impressive cost-cutting and quality gains in recent years, has made more money selling mortgages in the last two quarters than building cars.
Shirouzu and Joseph B. White, "S&P Downshifts Ford's Debt Rating,"  The Wall Street Journal, Page A3 ---  http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10686444365708500,00.html  (see below)

Average health-plan costs rose a less-than-expected 10% per worker in 2003, mostly by shifting more expenses to employees.
Vanessa Fuhrmans, "Shifting Burden Helps Employers Cut Health Costs," The Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107083928529719500,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us 

It is often so: the harder it is to hear, the more a truth is worth saying.
André Gide

Most of the kids in my seventh grade class are not going to wind up with editors.
Peter Berger in his commentary on teaching English --- http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-12-01-03.htm 

We only hear questions that we are able to answer.
Friedrich Nietzsche

IBM has told its managers to plan on moving the work of as many as 4,730 programmers to India, China and elsewhere.
The Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107145780218004900,00.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news 

Many of today's students may never have shared a room with a brother or sister, and they have different expectations of what residence hall life should be
Judy Lin, "Colleges Offering Better Living Space," IwonNews, December 12, 2003 --- http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20031212/D7VCQD180.html 

The best way to develop responsibility in people is to give them responsibility.
Kenneth Blanchard


A poem by our accounting/XBRL friend Neal Hannon from the University of Hartford --- http://asstudents.unco.edu/students/AE-Extra/2003/11/Poetry-2.html 

Repeat Offender

The past is gone
But it reveals a pattern
That will not go away
And could too easily be repeated

How hard is it
To learn from the past
To see the outcomes
Before they unfold?

And when we see
Why does it not
Change what we do?

Imagine for This Holiday Season
Lyrics by John Lennon --- http://www.johnlennon.it/imagine.htm 
Music and Lyrics --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/imagine.htm 
If the music does not start automatically, scroll clear down to the bottom of the page (I mean the very bottom of the page following a large black space) and click the on button on the control bar at the bottom of the page.


You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one 

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

 You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Bob Jensen's working draft of accounting and finance scandals for October-December 2003 can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud123103.htm 

The above site elaborates on the ethical dilemma of a Stanford assistant professor who simultaneously warned the world that mutual funds were ripping off over $5 billion from the public while he was making millions exploiting his discovery.

Stock mutual funds took in more money in the past three months than in any period since 2000, despite the trading scandal.
"Flight to Quality Benefits Three Fund Firms," by Ian McDonald, The Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107118601050112500,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us 

How do TIAA/CREF mutual funds compare in this era where most mutual funds tend to overprice customers relative to value added?  See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#TIAA 

Bob Jensen's Tribute to Bob Bartley

While reading Daniel Heenninger’s tribute to Bob Bartley in The Wall Street Journal (Page A13) on December 12, I was struck with a vision of a corn stalk standing tall in a clump of ivy.  I lived in a fraternity house and played many hours of bridge with Bob Bartley 46 years ago in the heartland at Iowa State University .  I recall the pleasure of learning years later that Bob had risen to Editor of the Editorial Page of the WSJ.  The East, and New York in particular, is noted for bias for Ivy, those graduates from Princeton , Yale, Columbia , Harvard, etc.

The fact that Bob competed with and rose above the Ivy graduates is a tribute to his undeniable talent and perseverance.  Back in our fraternity house, Bob was noted for being a quiet intellect.  In his horned rimmed glasses he even looked a bit like a nerd misplanted among us Iowa hayseeds.  The fact that he rose to great heights and received many prizes, including a 1980 Pulitzer Prize and a 2003 Presidential Medal of Freedom, is a tribute not only to him but to America itself where opportunity abounds for those who are willing to aspire for the top and work steadfastly upwards.

The world will miss this corn stalk towering above the Ivy.

You can read more about Bob at the following sites:

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107119731685066600,00.html?mod=opinion_columns_featured_lsc 

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004413 

The Best of Hubble (Astronomy, Photography) --- http://wires.news.com.au/special/mm/030811-hubble.htm 
This is a slide show complete with audio.

America on the Move (History, Culture, Economics) --- http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/ 

The Fog of War (Movies, Film, History) --- http://www.sonyclassics.com/fogofwar/ 
Robert McNamara's life and times in film.  Discusses the philosophy of war.

A fabulous travel link forwarded by Debbie Bowling

"Clip it, save it, use it—and never, ever lose it!" --- http://www.msnbc.com/news/981377.asp?0sl=-20 
The 2004 address book: All the contact information you need to plan the perfect trip
MSNBC --- http://www.msnbc.com/news/981377.asp

Everyone knows about the eBays, the Orbitzes, the Travelocities, and the Pricelines, but where do you turn when you need to find a hot spring in Idaho, an agency that specializes in cheap airfare to India, or a cybercafé in Istanbul? To Budget Travel’s 2004 Address Book, that’s where. We’ve come up with a list of 101 suppliers, Web sites, government organizations, and nonprofits that can best help you travel intelligently.

The main site is at http://www.msnbc.com/news/981377.asp?0sl=-20 

Bob Jensen's travel helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#Travel 

Trends
"What to Look for in 2004," by Phillip D. Long, Syllabus Magazine, December 2003 --- http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=8584 

The Year in Ideas --- http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html 


Published: December 14, 2003

Each December, The New York Times Magazine looks back at the year through an unusual lens: ideas. We send out a team of researchers and reporters to investigate the latest thinking in every subject imaginable -- not just war, medicine and politics but also cosmetics, literary theory and Wiffle-ball technology -- and to bring back the most innovative, intriguing, mystifying and promising ideas they can find. Then we boil that vast intellectual stew down to the issue you hold in your hands: an alphabetical encyclopedia of the 67 inventions, breakthroughs and theories (big and small, nice and nasty) that made a difference in 2003.

Although the predictable big thinkers are represented here -- Paul Wolfowitz, Henry Louis Gates Jr., the editors of US Weekly -- an unusual proportion of this year's crop of ideas comes from lone-wolf thinkers of one stripe or another: basement tinkerers, armchair philosophers, mad scientists.

