Oh No!  How can there be tantalizing signs of change before Bush departs in 2008?
There's always hope that this might work. 
The Arab world is beginning to show tantalising signs of change. But it is too early to talk of a year of revolutions, as the three prime exhibits being used to make the case for democracy—Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine—are in many ways special cases.
"Something stirs," The Economist, March 3, 2005 --- http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3722882 

Is it possible for a "dim-bulb" to turn into shining light?  
Nick Gillespie was right to pooh-pooh the view that "[a]t every step of his career, [George W.] Bush has been written off as a lightweight and a loser, a dim bulb whose grasp exceeds his reach and whose I.Q. is stuck somewhere in the high double digits." I once referred to him as a "cretin," and the laugh is surely on me, though this was in the context of a successful endorsement. Like Ronald Reagan in Eastern Europe, Bush has shown in the Middle East that simple, indeed simplistic, ideas can go a long way when expressing the frustration and anger of populations afflicted with tyrannies refusing to accord them even minimal respect.
Michael Young, "Free at Last?  Some Arabs welcome American democratic browbeating," ReasonOnLine, February 24, 2005 --- http://www.reason.com/links/links022405.shtml 

Arab reforms must come from within
Some argue that introducing political reform to the Arab world is not a choice but an imperative given that Arab governments are interested in bringing their nations up to speed with the rest of the world.  Amr Musa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, tells Aljazeera.net in an exclusive interview that reforms must come from within.
Aljazeera, March 2, 2005 --- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/967715B8-276C-4708-AC08-7FD102E13BA7.htm 

First estimate $400 billion, Revised estimate $1.2 trillion:  Where were the accountants?
The administration's last official ten-year cost projection—that the new Medicare law would cost $534 billion over ten years—was deservedly controversial. The administration hid the estimate while publicly touting a much lower estimate ($400 billion). Thus most observers were suspicious when the president's budget was released last week.  The latest estimate, which projected the cost of just the drug benefit, was much higher: $1.2 trillion over 10 years. This is not directly comparable to the previous projection, for a number of reasons. First, it is a gross figure that does not include offsets that will accrue to the Treasury. Accounting for these brings the 10-year cost projection for the drug benefit to a net $725 billion.
"A Billion Here, a Billion There:  Fuzzy math on the Medicare prescription drug benefit," ReasonOnLine, February 28, 2005 --- http://www.reason.com/hod/mc022805.shtml 
My unfinished essay on the "Pending Collapse of the United States" --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/entitlements.htm

The Medicaid Diet Plan for all 50 States
State governors ended their winter meeting without resolving differences with the Bush administration over how to curb spending on Medicaid.  Many governors said they support some facets of the Bush plan to revamp the joint federal-state health-care program for the poor -- especially proposals to give states greater ability to provide slimmer benefits to some Medicaid recipients and charge them higher co-payments when they go to the doctor or fill a prescription.
Sarah Lueck, "Governors Balk at Medicaid Plan," The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2005; Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110969167792867064,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal 

Add this one "One Time Incident Warnings" highlighted recently by Janet Jackson, Ward Churchill and Lawrence Summers.  (Michael Jackson doesn't count since he's allegedly a repeat offender.)
But just a few weeks later, more than 300,000 people have signed the petition, which reads, in part, "We, the undersigned, are disgusted with Ashlee Simpson's horrible singing and hereby ask her to stop." Decker has given numerous interviews, and has even gone on national television to discuss her Web site, ( http://www.StopAshlee.com ).  Being an Ashlee Simpson non-fan has become a full-time job for Decker. "I was not expecting anywhere near this," says Decker, 18, who lives in New York City. "It's crazy. "Ever since Simpson's disastrous appearance on "Saturday Night Live" late last year, she has been the focus of a bunch of controversy--and criticism. On the show, she was caught lip-syncing on camera, something she blamed first on her band, then on acid-reflux disease. And in an incident almost as famous, she was booed during her performance in January at the Orange Bowl.
"Forgive and forget? Ashlee Simpson's blame game enrages some, makes others shrug." Chicago Tribune, March 1, 2005 --- http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0502280305mar01,1,2778714.story?coll=chi-techtopheds-hed 

Who's Bible is it?
There are several questions that might occur to anyone who opens a Bible. How, for instance, did its separate books come to be written? Who decided to put them together? And why do Catholics and Protestants have different Bibles? Although Jews and Christians believe their collections of Scripture to be inspired -- in other words, ultimately composed -- by God, a great deal of human industry clearly went into them. How are we to measure this human element and account for it? It is such questions that Jaroslav Pelikan sets out to answer in "Whose Bible Is It?" (Viking, 274 pages, $24.95), an engaging and highly readable survey of biblical scholarship that tells a fascinating and complex story.
George Sim Johnston, "The Battle of the Book," The Wall Street Journal,  March 2, 2005; Page D9

Capitalism roaring in a former communist-leaning nation
There is growing acceptance of India as a successful high-growth story. Growth has steadily accelerated from 1980 onwards. And this has been achieved simultaneously with nearly 60 years of faithful adherence to democratic norms and traditions. The enshrining of democratic principles in a newly independent country might have involved some initial "fixed costs." But democracy is the only legitimate and stable foundation for a society. India, having paid those "fixed costs," now appears to be reaping the dividends.
P. Chidambaram, "A Passage to Prosperity," The Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2005, Page A14 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110989798197470243,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 
My unfinished essay on the "Pending Collapse of the United States" --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/entitlements.htm

The Vioxx fallout hits multiple sclerosis patients.
Tysabri had received accelerated approval from the FDA just three months ago because clinical trials had shown it to be twice as effective as alternative therapies in preventing flare-ups of MS, which is a degenerative and eventually fatal disease. Tysabri is also easier to take than alternative treatments, and tolerated by a subset of MS patients who can't take the others at all.  But for the indefinite future everyone will have to do without because two of the thousands of patients who've received Tysabri developed a rare neurological disorder. Those two patients happened to also be on another immuno-suppressive MS treatment called Avonex. There is no reason to believe that Tysabri has caused this disorder when used alone.  There's plenty of blame to go around here, starting with the trial lawyers and their climate of fear. Congressmen who demagogue about non-existent FDA safety "lapses" aren't much better. But we're also disappointed with CEOs who imagine they're doing patients and shareholders a favor with such rash decisions. In retrospect, Merck CEO Ray Gilmartin only strengthened the hand of the lawyers by withdrawing Vioxx when the FDA would have been content with relabeling.
"Drug Twilight Zone," The Wall Street Journal,  March 2, 2005; Page A16 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110972765984167851,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Confidential Privileges of Bloggers?
If the court, in Santa Clara County, rules that bloggers are journalists, the privilege of keeping news sources confidential will be applied to a large new group of people, perhaps to the point that it may be hard for courts in the future to countenance its extension to anyone.  "It's very serious stuff," said Brad Friedman, who describes himself as an investigative blogger (his site is bradblog.com). "Are they bloggers because they only publish online? I think you have to look at what folks are doing. And if they're reporting, then they're reporters."
Jonathan Glater, "At a Suit's Core: Are Bloggers Reporters, Too?," The New York Times, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/07/technology/07blog.html 

All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing.
Maurice Maeterlinck

Pavlov's Welfare State
It is stunning that anyone could continue to claim that Europe still sets the global standard for social justice when 19 million people across the EU are unemployed. Instead of facing the reality of globalization, many so-called social leaders prefer to impose an intolerable burden on Europe's young by encouraging governments to run unsustainable budget deficits in the futile hope of a painless Keynesian recovery. These self-styled social missionaries are in fact ideologically bound to the 19th-century industrial age. While there may have been a time when working less, vacationing more, retiring earlier and demanding higher pay irrespective of economic realities was justified, today we urgently need a more contemporary notion of what constitutes good social policy.
Ann Mettler, "Pavlov's Welfare State," The Wall Street Journal,  March 3, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110980327751868732,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

A Tale of Two Models
In practice, for at least three decades now, the net adjustment has invariably been one way -- in favor of labor. This is how the intricate system of entitlements of European welfare states has gradually been built up. Translated into moral terms, "social justice" was being done. No one thought of asking whether social justice can cut both ways and if it could, why it always cuts only one way.  As was to be expected, reality in due course caught up with the European model, causing it increasingly to backfire in the face of the politicians who still pretended to steer it. Above all else, the model radically stifles the demand for labor, generating a seemingly incurable, endemic unemployment that for years has stuck at around 10% in the major euro-zone economies that still believe in the model, while it is only 4%-5% in Britain and other European users of the rival "liberal" model.  This is a fact even French politicians recognize, although they refuse to accept responsibility for it. It does not, in itself, warrant an article in The Wall Street Journal. But it has intriguing implications that perhaps do, for they have not so far been openly discussed.  Built-in unemployment around 10% is caused by two features of the European model. One is the weight of vast schemes of social insurance financed via payroll taxes, whose cost is greater than their value to the insured wage-earner. Hence the cost of wages exceeds their value and the demand for labor stays chronically deficient.  The other, perhaps less powerful, cause is job protection. Labor laws, meaning well, make the shedding of labor so difficult and expensive that employers are afraid of taking the risk of hiring. They either resort to short fixed-term jobs or just make do with the staff they have. Both these features of the European model -- social insurance and job protection -- are, of course, meant to favor labor over capital. But in practice, they do the exact opposite.
Anthony De Jasay, "A Tale of Two Models," The Wall Street Journal (Europe), March 2, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110971966576567617,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 
Jensen Comment:  It's against the law to throw live bodies overboard to save lives --- http://www.cise.ufl.edu/class/cgs3065/reginavdudley.html 

-Dudley and Stephens 1884 –unwillingness to recognize starvation of group as justification or excuse for murder of one to save the larger group. –Can’t be a justification because it is not morally right to take a life to save yours or even a group? –Can’t be an excuse either because it is just too difficult to calculate who should live and die and would set dangerous precedent? So pass the buck to the executive authorities re the exercise of mercy and keep the law “pure” as an expression of human morality?
"CRIMINAL LAW (ESAU) OUTLINE #18:  SECTION SIX: DEFENCES: JUSITIFICATIONS AND EXCUSES --- http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/law/Courses/esau/criminal/chap18.html 
Jensen Comment:  But creating unemployment in one sector to the betterment of other sectors is not really the same as extermination of the unlucky sector.  The problem of today is one of redeploying the other sector, and that's no easy problem since the age and abilities of the troubled sector usually become huge hurdles in redeployment.  There are no easy answers here, but something has to be done to save a sinking ship.

Who get hurt worst in building tariff walls:  In the short term it's the poorest nations of the world
Restrictive standards simply protect some producers at the expense of others and the most likely to be hit in the case of coffee are the very poorest producers in Africa and Asia. . . The European Union is amongst the worst organisations in this regard. In protecting our own farmers with subsidies of about $2 a day for keeping a cow we are harming third world farmers who have to live on less than that.
Ian Whyte, "Myths of Fairtrade goods hurt the poorest," The Scotsman, March 2, 2005 --- http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=228722005 

Waiting for Godot:  Waiting and Waiting and Waiting
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was conveniently out of the country when the news hit yesterday that that the country's unemployment figure rose to over 5.2 million, or 12.6%, a new post-war record. One would have to go back to 1932, the year before Hitler came to power, to find more Germans out of work.  In the past, Europe's left has had two prescriptions for low growth: cheap money and deficit spending. But the European Central Bank's mandate is to preserve price stability. Besides, with real interest rates around zero and inflation right at its 2% target, the ECB is doing already enough to boost the economy. And though some in Mr. Schröder's Social Democratic party want a government investment program, New Deal-type policies have been largely discredited in Germany.  What really needs to be done -- cutting taxes and red tape and making the labor market more flexible -- has been discussed ad nauseam in the German media. Why is it then not being done? Simply because of a lack of political courage. Tackling issues such as Germany's iron rules on dismissals would pit the chancellor against those 38 million who still have a job in order to help those nine million without work. Better to blame the malaise on exogenous factors, such as euro strength or high oil prices, and promise a better tomorrow via overly optimistic growth forecasts that need constant downward revisions.
"Waiting for Godot," The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110971818698567568,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

And while we're on the subject of sinking ships
There's an obscure branch of mathematics known as "catastrophe theory," which looks at how a small perturbation in a previously stable system can suddenly produce dramatic change. A classic example of the theory is the way a bridge, after bearing immense weight for many years, can suddenly collapse because of a new stress.  We are now watching a glorious catastrophe take place in the Middle East. The old system that had looked so stable is ripping apart, with each beam pulling another down as it falls. The sudden stress that produced the catastrophe was the American invasion of Iraq two years ago. But the Arab power structure has been rotting. And what's bringing it down is public anger.
David Ignatius, " 'Glorious Catastrophe' in the Middle East,"  The Washington Post,  March 2, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110971872291267585,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Let's get rid of the International Monetary Fund:  Lend to deadbeats at your own risk
This week the jury came in. The completion of the Argentine bond restructuring offer, executed without the intermediation of the fund, makes the case that the SRDM is more an invention of an overgrown bureaucracy in search of a mission than a necessary addition to the world financial system.  Indeed, the Argentine restructuring is good ammo for those who want to close the fund: 30 years after the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement and the end of the balance-of-payments crises under a gold exchange standard, the IMF can still find no meaningful role other than as a political slush fund for the G-7 major industrial nations.
Mary Anastasia O'Grady, "Argentina's Lessons for Global Creditors," The Wall Street Journal,  March 4, 2005; Page A15 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110989847475270265,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Not much profit from looking inward
GE expects to get as much as 60% of its revenue growth from developing countries over the next decade, Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt said in the company's annual report, making a major shift from the past decade.  After nearly four years of reshaping the company through $60 billion in acquisitions of financing, water treatment, security systems, bioscience businesses and a movie studio, Mr. Immelt said in his letter to shareholders, "we have prepared to make our own growth in a slow-growth, more volatile world."
Kathryn Kranhold, "GE Pins Hopes on Emerging Markets:  Strategy Is Major Shift From Reliance on the West; Big Rivals Echo Approach," The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2005; Page A3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110972499521267783,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us 

A week after President Bush toured Europe to try to patch up the tattered trans-Atlantic relationship, the American car industry is embarking on its own charm offensive. Whether Detroit will make more headway than Washington is anybody's guess.  Cadillac, a unit of General Motors, and the Dodge unit of DaimlerChrysler unveiled new cars at the Geneva Motor Show on Tuesday that they hope will lead a fresh push into the European market.
"Europe, Meet Cadillac and Dodge," The New York Times, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/business/worldbusiness/02car.html 

Who's the Randroid of this outfit?
Referring to the followers of Ayn Rand as "Randroids"  was probably not the nicest way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the author's birth. But it was positively kind by contrast with the really strange honor being paid to her soon by her devotees. They are all set to publish a volume that will document, at great length, how Rand coped with a private, and fairly humiliating, part of her life.
Scott McLemee, "This, That and the Other Thing,"  Inside Higher Ed, March 3, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/intellectual_affairs__9 

Things are looking up
At The Cloud Appreciation Society we love clouds, we're not ashamed to say it and we've had enough of people moaning about them. Read our manifesto and see how we are fighting the banality of ‘blue-sky thinking’. If you agree with what we stand for, then join the society for free and receive your very own official membership certificate and badge.  March's Cloud of the Month is the stratus – a cloud that can prove more of a challenge to appreciate than any of the others.
The Cloud Appreciation Society --- http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/ 

Rentals are much cheaper than during the past two decades
A village which was submerged 35 years ago in northern Portugual has reemerged due to the worst drought in recent decades  ... 
"Drought Causes Sunken Portuguese Village to Reemerge," Designerz, March 3, 2005 --- http://science.news.designerz.com/drought-causes-sunken-portuguese-village-to-reemerge.html?d20050303 

Why does one case in the U.S. get so much more publicity than this?
More than 60 alleged paedophiles go on trial in Angers, France, in one of the country's biggest court cases.
"Child sex trial opens in France," BBC News, March 3, 2005 --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4313747.stm 

Not a happy time for the academy.
University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman announced Monday that she is resigning amid a football recruiting scandal and a national controversy over an activist professor who had compared victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to a Nazi.  Hoffman, who has been president for five years, told the Board of Regents in a letter that her resignation is effective June 30 or whenever the board names a successor.
SI.com, March 7, 2005  --- http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/ncaa/03/07/cu.hoffman.ap/index.html?cnn=yes 

Hoffman said last week that Churchill would not be fired if the review turns up only inflammatory comments, not misconduct.

The furor over Churchill erupted in January after he was invited to speak at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Campus officials discovered an essay and follow-up book by Churchill in which he said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were a response to a history of American abuses abroad, particularly against indigenous peoples.

Among other things, he said those killed in the trade center were "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi plans to exterminate Jews. The college canceled Churchill's appearance, citing death threats and concerns about security.

Jensen Comment:  A review of Ward Churchill's speeches and writings is being conducted to determine if the professor overstepped his boundaries of academic freedom and whether that should be grounds for dismissal.  

Purge of conservatives at Colorado University?
Mitchell taught at the Hallett Diversity Program for 24 straight semesters. That is, until he made the colossal error of actually presenting a (gasp!) diverse opinion, quoting respected conservative black intellectual Thomas Sowell in a discussion about affirmative action.  Sitting 5 feet from a pink triangle that read "Hate-Free Zone," the progressive head of the department berated Mitchell, calling him a racist.  "That would have come as a surprise to my black children," explains Mitchell, who has nine kids, as of last count, two of them adopted African-Americans.  People say liberals run the university. I wish they did," Mitchell says. "Most liberals understand the need for intellectual diversity. It's the radical left that kills you."  So Churchill may play the part, but Mitchell is the true dissenter at CU.  Why did he stay this long?  "I stay to create enthusiasm and love for history," Mitchell says. " And I am successful at that. I love the classroom, and I love my students."  Once, president Hoffman promised increased intellectual diversity at CU - not a purge of conservatives.  Another promise broken.
David Harsanyi, "A CU prof deserving of sympathy," Denver Post, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~31908~2748616,00.html 

Also see "Heretics in the Academy?:  On campuses across the country, conservative professors face a sea of hostility and ideological bias," by Jennifer Jacobson, The Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. A8-A11.

Bob Jensen's threads on Ward Churchill are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/hypocrisyChurchill.htm 

We need to make better choices.
And we like to know that our seafood choice is the best one we can make for a healthy marine environment.  Our oceans are in crisis.  We need to make better choices.
"Best Fish Guide," Forest & Bird, http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/bestfishguide/index.asp 

From the left side of the world:  Rural people of the south
This site provides access to 1800 of approximately 12,000 images from the Ulmann Photograph Collection. The images were scanned prior to the development of local standards and information provided about each image is sketchy and sometimes inaccurate. Staff from Special Collections and University Archives are in the process of reviewing the images and correcting information.
The Doris Ulmann Photograph Collection http://libweb.uoregon.edu/catdept/digcol/ulmann/index.html 

I like the way these films are categorized with a short commentary accompanying each title.  There is a religious bias in these selections and in the commentaries.
"Colson's List of 50 Insightful Films," Prison Fellowship, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.pfm.org/Content/ContentGroups/BreakPoint/Columns/At_the_Movies/Other_dates1/Colson_s_List_of_50_Insightful_Films.htm

• Films with a Christian Theme

• Films with Moral Themes

• Other Worldviews and Philosophies

• Children's films with a strong Biblical worldview 

Some interesting tips on day-to-day living 
"Everyday Cheapskate," Jewish World Review --- http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/cheapskate1.asp 

"The 10 greatest rock'n'roll myths:  From strange deaths to blood transfusions and dubious fish-related practices, it's time to debunk the tallest tales." by Graeme Thomson, Gurardian, February 20, 2005 --- http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,13887,1415153,00.html 

"The Climate Debate: When Science Serves the State," by N. Joseph Potts, Ludwig von Mises Institute, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1755 

United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC) sponsors adoption of the Kyoto Protocol by most industrialized nations around the world, with estimated costs of legally binding compliance estimated at over $150 billion per year. The chief promotional artifact in the proceedings, the "hockey stick" historical temperature chart of IPCC Third Scientific Assessment Chapter Lead Author Michael Mann , is shown to be based on a computer program that produces hockey sticks from over 99 percent of ten thousand samples of random noise fed to it. Stephen McIntyre, retired Canadian minerals consultant, demonstrates numerous other defects and distortions in both the data and statistical methodology, ultimately the subject of a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal of February 14 and a follow-up editorial on February 18.

Anyone sent to jail on that last one? That biggest one, by far? No.

Any charges? No, and none anticipated.

Lawsuits? None yet (possible reason: too many plaintiffs).

Any bankruptcies? Certainly not of the IPCC, nor of the tax-funded agencies that paid for the research that culminated in the hockey stick.

What about the auditor? There is no auditor. No audits? No, except for the self-funded undertaking of McIntyre and partner Ross McKitrick, and Dr. Mann has cut them and apparently everyone else off from further information on the mysterious process that "proved" an episode of global warming in the Twentieth Century and pointed to human activity as the guilty party.

Congressional action? Well, the US Senate has declined to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, but that’s about it.

Government investigation? Despite the fact that the US government funded eleven out of the twelve "Funded Proposals" cited in Dr. Mann’s curriculum vitae , it neither conducts audits of the results reported nor requires that information be made available to others for conducting audits at their own expense and initiative.

But the Kyoto Protocol remains in force and legally binding.

Government and science have found each other, and the spawn of this marriage look set to destroy global wealth on a scale that will render the greatest of history’s wars trivial by comparison. The ultimate outrage of all this is that the people who are subjected to the ravages of the wrong-headed policies promoted by these self-seekers are taxed to pay for the production of this junk science to begin with.

 Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
Malcolm S. Forbes
All too often some of us probably clutter the open mind.

Now you should probably download Google's free Desktop Search for finding documents within your own computer.  The product has emerged from Beta testing with more new features.  But first read about security and then decide.
While the beta only indexed Microsoft Outlook e-mail and Internet Explorer Web browsing history, the latest release also can search e-mail from the Mozilla Thunderbird and Netscape clients and browsing history from the Firefox and Netscape browsers, Google announced.  To make more desktop data searchable, the latest release adds indexing support for the full text of PDFs to existing support for Microsoft Office formats. It also indexes the metadata of video, images and audio, such as titles or artist information.  To make more desktop data searchable, the latest release adds indexing support for the full text of PDFs to existing support for Microsoft Office formats. It also indexes the metadata of video, images and audio, such as titles or artist information.  "With regard to users, we have tens of thousands of applications and file types they want to search," said Nikhil Bhatla, a Google product manager. "We've addressed the top requests and most popular applications, and the best way to address [this] is by making desktop search available for developers to write plug-ins
Matt Hicks, "Google Moves Desktop Search Out of Beta," eWeek, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1772568,00.asp 

You can read more about security at http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1735080,00.asp 

I downloaded a free version of the program from http://desktop.google.com/ 

Yahoo also has a desktop search program, but I don't think it is as sophisticated as the new one from Google.  You can read more about this at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm 

Did you know there is battle raging between neo-Malthusians and Cornucopians?
Jared Diamond, a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, tells the story of the Greenland Norse in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, published earlier this year, and asks, Why did the colonists raise cattle at all? His answer is depressing: because in Scandinavia, cows were proof of wealth. Diamonds thesis, traced from Easter Island to modern Los Angeles, is that environmental strategies that work for a society at one time and place may be maladapted when circumstances change. If people wont adopt new strategies, if their environment is fragile and deteriorates, their society collapses.  Diamond is famous for an earlier book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, which won the Pulitzer Prize by arguing that European civilization triumphed through geographical luck. Collapse has become a sensation, too. But at 575 pages, Collapse is long, life is short, and most commentators have grappled not so much with the book itself as with shadows of the book in particular, with a simplistic summary Diamond published in the New York Times on New Years Day, 2005, titled "The Ends of the World as We Know Them."  Environmentalists liked the summary and, therefore, Collapse, because they thought it served the cause; likening our own time to the periods preceding previous historical collapses, Diamond declared, "We can't continue to deplete our own resources as well as those of much of the rest of the world." Conservative commentators have been uniformly hostile to what they think the book is about; they complain that Diamond does not understand "the tragedy of the commons "that is, the phenomenon whereby commonly shared resources are undervalued and, very frequently, ruined by those who use them. In short, Collapse has been drafted into the battle between neo-Malthusians, who believe our economic life is wickedly destructive and must be constrained by governments, and Cornucopians, who think wealth can grow indefinitely and who adore the unfettered power of markets.
Jason Pontin, "Lets Go Dutch, MIT's Technology Review, April 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/04/issue/editor.asp?trk=nl 

Differences among nations loom far larger than you might have imagined
Each country reveals its own preoccupations, usually born out of its peculiar history and current circumstances. Leave it to the Dutch, for example, to pour computer modeling resources into the management of water and soilendeavors without which the Netherlands very existence would be imperiled. The United States has measured the value of R&D projects largely by their potential for adding to the nervous nations power to fight wars and defend against terrorist attack. In Germany, home of the worlds first superhighways and some of its most storied carmakers, its no surprise to see projects aimed at making driving safer and smarter.  In all, our reporters identified more than two dozen emerging technologies or ideas about innovation as vital to the futures of these seven countries. But even those innovations that most directly address urgent regional needs prove to have application for the entire planet.
Herb Brody (editor), "What Matters Most Depends On Where You Are," MIT's Technology Review, April 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/04/issue/feature_gp.asp?trk=nl 

One Theory on WMDs
Russia Moved Iraqi WMD Charles R. Smith Thursday, March 3, 2005 Moscow Moved Weapons to Syria and Lebanon According to a former top Bush administration official, Russian special forces teams moved weapons of mass destruction out of Iraq to Syria. "I am absolutely sure that Russian Spetsnatz units moved WMD out of Iraq before the war," stated John Shaw, the former deputy undersecretary for international technology security. Story Continues Below According to Shaw, Russian units hid Saddam's arsenal inside Syria and in Lebanon's Bekka valley. "While in Iraq I uncovered detailed information that Spetsnatz units shredded records and moved all...
Newsmax, March 5, 2005 ---  http://www.newsmax.com/  

Using Google for Identity Theft
Teams of hackers surfed the Web at Seattle University yesterday, harvesting Social Security and credit card numbers like a farmer cutting wheat. In less than an hour, they found millions of names, birth dates and numbers -- cyberburglar tools for the crime of identity theft -- using just one, familiar Internet search engine: Google. But these were the good guys -- members of a somewhat secretive organization of computer security pros, forensic cybercops, prosecutors and federal agents called Agora. The group decided to lift the curtain of secrecy for a day to sound a warning about the dangers of "Google...
Paul Shukovsky, " 'Good guys' show just how easy it is to steal ID Elite teams of computer gurus hack into Google and find loads of credit card numbers and sensitive information," Seattle Post Intelligencer, March 5, 2005 --- http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/214663_googlehack05.html 

The Selling of the Curriculum?
Through a family foundation, they created the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, a research organization that regularly releases studies that criticize colleges in North Carolina for lack of rigor, too much excitement over trendy disciplines and wasting taxpayer funds. Pope publications mix serious analysis with a lot of mocking -- and individual faculty members are frequently the target.  So when faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill heard that the Pope family was talking to administrators about a multi-year grant to support study of Western civilization, many were upset. Seventy-one faculty members signed an open letter in The Daily Tar Heel complaining that the negotiations have been conducted secretly, in a manner that is "disrespectful to the faculty," and urging that the talks be suspended.  Bernadette Gray-Little, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the lead negotiator over the proposed gift, did not respond to a request for an interview. But in a letter to The Daily Tar Heel, she said that the proposed Pope grant has received more public discussion and more faculty input than similar grants. And she insisted that there were no unusual conditions attached.
Scott Jaschick, "The Selling of the Curriculum?" Inside Higher Ed, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/the_selling_of_the_curriculum 

India truly realizes the importance of education
The Indira Ghandi National University in India now has 1 million students. Twenty percent of all Indian students are in distance education programs, and the Indian policy is to raise that to 40 percent. So this is a different kind of phenomenon, far from the phenomenon of online learning. I don't mean innovation isn't like that. People do things, and then they discover the consequences were not exactly what they expected.
THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING http://ctl.stanford.edu (as forwarded to me by Jagdish Gangolly)

When bashing the French, a few things should be kept in mind
France has a glorious military tradition and has troops serving in the field in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Africa and Haiti. In Kosovo, 3,000 French soldiers are deployed side by side with 1,800 American soldiers; in Afghanistan, our forces are also operating side by side as are our ships in the Gulf of Oman and reconnaissance aircraft in Djibouti. Our intelligence services and special forces also cooperate closely and appreciate working together.  France is a driving force in European integration and in strengthening European defense. It is encouraging its partners to do more and better in assuming their responsibilities for security issues in Europe and the world. It is making an exceptional effort regarding its own defense budget.
Michele Alliot-Marie, "Let Us Be Partners," The Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111024396859873017,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

The word "f__king" doesn't mean anything.  It's just a figure of speech.
Martin Lawrence in the movie Bad Boys II --- http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/badboys2/site/ 
Jensen Comment:  Maybe so.  It was used in nearly every third line of dialog in this movie, is not in my desk dictionary, and turns me off whether I hear it in a movie or when spoken by students and faculty (yes faculty) on campus.  The Web definitions include "sexual intercourse," "informal intensifier," and a "colloquial intensifier."  But it was used in Bad Boys II so often that it didn't intensify anything.  When used in a great movie called Human Stain, it was used very infrequently and did indeed  intensify.  The problem with youth today is that they don't understand the role of linguistic intensifiers.  I blame a major part of this on Hollywood's failure to understand the same thing.  In general, it's use degrades the speaker and his/her audience.

