I've now donated these tapes to be archived at the
University of Mississippi which seems to have the largest library of accounting
history, particularly history of accounting in the U.S.
The tapes include some classic presentations and some
real duds. In some cases the speakers like Ray Sommerfeld are now dead. Their
presentations bring tears to the eyes of some old professors like me.
It may take a while for Dale to get these tapes
cataloged, and eventually he may have digital copies of selected presentations
available for distribution. In other cases, scholars may have to travel to
Mississippi to view the presentations.
Except in the areas of technology, it's amazing how many
problems in accounting are recycled without being able to solve systemic
problems such as those illustrations listed at the following two links:
-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Flesher [mailto:acdlf@olemiss.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 2:20 PM
To: Jensen, Robert
Subject: RE: AAA Videos
Bob:
I have just received two boxes
of videotapes from you (144 tapes to supplement the 50+ you sent a couple of
months ago). This looks like a gold mine of information. You had mentioned
earlier that you would recommend some for digitization. I have discussed
this possibility with the librarian in charge of our AICPA National Library
of the Accounting Profession and he indicates there are no major problems in
digitizing the videos and making them available to the general public,
although he wasn't sure about copyright restrictions.
To ease his initial fears
about copyright, we might begin with some videos of you speaking, since you
could grant copyright release from both the photographer and the provider of
information.
Let me know your thoughts, and
thanks for the donation.
The Critical Shortage of Doctoral Graduates in Business and Accountancy in
Particular
Quotations from a New Report Published in May 2006
An overview of doctoral program graduation rates is provided at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DoctoralPrograms There is a Ph.D. glut reported in some disciplines and shortages in other
disciplines, especially in business education programs. The AACSB business
education accrediting agency reports that doctoral graduate output is critically
short in all specializations. The shortage is especially acute in accountancy.
In the 1960s huge catalysts for change in accounting research occurred when
the Ford Foundationpoured millions of dollars into the
study of collegiate business schools and the funding of doctoral programs and
students in business studies. Gordon and Howell (1959) reported that business
faculty in colleges lacked research skills and academic esteem when compared to
their colleagues in the sciences. The Ford Foundation thereafter provided
funding for doctoral programs and for top quality graduate students to pursue
doctoral degrees in business and accountancy. The Foundation even funded
publication of selected doctoral dissertations to give doctoral studies in
business more visibility. Great pressures were also brought to bear on academic
associations like the AAA to increase the scientific standards for publications
in journals like TAR. A perfect storm for change in accounting research arose in
the late 1950s and early1960s. First came the critical Pierson Carnegie Report
(1959) and the Gordon and Howell Ford Foundation Report (1959). Shortly
thereafter, the AACSB introduced a requirement requiring that a certain
percentage of faculty possess doctoral degrees for business education programs
seeking accreditation (Bricker and Previtts 1990).
Soon afterwards, both a doctorate and publication in top accounting research
journals became necessary for tenure (Langenderfer 1987).
Supply of doctoral graduates in accountancy rose sharply between 1960 and
1989 to where over 200 graduates per year were entering academe from over 100
doctoral programs. The largest programs were such as those at the Universities
of Illinois and Texas were beginning to cut back by 1989. Subsequently, numbers
of doctoral graduates nationwide began to taper off in spite of assorted newer
doctoral programs.
The numbers of accountancy doctoral graduates in the past few years are
critically short to meet increases in demand in college accountancy programs in
virtually all states of the United States. Increasing salary levels to the
highest levels in many colleges has not seemed to attract more entrants into
doctoral programs. Rodgers and Williams (1996, 67-68) list 56 newer
U.S.
doctoral programs and some have been added since 1996. But these increases in
the number of doctoral programs failed to alleviate the dramatic declines in
graduation rates in larger and older programs.
As baby boomers from the World War
II era begin to retire, we may experience a shortage of new faculty to take
their place and meet the growing demand for business programs at universities.
In August 2002, the AACSB International Management Education Task Force (METF)
issued a landmark report, “Management Education at Risk.” The following is a
quotation from the Foreword on Page 4 that appeals to a wide-ranging scholarship
of “incredibly complex and dynamic environments”:
Let’s be clear about the
real doctoral faculty issue. It’s not about day-to-day recruiting challenges,
escalating faculty salaries, adhering to accreditation standards, or protecting
the professoriate. The real threat is to the very core of collegiate business
schools and institutions of higher education—scholarship. Doctoral faculty
produces the body of knowledge that sustains intellectual inquiry and the
ongoing development of a discipline. Any diminishment of our shared objective to
advance such knowledge and ground education in solid conceptual frameworks will
be a threat to the eventual academic legitimacy of our discipline. At a time
when organizations operate in incredibly complex and dynamic environments, when
different norms are colliding, and leadership credibility is at the lowest, such
a retreat will compromise our ability to serve students and other constituents.
Data are provided in the above report about the serious
decline in the number of doctoral degrees granted in recent years. Demand is
more than double the projected supply of new doctoral faculty. For accounting in
particular, Hasselback (2006) reports that the number of accounting doctoral
degrees plunged from 212 in 1989 to 96 in 2004. Even if he missed some in his
count, the trend is clearly critical.Fewer and fewer
accounting undergraduate and master’s degree graduates are returning to earn
doctoral degrees. The reasons for this are complex, but there is considerable
anecdotal evidence that some potential doctoral candidates are not interested in
the narrow scientific methodology curriculum offered at most doctoral programs.
In 2004 American Accounting Association President Bill Felix formed an ad hoc
Committee to Assess the Supply and Demand for Accounting Ph.D.s. The Committee
conducted an exhaustive survey and published a report in May 2006 in the
following reference:
"Assessing the Shortage of Accounting Faculty," by R. David Plumlee
(Chairman), Steven J. Kachelmeier, Silvia A. Madeo, Jamie H. Pratt, and
George Krull, Issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 21, No. 2, May
2006, pp. 113-126.
Some of the highlights of this report are quoted below.
QUOTATION FROM PAGE 114 The AACSB predicts a major shortage of all business
faculty with Ph.D.s over the next ten years (AACSB 2003). Within accounting,
there is substantial anecdotal evidence that a shortage of Ph.D.-qualified
accounting faculty already exists and may grow. Referring to the recent
increase in accounting majors, the Wall Street Journal (2004) noted that
"some universities face a problem: a shortage of professors to teach these young
beancounters." The article continues by stating that:
the comeback of the
accounting career occurs as the number of business doctorates produced is at
a 17-year low and universities struggle to recruit new accounting
professors. That leaves many wondering who will be left to teach all the
new rules and regulations to the growing student pool. While many academic
fields are suffering from professor shortages, the issue is more acute in
accounting because of the pull toward high-paying public-accounting jobs. (Wall
Street Journal 2004)
QUOTATION FROM PAGES 115-117 Table 1 details the estimated demand for new
accounting faculty for the academic years 2005-08 at the three types of schools
by rank. We estimated that program leaders expected to hire 1,174 new
accounting faculty in 2005-06. However, new doctoral graduates represent only
30.0 percent of the faculty demand for 2005-06. The demand for experienced
Ph.D.s. (Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors) represents 35.5 percent of
the total, and it remains at about the same level for the subsequent two years.
Demand for faculty whose primary responsibility is teaching (whether or not they
have a doctoral degree) amounts to 36.6 percent of the total faculty demand.
When viewed at the school-category level, 56.0 percent of the "teaching only"
faculty are expected to be hired by Undergrad Schools.
Table 2 shows sample responses indicating
the number of faculty expected to be hired for each specialty, by both type of
school and year. The number of teachers that the three types of schools expect
to hire within each teaching specialty differs substantially. While financial
accounting is the specialty in highest demand across all three types of schools,
it is in highest relative demand for the Ph.D. Schools, with 40.3 percent of
their expected hiring in financial accounting. Master's Schools have a somewhat
more balanced approach to hiring across specialties and have the highest demand
for tax and systems teaching. The category with the most surprising number of
anticipated hires is the multiple-specialty category. Table 2 indicates that
the Master's and Undergrad Schools expect approximately one-fourth of their new
Ph.D.s hires to teach in multiple areas. The results of the Ph.D. program
directors' survey found that none of the students are preparing themselves for
multiple teaching specialties. When asked about hiring strategies, Master's
Schools had a strong preference for hiring to meet specific teaching needs,
while schools in the other two categories showed a slight tendency to recruit
the best candidate regardless of specialization.
TABLE 1
Estimated Accounting Faculty Demand for the Academic Year 2005-06
and the Subsequent Two Years, 2006-07 and 2007-08
2006 and 2007
2005
Ph.D.
Master's
Undergrad
Only
2005
Totals
Ph.D.
Master's
Undergrad
2006 and
2007
Totals
New
Ph.D.
74
186
92
352
30.0%
99
342
149
590
42.6%
Experienced
Assistant
Associate
Full Professor
36
31
21
131
46
25
57
46
0
224
123
46
19.1%
10.5%
3.8%
28
30
6
150
52
49
115
11
11
293
93
66
21.2%
6.7%
4.8%
Teaching only
Ph.D./ABD
Other
12
26
22
128
92
149
126
303
10.7%
25.9%
13
28
8
98
80
115
101
241
7.3%
17.4%
TOTAL
200
538
436
1174
100.0%
204
699
481
1384
100.0%
TABLE 2
Anticipated Demand for Teaching Specialties among
New Ph.D.s Hires for 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08 Academic Years
Ph.D. Schools
Master's Schools
Undergrad Schools
2005
2006
2007
Total
Percent
of Total
2005
2006
2007
Total
Percent
of Total
2005
2006
2007
Total
Percent
of Total
Audit
11
8
1
19
12.3%
19
11
10
40
10.7%
1
4
0
5
10.6%
Cost
14
9
8
23
14.9%
15
22
16
53
14.2%
3
4
2
9
19.2%
Financial
31
31
20
62
40.3%
44
38
19
101
27.0%
9
5
1
15
31.9%
Tax
8
4
4
12
7.8%
21
13
9
43
11.5%
2
0
1
3
6.4%
Systems
4
4
1
8
5.2%
13
11
12
36
9.6%
1
0
0
1
2.1%
Multiple
14
10
8
24
15.6%
31
29
31
91
24.3%
5
6
2
13
27.7%
Other
5
1
4
6
3.9%
5
1
4
10
2.7%
0
1
0
1
2.1%
154
100.0%
374
100.0%
6
47
100.0%
QUOTATION FROM PAGES 118-120 We estimate a total of 141 students will earn their
Ph.D.s in 2005-06, 145 in 2006-07, and 187 in 2007-08. Since some attrition in
student numbers is likely, the supply may be overestimated for later years. As
shown in Table 3, 234 out of 391 students described in the responses (59.8
percent) have financial accounting as their teaching specialty. The two
identifiable specialties with the fewest students are auditing and tax with 7.4
percent and 5.9 percent of the students, respectively.
TABLE 3
Ph.D. Program Director's Estimates of the Number of Current Ph.D. Students
in Various
Teaching Specialties Extrapolated to the Population of Schools with Ph.D.
Programs
Sample Responses
Estimated Number of
Ph.D.s Graduating
1st yr
2nd yr
3rd yr
4th yr
5th yr
Sample
Totals
Est.
Pop.a
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
Audit
9
6
4
8
2
29
49
7
12
8
Financial
37
62
45
52
38
234
396
91
85
108
Cost
8
13
18
17
11
67
113
27
29
37
Systems
11
10
8
5
3
37
63
8
10
19
Tax
4
4
7
5
3
23
39
8
9
14
Other
0
1
0
0
0
1
2
0
0
1
Totals
69
96
82
87
57
391
662
141
145
187
a A linear extrapolation from the
sample of 49 respondents to the population of 83 schools with accounting
Ph.D. programs.
Estimated Shortages
One of the Committee's most critical tasks
was to estimated the shortage of new Ph.D.-qualified faculty members. Using the
data collected from both the accounting program leaders and the Ph.D. program
directors, we estimated the shortages in each teaching specialty--as well as
overall shortages--by combining the program directors' estimates of students
graduating and the accounting program leaders' estimates of the number they need
to hire. The shortages were estimated by taking the percentage demanded by
specialty from the sample and multiplying those percentages by the estimated
total supply of new Ph.D.-qualified faculty for two periods: (1) 2005-06 and (2)
2006-08. For example, in Table 4, the demand for 43 new auditing Ph.D.s in
2005-06 is found by taking the percentage demanded for the audit specialty (12.3
percent as shown in Table 2) reported by the department heads who do hiring and
multiplying that percentage by the estimated total supply of new Ph.D.s (352) in
that year (shown in Table 4).
Table 4 shows that, across all specialties
for 2005-08, the overall supply of new accounting faculty is only 49.9 percent
of the number demanded. Focusing just on the shortages estimated for 2005-06,
the supply for every specialty falls short of the demand. The two categories
with the greatest shortages are multiple specialties and the "other" category,
estimated to have none of their demand met.4 Nonetheless, we must acknowledge that many Ph.D. students will be
expected to teach across specialties when they assume their first faculty
position. Financial accounting will have 79.1 percent of its demand met. Tax
will have only eight students graduating and auditing will only have seven,
which is only 18.6 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively, of the expected
demand for 2005-06. Looking at the subsequent two years, shortages remain
across all specialties; however, these shortages are less severe in most cases.
Figure 1 shows that over the three-year
period 2005-2008, we expect substantial variation across specialties in the
proportion of demand met. As before, the "multiple" and the "other" categories
fall well short in percentage terms. For the "other" category, the
characteristics of the faculty members demanded and the students being supplied
are unlikely to match. In the more defined specialties, graduate candidates are
expected to supply only 27.1 percent of the tax faculty and 22.8 percent of the
audit faculty demand, viewed cumulatively over the three years. On the other
hand, graduates interested in teaching financial accounting almost reach the
level demanded (91.6 percent). These shortages need to be considered with
respect to the significant demand for experienced Ph.D.s; this demand can only
be met in the short run by faculty moving from one school to another, creating
more demand to replace those faculty members.
4 Note, however, that the program directors were not given
multiple specialties as a reporting option and "other" may have been perceived
as too vague an option.
TABLE 4
Estimates of the Excess or Shortage of the Supply of New Ph.D.-Qualified
Accounting Faculty Relative to the
Demand the Three Academic Years 2005-2008
Estimates for 2005-06
Estimates for 2006-08
Cumulative
Demand
Supply
Excess
(Shortage)
Percent of Demand
Met
Demand
Supply
Excess
(Shortage)
Percent of
Demand
Met
Cumulative
Excess
(Shortage)
Percent of
Demand
Met
Audit
43
7
(36)
16.4%
71
19
(52)
26.6%
(88)
22.8%
Cost
44
27
(17)
61.4%
74
66
(8)
89.5%
(25)
79.0%
Financial
115
91
(24)
79.1%
194
192
(2)
99.2%
(26)
91.6%
Tax
43
8
(35)
18.6%
71
23
(48)
32.3%
(83)
27.1%
Systems
25
8
(17)
31.9%
41
29
(12)
69.9%
(29)
55.7%
Multiple
69
0
(69)
0.0%
115
0
(115)
0.0%
(184)
0.0%
Other
13
0
(13)
0.0%
24
1
(23)%
2.3
(36)
1.4%
TOTALS
352
141
(211)
40.0%
590
330
(260)
55.9%
(471)
49.9%
QUOTATION FROM PAGE 125 Diversifying Training across Teaching Specialties
The Committee believes the dire shortages
in tax and audit areas warrant particular focus. One possible solution to these
specific shortages is for Ph.D. programs to create new tracks targeted toward
developing high-quality faculty specifically in these areas. These tracks
should be considered part of a well-rounded Ph.D. program in which students
develop specialized knowledge in one area of accounting, but gain substantive
exposure to other accounting research areas. In addition, Master's Schools that
do not currently offer a doctorate could develop accounting doctoral programs
that support tax and audit education as part of an overall doctoral program.
A possible explanation for the shortages
in these areas is that Ph.D. students perceive that publishing audit and tax
research in top accounting journals is more difficult, which might have the
unintended consequence of reducing the supply of Ph.D.-qualified faculty to
teach in those specialties. Given that promotion and tenure requirements at
major universities require publication in to-tier journals, students are likely
drawn to financial accounting in hopes of getting the necessary publications for
career success. While the Committee has no evidence that bears directly on this
point, it believes that the possibility deserves further consideration.
CONCLUSIONS
The Committee has uncovered some valuable
information about the nature of the demand for accounting faculty, the state of
Ph.D. programs, and perceptions of current accounting Ph.D. students. While
there is surely some estimation error in determining the existence of a shortage
of new accounting faculty, it is clear that particularly in the tax and auditing
teaching specialties a shortage exists. At this point there is neither an
organized strategy to recruit more accounting Ph.D. students, nor is it evident
that current accounting Ph.D. programs have the capacity to absorb additional
students. Despite the Committee's efforts, many questions and a great deal of
work remain to be done in areas such as developing sources of information useful
in recruiting new accounting Ph.D. students and developing creative ways to
lower the costs to students of getting a Ph.D. and the costs to schools of
offering doctoral programs. Assuring an adequate supply of qualified accounting
faculty in the future will require broad and dedicated efforts by Ph.D.-granting
schools, the AAA, and other entities with a vested interest in the academic
accounting profession.
Jensen Opinions
Although the reasons for the decline in doctoral students
in accountancy are very complex, Bob Jensen's opinion is that the leading factor
is that virtually all accountancy programs in the U.S. stripped most accounting
courses from these programs in the shift toward mathematics, statistics,
econometrics, finance, sociometrics, and psychometrics. In some programs the
doctoral studies courses are not even taught in the business school. Students
with high aptitudes and professional experience in accounting are discouraged
from entering into doctoral programs unless they want to become economists or
other social scientists.
It is also Bob Jensen's opinion that accountancy doctoral
programs became social science programs due to the positivism biases of top
accounting research journals that forced positivism research methods on
virtually all accounting faculty seeking to publish in those leading journals.
See
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR.htm
PG. #390 NONAKA The chapter argues that building the
theory of knowledge creation needs to an epistemological and ontological
discussion, instead of just relying on a positivist approach, which has been
the implicit paradigm of social science. The
positivist rationality has become identified with analytical thinking that
focuses on generating and testing hypotheses through formal logic. While
providing a clear guideline for theory building and empirical examinations,
it poses problems for the investigation of complex and dynamic social
phenomena, such as knowledge creation. In positivist-based research,
knowledge is still often treated as an exogenous variable or distraction
against linear economic rationale. The relative lack of alternative
conceptualization has meant that management science has slowly been detached
from the surrounding societal reality. The understanding of social systems
cannot be based entirely on natural scientific facts. Ikujiro Nonaka as quoted at Great Minds in Management: The Process
of Theory Development ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/GreatMinds.htm
Leading accounting research journal biases for accountics in the past three
decades illustrate the process of Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaftwhere the "process eventually
went too far." The
Heck and Jensen (2006) paper is highly supportive of President Judy
Rayburn's TAR Diversity Initiative. This is important not only for improved
accounting research, it's important for expanded curricula of doctoral programs
that more closely align academe with the accounting profession much in the same
way that schools of law and medicine are aligned with their practicing
professions.
For the good of the
AAA membership and the profession of accountancy in general, one hopes that the
changes in publication and editorial policies at TAR proposed by President
Rayburn will result in the “opening up” of topics and research methods produced
by "leading scholars." I might add that Paul Williams at North Carolina State
University is a long-time advocate of such changes, and I thank Paul for some
helpful input to the early stages of the Heck and Jensen paper.
An "Appeal" for accounting educators, researchers, and practitioners to
actively support what I call The Accounting Review (TAR) Diversity
Initiative as initiated by American Accounting Association President Judy
Rayburn ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR.htm
Rigor in accounting doctoral programs has resulted in a critical shortage
leading to more non-doctoral instructors of accounting in colleges nationwide.
"Teaching for the Love of It: The joy of being an educator—eight career
changers tell their stories," by Randy Myers, Journal of Accountancy,
June 2006 ---
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/jun2006/myers2.htm
Once they earn their college degrees
and embark on careers, many CPAs are perfectly happy never to see the inside
of a classroom again. But others can’t wait to return. What happens when
they follow their hearts and minds back to campus? To find out, we
interviewed eight professionals—seven CPAs and one tax attorney—who gave up
successful business careers in favor of academia. Some moved directly into
the classroom and are now teaching as professionally qualified faculty
(see “Emerging
Opportunities for Professionally Qualified Faculty”).
Others are students again, pursuing PhDs in accounting
with an eye toward becoming university professors. Still others have already
earned their PhDs and are working as senior faculty at some of the country’s
leading business schools, where they divide their time between teaching and
academic research. If you are considering a career in academia—or are simply
curious about how the other half lives—this article is for you.
This article reveals what
these eight professionals have come to learn, love and yes, question, about
academia. It shows the road to the academic life has many forks, which can
be pursued at almost any stage of a career in accounting. And it shows that
even more than in the business world, CPAs in academia can tailor their
careers to match their own interests and objectives.
Supply and Demand
Over the next three years, U.S. and
Canadian universities will try to hire 942 new PhDs.
Unfortunately, the number of graduates available to fill those
slots is expected to total only 621.
Source: American Accounting
Association.
Jensen Comment
Keep in mind that this does not mean that shortages are equally spread across
all education programs. Some programs face far more difficulties than others for
a variety of reasons. For example, some educators just do not want to relocate
from Knee Deep, North Dakota to New York City and vice versa.
Property and Damage Costs of Schools
Something to consider in the design and implementation of AIS courses
From THEJournal Newsletter on June 28, 2006
Asset loss
and damage costs the average district nearly a quarter of a million
dollars a year. Larger districts lose even more, some topping $1.4
million in loss and damage annually. These are among the results of
a recent study of district asset management, conducted in
conjunction with Quality Education Data (QED). The study, which was
co-sponsored by Follett Software Co., provides a picture of how
districts manage their assets and the growing challenges they face.
Its findings illustrate the importance of the emerging category of
Educational Resource Management (ERM) solutions-products that
centralize the management of district resources. The study surveyed
479 district business managers, administrators and technology chiefs
in all 48 contiguous states. Respondents were asked about the
problems they faced in managing assets, and about the systems they
used to keep track of everything from laptops to band uniforms. They
were also asked to estimate the cost of loss, damage, and redundant
purchases of these assets. Other major findings of the study
included:
Investments in educational technology (primarily computer and AV
equipment) are among the assets most at risk, averaging more
than $80,000 in loss annually per district.
Districts that used manual tracking for computers reported a 41%
greater annual cost of loss/damage than those that used a
commercial asset tracking program, and 32% greater loss than
those that used a spreadsheet/database program.
Something remarkable and salutary happened in a
Manhattan courtroom this week: U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan
upheld the logic and meaning of the Constitution's Due Process Clause and
the Sixth Amendment.
The case involves the Justice Department's
prosecution of 16 former KPMG executives, accused of having engineered
fraudulent tax shelters for their clients. We have our doubts about just how
"fraudulent" those shelters were, seeing that they were never banned by the
IRS, their legality was never tested in court, and KPMG stopped marketing
them long before the IRS listed them as suspect. The criminal trial will be
no slam dunk.
But the real whopper was the decision by KPMG to
stop paying the legal fees of its former executives, largely to satisfy the
requirements of the so-called Thompson memo. That 2002 document, written by
then-Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson amid corporate scandal fever,
laid out the measures that companies facing prosecution could take to
demonstrate cooperation and thereby avoid firm-wide indictment. Not wishing
to share the fate of bankrupted Arthur Andersen, KPMG complied with the
Thompson diktat and hung its executives out to dry while negotiating a
deferred prosecution accord.
Enter Judge Kaplan, who on Monday delivered a
scathing 83-page rebuke of the government's case. Noting that Constitutional
rights to a fair trial and competent counsel were at stake here, he went on
to limn a third principle, "not of constitutional dimension," but "very much
a part of American life." To wit:
"Bus drivers sued for accidents, cops sued for
allegedly wrongful arrests, nurses named in malpractice cases, news
reporters sued in libel cases, and corporate chieftains embroiled in
securities litigation generally have [the right] to have their employers pay
their legal expenses." By holding "the proverbial gun to [KPMG's] head" with
the threat of a company-wide indictment, the Judge wrote, the government had
used the company as a proxy to violate the defendants' rights.
The 16 defendants must still contend with the
charges of the indictment. But with KPMG now required to foot their legal
bills, at least they don't face the bleak choice between financial ruin or
copping a plea. As for the Justice Department, now is the time for Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales to reinterpret, or better yet rewrite, those parts
of the Thompson memo that his too-zealous prosecutors have been using in
violation of defendants' due process rights.
A Break Lurks in College Tuition If you're writing a college-tuition check this summer,
there may be a backdoor way to deduct a chunk of the payment that's perfectly
legal yet utterly underutilized. The trick is to make a contribution to your
state's "529" college-savings plan, as long as it's one of the 26 states (plus
the District of Columbia) that give you a tax deduction or credit when you
deposit money. Then, simply withdraw the money and use it to pay the college
bill. Veteran users of 529 plans know all about the state tax breaks. But plenty
of others don't -- and could benefit from the quick in-and-out. "This makes a
lot of sense for wealthy people who don't need to save," says tax partner
Bernard S. Kent of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who has advised both individuals and
savings plans.
Ron Lieber, "A Break Lurks in College Tuition: Some '529' Plans Offer
Underused Move For Tax Deductions," The Wall Street Journal, June 10,
2006; Page B1 ---
Click Here
"Efficient Markets The Welfare of American Investors," by Henry G. Manne, The
Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2006; Page A16 ---
Click Here
Behavioral finance, a
developing field of academic research that emphasizes investor
irrationality (and ignorance) and the inefficiency of markets, has been
hailed by defenders of the SEC as offering a solid economic
rationalization for our vast scheme of federal securities regulations.
Even apart from the obvious implications for the regulatory system of
ignorance and irrationality on the part of regulators, a closer
examination of the logic of behavioral finance leaves little for the
pro-regulation crowd to crow about.
Initially, behavioral finance emerged
as an academic antidote to a claim of substantial market perfection in the
finance field, the well-known "efficient market" theory of stock prices.
Numerous "anomalies" or irrationalities were discovered in the market for
securities, such as various kinds of over- or under-reactions to new
information, herding behavior, endowment effects, January effects, weekend
effects, small-firm or distressed-firm effects, bubbles and crashes -- to
name a few.
Faulty Data
Most of these alleged peculiarities
proved in time to be far less anomalous than was first thought. The data on
which they were based were often faulty, or the econometric models were
measuring the wrong thing, or various kinds of relevant transactions costs
were ignored. The effects of irrational or uninformed behavior were often
canceled out by opposite forces, and much of it was simply irrelevant.
Furthermore, the behavioralists did not -- and do not -- have a general
theory that can explain why financial markets work as well as they do. Some
close approximation of the efficient market theory is still the most
accurate and useful model of the stock market that we have.
Still, some of the behavioralists'
criticisms stuck, especially in regard to crashes and bubbles, events that
arguably should not occur in perfectly efficient markets. In this connection
the efficient market theorists had no choice but to reexamine and refine
their own models, which they have now done with some success. Perhaps the
most important behavioralist contribution to economics has been their
reminder that the market-model claim of rationality often does not comport
with actual human behavior.
Economists frequently failed to
qualify economic pronouncements as being limited in application to aggregate
behavior. Too many assumed that if markets in the aggregate behave
rationally, it must be because the "marginal" participant -- the trader who
has the correct information about what a price should be -- was himself a
perfectly rational maximizer. This better-informed and rational trader would
always arbitrage away any discrepancies from efficiency that a market
displayed.
But there is a vast difference
between economics and psychology, and we can thank the behavioralists for
forcing economics back into its correct posture of dealing with aggregate
behavior. We can also thank the behavioralists for demonstrating that the
marginal trader/arbitrage theory cannot explain all price formation, since
we have no way, a priori, of knowing that this hypothetical
individual will be rational. Nor can we any longer assume that the
arbitrageur (apart from a purchaser of 100% of the securities of a given
company) will have all the information necessary to set the correct price.
That discovery left a serious gap in
economic theory. The efficient market mavens were indeed correct in their
conclusions about aggregate market behavior -- but how could they explain
this near perfection of functioning markets while irrational and
less-than-fully informed individuals (so-called "noise" traders) were known
to abound?
Traditional economics did contain the
start of an answer to this question, most notably in F.A. Hayek's classic
"The Use of Knowledge in Society" (1945). There, Hayek (addressing the
then-pressing problem of countering socialist doctrine) made the astute
observation that centralized or socialist planning can never be economically
efficient because it was impossible for a central planner to accumulate all
the information needed for correct economic decisions ("correct" in the
sense of displaying efficient market allocations of goods). The critical
information, he noted, is too scattered in bits and pieces throughout the
population ever to be assembled in one person's mind (or computer). Diffused
markets, on the other hand, function well because the totality of relevant
information, even subjective preferences, can be aggregated through the
price mechanism into a correct market valuation.
This insight of Hayek's has been a
mainstay of market theory ever since it was advanced, but it remains merely
an observation and a conclusion. It does not detail how new information gets
so effectively impacted into the prices of goods and services. In other
words, how does this "weighted averaging" get done? And why should we assume
that the impact of rational participants would dominate that of irrational
ones in markets?
Similarly, the efficient market
theory was based almost entirely on empirical observations and did not offer
a theory of how the market came to be so efficient. Subsequent literature
examined the mechanisms of market efficiency (including insider trading),
but these were again observational and descriptive works that did not even
recognize the absence of a good theory of how new information gets properly
integrated into a price. The implicit and often explicit theory of price
formation was always the "arbitrage" notion, with the marginal trader
calling the shots.
Enter now financial journalist James
Suroweicki and his charming and insightful book, "The Wisdom of Crowds"
(2004). The book opens with the story of a contest at a county fair in
England in 1906 to guess the weight of an ox on display after slaughter and
dressing. There were about 800 guesses entered in the contest both by
knowledgeable people and by those who had no expertise in such matters. We
are not told what the winning guess was, but we are told that the average of
all the guesses (1,197 pounds) was virtually identical to the actual weight
(1,198 pounds).
Similar results show up regularly in
the relatively new use of so-called "prediction" or "virtual" markets,
primarily employed today in predicting outcomes of political elections,
sporting events, new product introductions or new movies. Though there are
still some problems with the technique, these "markets" have proved in the
main to be much more accurate than traditional interview polls. And these
various illustrations of the wisdom of crowds suggest a solution to the
problem of how correct prices are formed in financial markets beset by
irrational and poorly informed traders.
* * *
Weighted-average results are similar
to "correct prices," since informed investors can be assumed to invest more
money if their confidence in the validity of their information -- or the
intensity of their desire for the product -- is higher, thus imparting a
weighted average element to each price. And while the actual weight of an ox
is a more objective measure than the "correct" price of a security, the main
difference may be between a static and a dynamic figure with the "correct
price" of a stock being a kind of moving target.
The literature on prediction markets
makes clear that the more participants in a contest and the better informed
they are, the more likely is the weighted average of their guesses to be the
correct one. That is true, ironically, even though the additional
participants have even less knowledge than the earlier ones. The only
requirements for these markets to work well are that the various traders be
diverse and that their judgments be independent of one another. Clearly,
there is still a lot more work of a statistical and mathematical nature to
be done before the idea of the wisdom of crowds is turned into a
full-fledged theory of price formation, but at least we have identified the
problem and made a start towards a solution.
'Wisdom of Crowds'
The implications of what we already
know of this "wisdom of crowds" approach to price formation, as against the
traditional marginal pricing/arbitrage approach, are apt to be startling. We
should rethink any current policies based on a view of pricing in which we
exclude the best-informed traders and discard the wisdom of the many. For
instance, we now have a new and more powerful argument than we had in the
past for legalizing most insider or informed trading.
Since such trading clearly makes the
market process work more efficiently, it aids capital allocation decisions
and informs business executives through market-price feedback of the best
predictions about the value of new plans. Furthermore, the Supreme Court's
"fraud on the market" theory of civil liability under the federal securities
laws and Congress's ideas of correct civil damage claims for insider trading
no longer have any intellectual merit. The same is true of any other part of
our securities laws implicitly based on the notion of the marginal trader as
a rational arbitrageur of price.
The new approach would suggest that
it is undesirable to have laws discouraging stock trading by anyone who has
any knowledge relevant to the valuation of a security. Thus, assembly-line
workers, administrative assistants, office boys, accountants, lawyers,
salespeople, competitors, financial analysts and, of course, corporate
executives (government officials are another story) should all be encouraged
to buy or sell stocks based on any new information they might have. Only
those privately enjoined by contract or other legal duty from trading should
be excluded. The "wisdom of crowds" can do far more for the welfare of
American investors than all the mandated disclosures and insider trading
laws that the SEC and Congress can think up.
Mr. Manne, a resident of Naples, Fla., is dean emeritus
of George Mason University School of Law. This is the first of a two-part
series.
Jensen Comment
Henry Manne's theory might fly if so many insiders were not rotten to the core
with back dating of options and other exploitations of existing shareholders and
potential investors. Bob Jensen's threads on "Rotten to the Core" are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm
Deloitte's Concept of Pricing Options is Legally and Ethically
Questionable
(Recall that Deloitte is the Only Big 4 Firm that Did Not Sell its Consulting
Division)
So when new hires began complaining that the
company's volatile share price meant that colleagues who had arrived just
days earlier were receiving stock options worth thousands of dollars more,
Micrel executives moved to satisfy the troops. They raised with their
auditor, Deloitte & Touche, the idea of adopting a new options pricing
strategy similar to one that other tech companies, including Microsoft, used
at the time.
Instead of granting options at the market price on
a new employee's hire date, Micrel proposed setting the price at the lowest
point in the 30 days from when the grant was approved.
It seemed like an ideal solution. The 30-day window
could help Micrel attract and reward new hires on a more equal footing,
while helping to retain existing employees. And if it were extended up the
corporate ladder, the prospect of built-in gains and tax breaks, worth
millions of dollars, could enrich senior executives.
But the 30-day pricing method, which Micrel adopted
in mid-1996, was an aggressive move legally and financially. In hindsight,
it was also a major misstep.
Nearly five years later, Deloitte reversed its
opinion and urged Micrel to restate its financial reports. The Internal
Revenue Service came banging on its door. And today, Micrel and Deloitte are
passing blame back and forth in court.
Micrel is hardly the only firm ensnared in such a
mess. What began as a creative solution among a handful of technology firms
to address recruitment issues soon became common practice in Silicon Valley.
It appears the practice also became a way to enrich chief executives and
other top managers.
The result is a nationwide scandal with major
accounting, corporate governance, tax and disclosure ramifications. Dozens,
perhaps hundreds, of companies are caught up in a giant civil and criminal
law enforcement sweep by the Justice Department, the I.R.S. and the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
It is no coincidence that stock option abuses are
once again taking center stage in an unfolding scandal. The easy money that
options can rain down on recipients motivated many of the numbers games that
companies played with their quarterly earnings during the stock market boom,
leading to numerous accounting fraud prosecutions at Enron, WorldCom and
others.
In the latest scandal, companies seem to have
handed out stock options that were already "in the money" on the date of
grant, undermining the idea of using options as a pay-for-performance tool.
The practice appears to have been widespread from the early 1990's to 2002,
and possibly beyond.
Handing out in-the-money options is not illegal as
long as the grants are disclosed to shareholders. At the time, in-the-money
options had to be counted as an expense on the company's books. (New rules
now require companies to routinely deduct options as an expense.) Failure to
disclose or to deduct in-the-money options from income could lead to
securities fraud charges. And because such options do not qualify for tax
breaks once they are exercised, such grants raise tax fraud issues, too.
The Micrel case and others raise troubling
questions about how companies that were pushing the envelope of accounting
and tax practice were able to get the blessings of auditors and lawyers. And
the widening scandal reveals the extent to which boards of directors,
especially the compensation committees that approve option grants, may have
failed to do their jobs.
"It appears, from the S.E.C. and a number of
reports that are coming up daily, that there was a systemic problem at a lot
of companies," said Bradley E. Beckworth, a plaintiffs' attorney who has
filed one of the first class-action lawsuits against Brocade Communications
and KPMG, its auditor, for options backdating. "If these accounts turn out
to be true, you have to ask the question, Who was the gatekeeper here?"