Take Michael Kennedy, a professor of geography at the University of Kentucky, whose big idea this year (G.I. Bill for College Athletes) had absolutely nothing to do with geography but might offer a solution to the conundrum of big-money college athletics. Or consider Frank Polifka, a Kansas wheat farmer, who invented an industrial garbage disposal that works like a contained cyclone (Tornado in a Can). It functions brilliantly, pulverizing waste of all kinds into a fine dust -- but no one (Polifka included) can figure out why. And then there is David Stevenson, a professor at Caltech, who in May came up with a real-life plan to accomplish a longtime dream of science fiction writers and 10-year-olds everywhere: drilling straight down to the center of the earth (The Jules Verne Project).

Continued in the article

"Arrests as Yale Protest," The New York Times, December 11, 2003 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/education/11YALE.html 

About 100 Yale University graduate students and hospital workers were arrested Wednesday night on charges of disorderly conduct as they protested what they said are inadequate wages and benefits for women.

In a rally that drew about 200 people, activists accused the university of failing to provide affordable child care or health care.

The Quest for Unity of Knowledge

Word of the Month = Consilience

Consilience is the key to unification. The word “consilience” was first used by the philosopher and historian of science William Whewell in 1840. It refers to a "jumping together" of knowledge by the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation.
Note from Bob Jensen:  When I say this quotation, I thought of the Powers of Ten at http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html 

Recommended Download Video of the Month:  Harvard's Edward O. Wilson ---  http://athome.harvard.edu/stattracker.asp?dest=../dh/wilson.html&course=wilson 

On the Relation of Science and the Humanities
This one hour lecture explores the bridge between science and the humanities. Featuring a glossary of helpful terms, slide images, and background information, Professor Wilson postulates, "...that genetic evolution and cultural evolution are somehow interwoven."

Human Nature
Human nature is not the genes, which prescribe it, or culture, its ultimate product. Rather, human nature is the epigenetic rules, the hereditary regularities of mental development that bias cultural evolution in one direction as opposed to another, and thus connect the genes to culture.

The Westermarck Effect
The Westermarck Effect, named after Finnish anthropologist Edward Westermarck, was discovered almost a century ago. It is the basis for incest avoidance in humans. When 2 people live in close domestic proximity during the first 30 months of the life of either one, both are desensitized to later close sexual attraction and bonding. The Westermarck Effect has been well documented in anthropological studies. Non-human primates whose sexual behavior has been closely studied, with reference to behavioral development, all display the Westermarck Effect.

Aesthetic Judgment 
Aesthetic Judgment “Studies have shown if people are given complete freedom to choose the setting of their homes and offices, they gravitate toward an environment that combines three features…. People want to be on a height looking down, they prefer park land to look at, savannah-like terrain with scattered trees, and they want to be next to a body of water, such as a river or lake…even if these elements are purely aesthetic and not at all functional.”

Erotic Aesthetics
Erotic Aesthetics “I learned in teaching […that] it is always wise, about two-thirds through [a lecture], to bring up sex in some form. I noticed it was an experiment that always worked.”

Genes and Culture 
Co-Evolution “My point is that genetic evolution and cultural evolution are somehow interwoven. We are only beginning to obtain a glimmer of the nature of this process.”

Conclusion: Science and the Humanities 
“The value of the consilience program…at the very least [is that] we have acquired the means either to establish the truth of fundamental unity of knowledge or [to] discard the idea. I think we are going to establish it.”

POROI (a scholarly  approach to the left side of inquiry) --- http://inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/poroi/index.html 

Poroi is sponsored by the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry and published electronically by the University of Iowa Libraries.  Scholarly articles in Poroi emphasize rhetorical analysis and invention in all fields of learning, and they address interdisciplinary audiences. 

An example:
"Constructing Political Identity Religious Radicalism and the Rhetoric of the Iranian Revolution, by  Susan Zickmund --- http://inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/papers/zickmund031101.html#a1 

The Rhetorical Use of Fard to Foster a Discourse of Ritualistic Obligation 

6   Shi’ite Islam teaches a variety of religious practices as being mandatory for its followers. These include the seven major obligations: prayer, fasting, the paying of alms, a religious tax, the pilgrimage to Mecca, religious wars or striving ( jihad), while “enjoining the good and forbidding the evil” ( al-amr bi’l-ma‘ruf wa’l-nahy an’l-munkar) (‘Ali 1990). Khomeini drew on the notion of obligation ( fard) inherent within Shi’ite Islam. Both jihad and “enjoining the good and forbidding the evil” are fard kifaya: obligations that can be fulfilled by a designated group to satisfy their requirement of the community (Dabashi 1993). Deciding who should fulfill these requirements falls on the chief religious figure in the community, the marja’-e taqlid: the “source of exemplary conduct.” As the supreme marja-’e taqlid, Khomeini was entrusted with the right to collect the religious tax, to order a defensive jihad, and to require his followers to “enjoin the good and forbid evil.”

7   The Shi’ite marja’-e taqlid also has the power to transform a fard kifaya (collective duty) into a fard ‘ayn (individual duty), obliging each person in the community to act. As the highest ranking religious leader, Khomeini invoked these obligations. They became an early and pivotal part of his revolutionary discourse. In Velayat-e Faqih, for example, he argued that “enjoining the good and forbidding the evil” is a responsibility for the whole Islamic community:

Continued in the article

Each Prozac pill taken for depression cheers up a poet.

Question
What magazine just got a $100 million donation from a philanthropist?

Answer
This is the largest single donation in history to a literary organization.  Ruth Lily donated $100 million to Poetry magazine --- http://www.poetrymagazine.org/index.html 
The gift announcement made the front page of The Wall Street Journal on December 8, 2003 and is encouraging a whole lot of would-be poets to take pen in hand figuratively speaking.  I say thank Ms. Lily and to the rest of you --- go for it.

The Poetry Society of America --- http://www.poetrysociety.org/ 
Note the Favorite Poem Project.

The New York Times list of Notable Fiction and Nonfiction for 2003 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/books/review/1207books-notable-fiction.html 

Teaching K-12 Economics -- http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/K-12/home.cfm 

December 12, 2003 message from Risk Waters Group [RiskWaters@lb.bcentral.com] 

Credit derivatives are not yet helping banks to hedge their risks, said a report from rating agency Standard & Poor’s. Despite a rapid rise in innovation and trading activity in credit derivatives, the instruments have “a long way to go” before fulfilling their promise to become “a significant force in risk management for banks”, said the report by S&P’s credit analyst, Tanya Azarchs. "As promising as the credit derivatives technology is, it is not yet a panacea for credit problems of banking systems around the world," said Azarchs. "It has not, as is commonly believed, helped banks avoid meaningful amounts of losses in the current credit cycle."