This is probably overkill, but I do support the idea of being to selectively order cable channels
While their announcement has outraged the telecommunications industry and civil libertarians, most observers believe their idea stands little chance of progressing through Congress. More intriguing, however, is the possibility that the cable and satellite indecency news will resurrect the issue of offering consumers a la carte options for selecting cable channels.  The brouhaha began on Tuesday, when Senator Ted Stevens, (R-Alaska), head of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, declared that he wanted to apply the same standards of decency that govern the content of over-the-air television and radio to pay cable and satellite television.  "I think we have the same power to deal with cable as over-the-air" broadcasters, he told the National Association of Broadcasters, according to several wire reports. "There has to be some standard of decency."  On Wednesday, Stevens got support from the other side of the Hill when House Representative Joe Barton (R-Texas), head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee agreed with him.
Eric Hellweg "Indecent Proposal," MIT's Technology Review, March 4, 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/03/wo/wo_hellweg030405.asp 

One in five teens and adults in the U.S. have genital herpes.
Do our students know this?  The rise in "hanging out" sometimes leads to oral sex without intercourse.
Unsuspecting ways to get genital herpes and, by the way, experts say it will never go away
Most people know that women can get genital herpes from unprotected intercourse. After all, it affects one in five teens and adults. But receiving oral sex is also a significant risk. Oral sex can transmit HSV-1, the virus that causes cold sores, and can cause genital herpes.  Research shows that women who receive oral sex are nine times as likely to get genital herpes.  Women should be sure that their partners are not showing any sign of a cold sore. Early signs include a small area of tingling or numbness in the lips -- even without a visible sore. This is a sign that the virus is active and can be transmitted.
Brunilda Narario, "Genital Herpes From a Surprising Place," WebMDHealth, March 5, 2005 --- http://my.webmd.com/content/article/101/106359.htm?z=1728_00000_1000_td_01 

She says the undergraduates are eager for sex but don't know much about it
She went on to get a master's degree in human sexuality education from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in sexology from Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia, with a thesis on women's first experiences of sexual intercourse and the implications of this for sex education. She later became head of Curtin's sexology program, where she launched a master of forensic sexology, and although she's now moved to Bond, she still supervises some postgraduate students there.  In her books and on her website, she habitually refers to herself as Dr Gabrielle, or Gabrielle Morrissey PhD, presumably to reassure readers that, despite all the references to peckers and boobs, she is a serious academic.  Still, she has had her share of awkward moments. In the acknowledgments in Urge, she writes: "Dad, please skip over the oral sex chapter, please, please."  "I don't think he did," she sighs over the phone from her home in Brunswick Heads, near Byron Bay
"Under Covers," Sydney Morning Herald, March 5, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/03/03/1109700593110.html 

All health plans should at least be as good as Medicare on preventative maintenance
The new year brought changes in Medicare benefits: a one-time "Welcome to Medicare" physical exam, cardiovascular screening, and diabetes screening -- all part of a new emphasis on prevention and early detection, all designed to provide seniors with better care and a higher quality of life. In addition, there will be more changes in drug coverage. How will this affect you? Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mark B. McClellan, MD, PhD, joined us on Jan. 25 to answer your questions about Medicare coverage
"Medicare Update 2005," WebMDHealth, January 25, 2005 --- http://my.webmd.com/content/chat_transcripts/1/105396.htm?z=1728_00000_0007_qp_02 

Hitler's A-Bomb:  So close and yet (fortunately) so far
Adolf Hitler had the atom bomb first but it was too primitive and ungainly for aerial deployment, says a new book that indicates the race to split the atom was much closer than is believed.  Nazi scientists carried out tests of what would now be called a dirty nuclear device in the waning days of World War II, writes Rainer Karlsch, a German historian, in his book Hitler's Bomb, to be be published this month.  Concentration camp inmates were used as human guinea pigs and "several hundred" died in the tests, conducted on the Baltic Sea island of Rugen and at an inland test in wooded hill country about 100 kilometres south of Berlin in 1944 and early 1945.
Ernest Gill, "Hitler won atomic bomb race, but couldn't drop it," Sydney Morning Herald, March 5, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/03/04/1109700677446.html 

Academic Leadership Awards
The Carnegie Corporation of New York on Friday awarded the first three of its new $500,000 "Academic Leadership Awards" to the presidents of Carnegie Mellon  (Jared L. Cohon) and Northwestern Universities (Henry S. Bienen) and the University of Chicago (Don M. Randel).The awards, designed to honor campus chief executives who have "demonstrated an abiding commitment to liberal arts and who have initiated and supported curricular innovations," go to the presidents "for their academic priorities."
"Grants for Presidents," Inside Higher Ed, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/quick_takes_grants_for_presidents_frat_charges_pay_cutback 
 

Most of the "luxuries" are on the not-for-profit campuses
For-profit institutions also try to maximize their revenue. But in addition to maximizing revenue, for-profit schools want to minimize their expenses. That's why they don't have any football stadiums or massage therapists. Simply, maximum revenue and minimum expenses yield maximum profit.  That does not mean, as their critics suggest, that they will necessarily exploit their students. The only way for-profit schools can maximize their revenue, after all, is by bringing in as many students as possible. They can't, therefore, reduce expenses to any point below which they can provide the education students are willing to pay for. Kirp's discussion of DeVry helps confirm this. "Instruction is more intense than in most community colleges and regional universities ... and it is often better as well." Moreover, "graduates do get hired ... DeVry's proudest boast has been that within six months of graduation, 95 percent of graduates are working, and not behind the McDonald's counter but at jobs with a future."  Are for-profit schools perfect? Hardly. As their critics regularly point out, for-profit education's past is checkered by scams and frauds. And it still has troublemakers. In January, "60 Minutes" aired an expose on questionable practices at Career Education Corporation, which runs 82 for-profit campuses. But general hostility to for-profit education, its past, and the ongoing scrutiny it receives as a result force for-profit schools to police themselves.
Neal McCluskey, "Don’t Blame the Market," Inside Higher Ed, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/don_t_blame_the_market 

Some major IT acronymns:  How many can you define? --- Webopedia --- http://www.webopedia.com/ 

More important, which newer ones are left out like RFT or RFIT or RFID --- http://availabletechnologies.pnl.gov/securityelectronics/rftags.stm 

Will Viagra's RFID tags will play Bolero and old Sinatra recordings?

In an effort to combat drug counterfeiting and protect patients, Pfizer has announced a new initiative to use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that will enable wholesalers and pharmacies to authenticate all Viagra sold in the United States.
"Viagra tablets will soon have small radio frequency tags," News-Medical-Net --- http://www.news-medical.net/?id=6324 
Jensen Comment:  I was thinking of an antenna joke and decided against it.

PhD:  Purchased higher Degree
The dean of administration at the College of the Ozarks has resigned, a year after he was enmeshed in a controversy involving the legitimacy of his doctoral degree, the News-Leader of Springfield, Mo., reported Thursday. College officials declined to comment on the resignation of Larry Cockrum, the newspaper reported.
Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, March 4, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/quick_takes_epa_fine_a_dean_resigns 
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mills are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill 

Hush up Bill!  She's first got to worry about being re-elected to the U. S. Senate from a blue state
Maybe it's natural for Bill Clinton to be bragging on his wife's chances to become the next president, but some of his friends wish that he'd just shut up.They say that Bubba's cheering is distracting from Hillary's efforts to show that she isn't an old style liberal.'It's counterproductive,' says one insider, 'at a time when she's quietly building a voting record that is closer to Sen. John McCain than Ted Kennedy.'
"Shushing Bubba," U.S. News and World Report, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/050314/whispers/14whisplead_2.htm 

Mohamed Khodr's Opinion of the Mayor of London
No politician has ever had the courage to pen such a column although many have privately expressed your sentiments. Those, like me, who do write on such matters are excluded from the mainstream press and thus toil in the world of virtual reality, the internet. The world agrees with you but is too cowardly to speak out. I wholeheartedly pray that your courage has opened the door for others to overcome their "Anti-Semitic" fears and do justice to the suffering of the Palestinians, victims of the Sykes-Picot, Balfour Declaration, the Cold War, Zionism, the Holocaust, and the surrender of American foreign policy to the "elite Zionist experts" in Washington D.C. who understand the "Arab/Muslim" mind given America's naiveté and ignorance..
Mohamed Khodr, "To Ken Livingstone, With Gratitude, Love and Admiration," Aljazeerah, March 5, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/aljazeerahMarch5 
Jensen Comment:  Ken Livingstone is the Mayor of London --- http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/mayorbiog.jsp 

Take that Larry Summers:  IT's a woman's world
Women seem to be giving men a run for their money in every profession today. This holds true even in the technology sector, which was till recently dominated by the male fraternity. In fact, technology seems to be creating new-age careers for women in sectors ranging from the number-crunching banking to the research-oriented medicine. Says Jayanthi Sivaswami, associate professor, International Institute of Information Technology (Hyderabad), "Around 31 per cent of the workforce in India today constitutes of women, of which 19 per cent are in the IT sector." Sivaswami was speaking at a panel discussion on 'Technology enables new-age careers...
"IT's a woman's world," Rediff, March 5, 2005 --- http://us.rediff.com/money/2005/mar/05woman.htm 

Lessons From the Edge
Much of traditional academe doesn't know what to make of for-profit higher education. Is it to be emulated or feared? Gary A. Berg, dean of extended education at California State University Channel Islands, studied the sector -- and received extensive access to University of Phoenix administrators and faculty members. The result is Lessons From the Edge: For-Profit and Nontraditional Higher Education in America, recently published as part of the American Council on Education/Praeger Series on Higher Education.  The article contains Berg's answers to some questions about his research and his book:
Scott Jaschik, "Lessons From the Edge," Inside Higher Ed, March 4, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/lessons_from_the_edge 
 

How have for-profit higher education changed traditional universities? 
I think they have probably accelerated a general trend, rather than changed the course in American higher education at this point. Central components of the for-profit model such as increased use of part-time faculty, intensive formats, standardization, distributed and distance learning formats, an emphasis on assessment are all increasingly used in traditional universities. For-profits have come to symbolize the great transformation that is occurring in higher education, but are not the sole cause.
Gary A. Berg, "Lessons From the Edge," Inside Higher Ed, March 4, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/lessons_from_the_edge 

Distance education is easier to assess
Yet assessing quality may be easier with an electronic course, Patrick said, because so many measures can be tracked, including the number of times students and teacher interact. That's not as transparent in a traditional class, she said, because "the door is shut."
"Distance learning becoming part of school life," CNN, March 3, 2005 --- http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/03/03/distance.education.ap/index.html 
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm 
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm 

It's too darn easy to alter the letter F into B?  With artistic talent, why Photo Shop it into an A?
. . .many mentioned the ease of altering report cards and transcripts using desktop publishing software like Adobe Photoshop, which allows students to capture a school's seal off its Web site and paste it into a file to create an official-looking document.  One administrator told of a student who was caught forging his report card when the nearby Kinko's called the school to report that a student had left a copy of his grades on the copier. One principal said he had heard of students forging transcripts with generic-embossed seals to avoid paying for official transcripts.
Jensen Harrumph:  Students are really taking a chance on getting caught for artfully doctoring the transcript of their dreams.  In fact that's really stupid.  Why not order a professionally generated transcript from Back Alley Press? ---  http://www.backalleypress.com/ 

Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill 

Q: If I am considering buying a new laptop, should I wait until the new 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking standard is available? If I purchase a laptop now, should I buy one with an external wireless card so I can easily upgrade to the new standard later?
A: If you need a new laptop now, I wouldn't wait, even though the new "n" flavor of Wi-Fi promises to be faster and to have much better range than the current "a," "b," and "g" versions. I have no idea when the "n" standard will make it into the marketplace, since it's still in the hands of a standards committee, and such bodies tend to move slowly.  I would also note that the new standard is almost certain to be backwards-compatible with the current wireless chips sold as internal equipment on today's laptops. So it isn't as if a laptop purchased now with built-in Wi-Fi will be useless when the new standard emerges. In fact, based on my testing of the so-called pre-N Wi-Fi gear made by Belkin, some of the new standard's range and speed improvements will still be attainable, even with older chips in your laptop.
Walter Mossberg, "Waiting for Wireless," The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2005, Page B4 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110980770284968899,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace 

Q: I am ready to leave Hotmail and switch to another free mail service. I tried to set up a Google "Gmail" account, but was unable to find any sign-up page on their Web site. What are my best choices for setting up a new free e-mail account?
A: At the moment, Gmail is available only to new users who have been invited to join by existing members. That's why you couldn't simply sign up. The main attraction of Gmail is that it offers one gigabyte of mail storage free, a huge amount for an online e-mail service. So, if you know somebody who is a Gmail user, you might try to get invited.  Overall, I prefer Yahoo Mail among the free online competitors. I find it's easy to navigate, reliable, and packed with useful features. And, for a modest $20 a year, you can boost your Yahoo mail storage to two gigabytes from the standard 250 megabytes, and get some other added services as well.
Walter Mossberg, "Q&A," The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2005, Page B4 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110980770284968899,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace 

Say what?  NHL games might become intramural sports matches if purchased by a bottom feeder
Wall Street buyout firm part of joint proposal made to owners. National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman reportedly invited Bain Capital Partners LLC and Game Plan International to make a 30-minute presentation to league owners on Tuesday. TORONTO - A Wall Street buyout firm and a sports advisory company reportedly made a joint proposal to buy all 30 NHL teams for as much as $3.5 billion. Bain Capital Partners LLC and Game Plan International, both based in Boston, made the offer in a 30-minute presentation to NHL owners on Tuesday in New York, sources told the Toronto Star and The...
"Report: $3.5 billion offer to buy all NHL teams," MSNBC, March 3, 2005 --- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7073831/ 

Drug Warning:  Note that Asian-Americans are specifically targeted
The cholesterol drug Crestor is being relabeled to add a warning that starter doses should be reduced in Asian-Americans and some other patients.
"Warning for Cholesterol Drug," The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2005, Page D4 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110979071346968482,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal 

Q: What are the most commonly cited cases in law?
A:  See Yale Law School's "The Curiae Project" at http://curiae.law.yale.edu/ 

Most Commonly Cited Cases   Marbury v. Madison (1803) Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Lochner v. New York (1904) Hammer v. Dagenhart (1917) NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937) Brown v. Board of Education I (1954) Baker v. Carr (1962) -> view complete rankings...		Most Frequently Viewed Cases   Brown v. Board of Education I (1954) Marbury v. Madison (1803) San Antonio Independent School Dist. v. Rodriguez (1973) Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) Brown v. Board of Education II (1955) NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Baker v. Carr (1962) Lochner v. New York (1904) Schenck v. United States (1919)

If you’re looking for an extreme example of bad ethics in your courses, this is it!
But some of the latest in hunting tech pushes the ethical envelope, and some states are outlawing high-tech innovations that game managers feel give hunters an undue advantage.  A San Antonio entrepreneur recently created an uproar with a Web site, www.live-shot.com , that aims to allow hunters to shoot exotic game animals or feral pigs on his private hunting ranch by remote control, with the click of a mouse, from anywhere in the world.  "The idea of sitting at a computer screen playing a video game and activating a remote controlled firearm to shoot an animal is not hunting," said Kirby Brown, executive director of the Texas Wildlife Association, a hunters' group. "It's off the ethical charts."
Jeff Bernard, "In Hunting, Tech Pushes Envelope of What's Ethical," MIT's Technology Review, March 4, 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/03/ap/ap_2030405.asp?trk=nl 
Jensen Comment:  This is even worse than hunting wolves or other wild game with aircraft.  Not only is it not sporting, it can become a tool for terrorists.  Lee Harvey Oswald could've been in Siberia on November 22, 1963 if this technology was available.  I realize that the Air Force can do this now, but I don't think there's a USAF Live-Shot Web site.  The popular “smoking gun” in court just went up in smoke.

Accounting usually gets them in the end
Remember the SCO mouse that roared when suing IBM and Linux
SCO says it missed the filing deadline over issues relating to the accounting of its common stock and equity compensation plan. As a result of adjustments to its accounting, SCO will be restating its earnings for the first three quarters of 2004, BusinessWeek has learned. While the restatements won't change its net loss or cash balance for that year, they are likely to reduce its cash position by $500,000 or more in fiscal year 2005, says an insider. . . What once looked like a mortal threat to Linux appears to be fading. As a result, the suit has become a nonfactor in corporate buying decisions. "I can't imagine how this will go anywhere," says Alex Dietz, chief information officer at Acxiom, a Little Rock consumer-data-analysis company that uses Linux.
"A Linux Nemesis on the Rocks SCO's lawsuit is floundering -- and now the struggling software company faces regulators' scrutiny and questions about its management," Business Week, March 3, 2005 --- http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2005/tc2005033_4497_tc119.htm 
Jensen Comments
The independent auditor for SCO is KPMG.
A SCO Versus IBM Website is at http://sco.iwethey.org/ 

The Anti-PHishing Working Group is an international association dedicated to the elimination of fraud and identity theft on the internet from phishing, pharming and spoofing. Their site contains up-to-date reports on the extent of such activities.Anti-Phishing Working Group
From Gerald Trite's Blog, March 3, 2005 --- http://www.zorba.ca/blog.html 
Bob Jensen's threads on phishing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#Phishing 

Social Security is a lot more than FDR envisioned when he started a national pension plan
But the program has a multitude of other objectives, moving money every which way. An essential reason for the decline in old-age poverty, for example, is that older generations - which paid lower payroll taxes - have received transfers from younger generations, who have paid higher taxes to get the same or even lower levels of benefits.  Social Security aims to protect women who stay out of the work force to raise children, offering spousal and survivor benefits that depend on the earnings of the working spouse. And the program's disability insurance favors workers in tougher jobs, mainly at the lower end of the income spectrum.  Social Security's income redistribution includes some unintended quirks. Survivor benefits are regressive, favoring people whose spouses were high earners. And the nation's changing demographics have created a patchwork of winners and losers that, to some extent, has overridden the system's original purpose of favoring the poor.  That's because Social Security is more generous to people who have more time to collect benefits, like women, who are expected to live three years longer than men, on average, after retirement, and whites, who, after reaching 65, are expected to live a year and a half longer than blacks.
Eduardo Porter, "Who Wins in a New Social Security?" The New York Times, March 6, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/business/yourmoney/06view.html 

When you gotta go, you don't gotta go
Do we not? The trouble is, if we have, why do I not remember a student ever leaving the classroom to go to the bathroom during my own college years? (Much less sleeping or eating.) Once during graduate school I remember a student was asked to leave, because he would not stop talking to the person next to him. He left immediately. The rest of us could not have been more shocked than if he had got up suddenly and squatted in front of his chair.  During my more than 30 subsequent years as a professor I remember a few students pleading bodily necessity in asking permission to leave. The first was a male, who basked in his boldness after he asked. I told him, "sure, you can go, but don't come back." Then it seemed he didn't have to go so urgently after all. I insisted, saying that I couldn't live with either his urethra or his anus on my conscience. The rest of the class laughed. Those were the days.
Terry Caesar, "Purely Academic Going to the Bathroom," Inside Higher Ed, March 4, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/purely_academic 

Lifestyle Changes:  What hotel rooms do you like best (in terms of rooms rather than settings)?
In fact, the room isn't in a hotel at all. It's one of seven test guest rooms that sit unused, night after night, in the depths of Marriott International Inc.'s headquarters.  The rooms are part of Marriott's effort to capitalize on a decade of research and tens of millions of dollars to figure out what guests want.  They also illustrate how hotel operators are catering to a new generation of travelers whose trips are equal parts work and play, and who more than ever yearn for the comforts of home even when they're thousands of miles away.
"Building a better hotel room," Boston Globe, March 6, 2005 --- http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/03/06/building_a_better_hotel_room/ 
Jensen Comment:  I thought the whole point was to make hotel rooms dreary and uncomfortable so that guests spend more time in the stores, bars, restaurants, and conference meetings where it's easier to sleep.

Why not just model the rooms after the world's most expensive hotel (or so we're told by Barb Hessel) --- http://www.dagbladet.no/ 

One woman's take on Martha before she served her time
The characters in your trial (who rather acted as character witnesses) may seem uniquely rotten, as if Lady Luck heaped all the putrid apples in your aproned lap. Not true. Open any psychology textbook; you'll find profiles of each and every one, which means you'll meet them all again. Repeatedly. As long, that is, as you're You (a Forbes-listed, high-society kitchen Picasso) and people are People (parasitic ass-kissers hoping your ilk will choke to death on a drumstick). Forgive me—my cynicism is indelicate. But judging from your megalomaniac fibbing (yes, yes, I know, the investigation was petty in light of the mighty Martha brand name), and genuine horror at the Lilliputians who dared rat you out (the only one-woman conglomerate in human history!)...well, your judgment seems a little off.
Elizabeth Koch, "Martha On the Inside:  Jailhouse advice for the domestic diva," ReasonOnLine, October 7, 2004 --- http://www.reason.com/martha/oct7.shtml 

Now schools need to hire guards for the bathrooms as well as teachers
A couple filed a lawsuit Friday against the Anchorage School District, saying their 6-year-old son was sexually assaulted by a classmate after the boys were left unattended in a school bathroom. The lawsuit seeks damages and changes to district policies regarding how students and staff are trained to handle sexual assaults and how students are monitored. The lawsuit doesn't name the family or the child's school, to protect confidentiality, said attorney Dennis Maloney, who is representing the plaintiffs. The district has 40 days to respond to the lawsuit. "I will not dispute the fact the incident occurred," Superintendent...
"Parents sue school district over rape of 6-year-old," Juneau Empire, March 6, 2005 --- http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/030605/sta_20050306008.shtml 

Modern Day Bullies
Cyberbullies, mostly ages 9 to 14, are using the anonymity of the Web to mete out pain without witnessing the consequences. The problem — aggravated by widespread use of wireless devices such as cellphones and BlackBerrys — is especially prevalent in affluent suburbs, where high-speed Internet use is high and kids are technically adept, says Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org, an online safety group.  “Some kids can't wait to get home so they can continue taunting,” says Aftab, who is also an Internet lawyer.  “Maybe we need to protect kids from one another online as much as we shield them from dangerous adults.”  Often, the social cruelties escape the notice of schools, which focus on problems on campus, and of parents, who are unaware of what their kids are doing online.
Jon Swartz, "Schoolyard bullies get nastier online:  Hurtful messages can hit kids anytime, anywhere," USA Today, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050307/1a_cover07.art.htm 

Small Business Helpers from Smart Stops on the Web, Journal of Accountancy, March 2005 --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2005/news_web.htm 

Food for Thought
www.businessownersideacafe.com
“A fun approach to serious business” is the tag line here, with lively graphics and laid-back narrative that punch up its material. The Small Biz Tax Center helps clarify IRS tax and recordkeeping requirements and gives tips for start-up business owners. The CyberSchmooz “lobby” opens onto message forums on e-commerce, marketing and working at home. The Your Biz section includes a “fridge” full of business forms, e-mail protocols, marketing tips and even yoga instructions.

Small Company, Big Resources
www.allbusiness.com
From forms for consulting and confidentiality agreements to advice on sales and marketing or using the Internet, this Web stop offers guidance to CPAs who advise start-ups and small businesses. The Business Plans section has articles such as “Common Business Plan Mistakes for Startup Companies,” while the Small Business Advice section provides tax basics. Users also can tap into an FAQ section or a business glossary or sign up for a free e-newsletter.

A Dear Abby for Small Business
www.score.org
Since first listed here in June 2003, this site has added resources to its Business Toolbox section including a gallery of downloadable templates for bank loan applications, business plans and sales forecasts, as well as expanded links to such small business topics as finance, franchising and international trade. The Learning Center has a list of tips for business planning, marketing, public relations and office management.

Bob Jensen's small business helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#SmallBusiness 

I wasn't sure if I was reading about a resort or a diversity-optimized college campus on the Oregon coast
FOR REASONS OF HEALTH & SAFETY OCEAN HAVEN CANNOT ACCOMMODATE SMOKERS, PETS, FOLKS TRAVELING IN A HUMMER, OR FOLKS WHO VOTED FOR BUSH & HIS NATURE DESTRUCTIVE POLICIES
Ocean Haven on the Oregon Coast --- http://oceanhaven.com/htmls/practices.html 
And for those living guest, I think you have to take your own sewage back home where it belongs.

Jokes from night TV --- http://www.newsmax.com/liners.shtml 
Jay Leno says "Hillary would make a good president but not a good intern."

These are sources you might look at when tracking the resignation of the president of Colorado University and the saga of Ward Churchill and his little eichmans:

CBS4 Denver --- http://news4colorado.com/cuscandal 

She says it's the budget rather than her bad boys
The president of the University of Colorado, Elizabeth Hoffman, resigned Monday after struggling with a football recruiting scandal and a firestorm over a professor who likened some Sept. 11 victims to Nazis . . . She said in a telephone interview that the Churchill case was not the impetus for her resignation, but that it had become a distraction that was hindering her ability to address what she called a more serious problem, a budget crisis at the university over a shortage of state financing.  "It was becoming increasingly difficult to be strong on the issues that were important in the long run because it kept coming back to questions about me," Dr. Hoffman said, "so I decided I had to take my future, my job, off the table." Dr. Hoffman, 58, was named the university's president on Sept. 1, 2000, after serving as provost at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Kirk Johnson, "University President Resigns at Colorado Amid Turmoil," The New York Times, March 8, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/national/08colorado.html 

Bob Jensen's threads on Ward Churchill --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/hypocrisyChurchill.htm 

Egads!  Is this what you call filling in where schools fail?
The College Board will administer its revised college-admissions test to thousands of high-school juniors for the first time on Saturday, and the test has generated a bonanza of new study aids. "The new SAT has led to a flurry of new products because all publishers are starting new -- there's a new thing to compete over," says Justin Kestler, a founder of SparkNotes LLC, a division of Borders Group Inc.  Adds Jon Zeitlin, manager of college-prep programs for Kaplan Inc., a unit of Washington Post Co.: "We've been on a product-creation jag for months."  Test-prep giant Princeton Review Inc., which isn't affiliated with Princeton University, has developed software that delivers test questions, including critical-reading passages, to cellphone screens -- then grades the answers and sends the results home to Mom and Dad. Its chief competitor Kaplan has software for a cellphone or a Palm device: Order up easy, medium or hard questions in reading, writing or math.  Texas Instruments Inc. is programming all of its latest graphing calculators with SAT math and vocabulary drills. And SparkNotes has its test-prep eye on the ubiquitous iPod. "We're trying to figure out how to do it in audio," says Mr. Kestler. "It's the next big killer application."
June Kronholz, "To Tackle New SAT, Perhaps You Need A New Study Device:  Test-Prep CDs, Puzzles, Cellphone Software Hit A June Market of Nonreaders," The Wall Street Journal, March 8. 2005, Page A1  --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111024562510773081,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one 

Jensen Comment
College admission tests serve many purposes, not the least of which is to guide students into what to learn in school.  One of the failings of our schools and the college tests is the failure to test and motivate students toward understanding personal finance.  Why is this important?  Personal finances are a major cause of suicide and divorce.  Sometimes I don't think teachers really are concerned about the tragedies of life that affect nearly all people later in life from the very poor to the very rich.  Our graduates mess of their lives because they mess up their personal finances and/or allow themselves to be screwed by credit card companies, finance companies, brokers, financial advisors, and banks (yes and banks).

Please read the following:
"Survey: Students Not Taught Basic Finance," Ben Feller, SmartPros, March 7, 2005 --- http://accounting.smartpros.com/x47289.xml 

And then look at the following:

March 4, 2005 message from a staff member at Trinity University

Think of the many people whose lives might be saved and whose marriages might be more successful if they understood the basics of who to keep out of digging themselves into financial holes and how to stop digging once they're in those holes.

Bob Jensen's threads on the dirty tricks of credit card companies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#FICO 

Free credit report offers seem to flood the Internet these days. Most companies claiming to give you a free credit report are really looking to sell you something in the long run, such as a credit monitoring service or identity-fraud protection.

So, stop surfing around online for a free credit report, most of the offers you will find are not really free. If you do not qualify for a free credit report, you are still better going straight to the actual credit bureaus and just paying the $8 that a credit report costs. Knowing what your credit file says about you is priceless.
"Free Credit Report Offers... Are They Really Free? - Consumer Alert," AccountingWeb, March 3, 2005 ---  http://www.accountingweb.com/item/100593 

Free credit report offers seem to flood the Internet these days. Most companies claiming to give you a free credit report are really looking to sell you something in the long run, such as a credit monitoring service or identity-fraud protection. Once you purchase the service, you will be given a copy of your credit report, usually from just one of the major credit bureaus. Since there are three major credit reporting agencies (Experian, Transunion, and Equifax), you will not see the complete picture if you do not receive a report from each one.

Other websites that sell credit reports are resellers for the real credit bureaus and exist to make a profit. Some of these websites are very useful if you intend to pay, and are very convenient as a centralized place to obtain a 3-in-1 report with a personalized account that you can return to at anytime to order more reports; however, you will not receive anything for free.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970 you are entitled to a free credit report if your application for credit, insurance or employment is denied because of information provided by a credit reporting agency (CRA). The company that you applied to must provide you with a denial notice which will contain the name, address, and phone number of the CRA that was used. You must request your report within 60 days of receiving the notice of the action. In addition, you are entitled to one free report a year if (1) you are unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days, (2) you are on welfare, or (3) your report is inaccurate because of fraud.

Residents of Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and Vermont already have a right to one free report per bureau each year because of laws enacted by those states. However, a new Federal provision enacted in 2003, grants access to free credit reports to all consumers in every state.

Free Annual Credit Reports Available to Everyone

According to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, every consumer is entitled to one free credit report each year. The final rule on this Act issued by the Federal Trade Commission in June 2004, provides for a centralized source from which consumers can obtain their credit reports from each of the three credit bureaus.

The centralized source is becoming available in cumulative stages, over a period of nine months, rolling-out from west. The rollout began in December 2004 and will be complete by September 1, 2005. Western states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) became eligible on December 1, 2004;

Midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin) will become eligible on March 1, 2005; Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas ) will become eligible on June 1, 2005; Eastern states (Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia), Puerto Rico, and all U.S. territories will become eligible on September 1, 2005.

So, stop surfing around online for a free credit report, most of the offers you will find are not really free. If you do not qualify for a free credit report, you are still better going straight to the actual credit bureaus and just paying the $8 that a credit report costs. Knowing what your credit file says about you is priceless.

You can read more about free credit reports at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ycr_free_reports.htm 

I agree with the habit of spending within one’s means.  But there still is a question of stupid spending within one’s means.  For example, should families really spend extra for an entirely new car even if they can make the payments?  And do they understand the car’s financing --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudDealers.htm

It is dangerous to be right when the established authorities are wrong
Voltaire

My Snow Bird
After 18 inches of new snow on March 8 and enormous winds, the drifts in our driveway were ten feet or higher.  Ed Clough had to plow three times each day to keep up with it.  The snow subsided on March 9, but Erika was in a lonely whiteout due to the winds on I-93 when she went down to Manchester on March 9.  She took off on March 10 and should be in San Antonio by noon.   Here's a March 9, 2005 weather summary from Mt. Washington where most of the snow blows off the summit --- http://www.mountwashington.org/weather/today.html 

Since he lives in a humble home (without running water when he was a child) within walking distance of our retirement home, I just had to brag about Bode
Winning races or crashing through fences, charming the hordes of kids in Europe who adore him or peevishly dismissing the ski journalists who annoy him, astounding veteran skiers with his otherworldly skills or infuriating his coaches with his bullheadedness, Bode Miller has arrived on top of the skiing world.
David Leon Moore, "Brash American poised to win skiing crown:   Bode Miller's style wows fans, puts elusive title in reach," USA Today, March 9, 2005 Page 1A --- http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050309/1a_cover09.art.htm 

Also see "Breaking down the points race," USA Today, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050309/pointsbox.art.htm 

American Bode Miller and Austrian Benjamin Raich are battling to win the men's World Cup overall title. Entering Thursday's downhill, Miller has a 52-point lead over his archrival:

 

Bode Miller	Place	Points
Overall	1st	1,348
Downhill	2nd	538
Slalom	19th	100
Giant slalom	3rd	340
Super-G	2nd	370
Benjamin Raich
Overall	2nd	1,296
Downhill	28th	93
Slalom	1st	502
Giant slalom	1st	363
Super-G	5th	238

 

Forget Ward Churchill:  An A- term paper topic can get you kicked out of graduate school
Supporting corporal punishment is one thing; advocating it is another, as Mr. McConnell recently learned. Studying for a graduate teaching degree at Le Moyne College, he wrote in a paper last fall that "corporal punishment has a place in the classroom." His teacher gave the paper an A-minus and wrote, "Interesting ideas - I've shared these with Dr. Leogrande," referring to Cathy Leogrande, who oversaw the college's graduate program.  Unknown to Mr. McConnell, his view of discipline became a subject of discussion among Le Moyne officials. Five days before the spring semester began in January, Mr. McConnell learned that he had been dismissed from Le Moyne, a Jesuit college.
Patrick E. Healy, "College Expels Student Who Advocated Corporal Punishment," The New York Times, March 10, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/10/nyregion/10paddle.html 

How not to raise kids in the modern age
Flagstaff, Ariz., is a clean and safe mountain town where most people partake in mentally and physically healthy activities far from the glaring fluorescent lights of Wal-Mart. The behavior illustrated in your page-one article "Attention, Shoppers: Bored College Kids Competing in Aisle 6" (Feb. 23) isn't representative of the values of most residents of Flagstaff or my generation. Concerned elders write about the problem with kids and cynicism these days. When my kid says, "Mom, I'm bored! What should I do?" I won't reply, "Well, honey, why don't you and your friends go play in Wal-Mart." Children need something more to live for, something beautiful to believe in. Is there anything left in this society to value besides production and consumption?
"Don't Mall Children's Need for the Beautiful," The Wall Street Journal,  March 10, 2005; Page A17 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111042348170375543,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion 
My Answer:  Take away the computer/television and make them sit alone or together at home or in the yard until they get so bored they have to use their own imaginations.  What's wrong with having to overcome boredom on your own?