Micrel, by most accounts, is one of the last
technology companies where one might expect to find problems. While the chip
manufacturer was one of the high-flying growth businesses of the 1990's, it
was different in several respects from most of the era's fledgling public
companies.
Its founder and longtime chief executive, Raymond
D. Zinn, a 68-year-old engineer, is a Mormon who calls honesty his guiding
rule. And unlike many of its technology rivals, Micrel's own profits, not
venture financing, fueled its growth until it went public in 1994.
But like many high-tech firms in the mid-1990's,
Micrel went on a hiring binge. The Bay Area was booming with opportunities
for ambitious people. Companies were growing at astronomical rates and
desperately needed talent to fill new jobs. And instead of higher salaries,
companies preferred to grant stock options to lure new employees.
Micrel, a company that had a few hundred employees
but was adding two or three new people a week, began facing a fairness
problem in its options awards in mid-1996.
When controversial options-timing
practices were rippling through U.S. companies during the late 1990s, why
didn't companies' own accounting systems spot anything odd?
Some clues can be found in the rise
of an especially popular piece of options-tracking software, known as
EquityEdge. Cheap and easy to use, it became a record-keeping backbone for
thousands of companies. It logged in details of each options grant, it
calculated their overall impact on a company's financial statements and it
generated filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
But when EquityEdge was catching on a
decade or more ago, it didn't offer much in the way of audit-trail
capabilities aimed at spotting people tinkering with grant dates. Such
systems would have been costly, and clients weren't asking for them. As a
result, wrong or inconvenient data could be swept away while leaving hardly
a trace.
Now, the SEC is focusing on the possibility that
dozens of companies in the 1990s fiddled with options-grant dates so that
executives could get the right to purchase stock at unusually cheap prices.
Forensic accountants -- often hired by companies' independent directors --
are poring over EquityEdge databases, trying to see whether options grants
were done properly or whether companies might need to address irregularities
by restating earnings or paying additional taxes.
Ernest Ten Eyck, a forensic accountant based in
King of Prussia, Pa., who is a senior managing director at FTI Consulting
Inc., says his firm is reviewing at least 10 companies' historical
EquityEdge records as part of a detailed look into possible cases of options
backdating. What has been preserved is useful, he says, but not everything
he would like.
That is because older versions of EquityEdge were
designed to be simple and low-cost, he says, when it was assumed that no one
was trying to game the system. "If everyone had been playing it right," he
adds, "there would be no need for a lot of extra audit data."
EquityEdge got started in 1983 in Sunnyvale,
Calif., by Cheryl Breetwor. She had worked at a Silicon Valley company whose
efforts to handle stock-options accounting by hand got so badly snarled that
it was forced to amend its proxy statement one year. "I figured there had to
be a better way," she recalls. So she and a small team built EquityEdge as a
desktop software product and sold it for as little as $3,000 per corporate
customer. They named their company ShareData Inc.
ShareData's early clients included Microsoft Corp.
and Oracle Corp. ShareData also signed up some companies that have received
SEC inquiries about their options-timing practices, including Intuit Inc.,
KLA-Tencor Corp. and McAfee Inc. Representatives for all three client
companies declined to comment on those probes.
Ms. Breetwor sold ShareData to E*Trade Financial
Corp. in 1998 for about $35 million. She has since retired. But she remains
an enthusiastic supporter of Silicon Valley's pro-options culture, which
seeks to get more stock of fast-growing young companies into the hands of
both executives and rank-and-file employees. The current probes into
options-timing schemes amount to "a witch hunt," Ms. Breetwor contended in a
phone interview this week.
Ms. Breetwor also said that while ShareData tried
to educate its customers about the right ways to do options accounting, it
wasn't her job to opine on legal issues or to flag regulators if she saw
variations in the ways customers were handling certain issues.
Vito Palmieri, head of Equity Administration
Solutions Inc., an options-software vendor in Pleasanton, Calif., says that
the routine annoyances of data-entry errors were a bigger concern a decade
ago. Glitches were common enough that customers wanted the freedom to revise
or rework numbers with little interference. "The ability to be flexible was
highly valued -- more so than auditability," Mr. Palmieri recalls.
Only after Sarbanes-Oxley legislation passed in
2002, tightening up corporate-governance requirements, did options-software
vendors start focusing on audit-related issues. Since then, vendors have
been retooling their programs so they can capture -- and highlight -- any
tinkering with options-grant terms, for whatever reason.
EquityEdge's new owner, E*Trade, is beefing up the
software to provide better auditing tools. Product manager Elizabeth Dodge
says that when EquityEdge 7.0 is launched near year end, it will record any
changes in individual options records and show which user made the change.
Rejiggering data without leaving clear traces will be essentially
impossible.
Similar changes have already been made to
options-software packages sold by Computershare Ltd.
"Our systems don't prevent people from backdating
options," says Gary Scrofani, a senior product manager at Computershare.
"But the audit tool provides a clear record if anyone wants to try it."
While the options-backdating probe is still in its
early days, inquiries in at least a half-dozen cases have led to executive
departures or pledges to restate earnings. Some maneuvers may be traceable
through options-tracking software; others may leave a paper trail only in
the boardroom, where executives' options grants are approved. And in some
cases, corporate lawyers say, ambiguous records may make it hard to tell
exactly how grant dates were established.
For all the software vendors' current vigilance,
their new changes amount to an attack on a problem that has largely been put
to rest by other means.
Sarbanes-Oxley now requires executive options to be
publicly disclosed within two business days of their granting. Under the old
system, options grants didn't need to be disclosed for weeks or even months
after they were made, creating much more maneuvering room for people wanting
to pick favorable grant dates, after the fact.
As the current options probes play out,
EquityEdge's founder, Ms. Breetwor, hopes that the uproar won't ruin stock
options' image. "Used appropriately, options are a wonderful thing," she
says. "Unfortunately, for some people, there came to be an expectation that
they would be rewarded if the stock went down, as well as up."
"The thing I think that is more problematic is there
have been some allegations that auditors knew about this and counseled their
clients to do it," said Joseph Carcello, director of research for the
corporate-governance center at the University of Tennessee. "If that turns out
to be true, they will have problems."
That question, frequently heard during financial
scandals earlier this decade, is being asked again as an increasing number
of companies are being probed about the practice of backdating employee
stock options, which in some cases allowed executives to profit by
retroactively locking in low purchase prices for stock.
For the accounting industry, the question raises
the possibility that the big audit firms didn't live up to their watchdog
role, and presents the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the
regulator created in response to the past scandals, its first big test.
"Whenever the audit firms get caught in a situation
like this, their response is, 'It wasn't in the scope of our work to find
out that these things are going on,' " said Damon Silvers, associate general
counsel at the AFL-CIO and a member of PCAOB's advisory group. "But that
logic leads an investor to say, 'What are we hiring them for?' "
Others, including accounting professionals, aren't
so certain bookkeepers are part of the problem. "We're still trying to
figure out what the auditors needed to be doing about this," said Ann Yerger,
executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors, a trade group.
"We're hearing lots of things about breakdowns all through the
professional-advisor chains. But we can't expect audit firms to look at
everything."
One pressing issue: Should an auditor have had
reason to doubt the veracity of legal documents showing the grant date of an
option? If not, it is tough for many observers to see how auditors could be
held responsible for not spotting false grant dates.
"I don't blame the auditors for this," said Nell
Minow, editor of The Corporate Library, a governance research company. "My
question is, 'Where were the compensation committees?' "
To sort out the issue, the PCAOB advisory group --
comprising investor advocates, accounting experts and members of firms --
last week suggested the agency provide guidance to accounting firms on
backdating of stock options. A spokeswoman for the board said, "We are
looking to see what action they may be able to take."
To date, more than 40 companies have been put under
the microscope by authorities over the timing of options issued to top
executives. Federal authorities are investigating whether companies that
retroactively applied the grant date of options violated securities laws,
failed to properly disclose compensation and in some cases improperly stated
financial results. A number of companies have said they will restate
financial statements because compensation costs related to backdated options
in questions weren't properly booked.
All of the Big Four accounting firms --
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Deloitte & Touche LLP, KPMG LLP and Ernst &
Young LLP -- have had clients implicated. None of these top accounting firms
apparently spotted anything wrong at the companies involved. One firm,
Deloitte & Touche, has been directly accused of wrongdoing in relation to
options backdating. A former client, Micrel Inc., has sued the firm in state
court in California for its alleged blessing of a variation of backdating.
Deloitte is fighting that suit.
The big accounting firms haven't said whether they
believe there was a problem on their end. Speaking at the PCAOB advisory
group's recent meeting, Vincent P. Colman, U.S. national office professional
practice leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said his firm was taking the
issue "seriously," but more time is needed "to work this through" both
"forensically" and to insure this is "not going to happen going forward."
Robert J. Kueppers, deputy chief executive at
Deloitte, said in an interview: "It is one of the most challenging things,
to sort out the difference in these [backdating] practices. At the end of
the day, auditors are principally concerned that investors are getting
financial statements that are not materially misstated, but we also have
responsibilities in the event that there are potential illegal acts."
While the Securities and Exchange Commission has
contacted the Big Four accounting firms about backdating at some companies,
the inquiries have been of a fact-finding nature and are related to specific
clients rather than firmwide auditing practices, according to people
familiar with the matter. Class-action lawsuits filed against companies and
directors involved in the scandal haven't yet targeted auditors.
Backdating of options appears to have largely
stopped after the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-reform law in
2002, which requires companies to disclose stock-option grants within two
days of their occurrence.
Backdating practices from earlier years took a
variety of forms and raised different potential issues for auditors. At
UnitedHealth Group Inc., for example, executives repeatedly received grants
at low points ahead of sharp run-ups in the company's stock. The insurer has
said it may need to restate three years of financial results. Other
companies, such as Microsoft Corp., used a monthly low share price as an
exercise price for options and as a result may have failed to properly book
an expense for them.
At the PCAOB advisory group meeting, Scott Taub,
acting chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said
there is a "danger that we end up lumping together various issues that
relate to a grant date of stock options." Backdating options so an executive
can get a bigger paycheck is "an intentional lie," he said. In other
instances where there might be, for example, a difference of a day or two in
the date when a board approved a grant, there might not have been an intent
to backdate, he added.
"The thing I think that is more problematic is
there have been some allegations that auditors knew about this and counseled
their clients to do it," said Joseph Carcello, director of research for the
corporate-governance center at the University of Tennessee. "If that turns
out to be true, they will have problems."
Deep in the weeds of Turtle Bay, U.S. Ambassador
John Bolton has been hacking a path toward United Nations reform -- an
effort about as fraught as Marlow's quest for Captain Kurtz in Conrad's
"Heart of Darkness," and no less horrifying.
But here's the good news: Two reports, released
late last month by Congress's Government Accountability Office, are shedding
light on how the U.N. mismanages its procurement and auditing functions.
U.N. bureaucrats may be trying to downplay the findings, but the rest of us
should pay attention.
Consider procurement. Thanks to various Oil for
Food investigations, we learned that Alexander Yakovlev, a middle-ranking
U.N. procurement officer, siphoned $1 million in bribes from $79 million
worth of U.N. contract work. Mr. Yakovlev pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to
three counts of fraud and money laundering last August.
But that's just the beginning. In January,
Secretary General Kofi Annan placed eight top procurement officials on
special leave, pending investigations by the U.N. and U.S. One of these
officials is Sanjaya Bahel, former head of the U.N.'s Commercial Activities
Services as well as its Post Office. Among other charges, Mr. Bahel, who
also worked for the Indian Defense Ministry while at the U.N., is alleged to
have improperly steered U.N. peacekeeping contracts to several Indian
companies, one of them government-owned.
Also in January, the U.N.'s Office of Internal
Oversight Services conducted an audit of U.N. peacekeeping procurement, the
value of which has quadrupled over the last decade to $1.6 billion. The
Office found that $110 million worth of expenditures had "insufficient"
justification; another $61 million bypassed U.N. procedures; $82 million had
been lost to various kinds of mismanagement; close to $50 million in
contracts had shown indications of "bid rigging"; and $7 million were
squandered through overpayment. That's a total of more than $300 million.
Senior U.N. management has responded with denial:
"Not a penny was lost from the organization," insists Deputy Secretary
General Mark Malloch Brown. But that point is hard to credit in light of the
GAO's findings. Among them: The U.N. has set no training requirements for
its procurement staff; has no independent process to address vendor
protests; and has no internal mechanisms either to monitor procurement or
identify areas prone to fraud or mismanagement.
On auditing, too, corruption starts at the top:
Along with Mr. Yakovlev, the other U.N. official to have been recently
indicted in the U.S. for bribery is Vladimir Kuznetsov, formerly head of the
U.N.'s budget oversight committee. In theory, the oversight office is
supposed to be an independent agency. In practice, it relies for its funding
on the very U.N. agencies it is supposed to monitor and investigate.
The result, the GAO notes, is that "by denying OIOS
[oversight office] funding, U.N. entities could avoid OIOS audits or
investigations." A case in point was Benon Sevan's refusal to fund an audit
of the $100 billion Oil for Food program, which he administered and from
which he is alleged to have personally profited. That behavior is only
symptomatic of ongoing U.N. practices: Oversight officials tell GAO
investigators that they have "no authority to enforce payment for services
rendered and there is no appeal process, no supporting administrative
structure, and no adverse impact on an agency that does not pay or pays only
a portion of the bill."
There's more of this, and we urge readers to see
for themselves at www.gao.gov. Meantime, it would help if the Bush
Administration paid more than lip service to holding the world body to
account, not least by holding up its U.N. dues until meaningful reform is
achieved. Until that happens, the world body will continue to breed
corruption without remedy or consequence, in plain sight.
Fake Invoice Fraud The owner of the nation's largest computerized machine
tool maker was arrested yesterday morning at his California home and charged
with orchestrating a tax fraud that cost the government nearly $20 million as
well as intimidating witnesses and a federal agent investigating the case.Gene
F. Haas, 54, of Camarillo, Calif., the owner of Haas Automation and other
companies, was accused in a 52-page indictment of running a bogus invoicing
scheme to create fake tax deductions. Mr. Haas was held without bail after his
arraignment in Federal District Court in Los Angeles.
David Cay Johnston, "Executive Accused of Tax Fraud and Witness Intimidation,"
The New York Times, June 20, 2006 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/business/20tax.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has
begun reviewing its guidance on one of the most complex areas of off-balance
sheet reporting, accounting for leases, Chairman Robert Herz told Forbes.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had requested that FASB review
off-balance sheet arrangements, special purpose entities and related issues
in a staff report issued in June 2005. The most prominent topics for review
were pension disclosure and accounting for leases.
Having issued its Exposure Draft to Improve
Accounting of Pensions and other Postretirement Benefits, FASB is now
considering moving lease obligations from the current footnote disclosure to
the balance sheet. But the sheer number of rules and regulations that relate
to leases – hundreds, according to Business Week – offers experts plenty of
opportunities to keep disclosure off the books and presents FASB with an
enormous challenge.
Companies are currently required to record future
lease obligations in a footnote, but actual rent payments are deducted in
quarterly income statements. Approximately 10 percent of leases are already
disclosed on the balance sheet as liabilities because the company can
purchase the equipment at the end of the lease, and therefore the lease is
treated as a loan, or because lease payments add up to 90 percent of the
value of the leased property.
Robert Herz says, according to Business Week, that
“cookie-cutter templates” have been created to design leases so that they
don’t add up to more than 89 percent of the value of the property. And to
add to the complexity, the AP says, if the contract describes a more
temporary rental-type arrangement, it can be treated as an operating lease
and recorded in the footnote.
Leasing footnotes do not reveal the interest
portion of future payments and require the analyst or investor to make
assumptions about the number of years over which the debt needs to be paid,
the AP says, as well as the interest rate the company will be paying. David
Zion, an analyst from Credit Suisse told the AP that many professionals
interpret the footnotes by multiplying a company’s annual rental costs by
eight.
Thomas J. Linsmeier, recently named a member of the
FASB, said that the current rule for accounting for leases needed to be
changed because it sets such specific criteria. “It is a poster child for
bright-line tests,” he said, according to the New York Times.
The SEC requested the review it said in a press
release because “the current accounting for leases takes an “all or nothing”
approach to recognizing leases on the balance sheet. This results in a
clustering of lease arrangements such that their terms approach, but do not
cross, “the bright lines” in the accounting guidance that would require a
liability to be recognized. As a consequence, arrangements with similar
economic outcomes are accounted for very differently.”
Finding a way to define a lease for accounting
purposes presents additional problems. Some accountants argue that since the
lessor does not own the property and cannot sell it, the property should not
be viewed as an asset, Business Week says. Others say that the promise to
pay a rent is equal to any other liability.
Of 200 companies reviewed by SEC staffers in 2005,
77 percent had off-balance-sheet operating leases, totaling about $1.25
trillion, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Among the companies with the biggest lease
obligations are Walgreen Co. with $15.2 billion, CVS Corp with $11.1 billion
and Fedex Corp. with $10.5 billion, the AP reports. Walgreens owns less that
one-fifth of its store locations and leases the rest. Fedex leases
airplanes, land and facilities.
Robert Herz, in an editorial response in Forbes to
Harvey Pitt, former SEC chairman, acknowledged that FASB’s current projects,
including the review of lease accounting, could generate controversy. But he
says that the complexity and volume of standards impedes transparency, and
that the FASB is working jointly with the IASB to develop more principles
based standards.
“Complexity has impeded the overall usefulness of
financial statements and added to the costs of preparing and auditing
financial statements – particularly for small and private enterprises – and
it is also viewed as a contributory factor to the unacceptably high number
of restatements,” Herz writes in Forbes.
Herz does not expect the new rules to be completed
before 2008 or 2009, Business Week says.
The Big Internet Pipelines Want to Rip Off Consumers
Forwarded by David Spener
"War On The Web Robert B. Reich," May 11, 2006
Robert Reich is professor of public policy at the Richard and Rhoda
Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
He was secretary of labor in the Clinton administration.
This week, the House
is expected to vote on something termed, in perfect Orwellian prose, the
"Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006." It will
be the first real battle in the coming War of Internet Democracy.
On one side are the companies that pipe the
Internet into our homes and businesses. These include telecom giants like
AT&T and Verizon and cable companies like Comcast. Call them the pipe
companies.
On the other side are the people and businesses
that send Internet content through the pipes. Some are big outfits like
Yahoo, Google and Amazon, big financial institutions like Bank of America
and Citigroup and giant media companies soon to pump lots of movies and TV
shows on to the Internet.
But most content providers are little guys. They’re
mom-and-pop operations specializing in, say, antique egg-beaters or Brooklyn
Dodgers memorabilia. They’re anarchists, kooks and zealots peddling all
sorts of crank ideas They’re personal publishers and small-time
investigators. They include my son’s comedy troupe—streaming new videos on
the Internet every week. They also include gazillions of bloggers—including
my humble little blog and maybe even yours.
Until now, a basic principle of the Internet has
been that the pipe companies can’t discriminate among content providers.
Everyone who puts stuff up on the Internet is treated exactly the same. The
net is neutral.
But now the pipe companies want to charge the
content providers, depending on how fast and reliably the pipes deliver the
content. Presumably, the biggest content providers would pay the most money,
leaving the little content people in the slowest and least-reliable parts of
the pipe. (It will take you five minutes to download my blog.)
The pipe companies claim unless they start charge
for speed and reliability, they won’t have enough money to invest in the
next generation of networks. This is an absurd argument. The pipes are
already making lots of money off consumers who pay them for being connected
to the Internet.
The pipes figure they can make even more money
discriminating between big and small content providers because the big guys
have deep pockets and will pay a lot to travel first class. The small guys
who pay little or nothing will just have to settle for what’s left.
The House bill to be voted on this week would in
effect give the pipes the green light to go ahead with their plan.
Price discrimination is as old as capitalism. Instead of charging everyone
the same for the same product or service, sellers divide things up according
to grade or quality. Buyers willing to pay the most can get the best, while
other buyers get lesser quality, according to how much they pay.
Theoretically, this is efficient. Sellers who also have something of a
monopoly (as do the Internet pipe companies) can make a killing.
But even if it’s efficient, it’s not democratic.
And here’s the rub. The Internet has been the place where Davids can take on
Goliaths, where someone without resources but with brains and guts and
information can skewer the high and mighty. At a time in our nation’s
history when wealth and power are becoming more and more concentrated in
fewer and fewer hands, it’s been the one forum in which all voices are
equal.
Will the pipe companies be able to end Internet
democracy? Perhaps if enough of the small guys make enough of a fuss,
Congress may listen. But don’t bet on it. This Congress is not in the habit
of listening to small guys. The best hope is that big content providers will
use their formidable lobbying clout to demand net neutrality. The financial
services sector, for example, is already spending billions on information
technology, including online banking. Why would they want to spend billions
more paying the pipe companies for the Internet access they already have?
The pipe companies are busily trying to persuade
big content providers that it’s in their interest to pay for faster and more
reliable Internet deliveries. Verizon’s chief Washington lobbyist recently
warned the financial services industry that if it supports net neutrality,
it won’t get the sophisticated data links it will need in the future. The
pipes are also quietly reassuring the big content providers that they can
pass along the fees to their customers.
Will the big content providers fall for it? Stay
tuned for the next episode of Internet democracy versus monopoly capitalism.
Hold on to your seats folks,
this one gets exciting! Definitely I^3!
It starts off so easy: Are
dividend policy and capital structure related? And if so how?
Surprisingly for two topics
that have been central to corporate finance for decades, we still really
do not have very good explanations to either.A new
paper by
Faulkender, Milbourn, and Thackor
attempts to solve both problems with a new theory that suggests not only
are dividends and debt related, and tied to investor uncertainty.
Moreover, it appears the theory actually fits the data!
Super short version:
When managers and shareholders agree on the things stock prices rise.Moreover, debt levels and dividend payout ratios drop.This key insight is shown both theoretically and empirically.
Longer version:
While often studied, capital structure and dividend policy have many
unanswered questions and none of our models fit the evidence very
well.Hence the need to new thinking on the matter and that is what by
Faulkender, Milbourn, and Thackor
have brought to the table (computer screen?) in
Does Corporate Performance Determine Capital
Structure and Dividend Policy?
A few quick look-ins:
“..troubling is the fact that existing
theories also do not explain why some firms never pay dividends
whereas others consistently do, why the payment of dividends seems
dependent on the firm’s stock price, and why there seem to be
correlations between firms’ capital structure and dividend
policy...We are thus left without a theory of dividends that squares
well with these stylized facts. The evidence on capital structure is
even more troubling.”
“In this paper, we address this question by
developing a fresh approach with a simple model that departs from
the usual agency and signaling stories. We assume that the manager
wishes to maximize a weighted average of the stock prices at the
initial and terminal points in time. At the initial point in time he
raises the funds needed for a future project with either debt or
equity, and thereby determines the firm’s capital structure.
Moreover, he also decides how large a dividend to promise to pay at
the next point in time. At the time that the manager makes his
financial policy choices, he is aware that investors may not agree
with his future project choice… project-choice disagreement arises
solely from potentially different beliefs about project value rather
than agency or private information problems."
* Their main point:
“higher agreement between the manager and the
investors implies a higher stock price, so the model predicts
leverage and dividend payout ratios to be inversely related to the
firm’s stock price."
After theoretically modeling the problems, the
authors empirically test their predictions and find strong support.
Again in their words:
"We find that firms for which there is greater
agreement (i.e., lower analyst forecast dispersion and greater
performance-based compensation) have significantly less debt in
their capital structure – as measured by either market or book
leverage, or interest coverage – and pay out a significantly smaller
fraction of the earnings in the form of dividends, measured using
both the dividend payout ratio and the dividend yield.”
Good stuff!!
You probably do want to read the whole thing on this one (indeed the
literature review (disguised in the introduction) is excellent and is
definitely understandable for even undergraduates!)
Cite: Faulkender, Michael W.,
Milbourn, Todd T. and Thakor, Anjan V., "Does Corporate Performance
Determine Capital Structure and Dividend Policy?"
(March
9, 2006).
Available at SSRN:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=686865
An Interview with Jack Treynor
FEN = Financial Engineering News
Jack Treynor is one of the river gods of finance.
He helped develop the Capital Asset Pricing Model, which relates risk and
expected return, in the early 1960s and spearheaded the field of performance
measurement for investment funds. Over the decades Treynor’s reputation as a
fearless, maverick thinker who clears his own path into topics that catch
his interest has become legendary. Treynor developed a version of what
became the Capital Asset Pricing Model in 1962, before the 1964 publication
of William Sharpe’s paper laying out what became the CAPM. Treynor never
published his paper. John Lintner, an economist at Harvard Business School,
published a version of the CAPM in 1965. Sharpe won the 1990 Nobel Prize in
Economics for the development of the CAPM (he shared the prize with Harry
Markowitz and Merton Miller for contributions to financial economics).
In 1965 Treynor published “How to Rate Management
of Investment Funds” in the Harvard Business Review, the first paper to
spell out a method for evaluating the performance of money managers on a
risk-adjusted basis. Treynor had an early and profound influence on Fischer
Black, who, with Myron Scholes, developed the Black-Scholes option-pricing
model. (Scholes and Robert C. Merton won the Nobel Prize in 1997 for
developing a method to value options; Fischer Black was deceased by then.)
Treynor studied math at Haverford College and
received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1955. He worked at Arthur D.
Little in Boston from 1956 to 1966, with a sabbatical year, 1962-63,
studying economics at MIT. In 1966 he was hired by Don Regan at Merrill
Lynch to start Wall Street’s first quantitative research group to help
clients measure systematic risk and specific risk in stocks. He stayed at
Merrill for three years. Treynor served as the editor of the Financial
Analysts Journal from 1969 to 1981, and has run Treynor Capital Management
since the mid-1980s. He has published more than 50 papers on a range of
investment topics and consistently produces papers that flout conventional
assumptions. In 1976 Treynor, William Priest and Patrick Regan wrote The
Financial Reality of Pension Funding under ERISA. Richard Vancil and Treynor
co-authored Machine Tool Leasing in 1956 while at Harvard Business School.
Treynor’s 1962 paper on the CAPM has long been one of the most widely
circulated unpublished papers in modern finance.
FEN: How did you get interested in finance? JT: I
went to a small college, Haverford College, in Philadelphia’s Main Line. My
real love was physics. The department at that time consisted of a man who
was about to retire and a young man who was blind — so blind that when he
went to blackboard to write an equation he’d hold the chalk in one hand and
with the other hand he’d keep a finger on the first point of the thing he
was writing to orient himself. I enjoyed both teachers, but thought this
would be a limited education in physics. Actually it would have been limited
to Newtonian physics. So I decided to major in math instead. Given that
fondness for the apparent precisions of physics and the experience with
math, maybe it was predictable that when I got exposed to the various skills
Harvard Business School was exposing its first-year students to, I was
probably more comfortable with the quantitative stuff.
FEN: What did your family think of your decision to
go to business school? JT: My dad was a doctor, his brother was a doctor and
their father was a doctor. My father was not sure about my qualifications or
my promise as a doctor. One day, during a summer vacation between my college
years when he had an operation, he invited me to come in and hold the head
of the patient while he operated on the patient’s head. You can imagine my
irrational reaction to that experience. I probably would have overcome this
by working with cadavers, but that experience was sufficiently negative for
me. I think I reacted the way my father expected and hoped I would react,
and that the experience would turn me away from medicine.
FEN: I’ve been reading Perry Mehrling’s book,
Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance. He says that Fischer
Black saw finance as fundamentally different from physics, with its fixed
laws of nature, and more like anthropology or psychology. Do you see finance
in a similar way? JT: I have a neighbor who teaches in the social sciences,
and he says that in the social sciences ideas progress one funeral at a
time. There are several economists I admire tremendously, but the relation
between economics and finance is peculiar. In my view economics today is
where physics was in the fifteenth century. Before Francis Bacon, before the
Royal Society, the main obstacle to progress in physics was academic – it
was the teachers who had a big investment in the way they had been taught to
think about the subject and couldn’t let go. That’s why the Keynesians and
monetarists can go on year after year disagreeing about the most fundamental
issues without ever finding any common ground to resolve those issues, and
it’s why Fischer couldn’t get published in economic journals.
FEN: Has that relationship improved in recent
years? JT: It’s gotten better but not much better. Professor Mehrling is one
of the few economists who take finance seriously. He’s not the only one.
Obviously Franco Modigliani did, Paul Samuelson did. You’d have to say James
Tobin did. In his way, John Lintner did. There are probably some important
people I’m overlooking. But these guys are a handful in a profession that
certainly numbers in the hundreds, even if you include only tenured
professors.
FEN: You came at the CAPM by way of corporate
finance. JT: At Harvard Business School I hadn’t begun to think about the
CAPM problem except that I was dissatisfied with the answer the finance
guys, especially the corporate finance guys, were giving me for the choice
of discount rate for evaluating long-term corporate projects. The notion of
using the company’s internal rate of return was clearly an idea that
isolated the company from the capital market.
After I graduated I stayed on to write cases for
Bob Anthony, who was an accounting professor. He sent me to manufacturing
companies to sit down with the accounting staff and write up a problem that
they had told Professor Anthony would make a good case. I’d come back with
my notes, and he reviewed them and we’d go from there. But the choice of
discount rates for projects never came up.
At Arthur D. Little I had two different kinds of
experience. I did a lot of work for senior people in the Operations Research
Group. There were some brilliant people there. The Management Services
Division had another, separate group called the Business Research Group,
which did more conventional management consulting for companies like Philco,
British Aircraft Corp. and Irish Sugar Company. Nobody said, “Hey Jack, we
brought you on this case to compute the present value of a plant proposal.”
In each case the business research people simply brought me in as the
finance guy.
FEN: Were you keeping abreast of academic papers
that were being published in finance? JT: The simple answer is no. But every
summer I visited my parents who were living on the western side of Iowa and
who tried to escape the summer heat by going to a little cabin in the Rocky
Mountains. I remember going down to the University of Denver to read the
1958 paper by Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller. It was then and still is
now a wonderful paper. It just thrilled me.
FEN: Did that paper have a direct impact on your
research? JT: I came back from that three-week vacation [in 1958] with 44
pages of mathematical notes on this problem of how to discount corporate
project proposals. After that I’d go into the office on Saturdays and
Sundays to work on it. There was almost nobody there and it was quiet.
FEN: Those 44 pages become your 1961 paper, “Market
Value, Time, and Risk,” right? JT: Yes. I think it was typed in 1960 but I’m
not certain.
FEN: Who did you first show the paper to? JT:
Probably John Lintner at Harvard. He was the only economist I knew, which is
why I gave him my paper. He didn’t give me any encouragement. I suppose my
paper seemed like a bunch of gobbledygook to John.
FEN: Eventually a colleague sent the paper to
Merton Miller, who sent it to Franco Modigliani. JT: Franco was hired by
MIT. Weeks or months after, he called me up and invited me to lunch. When we
met he said, “Merton Miller gave me your paper, I’ve read it and frankly you
need to study economics.” I accepted his assessment. I took a sabbatical
year from Little in 1962-1963. Franco chose the courses I was to take –
price theory, macroeconomics, econometrics, his course on capital theory,
and so on, and he chose the teachers for me.
He did one other thing that was an enormous favor
to me. He took my paper and broke it in two, and said from now on these are
two separate papers. He called the first paper “Toward a Theory of Market
Value of Risky Assets” (1962), which is kind of funny in the context of what
we discussed before, because that’s a social-sciencey title. The second
paper was called “Implications for the Theory of Finance” (1963). I
presented both in separate presentations to the finance faculty seminar in
MIT. The second paper was a failure. It wasn’t right. But the first paper
was the CAPM. So basically Franco rescued the part of paper that was valid
from the rest.
FEN: I know people who have dog-eared,
20th-generation copies of that 1962 paper. Why weren’t you more aggressive
about publishing it? JT: After I left MIT I went back to Little. About three
months later, I got a call from Franco. He said Sharpe was working on the
same subject and asked me to send Sharpe a draft copy of my paper. He did
the same with Sharpe, so we got a copy of each other’s paper. I thought that
if Sharpe was going to publish, what’s the point of my publishing my paper?
That represents my reaction then.
FEN: I’ve read that Franco Modigliani for his whole
life regretted not having encouraged you more and not seeing that paper for
what it was. JT: I’ve heard that too. We can look back now and talk about
the significance of the CAPM, but if it has any real significance, it wasn’t
evident at that time to anybody, so it’s not fair to Franco to have expected
that.
FEN: What was the significance of the paper for
you? JT: One thing I was trying to do in the original paper, which then
became two papers, was approach the problem for the plant with a 40-year
life by solving the problem for one year, then converting that solution into
a partial differential equation and taking that down to the instantaneous
limit; then I integrated that PDE, applying boundary conditions such as the
cash flows for the project and whatever variables they depended on. That was
the approach Black-Scholes later took to the option valuation problem – they
solved the one-period problem, derived a PDE, then integrated that out over
time to solve the finite time problem.
FEN: Looking back over the years, what’s most
interesting and most powerful about the CAPM you developed? JT: To me the
interesting thing about the CAPM is not the assumption I made about everyone
having the same information, but rather the general equilibrium — the fact
that the CAPM is a theory about risk-bearing that permits you and me to
apply the same theory without conflict. There’s no fallacy of composition in
applying the CAPM to decisions relating to investment risk. It may have
problems, but it doesn’t have that problem.
FEN: Did you initially see that as important? JT:
I’m sure I didn’t see that at the beginning.
FEN: How would you describe the differences between
your version of the CAPM and Sharpe’s and Lintner’s? JT: I can say some
things about how it looks to me. Bill came to the CAPM from his association
with Harry Markowitz and their emphasis on constructing portfolios using
linear programming. His CAPM quite understandably and predictably shows that
influence. Mine is comparatively simple and uncomplicated and doesn’t say
anything about linear programming. There are other differences between
Sharpe and me, but I don’t think they’re important.
Lintner’s paper apparently went through many
versions, and the final version introduces a sophistication that’s absent in
my paper and in Sharpe’s paper — namely, disagreement among investors.
Sharpe and I assumed that complexity away by attributing the same
information to all investors. According to Professor Mehrling’s book,
Lintner was uneasy with the idea of covariance and preferred the idea of
variance. I think it’s easy to forget the environment Lintner was working
in. Basically he was the only economist at Harvard Business School. The
ideas that people were coping with at the time included judging a new
project by using the company’s internal rate of return, which was dumb. If
Lintner had started talking about covariance with a market portfolio with
those guys, they wouldn’t have understood anything he was talking about and
he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.
FEN: What has been the main challenge to the CAPM?
JT: One of the challenges to the CAPM is the idea that the market factor is
not the only systematic factor in the market. However, the CAPM is utterly
silent on whether there’s one systematic factor in the market or two or
three or 10. The CAPM still holds if there are other systematic factors, but
it does say that if there are systematic factors they will have risk
premiums that are proportional to their covariance with the market
portfolio.
FEN: How does the arbitrage pricing theory of
Stephen Ross fit into this discussion of CAPM? JT: APT is a theory about
systematic factors. What is a systematic factor? It’s a factor that has a
big covariance with the market portfolio. But APT can’t get off the ground
without that definition of a systematic factor. You need CAPM to define
what’s systematic and what’s not. So APT is not a challenge to the CAPM. It
needs the CAPM.
FEN: How would you describe the different
approaches to thinking about problems you absorbed from Harvard Business
School and MIT? JT: Looking back and trying to understand the two
experiences, Harvard Business School was about seeing connections that other
people didn’t see, maybe even that your teachers didn’t see. MIT was about
learning. Without ever saying so explicitly, MIT was about learning abstract
truths that were useful and powerful. At HBS there was no abstraction at
all. The cases never required you to deal with abstractions; every case was
sui generis.
FEN: Would you say you veered more toward the MIT
approach? JT: I don’t know that that’s right. It certainly was a very
important influence on my life — the opportunity to get to know Franco and
the whole experience. I might have tended to say that Harvard Business
School was the greater influence.
FEN: After your MIT year, when you returned to
Arthur D. Little, you switched gears and focused on investment management
issues. JT: My boss by then was Martin Ernst. Ernst called me up and said,
ADL just spent a considerable amount of money on your sabbatical when you
were at MIT. Is there anything in this stuff you’re working on that has any
commercial value? I went away and came back with a list after a couple days.