Question
Do you want to publish and distribute your writings, artwork, etc.?

One Answer
Diffusion (electronic books, interactive publishing, custom publishing) --- http://www.diffusion.org.uk/ 

DIFFUSION eBooks are PDF files for readers to download, print out and make into booklets - a simple and effective mode of publishing that bypasses typical distribution problems encountered by small presses and specialist publishers. The format allows small 'artist's books' or illustrated essays to be published and distributed digitally worldwide. The internet provides a radical platform for small presses to reach parts of the world that it would not be economical to distribute traditional books to. By making the eBook files free to download and re-distribute as well as small in size, the knowledge contained in the books can reach a far greater audience than was previously accessible.

The DIFFUSION format challenges conventions of interactivity - blending the physical and the virtual and breaking the dominance of mouse and screen as the primary forms of human computer interaction. The format's aim is to take the reader away from the screen and computer and engage them in the process of production. Through the physical act of making the eBook, a different dynamic is created and the distinctions between producer and consumer of knowledge and information are blurred.

DIFFUSION eBooks are free to download and distribute, electronically or as material objects. The format is 'open source': i.e. Proboscis welcomes the adoption or re-interpretation of the format by anyone, anywhere. Proboscis is also able to offer a design and production service for clients wishing to use the format - please email for prices.

Bob Jensen's threads on electronic books are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ebooks.htm 

Ernst & Young educational Webcasts --- http://webcast.ey.com/thoughtcenter/interfaces/ey2/pages/description.asp?action=help 

Salem-Keizer Online, or S.K.O., is one in a growing number of public, private and charter schools available to kids who are looking for an alternative to a traditional education. Commonly called ''virtual school,'' it's a way of attending school at home without the hovering claustrophobia of home-schooling.

"School Away From School," by Emily White, The New York Times, December 7, 2003 ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/magazine/07CYBER.html 

Virtual school seems like an ideal choice for kids who don't fit in or can't cope. ''I'm a nervous, strung-out sort of person,'' says Erin Bryan, who attends the online Oregon-based CoolSchool. Erin used to attend public school in Hood River, Ore., but ''I didn't like the environment,'' she says. ''I am afraid of public speaking, and I would get really freaked out in the mornings.''

Kyle Drew, 16, a junior at S.K.O., says: ''I couldn't get it together. I was skipping more and more classes, until I was afraid to go to school.'' Leavitt Wells, 13, from Las Vegas, was an ostracized girl with revenge on her mind. ''The other kids didn't want anything to do with me,'' she says. ''I'd put exploded gel pens in their drawers.'' Now she attends the Las Vegas Odyssey Charter School online during the day, and when her adrenaline starts pumping, she charges out into the backyard and jumps on the trampoline.

On S.K.O.'s Web site, students can enter a classroom without being noticed by their classmates by clicking the ''make yourself invisible'' icon -- a good description of what these kids are actually doing. Before the Internet, they would have had little choice but to muddle through. Now they have disappeared from the school building altogether, a new breed of outsider, loners for the wired age.

Douglas Koch is only 12, but he is already a high-school sophomore. He says that he hopes to graduate by the time he's 15. Today he sits at his computer in his Phoenix living room -- high ceilings and white walls, a sudden hard rain stirring up a desire to look out the shuttered windows. Douglas's 10-year-old brother, Gregory, is stationed across the room from him -- he is also a grade-jumper. The Koch brothers have been students at the private Christa McAuliffe Academy, an online school, for more than a year now. While S.K.O. is a public school, C.M.A. is private, charging $250 a month and reaching kids from all over the country. From Yakima, Wash., it serves 325 students, most of whom attend classes year-round, and employs 27 teachers and other staff members.

The first section of this article is not quoted here.

Bob Jensen's threads on assessment of online education can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm 

This finally explains it in Canada.  Anecdotally, I think it applies worldwide.  But my problem with this study is that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.  What are the criteria for being a handsome woman or a handsome man?

"Pretty women scramble men's ability to assess the future," NewScientist, December 3, 2003 --- http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994469 

Psychologists in Canada have finally proved what women have long suspected - men really are irrational enough to risk entire kingdoms to catch sight of a beautiful face.

Biologists have long known that animals prefer immediate rewards to greater ones in the future. This process, known as "discounting the future", is found in humans too and is fundamental to many economic models.

Resources have a value to individuals that changes through time. For example, immediately available cash is generally worth more than the same amount would be in the future. But greater amounts of money in the future would be worth waiting for under so-called 'rational' discounting.

But some people, such as drug addicts, show 'irrational' discounting. For example, preferring a small amount of heroin today rather than a greater amount in the future.

Margo Wilson and Martin Daly of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada decided to investigate discounting behaviour and see if it varied with sexual mood.

Male students, when shown pictures of pretty women, were more likely to opt for short-term economic gain than wait for a better reward in the future.

Sexual opportunity

Both male and female students at McMaster University were shown pictures of the opposite sex of varying attractiveness taken from the website 'Hot or Not'. The 209 students were then offered the chance to win a reward. They could either accept a cheque for between $15 and $35 tomorrow or one for $50-$75 at a variable point in the future.

Wilson and Daly found that male students shown the pictures of averagely attractive women showed exponential discounting of the future value of the reward. This indicated that they had made a rational decision. When male students were shown pictures of pretty women, they discounted the future value of the reward in an "irrational" way - they would opt for the smaller amount of money available the next day rather than wait for a much bigger reward.

Women, by contrast, made equally rational decisions whether they had been shown pictures of handsome men or those of average attractiveness.

Continued in the article.