The USA's children live in an increasingly heavy stew of media, spending about 6½ hours a day mostly watching TV, using computers and enjoying other electronic activities. And they are spending relatively little time reading or doing homework, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey reported Wednesday.
Marilyn Elias, "Electronic world swallows up kids' time, study finds Children plugged in about 6½ hours a day," USA Today, page 1A --- http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050310/1a_bottomstrip10.art.htm 

Maybe this is the result of the Wal-Mart Kid Generation:  
What are the odds a ninth grader will graduate from college on schedule?
Other countries are doing a better job, the report says. Fifteen countries have higher graduation rates from high school than does the United States, where the rate is 73 percent. At the higher education level, countries like China and India are making significant progress in educating thousands of scientists and engineers at a time that many programs at American colleges struggle to find qualified applicants.  The report identifies other key problems:  4 of 10 college students fail to graduate within six years. One-fourth of low-income students in the top quartile of academic ability and preparation fail to enroll in college within two years of their graduation from high school. While the percentages of minority and low-income students who enroll in higher education is increasing, a majority of minority students fail to graduate.
"A Nation's Colleges at Risk," Inside Higher Ed, March 10, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/a_nation_s_colleges_at_risk 

In a graphic called "Our Leaky Educational Pipeline," the report notes that for every 100 9th graders:

• 68 graduate from high school on time.
• 40 enroll immediately in college after graduation.
• 27 are still enrolled for their sophomore year.
• 18 graduate from college on time.

“Opt-Out” Disclosures in Pre-Screened Credit Card Offers
I had a couple of inquiries about "The Effectiveness of “Opt-Out” Disclosures in Pre-Screened Credit Card Offers."  You will find these at various sites (do a Google search on Opt-Out Disclosures).  So I went to the FTC site, a site that I implicitly trust on issues of deception and fraud, and found a report at http://www.ftc.gov/reports/prescreen/040927optoutdiscprecreenrpt.pdf 
The bottom line is that these opt-out alternatives are far from being perfectly effective and the layered notice approach is probably the most effective.   I would not give out privacy information to any sites that I do not know are legitimate in this era of ID theft.

Bob Jensen's threads on consumer fraud are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm 
The best site on consumer fraud is the FTC site at http://www.ftc.gov 

I'm generally not in favor of long-term care insurance, but you should make up your own mind independently of the pitch you get from a financial planner or salesperson who make a lot of money selling you the contract.
Depending on where you live, it can be more. (See state rankings here.) Compute the cost of a nursing-home stay -- the average is about 2.4 years -- with the help of calculators at Web sites such as Smartmoney.com (smartmoney.com/insurance/longtermcare/) and Long Term Care Quote (ltcq.net). If your assets won't cover bills, or could leave a spouse struggling financially, long-term insurance may be the right choice for you.
"Buying Long-Term-Care Insurance," The Wall Street Journal,  March 10, 2005; Page D1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111042232368775507,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal 
Jensen Comment:  The first move should be to carefully read http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/services/apact/apact05.htm 
Then seriously think about setting aside your own fund for this purpose and leave out the middle person fees.

It's probably too soon to tell about effectiveness of identity theft insurance.
Last year, Allstate Corp. began offering identity-theft insurance in Texas and a few other states as a $30 rider on its homeowner and renter policies. The spadework is contracted out to Kroll Inc., a risk-consulting company. "We take a lot of the work of identity restoration off the shoulders of victims," says Troy Allen, vice president for fraud solutions at Kroll. "It's very time-consuming and difficult and frustrating."
"ID stolen? Call a privacy gumshoe," The Christian Science Monitor, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0309/p12s01-stin.html 
Jensen Comment:  First read the document at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2004/11/041104coninfosysprivimpassess.pdf 
Then take a look at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#IdentityTheft 

Now is the time to think about a new kind of computer mouse
As you can see, the PRO acts as a base for your keyboard with the rollerbar and buttons about an inch from the space bar. Since the bottom of the keyboard is intended to be flush with the docking station, you'll need to have the common, straight-edged keyboard to fit snugly. Fancy, curved keyboards need not apply here, since you'd have to stretch your thumbs an extra distance, which defeats the purpose. With your keyboard docked, you can rest your hands on the PRO's rubber wrist pads while controlling your cursor with the rollerbar that spins up and down, and slides left and right. The rollerbar can also act as a left click when pressed down gently. Below the rollerbar are your buttons and a scrolling wheel.
Jeremy Atkinson, "The Ergonomic-Friendly RollerMousePRO," Extreme Tech, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1772699,00.asp 
Jensen Comment:  The second page of this review has some good pictures.

Newer treatments for epilepsy
Science has dispelled many myths about epilepsy -- most importantly the myth that people with epilepsy will always suffer seizures. In fact, with treatment, between 70% and 80% of people with epilepsy are seizure free for at least two years.
WebMDHealth --- http://my.webmd.com/content/article/98/104690.htm?z=1728_81000_4259_qp_06 

I didn't want to "forget" this one
In the medical journal Neurology, Bennett and colleagues describe 180 elderly Catholic clergy, participants in the Religious Orders Study of ageing and dementia who agreed to annual mental tests beginning in 1993 and brain autopsy when they died.  At the time of death, 37 had mild cognitive impairment, 83 had dementia, and 60 had no cognitive difficulties.  Of the 37 with mild cognitive impairment, 23 showed brain pathology consistent with probable or definite Alzheimer's disease, and 12 had areas of brain tissue due to loss of blood supply, the investigators report.  Moreover, even among the 60 individuals without cognitive impairment, 28 showed evidence of probable or definite Alzheimer's disease.
"Mental decline linked to Alzheimer's," Aljazeera, March 9, 2005 --- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E9079052-FFAD-480D-AE48-661887A88699.htm 

Mount Holyoke Dumps the SAT
Mount Holyoke College, which decided in 2001 to make the SAT optional, is finding very little difference in academic performance between students who provided their test scores and those who didn't.  The women's liberal arts college is in the midst of one of the most extensive studies to date about the impact of dropping the SAT -- a research project financed with $290,000 from the Mellon Foundation.  While the study isn't complete, the college is releasing some preliminary results. So far, Mount Holyoke has found that there is a difference of 0.1 point in the grade-point average of those who do and do not submit SAT scores. That is equivalent to approximately one letter grade in one course over a year of study.  Those results are encouraging to Mount Holyoke officials about their decision in 2001.
Scott Jaschik, "Not Missing the SAT," Inside Higher Ed March 9, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/not_missing_the_sat 
Jensen Comment:
These results differ from the experiences of the University of Texas system where grades and test scores differ greatly between secondary schools.   Perhaps Mount Holyoke is not getting applications from students in the poorer school districts.  See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book04q4.htm#60Minutes 

For a more general discussion of a "Fair Test" see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#AdmissionTesting 

It can be expensive to tease about gays
After years of legal fights, a former administrator at New York University has won a $2 million jury award in a case in which he charged the institution with anti-gay bias.  Mark A. Taylor was director of external affairs at NYU's medical school in 1994, when a biography of Leonard Bernstein, by Humphrey Burton, identified Taylor as the last love in the late composer's life. According to Taylor, the book was passed around the office, with passages about him marked. He also said that Peter Ferrara, a colleague, called him a "pansy" and made jokes about his sexuality.  Subsequently, Ferrara was promoted to become Taylor's boss and in 1997, Taylor's job was eliminated. The university attributed the elimination to a reorganization. Taylor sued for job discrimination.  Prior to losing his job, Taylor was "repeatedly humiliated with malicious and petty gossip and no one at NYU stepped in to do anything," said Michael G. O'Neil, his lawyer. "My client went from being well regarded and respected to being a laughingstock."  The jury that heard the case awarded Taylor $300,000 in back pay, $700,000 for lost future pay, and $1 million for his pain and suffering. O'Neil said that Taylor needed the money after finding it difficult to obtain good jobs after he lost his post at NYU.
Scott Jaschik, "$2 Million in Anti-Gay Bias Case," Inside Higher Ed, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/2_million_in_anti_gay_bias_case 

Summers time in the American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association has become the latest group to take on Harvard's president -- releasing a statement Tuesday stating that there "is substantial research that provides clear and compelling evidence that women, like men, flourish in science, just as in other occupational pursuits, when they are given the opportunity and a supportive environment." . . . "For example, objectively assessed math and scientific ability differences between males and females have changed substantially over the past three decades. In the United States they have become non-significant and in some other countries, the United Kingdom, for example, girls' performance exceeds that of boys at all levels of schooling," the sociologists said. "That gender differences in these abilities have shifted so substantially over such a short period of time makes it impossible for biological changes to have been influential. This period, however, was one in which girls' access to school courses, counselor encouragement, career opportunities, and role models changed (and improved) significantly -- but not their biology."
Scott Jaschik, "Sociology Lecture for Summers," Inside Higher Ed, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/sociology_lecture_for_summers 

March 10, 2005 message from Paul Williams
Mostly on the subject of hacking into the Harvard Business School's admission records to check on admission status, but a bit more on Lawrence of Absurdia.

Not so long as there are 57 credits whose content teaches that ethical considerations are for the weak-minded. Harvard is being a bit hypocritical. It certainly hasn't resisted the creation of a culture of success where the pressure to get into the "best" schools is so intense that hacking into the records to find out what your status is is probably the least of the sins being committed by people frantic to get into an elite school. Duke University, to its eternal credit, forgave one of its more famous students for breaking into the office of the dean of the law school (the old fashioned way of hacking) to get an early read on the results of final exams. He later went on to become president of the United States. Think what might have happened had Duke kicked him out of the law school (said with tongue firmly in cheek). 

Not to resurrect the Larry Summers debate, but Boston Magazine has just published an article, "Lawrence of Absurdia" available at http://www.bostonmagazine.com/ArticleDisplay.php?id=517  that speculates from Summers past behavior that he might suffer from Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism.

Why Women Leave I.T. 
Women represent nearly half the workers in the U.S. -- 46.6 percent. However, they always have been underrepresented in I.T. Even more discouraging is the fact that the percentage of women working in I.T. jobs is not growing but dropping. That is bad news indeed for employers seeking hard-to-find technical candidates and the women who might otherwise fill those well-paying jobs. "Skill obsolescence is the number one issue for I.T. workers," Professor Deb Armstrong of the University of Arkansas told NewsFactor. And it turns out, according to a study by Armstrong and her colleagues, that certain facts of women's lives make staying ahead of the game harder than it is for men.
Kimberly Hill, "Why Women Leave I.T.," NewsFactor Network, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Why-Women-Leave-I-T-&story_id=31000 

Have you run out of ideas for gifts?  Here's the possible answer to your dilemma.
Sure, a computing purse and scarf set may seem like the stuff of science fiction. But these devices, part of next generation of wearable computers, could become commonplace within a few years. Unit shipments of such wearable computers -- purses, watches, shirts -- should rise from 261,000 last year to 1.39 million in 2008, according to the tech research firm IDC.
Olga Kharif, "Wearable Computers You Can Slip Into The latest generation of these ever-smarter garments look like ordinary clothes, not something only a cyborg would don," Business Week, March 8, 2005 --- http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2005/tc2005038_5955_tc119.htm 

Bob Jensen's threads on ubiquitous computing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ubiquit.htm 

Takes more than getting rid of pets:  This is especially troublesome in inner cities up north like NYC and Chicago
"These data confirm that cockroach allergen is the primary contributor to childhood asthma in inner-city home environments," added Kenneth Olden, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which helped fund the study.  "However, general cleaning practices, proven extermination techniques and consistent maintenance methods can bring these allergen levels under control."Cockroaches produce allergic reactions from their saliva, fecal material, secretions and cast off skin.
"Allergy study: Roaches worse than furry pets," CNN, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/03/09/roaches.allergens.reut/index.html 

Researchers identify a protein critical for achieving pregnancy. As the first such discovery, the finding could lead to non-hormonal contraception or male infertility treatments.
Kristen Philipkoski, "Sperm Protein Seals the Deal," Wired News, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66837,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_6 

In some academic performance evaluations, service now receives a small weighting of less than 10% when compared to what the university considers the big drivers of success:  Research and Teaching.
Pursuing academic engagement necessitates radically rethinking "service" and "knowledge," finding innovative mechanisms to organize and leverage academe's intellectual capital to transform lives for the benefit of society. It requires us to acknowledge that a university's collective wisdom is among its most precious assets -- anchored to, but not in competition with, basic research and disciplinary knowledge -- and that part of the significance of such wisdom is tied to its use.  While redefining and implementing more robust notions of service and knowledge will be arduous, the payoff could be enormous. Fortunately, there is a movement afoot at many public research institutions across the nation, a movement to bring higher education out of the 19th into the 21st century. With rising tuition, limited access to the nation's best universities, and increasingly complex social problems, many recognize that the need for public institutions to find meaningful ways to serve the citizens of their states is more important than ever. Universities must fulfill a social compact with their states.  At my own institution, the University of Texas at Austin, a critical mass of faculty embrace this compact: academics best described as "intellectual entrepreneurs," citizen-scholars supplying more than narrow, theoretical disciplinary knowledge. They exemplify academic engagement, taking to heart the ethical obligation to contribute to society, to both discover and put to work knowledge that makes a difference.
Richard A. Cherwitz, "Intellectual Entrepreneurship: The New Social Compact By," Inside Higher Ed, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/intellectual_entrepreneurship_the_new_social_compact 

Scholastic Notes on Your Computer:  Have you thought about speaking out while you are studying or reading?
For some doctors, the prospect of trading in their paper-based patient files for electronic-medical-record systems means big changes in their work, and they and their staffs can't afford the initial slowdown as they learn to enter and deal with digitized patient information. But what if speech-recognition technology was good enough to actually understand and digitize not just a doctor's words to include in medical records, but the medical lingo held in them? A startup tech vendor led by George Newstrom, the former secretary of technology for Virginia under Gov. Mark Warner, is making plans for such technology to be one of the many tools for getting more doctors using electronic records.
"Voice-Technology Startup Aims To Get Doctors Using E-Records," Information Week, March 8, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/SpeakUp 

Virus threat to mobile phones 
A new mobile phone software virus started spreading this week via messages containing photos and sounds, the first of its kind and a threat to cellphones globally, data security firms said Tuesday.  The Commwarrior. A virus tries to replicate itself by sending multimedia messages to people on the phone's contacts list, and also tries to do the same via Bluetooth wireless connections with other devices, eventually draining the battery.
"New virus found in phone messaging," CNN, March 8, 2005 --- http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/08/technology/personaltech/mobile_virus.reut/index.htm 

Little Red Riding Hood doesn't know it's the really big bad wolf
As the Social Security debate heats up, it pays to watch the political sleight-of-hand. The latest gimmick to emerge, cleverly marketed as a potential bipartisan compromise and "victory" for the White House, is the notion of "add-on" personal investment accounts.  Under President Bush's proposal, individuals would be able to divert part of their payroll taxes into personal accounts that they would own. That idea is apparently too shocking for many in Congress and the AARP, however, so instead they're proposing new accounts that would be financed by other tax revenue -- that is, by other taxpayers. In short, they want to create a new entitlement to "add" to all the old ones. If this is what is going to count as Social Security "reform," count us out.
" 'Adding-On' Entitlements," The Wall Street Journal,  March 9, 2005; Page A20 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111033447404774285,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion 

Sound farfetched? 
Imagine a government that has stopped providing national defense, halted criminal prosecutions, canceled mail delivery and abandoned its highways and parklands. This government, in fact, does nothing but write benefit checks and pay interest on its debts — and still runs an annual deficit.  Sound farfetched?  Actually, that prospect is just three decades off if U.S. government benefit programs grow at current rates and the size of government relative to the economy stays constant.  Social Security is partly to blame for this dire outlook. Without changes, its costs will rise from about 20% of federal spending to 30% in the next 25 years.  But by far the biggest culprit is the exploding cost of health care, particularly Medicare, the government's insurance program for seniors. Medicare has grown 23-fold in the past three decades, from $13 billion in 1975 to $295 billion this year. It is on a trajectory that will soon rocket it past Social Security to the upper stratosphere of unaffordability. In 25 years, it will rise from 13% of federal spending to almost 40%.  As a problem for the U.S. economy and future retirees, exploding health care costs dwarf Social Security. By focusing exclusively on the latter, President Bush is overlooking the bigger problem. This is akin to getting a car tuned up when its transmission is shot and its engine has locked up.
"Medicare's mounting troubles dwarf Social Security's woes:   Washington ignores bigger problem of exploding health care costs," USA Today, March 9, 2005, Page 10A --- http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050309/edit09.art.htm 

My unfinished essay on the "Pending Collapse of the United States" --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/entitlements.htm

Tired of teaching?  Write and essay and fire it off to the Board of Trustees
The University of Colorado's review of Ward Churchill's scholarship has been delayed, perhaps until Monday, partly to allow lawyers time to craft a buyout offer, according to a person close to the process. The original March 3 deadline for the Churchill review has been pushed back twice now as a three-member committee of CU administrators wrestles with his writings, including an essay comparing some 9/11 victims to Nazi Adolf Eichmann. Tuesday, Churchill's attorney, David Lane, said he is "not at liberty" to discuss any talks he might have had with the university on a buyout proposal. He said again, however,...
Dave Curtin, "CU delays Churchill review," Denver Post, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2751963,00.html 
Bob Jensen's threads on Ward Churchill are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/hypocrisyChurchill.htm 

Where's Chief Churchill?
Claims of Indian heritage aren't rare these days, particularly in the South, where laws and attitudes stigmatizing nonwhites have waned. In polls, more than 40% of Southerners now say they have an Indian ancestor. In fact, says John Shelton Reed, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina, white Southerners are likelier to claim an Indian than a Confederate forebear. But the Apalachee stand out because of their hidden epic of survival -- and because of the modest couple who have brought them to light.
Tony Horwitz, "Apalachee Tribe, Missing for Centuries, Comes Out of Hiding:  The Indians' Tragic History Is Documented by Chief; A Push for Recognition," The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111032889711474126,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one 

Doctors have the millennia-old Hippocratic Oath. Pharmacists, mathematicians and even football coaches all have codes of ethics.  Not investment bankers.
Investment banking is a vexing area to police. Bankers sit in the crucible of the economy: doling out loans; hammering out contracts; and counseling companies on the sensitive topics of mergers and acquisitions, among other things.  It is in these areas that ethical lapses can occur, with bankers using confidential information from one client to benefit another, or failing to fully outline the drawbacks of a particular transaction to guarantee a big payday. Many on Wall Street say the vast majority of bankers are ethical ones, but nearly all will admit they can lose or win fees based on how far they are willing to go.  Given the million of dollars in profits that also can be personally earned from one or two banking transactions, the "pressure on behavior is sometimes too great to bear," writes Gerald Rosenfeld, chief executive officer of investment bank Rothschild North America, in the book.  Instead of trying to create a rule for every ethical permutation, a potential code "should have basic principles with respect to who you're accountable to, and what your priorities are between yourself, your client and your regulators," says Mr. Rohatyn, the former managing director of investment bank Lazard who now heads his own firm, Rohatyn Associates.  "It's really something that has to be embedded in an organization all the way up and down," he says. "Ultimately, it has to be instinctive."  When asked, some of Wall Street's leading investment banks say they welcome the idea of a code. For now, the list of supporters includes Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group's Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs Group, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.  Since it is now simply a vague recommendation, exactly what it would contain remains to be seen. But a code could include principles for handling conflicts of interest, behavioral guidelines for dealing with clients and competitors, and some recognition of a banker's duty to society at large.  Writing such a code could face an uphill fight. Deep in the trenches, some Wall Street bankers displayed an instinctive skepticism.
Dennis K. Berman, "Does Wall Street Finally Need An Ethics Code?," The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111040943044975189,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing 
Jensen Comment:  Lawyers have codes of ethics;  Just goes to prove that it takes more than a codification.

Top 10 Corporate Hate Sites
To honor these quixotic champions, we spent hours trawling the Web looking for the very best corporate hate sites. After checking out more than 100 sites with names like dontflycontinentalairlines.com and fordlemon.com, we rated the best of them on a scale from one to five in six different categories: ease of use, frequency of updates, number of posts, hostility level (angrier is better), relevance, and entertainment value (Hey! Angry and funny!).
Charles Wolrich, "Top Corporate Hate Web Sites," Forbes, March 8, 2005 --- http://www.forbes.com/technology/2005/03/07/cx_cw_0308hate.html 

And the best of the worst is built on a cracked foundation
KB Homes KBhomesucks.com --- http://www.kbhomesucks.com/ 
(Complete with videos)

No pay is our way
PayPal Sucks, aka No PayPal, is an anti paypal site to expose the nightmare of doing business "the paypal way."
PayPal (part of eBay) Paypalsucks.com --- http://www.paypalsucks.com/ 

I wouldn't shake these hands
Allstate Insurance Allstateinsurancesucks.com --- http://www.allstateinsurancesucks.com/ 
DOI data helps rank Allstate as # 2 Bad Faith Insurer

Under the new name of Microsuck
After four years of being known primarly as [ahem]Microsoft.com, the flagship site of the Microsoft Eradication Society now sports a new, slightly more family-friendly name: Microsuck. And if you've come here expecting the old Microsuck website, we regret to inform you that it is no more. After laying dormant for a while, the previous owners offered it for sale to us. We couldn't resist.
Microsoft MS-Eradication.org --- http://www.ms-eradication.org/ 
Microsuck --- http://www.ms-eradication.org/newsite.shtml 

Bad ingredients in your financial happy meal
You'll also learn why the posters refer to American Express's (known as Threadneedle in Europe, United Kingdom (UK)) financial plans as a financial plan Happy Meal. Just like McDonald's Happy Meal, AEFA's financial plan happy meal always consists of the same items: Annuity, VUL, AXP Funds, and disability insurance.
American Express Amexsux.com --- http://www.amexsux.com/ 

This is really a complaint forum with links to complaint forums for other large chains of stores
Wal-Mart WalMart-Blows.com --- http://walmart-blows.com/ 

Among the claims:  50% of the bills are incorrect (I've got some myself so I believe it)
Verizon Verizonpathetic.com --- http://www.verizonpathetic.com/ 

October 20, 1998 to the present:  Complaints = 4,911; Replies = 66
UAL (parent of United Airlines) Untied.com --- http://www.untied.com/ 

Inside look
Ever wondered why your packages arrive at your door step crunched, smashed, broken, snapped and crushed?  You've probably never been inside a UPS facility and witnessed the package smashing first-hand. You've probably never watched a truck get unloaded, where the packages are thrown out the back door onto the conveyor belts and then thrown into the back door of another truck. But I have.
United Parcel Service UnitedPackageSmashers.com --- http://www.unitedpackagesmashers.com/ 
Jensen Comment:  We have a lot of package shipments, and I’ve had more damaged parcels from the USPO.

There was a tenth site that went dark about the time this article was published

It's called the CNN Gag Order, but somebody's not listening
Tuesday morning's editorial meeting included a warning to employees not to leak complaints about the network. TVNewser has obtained an excerpt from the editorial meeting notes, as they are sent by Sue Bunda: "Jon [Klein] started the meeting by reminding everyone that the editorial meeting is sacrosanct....what is said in this meeting should not be leaked outside the company. He reminded everyone that leaking will get a person fired if they are caught...Jon has an open door and called the idea of leaking complaints foolish when any employee can approach him in person, on the phone, via email. He is...
"TVNewser Post Provokes Warning To CNN Employees: 'What Is Said In This Meeting Should Not Be Leaked Outside The Co.'," MidiaBistro, March 9, 2005 ---  http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ 

It's called the former Rutgers Gag Order
Amid a barrage of criticism, Rutgers University on Tuesday reversed an earlier decision restricting students in an investigative journalism course from exploring topics at the university.  John Pavlik, chairman of the journalism and media studies department, had mandated in January that students in the Investigative and In Depth Reporting class at Rutgers limit their work to off-campus subjects. He had made that decision, in part, because of complaints from colleagues and officials in other departments about some of the articles students in the course had written, including one on alleged special treatment of athletes that The Daily Targum, Rutgers's student newspaper, had declined to publish.  Inside Higher Ed's article last week on the Rutgers controversy prompted a barrage of criticism of the department's decision. One local newspaper columnist blasted the decision in a column called "The Sting of Rutgers Censorship." Officials at Temple and Columbia Universities challenged Pavlik's contention that Rutgers was following their lead in barring journalism students from writing about on-campus issues.  And the Society of Professional Journalists said last week that it would set up a fact finding panel to explore the issue.
Doug Lederman, "Reversing Course at Rutgers," Inside Higher Ed, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/reversing_course_at_rutgers 

Customer vs. Bank of America
According to a report in The Register, Joe Lopez, a small businessman from Florida, alleges that Bank of America was negligent because it failed to protect his account from compromise through known risks. He regularly used the bank's online services to send and receive money from the U.S. and Latin America, but last April he discovered an unauthorized wire transfer for $90,348 sent to a bank in Latvia. When he became aware of the fraud, he notified the police, and when the Secret Service performed a forensic examination of his PCs, they uncovered an infection by a Trojan called Coreflood.
Donald Smith, "Customer vs. Bank of America: Who's to blame?"  Search Security, February 25, 2005 --- http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/columnItem/0,294698,sid14_gci1062440,00.html 

What are the best foods to serve a burglar?
Police say thieves often cannot resist tucking into a snack after breaking into a home, and traces of saliva on the food remains can yield a telltale signature of the criminal's DNA.  A handful of hungry crooks have been caught and jailed this way over the past decade, a phenomenon that has prompted curious scientists to wonder which foods may yield the best saliva sample.  Forensic researchers Heather Zarsky and Ismail Sebetan of the National University in La Jolla, California, organised a dinner party for 13 people, the British weekly New Scientist reports.
"A bite can bait a burglar," Aljazeera, March 10, 2005 --- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9030541B-1315-4C3D-A9E9-FFA489043776.htm 

The menu
On the menu were pizza, corn on the cob, chicken wings, ribs, chocolates, cheese, apples and carrots.

Just another day on the Merrill Lynch fraud beat
Merrill Lynch & Co. was fined a total of $13.5 million by regulators for failing to supervise four brokers in New Jersey who helped a hedge fund rapidly trade in and out of mutual funds and variable annuity investment accounts to the detriment of other investors.  Three brokers in Merrill's Fort Lee office and one with lesser responsibility in another New Jersey branch allegedly helped hedge fund Millennium Partners LP rapidly trade in and out of 521 mutual funds and 40 variable annuity accounts despite policies at Merrill and some of the funds to discourage such trading, known as market timing, the regulators said. Merrill fired three of the brokers in October 2003.
Jed Horowitz, "Merrill Fined In Market-Timing Case:  Firm to Pay $13.5 Million; 4 Accused of Rapid Trading To Aid Millennium Partners," The Wall Street Journal,  March 9, 2005; Page C15 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111029865794273529,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing 

Bucking a spate of previous rulings favorable to the securities industry, arbitrators ordered Merrill Lynch & Co. to pay a Florida couple more than $1 million for failing to disclose that its analysts had conflicts of interest in recommending stocks.
Jed Horowitz, "Merrill Ordered to Pay 2 Clients Over Analyst Conflicts on Stocks," The Wall Street Journal,  March 1, 2005; Page C3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110962110354266151,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing 
Jensen Comment:  Merrill Lynch has one of the worst fraud records on Wall Street.  Eliot Spitzer once claimed he had enough smoking guns to bring down Merrill Lynch if he chose to do so.  You can read more by searching for "Merrill" at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraudrotten.htm 

Hacking Harvard:  No fair peeking
Harvard Business School will reject 119 applicants who followed a hacker's instructions and peeked into the school's admission site to see if they had been accepted, the school's dean said.  "This behavior is unethical at best -- a serious breach of trust that cannot be countered by rationalization," Kim Clark said in a statement Monday. "Any applicant found to have done so will not be admitted to this school."
"Harvard Rejects Applicants Who Peeked into Admissions Computer," MIT's Technology Review, March 8, 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/03/ap/ap_030805.asp?trk=nl 

It started out as just a few malcontents in third world countries, but now the threat has hit the big time. Phishing joins numbers running, drug smuggling and currency fraud as yet another tool of organized crime.
Phishing, which first appeared more than 10 years ago, has grown from humble roots to become the international electronic crime of choice for amateurs and professionals alike.  In its simplest form, phishing involves sending out fake e-mail messages that ask recipients to enter personal information, such as bank account numbers, PINs or credit card numbers, into forms on Web sites that are designed to mimic bank or e-commerce sites.
Dennis Fisher, "Phishing Is Big Business," eWeek, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1772523,00.asp 

Bob Jensen's threads on phishing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#Phishing 

Question
"What can be done to prevent, postpone, or correct the vision loss at early stages of cataracts?"

Answer
For otherwise healthy people, limiting sun exposure, wearing UV blocking eyewear, and consuming a balanced diet rich in antioxidants are probably the wisest ways to help prevent or delay cataracts.
"Dr. Lloyds Guide to Better Eye Care," WebMDHealth --- http://my.webmd.com/content/pages/15/96152.htm?z=1728_00000_1000_td_01 

Take the power from the Supreme Court and give it back to the House of Commons
Mother of Slain RCMP Officer: “It’s Time to take our Liberal Attitude to Task” RED DEER, Alberta, March 7, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The mother of one of the four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers who were shot dead during a drug bust in Alberta Thursday, spoke to the media Saturday with a powerful message for Prime Minister Paul Martin. “It is time that our government take a stand on evil,” Colleen Myrol said Friday from in front of her home in Red Deer, Alberta. “The man who murdered our son and brother was a person who was deeply disturbed and...“Prime Minister Paul Martin, we depend on you and we expect you to change the laws and give the courts real power,” she said. “Give the power back to the police. Take the power from the Supreme Court and give it back to the House of Commons. We are a good country. Brock knew that. He loved the RCMP and all it stood for.”
"Mother of Slain RCMP Officer: 'It’s Time to take our Liberal Attitude to Task'," Life Site, March 7, 2005 --- http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/mar/05030703.html 
 

Outsourcing may not be the best way to save money
A new Gartner Study shows that Outsourcing may not be the best way to save money. In fact, 80% of the companies that outsource to save money will fail to do so. Of course, there might be other valid efficiency based reasons to outsource. Gartner: Outsourcing costs more than in-house | CNET News.com
From Jerry Trites' blog on March 9, 2005 --- http://www.zorba.ca/blog.html 
See http://news.com.com/Gartner+Outsourcing+costs+more+than+in-house/2100-1022_3-5600485.html?tag=nefd.pop 

The following add appealing to spring break students appeared in Business Week's MBA Express, March 9, 2005

South Padre Island, Texas. Located in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast south of San Antonio, the island offers great fishing, windsurfing, and sun-bathing. Throw out your line in the Gulf, and you just might reel in an 800-pound marlin or wahoo.