He went down this quite short list of four or five items and his finger
stopped at performance measurement. He said, “Show me you can actually do
something on this one, on performance measurement.” So I went away for a
couple more days again and came back with a proposal. That became my first
Harvard Business Review paper in 1965, called “How to Rate Management of
Investment Funds.” My second Harvard Business Review paper was called “Can
Mutual Funds Outguess the Market?” (1966). It was co-authored with Kay Mazuy,
a statistics expert at Little.
FEN: You overlapped with Fischer Black for a year
and a half at ADL. How did you meet? JT: He didn’t get there until 1965.
This is embarrassing but I can’t remember how we met. Maybe Fischer walked
into my office, introduced himself and said, “Hey I’m the new boy, what do
you do?” That would be possible. Maybe we met at the lunch table.
FEN: How did your relationship develop? Did you
become friends? JT: We never worked on a case together at Little. He was
working on stuff when he first arrived that was unrelated to my interests in
risk management and performance measurement. But I was interested in telling
people about the two Harvard Business Review papers, and Fischer showed a
lot more interest than anybody else. By the time I left for Merrill Lynch in
New York we were certainly friends. After I left, Ernst eventually gave my
casework to Fischer. We had a lot of phone conversations between Boston and
New York.
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting
Weekly Review on June 2, 2006
TITLE: Tribune's Response to the News Blues: a Buyback
REPORTER: Sarah Ellison and Dennis K. Berman
DATE: May 31, 2006
PAGE: A3
LINK:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114900492721266404.html TOPICS:
Accounting, Asset Disposal, Bonds, Financial Accounting, Stock Price Effects
SUMMARY: This article introduces many topics in corporate restructuring,
debt-to-equity ratios, and treasury stock transactions
QUESTIONS:
1.) Why is Tribune Co. planning to nearly double the amount of debt is has
outstanding? Are you surprised by the expected use of the proceeds from issuance
of the debt?
2.) What types of assets is the company considering selling? What types of
transactions might be undertaken to effect those sales? What do you think the
company might intend to do with any expected proceeds or profits from the sales
of assets?
3.) Overall, what will be the combined effect on Tribune Company's balance
sheet of all transactions described in the article? Answer this question in
terms of increases and decreases to major balance sheet classifications.
4.) Compare reactions to the companies' announced plan by equity market
participants and by bond market participants. Explain these reactions in terms
of the company's debt to equity ratio, the company's prospects for future
business, and any other relevant factors you note from the article. You may
refer also to the related article to assist in developing your answer.
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
From PwC: Current Developments for
Audit Committees ---
Click Here
Current Developments for Audit
Committees 2006 is
PricewaterhouseCoopers' annual
update. It informs audit committee
members of current business and
regulatory developments affecting
their responsibilities. Of
particular interest in 2006 are:
landmark court decisions
dealing with investors who may
have conflicting objectives
404 and efforts to achieve
sustainable compliance going
forward
SEC areas of focus, emphasizing
transparency
developments in the
international arena, marked by
accelerating progress toward
convergence
I have been busy and did a good deal on this and
you may be interested in this information, please see below. Pleae post this
for us.
1. The Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG -
www.oceg.org) has released a new 88 page internal audit guide for use in
auditing compliance & ethics programs.
2. The press release with all the details is
available at:
Mr. Seward's paper, as co-author on "Protecting
Client-CPA-Attorney Information in the Electronic Age" will be included in
the Research Forum Session of the International Meeting of the American
Accounting Association 2006 Annual Meeting on August 6-9 in Washington, D.C.
Riches Without Restraint: The Sad State of Corporate Governance
"Gilded Paychecks: Ties That Bind With Links to Board, Chief Saw His
Pay Soar," by Julie Creswell, The New York Times, May 24, 2006
Every October, some 50 former Home Depot managers,
calling themselves the Former Orange-Blooded Executives, after the
home-improvement chain's trademark bright orange color, gather in Atlanta to
reminisce, chat about new jobs and pass around pictures of their children.
The discussion inevitably turns to the changes at
Home Depot under its chief executive, Robert L. Nardelli. A growing source
of resentment among some is Mr. Nardelli's pay package. The Home Depot board
has awarded him $245 million in his five years there. Yet during that time,
the company's stock has slid 12 percent while shares of its archrival,
Lowe's, have climbed 173 percent.
Why would a company award a chief executive that
much money at a time when the company's shareholders are arguably faring far
less well? Some of the former Home Depot managers think they know the
reason, and compensation experts and shareholder advocates agree: the
clubbiness of the six-member committee of the company's board that
recommends Mr. Nardelli's pay.
Two of those members have ties to Mr. Nardelli's
former employer, General Electric. One used Mr. Nardelli's lawyer in
negotiating his own salary. And three either sat on other boards with Home
Depot's influential lead director, Kenneth G. Langone, or were former
executives at companies with significant business relationships with Mr.
Langone.
In addition, five of the six members of the
compensation committee are active or former chief executives, including one
whose compensation dwarfs Mr. Nardelli's. Governance experts say people who
are or have been in the top job have a harder time saying no to the salary
demands of fellow chief executives. Moreover, chief executives indirectly
benefit from one another's pay increases because compensation packages are
often based on surveys detailing what their peers are earning.
To its critics, the panel exemplifies the close
personal and professional ties among board members and executives at many
companies ties that can make it harder for a board to restrain executive
pay. They say this can occur even though all of a board's compensation
committee members technically meet the legal definition of independent, as
is the case at Home Depot.
"When you have a situation like this where it is so
incestuous, it creates uncertainty whether Nardelli's pay is a reflection of
these relationships or from his performance," said Jesse M. Fried, a
professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of
a book on executive compensation, "Pay Without Performance."
A showdown could occur at the annual meeting
tomorrow as firms that advise large shareholders and activist groups are
urging shareholders to withhold votes from several directors. The
shareholder groups are also seeking the right to vote on the compensation
committee's annual report and plan a rally outside the meeting in
Wilmington, Del., to protest Mr. Nardelli's pay.
None of the current or former members of the
compensation committee returned calls seeking comment, and the company would
not make Mr. Nardelli available.
In an e-mail statement, Mr. Langone said: "Each and
every board member at Home Depot is totally independent. Candidates for
service have been suggested and put through the nominating process by a wide
variety of directors, myself included. That is why there is such a diversity
of thought, opinion and experience on the board and why our discussions are
open, robust and objective."
Mr. Langone was instrumental in bringing the former
G.E. star into the company. While he is not on the compensation committee,
he has led the committee that nominates directors for the last seven years.
No stranger to controversy, Mr. Langone is
currently under fire for his role as head of the compensation committee at
the New York Stock Exchange, which granted the former chief executive
Richard A. Grasso a pay package worth more than $140 million. Mr. Grasso sat
on Home Depot's board from 2002 to 2004, including a stint on the
compensation committee.
Mr. Langone "created the Home Depot board in his
own philosophical image," said Richard Ferlauto, director of pension
investment policy for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, whose pension fund owns shares in the company. "Arguably, Langone
is the ringleader and the one who pulls the strings in this network," he
added.
Riches With Restraint
The co-founders of Home Depot, Arthur M. Blank and
Bernard Marcus, grew very rich on company stock that soared in value. But
under them, Home Depot embraced a culture of restraint when it came to pay,
said Paul D. Lapides, a corporate governance expert at Kennesaw State
University in Georgia. "Bernie and Art took home a salary of $1 million or
less and refused bonuses. The attitude was one of 'we're all in this
together,' " said Mr. Lapides, who has never worked at Home Depot but has
studied the company for years.
Representatives of Mr. Marcus and Mr. Blank, both
retired from Home Depot, said neither would comment for this article.
Since hiring Mr. Nardelli, 58, the board has
awarded him more than $87 million in deferred stock grants and $90 million
in stock options, according to an analysis by Brian Foley, a compensation
consultant in White Plains. Mr. Nardelli's salary, bonuses and a company
loan make up most of the rest of his $245 million compensation.
Even last year, when Home Depot's stock was
unchanged, the board raised his salary 8 percent, to $2.164 million, and
increased his bonus 22 percent, to $7 million.
By contrast, from 2000 until his retirement early
last year, the former chief executive of Lowe's, Robert L. Tillman, was
awarded less than a quarter of what Mr. Nardelli was awarded through the end
of last year, according to Mr. Foley. The many connections among Home
Depot's directors cause some critics to ask whether the nominating committee
is failing in finding truly "independent" board members. "The fact that you
have so much overlapping boards here says to me: what was the nomination
process to get on the board here, how wide was the net really cast?" asked
Eleanor Bloxham, president of the Value Alliance, a group that advises
companies on corporate governance issues.
The net may not have been cast much farther than
Mr. Langone's circle of friends and associates, critics say. For instance,
there is Bonnie G. Hill, who leads the Home Depot compensation committee.
The owner of a corporate-governance consulting
firm, Ms. Hill is on the board of Yum Brands with Mr. Langone. Until
recently, she served on the board of ChoicePoint, another company with which
Mr. Langone has deep ties, including serving as a director. Mr. Langone's
statement defending the ties of board members said the idea that they could
not share friendships was ridiculous: "It not only sets up a make-believe
standard but it is designed to please an agenda driven by activists with
ulterior motives."
Ms. Hill is also on the compensation committee of
Albertson's, the grocery chain, where she is determining the pay for the
chief executive, Lawrence R. Johnston, who is also a Home Depot director.
"Would Johnston be as eager to promote strict pay practices on the Home
Depot board, where one of his pay setters is in a position to apply the same
pay principles to his own pay package?" asked Jackie Cook, a senior research
associate at the Corporate Library, an institutional advisory firm in
Portland, Me.
Mr. Johnston was at G.E. at the same time as Mr.
Nardelli, running the appliances unit.
Mr. Johnston turned to a well-known compensation
lawyer, Robert J. Stucker, to negotiate his compensation package at
Albertson's when he joined in 2001. Mr. Stucker had negotiated Mr.
Nardelli's package at Home Depot just months earlier.
When it comes time for Mr. Nardelli to renegotiate
his own contract, Mr. Johnston, as a member of the Home Depot compensation
committee, is forced to negotiate against his own lawyer, said Charles M.
Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at
the University of Delaware. "By utilizing the same legal counsel, if there's
ever a dispute between the company and Mr. Nardelli over pay, it puts a
member of the compensation committee in a very awkward position," Mr. Elson
said. A call to Mr. Stucker was not returned.
More links to G.E. are evident with Claudio X.
Gonzalez, a board member. The longtime chairman and chief executive of
Kimberly-Clark de Mexico, a unit of Kimberly-Clark, Mr. Gonzalez has known
Mr. Langone and Mr. Nardelli for years as a G.E. director.
Besides Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Johnston, the
compensation panel includes three other current or former chief executives:
Angelo R. Mozilo, who heads Countrywide Financial; John L. Clendenin, the
former chief of BellSouth; and Richard H. Brown, the former chief of
Electronic Data Systems.
Mr. Brown also has ties to Mr. Langone, who, as an
investment banker, took Electronic Data Systems public in 1968 and was a
large E.D.S. shareholder for years. Later, at his own investment bank,
Invemed Associates, Mr. Langone underwrote security offerings by E.D.S.
while Mr. Brown was chief executive. Mr. Brown is not up for re-election to
the Home Depot board this year.
In his statement, Mr. Langone said: "Dick Brown is
one of the finest business minds this country has ever produced and I am
proud to call him my friend. He was not suggested for service on the board
by me but I heartily endorsed the idea."
This Year's ' Disney'
The ire of shareholder activists was raised even
more with the addition of Mr. Mozilo to the board in February. Mr. Mozilo
now sits on the compensation committee.
His pay package, which is bigger than Mr.
Nardelli's, already made him a target of governance groups. Last year alone,
Mr. Mozilo took home $70 million, including salary, bonus, stock options,
payments for tax- and investment-advisory services and country club
memberships. "Good grief," said Paul Hodgson, a compensation analyst at the
Corporate Library. "He's hardly likely to be an influence of restraint given
his own pay package."
Shareholder activists are taking a more aggressive
stance toward directors this year. "Home Depot, I think, is the Disney of
this shareholder season," said Mr. Ferlauto, referring to the 2004 annual
meeting of Disney shareholders at which 45 percent of the votes cast were
withheld from the chief executive, Michael D. Eisner, in part because of his
pay. Mr. Eisner later resigned.
At the Home Depot annual meeting tomorrow, several
factions are recommending that investors withhold support from most of the
directors. The dissidents include A.F.S.C.M.E.; the state pension fund of
Connecticut; the California Public Employees Retirement System, the
country's largest public pension fund; and Institutional Shareholder
Services, which advises pension funds and mutual funds.
I.S.S. claims there is a "disconnect" between Mr.
Nardelli's pay and Home Depot's performance. "Moreover, poor compensation
design, a lucrative employment agreement, and arguably egregious
compensation practices call into question the fitness of the company's
Compensation Committee members to serve as directors," the advisory firm
said in a report it issued two weeks ago.
The board disagrees, saying that it based Mr.
Nardelli's pay and bonus last year on the company's "outstanding operating
performance," his "continuing success in developing a new foundation for
long-term growth" and his "continuing superior leadership," according to a
statement from the company.
Mr. Langone concurs. "I have long felt that Bob
Nardelli's abilities are absolutely first rate," he said in his statement.
"He's doing a great job and the strong fundamentals he has built during his
tenure are proof of his keen leadership. There are a whole variety of
long-term indicators I find encouraging such as earnings growth, sales
growth, equity value in the brand as well as systematic enhancements put in
place companywide that have dramatically improved efficiency."
Last year Home Depot reported record earnings per
share, record gross and operating margins and record sales of $81.5 billion.
Yet, over the last five years, Home Depot stock has fallen 12 percent,
performing worse than its peers and the Standard & Poor's 500 index, which
fell 4 percent. Mr. Nardelli has also created a fair amount of friction
since he joined the company, say some of his critics among the Former
Orange-Blooded Executives, a few of whom were forced out once Mr. Nardelli
took over. He moved quickly to introduce G.E.-inspired performance measures;
issued edicts about store displays to managers who once enjoyed a great deal
of autonomy; and replaced several longtime Home Depot executives with former
G.E. associates.
Today, two of Home Depot's four highest-paid
executives hail from G.E., including its director of human resources. A
third executive, the general counsel, Frank L. Fernandez, was a lawyer in
upstate New York who was occasionally hired as an outside counsel for G.E.
when Mr. Nardelli ran its power systems group in the area.
In his latest moves, Mr. Nardelli is trying to
retool Home Depot, snapping up lumber and building materials companies last
year in order to push into the professional contractor market.
"He has made a big decision to get into the supply
business, and Wall Street has greeted that decision with a yawn," said Eric
Bosshard, a stock analyst at FTN Midwest Securities who does not own shares
in the company. Despite these bold moves, Home Depot did not even know it
was looking for a fix-it man when Mr. Nardelli hit its radar in the fall of
2000. The chief executive at the time, Mr. Blank, one of the co-founders,
was actually on the hunt for a second-in-command, someone he could groom to
take over his job eventually.
Those plans went out the window over Thanksgiving
weekend that year when Mr. Nardelli, who had been in charge of G.E. Power
Systems for five years, learned he had lost out to Jeffrey R. Immelt to
succeed G.E.'s longtime chief executive, John F. Welch Jr. (Mr. Nardelli may
have lost the battle for the title, but he is winning in the total
compensation wars. Mr. Immelt has been awarded $108 million since taking
over as G.E.'s chief, according to Mr. Foley, while the company's stock has
fallen 19 percent.)
Mr. Langone, who sat on G.E.'s board and had
watched Mr. Nardelli's career, moved fast to avoid losing the executive
star. Hard-charging and ambitious, Mr. Nardelli was interested, but not in a
No. 2 position. Worried he would go elsewhere, the Home Depot board decided
Mr. Blank should step aside and Mr. Nardelli, who had no retail experience,
should take his place.
Luring an executive of Mr. Nardelli's repute,
however, came at a high price. Despite the fact that Mr. Nardelli had little
incentive to remain at G.E., he required that he be "made whole," meaning he
would have to be paid for what he was walking away from. He was given a
stock option grant of 3.5 million shares. One million of those shares vested
immediately and were worth $25 million.
That was just the beginning. He also received perks
like use of a company plane for personal trips; a new car every three years,
one similar in price to the Mercedes Benz S series; and a $10 million loan
with an annual interest rate of 5.8 percent that would be forgiven over five
years.
That $10 million loan wound up costing shareholders
$21 million after the board agreed to pay all taxes on it, a so-called
gross-up. Congress banned loans like this in 2002 after Mr. Nardelli joined
the company.
And when it appeared that Mr. Nardelli might not
hit one of the few performance goals the board had set to cause payment of a
long-term incentive plan, the board lowered the goalposts, according to the
Corporate Library.
The target for Mr. Nardelli had been total
shareholder return share price increases plus reinvested dividends
compared with a peer group, and the company was performing poorly by that
measure in 2003, according to the Corporate Library. But that year, the
board changed the target to one of growth in average diluted earnings per
share, which takes into account the per share earnings decrease that occurs
when stock options are awarded. In a report released in March of this year,
the Corporate Library labeled Home Depot one of its 11 "Pay for Failure
Companies."
A Question of Incentives
The change in the incentive target appeared to be
"designed to ensure a payout," rather than provide an incentive to improve
performance, the report said. Other critics say the new hurdle is even
easier to hit with a board-approved share-repurchase program. Since 2002,
the company has bought back nearly $10 billion of its own stock.
The one threat to Mr. Nardelli's pay is a proposal
by A.F.S.C.M.E., the government workers' union, that would allow Home Depot
shareholders to approve or reject the report from the compensation
committee. But even if the proposal is accepted, any future rejection of the
board panel's compensation report would be merely symbolic. The board can
simply ignore shareholders and pay executives what they wish.
So far, similar proposals have been rejected at two
other companies whose executive pay A.F.S.C.M.E. identified as a problem:
Merrill Lynch and U.S. Bancorp. The Home Depot board is urging its
shareholders to vote against the proposal.
Skepticism about Mr. Nardelli's strategy to move
the company away from its retailing roots and concerns about a cooling in
the housing market have caused some large investors to move out of the
stock, said Michael E. Cox, a stock analyst at Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis,
who does not personally own shares in the stock.
But like the majority of analysts on Wall Street,
Mr. Cox recommends Home Depot's stock to investors because he believes that
Mr. Nardelli's strategy will pay off in the long term for the company.
Furthermore, Mr. Nardelli's reputation has not been
tarnished, insisted Gerard R. Roche, the high-profile recruiter who helped
bring Mr. Nardelli to the retailer. "I know he has been approached by other
companies. There are a number of people interested in lifting Nardelli out,"
Mr. Roche said. "I can tell you there are a number of companies telling me
to get them another Nardelli."
The California Public Employees'
Retirement System is demanding a conference call with the
compensation committee of the board of UnitedHealth Group
Inc. over its disclosure practices, and is threatening to
withhold votes for board directors seeking re-election.
In a letter sent to James A.
Johnson, chairman of the UnitedHealth board's compensation
committee, Calpers board President Rob Feckner demanded a
conference call ahead of Tuesday's UnitedHealth shareholders
meeting to discuss what he called "serious threats to the
credibility, governance and performance of UnitedHealth."
Specifically, the letter criticized the company's failure to
explain how it determined stock option grant dates for Chief
Executive William McGuire and a handful of other executives
in past years, and its "inconsistent" disclosure of its
option-granting program.
The move by Calpers increases the
scrutiny of the process by which Dr. McGuire received some
of the $1.6 billion in unrealized gains he holds in company
stock options. Calpers holds 6.55 million shares, or 0.5%,
of UnitedHealth's outstanding stock. The pension fund, known
for its strong stances on corporate governance, could spur
other investors to join in its criticism. The move also
increases pressure on UnitedHealth's board to more fully
explain its past option-award practices soon, even though
its board only launched a probe into them earlier this
month.
Continued in article
Which brings us to Congress, the villain of this tale that the rest of the
press corps wants to ignore. Executive greed is an easier story to sell, we
suppose. But the same Members of Congress who most deplore big CEO paydays are
the same ones who created the incentive for companies to overuse options as
compensation.
"Backdate Backlash," The Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2006; Page A6
---
Click Here
These columns have never joined the media pack
deploring executive pay, since wages are best determined by directors and
shareholders. But that doesn't mean every pay practice is kosher, especially
if it's done on the sly. That's where the recent news over the "backdating"
of stock options is cause for some concern -- and for more aggressive
director supervision.
CEO pay has been going up, in part because the
market is putting a premium on the skills necessary to navigate today's
legal and competitive minefields. Some of the increases also flow from the
greater use of stock options, which came into their own in the 1990s thanks
in part to Congress (more on that below). Options are supposed to align the
interests of management with those of shareholders, but they can also be
abused.
This appears to be the case with "backdating,"
which is the practice of moving the strike date for option grants to ensure
lower exercise prices and thus a bigger payday. Companies grant options
according to shareholder-approved plans, most of which require a grant to
carry the stock price on the day it was awarded. If it turns out the grant
carries a different day's price, those who do the "backdating" could be
guilty of false disclosure and securities fraud.
The number of companies doing this isn't clear,
though the SEC is investigating at least 20 and prosecutors have launched
criminal probes into a half-dozen. In the least savory instances, executives
may have been trying to pull a fast one by altering option dates without the
approval of directors. Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. recently fired three top
managers, including its CEO, because of what it called "issues related to
the integrity of documents relating to Vitesse's stock option grant
process." Never a good sign.
But some boards may also have been asleep at the
option switch. Affiliated Computer Services recently announced it will take
a charge against earnings of as much as $40 million due to accounting
problems related to option grants. Why? Well, ACS explained that its board
compensation committee has typically approved grants over the phone --
making them effective that day -- with official written consent coming
later. ACS says it believes this practice was "permitted" under law, but
shareholders might ask why they are now getting stuck with the $40 million
surprise tab.
Then there's UnitedHealth Group CEO William
McGuire, who is being pilloried for his $1.8 billion in unrealized option
gains. The health insurer has said it may have to restate three years of
results due to a "significant deficiency" in how it administered option
grants, which would suggest backdating.
But what especially caught investor eyes was the
news that the company's board had allowed Mr. McGuire to choose his own
grant dates. Directors may well have meant this as an added perk for a CEO
whose tenure has seen a 50-fold rise in UnitedHealth's share price. Yet the
practice still looks like an abdication by the board, which represents
shareholders and is supposed to guard against needless equity dilution.
Some companies have insisted that their boards
consciously pegged option grants to coincide with relatively low stock
prices. But this would seem to contradict the alleged purpose of options,
which is to give management an incentive to raise the stock price and thus
the return to shareholders. Granting options at a very low price amounts to
additional guaranteed compensation, and ought to be labeled as such.
Especially since shareholders will end up paying
for this executive privilege. UnitedHealth has lost more than $17 billion of
its market value since the backdating story broke. Several companies are
restating results, facing enormous back taxes and are already grappling with
the usual opportunistic lawsuits. * * *
Which brings us to Congress, the villain of this
tale that the rest of the press corps wants to ignore. Executive greed is an
easier story to sell, we suppose. But the same Members of Congress who most
deplore big CEO paydays are the same ones who created the incentive for
companies to overuse options as compensation.
In 1993, amid another wave of envy over CEO pay,
Congress capped the tax deductibility of salaries at $1 million. To no one's
surprise except apparently the Members who passed this law, most CEO
salaries have since had a way of staying just below $1 million year after
year. But because companies still need to compete for and retain top talent,
they have found other forms of compensation -- notably stock options.
And one of the problems with options is that they
give executives every incentive to capitalize all company profits back into
the stock price -- thus contributing to their own pay -- rather than paying
out dividends to shareholders. As SEC Chairman Chris Cox has noted, the 1993
law deserves "pride of place in the museum of unintended consequences."
In a better world -- one in which Congress kept its
nose out of wage decisions -- corporate directors could pay the salaries
they wanted and wouldn't rely so much on options to motivate executives.
This, in turn, would reduce the incentive for companies to stoop to such
dubious pay practices as option backdating. But as long-time observers of
Washington, we can say with certainty that backdating will cease as a
corporate practice long before Congress admits its mistake.
Question
What are the primary alleged causes for the rapid increase in revisions to
financial statements in the past few years?
An official in Washington DC sent me a note today
saying that he is " interested in understanding the cause for the increased
number of restatements. Can you recommend any good articles or research that
explains the root causes, trends, etc?
Can anyone suggest some good references to pass
along?
Perhaps this might help...Financial Restatements:
Causes, Consequences, and Corrections By Erik Linn, CPA, and Kori Diehl,
CPA, published in the September 2005 issue of Strategic Finance,
Vol.87, Iss. 3; pg. 34, 6 pgs.
Ganesh M. Pandit Adelphi University
June 15, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen
Evidence seems to be mounting that Section 404 of SOX is working in
uncovering significant errors in past financial statements. This is to be
expected in the early phases of 404 implementation. But the revisions should
subside after 404 is properly rolling. Companies like Kodak found huge
internal control weaknesses that led to reporting errors.
One of the most popular annual study if restatements is free from the
Huron Consulting Group.
"2004 Annual Review of Financial Reporting Matters - Summary" ---
Click Here
(I could not yet find the 2005 update, which is understandable since
2005 annual reports were just recently published.)
Not to discount reasons for restatements noted
earlier, I understand many restatements were also due to spreadsheet errors
and perhaps inadequacy of ERP systems for external and regulatory reporting
purposes. Even at big corporations, at the end of the year, the CFO has to
compile and integrate dozens of spreadsheets coming from various divisions
and departments and make adjusting entries; in some cases overlooking
existing Excel formulas.
In October 2002 GAO published a study of nearly
1,000 restatements "FINANCIAL STATEMENT RESTATEMENTS: Trends, Market
Impacts, Regulatory Responses, and Remaining Challenges". It covered
1997-June 2002. I may be too old for your friend, but I have the study in
PDF form (5mb, 272 pages) if you want it.
Various market watchers define earnings quality
differently, but the general idea is that the best earnings are those that
come from a company's main businesses firing on all cylinders, rather than
from ancillary factors often outside the company's control, such as a change
in accounting rules.
Michael Thompson, research director at Thomson
Financial, says the earnings "purity" of stocks in the Standard & Poor's
500-stock index has risen since 2002. He arrived at that conclusion by
taking the earnings figures presented by the companies and backing out
certain charges, fees and other figures that say nothing about whether the
company is selling more of its products or services. These days, Mr.
Thompson is finding fewer items to exclude; thus, he thinks the quality of
earnings is higher.
Question
What are the accounting and tax implications of backdating employee stock
options?
The stock-options backdating scandal
continued to intensify, with the announcement by a Silicon
Valley chip maker that its chairman and its chief financial
officer had abruptly resigned. That brought to eight the number
of officials at various companies to leave their posts amid
scrutiny of how companies grant stock options.
"Backdating Probe Widens as 2 Quit Silicon Valley Firm:
Power Integrations Officials Leave Amid Options Scandal; 10
Companies Involved So Far," by Charles Forelle and James Bandler,
The Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2006; Page A1 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114684512600744974.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one
Affiliated Computer Services Inc.
acknowledged that it issued executive stock options that
carried "effective dates" preceding the written approval of
the grants, saying it plans a charge of as much as $40
million to rectify its accounting related to the grants.
The announcement followed a
preliminary internal probe at ACS, a Dallas technology
outsourcer that is also under scrutiny by the Securities and
Exchange Commission for its options practices. Between 1995
and 2002, the company granted stock options to Jeffrey Rich,
its chief executive for part of that time, that were
routinely dated just before sharp run-ups in the company's
share price, and often at the nadir of big dips.
Mr. Rich left the company last
year. A rising share price helped him reap more than $60
million from options during his tenure at the company. The
timing of his grants helped, too. If his six grants had come
at the stock's average closing price during the year they
were dated, he'd have made about 15% less.
Continued in article
Is any CEO really entitled to over $ 6 billion in gains on
employee stock options? "Calpers Puts Pressure on Board of UnitedHealth: Holder
Demands a Meeting Over Option-Grant Timing; A Threat to Withhold
Votes," by Vanessa Fuhrmans, The Wall Street Journal,
April 26, 2006; Page A3 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114599506269535599.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
The California Public Employees'
Retirement System is demanding a conference call with the
compensation committee of the board of UnitedHealth Group
Inc. over its disclosure practices, and is threatening to
withhold votes for board directors seeking re-election.
In a letter sent to James A.
Johnson, chairman of the UnitedHealth board's compensation
committee, Calpers board President Rob Feckner demanded a
conference call ahead of Tuesday's UnitedHealth shareholders
meeting to discuss what he called "serious threats to the
credibility, governance and performance of UnitedHealth."
Specifically, the letter criticized the company's failure to
explain how it determined stock option grant dates for Chief
Executive William McGuire and a handful of other executives
in past years, and its "inconsistent" disclosure of its
option-granting program.
The move by Calpers increases the
scrutiny of the process by which Dr. McGuire received some
of the $1.6 billion in unrealized gains he holds in company
stock options. Calpers holds 6.55 million shares, or 0.5%,
of UnitedHealth's outstanding stock. The pension fund, known
for its strong stances on corporate governance, could spur
other investors to join in its criticism. The move also
increases pressure on UnitedHealth's board to more fully
explain its past option-award practices soon, even though
its board only launched a probe into them earlier this
month.
Continued in article
After the Horse is Out of the Barn: UnitedHealth Halts Executive
Options The UnitedHealth Group, under fire for the timing
of lucrative options grants to executives, said Monday that it had
discontinued equity-based awards to its two most senior managers and that it
would cease other perks like paying for personal use of corporate aircraft.
UnitedHealth’s board said it had discontinued equity-based awards for the
chief executive, William W. McGuire, who has some $1.6 billion in unrealized
gains from earlier options grants, and for the president and chief operating
officer, Stephen J. Helmsley.
"UnitedHealth Halts Executive Options," The New York Times, May 2,
2006 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/business/02unitedhealth.web.html
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review
on May 19, 2006
TITLE: UnitedHealth Cites 'Deficiency' in Options Grants
REPORTER: James Bandler and Charles Forelle
DATE: May 12, 2006
PAGE: A1
LINK:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114734563729450037.html
TOPICS: Financial Accounting, Income Taxes, Materiality,
Securities and Exchange Commission, Stock Options, Taxation,
Accounting Changes and Error Corrections, Audit Quality,
Auditing
SUMMARY: UnitedHealth Group Inc. disclosed on May 11 that
"...a 'significant deficiency' in how it administered [stock
option] grants could force it to restate results ...[and cut]
net income by as much as $286 million over that period." The
company also disclosed that the SEC is "conducting an informal
inquiry into its options-granting
practices"...UnitedHealth...said its internal review had
indicated it had uncovered 'significant deficiency' in the way
it administered, accounted for and disclosed past option grants
and that it may be required to take certain accounting
adjustments for 'stock-based compensation expense.' It said that
could reduce operating earnings by up to $393 million in the
past three years, adding that the company's management believes
that any adjustments would not be 'material'."
QUESTIONS:
1.) Summarize the issue regarding accounting for stock options
that was uncovered in a March 18, 2006, Wall Street Journal
article and that has subsequently been the subject of SEC
scrutiny.
2.) The summary description for this review quotes a
paragraph in the article describing the financial statement
effects of potential adjustments the deficiencies in
UnitedHealth's option granting practices. The paragraph begins
"In its filing, UnitedHealth, which reported $3.3 billion in net
income last year..." Identify all of the terms in that paragraph
with specific meaning for accounting and/or auditing purposes.
Define each of those terms, explain why it has specific meaning
in its use in accounting or auditing, and, if it is a relevant
point, explain why understanding that meaning helps to analyze
the impact of these options issues on UnitedHealth.
3.) Refer again to the paragraph described in question 1. The
concluding sentence states that the company management believes
that adjustments resulting from their review of options granting
practices will not be material. Contrast this point to the
comments by Professor James Cox of Duke University that "this
isn't just a little material...for this kind of issue."
Construct arguments to support one of these positions, being
sure to refute arguments potentially in favor of your opposing
side. In your answers to this and the preceding question, be
sure to address the two components of materiality in an audit
engagement.
4.) Refer to the list of companies in the table entitled "Key
Companies in Options Probes." In what industry do most of these
companies operate? Why is there industry concentration amongst
this sample of firms?
5.) What are the potential issues facing UnitedHealth's
auditors, Deloitte and Touche, regarding these matters? What
basic audit steps do you think should be carried out in relation
to any company's accounting for stock options?
6.) Do you think the situation with UnitedHealth necessarily
indicates an audit failure on the part of Deloitte and Touche?
In your answer, define the terms "audit risk", "business risk"
in relation to audits, and "audit quality."
7.) Summarize the tax implications described in the article
regarding these matters. How might adjustments to the tax
accounting for these stock options exacerbate or reduce the
impact of the adjustments to the accounting for stock based
compensation expense?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review
on May 5, 2006
TITLE: As Options Cloud Looms, Companies May Get Tax Bill
REPORTER: Charles Forelle and James Bandler
DATE: Apr 28, 2006
PAGE: C1
LINK:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114619341731038487.html
TOPICS: Accounting, Financial Accounting, Securities and
Exchange Commission, Stock Options, Taxation
SUMMARY: Tax implications of the developing issues in stock
options, covered also in a recent Weekly Review, are discussed.
QUESTIONS:
1.) What is the recently-developing concern with dating of
executive stock options? In your answer, comment on the
Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the issue.
You may refer to the related article for your answer.
2.) Define the terms "compensatory stock options"; "incentive
stock options";"option grant date"; and "option exercise price".
3.) Summarize the tax implications to both executives
receiving stock options and to companies issuing stock options
if option grant dates are changed to a point when the stock
price is higher than on the originally reported date, but the
exercise price is not changed.
4.) The author quotes Mr. Brian Foley as saying that one
company under SEC and IRS scrutiny for this issue, UnitedHealth,
would have a "serious and incurable problem" if options were
"backdated" and they have been exercised. What could be the
difference between options that were exercised and options that
have not been?
5.) What are the financial reporting implications of the
problems highlighted in this article? How do the tax issues
exacerbate the financial reporting problems?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
Companies that backdated
stock-option grants to top executives could face a costly
reckoning with the Internal Revenue Service, with some
potentially owing large sums in back taxes, legal experts
say.
The tax problems, which could
affect the personal tax filings of hundreds of individual
employees, are the latest wrinkle in widening inquiries into
stock-option awards.
A half-dozen companies, including
insurance titan UnitedHealth Group Inc., have said their
boards, or the Securities and Exchange Commission, are
examining their past option grants amid concerns that some
may have been backdated to take advantage of lower exercise
prices. Backdating could have resulted in millions of
dollars in extra compensation for insiders, at the expense
of shareholders. Most of the probes are preliminary, and so
far the SEC hasn't charged anyone.
If the investigations turn up
backdated grants, the companies face a host of issues,
including the prospect of earnings restatements and
delistings. Such options offer the right to buy a stock at a
fixed, or exercise, price, allowing the holder to profit by
later selling the underlying shares at a higher price than
the exercise price.
One company that has acknowledged
"misdating" options, Mercury Interactive Corp., a Mountain
View, Calif., software company, has had its stock delisted
by the Nasdaq Stock Market and has said it will have to
restate financial results. Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. last
week suspended its chief executive and two other top
officials, saying the move was related to the "integrity of
documents" in its stock-option program. Late Wednesday,
Vitesse said its board had discovered additional accounting
issues and had hired a turnaround firm.
Granting an option at a price below
the current market value, while not illegal in itself, could
result in problems of wrongful disclosure under securities
laws. Companies' shareholder-approved option plans and SEC
filings often say options will carry the stock price of the
day the company awards them or the day before.
Favorable tax treatment was one
reason that options gained popularity in the 1990s as a way
to compensate employees, particularly executives. When an
option is exercised, the company typically can take any gain
pocketed by the employee as a deduction on its tax return,
because the IRS views the option profit as akin to extra
compensation paid to the employee. The employee reports the
gain on his or her personal tax return.