Some shared examinations and answers in Accounting Information Systems from George Wenzel, Lecturer in Computer and Information Science,  The Ohio State University ---  http://www.mansfield.ohio-state.edu/~gwenzel/ 

Hi Dr. Jensen, 

We haven't met, but I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Kristin Oliver, and I am a counselor at Trinity's Counseling Services. I'm in the process of putting together a list of websites on a variety of psycho-social topics, and thought I'd pass one of the sites along to you! The site is a racism slideshow put out by the American Psychological Association. I used it as a required reading when I was teaching at the University of Hawaii last year, and my students loved it... I think it should be required reading for everyone! It's well-done and easy to navigate (the "next" button is in the upper right corner).

http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/racism/homepage.html 

Aloha, 
Kristin Oliver

Free and Fee Technology & Education publications --- http://www.sfsdayton.com/500/thankyou.asp?refer=QE41 

Question
Has the internet made things worse for hypochondriacs?

Answer
"I am dying, doctor," New Scientist --- http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp;jsessionid=DNAJECAOPHHL?id=ns24241 

The internet is an absolute nightmare. They type in their symptoms and come up with a vast number of diseases that they might have, all of which are serious. Then they find the chat rooms for that disease, and they receive a tremendous amount of rapid diagnoses and misinformation. There are a lot of people in chat rooms who are just enraged at the medical profession.

This is more than an animated cartoon --- http://www.themeatrix.com/ 

Check out http://psc.disney.go.com/guestservices/9086.html#9086 

Question
What is the Walt Disney World College Program?

Answer
The Walt Disney World College Program is a unique college internship opportunity. Imagine an internship with one of the most exciting companies in the world. It's a one-of-a-kind, Disney-designed combination of education and work experience. With a little hard work and perseverance, participants will have the chance to:

Build transferable skills that include relationship building, problem solving, and written and verbal communication. Explore networking opportunities at the Walt Disney World Resort. Tap into educational opportunities that offer new courses coupling academic theory and Walt Disney World Resort management expertise. Get real-world experience with a leader in the industry. Make friendships that span the globe. Enjoy privileges of being a Cast Member at the Walt Disney World Resort, including free Theme Park admission and discounts that cover resorts, merchandise, and more. For more information, please visit our Walt Disney World College Program home page. To submit an application, click "Apply Now."

How do I apply to the Walt Disney World College Program?

As a faculty member, what do I need to know about the Walt Disney World College Program?

I am an alumnus of the Walt Disney World College Program. What benefits do you have to offer me?

How do students get into the College Program?

What are the application requirements?

Can students apply for an animation internship?

Is the Walt Disney World College Program limited to certain majors?

When will recruiters be visiting schools?

If students miss the presentation at their school, can they still interview?

Can you send students applications? How do they apply?

Are cover letters/resumes necessary?

I'm not able to download the Advanced Internship Information Sheet from your Web site.

If students are not accepted the first time they interview, can they try again?

Can students come down to the Walt Disney World Resort to interview?

Can parents be sent information on the Walt Disney World College Program?

When will students receive an answer regarding their applications/interviews?

How will students be notified?

What will my notification look like?

Who can log in to your Walt Disney World College Program Web site?

How do I log in?

Will students earn college credit for participating in the program?

How do students get credit from their schools?

Do students need to receive credit from their schools in order to participate?

Is this a paid internship?

How many hours per week will students work?

What opportunities, other than the Walt Disney World College Program, exist at the Walt Disney World Resort?

Free Scholarly Downloads from Harvard University --- http://athome.harvard.edu/archive/archive.asp 

Recollections of Trinity's Faculty Summer Seminar of 1992
Multimedia Music Instruction:  Robert Winter Versus Thomas Kelly

Thomas Kelly's Harvard University Lectures  --- http://athome.harvard.edu/dh/Kelly.html 
I don't think that you can download these without a broadband connection.
 

the Ninth   Includes Glossary    Timeline  

4.

Beethoven's Vienna (21:27)
Daily Life Circa 1820 Vienna • Life & Death in Beethoven's Vienna • Theaters and Musicians • A Visitor's View of Vienna

5.

Guided Listening: Movements 1&2 (27:34)
Scherzo and Fugue • Beethoven's Motifs • Development and Recapitulation • The Trio

6.

Music in Vienna (14:24)
Musical Organizations in Vienna • Beethoven's Concert

7.

Movements 3 and 4 (19:34)
Variations on a Theme • The Horn Solo • Thematic Unity

8.

The First Performance (25:29)
The Orchestra, Chorus and Publicity • Beethoven Conducting • Hypothetical Reconstruction • Recollection of the Performance

9.

Symphony: Then and Now (8:30)

10.

 Questions from the Audience (20:00)
Six Questions from the Alumni College Participants

 

This part of a wonderful Harvard University site that Bob Blystone pointed out to us --- http://athome.harvard.edu/ 

Kelly's lectures take me back to when Bob Blystone, Glenn Kroeger, Suzanne Williams-Rautiola, and Bob Jensen organized a 1992 faculty summer seminar.  Among our outstanding visitors was a music professor from UCLA named Robert Winter.  Professor Winter's specialty is putting multimedia music education modules on CD-ROM disks, including Multimedia Beethoven, Multimedia Stravinsky, Multimedia Bach, and Multimedia Mozart.  Note the following links:

http://scolar.vsc.edu:8005/VSCCAT/ACY-6130 

http://snurl.com/AmazonBooks (Search for "Robert Winter")

http://alpha.ddm.uci.edu/zotmail/archive/1997/19971008001.html 

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/reserves/old/summer97/cd-rommlo.html 

http://alpha.ddm.uci.edu/zotmail/archive/1997/19971008001.html

I have to admit that I liked Professor Winter's productions better that the above production by Professor Kelly, but Professor Winter's productions cannot be downloaded free and are a bit difficult to find these days.  Robert Winter puts full orchestra and chorus presentations on his CDs.  His multimedia education designs are fabulous.  

Does anybody know where Robert Winter has a Web homepage today?  I could not find his current home page (which is no longer at UCLA).

There are various "books" on each of Robert Winter's CDs such as a book on the life and times of the featured composer.  You can then hit selected hot words such as scherzo to pop up definitions, music clips, etc.  There is a book on the art of listening to the music selection on the CD (with full orchestra and music).  There is a book on how to critically listen to the piece.  There is also a "book" in which you can play the piece completely through and/or interrupt it at any time for detailed explanations.  The detailed explanations are divided into a side for casual listeners and a side for music experts.  And best of all there is a Jeopardy-like game at the end where teams of students can compete to test their knowledge of the history and music contained on the CD.  I especially like Multimedia Beethoven because this was not only one of the first but it is absolutely the best application of Multimedia ToolBook using OpenScript that I have ever seen.  I sunk years of my life into programming with OpenScript and cried real tears when Asymetrix abandoned OpenScript.