Jensen Comment:  I don't think spring breakers are casting out for fish.

Possible new assurance service clients for CPA firms
A number of major international charities are opening their doors for the first time to outside inspectors, allowing them to certify that donations are spent as advertised.  The charities say they hope thorough inspections and a new industry seal of approval will assuage public fears of donations being misused. The nonprofits are also trying to keep ahead of a movement in Congress to impose regulations on the fast-growing but largely unsupervised world of nongovernmental organizations.
Michael M. Phillips, "Big Charities Pursue Certification To Quell Fears of Funding Abuses," The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2005; Page A1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111033202546074217,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one 

Bob Jensen's threads on charity frauds are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#CharityFrauds

You can read more about assurance services at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#AssuranceServices 

Big Brother really is watching you 
The man marched down the street in daylight, armed with a paintball rifle that had been converted to shoot with lethal force. He then blasted a newly installed camera in hopes of freeing the drug-ridden neighborhood from police surveillance. But the shooter's image was saved on the camera's hard drive. "All it did was get him arrested," chuckled New Orleans' chief technology officer, Greg Meffert. "The camera immediately notified the police and tracked him until he was caught." And when they got him, they found he was wanted on a murder arrant.
Mary Foster, "N. Orleans Installing Surveillance Cameras," SFGate, March 8, 2005 --- http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/08/national/a110248S39.DTL 

Rape Protest in Pakistan
Thousands of women rallied in eastern Pakistan on Monday to demand justice and protection for a woman who said she was gang-raped at the direction of a village council, after a court ordered the release of her alleged attackers. The victim, Mukhtar Mai, also attended the rally in Multan, a major city in the eastern province of Punjab. Waving signs and chanting, the demonstrators, many of them from nearby villages, joined the rally. Organizer Farzana Bari said more than 3,000 women were at the event. "We will fight for justice for Mukhtar Mai," the women chanted during...
Kansas City Star, March 8, 2005

Don't toot your own horn in France
But that's not the way the musicians' unions in Germany and France see it. Mr. Mertens of the Deutsche Orchestervereinigung, or German orchestra union, says people like Mr. Hartung are engaging in "unfair competition" that "jeopardizes European jobs." According to this view, orchestra directors bringing in low-wage East European musicians to play to West European crowds are exploitative profiteers who are mistreating their workers and harming their West European counterparts at the same time. In other words, putting on a tour in small towns that can't afford a French opera company and giving work to eager musicians from the east is a lose-lose proposition.
Brian M. Carney, "Show Stopper," The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111031869846473836,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Where's Jane?
No one will be asking "Where's Jane?" in a few weeks, when her autobiography, "My Life So Far," arrives with the kind of fiercely controlled, all-fronts media campaign politicians can only dream of. Her publisher, Random House, will not release the book to reporters or critics in advance, . . . Yet her influence on the popular culture has been so enormous that it would be foolish to dismiss her as just another actress trying for a comeback; after all, she has set a path American society has followed more than once. Her political activism, unusual for a movie star in the 70's, is now so common she seems like the template for contemporary celebrity. Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon and Arnold Schwarzenegger might have had very different careers without her. Today only the most bubble-headed pop stars are expected not to comment on world events.
Caryn James, "Where's Jane Fonda? On Yet Another Journey," The New York Times,  March 8, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/movies/08fond.html 

Don't crowd her
The Monterey Aquarium's popular great white shark is now a killer, having taken down one of its Outer Bay tank-mates two weeks ago and inflicting a 5-inch gash in the tail of another soupfin shark on Monday. But aquarium officials believe the 88-pound, well-fed white shark wasn't hunting its neighbors -- only reflexively chomping when it was startled by an accidental collision with the slower-swimming sharks. There are no plans to move the female great white, although officials may relocate two remaining soupfin sharks to avoid potential clashes in the million-gallon tank. "The white shark and the soupfins are tending...
Alan Gathright, "Aquarium attack called accident Great white shark chomped on tail of its tank-mate," San Francisco Chronicle, March 9, 2005 --- http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/09/BAGG1BMH9B1.DTL 

Would donating the land to the Feds really serve their purpose?
The Mount Soledad cross must go, the San Diego City Council said yesterday. The 16-year saga of whether the cross would stay on public land in La Jolla came to an emotional conclusion last night as the council voted 5-3 to reject a last-ditch effort to keep it in place. The vote capped a six-hour public hearing that attracted 350 people, most of them Christians who urged the council to donate the cross and surrounding land to the federal government so it possibly could remain where it has stood since 1954. But the cross now must be moved to comply...
Matthew T. Hall, "No clemency for cross," The San Diego Union Tribune, March 9, 2005 --- http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050309/news_7n9cross.html 
 

Hissy fits and real progress
Susan Estrich is playing a dog-eared victim card and in doing so reveals herself as well behind her curves. Three-fourths of American women between 25 to 34 are in the workforce, up from half in 1975. A report by the World Future Society finds that Generation Xers and their younger counterparts in the millennial generation toil in a workplace that is all but "gender-blind." Fully 57 percent of American college students are women.  The old-boy school of the entrepreneurial world has given way to the "new girl" school, with women more and more starting their own shops and companies. Life insurance companies sell more policies to women than to men. As women continue to draw on experience and education, they're accelerating their numbers in upper management, too. Top salaries for women are not yet as high as those for men, but women's salaries have been rising faster in America for 30 years. Trends suggest that the average woman's income may exceed that of the average man within a generation.
Suzanne Fields, "Hissy fits and real progress," Jewish World Review, March 10, 2005 --- http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/fields031005.asp 

Forwarded by Debbie Bowling

Hackers commandeered a database owned by information industry giant Lexis Nexis, gaining access to the personal files of as many as 32,000 people, company officials said Wednesday.  Federal and company investigators were looking into the breach at Seisint, which was recently acquired by Lexis Nexis and includes millions of personal files for use by such customers as police and legal professionals.
Ellen Simon, "U.S. Citizens' Data Possibly Compromised," ABC News, March 9, 2005 --- http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=565298 

Eight hours in bed, seven for sleep, one for ____________ (think of something that will help you sleep more soundly such as reading accounting books, watching TV commercials, ?)
Seven hours of sleep is plenty for most people. Much more than that isn't good for you. In fact, people who regularly sleep more than eight hours a night tend to die sooner.  A bit less won't hurt you. But less than five hours' sleep, night after night, takes a toll.  Sleeping late once in a while won't hurt. Neither will getting too little sleep every so often. But don't make a habit of it. Sleeping well is as important to your health as eating well.
"What's a Good Night's Sleep?," WebMDHealth, March 9, 2005 --- http://my.webmd.com/content/article/71/81370.htm?z=1728_00000_1000_td_01 

March 9, 2005 message from Paula
Just wanted to let you know that the new Homeland Security Bill has passed. Things will be different now and Internet surfing will be tracked by what the FBI calls a "non-intrusive method." The FBI says you will not notice anything different.
For a demonstration, click on the link below...

Homeland Security --- http://users.chartertn.net/tonytemplin/FBI_eyes/ 

Church Versus State
A federal appeals court in Washington endorsed the use of federal AmeriCorps money to place young teachers in religious schools. The decision reversed a lower court judge who said the program crossed the constitutional line separating church and state.  The AmeriCorps program trains participants, offers them $4,725 in financial aid and has them teach needy children in secular and religious schools. The participants fulfill a service requirement of 1,700 hours by teaching secular subjects, though they may also teach religious courses. The American Jewish Congress, which brought the case, argued that federal money was being used improperly to pay for teaching Christian values.
"Appeals court reverses ruling on AmeriCorps," USA Today, March 9, 2005, Page 8A --- http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050309/a_capcol09.art.htm 

This concerns a hilarious essay generating site noted by David Albrecht.
Message from Charlie Betts [cbetts@COLLEGE.DTCC.EDU] 

His web site ( http://radioworldwide.gospelcom.net/essaygenerator/ ) does more than generate funny essays. Among other things it also has a proverb generator. I tried the word "accounting" several times and got the following responses (among others)

"An accounting in time saves nine." 
"No use crying over spilt accounting." 
"Two wrongs do not make an accounting." 
"Better the accounting you know than the accounting you don't."

The last one is my favorite and can be taken several ways, but I'm not sure how original it is. I think I've heard it used before as an argument against the acceptance of International Accounting Standards and against almost any accounting change proposed by the FASB.

Charlie Betts 
"America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete does in a whole week." Evan Esar (or at least some professional athletes)

Charles M. Betts DTCC, 
Terry Campus 
100 Campus Drive 
Dover DE 19904 cbetts@college.dtcc.edu  

Forwarded by Auntie Bev
What me mudder said vs. what me fadder said --- http://txc.net.au/~mapie/memudder.htm 

Cleaning Up Corporate Japan
Is Japan Inc. finally moving toward more responsible corporate governance? After last week's arrest of Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, owner of the country's major railway, hotel and resort conglomerate Seibu group, there's at least reason to believe that the government is finally demanding more accountability from its corporate leaders.  Mr. Tsutsumi, former chairman of Seibu railway and its holding company, Kokudo, was arrested on Thursday on charges of insider trading and falsification of documents. While his guilt of these charges is still to be determined, the Japanese press has not held back from criticizing the politically influential Mr. Tsutsumi and his business empire, portraying them as powerful symbols of corporate Japan's lack of transparency and disregard for shareholder interests.
"Cleaning Up Corporate Japan," The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111040748350775119,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Bob Jensen's rotten to the core threads are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraudrotten.htm 

Forwarded by Don Mathis
The National Consumer Law Center placed an emphasis on divorce as a primary causal factor in their testimony before Congress in 1998: the average bankruptcy occurs “because of the convergence of consumer debt, job loss and divorce ... when a family splits up, the pressure of running a household with less total income is impossible.” They also cite downsizing, economic dislocation, income disruptions and underemployment as major factors.  The President of Easton Bank and Trust Company not only emphasized the problem of divorce in his congressional testimony, but also pointed out the real reason why banks want bankruptcy reform in the first place: “The industry has long understood, and since 1997, testified before both the House and Senate that many factors such as divorce, lack of health insurance etc. all play a role in causing bankruptcy. We cannot and would not underwrite for these types of factors—can you imagine if on the credit application, we asked about such matters?”
Robert R. Usher, "Mensnewsdaily.com," March 9, 2005 --- http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/u-v/usher/2005/usher030905.htm 

"How Banks Pretty Up The Profit Picture:   Playing with loan-loss reserves can produce deceiving earnings," Business Week, February 21, 2005 --- http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_08/b3921110_mz020.htm 

Last year the banks had an easy way to juice their profits. All they had to do was allocate a little less money to loan-loss reserves -- the money they set aside to cover bad debt. As the economy has improved and defaults have slowed, many decided they didn't need as much in reserve as they did in 2003, and presto, their earnings per share would rise a few cents.

But investors who assume the profits are humming and decide to buy bank stocks could be in for a shock. In 2005 many banks won't have this profit source. Some have already pared loan-loss reserves as much as they reasonably can, analysts say. "A lot of banks may do this from time to time to meet estimates," says Brian Shullaw, senior research analyst at SNL Financial in Charlottesville, Va.

The trouble with whittling away the reserves is that as banks write more loans, they will have to replenish the reserves. Plus, if credit conditions worsen as economic growth slows and interest rates rise, they will need to set aside even more, eating further into profits.

Do a little digging, and the current numbers don't look so great. Detroit's Comerica Inc. (CMA ) had one of the largest drops in its loan-loss reserves relative to total assets, according to a study of large banks' fourth-quarter earnings done by SNL for BusinessWeek. Not only did Comerica fail to add money in the fourth quarter, it also extracted $21 million from the pot. That gave it an extra $98 million in income, or 57 cents a share, that it didn't have last year. The bank beat analysts' earnings estimates by 10 cents. Comerica Chief Credit Officer Dale Greene says muted loan growth, coupled with major improvement in credit quality, justify the move.

Others, such as Citigroup (C ), garnered a few extra cents from replenishing reserves by a smaller amount than before. But it was enough to help them beat analysts' earnings estimates by a penny or two. Citi Chief Financial Officer Sallie L. Krawcheck said in a Jan. 20 conference call that the reserving process was done in mid-quarter based on a mathematical formula. She noted: "We as a company work very hard to systematize the process around rigorous analytics."

Of course, banks can't just shift funds around willy-nilly. Accounting rules dictate that they have to justify decreases in loan-loss allowances, for example by citing substantial improvement in credit trends. This past quarter, a bevy of bank earnings releases cited fewer nonperforming loans, improving asset quality, and a stronger underlying global economy as reasons for smaller loan-loss provisions. Bill Lewis, leader of the U.S. banking practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, notes that subjectivity is often involved, but "most banks, in light of heightened regulatory scrutiny, are more precise in their estimation methodologies today than they have been in the past."

Maybe so, but even if the decreases in reserves are perfectly justifiable, there are still problems with this common industry practice. Besides cutting reserves to the core, banks "are increasing the cyclicality of earnings," says Richard Bove, a banking analyst at Punk, Ziegel & Co. "When bad times come, you know they are going to be increasing the size of the reserves." Already, Citi's Krawcheck has warned analysts not to expect substantial reductions in provisions in the future.

Continued in the article

Bob Jensen's threads on banking misdeeds are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraudrotten.htm 

March 16 --- Happy St. Urho Day
Some say the truth is stranger than fiction. They obviously have never heard about St. Urho, (pronounced oorlho) the patron ''saint'' of Finland.  Not to be outdone by St. Patrick's Day celebrations on March 17, St. Urho's Day is celebrated the day before, giving participants an additional 24 hours to pursue the fun. While cynics may claim the holiday is bogus, most folks good-naturedly join in the festivities. Although St. Urho's Day originated in Minnesota, every state in the union recognizes St. Urho's Day.  As with most legends, the origins of St. Urho's Day are unclear, and details of his reputed heroics freely change in the telling. There is a traditional story and more modern versions, but by most accounts, the holiday has been celebrated for only about 50 years. To add ''authenticity'' to the tale, a statue of St. Urho stands in Menahga, Minn. He holds a pitchfork with a giant grasshopper impaled in its tines and a plaque below recounts this bizarre folk tale:  A long, long time ago, before the last glacial period when the climate was warmer, wild grapes grew in profusion in the country known as Finland. Archaeologists made this discovery by studying scratches on the bones of giant bears that once roamed Northern Europe. The Finnish farmers were threatened by a plague of grasshoppers  Our brave young hero, St. Urho, came to the rescue, waved his pitchfork and in a loud, threatening voice, commanded the grasshoppers, ''Heinasirkka, heinasirkka, menetaalta hiiten'' which in English loosely translates to ''Grasshopper, grasshopper, get outta here, now.'' And like St. Patrick, who is credited with driving the snakes out of Ireland, St. Urho banished the grasshoppers from the vineyards of Finland and saved the country from ruin.
Kathy Antoniotti "St. Urho Day, fact or fiction," McCall.com, March 14, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/StUrho 

Some college songs to sing on St. Orho Day
"March Madness," by Mark J. Drozdowski, March 11, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/march_madness 

I also noticed that some songs reference other schools. Penn mentions Harvard's and Yale's colors, while neighboring Swarthmore, in its memorable "Hip, Hip, Hip, for Old Swarthmore," adds Cornell and Haverford to the mix. Lafayette promises to "dig Lehigh's grave both wide and deep, wide and deep," and "put tombstones at her head and feet, head and feet."  But Illinois manages to offend the most with this ballad:

     Don't send my boy to Harvard, a dying mother said,
     Don't send my boy to Michigan, I'd rather he were dead.
     But send my boy to Illinois, 'tis better than Cornell,
     and rather than Chicago, I would see my boy in hell.

Many songs reveal their age. Cal Tech implores its football team to "smash the line of our old enemy," yet no longer fields a football team. The only things they smash these days are atoms. Harvard students still play "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard" even though the university now enrolls more women than men.  

The Academic Bill of Rights Poster Child Can't Be Found
A criminology course at the University of Northern Colorado is the setting for one of David Horowitz's favorite stories.  As he tells it, a required essay on a mid-term exam was for students to "explain why George Bush is a war criminal." A student submitted an essay on why Saddam Hussein was a war criminal and she received an F.  But a number of blogs and columns have noted in recent days that neither the student nor the professor can be found. Links set up from Horowitz's writings on the subject to Colorado legislative hearings where he says the incident was discussed feature no discussion of the incident.  Mano Singham, director of Case Western Reserve University's Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education, spent some trying to track down the course and the student, and wrote about the experience for The Plain Dealer, finding no evidence of any such incident at the university in question or in Colorado legislative records.  "So does this mysterious professor actually exist? Did this incident actually happen? It is hard to say no for certain, since that involves proving a negative. But there are some characteristics of urban legends that this story shares, in particular the absence of details (names, places, dates) that enable one to pin it down to anything concrete," Singham wrote. "Given that Horowitz and his group have shown no scruples in the past about naming people in academia that they dislike, their sudden coyness in this particular case is a little surprising."  Many professors believe that the "Academic Bill of Rights," proposed by Horowitz and his supporters in many state legislatures, would encourage harassment of professors and monitoring of their views. But Horowitz has repeatedly justified the legislation by pointing to examples -- like the alleged Northern Colorado student -- to say that legislation is needed.  A good compilation of the online discussions and evidence in the case was posted Friday on the blog Cliopatria by Jonathan Dresner, an assistant professor of East Asian history at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Dresner found it "particularly odd" that "Horowitz's own site has links which appear to be citations but which go to hearings in which the testimony in question clearly doesn't appear."
Scott Jaschik, "The Poster Child Who Can't Be Found," Inside Higher Ed, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/the_poster_child_who_can_t_be_found 

Because while a Northern Colorado spokeswoman acknowledged Monday that a complaint had been filed, she also said that the test question was not the one described by Horowitz, the grade was not an F, and there were clearly non-political reasons for whatever grade was given. And the professor who has been held up as an example of out-of-control liberal academics? In an interview last night, he said that he's a registered Republican.  In addition, the university was able to directly refute other statements made by Horowitz supporters. For instance, Students for Academic Freedom, a group that backs Horowitz, on Monday posted an articleon its Web site (which was then widely posted by conservatives on other Web sites) with the headline "University of Northern Colorado Story Confirmed." The article, among other things, said that the professor in the course had been unable to produce any copies of the test questions. But the university has had the test the entire time -- and the question isn't the way it has been described by Horowitz.
Scott Jaschik, "Tattered Poster Child," Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/tattered_poster_child 

APR (Academic Performance Rate)
Just another NCAA sham that allows big-bucks schools to ignore top athlete scholarship
We should perhaps celebrate any change in popular culture that appears to support academic success, even if the motives of the NCAA focus more on commercial viability than academic integrity. At the same time, we should always recognize the fundamental conflict that exists between the all-too-human demand for competitive sports excellence that drives the NCAA and the less visible and less intense requirement that our students be students, even when they serve athletics, a concern of faculty and many other observers. Some institutions, more interested in the competition than the student, will likely find ways to evade much of this legislation through soft courses and majors, overly zealous academic advising and similar maneuvers. At the same time, a few of the semi-pro players in high school may decide that they should skip the collegiate experience altogether.  One thing is for sure, the NCAA franchising operation will continue its highly compensated, cautious and commercially successful management of the entertainment quality of the college sports enterprise, and the academics will find a way to adjust.
John V. Lombardi, "Reality Check," Inside Higher Ed, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/reality_check__3 

Now if we could only have the same success in the male NFL, NBA, NHL, and professional baseball.
But even as they increasingly look to play in the WNBA, college women tend to view professional basketball not as a final destination, but as one component of a life that will continue beyond the court. It doesn't pay big, so many female athletes play for the love of the sport and as a way to fund graduate or medical school.
Amy Merrick, "Stepping Stone," The Wall Street Journal,  March 14, 2005; Page R8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111038775601474739,00.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report 

An 83-year history project at Princeton University
In 1943, Princeton University decided to publish the complete papers of Thomas Jefferson. Compiling his notes and letters in chronological order and publishing them in bound volumes, the Papers of Thomas Jefferson project now is up to Jefferson's 1801 inauguration, with eight years of his presidency and 25 years of his life still ahead.  The project is taking so long that Monticello, Jefferson's Virginia estate, has taken over editing the papers from the third president's retirement years. Still, the two teams say they won't wrap up the project until perhaps 2026, taking 83 years, which is as long as Jefferson lived . . . It certainly wasn't supposed to take this long. A congressional commission, at the height of World War II, proposed publishing Jefferson's papers and hired Julian Boyd, a Princeton historian, as the first editor. Mr. Boyd, who brought the project to New Jersey, predicted it would take 15 or 20 years.  But "he had no idea how many documents would be assembled" -- 70,000 photocopies from 900 libraries and collections, says Barbara Oberg, the current editor, who arrived seven years ago in the middle of Vol. 28, just as the project was reaching the end of Jefferson's term as secretary of state.
June Kronholz, "Why a Life's Work Is Taking Princeton So Long to Document:  Unfinished Jefferson Project Is Now in Its 63rd Year; Yale's Ben Franklin Slog," The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2005; Page A1--- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111085059678779477,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one 

Bye Bye Hank!
At the helm of American International Group Inc., Maurice Greenberg was under mounting pressure. Regulators were applying increasing heat over a transaction AIG did with a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a deal they considered possibly misleading to AIG investors.  Mr. Greenberg, known as Hank, resisted the pressure with the same tenacity he displayed in nearly four decades running what has become the world's largest insurer. But then, in the past week, came the tipping point. The regulators -- relying on nearly 1,000 pages of e-mails and phone-call records -- gave AIG's independent directors an analysis providing new details of the deal and Mr. Greenberg's role in it. And some of that was in conflict with or missing from his statements on the matter.
Monica Langley and Theo Francis, "How Investigations of AIG Led To Retirement of Longtime CEO:  Spitzer's and SEC's Close Look At Big Trove of Documents Put Pressure on the Chief Greenberg: 'I'll Get Going Now'," The Wall Street Journal,  March 15, 2005; Page A1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111084108330679173,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Also from The New York Times --- • Video: The Times's Gretchen Morgenson

How did AIG use insurance contracts to sell accounting fraud?
Steven Gluckstern and Michael Palm figured out how to minimize insurers' risk and give customers an accounting edge and a tax break: Multiyear contracts in which the premiums covered most if not all of the potential losses -- but refunded much of the unclaimed money at the end of the contract.  Buyers loved the policies because they could offset losses with loan-like proceeds without disclosing liabilities that would muddy their bottom lines. And the premiums were tax deductible.  Such policies became among the industry's hottest products. Now, two decades later, they are the focus of multiple state and federal investigations into companies suspected of using them to manipulate earnings. And this week, those probes helped topple Mr. Greenberg as chief executive, although he will remain chairman. His company sold one policy later declared a sham by federal authorities and itself bought another -- now the focus of intense scrutiny -- from Berkshire Hathaway Inc., where Messrs. Gluckstern and Palm got their start.  "If used improperly, these contracts can enable a company to conceal the bottom-line impact of a loss and thus misrepresent its financial results," says the Securities and Exchange Commission's Mark Schonfeld, who is overseeing the agency's probe of such policies as the head of its Northeast office.
Ianthe Jeanne Dugan and Theo Francis, "How a Hot Insurance Product Burned AIG:  An Unlikely Duo's New Approach Called 'Finite Risk Insurance' Was a Hit -- Until Inquiries Began," The Wall Street Journal,  March 15, 2005; Page C1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111084339061279243,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing 
Bob Jensen's threads on "rotten to the core" insurance rackets can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraudrotten.htm#MutualFunds 

Symptoms include "excessive and sometimes fraudulent risks
Add to the growing number of recently diagnosed diseases in America the Icarus Syndrome. This malady, discovered by a law professor, is said to affect corporations in particular. The symptoms include "excessive and sometimes fraudulent risks." The disease has attacked corporate America not only in our own scandal-plagued times but, it seems, since about 1873.  Icarus in the Boardroom (Oxford University Press, 250 pages, $25) is an attempt to alert public-health officials, so to speak, to the dangers of this contagion. David Skeel, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, labels all sorts of apparently admirable traits -- "self-confidence, visionary insight, the ability to think outside the box" -- as potential Icaran qualities, full of danger. They "may spur entrepreneurs to take misguided risks," he writes, "in the belief that everything they touch will eventually turn to gold." Fortunately, he offers a number of cures, ranging from small doses of regulation to massive doses of regulation.  And little wonder. What is most interesting about "Icarus in the Boardroom" is the vast divide it reveals -- between American lawyers who study corporations and, well, everybody else. Following common sense and economic logic, most people view corporate risk-taking and corporate fraud as different things: Fraud involves lying; risk-taking does not. As in the case of Enron and WorldCom, fraudulent executives often misstate how much risk their investors will assume.  For academic lawyers such as Mr. Skeel, however, it seems that risk-taking and fraud are points on a continuum. Risk-taking quickly fades into "excessive" risk-taking, which then morphs into fraud. Mr. Skeel never says just how we are to distinguish acceptable risks from the excessive and fraudulent kind. Apparently, though, lawmakers and regulators will figure out a formula, for it falls to them, in Mr. Skeel's view, "to prevent risk-taking that edges toward market manipulation or fraud."
Jonathan R. Macey, "A Risky Proposition," The Wall Street Journal,  March 15, 2005; Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111083993718979142,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal 
Bob Jensen's "Rotten to the Core" threads are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraudrotten.htm 

I think Philip Bennett should move to China and try out that nation's free speech and democratic realities
"I don't think US should be the leader of the world . . . I think China is the best place in the world to be an American journalist right now." Philip Bennett, Editor of Washington Post  --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200503/10/print20050310_176350.html 

The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese communist dictatorship, announced today that it would merge with the Washington Post, to publish "an accurate newspaper of global significance called The Wa-Po Daily."  Washington Post Managing Editor Philip Bennett will oversee news-gathering operations for The Wa-Po Daily, under the guidance of "an unnamed committee of Chinese truth advocates."  The first hints of the media marriage emerged from an interview Mr. Bennett granted to People's Daily correspondent Yong Tang, in which the veteran American newsman drew no moral distinction between the Chinese and American expressions of democracy and accused the Bush administration of lying and limiting freedom of the press.
Scott Ott, "Chinese Daily-Washington Post Merger Boosts Credibility," Scrapple Face, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.scrappleface.com/MT/archives/002112.html 

China's Communist Party maintains its monopoly on political power by delivering benefits to its 1.3 billion people, in line with governments worldwide. It also guards its turf jealously by ensuring that watchful party officials sit in every corner of society deemed a potential threat to that monopoly. This entails everything from "officially sanctioned" religious organizations and political parties to sports groups, chambers of commerce, university departments and farm collectives.  Groups viewed as a threat are quickly batted down, as seen with official crackdowns on Tibetan monks, Falun Gong practitioners, separatist Muslims in the country's west and Internet essayists. A recently published list of banned gatherings, which included an amateur singing club, a pigeon lovers group and a dozen people holding a ceremony to bless a new building, shows how jittery the party can be.  Police, cybercops and vaguely worded national security laws are among the bluntest weapons in the party's arsenal. At least as effective are the demotions and other subtle threats that engender self-censorship.  Communist leaders have read their history and are well aware that as least as many Chinese dynasties have fallen to internal rot, complacency and corruption as to barbarian threats beyond the Great Wall.  That's where the Hu and Wen campaign for enhanced discipline comes in. With 68 million members, or an all-time high of 5.2% of China's population, the Communist Party is bloated and increasingly unfocused.
Mark Magnier, "Flip Side to Fame in China," Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/ChinaMarch14 

Question
What is the latest, often illegal, craze on campus?

Answer
Serious Gambling
For Michael Sandberg, it started a few years ago with nickel-and-dime games among friends. But last fall, he says, it became the source of a six-figure income and an alternative to law school.Mr. Sandberg's is an extreme example of a gambling revolution on the nation's college campuses. Mr. Sandberg calls it an explosion, one spurred by televised poker championships and a proliferation of Web sites that offer online poker games.  Experts say the evidence of gambling's popularity on campus is hard to miss. In December, for example, a sorority at Columbia held its first, 80-player poker tournament with a $10 buy-in, a minimum amount required to play, while the University of North Carolina held its first tournament, a 175-player competition, in October. Both games filled up and had waiting lists. At the University of Pennsylvania, private games are advertised every night in a campus e-mail list.
Jonathan Cheng, "Ante Up at Dear Old Princeton: Online Poker Is a Campus Draw," The New York Times, March 14, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/CampusGambling 

The Great Game
This analysis of chess history synthesized in my mind with my extensive experience of playing against computers. For over 50 years, back to the earliest days of computing, chess has been recognized as a unique cognitive battleground. The world watched my matches with "Deep Blue," "Fritz," and "Junior" as man-versus-machine competitions and a way to see how computers "think." To me they were also helpful in revealing how humans make decisions. These computers looked at millions of positions per second, weighing each one to find the mathematically best moves. And yet a human, seeing just two or three positions per second, but guided by intuition and experience, could compete with the mighty machines.  The nature of the decision-making process is little explored and I have become fascinated with the possibility of using my expertise to illuminate these questions. I am currently working on a book on how life imitates chess, that will be released this fall in America by Penguin. It examines the unique formulae people use in thinking and problem-solving. For example, the way hope and doubt affect how we process information, or the way we perform in a crisis. I hope it will also serve as a guide to improving these processes.  Over the past several years I have made a number of speeches on the topic of chess themes in life, particularly in business thinking and strategy. The response has been overwhelming and enlightening and I am extracting a number of valuable parallels. For example: the difference between tactics and strategy; how to train your intuition; and maintaining creativity in an era of analysis. In particular, the topic of intuition is intriguing. When I analyzed a 1894 world championship game between Lasker and Wilhelm Steinitz, I also looked at their post-game analysis and the comments of other top players of the day. They all made more mistakes in analysis than the players had made during the game! The intuitive decisions of the players during the game were correct in most cases, and more often so than when they had all the time in the world to analyze later.
Gary Kasparov, "The Great Game," The Wall Street Journal,  March 14, 2005; Page A16 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111076463398178318,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

I believe my talents and experience can be useful in the political realm. There is something to be said for a chess player's ability to see the whole board. Many politicians are so focused on one problem, or a single aspect of a problem, that they remain unaware that solving it may require action on something that appears unrelated. It is natural for a chess player, by contrast, to look at the big picture. Zbigniew Brzezinski recently wrote on geopolitics as "The Grand Chessboard" and the analogy persists in many ways. There is no single solution to a chess game; you must consider every factor to produce a complete strategic solution.  Like everyone, I am dismayed by the long list of problems facing the world today. I am more concerned about the even longer list of proposed solutions and how many of them are considered by their proponents to be exclusive. Instead of looking at the whole board, they are focusing too narrowly and as a result devise narrow solutions. Our leaders must be able to think more ambitiously.
Gary Kasparov, "The Great Game," The Wall Street Journal,  March 14, 2005; Page A16 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111076463398178318,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Number of people who read the paper online now surpasses the number who buy the print edition
Consumers are willing to spend millions of dollars on the Web when it comes to music services like iTunes and gaming sites like Xbox Live. But when it comes to online news, they are happy to read it but loath to pay for it.  Newspaper Web sites have been so popular that at some newspapers, including The New York Times, the number of people who read the paper online now surpasses the number who buy the print edition.  This migration of readers is beginning to transform the newspaper industry. Advertising revenue from online sites is booming and, while it accounts for only 2 percent or 3 percent of most newspapers' overall revenues, it is the fastest-growing source of revenue. And newspaper executives are watching anxiously as the number of online readers grows while the number of print readers declines.
Katherine Q. Seelye, "Can Papers End the Free Ride Online?" The New York Times, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/14/business/media/14paper.html? 