Tax experts say that options
backdated to a day with a lower market price don't qualify
for a deduction -- although the disqualification only
affects options exercised by the chief executive or any of
the next four most highly compensated executives. And $1
million of each of the executives' total compensation always
can be deducted. As a result, they say, companies with
backdated options could face the prospect of shelling out
cash to revise prior years' tax returns -- and could be
ineligible for the deductions they planned to take in the
future on executive option gains.
A Wall Street Journal analysis,
published in March, described a pattern of unusual
stock-option grants to a handful of chief executives,
including William McGuire, UnitedHealth's chief executive.
Twelve grants to Mr. McGuire between 1994 and 2002 were each
dated in advance of a substantial run-up in the company's
share price, and three of them fell on yearly lows. Last
week, Mr. McGuire told investors on a conference call that,
"to my knowledge, every member of management in this company
believes that at the time we collectively followed
appropriate practices."
The potential tax issues could be
big, particularly for companies whose stocks have greatly
increased since the grants. UnitedHealth, Minnetonka, Minn.,
reported $346 million in realized option gains among its
five best-paid executives from 2003 to 2005. At the end of
last year, it said its five best-paid executives had another
$2.4 billion in unrealized, exercisable options gains.
UnitedHealth's stock has soared since the 1990s, when many
of the options were granted. A board committee investigating
options granting at the company hasn't completed its work,
and it isn't known whether any option grants were backdated
at all.
"If they had a backdating problem,
and that's a big if, the tax consequences could certainly be
ugly," says Brian Foley, a compensation consultant and tax
lawyer in White Plains, N.Y. With respect to the
already-exercised options, he added, "they would have an
obvious and serious and incurable problem."
UnitedHealth had a corporate-tax
rate ranging between 34.9% and 35.7% in the past three
years. Although the company's actual payments likely were
lower, that suggests the tax savings to UnitedHealth from
exercised executive options could have been as much as $120
million from 2003 to 2005. As of end of 2005, the value of
the future tax savings was as much as $800 million.
"That's a huge number," says Robert
Willens, a tax and accounting expert at Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc.
UnitedHealth has reported
substantial tax benefits from deducting its employees' stock
option gains. Until recently, the company said in its proxy
statements that it believed its executive option grants
qualify for the tax deduction. Starting in a proxy filed in
April 2005, it said some options might not qualify, but that
the amounts involved were immaterial. Ruth Pachman, an
outside spokeswoman for UnitedHealth, said in a statement
that the company "continues to believe" that its proxy
statements were accurate and remain accurate. She said the
company "declined to speculate about hypothetical
scenarios."
Executives at other companies
reporting options investigations, including Vitesse and
Affiliated Computer Services Inc., reported substantial
options gains to top executives. ACS, which reported about
$44 million in realized options gains by its top five
executives in the most recent three fiscal years, didn't
return calls. Vitesse officials didn't return several
messages seeking comment.
S. James DiBernardo, a partner at
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP who specializes in tax issues,
says there is no easy way to make grants comply with the
terms of the tax code retroactively. A company could reprice
the options, he says, but it would have to reprice them at
the current share value, effectively erasing all of an
executive's past gains. Another route is for the top
executives to wait until after retirement to exercise the
options -- when they are no longer executive officers.
Ethan Yale, an associate professor
at Georgetown University Law Center who was retained by
UnitedHealth to look into this matter, agreed that the issue
could pose tax problems. He said this is largely uncharted
territory and ambiguities in tax rules might allow a company
to get back in compliance retroactively by repricing the
options to the actual grant-date prices.
There is a very good report issued in March 2006 by
Glass Lewis & Co. "Getting it Wrong the First Time: A look at 2005's record
breaking year for corporate restatements shows why investors can't afford a
return to pre-Enron securities regulation".
I am a current Phd student and received the report
from one of my professors. I couldn't find a copy online, so apparently my
school subscribes to the service.
There is a ton of information in the report. I have
attached a copy of a summary I found online.
CORY CASSELL
Reply from Bob Jensen
Hi
Cory,
It’s
nice to know that you still subscribe to the AECM.
Analysis and Commentary on Significant Accounting
Issues and Regulatory Developments
Glass Lewis publishes comprehensive studies on
accounting issues and regulatory developments that disproportionately affect
certain companies or industries.
Most recently, Glass Lewis published "Restatements
– Traversing Shaky Ground." This report equips investors with the
information necessary to identify restatement indicators and to deal
effectively with post-announcement tremors. Glass Lewis presented detailed
analysis of 2003 and 2004 restatements, including primary causes, relevant
trends and key questions investors should ask when a restatement is
announced.
The findings of this report include:
The number of restatements filed by U.S.
domiciled publicly-traded companies to correct accounting errors
increased 20% in 2004 over 2003, to 619 from 514 respectively.
The utility sector had the highest restatement
rate in 2004 at 13%. The services sector was second highest at 8%.
Within these sectors, natural gas, gaming and investment services
companies were most prone to restate.
Companies listed on the OTC exchanges restate
at more than twice the rate as those listed on the NYSE. The 2004
restatement rates for companies listed on the NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ and OTC
were 3%, 5%, 5% and 7%, respectively.
Smaller public companies restate twice as
often as the largest public companies. Specifically, companies with
annual revenues of less than $500 million had a 2004 restatement rate of
9%. Companies with revenues of more than $10 billion had a 2004
restatement rate of less than 4%. It is important to note, however, the
market capitalization losses caused by a restatement for a single large
company may well dwarf that of many small companies.
Expense and revenue recognition errors were
the most common errors leading to a restatement in 2004. Each category
represented 17% of total identified errors.
Other studies include:
Control Deficiencies: A study
of material weaknesses disclosed in 2005 (through the week ending May 6,
2005) by 456 companies with at least $100 million in market
capitalization). Of these, 314 companies, or almost 69 percent,
disclosed a negative opinion (i.e. adverse, disclaimer or an expected
adverse) by their auditors over the effectiveness of their internal
controls. The report summarizes the total control deficiencies disclosed
and breaks them down by type of deficiency, by auditor and by opinion.
Auditor Fees: The Price of an
Independent, Quality Audit: A two-part review of audit fees
paid by more than 2,000 companies uncovered a decline in non-audit fees
paid to audit firms.
Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEBs):
A review of 213 companies with post-retirement benefit plans, which
found them to be, in many cases, in worst shape then pension plans. The
OPEB plans of many large companies contained large, significantly
under-funded obligations that were having a meaningful impact on cash
flow. A follow-up review of 273 companies found that the situation had
worsened and continued to seriously impact companies' cash flow and
earnings.
Pharmaceutical Industry – Revenue
Recognition Policies, Practices and Disclosures: A study on
revenue recognition policies, practices and related disclosures within
the pharmaceutical industry.
Although the following does not pertain to the restatements thread, AECMers
might be interested in the following transcript by one of my heroes (Lynn always
does his homework) that is also served up by Glass Lewis ---
http://www.glasslewis.com/solutions/trends.php
The current discussion concerns most
of the same issues that were debated in the late1990’s. In fact, many of the
issues have been debated on more than one occasion in theU.S. For example
the issue of full-time versus part-time membership was debated when the
Financial Accounting Standards Board was formed in 1973 and it was also
debated as part of the comment process on the SWP discussion memorandum.
Likewise the notion of requiring a supermajority vote was debated during the
SWP process. In the U.S. the FASB, which initially had a majority vote
requirement, was forced to change to a supermajority vote in 1990 as a
result of lobbying by the business community. That, of course, was recently
changed back to a majority vote when as the result of the Enron implosion;
it was found it impeded the ability of the accounting standard setter to
issue timely standards. A move, I might add, I support.
I suspect that this debate will
continue long after those of us here today have turned to dust. Debate and
discussion is always healthy provided it focuses on improving the product
delivered to the customer. In this case, the users of the financial
statements, most often investors and creditors as well as regulators, are
the customers. For those customers, it is important that they produce a high
quality product that encompasses all of the following:
1. Financial statements that for
all companies, regardless of size or location, reflect the true
underlying economics of the transactions that have been undertaken.
2. Financial disclosures,
regardless of size or location, that are necessary to present a complete
and truthful picture of all material information necessary for an
understanding and analysis of the business. Rules must be established
that are considered by preparers as a floor and not a ceiling.
3. A product that results in
companies accounting for similar transactions in a comparable fashion,
so as to provide users with the ability to make informed decisions as to
which companies they should allocate their capital. This also requires
that companies are transparent in consistently using the same accounting
from period to period.
4. To the greatest extent
possible, financial statements and disclosures that are verifiable and
auditable.
Deloitte & Touche (USA) has updated its book of
guidance on FASB Statement No. 123(R) Share-Based Payment:
A Roadmap to Applying the Fair Value Guidance to Share-Based Payment Awards
(PDF 2220k). This second edition reflects all
authoritative guidance on FAS 123(R) issued as of 28 April 2006. It includes
over 60 new questions and answers, particularly in the areas of earnings per
share, income tax accounting, and liability classification. Our
interpretations incorporate the views in SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin Topic
14 "Share-Based Payment" (SAB 107), as well as subsequent clarifications of
EITF Topic No. D-98 "Classification and Measurement of Redeemable
Securities" (dealing with mezzanine equity treatment). The publication
contains other resource materials, including a GAAP accounting and
disclosure checklist. Note that while FAS 123 is similar to
IFRS 2
Share-based Payment, there are some measurement
differences that are
Described Here.
David Fordham's proposal for principles-based standards
and financial reporting
June 1, 2006 message from David Fordham, James Madison University
[fordhadr@JMU.EDU]
I'm lurking, with serious interest actually, on the
posting thread about accounting rule makers making mistakes... and the
question of rules-based vs. principles-based standards.
And I'm wondering...where is Bill McCarthy?
It would seem to me that Bill's semantic modeling
has the potential to make the entire debate somewhat moot.
If companies were to report events -- think of
transactions, the fundamental basis of accounting in the first place --
rather than preparing financial statements and annual reports, it would
eliminate the need for both "rules-based reporting" and "reporting
principles", wouldn't it?
And semantic modeling, if I understand it
correctly, makes it practical for companies to (electronically, of course)
report data on transactions rather than wasting effort on arbitrarily (or
even not so arbitrarily) contrived summations, groupings, classifications,
etc. inherent in the preparation of standardized financial statements,
whether rules- or principles-based. The notions of stuff that create the
headaches: accruals, deferrals, all the way up through derivatives, -- all
go away. The notion of "statements which present fairly the financial
position" goes away. Auditors can now enjoy the relatively simple task of
verifying that *events* are completely and accurately captured and reported.
Under the semantic modeling paradigm (if you agree
to call it that), it is the user, not the preparer, who decides what data is
relevant for his/her decision making. It is therefore the user, not the
preparer, who makes choices of what to accumulate, what to group, what to
include where, what to classify as what, etc. The preparer simply reports
the business events. Liability is now transferred to the user, as long as
the preparer reported the events in line with the model. Users would take
much more care in their application of the information (which they should
anyway!)
If events were reported (in terms of commerce), it
would seem to me that antics (SPE's, for example) would become apparent to
those decision makers sophisticated enough to care or need to care. Events
(or transactions) not involving the company's primary product or services,
for example, could be questioned more deeply. While motivations, attitudes,
and secret plans might still remain undetected, the movement of large
amounts of assets (read: equity to stockholders, liabilities to debt holders
... all of this would be determined by the user!) would at least raise
questions among those who are interested in the financials enough to learn
about those transactions. (Of course, under the semantic modeling paradigm,
there aren't really things such as assets... there are resources on which
activities occur, events which happen, agents who participate in the events,
etc.)
Not being a serious student of semantic modeling, I
have to defer to those more learned on the subject for more details. But
based on what little I do know of it, it seems like semantic modeling has
the potential to make one heckuva serious contribution to the current
debate, if there is a debate going on.
Does Bill still subscribe to this list? I admire
and respect Bill very highly, and although I historically have not been one
of the rabid adopters of semantic modeling, it seems that this thread is
beginning to reveal its wisdom and potential importance. I would be very
interested in Bill's comments on the current discussion, if he cares to
contribute. If not, perhaps another scholar much more learned than I on this
paradigm might wish to? (Cheryl? Vickie? Stephanie? etc.? Preferably not a
boot-camp graduate as much as a drill sergeant or even second lieutenant?)
David Fordham (somewhat out of my league here, and
therefore eagerly willing to retract any incorrect interpretation of
semantic modeling made above...)
James Madison University
Semantic modeling grew out of linguistics (the work
of Quillian, and then later Peter Chen) where the objective was to represent
language statements (specially those expressed in the indicative mood) in a
graph theoretic model so that the power of graph algorithms could be
harnessed to analyse them.
The formal basis for such modeling was some form
(or subset) of First Order Logic (FOL). Since then, work in knowledge
representation has been extended by the use of other logics. The one that is
now becoming very popular is Description Logics that forms the basis of the
Semantic Web initiative of W3C.
It is important to realise that FOL is static (does
not have a temporal dimension), and completeness has to be implemented by
assumptions (such as the closed world assumption as in, for example,
databases).
Accounting is not static, and it is not clear if
completeness is possible in a social discipline such as accounting (I made
this argument in my CPA paper as well as in some other papers, giving as
examples a bunch of rules in GAAP that either are partially specifies (just
the 'if' part, or definitions by example).
I am therefore not sure semantic modeling as
practiced today can do what David proposes. However, the future is certainly
not bleak. We need research in two areas: 1. introducing time explicitly in
the models, and 2. In the absence of completeness, come up with reasoning
schemes that do the job. Other disciplines (specially medicine) have done
it, and there is no reason why we can not.
However, nurturing this sort of research forces us
to look way beyond accounting that has traditionally been our turf.
Jagdish
June 2 reply from Bob Jensen
In terms of aggregation of transactions data, what you seem to be
describing is an object-oriented system of transaction database reporting.
This, in turn, might one day become the ultimate XBRL object-oriented
reporting system.
Standard setters would still have to prescribe some rules for aggregation
in order to make aggregations comparable between different reporting
entities. Then the debates regarding the brightness of lines commence all
over again. For example, can we avoid bright lines with respect to operating
versus capital leases?
And echoing your statement David, I'm "out of my league" here and happily
retired. Not having to teach AIS anymore means not
having to say you're sorry.
Definitions of object-oriented on the Web:
A software system written using classes in an object oriented
language to implement a software solution. Each class is used as a
framework to instantiate an instance of a class, known as an object.
Classes contain member functions and member data.
www.mccabe.com/iq_research_iqgloss.htm
In programming, a combination of code, which is a sequence of
instructions referred to as functions, along with data units, referred
to as structures. In the past, operating systems dealt with these
entities separately. The combination of function and structure, called
an object, allows for significant advantages to programmers as well as
the end users of software.
www.scotsmist.co.uk/glossary_o.html
In computer science, object-oriented programming, OOP for short, is
a computer programming paradigm that emphasizes the following concepts:
* Objects - Packaging data and functionality together into units within
a running computer program; objects are the basis of modularity and
structure in an object-oriented computer program.* Abstraction - The
ability for a program to ignore some aspects of the information that it
is manipulating, i.e. the ability to focus on the essential. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_oriented
I am working to put together a listing of journals
that publish accounting information systems education research. There are
two journals that I find some information about, but that I can't locate a
web page or current editorial guidance for - The Accounting Educator's
Journal and Accounting Education: A Journal of Theory, Practice and
Research. Does anyone have current information on either of these
journals? I know the Accounting Educator's Journal had ceased publication
some time ago, but it seems I saw an advertisement in the last year that the
Accounting Educator's Journal was going to be resurrected as an online
publication, but I can't seem to find a copy or other information.
For those that might be interested, the list I have come up with so far is
below. Of course, if anyone has additions, I would love to know! Thanks.
SUMMARY: Home Depot recently discontinued reporting same-store-sales data.
They have trailed rival Lowe's on this key measure of retailing performance
since 2003, but argue that they are discontinuing reporting it because of a
change in the nature of their business to focus increasingly on supplying small
businesses, making the company less of a retailing entity.
QUESTIONS:
1.) What measure is Home Depot discontinuing to report? How does that measure
provide information critical to assessing performance by retailing entities?
2.) What argument does Home Depot offer to explain discontinuing to provide
this performance measure? What is the response to that reasoning? How would Home
Depot have to categorize their sales revenue data in order to provide relevant
information to financial statement users?
3.) What other entities also are reducing the frequency of disclosure of
same-store-sales data? What are their arguments for doing so?
4.) The author notes that this information on same-store-sales is not
information that is required under generally accepted accounting principles. Why
does that lead to his argument that companies therefore "game the number"?
5.) What is the problem with relying too heavily on one measure of
performance such as same-store-sales data? What other information does that
performance statistic ignore? How can investor focus on one primary statistic
lead to less than optimal behavior?
6.) What financial statement ratios can provide information to investors to
address the problems highlighted in the article in relation to investor focus on
same-store-sales data? Specifically name the financial statement ratio, describe
how it is calculated, and explain the meaning of the ratio to financial
statement users.
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
Great Book by an XBRL Pioneer June 15, 2006 Message from Saeed Roohani
[sroohani@cox.net]
This XBRL book by Charles Hoffman is an excellent
resource for anyone to use - it has examples for introductory and
intermediate users. It is also a good reference book if you are teaching
XBRL as part of your course. If you are training people on XBRL, this book
is a valuable resource Also, it is reasonably priced that even your students
can purchase it.
For additional information see the following
comments from Brian.
Saeed Roohani Bryant University
To: xbrl-public@yahoogroups.com From: "briandelacey" <bdelacey@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:01:16 -0000 Subject: [xbrl-public] Excellent XBRL
Book by Charles Hoffman now available
As I was trying to learn about XBRL, I scoured the
internet for information on specifications, working details, and examples. I
found a number of great presentations and PDFs as explanatory documents.
However, I had a hard time finding a definitive and current book through
established online book retailers like Amazon. I was thrilled to recently
discover a title that provides especially good coverage of XBRL in book
form:
Financial Reporting Using XBRL: IFRS and US GAAP
Edition, by Charles Hoffman, CPA, copyright 2006 UBMatrix. (Hoffman works as
Director of Industry Solutions, Financial Reporting at UBMatrix.)
This book, written by the historic "father of XBRL"
and early visionary of its evolution, provides exhaustive and expansive
coverage. The chapters include detailed examples across a wide range of XBRL
topics. Sample files are also available for the reader's own practice and
experimentation.
You can find the book at
http://www.ubmatrix.com/xbreeze/ with a
description at the bottom of the page. This 500+ page book is presently
available for a retail price of only $14.85 + shipping and I feel makes an
enormous contribution towards improving understanding and accelerating
adoption of XBRL. I'm hoping a future edition of this book will find its way
to Amazon.com and other publishing outlets.
A U.S. government probe into stock option
grants for executives widened on Tuesday with more technology
companies being called on to explain the way these grants are
awarded.
The investigation focuses on whether
companies are giving executives backdated options after a run-up in
the stock. Backdated securities are priced at a value before a
rally, which boosts their returns.
The Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly examining the timing of
stock option awards by corporations." (BTW this is included to you
can listen to it--has several professors speaking on it.)
""The stock-option game is supposed to
confer the potential for profit, but also some risk," said John
Freeman, a professor of business ethics at the University of South
Carolina Law School who was a special counsel to the SEC during the
1970s. "When in essence the executives are betting on yesterday's
horse races, knowing the outcome, there's no risk whatever.""
What does past academic research have to say on
this? Most of the evidence suggests that backdating probably does occur.
For years there have been papers showing that
managers tend to announce bad news prior to option grants and even time
the grants prior to price run ups (see Yermack 1997) it has only been
more recently that researchers have noticed that the price appreciation
was not merely due to firm specific factors (which managers may be able
to control and time) but also market wide factors (i.e. the stock market
goes up after option grants).
Last year a paper by
Narayanan and Seyhun suggested that this may
be the result of backdating the option grants. More recently two papers
by Collins, Gong, and Li (a)
and (b)
find further evidence that backdating is (or at
least was) happening and that unscheduled grant dates (where this can
occur) tend to be found more commonly at firms whose management has
relatively more control over their board of directors.
Stay tuned!!
* A quick comment to any manager who may have done this: Why bother? Why
risk it all cheating for a few extra dollars? (Indeed it reminds me of
the Adelphia case where the firm outsourced snow plowing to a Rigas
owned firm. It just doesn't seem worth it.)
*As an aside, once again this shows that finance and accounting go hand
in hand as Collins, Gong, and Li are accounting professors!
Mr. Seward's paper, as co-author on "Protecting Client-CPA-Attorney
Information in the Electronic Age" will be included in the Research Forum
Session of the International Meeting of the American Accounting Association
2006 Annual Meeting on August 6-9 in Washington, D.C.
Is any CEO really entitled to over $6 billion in gains on
employee stock options?
The California Public Employees'
Retirement System is demanding a conference call with the
compensation committee of the board of UnitedHealth Group
Inc. over its disclosure practices, and is threatening to
withhold votes for board directors seeking re-election.
In a letter sent to James A.
Johnson, chairman of the UnitedHealth board's compensation
committee, Calpers board President Rob Feckner demanded a
conference call ahead of Tuesday's UnitedHealth shareholders
meeting to discuss what he called "serious threats to the
credibility, governance and performance of UnitedHealth."
Specifically, the letter criticized the company's failure to
explain how it determined stock option grant dates for Chief
Executive William McGuire and a handful of other executives
in past years, and its "inconsistent" disclosure of its
option-granting program.
The move by Calpers increases the
scrutiny of the process by which Dr. McGuire received some
of the $1.6 billion in unrealized gains he holds in company
stock options. Calpers holds 6.55 million shares, or 0.5%,
of UnitedHealth's outstanding stock. The pension fund, known
for its strong stances on corporate governance, could spur
other investors to join in its criticism. The move also
increases pressure on UnitedHealth's board to more fully
explain its past option-award practices soon, even though
its board only launched a probe into them earlier this
month.
Continued in article
Question
What are the accounting and tax implications of backdating employee stock
options?
The stock-options backdating scandal
continued to intensify, with the announcement by a Silicon
Valley chip maker that its chairman and its chief financial
officer had abruptly resigned. That brought to eight the number
of officials at various companies to leave their posts amid
scrutiny of how companies grant stock options.
"Backdating Probe Widens as 2 Quit Silicon Valley Firm:
Power Integrations Officials Leave Amid Options Scandal; 10
Companies Involved So Far," by Charles Forelle and James Bandler,
The Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2006; Page A1 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114684512600744974.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one
Affiliated Computer Services Inc.
acknowledged that it issued executive stock options that
carried "effective dates" preceding the written approval of
the grants, saying it plans a charge of as much as $40
million to rectify its accounting related to the grants.
The announcement followed a
preliminary internal probe at ACS, a Dallas technology
outsourcer that is also under scrutiny by the Securities and
Exchange Commission for its options practices. Between 1995
and 2002, the company granted stock options to Jeffrey Rich,
its chief executive for part of that time, that were
routinely dated just before sharp run-ups in the company's
share price, and often at the nadir of big dips.
Mr. Rich left the company last
year. A rising share price helped him reap more than $60
million from options during his tenure at the company. The
timing of his grants helped, too. If his six grants had come
at the stock's average closing price during the year they
were dated, he'd have made about 15% less.
Continued in article
Is any CEO really entitled to over $ 6 billion in gains on
employee stock options? "Calpers Puts Pressure on Board of UnitedHealth: Holder
Demands a Meeting Over Option-Grant Timing; A Threat to Withhold
Votes," by Vanessa Fuhrmans, The Wall Street Journal,
April 26, 2006; Page A3 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114599506269535599.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
The California Public Employees'
Retirement System is demanding a conference call with the
compensation committee of the board of UnitedHealth Group
Inc. over its disclosure practices, and is threatening to
withhold votes for board directors seeking re-election.
In a letter sent to James A.
Johnson, chairman of the UnitedHealth board's compensation
committee, Calpers board President Rob Feckner demanded a
conference call ahead of Tuesday's UnitedHealth shareholders
meeting to discuss what he called "serious threats to the
credibility, governance and performance of UnitedHealth."
Specifically, the letter criticized the company's failure to
explain how it determined stock option grant dates for Chief
Executive William McGuire and a handful of other executives
in past years, and its "inconsistent" disclosure of its
option-granting program.
The move by Calpers increases the
scrutiny of the process by which Dr. McGuire received some
of the $1.6 billion in unrealized gains he holds in company
stock options. Calpers holds 6.55 million shares, or 0.5%,
of UnitedHealth's outstanding stock. The pension fund, known
for its strong stances on corporate governance, could spur
other investors to join in its criticism. The move also
increases pressure on UnitedHealth's board to more fully
explain its past option-award practices soon, even though
its board only launched a probe into them earlier this
month.
Continued in article
After the Horse is Out of the Barn: UnitedHealth Halts Executive
Options The UnitedHealth Group, under fire for the timing
of lucrative options grants to executives, said Monday that it had
discontinued equity-based awards to its two most senior managers and that it
would cease other perks like paying for personal use of corporate aircraft.
UnitedHealth’s board said it had discontinued equity-based awards for the
chief executive, William W. McGuire, who has some $1.6 billion in unrealized
gains from earlier options grants, and for the president and chief operating
officer, Stephen J. Helmsley.
"UnitedHealth Halts Executive Options," The New York Times, May 2,
2006 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/business/02unitedhealth.web.html
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review
on May 19, 2006
TITLE: UnitedHealth Cites 'Deficiency' in Options Grants
REPORTER: James Bandler and Charles Forelle
DATE: May 12, 2006
PAGE: A1
LINK:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114734563729450037.html
TOPICS: Financial Accounting, Income Taxes, Materiality, Securities and Exchange
Commission, Stock Options, Taxation, Accounting Changes and Error Corrections,
Audit Quality, Auditing
SUMMARY: UnitedHealth Group Inc. disclosed on May 11 that "...a 'significant
deficiency' in how it administered [stock option] grants could force it to
restate results ...[and cut] net income by as much as $286 million over that
period." The company also disclosed that the SEC is "conducting an informal
inquiry into its options-granting practices"...UnitedHealth...said its internal
review had indicated it had uncovered 'significant deficiency' in the way it
administered, accounted for and disclosed past option grants and that it may be
required to take certain accounting adjustments for 'stock-based compensation
expense.' It said that could reduce operating earnings by up to $393 million in
the past three years, adding that the company's management believes that any
adjustments would not be 'material'."
QUESTIONS:
1.) Summarize the issue regarding accounting for stock options that was
uncovered in a March 18, 2006, Wall Street Journal article and that has
subsequently been the subject of SEC scrutiny.
2.) The summary description for this review quotes a paragraph in the article
describing the financial statement effects of potential adjustments the
deficiencies in UnitedHealth's option granting practices. The paragraph begins
"In its filing, UnitedHealth, which reported $3.3 billion in net income last
year..." Identify all of the terms in that paragraph with specific meaning for
accounting and/or auditing purposes. Define each of those terms, explain why it
has specific meaning in its use in accounting or auditing, and, if it is a
relevant point, explain why understanding that meaning helps to analyze the
impact of these options issues on UnitedHealth.
3.) Refer again to the paragraph described in question 1. The concluding
sentence states that the company management believes that adjustments resulting
from their review of options granting practices will not be material. Contrast
this point to the comments by Professor James Cox of Duke University that "this
isn't just a little material...for this kind of issue." Construct arguments to
support one of these positions, being sure to refute arguments potentially in
favor of your opposing side. In your answers to this and the preceding question,
be sure to address the two components of materiality in an audit engagement.
4.) Refer to the list of companies in the table entitled "Key Companies in
Options Probes." In what industry do most of these companies operate? Why is
there industry concentration amongst this sample of firms?
5.) What are the potential issues facing UnitedHealth's auditors, Deloitte
and Touche, regarding these matters? What basic audit steps do you think should
be carried out in relation to any company's accounting for stock options?
6.) Do you think the situation with UnitedHealth necessarily indicates an
audit failure on the part of Deloitte and Touche? In your answer, define the
terms "audit risk", "business risk" in relation to audits, and "audit quality."
7.) Summarize the tax implications described in the article regarding these
matters. How might adjustments to the tax accounting for these stock options
exacerbate or reduce the impact of the adjustments to the accounting for stock
based compensation expense?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review
on May 5, 2006
TITLE: As Options Cloud Looms, Companies May Get Tax Bill
REPORTER: Charles Forelle and James Bandler
DATE: Apr 28, 2006
PAGE: C1
LINK:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114619341731038487.html
TOPICS: Accounting, Financial Accounting, Securities and
Exchange Commission, Stock Options, Taxation
SUMMARY: Tax implications of the developing issues in stock
options, covered also in a recent Weekly Review, are discussed.
QUESTIONS:
1.) What is the recently-developing concern with dating of
executive stock options? In your answer, comment on the
Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the issue.
You may refer to the related article for your answer.
2.) Define the terms "compensatory stock options"; "incentive
stock options";"option grant date"; and "option exercise price".
3.) Summarize the tax implications to both executives
receiving stock options and to companies issuing stock options
if option grant dates are changed to a point when the stock
price is higher than on the originally reported date, but the
exercise price is not changed.
4.) The author quotes Mr. Brian Foley as saying that one
company under SEC and IRS scrutiny for this issue, UnitedHealth,
would have a "serious and incurable problem" if options were
"backdated" and they have been exercised. What could be the
difference between options that were exercised and options that
have not been?
5.) What are the financial reporting implications of the
problems highlighted in this article? How do the tax issues
exacerbate the financial reporting problems?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
Companies that backdated
stock-option grants to top executives could face a costly
reckoning with the Internal Revenue Service, with some
potentially owing large sums in back taxes, legal experts
say.
The tax problems, which could
affect the personal tax filings of hundreds of individual
employees, are the latest wrinkle in widening inquiries into
stock-option awards.
A half-dozen companies, including
insurance titan UnitedHealth Group Inc., have said their
boards, or the Securities and Exchange Commission, are
examining their past option grants amid concerns that some
may have been backdated to take advantage of lower exercise
prices. Backdating could have resulted in millions of
dollars in extra compensation for insiders, at the expense
of shareholders. Most of the probes are preliminary, and so
far the SEC hasn't charged anyone.
If the investigations turn up
backdated grants, the companies face a host of issues,
including the prospect of earnings restatements and
delistings. Such options offer the right to buy a stock at a
fixed, or exercise, price, allowing the holder to profit by
later selling the underlying shares at a higher price than
the exercise price.
One company that has acknowledged
"misdating" options, Mercury Interactive Corp., a Mountain
View, Calif., software company, has had its stock delisted
by the Nasdaq Stock Market and has said it will have to
restate financial results. Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. last
week suspended its chief executive and two other top
officials, saying the move was related to the "integrity of
documents" in its stock-option program. Late Wednesday,
Vitesse said its board had discovered additional accounting
issues and had hired a turnaround firm.
Granting an option at a price below
the current market value, while not illegal in itself, could
result in problems of wrongful disclosure under securities
laws. Companies' shareholder-approved option plans and SEC
filings often say options will carry the stock price of the
day the company awards them or the day before.
Favorable tax treatment was one
reason that options gained popularity in the 1990s as a way
to compensate employees, particularly executives. When an
option is exercised, the company typically can take any gain
pocketed by the employee as a deduction on its tax return,
because the IRS views the option profit as akin to extra
compensation paid to the employee. The employee reports the
gain on his or her personal tax return.
Tax experts say that options
backdated to a day with a lower market price don't qualify
for a deduction -- although the disqualification only
affects options exercised by the chief executive or any of
the next four most highly compensated executives. And $1
million of each of the executives' total compensation always
can be deducted. As a result, they say, companies with
backdated options could face the prospect of shelling out
cash to revise prior years' tax returns -- and could be
ineligible for the deductions they planned to take in the
future on executive option gains.
A Wall Street Journal analysis,
published in March, described a pattern of unusual
stock-option grants to a handful of chief executives,
including William McGuire, UnitedHealth's chief executive.
Twelve grants to Mr. McGuire between 1994 and 2002 were each
dated in advance of a substantial run-up in the company's
share price, and three of them fell on yearly lows. Last
week, Mr. McGuire told investors on a conference call that,
"to my knowledge, every member of management in this company
believes that at the time we collectively followed
appropriate practices."
The potential tax issues could be
big, particularly for companies whose stocks have greatly
increased since the grants. UnitedHealth, Minnetonka, Minn.,
reported $346 million in realized option gains among its
five best-paid executives from 2003 to 2005. At the end of
last year, it said its five best-paid executives had another
$2.4 billion in unrealized, exercisable options gains.
UnitedHealth's stock has soared since the 1990s, when many
of the options were granted. A board committee investigating
options granting at the company hasn't completed its work,
and it isn't known whether any option grants were backdated
at all.
"If they had a backdating problem,
and that's a big if, the tax consequences could certainly be
ugly," says Brian Foley, a compensation consultant and tax
lawyer in White Plains, N.Y. With respect to the
already-exercised options, he added, "they would have an
obvious and serious and incurable problem."
UnitedHealth had a corporate-tax
rate ranging between 34.9% and 35.7% in the past three
years. Although the company's actual payments likely were
lower, that suggests the tax savings to UnitedHealth from
exercised executive options could have been as much as $120
million from 2003 to 2005. As of end of 2005, the value of
the future tax savings was as much as $800 million.
"That's a huge number," says Robert
Willens, a tax and accounting expert at Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc.
UnitedHealth has reported
substantial tax benefits from deducting its employees' stock
option gains. Until recently, the company said in its proxy
statements that it believed its executive option grants
qualify for the tax deduction. Starting in a proxy filed in
April 2005, it said some options might not qualify, but that
the amounts involved were immaterial. Ruth Pachman, an
outside spokeswoman for UnitedHealth, said in a statement
that the company "continues to believe" that its proxy
statements were accurate and remain accurate. She said the
company "declined to speculate about hypothetical
scenarios."
Executives at other companies
reporting options investigations, including Vitesse and
Affiliated Computer Services Inc., reported substantial
options gains to top executives. ACS, which reported about
$44 million in realized options gains by its top five
executives in the most recent three fiscal years, didn't
return calls. Vitesse officials didn't return several
messages seeking comment.
S. James DiBernardo, a partner at
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP who specializes in tax issues,
says there is no easy way to make grants comply with the
terms of the tax code retroactively. A company could reprice
the options, he says, but it would have to reprice them at
the current share value, effectively erasing all of an
executive's past gains. Another route is for the top
executives to wait until after retirement to exercise the
options -- when they are no longer executive officers.
Ethan Yale, an associate professor
at Georgetown University Law Center who was retained by
UnitedHealth to look into this matter, agreed that the issue
could pose tax problems. He said this is largely uncharted
territory and ambiguities in tax rules might allow a company
to get back in compliance retroactively by repricing the
options to the actual grant-date prices.
Deloitte & Touche (USA) has updated its book of
guidance on FASB Statement No. 123(R) Share-Based Payment:
A Roadmap to Applying the Fair Value Guidance to Share-Based Payment Awards
(PDF 2220k). This second edition reflects all
authoritative guidance on FAS 123(R) issued as of 28 April 2006. It includes
over 60 new questions and answers, particularly in the areas of earnings per
share, income tax accounting, and liability classification. Our
interpretations incorporate the views in SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin Topic
14 "Share-Based Payment" (SAB 107), as well as subsequent clarifications of
EITF Topic No. D-98 "Classification and Measurement of Redeemable
Securities" (dealing with mezzanine equity treatment). The publication
contains other resource materials, including a GAAP accounting and
disclosure checklist. Note that while FAS 123 is similar to
IFRS 2
Share-based Payment, there are some measurement
differences that are
Described Here.
Two engineering students were walking across a university campus when one said,
"Where did you get such a great bike?"
The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my
own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the
ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."
The second engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice; the clothes
probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."
Understanding Engineers - Take Two
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
Understanding Engineers - Take Three
A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly
slow group of golfers.
The engineer fumed, "What's with those blokes? We must have been waiting for
fifteen minutes!"
The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!"
The priest said, "Here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him."
He said, "Hello, George! what's wrong with that group ahead of us? They're
rather slow, aren't they?"
The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind fire fighters. They
lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last
year, so we always let them play for free anytime."
The group fell silent for a moment.
The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them
tonight."
The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague
and see if there's anything he can do for them."
The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"
Understanding Engineers - Take Four
What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons and civil engineers build targets.