I think all Trinity University faculty who participated in the two week 1992 Faculty Summer Seminar will recall Robert Winter's visit as being a highlight.  A videotape of his Trinity University presentation and suggestions for educational designs is on file in Instructional Media Services in the Trinity University Library.  I also have a copy in my office.  There are also video tapes of the other excellent and one rather lousy presentation of other featured speakers at our summer seminar.

Other multimedia downloads from Harvard include the following at http://athome.harvard.edu/archive/archive.asp 

This is a FANTASTIC resource!

Internet Archive: Moving Images Archive (Multimedia) ---  http://www.archive.org/movies/movies.php 
Many great video downloads.

Note that you can locate and download 427 Computer Chronicles (my favorite) television shows classified by topic --- http://www.archive.org/movies/movieslisting-browse.php?collection=computerchronicles 

Image Collections
Prelinger Archives
1,914 movie files
Over 1,200 "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films made from 1927 through the present
  Computer Chronicles
427 episodes
The complete archive of this PBS award-winning series about technology.
SIGGRAPH Electronic Theatre
119 anims
The best of computer animation from Siggraph 2001.
Net Café
118 episodes
This TV program features interviews with the Internet's most influential players and covers the growing Web culture and lifestyle!
World at War
10 movies
Created by members of the Internet Archive community, these short films have been archived for posterity in the moving image archives.

Listen to William Faulkner read from his works (including his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech) --- http://town.hall.org/radio/HarperAudio/080294_harp_ITH.html 
You may have to try from all three download formats before you can find one that plays.  I had the best luck with the RA format.

The Center for Faulkner studies is at http://www6.semo.edu/cfs/ 

Clever Site of the Week 
GeoSnapper.com --- http://www.geosnapper.com/ 

GeoSnapper enables users to upload and distribute accurately geo-referenced digital photographs.

Images are displayed relative to their positions on the planet, with high enough accuracy for others to find and experiece the location first hand.

A review from Yahoo on December 8, 2003

Are you a fresh-air fiend, keen on outdoor photography and nifty gadgetry? Then join this band of "geosnappers" who aim to canvas the world and visually map it with pinpoint accuracy. Combining the GPS craze known as "geocaching" with an unbridled love of adventure, these shutterbugs have already created an impressive array of regional and thematic albums that are browseable by photographer, category, or popularity. Click on the world map, then zero in on a region, say, the East Coast. Geographically related albums such as Salem Witch Trials of 1692, unusual phenomenon, and rural Virginia will appear in a list. The photos in each album are plotted on a map of the immediate area. Neat, huh? If you'd like to contribute, you'll need a GPS receiver to mark your location coordinates, then upload the images to the site. We can't think of a more exciting way to map the world!

Big Dead Place (brilliant exploration of life at polar extremes) --- http://www.bigdeadplace.com/ 

PolarHusky.com --- http://www.polarhusky.com/ 

I think the following applies to education as well as any business corporation.  The problem is that universities are notoriously slow to change relative to such organizations as business firms and the military.

From Syllabus News on December 9, 2003

MIT Sloan Professor: Use Tech to Reinvent Business Processes

Many private companies are using technology to keep down their labor costs, but the key to sustained growth and revived employment lies in whether they will successfully use technology to redesign the basic way they operate, says MIT Sloan Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Center for eBusiness at MIT Sloan.

In his research, Brynjolfsson found widely different outcomes among companies that spent similar amounts on technology, the difference being in what managers did once the new tech was in place. "Some companies only go part way," said Brynjolfsson, an expert on information technologies and productivity. "They use technology to automate this function or to eliminate that job. But the most productive and highly valued companies do more than just take the hardware out of the box. They use IT to reinvent their business processes from top to bottom. Managers who sit back and assume that gains will come from technology alone are setting themselves up for failure."

Bob Jensen's related threads are at the following URLs:

Management and costs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/distcost.htm 

Assessment --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm 

Forwarded by Debbie Bowling

Sweet Spots

Thought you'd heard of every possible travel service? How about this one: A service called www.airportparkingreservations.com will reserve a parking spot for you at one of 63 major airports in the United States and Canada and give you a 10 to 50 percent discount off posted rates. In certain areas you also can get your car serviced--everything from a car wash to an oil change--while you're traveling. For more information, visit the website or call 1-888-960-7275.

Bob Jensen's travel helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob3.htm#Travel 

"WEBLOGS COME TO THE CLASSROOM," by Scott Carlson, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 28, 2003, Page 33

They get used to supplement courses in writing, marketing, economics, and other subjects

Increasingly, private life is a public matter.  That seems especially true in the phenomenon known as blogging.  Weblogs, or blogs, are used by scores of online memoirists, editorialists, exhibitionists, and navel gazers, who post their daily thoughts on Web sites for all to read.

Now professors are starting to incorporate blogs into courses.  The potential for reaching an audience, they say, reshapes the way students approach writing assignments, journal entries, and online discussions.

Valerie M. Smith, an assistant professor of English at Quinnipiac University, is among the first faculty members there to use blogs.  She sets one up for each of her creative-writing students at the beginning of the semester.  The students are to add a new entry every Sunday at noon.  Then they read their peers' blogs and comment on them.  Parents or friends also occasionally read the blogs.

Blogging "raises issues with audience," Ms. Smith says, adding that the innovation has raised the quality of students' writing;

"They aren't just writing for me, which makes them think in terms of crafting their work for a bigger audience.  It gives them a bigger stake in what they are writing."

A Weblog can be public or available only to people selected by the blogger.  Many blogs serve as virtual loudspeakers or soapboxes.  Howard Dean, a Democratic presidential contender, has used a blog to debate and discuss issues with voters.  Some blogs have even earned their authors minor fame.  An Iraqi man--known only by a pseudonym, Salaam Pax--captured attention around the world when he used his blog to document daily life in Baghdad as American troops advanced on the city.

Continued in the article.