Bush administration's gradual, flexible strategy for reconstructing Afghanistan 
One man's journey from feared warlord to bland bureaucrat illustrates how the U.S. has adopted a gradual, flexible strategy for reconstructing Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban government in 2001.  Mr. Khan has made the journey from feared warlord to bland bureaucrat thanks to the Bush administration's gradual, flexible strategy for reconstructing Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban government in 2001. Rather than trying to force radical change overnight, the U.S. has been patient. It has avoided confrontations with tribal elders and warlords -- letting them until recently keep their private militias and weapons and even paying the salaries of their fighters -- while building a credible central government in Kabul.  The strategy has meant that reconstruction here slogs ahead at a slow pace. But it has also helped contain support for the insurgency still being waged by remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda.
David S. Cloud, "Afghan Warlords Slowly Come In From the Cold," The Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2005, Page A1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111077025608878404,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one 
Jensen Comment:  Now if we could only think of a way for Afghans to make a sustainable living outside of opium production.

Fraudulent Health Clinics and Doctors:  What happened to ethics?
A group of health clinics and doctors paid thousands of people across the U.S. to undergo unnecessary surgery so they could defraud insurers out of tens of millions of dollars, a lawsuit alleges.  Twelve Blue Cross and Blue Shield health-insurance plans sued a group of Southern California health-care clinics, physicians and others they say are involved in the elaborate scheme.  The scope of the alleged fraud is vast. The insurers claim the clinics paid recruiters to enlist patients in 47 states, then transported the people to California where they underwent unnecessary and sometimes dangerous outpatient procedures.
"Blue Cross Groups Sue Clinics, Doctors, Claiming Insurance Fraud," The Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2005; Page B4 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111076460482378314,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace 
Bob Jensen's threads on medical and drug company frauds are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#PhysiciansAndDrugCompanies 

Amazon Pays $27.5 Million To Settle Securities Suit
Amazon.com Inc. disclosed Friday it has agreed to pay $27.5 million to settle an investor lawsuit alleging securities violations by its officers and directors.  According to its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Seattle-based Internet retailer said it reached a settlement with plaintiffs lawyers in March. The company expects most, if not all, of the settlement will funded by its insurers.  The complaint was filed by stock and bond holders in August 2003. It alleges that Amazon officers and directors made false or misleading statements from Oct. 29, 1998, through Oct. 23, 2001, about the company's business, financial condition and future prospects, among other things.
"Amazon Pays $27.5 Million To Settle Securities Suit," The Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2005, Page B9 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111054778856777083,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

So which is it? Highly sensitive to the value of the dollar, or not?
Many economic commentators argue that the trade deficit somehow results from low saving and the federal budget deficit. But reducing the budget deficit can't really help the trade deficit. To shrink the budget deficit, the government must either spend less or tax more, withdrawing demand from the U.S. economy. Purchases of all goods, foreign and domestic, would fall. Since imports make up only about 15% of GDP, the biggest decline of purchases would be domestic, resulting in only a marginal decline in imports relative to the drop in GDP.  Trying to increase household saving (i.e., reduce consumer spending) would help no more. To meaningfully lessen the trade deficit by saving, Americans would need to focus their spending reductions specifically on foreign goods -- highly unlikely in a nation with 85% of its spending on domestic goods and services.  Nor does the dollar need to fall -- and the trade deficit doesn't necessarily fall when the dollar does. Analysts who criticize low saving and the budget gap also often admit the dollar is undervalued in purchasing power, yet they say it must fall further to alleviate the trade deficit. But for a weak dollar to have any impact on imports, the amount of imports must fall by more than the dollar does.  If the dollar falls by 20% and the number of goods imported falls by 20%, the sum of dollars sent abroad remains the same: Americans purchase fewer imported goods, but spend more on the ones they do buy. Not one new U.S. job is created, while prices rise for American consumers and businesses. Oddly, if demand for imports is relatively inflexible, the trade deficit actually increases with a weaker dollar; Americans just pay more for the same goods. Unless imports fall disproportionately more than the dollar (or exports rise), a lower exchange rate will help neither our trade deficit nor our employment.  Increased exports do help both the trade deficit and U.S. employment, but a weaker dollar is a mixed blessing for U.S. exporters. While it makes completed American goods cost less abroad, the cost of production may rise when they include foreign parts or materials.  Stronger Asian currencies would be no more likely to significantly reduce the trade deficit, given the large differences in wage costs. American manufacturers might find that a 20% decline in the dollar wouldn't lead them to switch purchase of parts from Asian to U.S. suppliers, if the ones from Asia cost 40% less today. The cost of U.S. imports, and U.S. exports using those same parts, would just rise.  The key question is how much aggregate purchases of both U.S. imports and exports might change with the dollar. If imports fall in pace with the dollar and exports rise, the trade deficit would shrink with a lower dollar. But if purchases are less elastic -- if people and businesses continue to buy roughly the same amounts of foreign goods and services even as dollar prices change -- the trade deficit could actually be reduced by a stronger dollar.

So which is it? Highly sensitive to the value of the dollar, or not?  Not -- at least not enough.
Frank and Dan Newman, "Trade Deficit Trickery," The Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2005; Page A17 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111076511677178324,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Written at an introductory and somewhat humorous level
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ECONOMICS: Artful Approaches to the Dismal Science
by E Ray Canterbery (Florida State University) ---  http://www.worldscibooks.com/economics/4079.html 

A Brief History of Economics illustrates how the ideas of the great economists not only influenced societies but were themselves shaped by their cultural milieu. Understanding the economists' visions — lucidly and vividly unveiled by Canterbery — allows readers to place economics within a broader community of ideas. Magically, the author links Adam Smith to Isaac Newton's idea of an orderly universe, F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby to Thorstein Veblen, John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath to the Great Depression, and Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities to Reaganomics.

Often humorous, Canterbery's easy style will make the student's first foray into economics lively and relevant. Readers will dismiss "dismal" from the science.
Contents:

• Feudalism and the Evolution of Economic Society
• Adam Smith's Great Vision
• Bentham and Malthus: The Hedonist and the "Pastor"
• The Distribution of Income: Ricardo versus Malthus
• The Cold Water of Poverty and the Heat of John Stuart Mill's Passions
• Karl Marx
• Alfred Marshall: The Great Victorian
• Thorstein Veblen Takes on the American Captains of Industry
• The Jazz Age: Aftermath of War and Prelude to Depression
• John Maynard Keynes and the Great Depression
• The Many Modern Keynesians
• The Monetarists and the New Classicals Deepen the Counterrevolution
• Economic Growth and Technology: Schumpeter and Capitalism's Motion
• The Many Faces of Capitalism: Galbraith, Heilbroner, and the Institutionalists
• The Rise of the Casino Economy
• The Global Economy
• Climbing the Economist's Mountain to High Theory
• The Future of Economics

This is a more technical and humorless introduction to economics
ECONOMICS WITH CALCULUS by Michael C Lovell (Wesleyan University, USA) --- 
http://www.worldscibooks.com/economics/5523.html 

This textbook provides a calculus-based introduction to economics. Students blessed with a working knowledge of the calculus will find that this text facilitates their study of the basic analytical framework of economics. The textbook examines a wide range of micro and macro topics, including prices and markets, equity versus efficiency, Rawls versus Bentham, accounting and the theory of the firm, optimal lot size and just in time, monopoly and competition, exchange rates and the balance of payments, inflation and unemployment, fiscal and monetary policy, IS-LM analysis, aggregate demand and supply, speculation and rational expectations, growth and development, exhaustible resources and over-fishing. While the content is similar to that of conventional introductory economics textbook, the assumption that the reader knows and enjoys the calculus distinguishes this book from the traditional text.
Contents:

• Production Possibilities
• Supply and Demand: Where do Prices come from?
• Maximizing Satisfaction
• The Business Enterprise: Theory of the Firm
• Market Structure
• Distribution: Who Gets What?
• Monitoring Economic Performance
• GDP Accounting and the Multiplier
• Money, Prices and Output
• Dynamics, Expectations and Inflation
• Growth and Development

The Capital Structure Conundrum
FOCUS ON FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT by Ivan K Cohen (Richmond University, UK)

Focus on Financial Management by Ivan Cohen offers a concise, enthusiastic and highly focused approach to introducing finance to both undergraduates and MBAs. It closely integrates practical applications and the underlying financial concepts so that the reader gets a clear picture of theory and how it can be applied in practice.

The book has been carefully crafted and classroom-tested to provide an easy-to-read textbook that will engage the student and instructor alike. It has been designed to be used by students of business, finance and economics, and is equally accessible to students in other areas, such as engineering. It requires no preliminary knowledge of finance.
Contents:

• Introducing Finance
• The Financial Environment
• Value: Finance Foundations
• Sources of Finance: Debt
• Sources of Finance: Equity
• Investment Appraisal: Capital Budgeting, Investment Appraisal: Risk
• The Cost of Capital
• The Capital Structure Conundrum
• Extending the Focus: Some Applications

I think Harvard overreacted
At 12:15 a.m. on Wednesday, March 2, a visitor to an online forum posted instructions for exploiting some sloppy Web page coding at ApplyYourself.com, a company based in Fairfax, Va., that, among other things, handles applications for some of the country's most elite business schools, including Harvard Business School.  "I know everyone is getting more and more anxious to check status of their apps to HBS, given their black box," wrote the individual, known only as "brookbond," referring to applications to Harvard Business School. Harvard's decisions are to go out on March 30. "So I looked around their site and found a way. Here are the steps."  Precisely 119 Harvard applicants followed those steps, which required them to log in to their application accounts with the school and, using some creative copying and pasting from the Web page's source code (something any Web surfer is free to do), create an address that would access their application decision - if one had been made.  About 100 applicants to other business schools at M.I.T., Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Dartmouth and Duke, which also use the ApplyYourself.com service, made use of the recipe as well. Some applicants saw rejection letters. Others saw nothing. . . . But many online commenters (NYT spelling error) thought the ethics of the incident were more nuanced.  "I might feel differently if I knew that the applicants were aware that they were breaking the rules," Edward W. Felten, a professor of computer science at Princeton University, wrote in his Web log. "But I'm not sure that an applicant, on being told that his letter was already on the Web and could be accessed by constructing a particular U.R.L., would necessarily conclude that accessing it was against the rules." . . . Mr. Henderson is still awaiting word from a couple of other schools and, in the meantime, has poured his disdain for Harvard into a line of T-shirts that seek to "Free the HBS 119." He said three of the shirts had been sold as of Saturday. 
Tom Zeller Jr., "Not Yet in Business School, and Already Flunking Ethics," The New York Times, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/14/technology/14harvard.html 

Bad PR for the UAW:  The union should worry more about similar behavior of its own members
The UAW no longer will allow Marine reservists who work out of a base in Detroit to park at the Solidarity House lot if they have foreign cars or display pro-Bush bumper stickers. Marines driven out of UAW lot The union says Marines in foreign cars, displaying Bush stickers unwelcome. By Eric Mayne / The Detroit News Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery DETROIT -- The United Auto Workers says Marine reservists should show a little more semper fi if they want to use the union's parking lot. The Marine Corps motto means "always faithful," but the union says some reservists working out of a base on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit have been decidedly unfaithful to their fellow Americans by driving import cars and trucks.  So the UAW International will no longer allow members of the 1st Battalion 24th Marines to park at Solidarity House if they are driving foreign cars or displaying pro-President Bush bumper stickers.
Free Republic, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1362379/posts 
While we are at war, I think this is bad PR to deny marines what would otherwise be a courtesy if they just drove American cars (which probably has over 50% foreign components anyway).  Besides, some "foreign" vehicles like Toyota trucks are built in both the U.S. and Japan.  

Update on March 16, 2005
Facing intense criticism, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger reversed his decision to ban Marine Corps reservists driving foreign cars or displaying pro-President Bush bumper stickers from parking at the union's Solidarity House headquarters in Detroit.  "I made the wrong call on the parking issue, and I have notified the Marine Corps that all reservists are welcome to park at Solidarity House as they have for the past 10 years," Gettelfinger said in a statement.
"Marines snub UAW olive branch:  Reservists will park elsewhere, although union admits mistake banning nonunion cars, Bush stickers," Detroit News, March 16, 2005 --- http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0503/15/A01-117640.htm 

If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia. 
Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer as quoted by Matt Labash in "Welcome to Canada," The Great White Waste of Time, 03/21/2005, Volume 010, Issue 25 --- http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/349tpijp.asp 

The prospects of oil prices dropping back below $40 per barrel now appear to be running neck and neck with Michael Jackson getting Babysitter of The Year Award.  Delta Air Lines, which up until this latest spurt in fuel prices was heading out of the financial woods, has warned that it may not have sufficient liquidity to meet its needs in 2005. Translating that: they're running out of cash. Reason: skyrocketing fuel costs are draining the airline's coffers. Fast. Delta is just the first to sound the alarm.
The Boyd Group, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.aviationplanning.com/asrc1.htm 

The Bush Train Wreck
One of my favorite George Bush malapropisms is from the 2000 election campaign: "They have miscalculated me as a leader." He meant, of course, that people had miscalculated if they thought he was not a leader.The president's difficulties with off-the-cuff speech have led to all sorts of assumptions about his intellectual confusion and worse. But there is nothing confused about this president's agenda. At this point in his presidency, he has fielded the most focused agenda in modern times, to great effect. His success rate in major policy activities is nothing less than astounding. No wonder he has never vetoed...
Bryan D. Jones, "The Bush Train Wreck," The Seattle Times, March 13, 2005 --- http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002205731_sundaybryan13.html 

By distributing adult films, corporations like DirecTV and Marriott essentially pay porn actors to have sex
The accused Upper East Side madam says she should get a slide — because big companies promote prostitution all the time and are never prosecuted. By distributing adult films, corporations like DirecTV and Marriott essentially pay porn actors to have sex, no less so than a pimp or madam pays a prostitute to have sex with a john, the millionaire reasons. If those companies aren't prosecuted, she says, neither should she be. The legal argument has been filed on behalf of Jenny Paulino, 44, arrested in December after a raid on her alleged American Beauties escort service and brothel at...
Laura Italiano, "Alleged Madam's 'Firm' Defense," The New York Post, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/41079.htm 

Setting a bad example for its students:  Plagiarized from Alabama A&M University
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools from revoking the accreditation of Edward Waters College while the institution pursues a due process lawsuit against the association.  In December, the regional accrediting group said that it had revoked the Florida college's accreditation, citing documents Edward Waters officials had submitted to the association that appeared to have been plagiarized from Alabama A&M University, another historically black institution.
Doug Lederman, "Staying Alive," Inside Higher Ed, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/staying_alive 
Bob Jensen's threads on plagiarism are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm 

The Arab press makes more sense sometimes than the European press
However, it is unfathomable to think that the Pentagon would have ordered a deliberate assassination of a Western reporter under such high-profile circumstances.  While the idea of the Italian government funding the insurgency and further supporting the new cottage industry of kidnapping runs counter to US policy in Iraq, in this instance the money had apparently already been paid.  In other words, there was nothing to be gained by attacking the Italian rescue vehicle.  And as events have proven, in terms of public relations and international politics, the Americans stood to lose everything by doing so since Italy is one of the few European members of US President George Bush's "coalition of the willing" with a tangible troop commitment of some 3000 soldiers in Iraq.  The attack against Sgrena has only re-ignited the strong anti-war and anti-American sentiments which existed in Italy, and Prime Minister Berlusconi will be hard-pressed by public protests to bring home the Italian contingent.
Scott Taylor, "Hostage bungle: Chaos, not conspiracy," Aljazeera, March 10, 2005 --- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9F3D082E-919F-4C0E-AD2E-7541EC22B048.htm 

Remember the oil crisis back when Jimmy Carter was president of the U.S.
The nation has a hidden treasure that could help Americans painlessly weather the interruption of oil from Iran. It is an underground cache of 80 million barrels that the Energy Department has been stowing away in empty salt caverns on the Gulf Coast.
The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 1979

March 17 --- Erin go Braugh

Definitions http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/What_does_'Erin_go_braugh'_mean 

Music --- http://www.ireland-information.com/irishmusic/eringobragh.shtml 

Screen savers --- http://twilightbridge.ezthemes.com/pcenhance/ss/spotlight.phtml?St.PatricksDay 

Games etc. --- http://groups.msn.com/FriendsofIrishMusicandCraic/stpatricksdaygamestoplay.msnw 

When are you justified in lying?
I posed your questions to our ethics professor, Rick Shreve. He would apply the standards presented in Sissela Bok's book, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life and conclude that "Bob's" lies did not satisfy any of the three criteria that Bok provides for a justifiable lie. [In brief, they are: A white lie "That's a nice tie you have on today"; a lie in a setting in which lying is an accepted norm "That's my final offer"; or a setting in which one could justify physical violence to attain the same ends that the lie attains.]
Jensen Comment:  The above quotation was Richard Sansing's (Dartmouth) email reply on the AECM to a scenario (too long to print here) involving a lie.  "The name "Bob" is a hypothetical person and has nothing to do with the Bob as in Jensen.  I have a somewhat more legal take on lying.  As in most legal disputes, I apply the test of damages.  Who is hurt by the lie and by how much?  For example, suppose a 20-year old student has both a fake ID (for partying purposes) and a genuine ID (for driving purposes) and that the genuine ID gets lost on a trip.  Using the fake ID to board an aircraft simply to avoid the delay (and possible ticket cost) of waiting for for a replacement of the lost genuine ID card benefits the student without any real harm to anybody else if it is relatively certain no security personnel might be sanctioned (a big if).  On domestic flights at the present time, the chances having to show the ID after boarding the aircraft are very nearly zero.  Of course there is the risk of getting caught when first showing the fake ID, but this may be a risk the student feels is justified in these circumstances.  Using the fake ID to drink in a bar, on the other hand, could harm the owner of the bar (e.g., by causing the loss of a liquor license).  Thus lying to simply avoid the cost and delay of boarding an aircraft differs from lying to drink alcohol.   This runs into the dilemma of the categorical imperative of Kant's moral order on whether the justification in the case of one student boarding an aircraft at one time should extended to universal law for all travelers.  Clearly a universal law justifying commonplace fake IDs would be self defeating.  And thus I am faced with a dilemma of rare versus commonplace (universal law) use of fake IDs to board aircraft merely due to the loss of a genuine ID.  There are no simple answers, but I personally still apply the legal test in a case-by-case situation.  I personally believe in situational ethics.  "Who could possibly be hurt in this instance and by how much?"  It's very difficult to apply universal law in all circumstances.  For example, the law "thou shall not kill" in my mind does not apply in absolutely all circumstances such as in the case of shooting a hostage taker just prior to his killing of scores of school children.  You can read more about Kant's moral order at http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/5i.htm 

PhDs really are brainier 
The brain imaging showed that in older adults taking memory tests, more years of education were associated with more active frontal lobes -- the opposite of what happened in young adults. The researchers believe that education strengthens the ability to "call in the reserves" of mental prowess found in that part of the brain.
Scott Jaschik, "The Payoff for Those Long Years Earning a Ph.D.," Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/the_payoff_for_those_long_years_earning_a_ph_d 

Most top college basketball players are not brainier
The Knight panel, which since 1989 has been pushing changes aimed at restoring integrity to big-time college sports, has proposed that teams be disqualified from NCAA championship play if they failed to graduate at least half of their athletes within six years of enrolling.  The panel's study found that 42 of the 65 teams that qualified for this year's tournament would fail to meet that standard, based on the latest four-year graduation rates submitted by the institutions -- and many fared much worse. Twenty of the 65 graduated less than 30 percent of their players, and 11 of 65 graduated less than 20 percent.
Doug Lederman, "March Badness," Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/march_badness 

Domestic Partner Benefits Becoming Commonplace in Corporate America
It seems corporate America is more concerned about recruiting and retaining talented employees than it is about the lifestyle choices those employees make outside of work. Charlotte Observer reported that more than 60 percent of the Fortune 100 companies are now offering health benefits to same-sex couples, even as national debate on the issue rages on.  According to a recent survey conducted by Robert Half Management, 1,400 CFOs, ranked "recruiting and retaining qualified staff" as the third top priority for success in 2005, just behind "growing revenue" and "controlling expenses," the Observer reported.  Duke Energy, a conservative utility based in the South, found that offering domestic partner benefits "has been shown to aid in both attracting and retaining employees," Duke Chairman and CEO Paul Anderson said in a news release last week.
"Domestic Partner Benefits Becoming Commonplace in Corporate America," AccountingWeb, March 10, 2005 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=100654 

European National Heath:  three of four people with high cholesterol were not receiving a statin
Prof. Oliver Schoeffski, chair for health management at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, found severe undertreatment of many illnesses across Europe, including in Germany. For instance, three of four people with high cholesterol were not receiving a statin.  According Dr. James Cleeman, coordinator of the National Cholesterol Educational Program in the U.S., statins are cost effective even at $100 a month because heart disease costs "hundreds of billions of dollars." Treatment for high cholesterol demonstrates how Germany fails to balance lower cost with better treatment. Some 1.8 million Germans take Pfizer's Lipitor, sold there as Sortis. Numerous studies have demonstrated that Sortis lowers cholesterol and thereby reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes, even among high-risk populations suffering from diabetes and hypertension.
Doug Bandow, "Saving Pfennige, Costing Lives," The Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111092651697380405,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Europeans Jumping Ship
In fact, more Europeans are now taking the dramatic step of emigrating than at any time since the 1950s. The Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics recently produced a study showing that the country was facing a new problem: mass emigration of white middle-class families. It seems Holland is losing nearly 50,000 middle-class citizens a year.  This Dutch exodus is mirrored by developments in countries like Germany and France. In Germany, middle-class emigration has risen by nearly 30% in the past few years, from 100,000 in 2001 to 127,000 in 2003. This "white flight" partly explains why, in 2003, the total German population shrank for the first time since the end of World War II. The number of French men and women living in the U.K., which is closer to the American Dream than the European Model, has grown exponentially in the last decade, from 100,000 registered migrants in the mid-1990s to more than 300,000 last year.
Joshua Livestro, "The Heidi Dream," The Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111092673665780414,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Spring thaw thins the ice for Harvard's president
After weeks of simmering discontent over the leadership style of the president of Harvard, Dr. Lawrence H. Summers, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will consider a resolution of a lack of confidence in him at its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday (I think today).   It will also consider a statement expressing the faculty's regret over Dr. Summers's remarks about women in science at a January conference, as well as "aspects of the president's managerial approach," which many faculty members call autocratic and stifling of open discussion.  The statement says that the faculty "appreciates the president's stated intent to address these issues" and that it intends to be collegial as well as assert its role in governance . . . Several faculty members said they did not expect the vote of no confidence to pass. "I think President Summers has shown a great willingness to think about his leadership style and to try to adapt and take into account areas where a number of people had some concerns," said Lawrence F. Katz, a professor of economics and a longtime supporter of Dr. Summers.
Sara Rimer, "Harvard Faculty Voting Tuesday on Confidence in President," The New York Times, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/15/education/15harvard.html 

Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers suffered an unexpected blow to his already rocky tenure last night, as faculty at the elite institution's largest teaching unit voted in favor of a motion expressing no confidence in his leadership.  During the latest of several such meetings, Harvard's arts-and-sciences faculty attending voted 218 to 185 in favor of a resolution stating simply: "The faculty lacks confidence in the leadership of Lawrence H. Summers." Eighteen faculty members abstained from the vote. Under university rules, the proposition needed the votes of a majority of faculty attending the meeting to pass . . . The vote of no confidence, believed to be the first in Harvard's history, comes at a time when Mr. Summers appeared to be making headway in his efforts to tamp down the turmoil that erupted in January after the former Treasury secretary told a conference on work-force diversity that innate gender differences could help explain why fewer women achieve high-level academic careers in science and math.  Those comments led presidents of other leading universities to speak out against his views. On campus, the turmoil quickly spread to involve an array of complaints ranging from faculty input on major university decisions to Mr. Summers's disputes with Cornel West, a prominent African-American professor who eventually left Harvard for Princeton University.  The referendum on Mr. Summers's leadership was largely symbolic, because only the university's governing board, the Harvard Corporation, has the power to remove the president, and it has issued a statement of support for him. Members of the secretive board couldn't be reached for comment, and a Harvard spokesman said the corporation didn't have any additional comment.
Robert Tomsho and John Hechinger, "Harvard President Is Given a Vote Of No Confidence," The Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2005; Page A3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111091360378480164,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one 

Also see http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/16/education/16harvard.html? 

Also see http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/lost_confidence 

Liberal faculty versus students at Harvard:  Summers Garners Applause At Mather
Five hours after receiving a stern censure from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), University President Lawrence H. Summers received a round of applause from undergraduates in Mather House last night. Summers arrived nearly 30 minutes late to the Mather event, but House Master Sandra Naddaff nonetheless welcomed the president with open arms, a glass of Diet Coke, and a fresh slice of cheese pizza. “I could use some sustenance,” Summers said. “I’ve had a long day—and I’m not going to talk about that.”  Instead, Summers launched into a wide-ranging talk outlining his overarching vision for the future of the University—leaving little doubt that, despite calls for his resignation, the president is in it for the long haul.  Battling back yawns at the beginning of his speech, Summers shed his suit jacket—and his look of fatigue—as he reiterated his call for curricular reforms aimed at bolstering the quality of undergraduate science instruction.  But Summers also sought to defuse criticism that he prioritizes the hard sciences over the humanities. Historically, he said, Harvard has been “more successful in training people and developing skills in the humanities...than we have been in the sciences.”  “The sense is not that science is more important at all,” Summers said. “It’s an area where we have a longer way to go.”
Daniel J. Hemel, "Summers Garners Applause At Mather," The Crimson, March 16, 2005 --- http://www.thecrimson.com/today/article506467.html

How well do senior faculty know students?
A chorus of [students] complained about the poor quality of academic advising and a lack of interaction between students and tenured professors.
When Summers asked the crowd whether “two senior faculty know you well,” barely a quarter of students raised their hands.  “There are a surprising number of students who would like to have more contact with senior faculty—and a surprising number of senior faculty who would like to have more contact with students,” Summers observed.  After the hour-long conversation, students praised Summers’ openness.  “I think he was receptive to student concerns,” said Rita Parai ’07. H. Francis Song ’06 added that Summers “showed more sensitivity to students’ needs than I expected.”
Daniel J. Hemel, "Summers Garners Applause At Mather," The Crimson, March 16, 2005 --- http://www.thecrimson.com/today/article506467.html

I think the vote of no confidence in Lawrence Summers is a wonderful thing. Harvard continues to discredit itself with the American public. The faculty is trapped. If Summers resigns, this extraordinary example of political correctness will come back to haunt Harvard, and the entire academy, for years. But if Summers hangs on, the faculty itself will have been humiliated--checked by the very fact of public scrutiny. Either way, Harvard is tearing itself apart. So long as the public simply writes of [sic] the academy, the mice can play. But the intense public scrutiny in this case puts the captains of political correctness into a no-win situation. Like the closely watched Susan Estrich fiasco, this battle is doing lasting damage to the cultural left. As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Stanley Kurtz, The National Review, March 16, 2005 --- http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/05_03_13_corner-archive.asp#058358 

I wonder if it was a statue of Larry Summers?
Fairbanks' largest ice sculpture came tumbling down late Sunday night with a ground-shaking crash that was heard but not seen. The Fox Icescraper, the 150-foot tall tower of ice built by John Reeves next to the Steese Highway eight miles north of Fairbanks, collapsed at around 10:45 p.m. after developing a significant lean over the weekend. "It woke me up out of a dead sleep," said Ben Ballard, . . .
Tim Mowrey"Fox ice tower falls," Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2763420,00.html 

Sex and Character
There are many great books. And of weird books, the number is countless. Yet, paradoxically enough, there are not that many great weird books.  Sex and Character by Otto Weininger is one of them. The appearance next month of a definitive English translation, published by Indiana University Press, is a major cultural event - one that is, arguably, at least several decades overdue.   First published in Vienna in 1903, Sex and Character is the product of a tortured genius. Or at least the work of someone remarkably devoted to playing that role. The author was 23 years old when it appeared. In its first incarnation, the book was Weininger's dissertation -- a more or less scientific account of the physiology of gender differences.  In revising it, Weininger created a mixture of psychological introspection, neo-Kantian epistemology, and Nietzschean cultural criticism, along with a heavy dose of  anti-feminist polemic. Toward the end of the book, Weininger seasoned the stew with a few dashes of anti-Semitic vitrol. Then, a few months after seeing the manuscript through the press, he went to the house where Beethoven died and killed himself. This did not hurt sales. And it sure did clinch the "tortured" part. The double impact of Weininger's work and his suicide created a sensation, and not just in Austria. The list of Weininger's admirers reads like a survey course in Western culture from the early 20th century. The most perfunctory roundup would include James Joyce, Karl Kraus, Robert Musil, Arnold Schoenberg, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.   An unsigned English version of Sex and Character appeared in 1906, prepared by someone whose qualifications for the job evidently boiled down to possessing (1) a German dictionary and (2) the willingness, when necessary, to hazard a guess. The title page proclaimed this an "Authorized Translation" -- though it's still not clear who, if anyone, authorized it, and in any case the English edition omits whole sections of the original text. Ludwig Wittgenstein called the 1906 translation "beastly." But it is the one we monolingual Europhiles have had to rely on for almost a century. (Excerpts from it are available online, who knows why.) 
Scott McClemee,  "Sex and the Single Genius," Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/intellectual_affairs__12 

India swings on the Laffer curve
Its economy is growing at a rapid rate, the Mumbai stock market is performing well, tax revenues are flowing steadily into New Delhi, and the government is now planning to compete with Beijing in contracting for oil supplies to feed India's growing appetite for energy.  How did this most unexpected rags-to-riches story come about?  One clear reason can be found in a headline in Bloomberg's financial network on 11 January 2005, over a story by Andy Mukherjee writing from Singapore:  "India's Tax Plan May Again Bet on Laffer Curve."  I was most pleased to read that Finance Minister P Chidambaram is hinting at a "massive" change in the country's tax system, slashing tax rates on personal and corporate incomes in a second gamble on "the Laffer Curve", which Chidambaram mentions by name as an idea he has embraced with enthusiasm.
Jude Waniski, "India swings on the Laffer curve," Aljazeera, March 7, 2005 --- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/19C56AC9-1B19-4096-9068-79F9A2C8CDB5.htm 

You can read more about the Laffer curve at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve 