Understanding Engineers - Take Five
The graduate with a science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
The graduate with an engineering degree asks, "How does it work?"
The graduate with an accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?"
The graduate with an arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"
Understanding Engineers - Take Six
Three engineering students were gathered together discussing the possible
designers of the human body.
One said, "It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints."
Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many
thousands of electrical connections."
The last one said, "No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer. Who else
would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area ?"
Understanding Engineers - Take Seven
Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
Understanding Engineers - Take Eight
An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said,
"If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess."
He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.
The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a
beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."
The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to
the pocket.
The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a Princess, I'll
stay with you for one week and do ANYTHING you want."
Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his
pocket.
Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful
princess, and that I'll stay with you for one week and do
anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"
The engineer said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend,
but a talking frog, now that's cool."
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on April 27,
2006
TITLE: Alcatel Stands to Reap Tax Benefit on Merger
REPORTER: Jesse Drucker and Sara Silver
DATE: Apr 26, 2006
PAGE: C3
LINK:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114601908332236130.html
TOPICS: Accounting, International Accounting, Net Operating Losses, Taxation
SUMMARY: "Lucent's operating losses in [the] wake of [the] tech bubble may
allow big deductions" for the merged firm's U.S. operations.
QUESTIONS:
1.) What is the purpose of allowing net operating losses (NOLs) to be deducted
against other years' income amounts?
2.) Summarize the U.S. tax law provisions regarding NOLs. Why has Lucent been
unable to use up all of its NOL carryforwards since the tech bubble burst in
2000-2001?
3.) Define the term deferred tax assets. Describe how NOLs fit the definition
you provide. What other types of deferred tax assets do you think that Lucent
has available and wants to take advantage of?
4.) How is it possible that the "federal, state and local deductions" from
the deferred tax assets described in answer to question #3 "will nearly double
the U.S. net income that the combined company [of Alcatel and Lucent
Technologies] will be able to report"?
5.) How does the availability of NOL carryforwards, and the expected timing
of their deductions based on an acquirer's earnings or the recent tax law change
referred to in the article, impact the price an acquirer is willing to pay in a
merger or acquisition transaction?
6.) How did the availability of deferred tax asset deductions drive Alcatel's
choice of its location for its headquarters? What other factors do you think
drive such a choice?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
"Flat-pack accounting" May 11th 2006 From
The Economist print edition
Forget about the Gates Foundation. The world's
biggest charity owns IKEAand is devoted to interior design
FEW tasks are more exasperating than trying to
assemble flat-pack furniture from IKEA. But even that is simple compared
with piecing together the accounts of the world's largest home-furnishing
retailer. Much has been written about IKEA's remarkably effective retail
formula. The Economist has investigated the group's no less astonishing
finances.
What emerges is an outfit that ingeniously exploits
the quirks of different jurisdictions to create a charity, dedicated to a
somewhat banal cause, that is not only the world's richest foundation, but
is at the moment also one of its least generous. The overall set-up of IKEA
minimises tax and disclosure, handsomely rewards the founding Kamprad family
and makes IKEA immune to a takeover. And if that seems too good to be true,
it is: these arrangements are extremely hard to undo. The benefits from all
this ingenuity come at the price of a huge constraint on the successors to
Ingvar Kamprad, the store's founder (pictured above), to do with IKEA as
they see fit.
Although IKEA is one of Sweden's best-known
exports, it has not in a strict legal sense been Swedish since the early
1980s. The store has made its name by supplying Scandinavian designs at
Asian prices. Unusually among retailers, it has managed its international
expansion without stumbling. Indeed, its brandwhich stands for clean, green
and attractive design and value for moneyis as potent today as it has been
at any time in more than 50 years in business.
The parent for all IKEA companiesthe operator of
207 of the 235 worldwide IKEA storesis Ingka Holding, a private
Dutch-registered company. Ingka Holding, in turn, belongs entirely to
Stichting Ingka Foundation. This is a Dutch-registered, tax-exempt,
non-profit-making legal entity, which was given the shares of Mr Kamprad in
1982. Stichtingen, or foundations, are the most common form of
not-for-profit organisation in the Netherlands; tens of thousands of them
are registered.
Most Dutch stichtingen are tiny, but if Stichting
Ingka Foundation were listed it would be one of the Netherlands' ten largest
companies by market value. Its main asset is the Ingka Holding group, which
is conservatively financed and highly profitable: post-tax profits were €1.4
billion ($1.7 billion) an impressive margin of nearly 11% on sales of
€12.8 billion in the year to August 31st 2004, the latest year for which
the group has filed accounts.
Valuing the Inkga Holding group is awkward, because
IKEA has no direct competitors that operate globally. Shares in Target, a
large, successful chain of stores in the United States that makes a fifth of
its sales from home furnishings, are priced at 20 times the store's latest
full-year earnings. Using that price/earnings ratio, the Ingka Holding group
is worth €28 billion ($36 billion).
This is probably conservative, given IKEA's growth
prospects. Sales the only financial information that IKEA releasesfor the
year to August 31st 2005 were €14.8 billion, 15.6% up on a year earlier. And
there is plenty of scope for more stores. Ingka Holding has only 26 outlets
in America. By contrast, in Europe, a market of comparable size, it has over
160, accounting for more than 80% of its total turnover. In April IKEA
opened its first store in Japan.
If Stichting Ingka Foundation has net worth of at
least $36 billion it would be the world's wealthiest charity. Its value
easily exceeds the $26.9 billion shown in the latest published accounts of
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is commonly awarded that
accolade.
Measured by good works, however, the Gates
Foundation wins hands down. It devotes most of its resources to curing the
diseases of the world's poor. By contrast the Kamprad billions are dedicated
to “innovation in the field of architectural and interior design”. The
articles of association of Stichting Ingka Foundation, a public record in
the Netherlands, state that this object cannot be amended. Even a Dutch
court can make only minor changes to the stichting's aims.
If Stichting Ingka Foundation has net worth of at
least $36 billion it would be the world's wealthiest charity
The Kamprad foundations compare poorly with the
Gates Foundation in other ways, too. The American charity operates
transparently, publishing, for instance, details of every grant it makes.
But Dutch foundations are very loosely regulated and are subject to little
or no third-party oversight. They are not, for instance, legally obliged to
publish their accounts.
Under its articles, Stichting Ingka Foundation
channels its funds to Stichting IKEA Foundation, another Dutch-registered
foundation with identical aims, and which actually doles out money for
worthy interior-design ideas. But the second foundation does not publish any
information either. So just how or whether Stichting Ingka Foundation
has spent the €1.6 billion that it collected in dividends from Ingka Holding
in 1998-2003 remains hidden from view.
IKEA says only that this money is used for
charitable purposes and “for investing long-term in order to build a reserve
for securing the IKEA group, in case of any future capital requirements.”
IKEA adds that in the past two years donations have been concentrated on the
Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden. The Lund Institute says it has
recently received SKr12.5m ($1.7m) a year from Stichting Ikea (which also
gave the institute a lump sum of SKr55m in the late 1990s). That is barely a
rounding error in the foundation's assets. Clearly, the world of interior
design is being tragically deprived, as the foundation devotes itself to
building its own reserves in case IKEA needs capital.
Although Mr Kamprad has given up ownership of IKEA,
the stichting means that his control over the group is absolutely secure. A
five-person executive committee, chaired by Mr Kamprad, runs the foundation.
This committee appoints the boards of Ingka Holding, approves any changes to
the company's statutes, and has pre-emption rights on new share issues.
Mr Kamprad's wife and a Swiss lawyer have also been
members of this committee, which takes most of its decisions by simple
majority, since the foundation was set up. When one member of the committee
quits or dies, the remaining four appoint his replacement. In other words,
Mr Kamprad is able to exercise control of Ingka Holding as if he were still
its owner. In theory, nothing can happen at IKEA without the committee's
agreement.
That control is so tight that not even Mr Kamprad's
heirs can loosen it after his death. The foundation's objects require it to
“obtain and manage” shares in the Ingka Holding group. Other clauses of its
articles require the foundation to manage its shareholding in a way to
ensure “the continuity and growth” of the IKEA group. The shares can be sold
only to another foundation with the same objects and executive committee,
and the foundation can be dissolved only through insolvency.
Yet, though control over IKEA is locked up, the
money is not. Mr Kamprad left a trapdoor for getting funds out of the
business, even if its ownership and control cannot change. The IKEA
trademark and concept is owned by Inter IKEA Systems, another private Dutch
company, but not part of the Ingka Holding group. Its parent company is
Inter IKEA Holding, registered in Luxembourg. This, in turn, belongs to an
identically named company in the Netherlands Antilles, run by a trust
company in Curaçao. Although the beneficial owners remain hidden from
viewIKEA refuses to identify themthey are almost certain to be members of
the Kamprad family.
Clearly, the Kamprad family pays the same
meticulous attention to tax avoidance as IKEA does to low prices in its
stores
Inter IKEA earns its money from the franchise
agreements it has with each IKEA store. These are extremely lucrative: IKEA
says that all franchisees pay 3% of sales. The Ingka Holding group, the
company owned by the Kamprad foundation, is the biggest franchisee, with its
207 stores; other franchisees run the remaining 28 stores, which are mainly
in the Middle East and Asia.
How much money does Inter IKEA Systems make? Its
results are included in its parent company's accounts filed in Luxembourg.
These show that in 2004 the Inter IKEA group collected €631m in franchise
fees and made pre-tax profits of €225m. This profit is after deducting €590m
of “other operating charges”.
Although IKEA would not explain these charges,
because its policy is not to comment on the accounts of a private group of
companies, Inter IKEA appears to make large payments to I.I. Holding,
another Luxembourg-registered group that is almost certain to be controlled
by the Kamprad family and which made a profit of €328m in 2004.
Together these companies had nearly €11.9 billion
in cash and securities at the end of 2004, even after I.I. Holding paid out
a dividend of nearly €800m during the year. Most of this money has
undoubtedly come from the collection of franchise fees. In total, these two
groups suffered tax bills of a mere €19m in 2004 on their combined profits
of €553m. Clearly, the Kamprad family pays the same meticulous attention to
tax avoidance as IKEA does to low prices in its stores.
The IKEA financial system of stichtingen and
holding companies is extremely efficient. Even so, next time you wonder how
anyone could have come up with the fiendish plans for a Hensvik storage unit
or a Bjursta sideboard, spare a thought for the Kamprads' accountants.
I recently sent out an "Appeal" for accounting educators, researchers, and
practitioners to actively support what I call The Accounting Review (TAR)
Diversity Initiative as initiated by American Accounting Association President
Judy Rayburn ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR.htm
Online Video
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Long time followers of FinanceProfessor.com
know I am a
big fan of Thomas Friedman. From his early
books to The World is Flat and most of his NY Times articles, I
think I have read everything he has written. I may not agree with
everything, but at least I have read it (or more aptly ristened to
it) and agreed with MOST of it.
Thus, I was excited when I found the following from
Google Video (one of my new favorite
sites).
From Charlie Rose (actually with guest host John Doerr):
On energy and much more. He also talks
about entrepreneurship, a gas tax, geo-green, globalization (a
little), and even a bit on social responsibility and incentives. And
much more. (BTW the link says 99 cents, but I think that is to buy,
I watched it for free) (from May 22, 2006):
For all Google Video on Thomas Friedman check out
this search.
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and
video available free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
From 'New False Identity' : * 'Palestine, Texas' *
'Hollywood Mecca of the Movies'
From 'Twenty Twenty': * 'Fatally Beautiful' * 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best
Friend' * 'Driving Wheel'
The Bates College Museum of Art has
put together a Web exhibition that explores the "fertile margins of the
history of science and museums, taxonomy, myth, creativity and
discovery." Cryptozoology, the search for proof of mythical creatures
such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, is itself a marginalized
science. The featured show has entries for the 15 artists, which are in
various stages of development - there is at least one work by each of
them, and additional biographical and contextual information for most.
Works submitted include installations, such as Mark Dion's Museum of
Cryptozoology Director's Office, as well as sculpture, paintings, and
prints. There is also a film series associated with the exhibition, that
will screen a 1972 film, "The Legend of Boggy Creek", a docu-drama that
looks for proof of the existence of a monster in an Arkansas swamp, and
the 2002 Discovery Channel production, "The End of Extinction: Cloning
the Tasmanian Tiger".
Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Round the Red Lamp by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
---
Click Here
Across the Plains by Robert Louis
Stevenson (1850-1894) ---
Click Here
Billy Budd by Herman Melville (1819-1891) ---
Click Here
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark
Twain (1835-1910) ---
Click Here
Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle
(1859-1930) ---
Click Here
Education is not to reform students or amuse them or
to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their
horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible. Robert M. Hutchins as quoted by Mark
Shapiro at
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-05-30-06.htm
Education is a private matter between the person and
the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or
college. Lillian Smith as quoted by Mark
Shapiro at
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-05-18-06.htm
Time Warner is charging more to folks who can least
afford to pay. Geneva Hurst, 82, is upset because she had to pay a dollar extra
when she paid her cable bill in person at a Texas City service center. She
doesn't have a checking account or credit card and cashes her Social Security
check to buy food and pay bills. Geneva said, "I goes there. I don't have a
checking account but I pays it in cash. And I walk in there one day and I paid
it in cash and she says when I paid--'Oh, you know, we have to charge a dollar
extra.' . . . It's a sad thing. It's so sad, 'cause poor people, we just barely
getting by with what we're already paying."
"Customers who pay their bill in person charged extra fee,"
ABC13.com, May 22, 2006 ---
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=action13&id=4195646
That sound you just heard might have been the first
piece of the sky hitting the roof.
Doug Lederman, "Ever-Expanding False Claims Act," Inside Higher Ed, May
27, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/26/false
So to appease them (environmentalists),
the pipeline was put on stilts where it crossed the caribou graze lands. What
happened? The caribou decided to gather at the spot where the pipeline came down
to the ground. Seems the caribou liked to lie against the pipeline because the
pipe was warm from the oil passing through it. Roger Hedgecock, May 28, 2006 ---
http://rogerhedgecock.com/content/view/177/77/
Louisiana will have nearly its full force of Guard
personnel at home preparing for the 2006 hurricane season. “They’re sorting all
that out [at the federal level],” Major Ed Bush of the Louisiana National Guard
said, according to the Independent News. “There’s no planned rotation for any
Louisiana guard brigade at this time.” AccountingWeb, May 26, 2006 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=102195
In April 2006 I commenced reading a heavy book entitled Great Minds in
Management: The Process of Theory Development, Edited by Ken G. Smith and
Michael A. Hitt (Oxford Press, 2006).
The essays are somewhat personalized in terms of how theory
development is perceived by each author and how these perceptions changed over
time.
In Tidbits I will share some of the key quotations as I proceed
through this book. The book is somewhat heavy going, so it will take some time
to add selected quotations to the list of quotations at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/GreatMinds.htm
Managing Organizational Knowledge: Theoretical and
Methodological Foundations
IKUJIRO NONAKA
PG. #376 & 377 NONAKA 18.1 KNOWLEDGE/TRUTH
Knowledge has been traditionally defined as "justified true belief." A
fundamental issue in various streams of epistemology is how one can justify
one's subjective belief as objective "truth." In other words, the issue is
whether human beings can ever achieve any form of knowledge that is independent
of their own subjective construction since they are the agents through which
knowledge is perceived or experienced (Morgan and Smircich, 1980). While the
ontological position of positivism as the world as concrete structures supports
objective knowledge, the phenomenological philosophers see part of the world
inherently subjective.
The Cartesian split and power of reasoning supports the view of
objective knowledge and truth in positivism. John Locke, among the others,
maintained that human knowledge is an inner mental presentation (or mirror
image) of the outside world that can be explained in linguistic signs and
mathematics through reasoning. All things beyond the thought/senses
consequently do not exist and/or are irrelevant. Loosely following this
conceptualization, traditional economic and psychological theories are limited
to objective knowledge, which can be processed through formal logic and tested
empirically. The advantage of this mono-dimensional notion of knowledge is that
it allows scholars further to claim that all genuine human knowledge is
contained within the boundaries of science.
In contrast, for phenomenological philosophers knowledge is
subjective, context-specific, bodily, relative, and interpretational (Heidegger,
1962; Husserl, 1970, 1977; Merleau-Ponty, 1962). They rather uniformly claim
that the mental and the physical worlds evolve in a dialectic joint advent. As
meanings emerge through experiences, the primacy is paid on subjective tacit
knowledge over objective prepositional knowledge. Practical knowledge is often
prioritized over theoretical knowledge (Hayek, 1945; Polanyi, 1952, 1966).
Tacit knowledge, accumulated in dialectic individual-environment interaction, is
very difficult to articulate (Polanyi, 1952, 1966). Husserl (1977) believed in
attaining true knowledge through "epoche" or "bracketing," that is, seeing
things as they are and grasping them through a kind of direct insight. Pure
phenomenological experience is even claimed to precede cognition (Nishida,
1970).
The identified wide and fundamental ontological and
epistemological differences in positivism and phenomenology create
methodological challenges. It can be claimed that the positivist dominance has
limited comprehensive context-specific discussions on knowledge in management
science. This problem was already noticed by Edith Penrose (1959) who argued
that the relative negligence was the result of the difficulties involved in
taking knowledge into account. This is because positivist epistemology is based
on the assumption that lived experiences can be linguistically carved up and
conventionally portioned into preexistent conceptual categories for the purposes
of systematic analysis and casual attribution. In effect, positivism-based
social science tries to freeze-frame the dynamic and living social world into a
preexisting static structure.
In contrast to the context-free positivist mirror image of human
mind and the environment, the knowledge-creating theory is rooted on the belief
that knowledge inherently includes human values and ideals. The knowledge
creation process cannot be captured solely as a normative causal model because
human values and ideals are subjective and the concept of truth depends on
values, ideals, and contexts.
However, the knowledge-creating theory does not view knowledge
as solely subjective. It treats knowledge creation as a continuous process in
which subjective tacit knowledge and objective explicit knowledge are converted
into each other (Nonaka, 1991, 1994; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). The boundaries
between explicit and tacit knowledge are porous as all knowledge and action is
rooted in the tacit component (Tsoukas, 1996). Tacit knowledge, in turn, is
built partly on the existing explicit knowledge since tacit knowledge is
acquired through experiences and observations in the physical world.
Viewing the knowledge-creating process as the conversion process
between tacit and explicit knowledge means that it is viewed as the social
process of validating truth (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995).
Contemporary philosophers claim that group validation produces knowledge that is
not private and subjective (Rorty, 1979). As long as the knowledge stays tacit
and subjective, it can be acquired only through direct sensory experience, and
cannot go beyond one's own values, ideals, and contexts. In such a case, it is
hard to create new knowledge or achieve universality of knowledge. Through the
knowledge conversion process, called SECI process, a personal subjective
knowledge is validated socially and synthesized with others' knowledge so that
knowledge keeps expanding (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995).
Unlike positivism, the knowledge-creating theory does not treat
knowledge as something absolute and infallible. The truth can be claimed to be
incomplete as any current state of knowledge is fallible and influenced by
historical factors such as ideologies, values, and interests of collectives.
The knowledge-creating theory views knowledge and truth as the result of a
permanent and unfinished questioning of the present. While absolute truth may
not be achieved, the knowledge validation leads to ever more true and fewer
false consequences, increasing plausibility. The pragmatic solution is to
accept collectively "objectified" knowledge as the "truth" because it works in a
certain time and context. Hence, knowledge-creating theory defines knowledge as
a dynamic process of justifying personal belief towards the "truth."
PG. #390 NONAKA The chapter argues that building the theory of
knowledge creation needs to an epistemological and ontological discussion,
instead of just relying on a positivist approach, which has been the implicit
paradigm of social science. The positivist rationality has become
identified with analytical thinking that focuses on generating and testing
hypotheses through formal logic. While providing a clear guideline for theory
building and empirical examinations, it poses problems for the investigation of
complex and dynamic social phenomena, such as knowledge creation. In
positivist-based research, knowledge is still often treated as an exogenous
variable or distraction against linear economic rationale. The relative lack of
alternative conceptualization has meant that management science has slowly been
detached from the surrounding societal reality. The understanding of social
systems cannot be based entirely on natural scientific facts.
Martha Launches an Old Biscuits Mixer
Last week, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. --
which already has magazines, a radio show, a television show and a line of
furnishings featuring the eponymous founder and domestic expert -- said it would
enter the social network space by launching a site in late 2007. It will be
similar to MySpace.com, the social network site hugely popular with teens and
young adults, but aimed at adult women, the company said.
"Martha's New Invitation: Your Space, Or Hers? by Frank Ahrens, The
Washington Post, May 28, 2006; Page F06 ---
Click Here
The company said . . . okay, that's it. I can't
hold a straight face any longer in this story. The mind reels with the comic
possibilities:
· It'll be just like MySpace. That is, if your
space happens to be an 8-by-10 jail cell in a federal pen.
· Why do I have a feeling it will be a lot more
like Martha's Space than MySpace?
· Further, how will she stand all of those
people in her space, clicking on things, looking at things, getting
things out of place? You people ever hear of viruses? Stop touching
everything!
· And then there is this: 2007? I bet a couple
smart guys in a garage could set up a decent-looking social network site
in about a month. By the time Stewart hangs her site, social networks
could be so 2006. We may be into anti-social networks by then, which is
what I'm looking forward to, as in, KeepOutOfMySpace.com. (Note to self:
Register that, quick.)
MySpace, which was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News
Corp. last year, has some 70 million users and is growing. The idea is a
proven one. Talking to investors last week, Susan Lyne -- the chief
executive of Stewart's company (and one of the ABC executives who got fired
after green-lighting "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost") -- said Stewart's
social network site will be aimed at the 25-to-45-year-old female set, and
will let them swap such things as pictures, recipes and scrapbook-making
tips.
Continued in article
And now, the Latino Jihad Four years ago, The Economist ran a cover story on the
winner of the Brazilian election, the socialist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva. It was an event of great hemispherical significance. Hence the headline:
"The Meaning Of Lula." The following week, a Canadian reader, Asif Niazi, wrote
to the magazine: "Sir, The meaning of Lula‚ in Urdu, is penis." . . . Frank
Gaffney's new book War Footing is sub-titled Ten Steps America Must Take to
Prevail in the War for the Free World and includes, as one might expect,
suggestions for the home front, the Middle East, the transnational agencies. But
it's some of the other chapters that give you pause when it comes to the bigger
picture - for example, he urges Washington to "Counteract the reemergence of
totalitarianism in Latin America." That doesn't sound like the fellows Condi and
Colin were cooing over in Quebec. Yet, as Gaffney writes, "Many Latin American
countries are imploding rather than developing. The region's most influential
leaders are thugs. It is a magnet for Islamist terrorists and a breeding ground
for hostile political movements. The key leader is Chavez, the billionaire
dictator of Venezuela, who has declared a Latino jihad against the United
States."
Mark Steyn, "And now, the Latino Jihad," Jerusalem Post, May 28, 2006 ---
Click Here
Professor Churchill found guilty of "misconduct and plagiarism"
Last week the University of Colorado panel
investigating Ward Churchill found that the controversial professor of Native
American studies
committed serious acts of researchmisconduct and
plagiarism. It’s now up to the university to decide on an appropriate punishment
for the tenured professor, who could be fired or suspended without pay. I don’t
know enough about the situation to support or challenge the panel’s unanimous
findings, or to suggest what the university should do about them, but one aspect
of the committee’s 125-page report signals a chilling warning to academics: If
you want to stay below the radar, keep your politics and your scholarship to
yourself.
Dennis Barron, "Churchill Fallout: It’s About Academic Freedom," Inside
Higher Ed, May 26, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/05/26/baron
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni’s
report
“How Many Ward Churchills?” has caused an uproar
in some corners of the Internet. Criticism has centered on two issues:
method and message. The report’s principal critics, Swarthmore history
professor Timothy Burke and The Myth of Political Correctness author
John K. Wilson, have attacked it, respectively, as a “casual, lazy,
cherrypicking survey of whatever materials the author(s) were able to access
on the Web,” and as part of “a vast new right-wing witch hunt on college
campuses.” Both critiques share confused and erroneous assumptions about the
report’s message and about ACTA’s right to criticize academic culture.
rke complains that the report’s criticisms
are ill-founded: They “see what they want to see,” they “ignore
context or specificity,” and they “avoid REAL argument of the kind
that scholars routinely engage in,” he grumbles. “The report talks
about the need to guarantee that students have unrestrained rights
to the free exchange of ideas in the classroom. Seriously, unless
you bother to get off your ass and stop reading catalogues online,
you have no idea what happens in classrooms.”
Setting aside Burke’s contemptuous tone, let’s
examine the gaps in his reasoning. Burke’s initial objections are
throw-away examples of faulty logic. The first, in which he accuses
ACTA of post ergo propter hoc thinking, is itself an example
of that logical fallacy: Burke sees ACTA seeing what ACTA wants to
see because Burke wants to see ACTA that way. But the course
descriptions ACTA cites are hardly unique or isolated. There are
hundreds of similarly tendentious descriptions published by
institutions across the country. They were chosen for their utter
typicality, not their uniqueness.
Burke’s second objection is remarkably
solipsistic — context and specificity are whatever he defines them
to be. ACTA quotes course descriptions verbatim, working from
exactly what students (and interested parents) read to select a
class. The reason? Course descriptions are designed to stand alone —
if they are all a prospective student needs to know about a class,
then they are also all tuition-paying parents, taxpayers, and
concerned citizens need in order to form a preliminary judgment.
This objection is part of Burke’s larger
criticism of the report’s reliance on course descriptions. But his
claim that these documents — the main resource students use to
decide whether or not to register for a class — do not tell us
anything about what happens in the classes in question is illogical
at best, disingenuous at worst. If true, this charge would mean
either that professors routinely engage in false advertising or that
the process by which students choose courses is a charade that fools
no one but students themselves.
In so arguing, Burke has chosen to stretch
a point ACTA freely concedes — that course descriptions are neither
courses nor perfect windows into the curriculum — in order to avoid
ACTA’s more fundamental argument about why course descriptions
matter. They matter because they are professors’ own public
representations of what happens in their classrooms. That so many
professors describe their pedagogical aims in ideologically loaded
ways raises entirely legitimate questions about accountability and
balance.
Of course, ACTA has never claimed to know
exactly what is happening in classrooms, and does not assume
authority to determine whether a class is pedagogically sound. All
ACTA’s report does is to urge college and university presidents,
deans, and faculty to examine the issue themselves. ACTA has already
outlined ways campus leaders can review departments and programs
while still being fair, respectful, and sensitive to academic
freedom and academic autonomy. Our 2005 report,
“Intellectual Diversity: Time for Action,”
was praised for its sensitivity to academic freedom and
self-governance. Burke’s hasty and intemperate critique studiously
evades these points.
Burke’s other criticism, that ACTA avoids
“REAL” argument because it does not argue in the same manner as
scholars do, is self-servingly dismissive: ACTA’s argument need not
be considered, Burke implies, because ACTA has not made its argument
as Burke thinks arguments should be made. But the truth is that
ACTA’s report is expressly not an academic paper. It is a report
designed to initiate dialogue about the college curriculum by
outlining some of the dominant terms and patterns displayed in
course offerings across the country. To condemn it, as Burke has,
for failing to maintain scholarly standards of data analysis is like
damning an apple for not being an orange.
Burke thus badly misunderstands ACTA’s
report. He both thinks ACTA isn’t qualified to judge the academic
curriculum and complains that ACTA has not framed a satisfactory
program of reform. But ACTA stresses that academics should address
the problem of self-regulation, and that they should do so now — in
the face of mounting legislative interest in controlling the
curriculum. ACTA’s report is as friendly to institutional
self-governance and academic freedom as it is possible for a
watchdog organization to be.
Now for Mr. Wilson.
Writing at
Inside Higher Ed, John K. Wilson treats
ACTA’s report as Exhibit A in “a vast new right-wing witch hunt on
college campuses”: “The far right is already pursuing leftist
academics for expressing their views in the classroom,” Wilson
writes. “ACTA threatens that academic freedom will be revoked from
colleges unless they start censoring their professors and ban
[courses that mention social justice, sex, or race].” But Wilson’s
scaremongering misrepresents the report to an audience who, he seems
to expect, will not check his sources.
Nowhere does ACTA advocate censoring
professors or banning courses. The report urges academic officials
to address — voluntarily, and in institutionally appropriate ways —
professors’ obligation to respect students’ academic freedom to
learn about controversial issues. The report recommends
institutional self-study, hiring administrators committed to
intellectual diversity, careful vetting of job candidates’ work,
review of personnel practices, post-tenure review, and — most
importantly — fostering robust debate on campus.
Here are the study’s concluding paragraphs,
which follow directly from the sentence Wilson quoted to argue that
ACTA is endorsing censorship:
Ultimately, greater accountability
means more responsible decision-making on the part of academic
administrators, more judicious hiring on the part of
departments, and more balanced, genuinely tolerant teaching on
the part of faculties. It also means acknowledging—openly and
unapologetically—that education and advocacy are not one and the
same, that the invaluable work of opening minds and honing
critical thinking skills cannot be done when professors are more
interested in seeing their own beliefs put into political
practice.Finally, it means defending the academic freedom of
even the most militantly radical academics. Our aim should not
be to fire the Ward Churchills for their views, but to insist
that they do their job—regardless of their ideological
commitments. We must insist that, in their classrooms, they
teach fairly, fostering an open and robust exchange of ideas and
refusing to succumb to a proselytizing or otherwise biased
pedagogy. Only then will their ideas be subject to debate; only
then will they and their students learn to defend their
positions in the marketplace of ideas. Only then will other
views challenge, complicate, and even displace theirs. Only then
can we hope to create a truly diverse academy.
Far from calling for censorship or the
banning of classes, ACTA urges transparency about what professors
teach; far from trying to silence politically engaged professors,
ACTA defends academic freedom while at the same time noting that 1)
academic freedom does not mean freedom from criticism or freedom
from accountability; and 2) students have academic freedom too. Also
worth noting: When the Ward Churchill scandal broke in 2005,
ACTA defended Churchill
from those who sought to fire him for his speech.
Wilson mistrusts definitions of research
misconduct that include egregiously misleading citations — and no
wonder. His own argument about ACTA depends on the willful
manipulation of sources.
Neither Burke nor Wilson reads ACTA’s
report objectively, choosing instead to see it as proof of that worn
professorial complaint, that no one outside the ivory tower
understands academics. But what neither grasps is that it is not the
public’s job to intuit the special worth of professors. Insofar as
Burke and Wilson represent an academic consensus that outsiders are
not qualified to judge — or scrutinize, or question — higher
education, they signal the depth of the complacent insularity ACTA’s
report takes to task.
If ACTA’s report has a take-home message
for academics, it is that they urgently need to justify to a
skeptical public why their work deserves special protections. Only
then, ironically, will they have a chance of preserving the
independence they cherish. With transparency comes respect; with
accountability comes autonomy. That’s the paradoxical point of “How
Many Ward Churchills?” — that the more open one is about one’s
practices, the more willing one is to allow one’s work to be
scrutinized, the more responsive one is to legitimate criticisms,
the more likely one is to be allowed to carry on without undue
interference. What a pity that Burke and Wilson could not take off
their ideological blinders long enough to see that.
Anne D. Neal is president of the American Council of
Trustees and Alumni.
A couple of months ago I asked for any experiences
with systems that collect faculty activity and productivity data for
multiple reporting needs (AACSB, local performance evaluation, etc.). I said
I'd get back to the list with a summary of private responses.
No one reported any significant direct experience,
but many AECMers provided names and e-mail addresses of [primarily]
associate deans who had researched products from Sedona and Digital
Measures. Since my associate dean was leading the charge, I just passed
those addresses on to her.
We ended up selecting Digital Measures mainly
because of our local faculty input, the gist of which was that it had a more
professional "feel." My recollection is that the risk of data loss with
either system is acceptable and that the university "owns" the data. I
understand that a grad student is entering our data from the past five years
to get us started.
Ed Scribner
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM, USA
Over 100 universities use Digital Measures'
customized solutions to connect administrators, faculty, staff, students,
and alumni. Take a look at a few of the schools and learn more about Digital
Measures.
And here we reach the heart of the matter. We
academics are deeply invested in our own significance. We were the smartest
ones in the class. We believe the life of the mind is sacred and we are
living it. Our ideas are our selves. When we come up against biased tenure
committees or uncongenial locations or grinding teaching loads, we convince
ourselves that this is the price we must pay for the greatness we are meant
to achieve, and we suck it up, complaining all the way.
I do know happy academics of my generation. Some
are wildly successful, living out the myth. Others have found niches in
which they can happily do work that satisfies them, giving up the myth. But
too many of us hang onto the myth and let go of satisfaction.
When people say I’m a brave role model, I have to
laugh. I don’t feel very brave. Mainly I feel shell-shocked. Giving up the
security of tenure and remaking one’s life at 41 is hard, so hard that
sometimes I ask myself why I’m doing it. Is it an act of hubris, based on
the continuing belief that I am great and only need to find the arena in
which my greatness will be appreciated, or is it an act of submission,
acquiescing to my own ordinariness? I don’t know the answer to that
question, but I do know that no longer an academic, I’m a lot happier.
Continued in article
The entire 2006 current ethics flap about climbers not rendering aid to a
supposedly dying climber on Mt. Everest was preceded by a great 1983 real world
case called the Parable of the Sadhu from the Harvard Business School ---
Click Here
The Parable of the Sadhu was and still is widely used in ethics
courses, especially regarding issues of situational ethics and group versus
individual ethics. The author Bowen H. McCoy was the managing director of the
investment banking firm Morgan Stanley & Co. After returning to New York, McCoy
was conscious stricken about leaving a dying religious man during an Everest
climb. The climbers at that time shed some clothes to keep the dying man warm.
But climbers from various nations (U.S., Switzerland, and Japan) actually moved
on and did not help the man down to shelter because they all felt that he was
going to die in any case. Also, the weather was such that the climbers could not
complete their climbing goal if they delayed to carry the dying man to shelter.
McCoy wrote the following after returning to New York:
We do not know if the sadhu lived or died. For many
of the following days and evenings Stephen and I discussed and debated our
behavior toward the sadhu. Stephen is a committed Quaker with deep moral
vision. He said, "I feel that what happened with the Sadhu is a good example
of the breakdown between the individual ethic and the corporate ethic. No
one person was willing to assume ultimate responsibility for the sadhu. Each
was willing to do his bit just so long as it was not too inconvenient. When
it got to be a bother everyone just passed the buck to someone else and took
off . . . "
. . .
Despite my arguments, I feel and continue to feel
guilt about the sadhu. I had literally walked through a classic moral
dilemma without fully thinking through the consequences. My excuses for my
actions include a high adrenaline flow, super-ordinate goal, and a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity --- factors in the usual corporate situation,
especially when one is under stress.
Real moral dilemmas are ambiguous and many of us
hike right through them, unaware that they exist. When, usually after the
fact, someone makes an issue of them, we tend to resent his or her bringing
it up. Often, when the full import of what we have done (or not done) falls
on us, we dig into a defensive position from which it is very difficult to
emerge. In rare circumstances we may contemplate what we have done from
inside a prison.
Had we mountaineers have been free of physical and
mental stress caused by the effort and the high altitude, we might have
treated the sadhu differently. Yet isn't stress the real test of personal
and corporate values? The instant decisions executives make under pressure
reveal the most about personal and corporate character.
Among the many questions that occur to me when
pondering my experience are: What are the practical limits of moral
imagination and vision? Is there a collective or institutional ethic beyond
the ethics of the individual? At what level of effor or commitment can one
discharge one's ethical responsibilities?
Continued in this 1983 Harvard Business School Case.
Jensen Comment
I might add that this 1983 case was written before the breakdown in ethics
during the 1990s high tech bubble in which investment banking, executive
compensation, corporate governance, and corporate ethics in general sometimes
become rotten to the core ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm
Compassion and caring wins out every time in my
view over selfishness.
Andrew
Flashback from The Wall Street Journal, May 30,
1997 When "MWD" opens Monday on the Big Board, investors
will get their first chance to buy shares of the newly combined Wall Street firm
of Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover & Co. The new firm's stock symbol will
represent each of the brands of the combined firm.