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

December 12, 2003 message from Tracey Sutherland [return@aaahq.org] 

THE EDUCATIONAL COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT (ECA) WEB SITE IS LIVE! http://www.aicpa-eca.org 

The AICPA provides this resource to help educators integrate the skills-based competencies needed by entry-level accounting professionals. These competencies, defined within the AICPA Core Competency Framework Project, have been derived from academic and professional competency models and have been widely endorsed within the academic community. Created by educators for educators, the evaluation and educational strategies resources on this site are offered for your use and adaptation.

The ECA site contains a LIBRARY that, in addition to the Core Competency Database and Education Strategies, provides information and guidance on Evaluating Competency Coverage and Assessing Student Performance.

To assist you as you assess student performance and evaluate competency coverage in your courses and programs, the ECA ORGANIZERS guide you through the process of gathering, compiling and analyzing evidence and data so that you may document your activities and progress in addressing the AICPA Core Competencies.

The ECA site can be accessed through the Educator's page of aicpa.org, or at the URL listed above.

MSU graduate student Michael Shafer discovered the largest prime number in existence. The number, has 6,320,430 digits and can fill nearly 1,100 pages of paper.

"MSU student's prime number largest one yet," by Sharon Terlep, Lansing State Journal, December 4, 2003 --- http://www.lsj.com/news/local/031204_numbers_1a-10a.html 

An MSU graduate student grabbed world fame on Wednesday - at least in a select community of mathematicians with a fervent interest in unfathomably large numbers.

Michael Shafer, a 26-year-old chemical engineering student, made math history by discovering the largest prime number known.

Ever.

The number, Shafer and scientists say, has no particular practical use.

But the fact that he was able to find it using a computer program that hooked up 60,000 people and more than 200,000 computers worldwide, shows what modern-day personal computers can do when connected to the Web and the willing.

And, with 6,320,430 digits, Shafer's number is just really, really big.

Big enough, in fact, to fill 1,087 pages of 8 1/2-inch-by-11-inch paper - without margins.

"The number itself really isn't useful," Shafer said.

"What's more important is what's gone into developing the server and that the programs can get all these computers to work together for a common goal.

"Thousands of people from all over are very interested in finding these numbers."

Shafer's discovery came as part of an effort called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, or GIMPS. At the center of the project is a computer server that shoots out large numbers to computers worldwide that are hooked up with software that determines whether a number is prime.

A prime number is a whole number greater than one that can be divided only by itself and one. The numbers three, five, seven and 11 are all prime numbers.

Shafer's programs ran for 19 days in his MSU laboratory when, last month, an alarm sounded letting him know his computers tagged a prime number. Scientists this week verified that it's legit.

A decade ago, the work would have required a massive super computer, said Chris Caldwell, a University of Tennessee mathematics professor who runs a Web site on prime numbers.

"It gives a test of the strength of the Internet," Caldwell said. "It just shows what the world's computer power can do."

Continued in the article

"AAUP Defends a Professor's Web Site About Unaccredited Distance Programs," bu Andrea L. Foster, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 21, 2003, Page A28

The American Association of University Professors has come to the defense of a physics professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was pressured by administrators to take down his Web site on unaccredited distance-learning institutions.

An AAUP representative suggests that the professor's case was mishandled and is asking the university provost to clarify the institutions' policies on academic freedom and public service.

The professor, George Gollin, said administrators ordered him to remove his material from the university's server after Illinois was threatened with lawsuits from proprietors of some of the online institutions cited on his Web site.  Mr. Gollin's material is now available on the State of Oregon's Office of Degree Authorization Web site ( http://osac.state.or.us/od/oregon_north_dakota/index_or.html ).

Mr. Gollin said that administrators justified their demand, however, by telling him that his research into the controversial institutions did not meet the "public service" obligation for faculty members.

A Public Service?

Matthew W. Finkin, a law professor at the university and the institution's AAUP representative, sent a letter last month to Richard H. Herman, the provost, asking him to make clear to faculty members that academic freedom applies to the use of university computers and networks.  Faculty members should also be reminded that academic work, even work outside their discipline, qualifies as public service, Mr. Finkin wrote.

Continued in the article

Bob Jensen's listings of distance education programs are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm 

This is a Good Summary of Various Forms of Business Risk  --- http://www.erisk.com/portal/Resources/resources_archive.asp 

  1. Enterprise Risk Management

  2. Credit Risk

  3. Market Risk

  4. Operational Risk

  5. Business Risk

  6. Other Types of Risk?

December 7, 2003 reply from Calderon,Thomas G. Calderon [tcalder@uakron.edu]

Bob:

You may also want to take a look at the CICA’s 1998 booklet titled Learning About Risk: Choices, Connections and Competencies. It contains several risk concepts, frameworks, and examples. It also includes AA’s (not Alcoholics AnonymousJ) 1997 risk framework (page 123). I do not believe that resource is available on-line, however.

Thomas

Thomas G. Calderon, Ph.D.
Professor of Accounting
Director of Quality Assessment
259 South Broadway
College of Business Administration
The University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325-4802
E-mail: tcalderon@uakron.edu 

 

Pop-up Blockers Are Not Always a Good Thing

Sometimes pop-up windows contain the information you are seeking. As an example, the newly-revised Freddie Mac annual reports and their highly educational appendices (on how failure to properly account for derivative financial instruments caused a year-long audit just to revise billions of dollars of overstated and understated net earnings) are contained in pop-up windows at http://www.freddiemac.com/investors/restatement/ 

When I sent a message about the above link to an accounting educator discussion group, some professors could not get the revised annual reports and appendices to show up in their browsers. One professor noted that these items popped up in his Netscape browser but not in his Internet Explorer.

You might want to click on the above link and then click on any one of the appendix links just to test out whether Google has created a problem for you!

David Raggay explains his problem and solution below. The same thing might happen to you some day.

Bob

-----Original Message----- 
From: David Raggay [mailto:draggay@TSTT.NET.TT]  
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 10:41 AM 
Subject: Re: Pop-up blockers

Hi,

I installed a Google toolbar which integrates the functionality of Google in my browser - I use IE 6. One of the features of the toolbar is that you can block pop-ups.

When I turned the feature off, my browser displayed the annual report which I was previously unable to view.