Also see http://www.vistech.net/users/rsturge/laffercu.html 

Do you really believe he won't ever drink again?
Having a vanity plate the reads "TIPSY" may not be such a good idea after all. Josiah Johnson, of Argusville, N.D., is in trouble for drunken driving. He figures his TIPSY plate might have tipped off the deputy who busted him. Police say Johnson had a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit after he left a sports bar in Moorhead. Johnson said the TIPSY plate was meant to describe the way an old Jeep rode, and he kept the plate when he got a Chevy Silverado. Johnson said he has learned his lesson and will never drink and drive again.
"TIPSY License Plate Owner Pulled Over For Drunken Driving," ClickOnDetroit, March 16, 2005 --- http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/4289598/detail.html 

Open Season on Kittie Cats:  Give granny a shotgun so she can kill Sylvester before he gets Tweety Bird
Wisconsin is considering allowing the hunting of cats. Not cougars or mountain lions or tigers on the loose but putty-tats: Sylvester the cat. Morris the cat. Garfield. The aim is to prevent the mass-killing of birds by cats, mostly of the feral — i.e., wild — variety. In other words, some people want to give granny a shotgun so she can kill Sylvester before he gets Tweety Bird.
Jonah Goldberg, "First, kill the cats," Jewish World Review, March 16, 2005 --- http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/jonah031605.asp 

Social Networking:  What is "The Facebook" for college students?
They say it's lonely at the top. But David J. Skorton, the president of the University of Iowa, has a nice support group -- 994 strong, and growing every day.  Skorton has a profile in "The Facebook," an online "social network" service that students nationwide have flocked to since it was started last year. The Facebook, like Friendster and similar services, lets participants set up profiles of themselves and link those profiles to their friends' profiles, their friends' friends' profiles, etc. The Facebook focuses on college students, and is open only to participants with e-mail addresses at the growing number of colleges that are part of the network.  Most students use Facebook for fun, to organize parties, find dates or stay in touch with friends. Participants' profiles display their friends in the system, so it's easy to see who is well connected on a given campus. Skorton was encouraged to sign up by two of those who are now among his nearly 1,000 friends: Lindsay Schutte, president of the student government at Iowa, and Josh Skorton, the president's son and a student at Stanford.
Scott Jaschik, "A President With a Lot of Friends," Inside Higher Ed, March 16, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/a_president_with_a_lot_of_friends 

Would you like an order of fries with your government education loan?
The seven campuses of the Business Career Training Institute shut down at the end of last week, leaving students confused and regulators angry in Oregon and Washington State.  BCTI, as it was known, promoted itself as a school to prepare people for jobs in the technology industry. But state officials questioned whether it was doing that.  An Oregon investigation found that the BCTI advertising was misleading and that many of the graduates who found jobs -- after paying more than $20,000, typically with federal student loans, for the program -- ended up in the fast food industry or in other positions unrelated to the supposed training.
Scott Jaschick, "Trade School Chain Shuts Down," Inside Higher Ed, March 16, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/trade_school_chain_shuts_down 
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill 

So much for the new SAT being "new"
Some students apparently felt lucky Saturday. One of the final practice essay questions used by the Princeton Review test prep service, in the weeks leading up to the SAT, was about whether majority rule is always correct -- the topic that was on the actual test. A spokeswoman for the Princeton Review said some parents were concerned that their children might have somehow had access to the test in advance, and called Princeton Review on Monday, only to be told that the test materials the service uses are "really accurate."  The Princeton Review spokeswoman also said that about 70 percent of the test questions were "recycled" from a 2002 test. "So much for the new SAT being 'new,' " she said.
Scott Jaschik, "Multiple Choice," Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/multiple_choice 

Statistical Snapshot
The report, Postsecondary Institutions in the United States: Fall 2003 and Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2002-03, is among the studies that the department's National Center for Education Statistics releases each year that, taken together, provide a statistical portrait of higher education. This study focuses on how many institutions there are (and what kind), what they charge, and how many degrees and certificates they award.
Doug Lederman, "Statistical Snapshot," Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/statistical_snapshot 

Say what?  A new word "wedgied" into Webster's Dictionary
Wedgie, a teenager's locker-room nightmare, has made it into the dictionary. Webster's New World College Dictionary based in Cleveland said wedgie was among its new additions to its latest edition. The new edition will carry this listing: wedgie: noun. a prank in which the victim's undershorts are jerked upward so as to become wedged between the buttocks. The dictionary also carries the tradition wedgie definition of a type of shoe. "`Wedgie' was always a part of the high school terminology that you sort of never thought about later," said Editor in Chief...
"'Wedgie' Added to Webster's Dictionary," Washington Times, March 15, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/wedgieMarch15 

The European Commission has a "chronically sordid" accounting system
The European Commission has a "chronically sordid" accounting system and is still unable to keep track of the EU's £73billion budget after a decade of financial scandals, according to a top EU insider.  An internal email obtained by The Telegraph paints an ugly picture of an autocratic body with an "incestuous esprit de corps" that uses its bureaucratic muscle to "trash" any official who dares to question its methods.  It said the Budget Directorate was in "persistent denial of the real nature and depth of problems" it faced, choosing "cavity filling solutions where root canals were called for".  The note was written by the former director-general of the commission's Internal Audit Service, Jules Muis, who retired last year after attempting to spearhead the EU's reform drive.  He said the Budget fiefdom relied on non-qualified accountants to manage funds, allowing it to "get away with" practices that breached its own laws. It operated a "perverse incentive structure" that rewarded staff if "they managed not to discover financial malfeasance".
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, "EC's 'sordid accounting' damned in email from top auditor," The Daily Telegraph, March 15, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/ECaccounting

Kansas Abortion Clinics Fight Data Request
Two Kansas clinics are opposing efforts by the state's attorney general to obtain the medical records of more than 80 women who received late-term abortions in 2003. The attorney general, Phill Kline, has argued that he is looking for evidence of child rape and violations of a state law restricting abortions performed after 22 weeks of pregnancy. But clinic supporters contend Kline is on a fishing expedition that invades patients' privacy and is making a calculated effort to hamper the clinics from performing abortions. Kline's push for medical records, backed by a judicial subpoena, is the strongest move yet by...
Peter Slevin, "Kansas Abortion Clinics Fight Data Request:   Criminal Inquiries Trump Issues of Privacy, State Says," Washington Post, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35009-2005Mar14.html 

Say what?  "Israelis are "legitimate targets" for Palestinian terrorists"
Police have decided not to charge a controversial Muslim leader under Canada's hate-crime laws for suggesting on a television talk show last fall that all adult Israelis are "legitimate targets" for Palestinian terrorists. Investigators with Halton Region police said that while the comments by Dr. Mohamed Elmasry "were described by many as [a] hate crime," they did not meet the legal definition. "Although the comments would be considered distasteful to many, in this context they do not constitute a criminal offence," police said in a news release. "The comments were made during a free-flowing discussion between subject-matter experts who were...
Chris Wattie "Saying Israelis are 'legitimate targets' not a hate crime police: Elmasry talk show case," National Post, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=845a6d55-2da6-47d7-a1fe-9a17610b62a8 

Bad Grades for Teacher Education in America's Universities
American colleges and universities do such a poor job of training the nation's future teachers and school administrators that 9 of every 10 principals consider the graduates unprepared for what awaits them in the classroom, a new survey has found.  Nearly half the elementary- and secondary-school principals surveyed said the curriculums at schools of education, whether graduate or undergraduate, lacked academic rigor and were outdated, at times using materials decades older than the children whom teachers are now instructing. Beyond that, more than 80 percent of principals said the education schools were too detached from what went on at local elementary and high schools, a factor that made for a rift between educational theory and practice.  "I thought there were problems in the field," said Arthur E. Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, who is to release the findings in a report today. "But I didn't realize the depth of the problems."  In the report, Dr. Levine - who when interviewed described the program at his own school as strong but "absolutely not" ideal - said he and other experts who worked on the study had focused their efforts on finding education schools capable of producing excellent principals, superintendents and other administrators. They found none in the entire country.
Greg Winter, "Study Finds Poor Performance by Nation's Education Schools," The New York Times, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/15/education/15teach.html? 

Freezing Out Identity Theft
In an effort to combat the rapidly escalating outbreak of identity-theft crimes, a handful of states including California and Texas have passed legislation that allows consumers to put a "security freeze" on their credit history.  Some 20 other states this year have considered or are considering adopting similar laws, which make it nearly impossible for criminals to use stolen information to open bogus new accounts. The measures are so effective because once frozen, a merchant is unable to review an applicant's credit history. Lacking such information, most companies refuse to open a new account, greatly devaluing stolen personal data. . . Currently, federal law does allow consumers to put a fraud "alert" on their files. If an alert pops up when someone applies for credit, the bank or merchant is supposed to try to verify an individual's identity. But the alert doesn't close off this access to credit histories. Instead, it merely warns the cellphone store or the credit-card issuer to take extra care with any new customer using a particular name.  No federal law gives all consumers the right to freeze their credit entirely, which keeps merchants from being able to look at it at all. (Companies with a pre-existing relationship with someone can generally still get access to their frozen credit files.)
Jennifer Saranow and Ron Lieber, "Freezing Out Identity Theft:  Potent State Laws Let Consumers Bar Access to Credit Reports, But Not Without Headaches," The Wall Street Journal,   March 15, 2005; Page D1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111084275620679216,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal 

Texas law is limited
But in some states, legislators are fighting identity theft by proposing laws that give consumers the right to lock up their credit files with a security freeze. A security freeze lets you decide who gets to see your credit record, which prevents thieves from obtaining credit using your identity.  Texas has enacted such a law, but only for consumers who have already been victimized by identity theft. SB 100 would expand that right so that all consumers could look up their credit files with a security freeze.
Consumers Union --- http://snipurl.com/SecurityFreezeTexas 

Instructions for filing a security freeze in Texas are at http://www.law.uh.edu/peopleslawyer/SecurityFreeze.html 

Also see http://www.idtheftcenter.org/vg124.shtml 

Bob Jensen's threads on identity theft are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#IdentityTheft 

Fidel's Fortune
He didn't make it into the billionaire category, but Fidel Castro nonetheless earned an honorable mention on Forbes magazine's annual list of the World's Richest People out this month. And why not? With a net worth of $550 million, this is one bit of media recognition that El Jefe actually deserves.  According to Forbes, the Cuban leader committed to "socialism or death" has made a killing from a "web of state-owned businesses" -- all of which have no competition in the worker's paradise. Castro's most profitable operations include a convention center, a retail conglomerate and a company called Medicuba that sells pharmaceuticals made on the island, reports the magazine. Not mentioned are Cuba's biggest exports -- seafood, tobacco, sugar and nickel -- which, as El Maximo Lider of the communist regime, Fidel naturally benefits from too.
"Fidel's Fortune," The Wall Street Journal,  March 15, 2005; Page A20 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111084691636579380,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion 

20th century's most influential practitioner of the horror story
For a man who didn't believe in the afterlife, H.P. Lovecraft sure is having a remarkable one. Few people had heard of him when he died at the age of 46 on this date in 1937, and fewer still had read the stories he sold to tacky pulp magazines. Nowadays, however, Stephen King and just about everybody else in the know recognizes him as the 20th century's most influential practitioner of the horror story -- a claim he arguably clinched last month with the publication of his best works in a definitive edition.
John J. Miller, "H.P. Lovecraft: 68 Years Dead And More Influential Than Ever," The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2005; Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111084042433479156,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal 

Jensen Comment:  The online works of H.P. Lovecraft are at http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/ 

Big Amazon has the patent for watching you
That's one key feature, anyway, of a system Amazon has invented to gather clues about customers' gift-giving habits in order to suggest future gifts and reminders. The company was granted a patent last week for the system, which also profiles gift recipients and guesses their age, birthday and gender.  Amazon says it hasn't put the "systems and methods" covered by the patent to use, so it isn't monitoring customer review pages yet. But that fact gives little comfort to consumer advocates, who have hounded Amazon for years over its customer-profiling practices.
Alorie Gilbert, "Privacy advocates frown on Amazon snooping plan, CNET News, March 14, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/deu7 

Jews vs. Catholics in the stem cell debate
Monday night at dinner, I ask Austriaco if he sees a Catholic-Jewish difference on these questions. He does, particularly among theologians. Jews follow diffuse commentary, he says; Catholics follow streamlined authority. Jews trust intuition; Catholics trust reason. "You don't have as clear a definition of boundaries as we have," he observes. This is why Catholics have an easier time getting over the yuck factor. "We say, 'Yeah, it looks yucky.' But I'm a molecular biologist. We make tumors in the lab all the time. For a Catholic, if I can articulate what I'm doing, it's not yucky."
William Saletan "Oi Vitae:  Jews vs. Catholics in the stem cell debate," Slate, March 7, 2005 --- http://slate.msn.com/id/2114733/ 

How to lie with statistics:  The Washington Post does it this way
In yet another example of biased Washington Post reporting (my partner Pat Hynes rightly skewered Mike Allen's "Tom DeLay's issues have GOP Worried" story earlier), their latest poll showing bad news for President Bush's Social Security reform plan is a joke. So, as we have so many times before we're going to show you how the MSM - in this case The Washington Post presents data in a misleading way so that it fit their desired outcome. Nowhere has this been more true than in the recent polls about Social Secruity, and the latest Post poll is yet another striking...First, take a look at the nature of the respondents. It's 1,001 "randomly selected adults" (much the same tactic used by the fraudulent New York Times and AP polls on Social Security which we exposed) . That's the extent of the Post's description of respondents. Nowhere is mentioned how many of the respondents were even "registered voters" (let alone likely ones), the party identification of the voters, their ages, geographical location or income levels. All of those factors would have an impact on the outcome of the poll.  Thus, there is no way for the reader to know if this is a "rigged" sample made up of ardent liberal from the northeast, or if it reflects a true opinion of the American people. One thing is certain - it sure doesn't give the reader an actual idea of what the ELECTORATE might do to lawmakers who support or oppose the plan, given that statistically between 30-40% of the "adult" respondents don't even vote in Presidential elections. The number of non-voters in this poll will be even higher in the 2006 elections.
"Calling "Bulls**t" On The Washington Post, Pt. II-We Skewer Yet Another MSM Poll," Ankle Biting Pundits, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.anklebitingpundits.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1253&mode=nested&order=1&thold=0 

Europeans Grow More Intolerant of Immigrants
Europeans are becoming more intolerant of immigrants and one in five want them sent home, a study released Tuesday by the European Union racism watchdog showed. The study, based on pan-EU opinion surveys between 1997 and 2003, found a significant increase in support for the view that there were limits to a so-called multicultural society. There was also a significant increase in the minority of people who supported repatriating immigrants, to 20 percent, the study said, without providing the scale of either increase. "The European Union is confronted with intolerance and discriminatory attitudes toward minorities and migrants," Beate Winkler, head...
Marcus Kabel, "Europeans Grow More Intolerant of Immigrants-Study," Reuters, March 15, 2005 --- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=4&u=/nm/20050315/wl_nm/rights_europe_dc 

Diverse positions among worshippers having the same God
The leadership of the Presbyterian Church recently decided to encourage its governing body to promote divestment from companies that do business with Israel. Shortly thereafter, the Anglican church, the Lutheran church and the World Council of Churches (WCC, with 347 member denominations world-wide) followed suit with the explanation that divestment "(is) a new way to work for peace, by looking at ways to not participate economically in illegal activities related to the Israeli occupation." (1) These churches are among those often referred to as "mainline" churches.  The most problematic issue of this new “mainline” posture is that it is clearly intended to support the Arab terror war against Israel; and to justify that support, church spokespersons make use of false information about the conflict.  A review of factual information about the conflict and the nature of divestment reveals that the mainline churches have stood up in favor of a process that is illegal, irrational, immoral, biased against Israel and in favor of Israel’s enemies, and consciously oblivious to the transparent lies of divestment proponents. Moreover, by supporting divestment, they ignore the real threats of global terrorism which seeks, among other things, the destruction of all other forms of religion in the world, including Christianity. The mainline churches' stand, therefore, is quite literally self-destructive.
David Meir-Levi, "Mainline Christian Anti-Semitism," Front Page Magazine, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17308 

Diverse positions among worshippers having the same Allah
Throughout the West, Muslims are making new and assertive demands, and in some cases challenging the very premises of European and North American life. How to respond? Here is a general rule: Offer full rights — but turn down demands for special privileges. By way of example, note two current Canadian controversies. The first concerns the establishment of voluntary Shar'i (Islamic law) courts in Ontario. This idea is promoted by the usual Islamist groups, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Canada and the Canadian Islamic Congress. It is most prominently opposed by Muslim women's groups, led by Homa Arjomand, who fear that the Islamic courts, despite their voluntary nature, will be used to repress women's rights.
Daniel Pipes, "Which privileges for Islam?" Jewish World Review, March 15, 2005 --- http://jewishworldreview.com/0305/pipes2005_03_15.php3 

Forwarded by Debbie Bowling
Scientists discover green tea's cancer-fighter Spanish and British scientists have discovered how green tea helps to prevent certain types of cancer.
http://g.msn.com/0MNBUS00/2?http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7187847&&CM=EmailThis&CE=1

Elders with shaky hands can have a steady mouse
IBM is expected to unveil the product today, a mouse adapter that filters out the shaking movements of the hand to enable a user to navigate a PC screen more smoothly.  The device is plugged between the mouse and the PC and works like the stabilization systems found in many camcorders.
Benjamin Pimentel, "Helping hand for those with shaky hands IBM to unveil mouse adapter to steady cursor," San Francisco Chronicle, March 14, 2005 --- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/03/14/BUGCIBO7E01.DTL&type=tech 

Adding pasted notes to Web pages
In 2001, Microsoft bought Web page markup technology from a company called E-Quill but hasn't incorporated any of its features into Internet Explorer. The iMarkup toolbar, which debuted to rave reviews in 2000, hasn't gotten much buzz since. You can still get iMarkup—a 30-day trial is free and it costs $39.95 if you want to keep it after that. One screenshot says it all: You can highlight parts of a page, post sticky notes, draw freehand, and insert arrows, links, file attachments, and sound bites. Taking notes on the Slate home page won't change what other surfers see. But when you revisit the page, iMarkup will remember what you wrote and slap your notes atop the live site. In one simple step, you can e-mail your annotations (or a screenshot of your annotations) to a friend. Using a free iMarkup plug-in, they can then view your notes overlaid atop the live site.
Paul Boutin, "The new technique that will change blogging forever," Slate, March 15, 2005 --- http://slate.msn.com/id/2114791/ 

Family of Slain Protester Sues Caterpillar
The parents of a 23-year-old activist killed while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home is suing Caterpillar Inc., the company that made the bulldozer that ran over her.  The federal lawsuit, which lawyers said would be filed here Tuesday, alleges that Caterpillar violated international and state law by providing specially designed bulldozers to Israeli Defense Forces that it knew would be used to demolish homes and endanger people.
Elizabeth M. Gillespie, "Family of Slain Protester Sues Caterpillar," Guardian, March 15, 2005 --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4867950,00.html 

An what if the El Paso company outsources its New Jersey contracts?
New Jersey lawmakers passed a bill this week that would ban all state contract work from being performed outside the country. Acting Governor Richard Codey is expected to sign the measure, which would be the first of its kind in the U.S. and no doubt bring joy to the hearts of CNN's Lou Dobbs ("Outsourcing America") and protectionists everywhere . . . And all for a measure that is bound to end up costing more local jobs than it protects. If the state contractor's costs rise because it has to dismiss its low-cost overseas workforce, it will either have to drop the state contract, accept lower profits, or lay off other workers. As an alternative, a state contractor who can't use workers in India would still be able to outsource jobs to workers in a more business-friendly state like Texas. Can someone explain why New Jersey taxpayers should feel so much better about paying more to hire workers in El Paso as opposed to paying less to hire them in Bangalore?
"Outsourcing New Jersey," The Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111093749293380715,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.
Mahatma Gandhi

The United Nations celebrates International Women's Day --- http://www.un.org/events/women/iwd/2005/ 

From UCLA:  Archive of American Folk Medicine --- http://www.folkmed.ucla.edu/ 

Nations from Europe to Eastern Asia are on a fast track to pass the United States in scientific excellence and technological innovation.
For more than half a century, the United States has led the world in scientific discovery and innovation. It has been a beacon, drawing the best scientists to its educational institutions, industries and laboratories from around the globe. However, in today’s rapidly evolving competitive world, the United States can no longer take its supremacy for granted. Nations from Europe to Eastern Asia are on a fast track to pass the United States in scientific excellence and technological innovation. The Task Force on the Future of American Innovation has developed a set of benchmarks to assess the international standing of the United States in science and technology. These benchmarks in education, the science and engineering (S&E) workforce, scientific knowledge, innovation, investment and high-tech economic output reveal troubling trends across the research and development (R&D) spectrum. The United States still leads the world in research and discovery, but our advantage is rapidly eroding, and our global competitors may soon overtake us.
"THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY: IS THE UNITED STATES LOSING ITS COMPETITIVE EDGE?" THE TASK FOR C E ON THE FUTUR E OF AME R I CAN INNOVAT ION, February `6, 2005 --- http://www.futureofinnovation.org/PDF/Benchmarks.pdf 

Reinvigorating the Humanities: Enhancing Research and Education on Campus and Beyond
Association of American Universities --- http://www.aau.edu/
Founded in 1900, the Association of American Universities (AAU) initially consisted of the fourteen universities that offered the Ph.D. degree. Currently their number includes 60 American universities and two Canadian universities. The AAU's overall mission is to develop national policy positions of primary relevance to academic research and graduate and professional education. Of course, the organization's work also extends to other germane areas, including timely discussion of undergraduate education. On the AAU site, visitors can learn about the organization's most recent work, read about its positions on intellectual property issues, and peruse the latest AAU newsletters. The section of the site dedicated to internally produced reports will be of great interest to some, as it contains helpful work on such topics as "Reinvigorating the Humanities: Enhancing Research and Education on Campus and Beyond"
Quoted from the Scout Report on March 17. 2005 

Defining a new role for the humanities in the university and in society
More recently, the humanities have been caught in a conflict between over-simplified aristocratic and democratic notions of liberal arts education. Under the former, the liberal arts are viewed as being distinctly not useful; under the latter, they are seen as providing ideas of value to all citizens. Indeed, scholars and university administrators need to bear in mind the value of the humanities in the education of all of a university’s students, the usefulness of this knowledge in the professional lives of those students, and society’s need for a common base of understanding and an educated citizenry. Recently, those closely involved with the humanities —scholars, university administrators, academic society officials, and others—have begun separate reexaminations of established traditions and expectations, leading perhaps to defining a new role for the humanities in the university and in society. This report is intended to further prompt that reexamination of the humanities on university campuses, to identify steps that some institutions already have taken, and to propose future action.
I quoted the above from the Executive Summary at http://www.aau.edu/issues/ExecSumm.pdf 
You can get more details from http://www.aau.edu/issues/humanities.cfm 

Reinvigorating the Humanities: Enhancing Research and Education on Campus and Beyond - pdf - April 22, 2004  http://www.aau.edu/issues/humanities.cfm

Note: This report can be downloaded in its entirety -- which could take considerable time -- or by selecting individual sections below. Reinvigorating the Humanities by downloadable section: Executive Summary and Table of         Contents - pdf Part I: The Role and Status of the         Humanities at AAU Universities - pdf Part II: Recommendations and Ongoing         Activities at AAU Universities - pdf Part III: Appendicies             Additional Examples - pdf             The Humanities Support                 Infrastructure - pdf             University of Toronto's                 Humanities Campaign - pdf             AAM Position Statement on                 University Museums and                 Collections - pdf             References - pdf   Index - pdf

University of California researchers surveyed thousands of faculty members throughout the system’s campuses on the number of hours they spent providing care of any sort for their families. They previously released general data confirming conventional wisdom: that women have more care burdens than men.  But additional data presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Higher Education compared hours spent on care by male and female faculty members of the same age groups, and with the same status of being a parent or not being one.  The following table shows that while gaps are minimal between men and women without children, they are significant for men and women with children:

Hours Spent on Family Care, by Age

Marc Goulden, a researcher for the University of California, said that the data pointed to a shortcoming of many policies adopted by colleges to help parents. The policies tend to focus on the time demands on new parents, but ignore the reality that time demands are as great or greater when kids start to grow up as when they are babies.
Scott Jaschik, "Unequal Burden," Inside Higher Ed, March 21, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/21/care 

Breakthrough in adult (as opposed to embryonic) stem cell research
Experiments have shown adult stem cells isolated from the olfactory mucosa have the ability to develop into many different cell types if they are given the right chemical or cellular environment," explains Mackay-Sim.  New nerve cells, glial cells, liver cells, heart cells, muscle cells -- all were grown in a dish from stem cells from the human nose. Establishing the versatility of these adult stem cells was in itself a significant scientific achievement, but the Griffith University team's experiments also uncovered a raft of additional advantages.  For starters, such cells are easily harvested. The research team's doctor, prominent Brisbane ear, nose and throat specialist Chris Perry, was able to extract them from consenting patients - and later from the scientists themselves - by simply spraying the inside of the nose with a local anaesthetic and then removing a sample no bigger than a grain of pepper.  The harvested stem cells were not only readily available but proved to be astonishingly easy to grow in the laboratory, with millions of them forming within weeks. Down the track, once all the required trials are carried out - which could take at least another five years - it might well be possible for a healthy person to have his olfactory stem cells harvested, a mildly uncomfortable process that takes barely 10 minutes, grown in a lab and then frozen for injection years later into -- to give just one example -- the withered muscles of a heart after a heart attack.
Wayne Smith, "Sweet Smell of Success," The Australian, March 22, 2005 --- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12616654^28737,00.html 

More nonprofit colleges may be purchased by for-profit institutions
Sean Gallagher, a senior analyst at Eduventures, which does research on the education industry for investors and colleges, said he is not surprised to see an institution like Saint Mary’s turn to a place like Regis to take over adult education programs. “Higher education is scalable and larger providers have a huge advantage in marketing and online education,” he said.  “It’s just very difficult to develop a curriculum and manage and market it” in adult education, when you are a small college, Gallagher said.  Eduventures — which counts both Regis and Phoenix among its clients — has predicted that more nonprofit colleges may be purchased by for-profit institutions. That happened this month when Bridgepoint Education, a for-profit higher education company, bought the Franciscan University of the Prairies.  But he said the same factors that prompt that prediction may also apply to places like Regis that are big enough to compete with the larger for-profit institutions.  Officials at Saint Mary’s said they were drawn to Regis because it is a nonprofit institution. And Husson, the Regis administrator, said that the university’s traditional emphasis on values and ethics shapes all its programs.
Scott Jaschik, "How to Compete," Inside Higher Ed, March 18, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/18/regis 
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education programs are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm 

Neil J. Salkind, a professor and a book agent, offers advice on how to get a publisher interested --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/03/21/salkind 

What is the current bid for the solutions manual and test bank of your chosen textbook?
Wiley officials declined to release the names of those who were sued. But they said that settlements have been reached with students at Arizona State, Northeastern, Pennsylvania State and Wayne State Universities; the Universities of Florida and Wisconsin at Madison; and several University of California campuses.  “This is a new form of cheating and copyright violation with a Malthusian growth cycle,” said Roy S. Kaufman, legal director of Wiley. Students somehow obtain the materials, copy them and then distribute several copies, which are in turn copied and sold, he said.  Even with Wiley’s efforts of the past few months, sales of the materials are rampant, he said.  On eBay, you can find these materials by searching for “solutions manual;” there are choices of texts in many fields and from many publishers. Science and engineering fields seem to be particularly hot sellers, with bids for the materials related to many books standing at more than $100.
Scott Jaschik, "A New Form of Cheating," Inside Higher Ed, March 18, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/18/cheating 

Vietnam Chronicles:  Separating Fact from Fiction
The Vietnam War suffered famously from such home-front confusion, and from policy confusion too. Thus "Vietnam Chronicles" (Texas Tech University Press, 917 pages, $50) is especially welcome -- for what it tells us about Vietnam, of course, but also for what is says about the myth-making and misperceptions that surround any war. The book consists primarily of recently declassified transcriptions of the weekly intelligence updates at U.S. military headquarters in Saigon -- officially, at Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV).
James Schlesinger, "Where Myth Trumped Truth,"  March 18, 2005; Page W6 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111110094318983000,00.html?mod=todays_us_weekend_journal 

Surge in undocumented immigrants
The nation's undocumented immigrant population surged to 10.3 million last year, spurred largely since 2000 by the arrivals of unauthorized Mexicans in the United States, a report being released Monday says.  The population of undocumented residents in the United States increased by about 23 percent from 8.4 million in the four-year period ending last March, according to the analysis of government data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a private research group.  That equates to a net increase of roughly 485,000 per year between 2000 and 2004. The estimate was derived by subtracting the number of unauthorized immigrants who leave the United States, die or acquire legal status from the number of new undocumented immigrants that arrive each year.  The prospect of better job opportunities in the United States than in their native countries remains a powerful lure for many immigrants, said Pew center director Roberto Suro, pointing to a reason often cited by other researchers.
Genaro C. Armas, Associated Press, March 21, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/immigrantsMarch21 

Civil rights and immigrant activists say a handful of bills in the Legislature unfairly target foreign nationals, but sponsors of the legislation claim they're just trying to slow the flow of illegal immigrants into Tennessee.  One proposed law would require drivers license exams be given only in English, and another would deny public benefits such as TennCare and driving certificates to foreign nationals. One bill would prohibit immigrants from getting any state government services if they cannot show they're in the country legally.
WBIR, March 21, 2005 --- http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?provider=KNS&storyid=24208 

Iraqi Business Women's Association
I am explaining all of this so you, the reader, may understand how brave a woman like Tammy is. Tammy, of course, is an alias. She is Iraqi.  Tammy is President of the Iraqi Business Women Association (IBWA). The objective of the association is to assist Iraqi women in realizing their ambitions. Iraqi women (who live within the "red zone") are trained how to start and run their own business. They learn how to use the computer, how to type resumes, speak better English and so much more. It is a non-profit organization founded in 2003.  I had my first meeting with Tammy a few weeks ago. She went through tremendous circumstances just to meet me. The purpose of the meeting was to find out more about her organization and in what ways I could help.  We decided what they could use the most is proved and solid advice from American women. Real women in real jobs. Real women in real businesses. Real women in real careers. Giving them the opportunity for their minds to be opened to the plethora of opportunities awaiting them, possibilities of being: doctors, lawyers, store owners, restaurateurs, owning and operating manufacturing plants, salons, distributorships,...and doesn't the list goes on?
William D. Hodges, "Iraqi Business Women's Association," Free Republic, March 21, 2005 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1367174/posts 
Jensen Comment:  Many Iraqi's, men and women, are being especially brave in their efforts to bring a new freedom and a new economy to Iraq.