Jim Mahar's Picks for Finance Book Summer Reading
(I prefer the last three listings)
I was asked for a "summer reading list" for
finance classes so here you go: ten (non technical) finance/economics
books I would recommend.
1.
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It has
been talked about everywhere (even the SBU graduation speaker mentioned
it by name) but it is definitely worth the read! Probably my favorite of
the bunch. Read what I wrote about it
previously.
2.
The Wisdom of Crowds by Jame Surowiecki.
Great. Tells you more about market efficiency (and the lack thereof)
than several classes could.
4.
Against the Gods--Peter Bernstein. I remember
my first reaction to this book was--Wow! It makes risk management not
only interesting but fun!
5.
The End of Poverty by Jeff Sachs. It is about
ending extreme poverty. I really liked it! An important read that covers
strategies to fight poverty from China to India to Africa. Also has an
interesting economic history of the world. Introduction is by Bono.
7.
Barbarians at the Gate--Yeah, it's outdated.
Yeah, it reads like a novel. Yeah, I like it and still use some of the
examples.
8.
Freakonomics--by Steven Levitt and Stepham
Dubner. It is an interesting and fast read. Levitt is always a
worthwhile read.
9.
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
I hate to admit it but I think about this book during almost every
sporting event I watch. It may not be the best written book on the list
(and I have to agree with the Amazon review, he does come across as
arrogant) but it is still definitely a VERY worthwhile read.
10.
Worry Free Investing by Zvi Bodie. Basic idea:
invest in bonds and options. Might be a tad text-bookish, but such a
great idea. I hope more people do it!
Well there you have it. Ten Finance books to read
this summer ;) No doubt I have forgotten many others as well, but here
are a few to whet your appetite.
...bankers'
checks written in Greek on papyri appeared in ancient Egypt as far
back as 250 B.C. Papyri preserved well in Egypt thanks to its arid
climate, but Goetzmann thinks it's safe to say such checks changed
hands throughout the Mediterranean world . . . So the whole
tradition of bank checks predates the current era and has its roots
at least in Hellenistic Greek times," he says.
Bob Jensen's threads on ancient history of accounting ---
Click Here
Birthright: The easiest way to make your whole family U.S. citizens In 1970, six percent of all births in the United States
were to illegal aliens. In 2002, that figure was
23 percent. In 1994, 36
percent of the births paid for by Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid, were to
illegals. That figure has doubtless increased in the intervening 12 years as the
rate of illegal immigration has risen. Any child born in the United States
automatically becomes a U.S. citizen. He or she is instantly eligible for
panoply of social services, food stamps and other forms of aid. When the child
reaches the age of 21, he can petition to have his parents and siblings declared
permanent residents.
Mona Charin, ""Anchors" away," Townhall, May 19, 2006 ---
http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/monacharen/2006/05/19/197982.html
"SOME COMPANIES ARE SMARTER," by Jay Hammond, AccountingWeb
Newsletter, May 18, 2006
Some companies, like some people, are smarter than
others. Really. Don't believe me? A business professor at Washington
University in St. Louis, Missouri, has developed a method for measuring an
organization's IQ based on the effectiveness at innovation.
"In essence, firms fall into one of two camps,"
says Anne Marie Knott, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and
management at the Olin School of Business. "Smart firms" or "high IQ firms"
produce more bang for their R&D buck and therefore spend money to do their
own research and development. Less smart firms rely on other firms rather
than spending their own money on R&D.
"Interestingly, firms that aren't smart with their
own R&D seem to be better able to use the innovations of rivals," Knott
says. "This result stands in contrast to a very popular theory in the
management literature known as absorptive capacity. That theory holds that a
firm's ability to absorb what other firms are doing is a function of how
much R&D the acquiring firms actually does itself. The notion is that you
can't understand cutting edge research unless you actually do some yourself.
"But in practice, that's not what appears to be
happening," Knott continues. "Instead, high IQ firms, those that are most
productive with their own R&D spending, actually have a lower ability to
absorb the work of others. In other words, while they are 'high IQ' with
respect to innovating, they are 'low IQ' with respect to imitating.
Conversely, firms that are 'low IQ' with respect to innovating tend to be
'high IQ' in respect to imitating."
The practical application of this finding is that
we now know why firms choose particular strategies, either innovative or
imitative. This knowledge can in turn help firms and investors make wiser
decisions regarding R&D investment.
Larry Summers' Harvard Presidency: "It isn't Pretty" Boston Magazine’s June issue offers an in-depth,
behind the scenes lookat the last days of Larry
Summers’s presidency at Harvard University. It isn’t pretty.
Inside Higher Ed, May 31, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/31/qt
Harvard announces plan to create engineering school as
Stanford and others join push toward interdisciplinary work. In a significant sign of the growth of
interdisciplinary engineering approaches — and of the profile of the discipline
of engineering itself — Harvard University is no longer content to allow that
other Cambridge institution be the only one with engineering in lights. Harvard
this week announced plans for the creation of the School of Engineering and
Applied Sciences. Harvard expects to approve the new school by the end of fall.
Harvard will add 30 faculty members to the 70 already in the Division of
Engineering and Applied Sciences. Perhaps most importantly, as Lawrence H.
Summers, president of Harvard said in a statement: “It marks our recognition of
the profound importance of technology and applied sciences for every aspect of
our society.”
David Epstein, "The Technology Mosaic," Inside Higher Ed, May 25, 2006
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/25/engineering
That sound you just heard might have been the first
piece of the sky hitting the roof.
A federal judge in California on Tuesday
cleared the way for three former adjunct
professors at Chapman University to sue the institution under the
False Claims Act, which permits lawsuits by an
individual who believes he or she has identified fraud committed against the
federal government, and who sues hoping to be joined by the U.S. Justice
Department. (The plaintiff then shares in any financial penalties, which can
include trebled damages.) In siding with those who sued Chapman, Judge James
V. Selna not only cited the Seventh Circuit’s decision in United States
of America ex. rel. Jeffrey E. Main v. Oakland City University as a key
precedent, but expanded on it in significant ways. Most notably, the judge
concludes that a college can run afoul of the False Claims Act by violating
a requirement imposed not directly by the federal government but by an
accrediting group — a position the Justice Department endorsed.
“This is exactly what we were worried about with
the Main case, and in fact it broadens it and takes it a step
further,” said Mark L. Pelesh, executive vice president at Corinthian
Colleges and a longtime higher education lawyer. “Now making false claims to
an accreditor somehow translates, through this conflationary approach, into
making false claims for money to the federal government.”
This is complicated legal terrain, so let’s back
up. First,
last October’s decision
by the Seventh Circuit was perceived as breaking new ground because it
concluded that a college or other recipient of federal funds could be held
accountable under the False Claims Act for breaking a promise or commitment
it makes to the government at one point in time or at one stage of a federal
application process, even if it does not make a similar promise at the point
at which it formally requests or receives the funds. Specifically, the court
ruled that a former admissions director could sue Oakland City for allegedly
paying recruiters based on enrollment because the initial, “phase one”
application that it and other colleges make to the Education Department for
certification to eventually award federal financial aid funds bars it from
doing that, even though no money passes hands at that point.
. . .
But lawyers who tend to sue colleges in cases like
this say that the lawyers’ “sky is falling rhetoric” overstates the threat
to the institutions. Daniel Bartley, who represents the three instructors in
the Chapman case as well as those in the pending Phoenix case, says college
lawyers are wrong to say that the new line of False Claims cases allow
colleges to be sued if they have violated any of the hundreds of regulations
that the government — or, under the Chapman ruling, an accreditor — imposes
on them. “This applies only where there is a material breach of a condition
of payment, and it’s flagrant,” Bartley said. “The only colleges that face
trouble are those that are not obeying the law and the material
accreditation standards that underlie their getting loans and grants.”
Exactly what laws, regulations and standards are
considered “material,” of course, will be one of the many issues that could
keep the courts (and colleges’ lawyers) busy for months and years to come,
if this line of False Claims Act cases continues to gather steam.
Continued in article
Why the U.S.
Wins Wars and Will Win the War on Terror Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Larry Schweikart,
the co-author of A Patriot's History of the United States: From
Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror. He is a professor of
history at the University of
Dayton and has written more than 20 books on
national defense, business, and financial history. He is the author of the new
book,
America's Victories: Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Will Win the War on Terror.
Jamie Glazov, "America's Victories," FrontPage Magazine, May 25, 2006 ---
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22620
In his new book, The Great Deluge, Douglas
Brinkley describes a New Orleans ripe for disaster as Hurricane Katrina
approached. The city was crippled by poverty, corruption and the lack of a
workable disaster plan.
"'The Great Deluge': A Katrina Post-Mortem: Listen to this story...," by Farai
Chideya, NPR, May 22, 2006 ---
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5421017
Web Extra: Hear an Extended Version of Farai Chideya's
Conversation with Douglas Brinkley
Chinese-language version of Wikipedia China's biggest Internet search site, Baidu.com, has
launched a Chinese-language encyclopedia inspired by the cooperative reference
site Wikipedia, which the communist government bars China's Web surfers from
seeing. The Chinese service, which debuted in April, carries entries written by
users, but warns that it will delete content about sex, terrorism and attacks on
the communist government. Government censors blocked access last year to
Wikipedia, whose registered users have posted more than 1.1 million entries,
apparently due to concern about its references to Tibet, Taiwan and other
topics. The emergence of Baidu's encyclopedia reflects efforts by Chinese
entrepreneurs to take advantage of conditions created by the government's
efforts to simultaneously promote and control Internet use.
"Baidu, the most popular search engine in China, has launched a Chinese-language
version of Wikipedia," MIT's Technology Review, May 18, 2006 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16896
Euston.... We Have a Problem Tomorrow night at a church in London, there will be a
gathering of several hundred people to celebrate the launch of “The Euston
Manifesto” — a short document in which one sector of the British and American
left declares itself to be in favor of pluralist and secular democracy, and
against blowing people up for the glory of Allah . . . As I was musing over all
of this, a friend pointed out a conspicuous absence from the list of signatories
to the manifesto: Todd Gitlin, a professor of sociology and journalism at
Columbia University. His book
The Intellectuals and the Flag, published
earlier this year by Columbia University Press, defends the idea of left-wing
American patriotism with a frank interest “in the necessary task of defeating
the jihadist enemy.” This would seem to put him in the Eustonian camp, yet he
did not endorse the manifesto. Why not? I contacted him by e-mail to ask. “I
recognize a shoddy piece of intellectual patchwork when I see one,” Gitlin
responded.
Scott McLemee, "Euston.... We Have a Problem," Inside Higher Ed, May 24,
2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/05/24/mclemee
Florida State Funds May Not Reimburse travel expenses to terrorist and
communist states, including
include Cuba, Syria, Iran, North Korea and the Sudan (nothing is said about
China) State Rep. David Rivera, a Republican who hails from a
district composed largely of Cuban Americans, has spent the past several months
garnering legislative support for
a billthat he believed would do all those things.
He not only ushered the bill through passage in the House, but he also persuaded
Sen. Mike Haridopolos, also a Republican, to take similar actions in the Senate.
Ultimately, the bill passed both chambers and made its way to Governor Jeb
Bush’s desk on Tuesday. The governor — against the advice of academic groups —
has said that he has every intention of signing the legislation. The new
legislation would, in part, prohibit “the use of state or nonstate funds made
available to state universities to implement, organize, direct, coordinate, or
administer activities related to or involving travel to a terrorist state.”
Countries deemed terrorist states by the U.S. include Cuba, Syria, Iran, North
Korea and the Sudan. The law will go into effect on July 1.Rivera said Tuesday
that many Cuban Americans he’s spoken with are pleased, especially after
recently seeing a professor and a counselor affiliated with Florida
International University indicted on charges of
spying for the Cuban government.
Rob Capriccioso, "Florida Isolationism," Inside Higher Ed, May 25, 2006
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/25/florida
Comparative Interactomics
By creating maps of the body’s complex molecular interactions, Trey Ideker
is providing new ways to find drugs.
Nanomedicine
James Baker designs nanoparticles to guide drugs directly into cancer cells,
which could lead to far safer treatments.
Epigenetics
Alexander Olek has developed tests to detect cancer early by measuring its
subtle DNA changes.
Cognitive Radio
To avoid future wireless traffic jams, Heather “Haitao” Zheng is finding
ways to exploit unused radio spectrum.
Nuclear Reprogramming
Hoping to resolve the embryonic-stem-cell debate, Markus Grompe envisions a
more ethical way to derive the cells.
Tensor Imaging
Kelvin Lim is using a new brain-imaging method to understand schizophrenia.
Universal Authentication
Leading the development of a privacy-protecting online ID system, Scott
Cantor is hoping for a safer Internet.
Nanobiomechanics
Measuring the tiny forces acting on cells, Subra Suresh believes, could
produce fresh understanding of diseases.
WebPhoto: Microsoft introduces a new picture file compression technology
According to BetaNews, a Microsoft spokesperson
claims that WMPhoto will offer the same or better image quality as JPEG at half
the file size. That's twice the compression (12:1 versus the standard 6:1 of
JPEG) with the same or better quality.
Monkey Bites, May 26, 2006 ---
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/
"Vaccine to Cut Risk of Shingles in Older People Is Approved," by
Garniner Harris, The New York Times, May 27, 2006 ---
Click Here
The vaccine, called Zostavax, is roughly equivalent to 14
doses of the pediatric chickenpox vaccine.
"US scientists back autism link to MMR," by Beezy Marsh and Sally Beck,
London Telegraph, May 28, 2006 ---
Click Here
Lesbian teens five times more likely to attempt suicide Lesbian teens are nearly five times more likely to
attempt suicide than heterosexual girls, according to a survey presented at a
national conference of public health experts in Vancouver Monday. The survey
found 38 per cent of lesbian girls and 30.4 per cent of bisexual girls said they
had attempted suicide in the previous year, compared with 8.2 per cent of
heterosexual girls. The results were from a 2003 survey of 30,000 students
between grades 7 and 12 done by the B.C.-based McCreary Centre Society, which
asked students if they had attempted suicide in the previous year.
Glenn Bohn, "Survey bares lesbian teens-suicide link: Numbers suggest lesbian
teens five times more likely to attempt killing themselves," Canada.com,
May 30, 2006 ---
Click Here
In 1822, Thomas De Quincey published a short book,
"The Confessions of an English Opium Eater." The nature of addiction to
opiates has been misunderstood ever since.
De Quincey took opiates in the form of laudanum,
which was tincture of opium in alcohol. He claimed that special
philosophical insights and emotional states were available to opium-eaters,
as they were then called, that were not available to abstainers; but he also
claimed that the effort to stop taking opium involved a titanic struggle of
almost superhuman misery. Thus, those who wanted to know the heights had
also to plumb the depths.
This romantic nonsense has been accepted wholesale
by doctors and litterateurs for nearly two centuries. It has given rise to
an orthodoxy about opiate addiction, including heroin addiction, that the
general public likewise takes for granted: To wit, a person takes a little
of a drug, and is hooked; the drug renders him incapable of work, but since
withdrawal from the drug is such a terrible experience, and since the drug
is expensive, the addict is virtually forced into criminal activity to fund
his habit. He cannot abandon the habit except under medical supervision,
often by means of a substitute drug.
In each and every particular, this picture is not
only mistaken, but obviously mistaken. It actually takes some considerable
effort to addict oneself to opiates: The average heroin addict has been
taking it for a year before he develops an addiction. Like many people who
are able to take opiates intermittently, De Quincey took opium every week
for several years before becoming habituated to it. William Burroughs, who
lied about many things, admitted truthfully that you may take heroin many
times, and for quite a long period, before becoming addicted.
Heroin doesn't hook people; rather, people hook
heroin. It is quite untrue that withdrawal from heroin or other opiates is a
serious business, so serious that it would justify or at least mitigate the
commission of crimes such as mugging. Withdrawal effects from opiates are
trivial, medically speaking (unlike those from alcohol, barbiturates or
even, on occasion, benzodiazepines such as valium), and experiment
demonstrates that they are largely, though not entirely, psychological in
origin. Lurid descriptions in books and depictions in films exaggerate them
à la De Quincey (and also Coleridge, who was a chronic self-dramatizer).
“The future of our profession is built on the
quality and the number of the young people who join us,” Leslie Murphy,
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Chair explained
while presenting the Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award
to Karen V. Pincus, Chair of the Department of Accounting at the University
of Arkansas. “That, in turn, depends on whether quality people decide to
study accounting and how well they are trained in their collegiate and
post-collegiate education. The Institute annually selects a member of the
academic community who best serves these truths to receive the award.”
Pincus has received numerous recognitions for
teaching excellence, curriculum development and service to the accounting
academic and practicing professions. Most notably, she received the American
Accounting Association Innovation in Accounting Education Award for
designing and implementing a totally new curriculum approach to accounting
education. In Arkansas, she is also the S. Robson Walton Professor of
Accounting, as well as President of Beta Alpha Psi, the student professional
association.
Pincus is currently a member of the AICPA’s
Nominations Committee. From 2002 to 2005 she was an elected member-at-large
of the AICPA governing committee. She is also past Chair of the
Pre-Certification Education Executive Committee and a past member of the
virtual Grassroots Panel and Accounting Careers Subcommittee.
She has also served as President of the Federation
of Schools of Accountancy, the association of accredited graduate accounting
programs, and Vice President of the American Accounting Association, in
addition to serving on many committees for both organizations. She is the
author of numerous professional articles and research papers.
Jensen Comment
Karen was instrumental in developing the Walton School core curriculum that has
no traditional core courses such as traditional principle of accounting courses
---
http://waltoncollege.uark.edu/
Fast Food Not Only Hooks People; It Hooks Their Incomes They found that for the initial 67-cent average
cost of upsizing a fast-food meal — and the subsequent 36-gram weight gain — the
total cost for increased energy needs, gasoline and medical care would be
between $4.06 and $7.72 for men and $3.10 and $4.53 for women, depending on
their body type. The bottom line: Although upsizing a meal brings you 73 percent
more calories for only an additional 17 percent in price, the hidden financial
costs drive the price of that meal up between 191 and 123 percent.
"Super-sizing your food takes hidden toll on pocketbook," PhysOrg, May
24, 2006 ---
http://www.physorg.com/news67704755.html
At last many credit card users are listening to us The credit-card industry has a problem: Although
Americans are deeper in debt than ever, they are paying off bigger portions of
their monthly credit-card bills. For card issuers, which profit by collecting
interest on unpaid balances, that's bad news. In the past, when interest rates
crept up, as they are doing now, fewer cardholders could afford to pay down
balances. "Normally at this point in the economic cycle, you start to see
payment rates decline. But that's not happening," says Richard Srednicki, who
runs the credit-card business at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the nation's
second-largest card issuer. "It is a tougher business if payment rates continue
to stay up and consumers continue to pay off more. It's something we've got to
understand and work at."
Robin Sidel, "As Users Juggle Their Debts, Revenues to Banks Fall; The
Home-Equity Effect Ms. Bode Seeks a Fresh Start," The Wall Street Journal,
May 25, 2006; Page A1---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114852256641562637.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
For years, credit card issuers have tried to lure
consumers into using their card by offering frequent flier miles. The recent
dramatic rise in gas prices, however, has led some of these companies to
promote gas rewards and rebates instead. The question is, how does anyone
decide which card, including rewards, is best for them?
Credit cards offering gas rebates should not be
confused with the gas credit cards issued by the gas companies and that can
be used only to purchase gas at their stations. Cards offering gas rebates
are regular credit cards from MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express
or whomever, that offer rebates and rewards for the purchases made on the
card each month.
“Gas, like other rewards, can just be a gimmick to
get you to sign up for the card,” Scott Bilker, founder of Debtsmart.com,
told SmartMoney. The News Journal (Wilmington, Del.) reports that some cards
offer initial “teaser” rates as high as 10 percent to attract new customers,
however most rebates range from 3 to 5 percent once the “honeymoon” is over.
It’s not just the rates that vary, either. Gas
rebates come in two types, those that are tied to specific stations, like
Mobil, Chevron, etc. and those that can be earned by purchasing gas at any
station. When it comes to reducing the amount spent each month on fuel, the
non-station specific card is probably the wiser choice, as it allows the
buyer to shop around and purchase gas at the lowest available price. Paying
the full amount off every month will also help reduce the overall amount
spent on gas because the refund won’t be eaten up in interest.
“Make the credit card companies pay you,” Curtis
Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com, told the News Journal. “If you use these
cards in a savvy manner, they can be a great way to get a break on gas
prices.”
CNNMoney.com goes even further, stating that gas
rebates are a good value only if the credit score of the cardholder is 720
or higher and the gas tank needs filling at least twice a month. Even if you
fall into this category, there are a few things to know about gas rewards
cards before rushing out and signing up. Besides knowing whether a card is
tied to a specific station, consumers will want to find out:
The interest rate and annual fee. Even those
individuals who pay off their credit cards every month can get hit by
annual fees, and if something happens one month and a balance is carried
forward, the card holder can get a very nasty surprise, as high as 23
percent, if they aren’t careful which card they apply for.
Is there a limit on the rebate? Most cards,
according to CNNMoney, limit how much a cardholder can get back to
between $300 and $600.
Other limits. Are rebates given only on
purchases made at the pump? What about purchases made at stations
associated with warehouses and big box stores like Costco or Sam’s Club,
are rebates earned on those? Will the rebate be automatically deposited
in the cardholder’s account or is some additional action necessary and,
if so, what? Are rebates calculated only on fuel purchases or purchase
made at gas stations or are they calculated on all purchases?
Are all gas purchases eligible for the full
rebate or just those made at standalone stations? This one is
particularly important since the number of standalone stations has been
steadily decreasing in recent years.
“Typically, to get the full rebate, which is
generally 5 percent, you have to go to a standalone stations,” Arnold
explained to Kiplingers, further describing a standalone station as “a place
whose primary function is selling gas.”
Consumers can gather information to help them make
a wise decision about which, if any, gas reward card they should apply for.
Several sites compare credit card details including:
If the cardholder carries a balance on their card,
it is unlikely they will see significant savings from rebates on a credit
card. Most debt advisors agree such consumers are better off choosing a
credit card with the lowest possible rate and working to pay down the debt
owed as swiftly as possible. However, it doesn’t make sense to acquire more
debt in an effort to save a few dollars at the pump. Using a credit card or
gas station card can help consumers track purchases for tax purposes.
“The big question behind any reward is what’s the
cost?” Howard Dvorkin, founder of Consolidated Credit Services Inc. and
author of Credit Hell: How to Dig Out of Debt, told Florida’s
Sun-Sentinel. “Everything has a limitation. Understand what you are getting
into and don’t take it by face value.”
The Internal Revenue Service has canceled the
tax-exempt status for some of the nation's largest educational credit
counseling services after audits revealed they exist mainly to prey on
debt-ridden customers, Commissioner Mark Everson said Monday.
"These organizations have not been operating for
the public good and don't deserve tax-exempt status," Everson said. "They
have poisoned an entire sector of the charitable community."
A two-year investigation of 41 credit counseling
agencies resulted in the revocation, proposed revocation or other
termination of their tax-exempt status, he announced.
Everson said that many of those groups,
representing more than 40 percent of the revenue in a $1 billion industry,
offered little, if any, counseling or education as required of groups with
tax-exempt status.
Other such agencies will be required to report on
their activities. The IRS is sending compliance inquiries to each of the
other 740 known tax-exempt credit counseling agencies not already under
audit.
"Depending on the responses received, additional
audits may be undertaken," the agency said.
Everson said groups looking to make a profit would
secure tax exempt status and make cold phone calls to people in desperate
financial straights. They would use scare tactics to sell the people
"cookie-cutter" debt management plans that often were not geared toward
reducing the consumers' debt and often were too costly to pay.
Administrative fees, he said were sometimes collected by third parties
handling the paperwork for a profit.
Everson recommended that consumers pick one of the
150 consumer counseling organizations approved by groups like the Better
Business Bureau. But bad actors may exist even among those, because
guidelines for approval differs between agencies, he said.
Everson added that the agency is following up the
revocations with some criminal investigations, but would not detail them.
The IRS also is issuing new guidance on how to
comply with federal law to legitimate organizations which educate people on
how to maintain good credit.
The agency in recent years has tightened up its
review of new applications by credit counseling firms for tax-exempt status.
Since 2003, the IRS has reviewed 100 such applications and approved only
three.
The actions come consumers and the counseling
industry are having to learn to live under a new and more restrictive
federal bankruptcy law.
Congress last year gave the financial counseling
sector a new role in the nation's bankruptcy system by making it harder for
people to wipe out debt and requiring consumers to consult with an approved
credit counselor before they seek the protection of a bankruptcy court.
The nation's petroleum producers, badly shaken by
sliding prices and disappointing demand, are taking drastic measures to pull
out of a deepening industry slump. They're cutting payrolls and turning
increasingly to automation to pare costs.
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Male murderers with stereotypically "black-looking"
features are more than twice as likely to get the death sentence than
lighter-skinned African American defendants found guilty of killing a white
person, Stanford researchers have found. The relationship between physical
appearance and the death sentence disappears, however, when both murderers
and their victims are black.
"Race clearly matters in criminal justice in ways
in which people may or may not be consciously aware," said Jennifer
Eberhardt, associate professor of psychology. "When black defendants are
accused of killing whites, perhaps jurors use the degree to which these
defendants appear stereotypically black as a proxy for criminality, and then
punish accordingly."
Eberhardt's findings are published in the May issue
of the journal Psychological Science. "Looking Deathworthy: Perceived
Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes"
is co-authored with Paul G. Davies, a former Stanford postdoctoral scholar
who is now an assistant professor at the University of California-Los
Angeles; former Stanford graduate student Valerie J. Purdie-Vaughns, now an
assistant professor at Yale University; and Cornell University law Professor
Sheri Lynn Johnson, an expert on the death penalty.
Continued in article
Forwarded on May 22, 2006 by Carl Hubbard
Accounting in the Peninsular War
MESSAGE FROM THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TO THE BRITISH
FOREIGN OFFICE IN LONDON -- written from Central Spain, August 1812
Gentlemen,
Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which
commands the approach to Madrid and the French forces, my officers
have been diligently complying with your requests which have been
sent by H.M. ship from London to Lisbon and thence by dispatch to
our headquarters.
We have enumerated our saddles, bridles, tents and tent
poles, and all manner of sundry items for which His Majesty's
Government holds me accountable. I have dispatched reports on the
character, wit, and spleen of every officer. Each item and every
farthing has been accounted for, with two regrettable exceptions for
which I beg your indulgence.
Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and ninepence
remains unaccounted for in one infantry battalion's petty cash and
there has been a hideous confusion as the the number of jars of
raspberry jam issued to one cavalry regiment during a sandstorm in
western Spain. This reprehensible carelessness may be related to the
pressure of circumstance, since we are war with France, a fact which
may come as a bit of a surprise to you gentlemen in Whitehall.
This brings me to my present purpose, which is to request
elucidation of my instructions from His Majesty's Government so that
I may better understand why I am dragging an army over these barren
plains. I construe that perforce it must be one of two alternative
duties, as given below. I shall pursue either one with the best of
my ability, but I cannot do both:
1. To train an army of uniformed British clerks in Spain
for the benefit of the accountants and copy-boys in London or
perchance.
2. To see to it that the forces of Napoleon are driven
out of Spain.
Your most obedient servant
Wellington
Question
What types of diversity just is not accepted by many liberal college faculty?
Douglas J. Feith's table at the Georgetown
University faculty club is shaping up as a lonely one.
The move to a teaching position at the School of
Foreign Service at Georgetown by Mr. Feith, a former Pentagon official, set
off a faculty kerfuffle, with 72 professors, administrators and graduate
students signing a letter of protest, some going as far as to accuse him of
war crimes.
Some critics complain about the process. (He was
hired without a faculty vote.)
Some complain about the war in Iraq. (Mr. Feith has
been accused of promoting it with skewed intelligence.)
All say the open protest is unusual at a place that
embraces former officials as part of its panache. A former secretary of
state, Madeleine K. Albright; a former national security adviser, Anthony
Lake; and a former director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, have
joined the faculty without event.
But Mr. Feith, a former under secretary of defense
for policy planning and analysis, is another story.
"I'm not going to shake hands with the guy if he's
introduced to me," said Mark N. Lance, a philosophy professor who teaches
nonviolence in the program on Justice and Peace and who organized the
protest. "And if he asks why, I'll say because in my view you're a war
criminal and you have no place on this campus."
The dispute can be read as — take your pick — an
explosion of fury at a disastrous war, an illustration of the pettiness of
academic politics or evidence of Mr. Feith's talent for attracting
invective.
Gen. Tommy R. Franks of the Army, the top commander
of the Iraq invasion, once referred to him as "the stupidest guy on the face
of the earth."
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Feith said he
welcomed debate "in a proper, civil and rigorous way." But he called the
accusations that he had politicized intelligence, advocated torture and
attacked the Geneva Conventions as "false," "flatly false" and "outrageous."
A graduate of Harvard and the Georgetown Law
School, Mr. Feith served in the Reagan administration and joined other
neoconservatives in 1998 in calling on President Bill Clinton to overthrow
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Joining the Bush administration in 2001, he set up
two Defense Department units that have drawn scrutiny. One was the Office of
Special Plans, which took the lead in the Pentagon's preparation for a
postwar Iraq, planning that has been widely faulted.
Continued in article
Running Out of Russians In his state of the union address recently, Vladimir
Putin divided his attention between his country's strategic forces and its
alarming demographics. The former is a familiar matter of Western commentary and
concern, but the latter is not; and this was the first time a Russian president
had raised the topic on such an occasion. While Mr. Putin confronted this
critical issue, however, he failed to provide a compelling set of solutions. The
key problem he addressed was the decline in the Russian population, which has
dropped from 148.7 million in 1992 to 143.5 million in 2003. The U.N. estimates
that it could fall to 101.5 million by 2050. Earlier contractions of Russia's
population were brought about by the massive losses associated with World War I,
the civil war, famine, the repression and purges of the 1930s, and World War II.
The current demographic decline is the result of a declining birth rate and a
high mortality rate.
Padma Desai, "Running Out of Russians," The Wall Street Journal, May 22,
2006; Page A13 ---
Click Here
Imagine Russia in 2050! According to Paul Goble, a
specialist on ethnic minorities in the Russian Federation has predicted that
within the next several decades, Russia will become a Muslim majority state.
There is another bad news with fast decline in country’s population. This
has already become a headache for Russian politicians and policy makers.
President Vladimir Putin has called already for Russian women to have more
children, because demographers predict that Russia’s population will fall
from 143 million to 100 million by 2050. This situation has alarmed Russians
as well Western leaders, more so because analysts estimate that Muslims will
comprise the majority group in Russia’s population in few decades.
The Muslim population growth rate since 1989 is
between 40 and 50 percent, depending on ethnic groups. Today Russia has
about 8,000 mosques while 15 years there were only 300 mosques. According to
statistics, by the end of 2015, number of mosques in Russia will cross
25,000. These statistics are frightening for many ethnic Russians who
associate Islam with the Kremlin’s war against insurgents in Chechnya.
Russia is shrinking. Alarmed by the situation, Putin has offered incentives
to women who will have more children.
He said that the government would offer 1,500
roubles for the first child, and 3,000 roubles for the second child. He
further said that the government will offer financial incentives to those
couples who will adopt Russian orphans. But, response to Vladimir Putin’s
call is almost zero. Main reason behind fast decline in non-Muslim
population in Russia is, particularly larger section of young females in the
country is not in favor of having even any child. If someone has, that is
also limited within one only. On the other hand, almost all the Muslim
couples have at least three children. The number generally ranges between
3-5.
Talking to Blitz, a leader of Moscow’s most
populated area said, if the growth of Muslim population continues in the
present trend, with the serious decline in population of other religious
communities, Russian might ultimately end up as a Muslim state in next two
decades. He suggested massive propaganda in favor of having more children in
country’s mass media as well increase in the amount of incentives. He also
pointed to the fact that, in most cases, such incentives might again go to
the Muslim mothers, who generally have more than one child. This is not the
question of incentives; it is a matter of realization for the entire
non-Muslim Russian population. They should understand that by limited number
of children, they are gradually pushing the fate of the country towards an
Islamic federation.
Commenting on the issue, a former diplomat said,
after the fall of Soviet Union, unfortunately, the entire Russian nation has
lost their nationalist spirit, because of poverty and other socio-political
adversities. Now they fear in having more than a single child in the family
as the cost of living has become extremely expensive, while in most cases,
female members of the families are rather forced to work in various fields
to bring extra money for their families.
Continued in article
"Cannes sex films question role of porn, Internet," Rueters,
May 24, 2006 ---
Click Here
Directors at the Cannes film festival this year say
they are using radical images of sex to challenge mainstream pornography and
its widespread availability on the Internet.
A series of filmmakers say Internet porn alone now
shapes many young people's perception of sex and, in many cases, replaces
the experience of real physical relationships.
"There are kids who have seen pornography from a
very early age, before they are ever gonna have sex," said Larry Clark, one
of the directors of the eccentric "Destricted" -- a compilation of explicit
sex-centered stories.
In his own short film, Clark interviews young men
about their sexual preferences and then allows one candidate to appear with
his favorite porn-star.
"When I was a kid noone told me nothing. Now you
can go onto the Internet and find out anything ... (Young people) are
looking at pornography and they are thinking that this is the way to have
sex," Clark said, noting his film was educational.
U.S. director John Cameron Mitchell, who has
brought "Shortbus" to Cannes, agrees that young people are increasingly
using the Internet to replace real sex.
In Shortbus, he has collected an ensemble of
non-professional actors who engage in real on-screen sex and masturbation in
an attempt to de-mystify the subject. He does not consider his film to be
pornography.
He said that the United States had a puritanical
view of sex which turned it into an issue in young people's minds. In one
particularly provocative scene in his film, three gay men engage in a sex
session while singing "The Star-Spangled Banner".
'Antique' Phone Tax Dropped Treasury to Refund $13
Billion Collected on Long-Distance By Albert B. Crenshaw Washington Post
Staff Writer Friday, May 26, 2006; D02
The Treasury Department, conceding that it has no
right to continue collecting a 108-year-old tax on long-distance telephone
calls, announced yesterday that it will drop its legal battle for the tax
and instead refund some $13 billion to callers who have paid the tax in the
past three years.
The 3 percent tax, enacted in 1898 to help pay for
the Spanish-American War and revised in 1965, has been declared illegal by
five federal courts of appeal during the past year as the result of
challenges brought by companies forced to pay it.
Long-distance carriers have been required to bill
customers for the tax and remit it to the government.
Treasury Secretary John W. Snow yesterday called it
"an outdated, antiquated tax that has survived a century beyond its original
purpose, and by now should have been ancient history."
The tax, which was originally considered a luxury
tax because only wealthy people had telephones at the time, will go out of
existence on July 31.
With two sons, each attending public school for 13
years, added to my own 13 years as a public school student and a decade plus
as a public school teacher, I proudly announce that I am finally done! The
light at the end of the tunnel is so near that I need sunglasses. As my
younger son joins the rest of his graduating senior class next month,
tossing his cap high into the air, I may bring a cap of my own so I can toss
mine as well. "No more pencils. No more books. No more teachers' dirty
looks!" "School's out for summer! School's out forever!"
It has been a long sentence. I tried to serve it
diligently, holding up my end of the bargain at each intersection where
students, teachers, and parents collide. At times, I played the role of
student; at other times, I played the role of teacher; and on this final leg
of my journey, I have uncomfortably played the role of parent. Each role was
different and difficult, especially this last stretch since I have been
watching from the wings while having a very difficult time keeping my trap
shut. I am exhausted. I have so much to say and so many people to say it to,
but it does not matter anymore. I am ready to head off into the Pacific to
retire with my husband on a desert island where I never have to see another
school cafeteria, another auditorium, another classroom, or another front
office again. I no longer have to be politically correct in fear that
someone will take it out on my kid. True, we cannot actually head off into
the sunset until our younger son completes his studies at one of our state
universities. He still needs us here in order to qualify for in-state
tuition. However, that is just temporary. The island is out there, and the
sails on our sailboat are hoisted and ready for a good strong wind.
. . .