David

David Raggay B.Sc.,M.Sc., Chartered Accountant, 
Lecturer, Department of Management Studies, 
University of the West Indies, 
St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies. draggay@fss.uwi.tt 

Bush signs bill adding $3.7 billion to research in nanotechnology

"Supporters Hope New Law Will Boost Nanotechnology," by Antonio Regalado, The Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2003 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107048945923305000,00.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news 

Proponents of nanotechnology hope a bill that President Bush signed into law Wednesday will set the stage for the sector's rapid growth.

The bill authorizes $3.7 billion in spending over four years for research on nanotechnology, which deals with manipulating and designing materials at the scale of individual molecules or atoms. The legislation seeks to coordinate research being carried out by a number of federal agencies, including the Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, creating a comprehensive road map for nanotechnology's development in the U.S., as well as a new agency to oversee federal investment.

Although spending on nanotechnology has increased 83% since 2001, the bill, known as the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, provides few new funds. Instead, the bill's authorization reflects the investment levels in nanotechnology research already projected by 10 federal agencies.

The legislation was supported by large corporations and investors who hope that continued high levels of government funding for research will help turn nanotechnology into a booming industrial sector. "It's tremendously important for filling the scientific pipeline, stimulating activity, and supplying deal flow," said Josh Wolfe, a partner with Lux Capital, an investment firm.

Continued in the article

Bob Jensen has some related threads at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ubiquit.htm 

Interesting Findings from Stanford University

People with depression are five times more likely to have a breathing-related sleep disorder than non-depressed people, according to a study at the School of Medicine. The study is the first to show such a link --- http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/november5/depression.html 

Artificial intelligence pioneer Nils Nilsson has spent a career thinking about the difference between computers and human beings. His conclusion? "There will always be some difference between computers and human beings, but I think the intellectual and even creativity differences ultimately will narrow," he said --- http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/october29/nilsson-1029.html 

A deep interest in numbers and finance and a desire to help the average investor led Eric Tyson, MBA '89, to write a series of "Dummies" books in areas about personal money management.
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm0311/feature_tyson.shtml 

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

Free from Stanford University --- Sleep Your Way to Success 
Importance of a Good Night's Sleep
A GSB alumni audience heard Professor William Dement, 'the sleep doctor' discuss important sleep-related issues such as sleep debt, job productivity and getting a good night's sleep.
Video File, 40:07 minutes --- http://wesley.stanford.edu/multimedia/alumni/dement.ram 

But nowhere does Professor Dement recommend sleeping through class.

Hi David,

Actually it may be more like the chicken vs. the egg. Does poor sleep cause depression or vice versa? Actually, it is probably much more complicated in terms of causality versus correlation do to complex underlying factors excluded from the study.

Good research should try to factor sleep into each test group such that sleep itself is not a confounding factor. For example, one sub-sample of subjects who sleep poorly might be partitioned into test groups that have sleep apnea versus those that have some sleep disorder other than apnea. Another sub-sample of subjects who sleep adequately (whatever that means) might be partitioned into those who have apnea versus those who do not have apnea. Then each partition might be examined in terms of type and severity of depression. Even if there are too few subjects with apnea who sleep adequately, there may still be important outcomes of such a study.

Actually, persons with apnea who have proper medical treatment (usually breathing machines) while they sleep often sleep quite well. They still might be depressed.

One thing in the favor of this study is the number of subjects (10,000). This virtually precludes the need for statistical inference and inference testing error. The only tests needed are the size and variance differences between sample partitions.

Which leads me to a point that researchers often overlook, especially capital markets researchers. With very large sample sizes, unimportant small differences between partitions are misleadingly "significant" in terms of inference tests. With very large samples, all that really matters is the magnitude of the differences themselves.

The real complicating factors in this study are that sleep is not a binary variable, apnea is not a binary variable, and depression is not a binary variable. Any attempt to measure them on a cardinal scale, however, is certain to have serious measurement error. Any attempt to divide subjects into discrete partitions on any of these variables is also subject to very misleading outcomes. An analogy would be the partitioning of drivers into those that register 9.9 versus 10.1 on a blood alcohol scale. A DWI partitioning around a 10.0 legal limit is arbitrary even when measurement itself is not subject to error. Further complicating any study of depression is the frustration of measuring depression on any scale, apart from attempts to partition subjects into two or more groups such as depressed versus non-depressed.

Still further complicating the study is the fact that sleep varies with so many conditions. For example, two nights ago I slept like a baby for eight hours and arrived at my office at 7:00 a.m. Last night I hardly slept at all and got into the office this morning at 3:40 a.m.  I can ' t really identify any reason for this variation.

It is also not clear whether deep sleep for five hours is better or worse than light sleep for eight hours. Complicating factors are metabolism, age, and probably a host of other things.  I might note, David, that your message below was sent just before midnight on a Tuesday night when must folks are probably deep in dreamland.

It is truly unfortunate that the mathematicians, physicists, and chemists stole all the easy research problems.

Bob Jensen

-----Original Message----- 
From: David Albrecht [mailto:albrecht@PROFALBRECHT.COM]  
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 11:36 PM 
Subject: Re: Eye Catchers from Stanford

This may well be true. However, poor sleep is one of the causes of depression. This has been known for some time.

David Albrecht

 

Autistic savants are born with miswired neurons -- and extraordinary gifts. Now researchers are using breakthrough science to expand our understanding of the brain. 
"The Key to Genius," by Steve Silberman, Wired Magazine, December 2003 --- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/genius.html 

Standard & Poors:  A good place to start when looking into investment funds --- http://snurl.com/SPfunds 

Bob Jensen's investment bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers 

This product is highly recommended when printing Bob Jensen's Web pages.
"Disappearing ink to boost paper recycling," New Scientist, December 4, 2003 --- http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994451 

GM, despite impressive cost-cutting and quality gains in recent years, has made more money selling mortgages in the last two quarters than building cars.
Shirouzu and Joseph B. White, "S&P Downshifts Ford's Debt Rating,"  The Wall Street Journal, Page A3 ---  http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10686444365708500,00.html  (see below)

From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Educators' Reviews on November 21, 2003

TITLE: S&P Downshifts Ford's Debt Rating 
REPORTER: Norihiko Shirouzu and Joseph B. White 
DATE: Nov 13, 2003 
PAGE: A3 
LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10686444365708500,00.html  
TOPICS: Accounting, Debt

SUMMARY: S&P's Ratings Group cut Ford's $180 billion of debt to the lowest investment grade level, to triple-B-minus, and to A-3 from A-2 for its commercial paper.