Corruption Scandal in France
Senior allies of President Jacques Chirac -- including four former ministers -- were among nearly 50 people who appeared in court in Paris at the start of one of France's biggest ever political corruption trials.  A total of 47 defendants -- including politicians, party officials, and representatives of some of France's biggest building companies -- are accused of fixing public works contracts in the Paris region in order to obtain illegal party funding.  One of several financial scandals to come to light from Chirac's long tenure to 1995 as mayor of Paris, the affair centres on kickbacks worth more than 70 million euros (93 million dollars) allegedly paid by the building firms in order to secure bids to renovate secondary schools around the capital.  Under a secret arrangement that lasted from 1989 to 1997, companies funnelled back two percent of the money paid by the regional Ile-de-France council, with 1.2 percent going to Chirac's Rally for the Republic (RPR) and its ally the Republican party (PR), and 0.8 percent going to the Socialists (PS), according to the prosecution.
"Chirac allies among 47 accused in major French corruption trial," AFP, March 21, 2005 --- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1511&e=5&u=/afp/20050321/wl_afp/francejusticepolitics_050321142150 

Bob Jensen's fraud updates are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm 

Texas lawmaker proposes ban on cheerleading since it is contradictory to sexual abstinence
"It's just too sexually oriented, you know, the way they're shaking their behinds and going on, breaking it down," said Edwards, a 26-year veteran of the Texas House. "And then we say to them, 'don't get involved in sex unless it's marriage or love, it's dangerous out there' and yet the teachers and directors are helping them go through those kind of gyrations."  Under Edwards' bill, if a school district knowingly permits such a performance, funds from the state would be reduced in an amount to be determined by the education commissioner.
April Castro, "Lawmaker Seeks to End 'Sexy' Cheerleading," Washington Times, March 18, 2005 --- http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/S/SUGGESTIVE_CHEERLEADING?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME 

The Psychology Department:  Where the hard and the soft sciences overlap is still pretty soft
For all its flaws, neuroimaging is here to stay. No self-respecting psych department can afford to forgo it. Of the dozen or so new faculty members recently hired by his department, says Phillip Shaver, chairman of psychology at the University of California, Davis, 10 use primarily neuroimaging. Economists, political scientists and sociologists are not far behind. As with all powerful tools, let the user beware.
Sharon Begley, "While Brain Imaging Offers New Knowledge, It Can Be an Illusion," The Wall Street Journal,  March 18, 2005; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111110678590183261,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace 

Accounting to the rescue
Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea has offshore oil and gas fields and related pipelines it is currently developing with international partners, led by BP. Central Asia's Kyrgyzstan depends on gold mines, the largest of which is owned by Canadian-based Centerra Gold, for about 10% of its GDP. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has financed these projects and is among the international and local entities encouraging greater transparency and improved governance in state and private enterprise across the region.  These two young states are at the vanguard of a fledgling movement among poor nations with valuable hydrocarbon and mineral wealth to publish the revenues received from their multinational partners. It is much hoped that greater transparency and accountability in the resource sector will enhance reform in other aspects of these countries' transition to market economies based in well-functioning democracies.  Revenue reporting is vital in combating corruption and what is known as the "resource curse." Many countries seemingly blessed with oil, gas, precious metals and minerals and other high-value nonrenewable resources have suffered macroeconomic destabilization from huge and rapid inflows of resource revenues, particularly for oil and gas. Some governments have squandered such revenues. This is easily done when taxes and royalties paid to government by mining and logging companies are not reported publicly via the legislature as would be normal in developed democracies.  Experience shows that citizens of such countries can end up worse off than previous generations when corrupt elites use the revenues to stifle necessary reforms, to suppress dissent and to promote their own ethnic groups and cronies. The result, as seen in parts of Africa in particular, can be civil unrest, even outright war.
Jean Lemierre, "Beating the 'Resource Curse' With Transparency," The Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2005, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111110016176782969,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 
Bob Jensen's threads on revenue reporting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/eitf01.htm 

The condition of large tails in the distribution is known as leptokurtosis.
I bet you really wanted to know this about return distributions:  This means that there are more frequent large negative outliers than there are large positive outliers.
Return distributions can be described by what are known as "moments" of the distribution. Most market participants understand the first two moments of a distribution: they identify the mean and variance of the distribution. Often in finance, it is assumed that the returns to financial assets follow a normal, or bell-shaped, distribution. However, this is not the case for credit-risky assets. Credit-risky assets are typically exposed to significant downside risk associated with credit downgrades, defaults, and bankruptcies. This downside risk can be described in terms of kurtosis and skewness. Kurtosis is a term used to describe the general condition that the probability mass associated with the tails of a return distribution, otherwise known as "outlier events," is different from that of a normal distribution. The condition of large tails in the distribution is known as leptokurtosis. This means that the tails of the distribution have a greater concentration of mass (more outlier events) than what would be expected if the returns were symmetrically distributed under a normal distribution. The skew of a distribution is also measured relative to a normal distribution. A normal distribution has no skew--its returns are symmetrically distributed around the mean return. A negative skew to a distribution indicates a bias towards downside exposure. This means that there are more frequent large negative outliers than there are large positive outliers. This indicates a return profile biased towards large negative returns.
Mark J.P. Anson, Frank J. Fabozzi, Moorad Chaudhry, and Ren-Raw Chen, Credit Derivatives:  Instruments, Applications, and Pricing, (Wiley, 2003, ISBN: 047146600X, Page 15)

Question
What do you ask (newly admitted MBAs to the Sloan School at MIT) students to do before they get to campus? 
Answer
We have an admit Web site, where the school loads different information for incoming students. We offer advice on many aspects of the program -- from recommended business attire to summer reading material. We have them fill out Meyers-Briggs and Career Leader self-assessment tests, and we review them in a day-long seminar during orientation.
"What Sets Sloan MBAs Apart:  Career Development Director Jacqueline Wilbur hails MIT's B-school grads for their intelligence and quirky individuality," Business Week, March 16, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/SloanNewMBAs 

I won't raise my glass to this one!
Alcohol consumption accounted for 1,715 deaths among traditional-age college students in 2001, according to a study released Thursday by the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.  That represents an increase of about 6 percent (after being adjusted for the rise in the number of college-age people) from the 1,575 alcohol-related deaths three years earlier, in 1998, according to the study, which was published in the latest edition of the Annual Review of Public Health.  The study also found a sharp rise in the proportion of students aged 18 to 24 who acknowledged driving drunk, to 31.4 percent in 2001 from 26.5 percent in 1998. That represents an increase in the number of students who drove drunk over that three-year period to 2.8 million, from 2.3 million.
Doug Lederman, "Death by Drinking," Inside Higher Ed, March 18, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/18/alcohol 

The minority pool among GMAT takers is just not big enough
Like Murphy, most of the latest round of B-school applicants are now receiving acceptance -- or rejection -- letters for this fall. And as the offers go out, the level of minority enrollment is a pressing concern for administrators at top schools. Enrollment of Asian Americans is strong, at around 15% to 25% for top MBA programs. But overall enrollment of under-represented minorities -- African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans -- has remained flat at about 10% at accredited business schools, according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business."OUTDATED TERM." That figure is way below those groups' share of the population. Recruiting African Americans, who comprise 12% of the U.S. population and only about 7% of the U.S. B-school student body, is particularly difficult. Although the number of nonwhites taking the GMAT has steadily increased in recent years, the number of African Americans taking the exam dropped slightly in 2003, according to the Graduate Management Admissions Council. And some B-school insiders fear the effort to correct the balance is about to get even more difficult.
Francesca Di Meglio, "Building a Fire Under the Melting Pot:  Top B-schools are doing their best to boost the number of minority applicants. Trouble is, there just aren't enough to go around," Business Week, March 16, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/MeltingPot 

Goodnight, Peter. Goodnight, Tom. Goodnight, Dan.
Until Ted Turner ruined it. The networks' business model never had room in its schedule for long-form news coverage. By the time Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw retired, they were Lears in a dying kingdom, overrun by barbarian talk-show hosts and Internet bloggers.  Are we better off? The political diversity the networks ludicrously refused to admit as a problem is now everywhere. Cable, notably FOX, has democratized and leveled the opinion field. For all the pious right-mindedness that gushed out of the three networks, Barbara Walters and Lesley Stahl never had a snowball's chance of sitting in those anchor chairs, while now most of cable's anchors seem to be women.  In the golden age of the network Anchorman, TV news was often pompous, wrong and yes, waaay too liberal. But for all this, it brought -- it forced -- the world's most liberal standard of free speech and discussion into some rather dark and closed places. It was about this time that the United Nations -- chockablock with dictators -- started holding conferences on America's "cultural imperialism." In no small part, they meant Dan, Peter and Tom and their probing camera armies.  This week, when grand images poured out of Lebanon of a million people massed against an occupier, it was reported by whichever cable anchor was on shift that hour. News itself rules the kingdom now, so there's no longer much call for an Anchorman Chronicles. Goodnight, Peter. Goodnight, Tom. Goodnight, Dan.
Daniel Henninger, "Lifting Anchor: The Last Chronicle Of Dan Rather," The Wall Street Journal,  March 18, 2005; Page A12 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111110324952483100,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Former Ernst & Young Tax Advisors:  Caught in the Middle of a Post-Sarbanes Client Tug-a-War
Carolyn Campbell says she decided it was time to leave accounting firm Ernst & Young when she realized she would have to build a new client base largely from scratch if she stayed.  Ms. Campbell, 35 years old, is an accountant whose specialty is advising large companies on local and state taxes. For most of her career, the Big Four firm's audit clients supplied the bulk of her work. But those jobs are harder to come by. Amid concerns of conflicts of interest, more public companies are cutting back on giving other, lucrative "nonauditing" assignments to their independent auditors amid concerns of conflicts of interest. That means less work for consultants employed by Big Four firms. In some cases, Ms. Campbell says, Ernst told her that longtime audit clients were off-limits ... So in October Ms. Campbell, an 11-year Ernst veteran, left her position in Houston as a senior tax manager to work for Alvarez & Marsal LLC, a consulting firm that doesn't do audits. "I think I had a better opportunity working for a nonaccounting firm," she says.  Now she is one of 13 former Ernst consultants at the center of a lawsuit that Ernst filed last month in a New York state court in Manhattan, accusing Alvarez & Marsal of raiding its tax and real-estate divisions' personnel, poaching its clients, interfering with its business and misappropriating confidential information.  Alvarez says it hasn't engaged in any improper conduct and argues that the suit is a sign of the accounting industry's struggle to adjust to the post-Enron Corp. world.
Jonathan Weil, "In Post-Enron World, Accounting Firms Fight Over the Pieces," The Wall Street Journal,  March 18, 2005,  Page C1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111109239427082751,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing 
Bob Jensen's threads on auditor independence and professionalism are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud001.htm#Professionalism 

The new Foucault Society
The Foucault Society is involved in the study and application of Michel Foucault's ideas within a contemporary context and to open up a discourse to the widest possible audience.  The Society's new website serves as a resource for information, news, and events. It is designed to serve as a means of exchanging ideas about the works of Michel Foucault.
 Foucault Society --- http://www.foucaultsociety.org/

I dream of the intellectual destroyer of evidence and universalities, the one who, in the inertias and constraints of the present, locates and marks the weak points, the openings, the lines of power, who incessantly displaces himself, doesn't know exactly where he is heading nor what he'll think tomorrow because he is too attentive to the present.
Michel Foucault, "The End of the Monarchy of Sex" from Foucault Live: Interviews, 1966-1984, tr. John Johnston, ed. Sylvere Lotringer (New York: Semiotext(e), 1989), p. 155.

The English have been watching too much U.S. television:  Take a flying leap in legal lotto
A teenage criminal who received £567,000 in compensation after falling through a roof while trespassing boasted about his wealth yesterday, saying that he was looking forward to buying "a few houses and a flash car".   I deserve this money and I don't care what anybody says about me," he said. "I'm going to buy a big house so I have a place to live with me mum when she gets out of jail. I might buy a few houses - I'll buy whatever I want." He added: "The papers just call me a yob and a thug because I've been done for robbery and assault but those were just silly stupid little things, like.  "I want to spend my money the way I want without people interfering and I want to have a prosperous future."
Peter Zimonjic, "I'll buy houses and a flash car, says yob awarded £567,000, Telegraph-News, March 2, 2005 --- http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/20/nyob20.xml

The United Nations celebrates International Women's Day --- http://www.un.org/events/women/iwd/2005/ 

From UCLA:  Archive of American Folk Medicine --- http://www.folkmed.ucla.edu/ 

Nations from Europe to Eastern Asia are on a fast track to pass the United States in scientific excellence and technological innovation.
For more than half a century, the United States has led the world in scientific discovery and innovation. It has been a beacon, drawing the best scientists to its educational institutions, industries and laboratories from around the globe. However, in today’s rapidly evolving competitive world, the United States can no longer take its supremacy for granted. Nations from Europe to Eastern Asia are on a fast track to pass the United States in scientific excellence and technological innovation. The Task Force on the Future of American Innovation has developed a set of benchmarks to assess the international standing of the United States in science and technology. These benchmarks in education, the science and engineering (S&E) workforce, scientific knowledge, innovation, investment and high-tech economic output reveal troubling trends across the research and development (R&D) spectrum. The United States still leads the world in research and discovery, but our advantage is rapidly eroding, and our global competitors may soon overtake us.
"THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY: IS THE UNITED STATES LOSING ITS COMPETITIVE EDGE?" THE TASK FOR C E ON THE FUTUR E OF AME R I CAN INNOVAT ION, February `6, 2005 --- http://www.futureofinnovation.org/PDF/Benchmarks.pdf 

Reinvigorating the Humanities: Enhancing Research and Education on Campus and Beyond
Association of American Universities --- http://www.aau.edu/
Founded in 1900, the Association of American Universities (AAU) initially consisted of the fourteen universities that offered the Ph.D. degree. Currently their number includes 60 American universities and two Canadian universities. The AAU's overall mission is to develop national policy positions of primary relevance to academic research and graduate and professional education. Of course, the organization's work also extends to other germane areas, including timely discussion of undergraduate education. On the AAU site, visitors can learn about the organization's most recent work, read about its positions on intellectual property issues, and peruse the latest AAU newsletters. The section of the site dedicated to internally produced reports will be of great interest to some, as it contains helpful work on such topics as "Reinvigorating the Humanities: Enhancing Research and Education on Campus and Beyond"
Quoted from the Scout Report on March 17. 2005 

Defining a new role for the humanities in the university and in society
More recently, the humanities have been caught in a conflict between over-simplified aristocratic and democratic notions of liberal arts education. Under the former, the liberal arts are viewed as being distinctly not useful; under the latter, they are seen as providing ideas of value to all citizens. Indeed, scholars and university administrators need to bear in mind the value of the humanities in the education of all of a university’s students, the usefulness of this knowledge in the professional lives of those students, and society’s need for a common base of understanding and an educated citizenry. Recently, those closely involved with the humanities —scholars, university administrators, academic society officials, and others—have begun separate reexaminations of established traditions and expectations, leading perhaps to defining a new role for the humanities in the university and in society. This report is intended to further prompt that reexamination of the humanities on university campuses, to identify steps that some institutions already have taken, and to propose future action.
I quoted the above from the Executive Summary at http://www.aau.edu/issues/ExecSumm.pdf 
You can get more details from http://www.aau.edu/issues/humanities.cfm 

Reinvigorating the Humanities: Enhancing Research and Education on Campus and Beyond - pdf - April 22, 2004  http://www.aau.edu/issues/humanities.cfm

Note: This report can be downloaded in its entirety -- which could take considerable time -- or by selecting individual sections below. Reinvigorating the Humanities by downloadable section: Executive Summary and Table of         Contents - pdf Part I: The Role and Status of the         Humanities at AAU Universities - pdf Part II: Recommendations and Ongoing         Activities at AAU Universities - pdf Part III: Appendicies             Additional Examples - pdf             The Humanities Support                 Infrastructure - pdf             University of Toronto's                 Humanities Campaign - pdf             AAM Position Statement on                 University Museums and                 Collections - pdf             References - pdf   Index - pdf

University of California researchers surveyed thousands of faculty members throughout the system’s campuses on the number of hours they spent providing care of any sort for their families. They previously released general data confirming conventional wisdom: that women have more care burdens than men.  But additional data presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Higher Education compared hours spent on care by male and female faculty members of the same age groups, and with the same status of being a parent or not being one.  The following table shows that while gaps are minimal between men and women without children, they are significant for men and women with children:

Hours Spent on Family Care, by Age

Marc Goulden, a researcher for the University of California, said that the data pointed to a shortcoming of many policies adopted by colleges to help parents. The policies tend to focus on the time demands on new parents, but ignore the reality that time demands are as great or greater when kids start to grow up as when they are babies.
Scott Jaschik, "Unequal Burden," Inside Higher Ed, March 21, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/21/care 

Breakthrough in adult (as opposed to embryonic) stem cell research
Experiments have shown adult stem cells isolated from the olfactory mucosa have the ability to develop into many different cell types if they are given the right chemical or cellular environment," explains Mackay-Sim.  New nerve cells, glial cells, liver cells, heart cells, muscle cells -- all were grown in a dish from stem cells from the human nose. Establishing the versatility of these adult stem cells was in itself a significant scientific achievement, but the Griffith University team's experiments also uncovered a raft of additional advantages.  For starters, such cells are easily harvested. The research team's doctor, prominent Brisbane ear, nose and throat specialist Chris Perry, was able to extract them from consenting patients - and later from the scientists themselves - by simply spraying the inside of the nose with a local anaesthetic and then removing a sample no bigger than a grain of pepper.  The harvested stem cells were not only readily available but proved to be astonishingly easy to grow in the laboratory, with millions of them forming within weeks. Down the track, once all the required trials are carried out - which could take at least another five years - it might well be possible for a healthy person to have his olfactory stem cells harvested, a mildly uncomfortable process that takes barely 10 minutes, grown in a lab and then frozen for injection years later into -- to give just one example -- the withered muscles of a heart after a heart attack.
Wayne Smith, "Sweet Smell of Success," The Australian, March 22, 2005 --- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12616654^28737,00.html 

More nonprofit colleges may be purchased by for-profit institutions
Sean Gallagher, a senior analyst at Eduventures, which does research on the education industry for investors and colleges, said he is not surprised to see an institution like Saint Mary’s turn to a place like Regis to take over adult education programs. “Higher education is scalable and larger providers have a huge advantage in marketing and online education,” he said.  “It’s just very difficult to develop a curriculum and manage and market it” in adult education, when you are a small college, Gallagher said.  Eduventures — which counts both Regis and Phoenix among its clients — has predicted that more nonprofit colleges may be purchased by for-profit institutions. That happened this month when Bridgepoint Education, a for-profit higher education company, bought the Franciscan University of the Prairies.  But he said the same factors that prompt that prediction may also apply to places like Regis that are big enough to compete with the larger for-profit institutions.  Officials at Saint Mary’s said they were drawn to Regis because it is a nonprofit institution. And Husson, the Regis administrator, said that the university’s traditional emphasis on values and ethics shapes all its programs.
Scott Jaschik, "How to Compete," Inside Higher Ed, March 18, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/18/regis 
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education programs are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm 

Neil J. Salkind, a professor and a book agent, offers advice on how to get a publisher interested --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/03/21/salkind 

What is the current bid for the solutions manual and test bank of your chosen textbook?
Wiley officials declined to release the names of those who were sued. But they said that settlements have been reached with students at Arizona State, Northeastern, Pennsylvania State and Wayne State Universities; the Universities of Florida and Wisconsin at Madison; and several University of California campuses.  “This is a new form of cheating and copyright violation with a Malthusian growth cycle,” said Roy S. Kaufman, legal director of Wiley. Students somehow obtain the materials, copy them and then distribute several copies, which are in turn copied and sold, he said.  Even with Wiley’s efforts of the past few months, sales of the materials are rampant, he said.  On eBay, you can find these materials by searching for “solutions manual;” there are choices of texts in many fields and from many publishers. Science and engineering fields seem to be particularly hot sellers, with bids for the materials related to many books standing at more than $100.
Scott Jaschik, "A New Form of Cheating," Inside Higher Ed, March 18, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/18/cheating 

Vietnam Chronicles:  Separating Fact from Fiction
The Vietnam War suffered famously from such home-front confusion, and from policy confusion too. Thus "Vietnam Chronicles" (Texas Tech University Press, 917 pages, $50) is especially welcome -- for what it tells us about Vietnam, of course, but also for what is says about the myth-making and misperceptions that surround any war. The book consists primarily of recently declassified transcriptions of the weekly intelligence updates at U.S. military headquarters in Saigon -- officially, at Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV).
James Schlesinger, "Where Myth Trumped Truth,"  March 18, 2005; Page W6 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111110094318983000,00.html?mod=todays_us_weekend_journal 

Surge in undocumented immigrants
The nation's undocumented immigrant population surged to 10.3 million last year, spurred largely since 2000 by the arrivals of unauthorized Mexicans in the United States, a report being released Monday says.  The population of undocumented residents in the United States increased by about 23 percent from 8.4 million in the four-year period ending last March, according to the analysis of government data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a private research group.  That equates to a net increase of roughly 485,000 per year between 2000 and 2004. The estimate was derived by subtracting the number of unauthorized immigrants who leave the United States, die or acquire legal status from the number of new undocumented immigrants that arrive each year.  The prospect of better job opportunities in the United States than in their native countries remains a powerful lure for many immigrants, said Pew center director Roberto Suro, pointing to a reason often cited by other researchers.
Genaro C. Armas, Associated Press, March 21, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/immigrantsMarch21 

Civil rights and immigrant activists say a handful of bills in the Legislature unfairly target foreign nationals, but sponsors of the legislation claim they're just trying to slow the flow of illegal immigrants into Tennessee.  One proposed law would require drivers license exams be given only in English, and another would deny public benefits such as TennCare and driving certificates to foreign nationals. One bill would prohibit immigrants from getting any state government services if they cannot show they're in the country legally.
WBIR, March 21, 2005 --- http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?provider=KNS&storyid=24208 

Iraqi Business Women's Association
I am explaining all of this so you, the reader, may understand how brave a woman like Tammy is. Tammy, of course, is an alias. She is Iraqi.  Tammy is President of the Iraqi Business Women Association (IBWA). The objective of the association is to assist Iraqi women in realizing their ambitions. Iraqi women (who live within the "red zone") are trained how to start and run their own business. They learn how to use the computer, how to type resumes, speak better English and so much more. It is a non-profit organization founded in 2003.  I had my first meeting with Tammy a few weeks ago. She went through tremendous circumstances just to meet me. The purpose of the meeting was to find out more about her organization and in what ways I could help.  We decided what they could use the most is proved and solid advice from American women. Real women in real jobs. Real women in real businesses. Real women in real careers. Giving them the opportunity for their minds to be opened to the plethora of opportunities awaiting them, possibilities of being: doctors, lawyers, store owners, restaurateurs, owning and operating manufacturing plants, salons, distributorships,...and doesn't the list goes on?
William D. Hodges, "Iraqi Business Women's Association," Free Republic, March 21, 2005 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1367174/posts 
Jensen Comment:  Many Iraqi's, men and women, are being especially brave in their efforts to bring a new freedom and a new economy to Iraq.

Corruption Scandal in France
Senior allies of President Jacques Chirac -- including four former ministers -- were among nearly 50 people who appeared in court in Paris at the start of one of France's biggest ever political corruption trials.  A total of 47 defendants -- including politicians, party officials, and representatives of some of France's biggest building companies -- are accused of fixing public works contracts in the Paris region in order to obtain illegal party funding.  One of several financial scandals to come to light from Chirac's long tenure to 1995 as mayor of Paris, the affair centres on kickbacks worth more than 70 million euros (93 million dollars) allegedly paid by the building firms in order to secure bids to renovate secondary schools around the capital.  Under a secret arrangement that lasted from 1989 to 1997, companies funnelled back two percent of the money paid by the regional Ile-de-France council, with 1.2 percent going to Chirac's Rally for the Republic (RPR) and its ally the Republican party (PR), and 0.8 percent going to the Socialists (PS), according to the prosecution.
"Chirac allies among 47 accused in major French corruption trial," AFP, March 21, 2005 --- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1511&e=5&u=/afp/20050321/wl_afp/francejusticepolitics_050321142150 

Bob Jensen's fraud updates are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm 

Texas lawmaker proposes ban on cheerleading since it is contradictory to sexual abstinence
"It's just too sexually oriented, you know, the way they're shaking their behinds and going on, breaking it down," said Edwards, a 26-year veteran of the Texas House. "And then we say to them, 'don't get involved in sex unless it's marriage or love, it's dangerous out there' and yet the teachers and directors are helping them go through those kind of gyrations."  Under Edwards' bill, if a school district knowingly permits such a performance, funds from the state would be reduced in an amount to be determined by the education commissioner.
April Castro, "Lawmaker Seeks to End 'Sexy' Cheerleading," Washington Times, March 18, 2005 --- http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/S/SUGGESTIVE_CHEERLEADING?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME 

The Psychology Department:  Where the hard and the soft sciences overlap is still pretty soft
For all its flaws, neuroimaging is here to stay. No self-respecting psych department can afford to forgo it. Of the dozen or so new faculty members recently hired by his department, says Phillip Shaver, chairman of psychology at the University of California, Davis, 10 use primarily neuroimaging. Economists, political scientists and sociologists are not far behind. As with all powerful tools, let the user beware.
Sharon Begley, "While Brain Imaging Offers New Knowledge, It Can Be an Illusion," The Wall Street Journal,  March 18, 2005; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111110678590183261,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace 

Accounting to the rescue
Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea has offshore oil and gas fields and related pipelines it is currently developing with international partners, led by BP. Central Asia's Kyrgyzstan depends on gold mines, the largest of which is owned by Canadian-based Centerra Gold, for about 10% of its GDP. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has financed these projects and is among the international and local entities encouraging greater transparency and improved governance in state and private enterprise across the region.  These two young states are at the vanguard of a fledgling movement among poor nations with valuable hydrocarbon and mineral wealth to publish the revenues received from their multinational partners. It is much hoped that greater transparency and accountability in the resource sector will enhance reform in other aspects of these countries' transition to market economies based in well-functioning democracies.  Revenue reporting is vital in combating corruption and what is known as the "resource curse." Many countries seemingly blessed with oil, gas, precious metals and minerals and other high-value nonrenewable resources have suffered macroeconomic destabilization from huge and rapid inflows of resource revenues, particularly for oil and gas. Some governments have squandered such revenues. This is easily done when taxes and royalties paid to government by mining and logging companies are not reported publicly via the legislature as would be normal in developed democracies.  Experience shows that citizens of such countries can end up worse off than previous generations when corrupt elites use the revenues to stifle necessary reforms, to suppress dissent and to promote their own ethnic groups and cronies. The result, as seen in parts of Africa in particular, can be civil unrest, even outright war.
Jean Lemierre, "Beating the 'Resource Curse' With Transparency," The Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2005, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111110016176782969,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 
Bob Jensen's threads on revenue reporting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/eitf01.htm 

The condition of large tails in the distribution is known as leptokurtosis.
I bet you really wanted to know this about return distributions:  This means that there are more frequent large negative outliers than there are large positive outliers.
Return distributions can be described by what are known as "moments" of the distribution. Most market participants understand the first two moments of a distribution: they identify the mean and variance of the distribution. Often in finance, it is assumed that the returns to financial assets follow a normal, or bell-shaped, distribution. However, this is not the case for credit-risky assets. Credit-risky assets are typically exposed to significant downside risk associated with credit downgrades, defaults, and bankruptcies. This downside risk can be described in terms of kurtosis and skewness. Kurtosis is a term used to describe the general condition that the probability mass associated with the tails of a return distribution, otherwise known as "outlier events," is different from that of a normal distribution. The condition of large tails in the distribution is known as leptokurtosis. This means that the tails of the distribution have a greater concentration of mass (more outlier events) than what would be expected if the returns were symmetrically distributed under a normal distribution. The skew of a distribution is also measured relative to a normal distribution. A normal distribution has no skew--its returns are symmetrically distributed around the mean return. A negative skew to a distribution indicates a bias towards downside exposure. This means that there are more frequent large negative outliers than there are large positive outliers. This indicates a return profile biased towards large negative returns.
Mark J.P. Anson, Frank J. Fabozzi, Moorad Chaudhry, and Ren-Raw Chen, Credit Derivatives:  Instruments, Applications, and Pricing, (Wiley, 2003, ISBN: 047146600X, Page 15)

Question
What do you ask (newly admitted MBAs to the Sloan School at MIT) students to do before they get to campus? 
Answer
We have an admit Web site, where the school loads different information for incoming students. We offer advice on many aspects of the program -- from recommended business attire to summer reading material. We have them fill out Meyers-Briggs and Career Leader self-assessment tests, and we review them in a day-long seminar during orientation.
"What Sets Sloan MBAs Apart:  Career Development Director Jacqueline Wilbur hails MIT's B-school grads for their intelligence and quirky individuality," Business Week, March 16, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/SloanNewMBAs 

I won't raise my glass to this one!
Alcohol consumption accounted for 1,715 deaths among traditional-age college students in 2001, according to a study released Thursday by the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.  That represents an increase of about 6 percent (after being adjusted for the rise in the number of college-age people) from the 1,575 alcohol-related deaths three years earlier, in 1998, according to the study, which was published in the latest edition of the Annual Review of Public Health.  The study also found a sharp rise in the proportion of students aged 18 to 24 who acknowledged driving drunk, to 31.4 percent in 2001 from 26.5 percent in 1998. That represents an increase in the number of students who drove drunk over that three-year period to 2.8 million, from 2.3 million.
Doug Lederman, "Death by Drinking," Inside Higher Ed, March 18, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/18/alcohol 

The minority pool among GMAT takers is just not big enough
Like Murphy, most of the latest round of B-school applicants are now receiving acceptance -- or rejection -- letters for this fall. And as the offers go out, the level of minority enrollment is a pressing concern for administrators at top schools. Enrollment of Asian Americans is strong, at around 15% to 25% for top MBA programs. But overall enrollment of under-represented minorities -- African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans -- has remained flat at about 10% at accredited business schools, according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business."OUTDATED TERM." That figure is way below those groups' share of the population. Recruiting African Americans, who comprise 12% of the U.S. population and only about 7% of the U.S. B-school student body, is particularly difficult. Although the number of nonwhites taking the GMAT has steadily increased in recent years, the number of African Americans taking the exam dropped slightly in 2003, according to the Graduate Management Admissions Council. And some B-school insiders fear the effort to correct the balance is about to get even more difficult.
Francesca Di Meglio, "Building a Fire Under the Melting Pot:  Top B-schools are doing their best to boost the number of minority applicants. Trouble is, there just aren't enough to go around," Business Week, March 16, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/MeltingPot 

Goodnight, Peter. Goodnight, Tom. Goodnight, Dan.
Until Ted Turner ruined it. The networks' business model never had room in its schedule for long-form news coverage. By the time Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw retired, they were Lears in a dying kingdom, overrun by barbarian talk-show hosts and Internet bloggers.  Are we better off? The political diversity the networks ludicrously refused to admit as a problem is now everywhere. Cable, notably FOX, has democratized and leveled the opinion field. For all the pious right-mindedness that gushed out of the three networks, Barbara Walters and Lesley Stahl never had a snowball's chance of sitting in those anchor chairs, while now most of cable's anchors seem to be women.  In the golden age of the network Anchorman, TV news was often pompous, wrong and yes, waaay too liberal. But for all this, it brought -- it forced -- the world's most liberal standard of free speech and discussion into some rather dark and closed places. It was about this time that the United Nations -- chockablock with dictators -- started holding conferences on America's "cultural imperialism." In no small part, they meant Dan, Peter and Tom and their probing camera armies.  This week, when grand images poured out of Lebanon of a million people massed against an occupier, it was reported by whichever cable anchor was on shift that hour. News itself rules the kingdom now, so there's no longer much call for an Anchorman Chronicles. Goodnight, Peter. Goodnight, Tom. Goodnight, Dan.
Daniel Henninger, "Lifting Anchor: The Last Chronicle Of Dan Rather," The Wall Street Journal,  March 18, 2005; Page A12 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111110324952483100,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep 

Former Ernst & Young Tax Advisors:  Caught in the Middle of a Post-Sarbanes Client Tug-a-War
Carolyn Campbell says she decided it was time to leave accounting firm Ernst & Young when she realized she would have to build a new client base largely from scratch if she stayed.  Ms. Campbell, 35 years old, is an accountant whose specialty is advising large companies on local and state taxes. For most of her career, the Big Four firm's audit clients supplied the bulk of her work. But those jobs are harder to come by. Amid concerns of conflicts of interest, more public companies are cutting back on giving other, lucrative "nonauditing" assignments to their independent auditors amid concerns of conflicts of interest. That means less work for consultants employed by Big Four firms. In some cases, Ms. Campbell says, Ernst told her that longtime audit clients were off-limits ... So in October Ms. Campbell, an 11-year Ernst veteran, left her position in Houston as a senior tax manager to work for Alvarez & Marsal LLC, a consulting firm that doesn't do audits. "I think I had a better opportunity working for a nonaccounting firm," she says.  Now she is one of 13 former Ernst consultants at the center of a lawsuit that Ernst filed last month in a New York state court in Manhattan, accusing Alvarez & Marsal of raiding its tax and real-estate divisions' personnel, poaching its clients, interfering with its business and misappropriating confidential information.  Alvarez says it hasn't engaged in any improper conduct and argues that the suit is a sign of the accounting industry's struggle to adjust to the post-Enron Corp. world.
Jonathan Weil, "In Post-Enron World, Accounting Firms Fight Over the Pieces," The Wall Street Journal,  March 18, 2005,  Page C1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111109239427082751,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing 
Bob Jensen's threads on auditor independence and professionalism are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud001.htm#Professionalism 

The new Foucault Society
The Foucault Society is involved in the study and application of Michel Foucault's ideas within a contemporary context and to open up a discourse to the widest possible audience.  The Society's new website serves as a resource for information, news, and events. It is designed to serve as a means of exchanging ideas about the works of Michel Foucault.
 Foucault Society --- http://www.foucaultsociety.org/

I dream of the intellectual destroyer of evidence and universalities, the one who, in the inertias and constraints of the present, locates and marks the weak points, the openings, the lines of power, who incessantly displaces himself, doesn't know exactly where he is heading nor what he'll think tomorrow because he is too attentive to the present.
Michel Foucault, "The End of the Monarchy of Sex" from Foucault Live: Interviews, 1966-1984, tr. John Johnston, ed. Sylvere Lotringer (New York: Semiotext(e), 1989), p. 155.