When I was a senior in high school, I could not
wait until I was finished. Senior year seemed endless, and I discovered many
creative ways to do my work and get good grades by making as few personal
appearances in the school building as possible. I was a rebel, but more
importantly, I was already mentally in college. I had shopped for college
clothes, had a new 8-track player that would be small enough for the dorm,
and my boyfriend-of-the-month was a college student. High school was boring.
High school guys were immature. In high school, they said they treated us
like adults, but they did not. All I wanted was the diploma so I could get
on with my life. I did not want to go to my own high school graduation
ceremony, but I made a deal with my parents that involved use of my mother's
car for the summer if I would wear a cap and gown and take part in what I
thought at the time was a silly, meaningless ceremony. At 18 years old, I
had an answer for everything, just like the two young men who have lived in
my house and have had their own share of answers. I do not remember any of
my high school graduation ceremony except I gave my dad a hard time over
taking pictures of me, and I was annoyed that I had to get out of my jeans
to wear something nice beneath my cap and gown that no one would ever see. I
did not go to my prom. I was not into that, and even if I were, I would have
been embarrassed asking my college boyfriend-of-the-month to go with me. I
do not remember if there were any parties after graduation. If there had
been, I did not go because I was already driving my mom's new Oldsmobile
Cutlass Supreme from New Jersey to my summer job in New Hampshire where I
was going to be a counselor at a sleep-away camp for a whopping $800. The
whopping $800 was for the entire summer, not per week.
Continued in article
May 18, 2006 message about middle school technology from John L. Hubisz
[hubisz@mindspring.com]
I have not looked at this site thoroughly enough to
strongly recommend it yet, but what I have seen is very good.
I would like to have your thoughts on a part of the
site that you have visited (It is huge and free!) Use
hubisz@unity.ncsu.edu rather than sending to
everyone on the list.
I will collect your thoughts and report to the
listserv or add it to my recommended sites.
Happy hunting!
John Hubisz
Moral of the Story: In Australia Short Criminals Get Lighter Sentences
There has to be moral hazard here: Is the Roo Mafia already training short hit
men?
"Judge: Man is too short for prison," Yahoo News, May 25, 2006 ---
Click Here
A judge said a 5-foot-1 man convicted of sexually
assaulting a child was too small to survive in prison, and gave him 10 years
of probation instead.
His crimes deserved a long sentence, District Judge
Kristine Cecava said, but she worried that Richard W. Thompson, 50, would be
especially imperiled by prison dangers.
"You are a sex offender, and you did it to a
child," she said.
But, she said, "That doesn't make you a hunter. You
do not fit in that category."
Thompson will be electronically monitored the first
four months of his probation, and he was told to never be alone with someone
under age 18 or date or live with a woman whose children were under 18.
Cecava also ordered Thompson to get rid of his pornography.
He faces 30 days of jail each year of his probation
unless he follows its conditions closely.
Continued in article
Moral of the Story: In Massachusetts it pays to live in luxury at
taxpayer expense and steal underwear
A brazen lingerie hustler who lived luxuriously for
years in an Andover gated community while bilking $117,500 in welfare from
taxpayers is still tooling around in a sleek $40,000 Mercedes SUV despite
pleading guilty this week to defrauding the government.
“It just ticks
me off because we work and we’re still struggling,” said Joyce Sheehan,
whose neighbor, Jennifer Stevanovich, 32, escaped jail time Tuesday after
admitting to swindling state and federal authorities out of $117,555.11 in
housing vouchers, health care, food stamps and cash aid.
The
state Department of Transitional Assistance, who gave Stevanovich $57,790 in
cash, food stamps and health care from January 2000 to January 2005, refused
yesterday to explain how the mother of three deceived them except to say its
investigators closed 6,400 welfare accounts and referred another 2,400
accounts to fraud investigators last year.
“I think the six perjury convictions speak volumes
about her MO,” DTA spokesman Dick Powers said.
Stevanovich has taken a hard fall, going from a
comfortable Andover apartment complex with a pool, tennis courts and
clubhouse to living with her mother in a Lawrence duplex where the white
paint is chipping, the gate is rusting and the screen door is busted.
Stevanovich, a hairdresser at Super Cuts in
Burlington, was nabbed for welfare fraud after Andover police snagged her
performing a panty raid on a Victoria’s Secret shop that cost the business
some $14,000 in slinky lingerie.
She secreted the scants from the shops by using a
sack lined with foil that foiled the metal detectors.
“It’s kind of weird that she’s on Section 8 and on welfare and driving a
Mercedes,” said Andover police Detective David Carriere, who brought down
Stevanovich in the undies scam with Detective Mike Lane. The silver 2005
Mercedes ML 350 parked in Stevanovich’s driveway yesterday was valued at
$39,350, state investigators said.
Investigators for State Auditor Joe DeNucci found
Stevanovich was paying just $113 monthy rent in 2004 while her bank account
ballooned to $76,468 that year from cash made selling the stolen lingerie
and goods pilfered from other swanks shops on eBay.
Continued in article
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on May 19, 2006
TITLE: With Special Effects the Star, Hollywood Faces New Reality
REPORTER: Merissa Marr and Kate Kelly
DATE: May 12, 2006
PAGE: A1
LINK:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114739949943750995.html
TOPICS: Accounting, Budgeting, Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis, Managerial
Accounting
SUMMARY: Special effects are driving a lot of movies to become box office
hits. However, "in the area of special effects, technology can't deliver the
kind of efficiencies to Hollywood that it generally provides to other
industries...Amid the excitement, studios are beginning to realize that relying
on special effects is financially risky. Such big budget films tend to be
bonanzas or busts."
QUESTIONS:
1.) The author notes that studios are beginning to realize that films utilizing
a lot of special effects might tend to be "bonanzas or busts." In terms of
costs, why is this the case? In your answer, refer to the high level of costs
associated with special effects work.
2.) Why do special effects teams tend to amass significant costs? In your
answer, define the terms "cost management" and "costs of quality" and explain
how these cost concepts, that are typically associated with product
manufacturing, can be applied to movie production.
3.) Define the term "fixed cost." How does this concept relate to the
financial riskiness of movies with significant special effects and resultant
high cost? Also include in your answer a discussion of the formula for breaking
even under cost-volume-profit analysis.
4.) Define the term "variable cost." Cite some examples of variable costs you
expect are incurred by studios such as Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, and
others.
5.) Now consider firms such as Industrial Light & Magic, "a company set up by
director George Lucas in 1975 to handle the special effects for his 'Star Wars'
movies." Based on the discussion in the article, describe what you think are
these firms' fixed and variable costs.
6.) What manager do you think is responsible for costs of quality and cost
control in producing movies? Suppose you are filling that role. What steps would
you undertake to ensure that your hoped-for blockbuster film will have the
greatest possible chance of financial success?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
She says, “He continued to [quiz international
students about their understanding of English] in other classes,
singling out the international students and making them look inferior to
the rest of the class.”
If the student had listened to the quality of
her international classmates’ answers to my questions, she would have
realized that they were academically superior to the vast majority of
their classmates. Indeed, their median grade was 4.0; they all spoke
English fluently; and, their essays had fewer grammatical errors than
most of their classmates. It seems implausible to me that any rational
observer would infer that they were inferior based on my questions about
their knowledge of a few English words.
But even Nora looked embarrassed when she
“confessed” that she didn’t know what gutters were. She had no reason to
be embarrassed, yet she was. Why?
Perhaps, it has to do with the power of gut
feelings, which allow people to quickly categorize experiences without
having to think too deeply about them. Following them can even save your
life in situations where you need to make quick decisions, implying that
gut feelings are probably hard-wired into us via evolution. Hence, gut
feelings probably can’t easily be turned off, implying that Nora could
have been embarrassed by the gutters episode regardless of whether it
was justified. And this is a shame — because good class interactions
should be full of professors and students going in any number of
directions, some of them uncomfortable, without worrying about
appearances or comfort levels (or whether some comment is going to make
you a poster child for the Academic Bill of Rights).
I was in a gray area with Nora, one that I did
not perceive as being gray until I thought about the comments of this
student. I feel badly that I might have embarrassed Nora — it was
certainly not my intention. Nevertheless, asking Nora whether she knew
the word for gutter in Bulgarian was the highlight of the course for me.
My intuition screamed at me to ask it and her answer rewarded the
impulse — not because I was happy to discover that she didn’t know the
word, but because it made me think more deeply about the way in which
languages compete with one another for survival. Indeed, many languages
face extinction because they are cluttered with words that people no
longer find useful. For example, some languages have dozens and dozens
of different words for ice, which may not be a selling point in the
coming age of global warming.
Nobel laureate Robert Solow argues that the
most difficult thing to teach students is how to be creative in
economics, followed closely by critical judgment. It is much easier to
teach tools, such as demand and supply, than how to use them creatively,
or critically. The first step in using economics creatively is to ask
interesting questions, ones that naturally arise during genuine
conversations sparked by observing differences like those concerning the
acquisition of language. While these conversations are crucial in
teaching students to be creative, they are also likely to tumble into
gray areas and sometimes produce dry holes, two things that make some
students uncomfortable.
Another way to be creative in economics is to
apply economic reasoning to topics commonly thought to lie outside the
realm of economics. Hence, I want my students to learn that there are no
boundaries to the usefulness of economic reasoning. I mean NO
boundaries, absolutely none. Boundaries smother creativity because they
encourage students to turn off their economic reasoning skills whenever
they cross them.
Last semester, I described how a San Diego
abortion cartel in the late 1940s charged women different prices
depending on the quality of their clothing and the characteristics of
the person accompanying them, a practice that economists call price
discrimination. For example, a young woman who was brought to the clinic
by an unrelated, well-dressed Sacramento businessman was charged $2,600
for an abortion. If the woman had come alone, she would have paid
something closer to $200. Four students have come to my office or
e-mailed me with concerns over the use of examples like this one. For
example, one student argued that abortion is too morally charged to be
used as fodder for examples, especially ones that are so narrowly drawn.
Crossing the border into conversations about
race is especially dangerous, because the border is patrolled by guards
searching for insensitive comments. It takes courage and tolerance on
the part of both students and professors to have genuine conversations
about race. However, no topic is more important to discuss in economics
courses given the glaring disparities in economic outcomes between
African-Americans and whites. For another course I teach, students are
required to read an article about the controversy that erupted when
members of one middle-class community proposed naming a “nice street”
after Martin Luther King Jr. The proponents wanted to weaken the
correlation of his name with poverty and crime, while the opponents
feared that naming a street after him would cause their neighborhood to
decay. I admire the proposal yet empathize with the opponents. Since
streets bearing his name are more commonly found in poor neighborhoods,
(even unprejudiced) people might rationally “steer clear” of the area if
they name a street after Martin Luther King Jr., a phenomenon economists
call statistical discrimination.
Teaching students to use economics creatively
requires having conversations that are not smothered by fears of saying
something wrong or of stepping over some boundary beyond which economic
reasoning is prohibited. But genuine conversations require that students
have done enough of the reading to participate with intelligence — and
checking on that may also make students uncomfortable.
A student last fall accused me in his or her
course evaluation of picking on students, saying that “if it was obvious
a student was unprepared or had not done the assigned reading [Professor
Harrington] would call them out on it.” It’s true. I admit it. Failing
to read the assigned articles imposes spillover costs on other students
that can be corrected by imposing penalties on unprepared students. For
example, one student could not answer straightforward questions about
the readings in two consecutive classes, prompting me to ask him whether
he had ever heard of the expression, “three strikes and you’re out.” At
the beginning of the third class, he joined the conversation, easily
answering my initial questions and making a few comments of his own.
Smart blonde joke forwarded by Paula
A Blonde walks into a bank in New York City and ask for the loan officer.
She says she's going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow
$5,000. The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for
the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce. The car is
parked on the street in front of the bank, she has the title and everything
checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.
The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the
blonde for using a $250,000 Rolls as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An
employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Rolls into the bank's
underground garage and parks it there.
Two weeks later, the blonde returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest,
which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, "Miss, we are very happy to
have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but
we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found
that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to
borrow $5,000?"
The blond replies, "Where else in New York City can I park my car for two
weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?"
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134 Email:
rjensen@trinity.edu
I recently sent out an "Appeal" for accounting educators, researchers, and
practitioners to actively support what I call The Accounting Review (TAR)
Diversity Initiative as initiated by American Accounting Association President
Judy Rayburn ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR.htm
I released the June 6 edition of Tidbits a day early because June 6
is the 666 day of apocalypse!
Is tomorrow's date -- 6-6-6 -- merely a curious
number, or could it mean our number is up?
There's a devilishly odd nexus of theology, mathematics and
commercialism on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year. OK,
it's just the sixth year of this millennium, but insisting on calling it
2006 takes the devil-may-care fun out of calendar-gazing.
Something about the number 666 brings out the worry, the hope and even
the humor in people, said the Rev. Felix Just, a professor of theology and
religious studies at the University of San Francisco. A Jesuit priest,
Father Just has taught both apocalyptic theory and mathematics and maintains
a "666-Numbers of the Beast" Web site that contains history, theology, math
and precisely 66 one-line jokes about 666.
One can even make sport of it, betting online if the apocalypse will
happen on that date. The good news is that one online oddsmaker has made the
world a 100,000-to-1 favorite to survive tomorrow -- something that Father
Just said is supported by theology.
"Many people avoid the number. They're afraid of it almost, and there's
absolutely no reason to be afraid of it," he said. "It is not a prediction
of future events. It is not supposed to be taken as a timetable for when the
world is going to end."
It all started with Revelation 13:18 in the Bible: "This calls for
wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it
is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six."
The beast is also known as the Antichrist, according to some apocalyptic
theories.
Many scholars, such as Father Just, say the beast is really a coded
reference -- using Hebrew letters for numbers -- for the despotic Roman
emperor Nero, and 616 appears instead of 666 in some ancient manuscripts.
The Book of Revelation isn't prophesying a specific end of times but "is
about the overall cosmic struggle of good versus evil," Father Just said.
But for some more apocalyptic theologians, the end of times is coming,
even if not specifically tomorrow. The evangelical Raptureready.com Web site
puts its "rapture index" at 156, calling that "fasten your seat belts" time.
It's not the date June 6 that's worrisome, but the signs in our society
of the approach of the 666 Antichrist, said the Rev. Tim LaHaye, founder of
a self-named ministry and co-author of the best-selling "Left Behind" series
of apocalyptic novels.
"I don't think that people understand that 666 is not a good time," Mr.
LaHaye said. He said he sees signs of an upcoming "tribulation period" that
leads to the Antichrist's arrival in a movement toward one-world government,
a single economic system and single religion.
Apocalyptic culture and theology, especially those surrounding 666, "is
especially appealing for people in an underdog situation," said Father Just.
So people have looked for -- and found -- 666 in all sorts of places.
Believers in the number's power have used a biblical letter-numeric code to
convert the names of countless political leaders, including many popes, to
come out 666, marking them as that generation's Antichrist. That includes
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
The math of 666 is also open to biblical interpretation and
manipulation. Father Just points out that 666 is the sum of all the numbers
on a roulette wheel. Other oddities include variations on pi and products of
prime number multiplication.
There's also something special about the number 6, which in the Bible
stands for man, said Brian C. Jones, a religion professor at Wartburg
College in Iowa.
"People need to lighten up about this," Mr. Jones said, adding that it's
hard to take tomorrow seriously as a day of reckoning. "Monday, we always
hate Mondays. Wednesday is hump day. Friday sometimes has the 13th attached
to it. But Tuesdays and Thursdays, they don't ring for me as days when bad
things happen or good things happen. They're filler days."
As usual, so-called "religious" wackos have it
wrong: today is 6/6/2006 -- or, in the way of Excel defaults, 06/06/2006. As
I explained it to my 15- year-old yesterday -- after some of her peers tried
to impress that 'point' upon her, despite the fact that she's performed a
Bat Mitzvah -- there are four "haloes" trumping those three 6's (plus a 2 I
just don't know what to make of, having given numerology as much credence as
astrology for all my adult life). My daughter enjoyed learning this
quasi-numerological rebuttal to offensively proselyte peers -- and I
confidently expect she'll enjoy asking every one of them, today, "so why
aren't we toast yet?" I still have no hope that my daughter would like to
learn to play bridge, but I am quite satisfied that she appreciates that
analogy. Secularly, hopefully yours,
Online Video and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
From The New Yorker
The New Yorker publishes a selection of letters, journal entries, and personal
essays by soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines who served in the current war
in Iraq. Here, five of the servicemen read from their work, accompanied by their
photographs.
"The Home Front" The New Yorker, June 5, 2006 ---
http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/060612on_onlineonly01
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and
video available free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
From Time Magazine (What do people look out upon
from inside their houses around the world?)
Readers of Andrew Sullivan’s Blog, The Daily Dish, sent him images of the
views from their windows ---
Through the Looking Glass
Photographer James Nachtwey shows how the health crises
created by the war in Congo
can kill long after the shooting stops ---
The Congo's Hidden Killers
Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Rewards And Fairies - Rudyard Kipling (1865 1936) ---
Click Here
The Dynamiter by Robert Louis
Stevenson (1850 1894) ---
Click Here
Pride and Prejudice by Jane
Austen (1775-1817) ---
Click Here
Enjoy two types of daily quotes Search
quotes by topic View quotes by author Explore quotes by title Email quotes
to yourself or to a friend Search by word or phrase
Gilberts, Illinois- David Thomson and Jim Bourassa
of the Quantum AetherDynamics Institute (QADI) released a new theory which
mathematically predicts and explains the measured values of physics with
striking precision. Their Aether Physics Model includes the "Holy Grail" of
physics sought by Albert Einstein; the Unified Force Theory. "Our model shows
the forces are unified by a simple set of general laws explainable as the fabric
of space-time itself, which is a dynamic, quantum-scale Aether," said Bourassa.
Jim D. Bourassa (listed as the contact), "New unified force theory predicts
measured values of physics," Eurekalert, June 5, 2006 ---
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/qai-nuf060106.php
In April 2006 I commenced reading a heavy book entitled Great Minds in
Management: The Process of Theory Development, Edited by Ken G. Smith
and Michael A. Hitt (Oxford Press, 2006).
The essays are somewhat personalized in terms of how theory
development is perceived by each author and how these perceptions changed
over time.
In Tidbits I will share some of the key quotations as I
proceed through this book. The book is somewhat heavy going, so it will take
some time to add selected quotations to the list of quotations at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/GreatMinds.htm
The Experience of Theorizing: Sensemaking as Topic and
Resource
KARL E. WEICK
PG. #395 WEICK 19.1 ON SENSEMAKING
Sensemaking, viewed as central both to the process of theorizing and to the
conduct of everyday organizational life, is a sprawling collection of
ongoing interpretive actions. To define this "sprawl" is to walk a thin
line between trying to put plausible boundaries around a diverse set of
actions that seem to cohere, while also trying to include enough properties
so that the coherence is seen as distinctive and significant but something
less than the totality of the human condition. This bounding is a crucial
move in theory construction. It starts early, but it never stops.
Theorizing involves continuously resetting the boundaries of the phenomenon
and continuously rejustifying what has newly been included and excluded. In
theorizing, as in everyday life, meanings always seem to become clear a
little too late. Accounts, cognitions, and categories all lie in the path
of earlier action, which means that definitions and theories tend to be
retrospective summaries of ongoing inquiring rather than definitive
constraints on future inquiring. These complications are evident in efforts
to define sensemaking.
Some portraits of sensemaking suggest that it resembles an evolutionary
process of blind variation and selective retention. "An evolutionary
epistemology is implicit in organizational sensemaking, which consists of
retrospective interpretations built during interaction" (Weick 1995b:
67). Hence we see sensemaking being aligned with the insight that "a system
can respond adaptively to its environment by mimicking inside itself the
basic dynamics of evolutionary processes" (Warglien, 2002, 110), an insight
that is tied directly to theory development when theorizing is described as
"disciplined imagination" (Weick, 1989).
PG. #405 WEICK
The "known facts" and "empirical findings" that theories "explain" can
precede theory construction or follow it. The fact that theory construction
is a form of retrospective sensemaking, does not decouple it from facts.
Rather, it means that facticity is often an achievement. Having first said
something, theorists discover what they have been thinking about when they
look more closely at that talk. A close look at the talk often suggests
that the talk is about examples, experiences, and stories that had
previously been understood though not articulated. The talk enacts facts
because it makes that understanding visible, explicit, and available for
reflective thinking, but the talk doesn't create the understanding.
Instead, it articulates the understanding by converting "know how" into
"know that." Sensemaking, with its insistence on retrospective sensemaking,
is a valuable standpoint for theorizing because it preserves the proper
order for understanding and explanation (understanding precedes explanation:
Sandelands, 1990: 241-247). It reminds the investigator to keep saying and
writing so that he or she can have something to see in order then to think
theoretically.
PG. #406 WEICK
This is not haphazard as it sounds. Instead, these stop rules for theory
simply recognize that theories are coherent orientations to events, sets of
abstractions, consensually validated explanations and embodiments of
aphoristic thinking.
Reber's definition is also intriguing because it talks about theory as a
label that is "awarded" to almost any honest attempt at
explanation. Here we get a hint that theory is a continuum and an
approximation. The image of theory as continuum comes from Runkel.
Theory belongs to the family of words that includes
guess, speculation, supposition, conjecture, proposition, hypothesis,
conception, explanation, model. The dictionaries permit us to use
theory for anything from "guess" to a system of assumptions...(Social
scientists) will naturally want to underpin their theories with more
empirical data than they need for a speculation. They will naturally
want a theory to incorporate more than one hypothesis. We
plead only that they do not save theory to label their ultimate
triumph, but use it as well to label their interim struggles. Runkel and
Runkel, 1984; 130)
As we have seen, most products that are labeled theory actually
approximate theory. Robert Merton (1967: 143-149) was sensitive to this
point and suggested that there were at least four ways in which theory was
approximated. These were (1) general orientation in which broad frameworks
specify types of variables people should take into account without any
specification of relationships among these variables (e.g., Scott, 1998
analyzes rational, natural, and open systems); (2) analysis of concepts in
which concepts are specified but not interrelated (Perrow, 1984 analyzes the
concept of normal accident); (3) post factum interpretation in which ad hoc
hypotheses are derived from a single observation, with no effort to explore
new observations or alternative explanations (e.g., Weick, 1990 analyzes
behavioral regression in the Tenerife air disaster); and (4) empirical
generalization in which an isolated proposition summarizes the relationship
between two variables, but further interrelations are not attempted (e.g.,
Pfeffer and Salancik, 1977) analyze how power flows to those who reduce
significant uncertainties.
Jeffrey Pfeffer,
PhD ’72, and Robert I. Sutton would like to foment a little
revolution—one in which leaders in business and the world at large base
their decisions on facts and logic, not ideology, hunches, management
fads or poorly understood experience. Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II
Professor of Organizational Behavior, and Sutton, a professor of
management science and engineering and, by courtesy, of organizational
behavior in the Graduate School of Business, are the authors of Hard
Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from
Evidence-Based Management (Harvard Business School Press, 2006). STANFORD
asked them about bringing more reason to organizational life.
What’s some of the
total nonsense that occurs in companies?
Sutton: Probably the biggest single
problem for human decision making is that when people have ingrained
beliefs, they will put a much higher bar for evidence for things they
don’t believe than for things they do believe. Confirmation-seeking
bias, I think, is what social psychologists call it. Organizations can
have amazingly good evidence, but it has no effect on the decisions they
make if it conflicts with their ideology.
Do you have a
favorite unsupported belief?
Pfeffer: One would be stock options.
There are more than 200 studies that show no evidence that there is a
relationship between the amount of equity senior executives have and a
company’s financial performance. . . . Just as you would never bet on a
point spread on a football game because it encourages bad behavior, you
should not reward people for increasing the spread in an expectations
market.
Overreliance on financial incentives of all
sorts drives all kinds of counterproductive behavior.
Evidence-based
management derives from evidence-based medicine. Explain what kind of
decision making we’re talking about.
Continued in interview
Question
Is education suffering from a self-injury epidemic?
17% of Students at Cornell and Princeton Practice Self Abuse Nearly 1 in 5 students at two Ivy League schools
say they have purposely injured themselves by cutting, burning or other
methods, a disturbing phenomenon that psychologists say they are hearing
about more often. For some young people, self-abuse is an extreme coping
mechanism that seems to help relieve stress; for others it's a way to make
deep emotional wounds more visible. The results of the survey at Cornell and
Princeton are similar to other estimates on this frightening behavior.
Counselors say it's happening at colleges, high schools and middle schools
across the country.
Lindsey Tanner, "17 Pct. at 2 Schools Practice Self-Abuse," ABC News,
June 5, 2006 ---
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2039503
According to a new study, published today in the
June issue of Pediatrics, the Real World alum is just one of thousands of
college-aged individuals — both males and females — who are engaging in
self-injurious behavior, including cutting, biting, bruising, breaking one’s
own bones, and ripping off one’s skin or hair. Clinicians and researchers
say that there’s a need to promote awareness about this seemingly growing
problem, and to treat the underlying causes.
Rob Capriccioso, "Self-Injury Epidemic," Inside Higher Ed,June 5, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/05/injury
While the annual American College Health
Association conference in New York City was filled with many questions this
year –
where the profession is headedand
how to assist mentally ill studentslooming
large among them – the problem that is attracting ever more attention from
many health professionals continues to be the ever-present risk of suicide
on campus.
Rob Capriccioso, "Suicide on the Mind," Inside Higher Ed,June 5, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/05/acha
Jensen Comment
This indicates that grade inflation is not relieving stress, although there
are more complicated and interactive causes beyond stress to attain perfect
grade averages.
Author John Updike asserts "liberals will never understand this age in
which we live" The New York Times recently conducted an interview
with author John Updike about his newest novel. This interview was revealing
of why liberals will never understand this age in which we live. It is
indicative of how they just don’t understand the evil we face in
Islamofascism. (See story -
Click here) Updike, as obsessed with fallen
Christianity as he is with prurient sex scenes, must have seen the writing
on the wall while in the midst of penning his newest novel, a sort of
thriller titled Terrorist.
Charles McGrath, "In 'Terrorist,' a Cautious Novelist Takes On a New Fear,"
Newsbusters, June 5, 2006 ---
http://newsbusters.org/node/5677
I wish legislators themselves all had to read all 24,000 pages of GE's
Tax Return
General Electric Corp. and the Internal Revenue
Service offered each other a mutual pat on the back for their joint
efforts in getting the company's tax return filed, and accepted,
electronically. On paper, the return would have been approximately
24,000 pages long. Instead, GE submitted the return as a 237 MB file.
Over the past few years, a number of colleges
and universities have created initiatives to place some of their course
materials online for the general public. MIT was one of the first to do
so, and Berkeley has also started to offer a number of webcasts and
podcasts of select courses on this website.
Drawing on the strengths of the Berkeley
Multimedia Research Center, they have begun to place some of these
excellent materials on this site. On their well-designed homepage,
visitors can either look at an archive of course webcasts and podcasts
or take a gander at the archived webcasts that feature prominent
speakers who have visited the campus. The events archive dates back to a
January 2002 appearance by Bill Clinton, and includes dozens of
interesting talks and lectures. Visitors can learn about each event in
the information section, and for some, they have the option to download
the audio portion of each event. The course section is equally
delightful, as visitors can view webcasts here, and also download
podcasts. The range of courses here is quite broad, and includes
lectures on general chemistry, wildlife ecology, and surprise, surprise:
foundations of American cyberculture. Finally, visitors can also
subscribe to event and course podcasts.
I did not see any accounting or business courses listed at this point in
time. Economics 100A (Micro) is available.
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing of college course materials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
New Technology for Proctoring Distance Education Examinations
It’s time for final exams. You’re a student in
Tokyo and your professor works in Alabama. It’s after midnight and
you’re ready to take the test from your bedroom. No problem. Flip open
your laptop, plug in special hardware, take a fingerprint, answer the
questions and you’re good to go.
Just know this: Your professor can watch your
every move ... and see the pile of laundry building up in the corner of
the room.
Distance learning programs – no matter their
structure or locations – have always wrestled with the issue of student
authentication. How do you verify that the person who signed up for a
class is the one taking the test if that student is hundreds, often
thousands, of miles away?
Human oversight, in the form of proctors who
administer exams from a variety of places, has long been the solution.
But for some of the larger distance education programs — such as Troy
University, with about 17,000 eCampus students in 13 time zones —
finding willing proctors and centralized testing locations has become
cumbersome.
New hardware being developed for Troy would
allow faculty members to monitor online test takers and give students
the freedom to take the exam anywhere and at any time. In principle, it
is intended to defend against cheating. But some say the technology is
going overboard.
Sallie Johnson, director of instructional
design and education technologies for Troy’s eCampus, approached
Cambridge, Mass.-based Software Secure Inc. less than two years ago to
develop a unit that would eliminate the need for a human proctor.
Johnson said the hardware is the university’s response to the urgings of
both Congress and regional accrediting boards to make authentication a
priority.
The product, called Securexam Remote Proctor,
would likely cost students about $200. The unit hooks into a USB port
and does not contain the student’s personal information, allowing people
to share the product. The authentication is done through a server, so
once a student is in the database, he or she can take an exam from any
computer that is hardware compatible.
A fingerprint sensor is built into the base of
the remote proctor, and professors can choose when and how often they
want students to identify themselves during the test, Johnson said. In
the prototype, a small camera with 360-degree-view capabilities is
attached to the base of the unit. Real-time audio and video is taken
from the test taker’s room, and any unusual activity — another person
walking into the room, an unfamiliar voice speaking — leads to a
red-flag message that something might be awry.
Professors need not watch students taking the
test live; they can view the streaming audio or video at any time.
“We can see them and hear them, periodically do
a thumb print and have voice verification,” Johnson said. “This allows
faculty members to have total control over their exams.”
Douglas Winneg, president of Software Secure,
said the new hardware is the first the company has developed with the
distance learning market in mind. It has developed software tools that
filter material so that students taking tests can’t access any
unauthorized material.
Winneg, whose company works with a range of
colleges, said authentication is “a painful issue for institutions, both
traditional brick-and-mortar schools and distance learning programs.”
Troy is conducting beta tests of the product at
its home campus. Johnson said by next spring, the Securexam Remote
Proctor could commonly be used in distance learning classes at the
university, with the eventual expectation that it will be mandatory for
students enrolled in eCampus classes.
Harvard Law School, the world’s
self-described “premier center for legal education and research,” may
ban Internet use in the classroom this fall because so many students are
frittering away time surfing the Web.
The school’s faculty has yet to vote on the
proposal. But several professors, fed up with students shopping online
or checking Red Sox scores when they should be heeding lectures, have
gone so far as to outlaw laptops in class.
“They interfere with discussion,” Harvard law
professor Bruce L. Hay said. “When you add to that the fact that many
students have trouble resisting the temptation to check their e-mail or
cruise the Internet, laptops become intolerable.”
The electronic paper chase has become enough
of a problem that Harvard Health Services has added “computer and
Internet distraction and overuse” to its list of leading health
concerns, alongside depression, stress, eating disorders and alcohol and
drug abuse.
In a 2004 National College Health Assessment,
in fact, nearly 1 out of 4 Harvard undergraduates reported that computer
or Internet use was an impediment to their academic performance.
In this respect, Harvard is hardly unique.
“Students on the Web in class is a bane of
professors everywhere,” said David Olson, a 2000 Harvard Law School
graduate and fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and
Society. “Stanford professors would love a ban. But as one faculty
member said, they’re afraid of the riot that would ensue if they tried
to impose one.”
In a recent survey by the Harvard Law School
Student Council, nearly 2 out of 3 students opposed a ban. And nearly 1
in 4 said they would actually attend class less often if the faculty
instituted one.
“People are already talking about how to get
around it,” said council President Michael Sevi. If all else fails, he
said, they could always fall back on that old standby: passing notes in
class.
“People will always find something to distract
themselves,” said Regina Fitzpatrick, 26, who just finished her first
year at Harvard Law. “If they aren’t paying attention, that’s their own
fault. We’re adults, and people should be free to make their own
choice.”
But while the majority of students may not
like the idea of having to give up the Web during class, 39 percent of
those surveyed admitted they would probably pay more attention in class.
Continued in article
The Condition of Education 2006 The Education Department on Thursday released
“The Condition of Education 2006,”this year’s
version of an annual compilation of statistics on a range of issues at all
levels of education. The report provides the latest data on enrollment
trends, most of them consistent with previous projections about enrollment
increases and about the growing gender gap in which more women than men
enroll. Inside Higher Ed, June 2, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/02/qt
I just stumbled across some very interesting
tools for visualizing data that I can't resist sharing. There's a wild
play-with-it-yourself tool at
http://tools.google.com/gapminder/ , and some
prepackaged presentations at
http://www.gapminder.org
I went through the "Human Development Trends
2005" presentation at the second link above and found it fascinating and
informative (and also helpful for developing a sense of the significance
of the images in the do-it-yourself tool at the first link).
A minor frustration: toward the end, the
presentation includes data on income and child mortality distribution
within 42 different countries (it gives the income and child mortality
rates of the poorest 20% of the population of the country, the next
richest 20%, etc.), but it only has average data for the United States
(as far as I could see). I wonder why? Anyone know how to find
comparable data for the US?
Curtis
Curtis Brown
Philosophy Department
Trinity University
One Trinity Place
San Antonio, TX 78212
If you are left with the impression that the
dead bodies on the ground were massacred by our Marines, that is exactly
what the Times intends. Note the caption: "Victims in al-Haditha. The US
is carrying out two inquiries (AP)."
Now, look at this photo closely:
Insert Photo Here
It is clearly the same location. The same set
of dead bodies. The second is a wider shot with three additional bodies
in the foreground.
But guess what? The photo, according to this
Newsweek caption of the scene, is not of the Nov. 19 incident in Haditha
involving our Marines, as the UK Times would have you believe.
Read the caption:
"Insurgents in Haditha executed 19 Shiite
fishermen and National Guardsmen in a sports stadium."
Our Marines did not kill these people.
The terrorists did.
Here's more from the Newsweek article from last
May--that is, six months before the incident involving our Marines:
Hussein Hashimi has a CD-ROM full of pictures
of the dead. For the last two months, the young Shiite says, Sunni
extremists rampaged through his hometown of Madaen. They torched the
local police stations, abducted dozens of members of the local Shiite
minority, burned down the mosque and killed not only the imam but his
8-year-old son. Many Shiite families fled; others barricaded themselves
in their homes. Last week Iraqi security forces finally came in and
restored order. Hashimi has lists of the missing and of the dead who
have been identified. He has the names of the alleged perpetrators and a
map showing the home of the Sunni he accuses of being responsible for
the atrocities.
So is Hashimi fighting back? Not at all. "We
just ran away," he says without a trace of embarrassment. "Sistani and
the religious authorities in Najaf decided not to use force, so we
couldn't do anything." To the Shiites of Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali
Sistani's word is law. "We must obey."
Their obedience was tested yet again last
week—and again it held firm. In Madaen and villages nearby, corpses
bobbed to the surface of the Tigris River until police counted 60.
Hashimi and his friends photographed 55 of the bodies and delivered the
pictures and lists to Baghdad. Shiite politicians accused the insurgents
of ethnic cleansing, and demanded that the caretaker government act.
Insurgents in another town near Baghdad, Haditha, responded by
kidnapping 19 Shiite fishermen and National Guardsmen, lining them up
against a wall in a sports stadium and shooting them dead.
And more from an LA Times article from April
2005 (reprinted at SFGate.com):
In Baghdad, the Ministry of Defense said that
19 Iraqis who were kidnapped, taken to a soccer stadium in Haditha,
lined up against the wall and fatally shot on Wednesday were actually
Shiite fishermen, and not Iraqi troops, as previously described by an
Interior Ministry official.
Saleh Sarhan, the ministry's chief spokesman,
described the victims as fishermen from the Shiite cities of Najaf and
Diwaniya who had traveled to the huge Lake Tharthar in the
Sunni-dominated Anbar province, northwest of Baghdad and east of
Haditha. He offered no explanation for why insurgents would target the
fishermen, or how they had been identified.
As Joe G., who blogged his discovery of this
obvious, unconscionable error, writes:
"I think this goes beyond a slant, this is
slander."
Reader Eric. T adds:
Notice in the photo that the slain people have
their hands tied i.e. murdered assassination style. This makes it seem
even more of an outrage against the Marines!