QUESTIONS: 
1.) U.S. automobile manufacturers have undertaken two years of rebates and zero percent financing. What has been the result of this strategy, or lack thereof? How has this result led to the debt rating downgrade?

2.) What cost structure makes it difficult for the big three U.S. automakers to compete with foreign rivals? How are these salary and benefit costs presented in corporate financial statements? Do you think these items were accounted for in the same way when they were first negotiated with the unions? Why or why not?

3.) How do union contracts impact the supply of autos that the manufacturers must produce? How does that supply impact the firms' profitability?

4.) How can one determine that "GM, despite impressive cost-cutting and quality gains in recent years, has made more money selling mortgages in the last two quarters than building cars" using the company's public financial statements? Explain what information must be reported and where it can be found.

5.) Why are S&P analysts concerned about Ford's European results? Where in the financial statements can information about these results be found? What information must be presented by geographic area?

6.) What are "reserves"? How does the accounting for four types of reserves discussed in the article impact the results Ford reports? Why do these items concern S&P analysts?

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

November 25, 2003 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu] 

DATA DELUGE

It's not your imagination that you're drowning in too much information. Faculty and students at the School of Information Management and Systems, University of California at Berkeley, attempted to estimate how much new information is created and distributed each year. They looked at information stored in four types of media -- print, film, magnetic, and optical -- and seen or heard in four information flows -- telephone, radio, TV, and the Internet. They found that the amount of data has doubled since they began their research in 1999, resulting in about five exabytes of new information in 2002. How much is five exabytes? According to the researchers, five exabytes of information is "equivalent in size to the information contained in half a million new libraries the size of the Library of Congress print collections." The report, "How Much Information 2003," is available online at http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/ .

Educators designing their own web pages may find the National Cancer Institute's "Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines" a useful starting place. The publication includes suggestions for page layout and styles, content organization, navigation, and accessibility. The guide is available online at http://www.usability.gov/guidelines/Usability_guidelines.pdf .

LIBRARIES AND E-LEARNING

In the spring of 2003, the OCLC Online Computer Library Center created an E-learning Task Force, a concerted effort to achieve a cross-section of voices, including librarians, administrators, technologists, and faculty from the cooperative's academic institutions. Members represented institutions from across the continental United States and the United Kingdom and from the full range of institution types. An outcome of the Task Force's work is its recently-published white paper, "Libraries and the Enhancement of E-learning." The paper "provides an incisive look at how college coursework is being enhanced electronically and online." The paper is available online at http://www.oclc.org/index/elearning/default.htm .

Founded in 1967, the OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 45,000 libraries in 84 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, and preserve library materials. For more information, contact: OCLC, 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017-3395 USA; tel: 614-764-6000 or 800-848-5878 (U.S. only); email: oclc@oclc.org ; Web: http://www.oclc.org 

This site, http://www.ssa.gov/ssnumber/index.htm , is the Social Security Administration starting page for providing information on getting a new or replacement Social Security number and card.

Richard Torian --- www.informationforaccountants.com 

Welcome to the Prelinger Archives (Multimedia, Video, Film) --- http://www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php 

Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 48,000 "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 4,000 titles on videotape and a smaller collection of film materials acquired subsequent to the Library of Congress transaction. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions. Getty Images represents the collection for stock footage sale, and some 1,600 (soon to be 2,000) key titles are available here. The collection currently contains over 10% of the total production of ephemeral films between 1927 and 1987, and it may be the most complete and varied collection in existence of films from these poorly preserved genres.

November 23, 2003 message from Bob Woodward [rsw@WUBIOS.WUSTL.EDU] 

One of the issues relating to self publishing is how to protect your intellectual property.

Based on his battles with record industry, Larry Lessig has proposed Creative Commons, an alternative to Copyright.

http://creativecommons.org 

While his computer seems to be off or disconnected or something this Sun eve, Larry's blog is usually found at

http://www.lessig.org/blog/  

Bob Woodward

From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Educators' Review, December 5, 2003

TITLE: Accounting's Global Rule Book 
REPORTER: Cassell Bryan-Low 
DATE: Nov 28, 2003 
PAGE: C1 
LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106988860355030000,00.html  
TOPICS: Derivatives, Financial Accounting, Financial Accounting Standards Board, International Accounting Standards Board, Pension Accounting, Valuations

SUMMARY: The article describes efforts to harmonize US GAAP and International Accounting Standards, including descriptions of specific issues in the areas of accounting for derivatives, pension accounting, and re-valuations of property, plant and equipment. Questions focus on the political nature of the standards setting process.

QUESTIONS: 
1.) The article describes how both the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are proposing changes to their standards to move towards covnvergence with each other. Give two examples of changes that will be proposed--either ones cited in the article or ones of which you are already aware--one by each of the standards setting bodies.

2.) Who is anxious to see that accounting changes are being proposed by both the FASB and IASB in order to achieve convergence? Why do they hold this view?

3.) What factors are listed as benefits of globalization of financial reporting? Who will benefit from this effort? What factors are listed as problems in implementing changes required for globablization? Who will suffer these difficulties?

4.) The accounting standards setting process is often described as a political one, a point which your answers to the above two questions should confirm. How is the international political environment likely to influence standards setting differently than standards setting done only for domestic purposes?

5.) What factor has changed many views regarding the superiority of USGAAP over international accounting standards (IASs)? How do you think that factor changes the likelihood of convergence between the two sets of standards?

6.) Why does Sir David Tweedie, chair of the IASB, say that "the point isn't really about arguing over arcane accounting...[it] is really about growth, investment, and trade"?

SMALL GROUP ASSIGNMENT: The three major areas of difference between USGAAP and IASs that are cited in the article are: accounting for derivatives, pension accounting, and revaluations of property, plant, and equipment. Assign one topic to each group and complete the following steps:

1. Summarize the accounting treatment required in the assigned area under USGAAP with reference to authoritative literature. 2. Summarize the accounting treatment required in the assigned area under IASs with reference to authoritative literature. 3. By searching through the web or an accounting database, obtain one example of reporting and disclosure under each of the alternative accounting treatments in publi