The English have been watching too much U.S. television:  Take a flying leap in legal lotto
A teenage criminal who received £567,000 in compensation after falling through a roof while trespassing boasted about his wealth yesterday, saying that he was looking forward to buying "a few houses and a flash car".   I deserve this money and I don't care what anybody says about me," he said. "I'm going to buy a big house so I have a place to live with me mum when she gets out of jail. I might buy a few houses - I'll buy whatever I want." He added: "The papers just call me a yob and a thug because I've been done for robbery and assault but those were just silly stupid little things, like.  "I want to spend my money the way I want without people interfering and I want to have a prosperous future."
Peter Zimonjic, "I'll buy houses and a flash car, says yob awarded £567,000, Telegraph-News, March 2, 2005 --- http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/20/nyob20.xml

It is easy to ask questions about technology; it is more difficult to ask the right questions. Only by asking the right question will we get the right answer.
Diana Oblinger --- http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm05/erm05211.asp

This is a nice and concise software review for creating Web pages and Web sites

Click here to view the Comparison Chart. (pdf) ---
http://i.cmpnet.com/techlearning/archives/2005/03/05.03.Reviews_chart%20only.pdf

Education lags technology:  "The enemy is us"
Meanwhile, we’ve reached a critical juncture in our institutional commitments to educational technology. Advances in networking and software design finally allow educators to do far more than merely automate the traditional lecture course. Over the last several years, higher education leaders have outfitted their campuses with fat pipelines and high-speed connectivity. Increasingly, their students come to campus equipped with the latest in commercially available PCs and laptops. Hard drives are bigger, graphics accelerators speed up 3D image display, and faster processing chips simulate real-world physics with relative ease.
Marilyn M. Lombardi, "Standing on the Plateau," EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 2 (March/April 2005): 68–69 --- http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm05/erm0528.asp

Education in the distant future
I believe we are headed to a more individualized and learner-centered model of higher education. I envision students having a voluminous menu of postsecondary education options and mixing and matching among these options throughout their adult lives. I see the combination of brain research and software development producing learning materials and pedagogical methods geared to each student’s learning style. And I suspect the profusion of learners choosing among the plentitude of postsecondary options, each offering education in its own fashion, will cause those of us in higher education to deemphasize degrees in favor of competencies. At the same time, I worry that colleges and universities will be left out of these changes because our governance processes are so slow and the new technologies represent such a sharp departure from the notion of the personalized education of the ideal college—described in 1871 by U.S. President (and Williams College alumnus) James A. Garfield as having Mark Hopkins, the nineteenth-century president of Williams College, on one end of a log and a student on the other.
Arthur Levine, "All That Glitters," EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 2 (March/April 2005): 8–9 --- http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm05/erm0525.asp

Educators should place a higher priority on interdisciplinary perspectives
In 1981, Boyer, who was then president of the Carnegie Foundation, and Levine, who would become president of Teacher's College at Columbia University, argued that educators place a higher priority on interdisciplinary perspectives and move to more holistic teaching methods. They asserted that intellectual and social forces were pushing faculty to become narrowly committed to their core disciplines at the expense of undergraduate education.
Rita Jordan, Professor and Head, Department of Management, U.S. Air Force Academy, AACSB eNewsline --- http://www.aacsb.edu/publications/enewsline/Vol-4/Issue-3/dc-jordan.asp 

Some accounting professors may want to dust off their old green eyeshades
"We beg, we borrow, we steal, we grovel, we scour the world" to find accountants with five-plus years of experience in public accounting, says Mark Friedman, New York-based managing director and head of U.S. experienced recruitment at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Hiring across the board at the firm is running nearly 30% above the levels of last year, he says.   Recruiters estimate that pay is up 10% or more. The base salary for a junior partner with 10 to 12 years' experience, one recruiter says, is $500,000. Experienced team leaders can command 20% more than a year ago, as can those with expertise in forensic accounting, in which accountants look for financial missteps and figure out how to fix what went wrong.
Suzanne McGee, "CPA Recruitment Intensifies As Accounting Rules Evolve," The Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2005; Page B6 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111145137773485691,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
Bob Jensen’s threads on accountancy careers are at

"Next-Generation Educational Software: Why We Need It and a Research Agenda for Getting It," by Andries van Dam, Sascha Becker, and Rosemary Michelle Simpson, EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 2 (March/April 2005): 26–43 --- http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm05/erm0521.asp

The dream of universal access to high-quality, personalized educational content that is available both synchronously and asynchronously remains unrealized. For more than four decades, it has been said that information technology would be a key enabling technology for making this dream a reality by providing the ability to produce compelling and individualized content, the means for delivering it, and effective feedback and assessment mechanisms. Although IT has certainly had some impact, it has become a cliché to note that education is the last field to take systematic advantage of IT. There have been some notable successes of innovative software (e.g., the graphing calculator, the Geometer’s Sketchpad, and the World Wide Web as an information-storage and -delivery vehicle), but we continue to teach—and students continue to learn—in ways that are virtually unchanged since the invention of the blackboard.

Despite this disappointing record, we remain optimistic. The dramatic advances in hardware technology, especially during the last decade, provide extraordinary new capabilities, and the desire to “do something” to address the need for lifelong, on-demand learning is finally being widely recognized. The ubiquity and accessibility of the Internet has given rise to a new kind of learning community and environment, one that was predicted by Tim Berners-Lee in his 1995 address to the MIT/Brown Vannevar Bush Symposium1 and that John Seely Brown elaborated into the rich notion of a learning ecology in his seminal article “Growing Up Digital: How the Web Changes Work, Education, and the Ways People Learn.”2 There is great hope that this emergent learning environment will in time pervade all organizations, binding learners and teachers together in informal, ever-changing, adaptive learning communities.

Here we will first recapitulate some well-known technology . . . 

Continued in article

There is an apparent disconnect between the culture of library organizations and that of Net Gen students
The University of Southern California’s Leavey Library logged 1.4 million visits last year.1 That remarkable statistic illustrates how much a library can become part of campus life if it is designed with genuine understanding of the needs of Net Generation (Net Gen) students. This understanding relates not just to the physical facility of the library but to all of the things that a library encompasses: content, access, enduring collections, and services. Libraries have been adjusting their collections, services, and environments to the digital world for at least 20 years. Even prior to ubiquitous use of the Internet, libraries were using technology for access to scholarly databases, for circulation systems, and for online catalogs. With the explosion of Internet technology, libraries incorporated a wide array of digital content resources into their offerings; updated the network, wiring, and wireless infrastructures of their buildings; and designed new virtual and in-person services. However, technology has resulted in more modernization than transformation. There is an apparent disconnect between the culture of library organizations and that of Net Gen students. This chapter will explore how libraries might better adapt to the needs of Net Gen students in a number of specific areas.
"Net Generation Students and Libraries," by Joan K. Lippencott,  EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 2 (March/April 2005)
 

You can forward your own slang
A monster online dictionary of the rich colourful language we call slang... all from a British perspective, with new slang added every month. If you are unable to immediately find the term you are looking for, try the slang search. A short essay giving an outline of the parameters of this site and brief information on slang can be accessed on the introduction page ---  http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/index.htm
(Forwarded by David Coy)

Reducing pollution is a priority in China
A solar-energy collecting tube invented by a professor at Tsinghua University could make solar power more practical. The glass vacuum heat collector has an aluminum nitride coating that absorbs solar energy. Each of the coating’s multiple layers absorbs a different wavelength of light, turning it into heat. The collector can capture 50 to 60 percent of incoming solar energy, which can then be used to heat water or air. Tsinghua has applied for more than 30 patents on the device, which is already offered commercially in China, Switzerland, Japan, and Germany.  In another energy efficiency project, the research group for clean-energy automobiles at the College of ­Automotive Engineering at Shanghai Tongji University is developing what it calls the “Chunhui” (or “Spring Sunlight”) series of cars, which have independent electric drives for each of their four wheels. The Chunhui cars are powered by lithium batteries and hydrogen fuel cells; their only emission is water vapor.
Elsie Chan, "China," MIT's Technology Review, April 2005 --- http://www2.technologyreview.com/articles/05/04/issue/feature_gp_china.asp?trk=nl

Also see "Nuclear Power Is the Answer To China's Energy Needs ," by Canice Chan, The Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111144723579485592,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

Just another day on the fraud beat
The Securities and Exchange Commission slapped Time Warner Inc. with a $300 million fine, its second-biggest fine in history, and issued a stinging rebuke of the company's conduct, capping a three-year investigation into accounting practices at the media titan . . . The SEC yesterday filed a complaint against Time Warner, at the same time it announced the settlement, that charged Time Warner with overstating online advertising revenue and the number of AOL's Internet subscribers, as well as aiding and abetting three other securities frauds. It also charged Time Warner with violating a cease-and-desist order against the America Online division issued in 2000.  "Some of the misconduct occurred while the ink on a prior commission cease-and-desist order was barely dry," said SEC Director of Enforcement Stephen M. Cutler in a statement. "Such an institutional failure calls for strong sanctions."
Julia Angwin, "SEC Fines Time Warner $300 Million," The Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2005; Page A3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111142076929485150,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Bob Jensen's threads on revenue accounting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/eitf01.htm

Median GMAT scores in accredited institutions --- http://www.aacsb.edu/publications/enewsline/Vol-4/Issue-3/dd-mediangmatchart.asp 

It may no longer be based solely on merit at Cal:  Top finalists may not get scholarhips
Faculty committee at the University of California says that the way the National Merit Scholarship Program chooses winners is unfair and that its practice of giving scholarships regardless of need is "contrary to U.C. standards and philosophy."  Eligibility for merit scholarships is determined solely by scores on the Preliminary SAT exam, formally the PSAT/NMSQT. Of more than 1.3 million 11th-grade students who take the exam each year, about 16,000 are chosen as Merit semifinalists. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a nonprofit company in Evanston, Ill., then uses student essays, high school records, recommendations from school principals and scores from a second test, the SAT, to reduce the pool to 15,000 finalists.
Karen W. Arenson, "Faculty Panel at Cal Faults Way to Pick Merit Scholars," The New York Times, March 22, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/education/22merit.html?oref=login

From the land of the not-so-free
Yet another battle in the ongoing war between Chinese authorities and Internet freedoms has culminated with Beijing's Tsinghua University online-discussion forum being closed to non-students. Off-campus users, such as alumni, made up a large portion of the site's visitors, so the decision's impact will not be small. But this incident just shows once again that Chinese netizens will not be easily defeated.  What is most notable about this recent repression attempt has been the Chinese reaction: The restriction of Tsinghua's forum has been followed by reports of protests, both virtual and real. Messages protesting the closing off of the forum have spread through the Chinese blogosphere, and there are photos circulating on the Internet that claim to be of protests by Tsinghua students.
"Another Chinese Internet Battle," The Wall Street Journal,  March 23, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111153019822086799,00.html?mod=opinion%5Fmain%5Feurope%5Fasia

Tax craziness in Michigan
The better course would be for Michigan legislators to approve tax cuts for manufacturers, dump the job-destroying tax hikes, and balance the state budget with spending restraint. Better yet, they could finish the job that was started under previous Governor John Engler of phasing down, and eventually phasing out, the SBT.   In the meantime, there's a perverse logic in Ms. Granholm's belief that her plan will create new jobs by cutting taxes on the industries that are laying off workers and raising taxes on the professional service industries that actually are hiring them. The Granholm plan may well keep Michigan Number One -- in high taxes, business relocations, and job losses.
"Michigan Is for Taxers," The Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2005; Page A14 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111153958769787116,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

Tune in digitally at MSU
The campus radio station at Michigan State University now broadcasts digital, high-definition signals, making it one of the first university stations to use the emerging technology. Currently there are about 200 primarily commercial stations around the United States broadcasting high-definition signals, which are much clearer than analog signals. High-definition receivers are finding their way into homes and cars, and major broadcasting companies are reportedly considering upgrading another 1,500 stations to use digital transmitters. Digital transmissions also add a data component that can include information such as song title or cover art from a song’s album. Gary A. Reid, general manager of Michigan State’s station, said he looks forward to experimenting with the data signal to learn what uses might be appropriate or valuable to the community, such as campus news, sports scores, or weather. Michigan State bought the digital transmitter when its analog transmitter was failing, and Reid said the digital transmitter, which cost $90,000, cost only about $20,000 more than a comparable analog unit.
Chronicle of Higher Education --- http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i15/15a03102.htm
Also see http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm05/erm0524.asp

The French will be utterly exhausted
After weeks of angry debate and street protests, French lawmakers effectively dismantled the country's 35-hour workweek by voting to allow employers to increase working hours.  The National Assembly yesterday approved a bill permitting employers to negotiate deals with staff to increase working time by 220 hours a year in return for better pay. The bill effectively clears the way for the gradual erosion of the 35-hour week, a flagship policy of the former Socialist-led government that gave many people more time off but added to concerns about France's declining competitiveness.
Associated Press, "French No Longer Entitled to 35-Hour Workweek," The Wall Street Journal,  March 23, 2005; Page A13 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111150639516786335,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Forget steroid abuse among athletes:  The bad addiction is donuts
Miami Heat star Shaquille O'Neal will testify before a Congressional committee investigating rumors of widespread doughnut abuse in the National Basketball Association, the chairman of the committee confirmed today.  With a new study showing that 200 out of 426 NBA players are overweight, the probe into doughnut abuse is "long overdue" said Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.
Andy Borowitz, "Krispy Kreme calls government hearings a ‘witch-hunt’," Jewish World Review, March 23, 2005 --- http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0305/borowitz032305.php3

Not so carefully researched
Begin with the simplest errors of fact. The aggregate value of global trade was not $4 billion when President Clinton took office; it was $4 trillion, according to the OECD. The Palestinians have not had "several" prime ministers since 2003; they've had two. Richard Perle has never been a member of the Bush administration. The Iraqi National Museum was not significantly looted in April 2003; Britain's leftist Guardian newspaper put paid to that legend in 2003. Israelis did not support the dovish Geneva Accords by 53.3%; the actual figure was 31%, while a plurality of 38% opposed them. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 not 1989. Trivia, really, but when Ms. Soderberg snickers about how candidate Bush struggled through a foreign-policy pop quiz in 2000, one is compelled to snicker back.   Next are larger, but equally basic, errors of analysis. "It is now believed that [Abu Musab] Zarqawi operates independently, and even in competition with bin Laden." She must have missed Zarqawi's declaration of fealty to Osama bin Laden in October. (Bin Laden certainly noticed it: He recently ordered Zarqawi to widen the scope of his efforts beyond Iraq.) "While [Ahmed] Chalabi was popular in certain powerful circles in Washington, he had virtually no support in Iraq." Funny, then, that Mr. Chalabi did well enough in January's elections to be in serious contention for the premiership. "The war in Iraq drew the Bush administration's focus away from Afghanistan during the critical two years following the overthrow of the Taliban, making the job there infinitely harder." Infinitely? Ten million Afghan voters missed that nuance.
Brett Stephens' review of The Superpower Myth, by Nancy Soderberg (John Wiley & Sons, 404 pages, $27.95), The Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111144763489585598,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

Five children in critical condition with kidney failure may have picked up a rare infection at petting zoos, health officials said.
"State Probes Kidney Failure In Children After Petting Zoos," Local6.com, March 23, 2004 --- http://www.local6.com/news/4309606/detail.html

Put it in writing in the form of a living will or advance medical directive.
There is a lesson for all of us in the tragic Schiavo case: if you want to exclude politicians from the end-of-life decisions you and your family must make regarding a terminally-ill loved one or, as in the case of Terri Schiavo, a family member who has suffered a catastrophic accident; if you don't want to be used as a political cause celebre by political and religious organizations - express your end-of-life views to your family and loved ones and, better, put it in writing in the form of a living will or advance medical directive.
"ACLU of Florida Welcomes Judge Whittemore’s Ruling in the Schiavo Case," ACLU, March 22, 2005 --- http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=17800&c=27
Jensen Comment:  In spite of my not agreeing with the ACLU on some issues, this is good advice.  And it's important for all adults to declare their wishes at any age rather than wait until they are senior citizens.

Murder and Rape in the Name of Honor?
Known cases of murder and rape committed to protect a family's honour are on the rise across Europe, forcing police to explore the reasons behind such crimes and how to stop them, officials said  At a two-day conference in London, British police spearheaded a campaign to fight so-called honour-based violence, typically committed against women to protect a family's reputation. The problem is greatest in Islamic communities in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, but it has spread as families migrate, bringing their traditional values with them.
"Cases of 'honour crimes' on the rise across Europe: British police," Yahoo News, March 22, 2005 --- http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050322/wl_uk_afp/britaincrimeislam

We will provide the sniper rifles and cannons to kill us
Fifteen years ago, Osama bin Laden sent one of his operatives to the United States to buy and bring back two-dozen .50-caliber rifles, a gun that can kill someone from over a mile away and even bring down an airplane.   In spite of all the recent efforts to curb terrorism, bin Laden could do the same thing today, because buying and shipping the world’s most powerful sniper rifle is not as difficult as you might think
Ed Bradley, "Buying Big Guns? No Big Deal," CBS Sixty Minutes, March 23, 2005 --- http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/18/60minutes/main681562.shtml

Make every word a hyperword?
A researcher at University College London wants to change the basic functioning of the Web, allowing readers of Web pages to change those pages—similar to wikis—and making every word a “hyperword.” The Liquid Information project is the brainchild of Frode Hegland, who is collaborating with Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse. Hegland's vision of the Web is one in which consumers of content can also be producers of content. Users would be able to make connections, add links, and change the way information is presented. On an example page, Hegland has modified a CNN Web page such that users can hover over any word to display a menu of choices, including getting a definition of the word, performing a Google search for the word, and highlighting instances of the word in various colors. Hegland said that we need to replace the current Web, which consists of “handmade, one-way links” with what he calls “deep legibility” so that users can “make connections, explicit or otherwise.” Hegland conceded that a Web like the one he envisions would require smart users. But, he added, “people are pretty smart. The days of baby steps when everything is shown to users are over.”
Wired News --- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66382,00.html

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

Humor of the Week

Forwarded by Paula

Forwarded by Barb Hessel

A man, his wife, and his mother-in-law went on vacation to the Holy Land. While they were there the mother-in-law passed away. The undertaker told them, "You can have her shipped home for $5,000, or you can bury her here in the Holy Land for $150.00." 

The man thought about it for a minute and then told him he would just have her shipped home. 

The undertaker asked, "Why? Why would you spend $5,000 to ship your mother-in-law home, when it would be wonderful to spend only $150.00 to have her buried here?" 

The man said, "A man died here 2000 years ago, he was buried here and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can' t take that chance."

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

PARENT - Job Description

This is hysterical. If it had been presented this way, none of us would have done it!!!!

POSITION : Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma

Dad, Daddy, Dada, Pa

JOB DESCRIPTION : 
Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an, often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities! Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES : 
The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5. Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices. Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION : 
None. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE : 
None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION : 
Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS : 
While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs for life if you play your cards right.

Forwarded by Neal Hannon

(apologies to Sam Cooke)

Bernie’s “Wonderful World”

Don’t know much about ac-coun-ting 
Don’t know much about the SEC 
Don’t know much about the techie stuff 
Don’t know what an adjusting entry is for

But I do know one and one is two 
And I just want …to be with you 
What a wonderful world it would be

Don’t know much about the quarterlies 
Don’t know much about the finance team 
Don’t know much about missing billions 
Don’t know what an auditor’s report means

But I do know that I bought more stock 
Even when the price was sinking fast 
What a wonderful world it’s supposed to be

Now, I don’t claim to be an A student 
I just was trying to coach 
But maybe by being an A student baby 
I could win an appeal for me

Forwarded by Don Mathis

Very clever stuff...no doubt it was thought up by a bored engineer...

1. Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi

2. 2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton

3. 1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope

4. Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond

5. Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram

6. Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour= Knotfurlong

7. 365.25 days of drinking low calorie beer = 1 Lite year

8. 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling

9. Half a large intestine = 1 semicolon

10. 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz

11. Basic unit of laryngitis - 1 hoarsepower

12. Shortest distance between two jokes - a straight line

13. 453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake

14. 1 million phones = 1 megaphone

15. 1 million bicycles = 1 megacycles

16. 365.25 days = 1 unicycle

17. 2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds

18. 10 cards = 1 decacard

19. 52 cards = 1 deckacard

20. 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 fig Newton

21. 1000 grams of wet socks = 1 literhosen

22. 1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche

23. 1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin

24. 10 rations = 1 decaration

25. 100 rations = 1 C-ration

26. 2 monograms = 1 diagram

*27. 4 dimes = 2 paradigms

28. 2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital = 1 I.V. League

Forwarded by Cindy

Jacques Chirac, the French Prime Minister, was   sitting in his office wondering what kind of   mischief he could perpetrate against the United   States when his telephone rang.   

"Hallo, Mr. Chirac!" a heavily accented voice said. "This is Paddy down at the Harp Pub in County Sligo, Ireland. I am ringing to inform ya that we are officially declaring war on ya!" "Well, Paddy," Chirac replied, "this is indeed important news! How big is your army?"

"Right now," said Paddy, after a moment's calculation, "there is meself, me cousin Sean, me next door neighbor Seamus, and the entire dart team from the pub. That makes eight!"

Chirac paused. "I must tell you, Paddy, that I have one hundred thousand men in my army waiting to move on my command."

"Begorra!" said Paddy. "I'll have to ring ya back!"    

Sure enough, the next day, Paddy called again. "Mr.   Chirac, the war is still on. We have managed to get   us some infantry equipment!"    "And what equipment would that be, Paddy?" Chirac asked.

"Well, we have two combines, a bulldozer, and Murphy's farm tractor." Chirac sighed, amused. "I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 6,000 tanks and 5,000 armored personnel carriers. Also, I've increased my army to one hundred fifty thousand since we last spoke."

Saints preserve us!" said Paddy. "I'll have to get back to ya."

Sure enough, Paddy rang again the next day. "Mr. Chirac, the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne! We've modified Jackie McLaughlin's ultra-light with a coople of shotguns in the cockpit, and four boys from the Shamrock Pub have joined us as well!"

Chirac was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat. "I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 100 bombers and 200 fighter planes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to two hundred thousand!"

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" said Paddy. "Again I'll have to ring ya back."

Sure enough, Paddy called again the next day. "Top o' the mornin', Mr.Chirac! I am sorry to tell ya that we have had to call off the war."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Chirac. "Why the sudden change of heart?"     "Well," said Paddy, "we've all had a long chat over   a bunch of pints, and decided there's no foo-kin way   we can feed two hundred thousand prisoners."

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

THE CASTAWAYS

There were two men shipwrecked on this island. The minute they go on the island one of them started screaming and yelling, "We're going to die! We're going to die! There's no food! No Water! We're going to die!"

The second man was propped up against a palm tree and acting so calmly it drove the first man crazy.

"Don't you understand? We're going to die!

The second man replied, "You don't understand, I make $100,000 a week."

The first man looked at him quite dumbfounded and asked, "What difference does that make? We're on an island with no food and no water! We're going to DIE!"

The second man answered, "You just don't get it. I make a $100,000 a week and I tithe ten percent on that $100,000 a week. My pastor will find me!"

Fowarded by Paula

FOR ALL YOU LEXOPHILES (LOVERS OF WORDS) 

1. A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired. 

2. What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead giveaway.) 

3. Time flies like an arrow -- Fruit flies like a banana. (I think Groucho Marx said that one.) 

4. A backward poet writes inverse. 

5. In a democracy, it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your count that votes. 

6. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion. 

7. If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed. 

8. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress. 

9. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat minor. 

10. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds. 

11. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered. 

12. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart. 

13. You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it. 

14. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under. 

15. He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key. 

16. Every calendar's days are numbered. 

17. A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine. 

18. A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat. 

19. He had a photographic memory that was never developed. 

20. A plateau is a high form of flattery. 

21. The short fortuneteller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large. 

22. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end. 

23. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall. 

24. Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine. 

25. When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair she thought she'd dye. 

26. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis. 

27. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses. 

28. Acupuncture is a jab well done. 

29. Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat.

Forwarded by Dick Haar

A MAN is at work one day when he notices that his co-worker is wearing an earring. This man knows his co-worker to be a normally conservative fellow and is curious about his sudden change in fashion sense.

The man walks up to him and says: "I didn't know you were into earrings."

"Don't make such a big deal, it's only an earring," he replies sheepishly.

His friend falls silent for a few minutes, but then his curiosity prods him to say: "So, how long have you been wearing one?"

"Ever since my wife found it in my truck."

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

MONA LISA'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"This you call a smile, after all the money your father and I spent on braces?"

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS' JEWISH MOTHER:
"I don't care what you've discovered, you still could have written.'

MICHELANGELO'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"Why can't you paint on walls like other children? Do you know how hard it is to get that schmutz off of the ceiling?"

NAPOLEON'S JEWISH MOTHER (clean version):
"All right, if you're not hiding your report card inside your jacket, take your hand out of there and show me!"
Jensen Comment:  My former neighbor (Alma Short) in the country outside Tallahassee once found a note from her son in the mail box.  It read:  "Dear Momma, This is my report card.  Thanks for all you've done for me.  I've run away from home."

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"Again with the hat! You can't wear a baseball cap like the other kids?"

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"Next time I catch you throwing money across the Potomac, you can kiss your allowance good-bye!"

THOMAS EDISON'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"Of course I'm proud that you invented the electric light bulb. Now turn it off and go to sleep already!"

PAUL REVERE'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"I don't care where you think you have to go, young man, midnight is long past your bed-time!"

ALBERT EINSTEIN'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"But it's your senior photograph! Couldn't you have done something with your hair?"

MOSES' JEWISH MOTHER:
"That's a good story! Now tell me where you've really been for the last forty years!"

BILL CLINTON'S JEWISH MOTHER: 
"At least Monica was a nice Jewish girl!"

Forwarded by Barb Hessel

Flying Lutern Airlines

Velcome to da Lutern Airlines! Da latest air service to sprout up in Minnesnowta vit service to Visconsin, Nort Dah-kota and sometimes Sout Dah-kota.

Ve are a no-frills airline. We are all in da same boat on Lutern Air, vair flying is an uplifting experience, so velcome aboard. I am Lena Ingvist, yer flight attendant and stewardess, tew. As you know, dere is no first class on Lutern Airlines, airflight tew tousand tventy tew.

Meals are pot luck: rows one tru 6 ver to bring da lefsa; 7 tru 15, da salad, 16 tru 21, da main hot- dish, and 22-30 da rømmegrøt.

Ve vill be singing 99 bottles uv beer on da vall, so basses and tenors pleess sit in da rear of da aircraft, and remember everyvun is responsible for der own baggage. All fares are free-vil offering and the plane vil not land until da budget is met.

Direct yer attention to yer flight attendent who vill acqvaint yew wit da safety system aboard this Lutheran Tvin Yet 599.

"Okay, den listen up; I'm only gonna say dis vunce. In da event of sudden loss uv cabin pressure, I am frankly gonna be real surprised, so vill Captain Olson, becuz ve vill be flying right around 2 tousand feet, so loss of cabin pressure vud probly indicate the Second Coming or somting of dat nature, so I vuldn't bodder vit dem little masks on dem rubber tubes. Yer gonna have bigger tings to vorry about dan yust dat. Just stuff dose tings back up in der littl holes. Probly da masks fell out because of turbulence, which to be honest vit yew, ve've been flying at 2 tousand feet and dat is sort of like driving across a plowed field, but after a vile, you vill get used to it.

In da ewent of a vater landing, I'd say yust fergit it. Start saying Da Lord's prayer and yust hope you have time to git to da part about forgive us our sins as ve forgive dose who sint against us (vich some people say "tresspass against us", vich isn't right., but den, vat can ya dew?)

Use uf cell phones is strictly forbidden, not becuz dey interfere vit the planes navigational system, vich, by da vay, is "seat of the pants all da vay." No, cell phones is a pain in da wazoo, and if God had meant yew to use dem, he vould have put yer mout on da side of yer head, so stow dose suckers!

Ve're gonna start lunch, buffet style vit da coffee pot up front.  First, ve'll have da hymn sing; hymnals are in da seat pocket right  in front of yew. Don't take yers wit you ven you go or I am going to be real upset wit yew, and I ain't kiddin' eeder!"

 So lets say grace:

 "Come Lord Jesus, be our gest, and let dese gifts tew us be blest.
Fadder, Son and Holy Ghost,
May ve land in Dulut or pretty clos."

 Amen

 Tanks for flying Lutern Airlines, flight tew tousand tventy tew.

Forwarded by Dick Wolff