This must not stand. And the Times must not be
allowed to make a covert correction without a public acknowledgement.
The editors must apologize for this blatant smear.
Send a letter to the editor here (include
postal address and daytime telephone number for publication):
As the Internet changed the nature of higher
education in the last decade or so, considerable research has examined
the question of whether students were changing enrollment patterns. But
three scholars whose findings were just published by the National Bureau
of Economic Research suggest that there has been a significant and
largely overlooked relocation going on since learning went online: among
faculty members.
n “Are Elite Universities Losing Their
Competitive Edge?,” the scholars examine evidence that the Internet — by
allowing professors to work with ease with scholars across the country
and not just across the quad — is leading to a spreading of academic
talent at many more institutions than has been the case in the past.
The research by E. Han Kim, Adair Morse and
Luigi Zingales is based on an analysis of faculty members in economics
and finance departments, but many of the conclusions do not appear to be
factors that would apply only in those disciplines. (
An abstract of
the findings is available online, where the full paper may be ordered
for $5).
The basic approach of the research was to
examine the productivity of professors at elite universities (defined as
the top 25 in economics and finance) in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. What
the scholars found isn’t good news for those top departments. In the
1970s, a faculty member moving from a non-top 25 university to Harvard
University would nearly double in productivity (based on various
measures of journal publishing, which is where most economics research
appears). By the 1990s, this impact had almost entirely disappeared.
Beyond Harvard, the study found that moving to
17 of the top economics departments would have had a significant
positive impact on productivity during the 1970s, while moving only to 5
of them had a significant negative impact on productivity. By the 1990s,
only 2 such departments were having a positive impact on productivity
while 9 had a significant negative impact. Finance departments also saw
a decline in productivity impact.
The findings do not necessarily mean that top
economics departments are full of deadwood. But they do suggest a
“de-localization of the externality produced by more productive
researchers.” In other words, these days professors are no longer likely
to be more productive just because there is a genius down the hall. The
cultural norms of departments still matter, the authors write, and being
surrounded by non-productive colleagues has a negative impact on
productivity.
But you no longer need a critical mass on your
own campus to do good work. Part of this, the authors suggest, is that
databases can now be shared more easily across campuses, and so there is
less of a distinct advantage to being physically located at the top
universities, which also tend to be the places where more databases,
library collections, etc., reside.
And as more people are spread out at more
institutions, the elite professors work with them. At the start of the
1970s, the authors write, only 32 percent of the articles in top
economics journals that were written by a professor at an elite
institution had a co-author from a non-elite institution. That
percentage had increased to 61 percent by 2004.
The implications of these shifts, the authors
write, can be seen at both non-elite and elite departments. Faculty
members are now “more mobile,” the authors write, “making it easier for
a new place to attract away the most talented researchers with higher
salary.”
But the “universal access to knowledge” is also
having a benefit for faculty members at the top 25 departments. Prior to
the Internet, the authors write, the benefits of working in a top
department were greater, so professors might accept slightly lower pay
because of such benefits. With the disappearance of such benefits, data
on salaries indicate greater increases at the top 25 institutions that
experienced the greatest losses in productivity.
The authors of the piece work at top
universities. Kim is professor of business administration at the
University of Michigan. Morse is a graduate student in business at
Michigan. Zingales is a visiting professor of economics at Harvard.
In a study of economics and finance faculty
affiliated with the top 25 U.S. universities, E. Han Kim, Adair Morse,
and Luigi Zingales looked at the changes on scholarly research brought
about by the Internet. They sought answers to several questions: "How
did these changes modify the nature of the production of academic
research? Did local interaction become less important? If so, how does
this decline affect the value added of elite universities and hence
their competitive edge?" Their findings are published in the report "Are
Elite Universities Losing Their Competitive Edge?" (National Bureau of
Economic Research Working Paper No. 12245, May 2006). The complete
report is available online at
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W12245
Founded in 1920, the National Bureau of
Economic Research (NBER) is a "private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research
organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the
economy works." For more information, contact: National Bureau of
Economic Research, Inc., 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
02138-5398 USA; tel: 617-868-3900; fax: 617-868-2742;
email:
info@nber.org
Web:
http://www.nber.org/
Stanford University Experiments With
the Latest Classroom Technology and Building Design
Each Wallenberg
Hall classroom offers a platform for a new level of teaching, at the
same time serving as a laboratory for testing and analyzing the value
and potential of new technology. Some of the tools will prove
invaluable, SCIL researchers believe, while other tools may not be worth
their expense. Such information could prove useful to everyone, from an
academic department deciding whether to invest a small amount of money
in several tablet PCs for the classroom, to a university redesigning or
creating a new multimedia auditorium, to a college seeking funding to
reinvent its learning spaces.
“The teaching
and research happening here in Wallenberg Hall could be of enormous
value to our colleagues at all levels of education regardless of their
geography,” says Steinhardt. “Wallenberg Hall represents the
university’s commitment to explore new ways of enhancing learning and
education through targeted investments in technology.”
Research and
Teaching at Wallenberg
Research
The broad
range of multidisciplinary projects includes:
High-Performance Learning Spaces: A
multidisciplinary team of researchers is examining two years’
worth of audio and video records of Wallenberg classes, related
interviews, activity surveys, and focus group data to assess the
effects of technology on teaching and learning. Results will
assist educators at all levels in how to best employ technology
in the classroom.
DIVER: Created by a team led by SCIL
co-director Roy Pea, DIVER software enables users to focus
attention on relevant portions of any video footage, then
annotate and analyze the video to share it with colleagues and
peers. This year, student teachers utilized DIVER to reflect on
tapings of their own teaching to evaluate their performances
through “guided noticing.” DIVER also has promising applications
in the fields of law, medicine, film study, and architecture.
Folio Thinking: Based on the hypothesis that
documenting and tracking learning through the use of an
electronic portfolio deepens learning, students in an
engineering class in Wallenberg Hall are the focus of SCIL’s
current research on ePortfolios. Findings will help researchers
understand more about how students learn and what tools most
complement their experience.
Virtual Video Collaboratory: Supported by a
grant from the National Science Foundation, a team of SCIL
researchers is creating the world’s first Digital Video
Collaboratory—a multimedia library that will be available on the
Internet. The library will allow the viewing, annotating, and
editing of a vast array of useful footage collected and
catalogued from sources around the world.
Teachable agents: The CAT2 Lab at SCIL, which
has developed its own “learn by teaching” software, is studying
the idea that a powerful way to learn is by teaching.
Interactive toys and robots: This broad project
involves the development and testing of interactive toys and
robots that teach and entertain, utilizing concepts and ideas
from psychology, sociology, linguistics, computer science,
robotics, communication, and education.
Social responses to communication technology:
This new research is examining the extent to which human
interactions with computers, television, and new communication
technologies are conditioned by real social relationships and
the navigation of real physical spaces.
Teaching
Since
Wallenberg Hall first opened its doors to classes in 2002, it has
grown from a magnet for early adopters to a widely sought-after
learning center for faculty and students from more than 20
departments and schools at Stanford University. Courses offered in
the high-performance learning spaces of the hall have included
anthropology, history, biochemistry, classic Greek, engineering, and
Hebrew, reflecting the fact that virtually any subject can benefit
from a well-designed, technology-enriched environment.
Every day
from early in the morning until late into the evening, teachers and
students utilize the frequently updated classroom equipment such as
interactive Webster boards, video conferencing tools, in-class
laptops, tablet PCs, and reconfigurable furnishings to create a
seamless multimedia experience. As faculty and students employ these
technologies, researchers from the Stanford Center for Innovations
in Learning (SCIL), who also reside in Wallenberg Hall, evaluate and
analyze the impact in an ongoing study of technology in education.
Highlights
from some of the innovative courses taught in Wallenberg Hall
include:
Using
iRoom software, Prof. Russ Altman had his students download Web
pages on particular diseases each was studying, then asked them
to share the material with the class. PointRight, experimental
software, allowed them to “beam” their material to the
computerized Webster white board. During discussion, the Webster
screens were jointly controlled by the students from their own
computers so that anyone could point out highlights and issues
without passing around a keyboard or leaving their seats.
In her
course, “Introduction to Hebrew,” instructor Vered Shemtov used
the three large screens in the Peter Wallenberg Learning Theater
to present diverse content, from written poems, to music, to
video clips, maps, and artwork. One screen could display the
course outline for the day, while another showed a piece of
literature and a third ran a related video clip. Moving from one
medium to another occurred without hesitation, all controlled by
one remote computer mouse.
The
Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR), directed by Prof. Andrea
Lunsford, is a requirement of all freshmen and sophomores at
Stanford. Freshmen practice everything from working individually
on their laptops, to working collaboratively in small groups
with one computer and a large plasma display, to whole class
discussions utilizing the Webster smart boards. The PWR program
is an excellent example of how Wallenberg Hall allows teaching
and learning to keep pace with technological advances.
A recent report released by the
Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education
recommends some major changes in the way
accreditation operates in the United States. Perhaps the most
significant of these is a proposal that a new accrediting framework
“require institutions and programs to move toward world-class quality”
using best practices and peer institution comparisons on a national and
world basis. Lovely words, and utterly fatal to the proposal.
he principal difficulty with this lofty goal is
that outside of a few rarefied contexts, most people do not want our
educational standards to get higher. They want the standards to get
lower. The difficulty faced by the commission is that public commissions
are not allowed to say this out loud because we who make policy and
serve in leadership roles are supposed to pretend that people want
higher standards.
In fact, postsecondary education for most
people is becoming a commodity. Degrees are all but generic, except for
those people who want to become professors or enter high-income
professions and who therefore need to get their degrees from a
name-brand graduate school.
The brutal truth is that higher standards,
applied without regard for politics or any kind of screeching in the
hinterlands, would result in fewer colleges, fewer programs, and an
enormous decrease in the number and size of the schools now accredited
by national accreditors. The commission’s report pretends that the
concept of regional accreditation is outmoded and that accreditors ought
to in essence be lumped together in the new Great Big Accreditor, which
is really Congress in drag.
This idea, when combined with the commitment to
uniform high standards set at a national or international level, results
in an educational cul-de-sac: It is not possible to put the Wharton
School into the same category as a nationally accredited degree-granting
business college and say “aspire to the same goals.”
The commission attempts to build a paper wall
around this problem by paying nominal rhetorical attention to the notion
of differing institutional missions. However, this is a classic
question-begging situation: if the missions are so different, why should
the accreditor be the same for the sake of sameness? And if all business
schools should aspire to the same high standards based on national and
international norms, do we need the smaller and the nationally
accredited business colleges at all?
The state of Oregon made a similar attempt to
establish genuine, meaningful standards for all high school graduates
starting in 1991 and ending, for most purposes, in 2006, with little but
wasted money and damaged reputations to show for it. Why did it fail?
Statements of educational quality goals issued by the central
bureaucracy collided with the desire of communities to have every
student get good grades and a diploma, whether or not they could read,
write or meet minimal standards. Woe to any who challenge the Lake
Wobegon Effect.
So let us watch the commission, and its
Congressional handlers, as it posits a nation and world in which the
desire for higher standards represents what Americans want. This amiable
fiction follows in a long history of such romans a clef written by the
elite, for the elite and of the elite while pretending to be what most
people want. They have no choice but to declare victory, but the playing
field will not change.
Manchester B-school grads are enjoying higher
salaries and more opportunity, thanks to an improving economy and new
opportunities to work in Britain
"Manchester's Mojo Rising," Business Week, May 26, 2006 ---
Click Here
Jensen Comment
Large international accounting firms are among the active list of
recruiters.
"Your Photos, Your Rights, and the Law: Answers to questions about
copyright and your rights as a photographer," by Dave Johnson, PC World
via The Washington Post, May 31, 2006 ---
Click Here
Ironically, the answer to this simple question
is not so simple anymore. But for almost any digital photo you take
today, you can count on the copyright lasting for 70 years.
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization
that has pioneered a new way to share creative works. The group offers a
number of licenses with names like Attribution, NoDerivs, NonCommercial,
and ShareAlike.
If you choose to share your photos with a
Creative Commons license, you're telling the world that you're offering
to let other people use your photos in ways that are traditionally not
supported by standard copyright law. Using an Attribution license, for
example, is like releasing your photo in the public domain, though it
requires anyone using your photo to give you credit.
Attribution-NonCommercial is similar, but specifically prohibits people
from using your photo for commercial use.
While using a Creative Commons license is a
nice idea, and you'll find a lot of people using them on sites like
Flickr.com, keep in mind that Creative Commons has no legal teeth. Only
copyright law has that.
There are three ways to copyright a photo (or
any other creative work).
Here's the easy way: Any work you create is
automatically copyrighted. In other words, you don't need to do anything
at all to receive some protection under copyright law.
However, there are copyrights--and then there
are copyrights. While technically you never have to take action to
copyright a creative work, simply putting a copyright notice on your
work strengthens your copyright protection. To assert your claim to a
digital photo, for example, just place a copyright notice somewhere on
the picture. Commonly, photographers use the text tool in a photo
editing program to do this in the lower-right corner.
The most aggressive copyright action you can
take is to register your photo with the Registrar of Copyrights in
Washington, DC. There is a form to fill out and a $30 fee to pay, but
this approach provides you with the highest level of protection
available. For more info go to the U.S. Copyright Office's
Web site.
The 100 Best Products of the Year This year's edition--"The 100 Best Products of the
Year" --starts
here . Once again, the festivities span both
print and online. to see an expanded version offering extras such as video
clips and, on June 6, a live chat session with Senior Writer Alan Stafford,
who edited the feature and spearheaded the weeks of meetings, ballots, and
impromptu hallway dialogues that determined our winners.
"How the 100 Best Products Got That Way Eclectic. Inventive. Essential. Our
World Class winners are all that and more," by Harry McCracken, PC World
via The Washington Post, May 31, 2006 ---
Click Here
Questions
What should you do if you think you're a possible victim of ID theft?
What are the best things you can do to prevent ID theft?
Answer
There are a number of things to do, especially the following:
Fill out an identity theft report with your local, state or federal law
enforcement agency. It's unclear if the mere loss or theft of personal
information constitutes identity theft, but filing a report may offer
additional protections. The FTC makes an affidavit available at
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/pdf/affidavit.pdf
"Tips for Preventing or Catching Identity Theft: Contacting one of three
credit reporting agencies is the key to monitoring possible fraud," MIT's
Technology Review, May 24, 2006 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16923
Consumer advocates have some advice for the
26.5 million veterans whose personal information was stolen from the
home of a Veterans Affairs employee: Don't panic.
Identity theft may be a growing problem that
affected 9.3 million Americans last year, according to Javelin Strategy
and Research. But consumer advocates say a few precautions can lessen
the chances of becoming a victim, even for people whose personal
information has been stolen.
The first thing to do if you think your Social
Security number, birth date or other sensitive data has fallen into the
wrong hands is to place an initial fraud alert on your credit reports.
There are three major credit reporting agencies, but a call to one --
for instance, Equifax at 800-525-6285 -- will ensure the other two are
notified.
A fraud alert entitles you to a free copy of
your credit report from each of the three companies. Order one from each
and scrutinize them carefully for accounts you didn't open or debts you
don't recognize. Also, make sure that information such as your Social
Security number and employer are correct on each report.
If you discover accounts or transactions you
didn't authorize, call and speak with someone in the fraud department of
each company involved. Keep a log of each person contacted, along with
the date, time and topics discussed on each call.
An initial fraud alert also requires businesses
to take additional steps to confirm your identity before issuing loans
or opening accounts in your name. Be prepared for loan and credit card
applications to take slightly longer to be processed.
It's important to understand that an initial
fraud alert, as the name implies, is only a temporary fix. That's
because it remains in effect for only 90 days. To prevent becoming a
victim after the three months are up, you'll need to take additional
steps.
Next, fill out an identity theft report with
your local, state or federal law enforcement agency. It's unclear if the
mere loss or theft of personal information constitutes identity theft,
but filing a report may offer additional protections. The FTC makes an
affidavit available at
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/pdf/affidavit.pdf
Ask each of the three credit reporting
companies to place a freeze or extended alert on your account. Seventeen
states have enacted laws that require the reporting companies to block
access to your files in most instances. Check with the Consumers Union
Web site or attorney general in your state to see if this is available
where you live.
Even if your state doesn't offer this
protection, ask Equifax, TransUnion and Experian to give you an extended
alert anyway. This option will entitle you to two free credit reports
per year, and it will also require the credit reporting companies to
remove you from lists marketers use to send prescreened credit offers
for five years.
To qualify for an extended alert, the reporting
companies will require you to prove you've been the victim of identity
theft, even though it is not always clear how the law defines a victim
in this case. Be sure to include the FTC affidavit or other law
enforcement report you filed. It is legal documentation that your
personal identification has been stolen.
Finally, recognize that safeguarding your
privacy is a never-ending task, even for people who have no reason to
believe their personal information has been stolen. A little education
and prevention, say consumer advocates, can go a long way.
''You need an ongoing vigilance,'' says Paul
Stephens, a policy analyst with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San
Diego. ''We want people to be proactive, to be vigilant, but we also
don't want to have people panicking.''
"The Dangerous Side of Search Engines: Popular search engines may
lead you to rogue sites. Here's what you need to know to avoid dangerous
downloads, bogus sites, and spam," by Tom Spring, PC World via
The Washington Post, May 27, 2006 ---
Click Here
Who knew an innocent search for "screensavers"
could be so dangerous? It may actually be the riskiest word to type into
Google's search engine. Odds are, more than half of the links that
Google returns take you to Web sites loaded with either spyware or
adware. You might also face getting bombarded with spam if you register
at one of those sites with your e-mail address.
A recently released study, coauthored by McAfee
and anti-spyware activist
Ben Edelman , found that sponsored results
from top search engines AOL, Ask.com, Google, MSN, and Yahoo can often
lead to Web sites that contain spyware and scams, and are operated by
people who love to send out spam.
The
study concluded that an average of 9 percent
of sponsored results and 3 of organic search results link to
questionable Web sites. The study was based on analysis of the first
five pages of search results for each keyword tested.
According to the results of the study, the top
four most dangerous searches on Google are:
The study defined dangerous sites as those that
have one or a combination of the following characteristics: its
downloads contain spyware and/or adware; its pages contain embedded code
that performs browser exploits; the content is meant to deceive visitors
in some way; it sends out inordinate amounts of spam to e-mail accounts
registered at the site.
These results are a sobering wake-up call to
Web surfers, and they illustrate the changing nature of Internet threats
today. It used to be that most viruses and scams made their way to our
PCs
via our inboxes . But thanks to security
software that's getting better at filtering out viruses, spam, and
phishing attacks from our e-mail, rogue elements are
having a difficult time booby-trapping our
PCs.
"Scammers and spammers have clearly turned to
search engines to practice their trade," says Shane Keats, market
strategist for McAfee.
McAfee says that of the 1394 popular keywords
it typed into Google and AOL alone, 5 percent of the results returned
links to dangerous Web sites. Overall, MSN search results had the lowest
percentage of dangerous sites (3.9 percent) while Ask search results had
the highest percentage (6.1 percent).
Given the study's findings, it shouldn't come
as a big surprise that the company has a free tool, called McAfee
SiteAdvisor, for tackling the problems. In my tests I found it does a
great job of protecting you from the Web's dark side.
Since March McAfee has been offering a
browser plug-in that works with Mozilla
Firefox and
Microsoft Internet Explorer. SiteAdvisor puts
a little rectangular button in the bottom corner of the browser. If a
site you're visiting is safe, the SiteAdvisor button stays green. When
you visit a questionable Web site the button turns red or yellow
(depending on the risk level) and a little balloon expands with details
on why SiteAdvisor has rated the site as such.
SiteAdvisor ratings are based on threats that
include software downloads loaded with adware or spyware, malicious code
embedded in Web pages, phishing attempts and scams, and the amount of
spam that a registered user gets.
SiteAdvisor takes it a step further with
Google, MSN, and Yahoo. With these search engines, it puts a rating icon
next to individual results. This is a great safety feature and time
saver, steering you clear of dangerous sites before you make the mistake
of clicking on a link.
Q. What can browsers tell me about how safe an
e-commerce site is?
A. Security experts have long recommended that
you look for the closed padlock at the bottom of the browser window to
make sure your transactions are safe.
Unfortunately, the presence of a padlock is no
longer enough.
Sites wishing to enable the padlock must obtain
a digital certificate from any number of private companies known as
certificate authorities.
In the early days, the certificate authority
performed a series of checks to make sure sites were really who they
said they were. The authority may have asked for ID or a copy of a
business license, or it may have checked information a site submitted
against state business databases.
Older authorities still do that, but some newer
ones try to cut costs and corners by checking only that the site owns
the domain name -- not the business said to run on that domain, said
Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer with the SANS Institute's
Internet Storm Center.
The difference in cost can be significant:
Ullrich said a site may spend $20 for the domain-only check, compared
with $100 or more for a traditional certificate. Consumers have no easy
way to tell the difference.
That doesn't mean the cheaper certificates are
all suspect -- Ullrich's group even has one. But the variation opens the
door for scammers known as phishers to easily obtain one and create a
site that mimics a real bank's. Customers can then be tricked into
revealing passwords and other sensitive details.
Scammers ''realize that as awareness of
phishing increases, one thing customers are doing is looking for a
lock,'' said Tim Callan, group product marketing manager for VeriSign
Inc., one of the old-style certificate authorities. ''As an
anti-phishing measure, the padlock has become increasingly
unimportant.''
Melih Abdulhayoglu, chief executive of Comodo,
another issuer of traditional certificates, said the padlock is still a
good sign that a site is encrypted so sensitive information won't be
leaked in transit, but ''you could be encrypting for the fraudsters for
all you know.''
So all certificates -- those with and without
thorough checks -- are being put into question, because a customer is
not likely to know what went on behind the scenes.
Fortunately, change is on the way.
Later this year, the certificate authorities
that undergo thorough checks will mark their certificates differently.
Browsers could then highlight sites with such high-assurance
certificates. The address bar might turn green, for instance, when
visiting such sites, distinguishing them from ones that carry only a
padlock.
Until then, still look for the closed padlock.
If it's missing, or if a warning appears about
a missing or expired certificate, that's a sign that something could be
wrong. Newer browsers are trying to make the padlock easier to see -- in
Firefox and Opera, for instance, the padlock is moved up top, next to
the address bar.
''Just because you see the padlock, it doesn't
mean it's meaningful, but it's not meaningless,'' said Greg Hughes,
chief security executive at Corillian Corp., a provider of online
banking technology.
Comodo, meanwhile, has a free tool at
http://www.vengine.com to help identify legitimate sites.
But ultimately, it comes down to common sense.
Ask yourself, is it a site you've done business
with before? Is it a big operation located in the United States? Did you
type in the Web address directly into the browser rather than click on
an e-mail link? Is the address a familiar one, one that appears in a
bank's brochure?
Beau Brendler, director of Consumer Reports
WebWatch, suggests that people also look for ''https'' -- the ''s'' for
secure -- instead of just ''http'' in the address bar.
''If you see the padlock and more importantly
the https, you've got a fairly good indication that the page is
secure,'' he said. ''They are one element of several things to possibly
look for.''
But of course, he said, ''you're never
necessarily guaranteed anything. There's a certain amount of risk in any
transaction.''
Global Principles for College Rankings by the Media Higher education officials from more than a dozen
countries have crafted
a set of principles designed to standardize
what they call “the global phenomenon of college and university rankings.”
The “Berlin Principles,” as the series of good practices are called, touch
on the purposes and goals of such rankings, the design and weighting of the
measures used, collection and processing of data, and presentation. The
principles were drafted at a meeting in Berlin this month convened by the
UNESCO-European Center for Higher Education and the Institute for Higher
Education Policy. Inside Higher Ed, May 31, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/31/qt
Best Academic Program Does Not Always Equate to Highest Media Ranking
Program
Companies pay higher salaries to graduates of
the most prominent business schools, even when they believe that
lesser-known schools offer better educations, according to a study
described in the December/January issue of the Academy of Management
Journal.
The study, conducted by researchers at the
University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, found that
those two variables do not always go hand in hand. In their analysis of
data from a poll of 1,600 professional recruiters, the researchers found
that the business schools considered to be the most prominent didn't
always get top marks for quality.
The biggest bucks went to graduates of
high-profile schools -- the kind that top the charts in national
magazine ratings or have faculty members with lofty pedigrees. A report
on the study does not give the names of any of the schools mentioned by
the recruiters.
"There's an old cliché that nobody got fired
for buying from IBM," said Violina P. Rindova, an assistant professor of
strategy at the Maryland business school and one of the study's authors.
"There's a certain reassurance that if you recruit someone from a
prominent school, the boss won't be upset and that you'll have a
stronger guarantee."
XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. says it
won't reach its subscriber target this year, and will likely end 2006 with
8.5 million subscribers. Approximately how many subscribers does its rival,
Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., have now?
Student Plagiarism, Faculty Responsibility A review by two Ohio University officials has found
“rampant and flagrant plagiarism” by graduate students in the institution’s
mechanical engineering department — and concluded that three faculty members
either “failed to monitor” their advisees’ writing or “basically supported
academic fraudulence” by ignoring the dishonesty.
The report by the two-person review team called
for the dismissal of two professors, and university officials said they
would bring in a national expert on plagiarism to advise them.
Doug Lederman, "Student Plagiarism, Faculty Responsibility," Inside
Higher Ed, June 1, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/01/plagiarism
June 2, 2006 reply from Linda Kidwell, University of Wyoming
[lkidwell@UWYO.EDU]
Bob's post reminded me of an interesting
article I recently read:
Woessner, M.C. (2004). "Beating the house: How
inadequate penalties for cheating make plagiarism an excellent gamble."
PS: Political Science & Politics, 37 (2): 313 – 320.
His article is interesting in two ways. First,
he argues that "it is unethical for faculty to knowingly entice students
to plagiarize by promoting policies that actually reward dishonesty." He
maintains that we may entice our students by anything from active
neglect to ineffective enforcement, and he even throws in some Biblical
support from Leviticus: You shall not place a stumbling block before the
blind.
Second, he uses expected value functions to
illustrate how ineffective policies make it an excellent gamble for
students to plagiarize, using different combinations of probabilities of
being caught, severities of punishment, and weighting of plagiarized
assignments. I fault the paper for assuming all students are value
neutral, in that he does not include any factor for the cost of
compromising your standards (internal social control in some studies)
or, for that matter, the benefit of going along with the crowd (culture
conflict theory in others).
Nonetheless, if we assume away any moral or
ethical component to the decision to cheat, he demonstrates that unless
probabilities of detection are high due to vigilence and penalities are
severe (F in the course, not just on the assignment), students have a
strong incentive to cheat.
So back to Bob's post, Woessner certainly
implies that the faculty are at least as culpable as the students when
massive cheating such as that in the engineering department at Ohio
University takes place.
I'm not sure I agree on an individual student
level, but it's food for thought.
Faculty are only culpable if you accept the
premise that students are inherently amoral. If our accounting students
are amoral then Enron is the tip of the iceberg as they will all behave
the same way in a similar circumstance (you would have to assume they
are just waiting on the ideal time to pull shenaigans).
[We do have a fairly decent honor code with
reasonable penalties for those judged guilty by a jury of their peers (4
students 1 faculty member). The peers are typically very willing to find
for guilt in the juries I have served on.]
John
June 3, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen
Trinity University adopted an honor code that has a student court
investigate cheating and assess penalties. The students are more apt to
be tougher on cheating students.
But for faculty it has been a little like rape in that the hassle
involved in reporting it discourages the reporting in some suspected
instances of cheating (in truth I've not made a formal study of this).
On several occasions in the past (before the new Honor Code) I've
simply flunked the student and reported the incident to the Academic
Vice President who maintained a file of reported incidents and could,
for repeat offenders, inflict more serious punishments. Now faculty must
appear in "court." More significantly, the authority to sign the F grade
for cheating is thereby taken out of the hands of the faculty member
responsible for grades in a course.
I have been following this thread with some
interest.
Medical schools have a pompous ceremony for
orientation for all entering students. It is usually called "white coat"
ceremony.
While the pomp and circumstance at such a
ceremony is incidental, the main objective is to make sure that the
students are being inducted into a noble and learned profession, that
their behaviour after should be different, that they have
responsibilities that transcend averything else, life is precious, their
ethical behaviour determines the future of the profession, etc., etc.,,,
In my own department, I have for a long time
suggested that we desperately need something like that. This is
especially important to accounting, since unlike medical schools that
get mature adults (22-30+ years old), we get juveniles who are less
worldly experienced and more prone to making wrong choices simply
because they are younger (if one agrees with Kohlberg).
The question is, what do we do in such a
pompous but solemn ceremony? What do we call it? Where is our equivalent
of the Hippocratic oath?
I reproduce below both the classic oath and the
modern oaths below. May be we can come up with one of our own.
Jagdish
____________________________________________________
Hippocratic Oath -- Classical Version
"I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and
Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my
witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability and judgment this
oath and this covenant:
To hold him who has taught me this art as equal
to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is
in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his
offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this
art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a
share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my
sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have
signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law,
but no one else.
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit
of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from
harm and injustice.
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody
who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly
I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I
will guard my life and my art.
I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers
from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in
this work.
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for
the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of
all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and
male persons, be they free or slaves.
What I may see or hear in the course of the
treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men,
which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself,
holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
If I fulfil this oath and do not violate it,
may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame
among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear
falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot."
Translation from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein.
From The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, and Interpretation, by
Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1943.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Hippocratic Oath—Modern Version
"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability
and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of
those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge
as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all
measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment
and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine
as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may
outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor
will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are
needed for a patient's recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for
their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most
especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is
given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power
to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great
humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play
at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever
chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may
affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility
includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the
sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for
prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of
society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those
sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life
and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection
thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of
my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek
my help."
Disabled Iraq veteran sues Michael Moore over 9/11 film A veteran who lost both arms in the war in Iraq is
suing filmmaker Michael Moore for $85 million, alleging that Moore used
snippets of a television interview without his permission to falsely portray
him as anti-war in "Fahrenheit 9/11." Sgt. Peter Damon, a National Guardsman
from Middleborough, is asking for damages because of "loss of reputation,
emotional distress, embarrassment, and personal humiliation," according to
the lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court last week. Damon, 33, claims
that Moore never asked for his consent to use a clip from an interview Damon
did with NBC's "Nightly News." He lost his arms when a tire on a Black Hawk
helicopter exploded while he and another reservist were servicing the
aircraft on the ground. Another reservist was killed in the explosion. In
his interview with NBC, Damon was asked about a new painkiller the military
was using on wounded veterans. He claims in his lawsuit that the way Moore
used the film clip in "Fahrenheit 9/11" - Moore's scathing 2004 documentary
criticizing the Bush administration and the war in Iraq - makes him appear
to "voice a complaint about the war effort" when he was actually complaining
about "the excruciating type of pain" that comes with the injury he
suffered.
Denise Lavois, "Iraq veteran sues Moore over 9/11 film," TheState.com,
May 31, 2006 ---
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/entertainment/movies/14709855.htm
It's called
"Michael
& Me," and, as you might imagine, it emulates
the style of Michael Moore's documentaries and turns the tables on the
filmmaker responsible for "Bowling for Columbine." This time it's Moore who
is hunted down for an ambush interview the way he famously stalked Roger
Smith, the chief executive officer of General Motors, in "Roger & Me," and
an ailing Charlton Heston in "Columbine." This time it's Elder scoring all
the propaganda points – with the truth and facts, rather than distortions
and cinematic gimmicks.
"Michael & Me', by Joseph Farah," WorldNetDaily ---
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46707
The truth about America’s oil refineries Unfortunately, the lack of capacity that Washington
sees as a crisis looks like an ideal business model to oil refiners. There
are so few refineries in the U.S. now that they are run tight to the bone,
typically using about ninety per cent of their total capacity. The result is
that refining—which, until recently, was a tough, low-margin business—has
become tremendously lucrative. Last year, refiners’ profits jumped
thirty-nine per cent, to twenty-four billion dollars, and this year should
be even better. In California, gasoline prices have risen forty-eight per
cent since the end of last year, even though crude-oil prices are up just
seventeen per cent. Most of that difference has gone straight into refiners’
pockets.
James Surowiecki, "The truth about America’s oil refineries," The New
Yorker, June 12, 2006 ---
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060612ta_talk_surowiecki
"Ultrasensitive Test for Heart Attacks, Alzheimer's: A powerful
but cheap tool available this year could test for everything from genetic
diseases to heart-attack signs," by Kevin Bullis, MIT's Technology
Review, May 31, 2006 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16938&ch=biztech
An ultrasensitive DNA and protein detector,
expected to be widely available later this year, could save lives by
detecting genetic and infectious diseases early, before they turn deadly
or spread. Its relatively low cost and simplicity will make diagnostic
tests that today can be done only in specialized labs available at local
hospitals. Furthermore, because it's extremely sensitive, it could
detect signs of disease invisible to current tools.
The device, which has been developed by
Nanosphere, Northbrook, IL, based on research
by
Chad Mirkin, professor of chemistry at
Northwestern University, is already being in used in several research
labs and is awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval before it
enters general use.
[Click
here for illustrations of the process used by the Nanosphere protein
and DNA detector.]
In its first application, the gold
nanoparticle-based detector will tell doctors whether patients have a
genetic trait that makes them likely to develop blood clots during
surgery, helping doctors prevent strokes. Soon after, pending the
results of ongoing clinical trials, it could diagnose previously
undetected heart disease and help researchers diagnose and develop
treatments for Alzheimer's disease by detecting levels of telltale
proteins in the blood at concentrations "undetectable by any other
technology," says Bill Moffitt, CEO of Nanosphere.
Each year 100,000 patients complaining of heart
attack-like symptoms are sent home without treatment because current
methods cannot diagnose some heart attacks, Moffitt says. Of these
people, 20 percent die within a month, he says. And the rest have a much
greater risk of dying from a heart attack in the coming year. Moffitt
says that by detecting concentrations a thousand times lower that
current methods of a protein released in the body during a heart attack,
the Nanosphere technology may help doctors diagnose and treat these
attacks.
For those who enjoy a run of some distance
across a variety of terrains, this application is definitely worth a
look. With Trail Runner, users can create a geographic display of their
workout area, plan routes interactively, and also export route
descriptions onto their iPod. While the application does not actually
contain digital maps itself, it does offer ample directions and
instructions on where to obtain such maps online. This version of Trail
Runner is compatible with all computers running Mac OS X 10.4 and newer.
Dashboards on a car are essential. Dashboards
on one’s computer screen aren’t always essential, but they can certainly
make monitoring different sets of information quite a bit easier.
Essentially users of this program create a collection of “klips”, which
collect and display weather information, email notifications, and
stocks. And in an age of user- interface customization, it is not
surprising to find that the program also contains a number of skins
which can be used at the users’ discretion. Finally, the program can be
used in a variety of different languages, including German, Dutch, and
Spanish. This version is compatible with computers running Windows 2000
and XP.
Education – what a mess! Everyone is looking
for someone to blame and for a quick fix to improve the system. In my
view there's only one thing to blame: change. And there's only one
solution: change that solves the problem holistically.
If you have a food processor that has a faulty
power cord and you've lost the blades and broken the cover, just buying
a set of blades won't fix the problem. The same is true of education.
Requiring more standardized testing and better preparation for teachers
isn't adequate repair. Society has changed greatly in the last forty
years and those changes have affected who our students have become.
I began teaching high school in 1966. With the
draft in place, grade inflation became a way of life to avoid failing a
student who would be sent to Vietnam. After the draft ended, schools
continued to expect less of students instead of challenging them and
raising standards.
In 1975 the Education for All Handicapped
Children's Act became law. It required schools to provide a "free,
appropriate, public education to children with disabilities." These
children were given an Individualized Educational Plan, which guided
teachers in implementing the child's education. Despite this law, many
children with disabilities didn't receive "appropriate" education and
most were segregated from regular classes. After the passage of the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) schools were closely
monitored to assure their compliance.
Now most disabled students are mainstreamed
into regular classes where many flourish and develop social and academic
skills that help them to function more successfully in society. But
their inclusion creates a classroom where teachers are stretched to meet
a greater diversity of student needs. Unfortunately, many teachers
aren't trained to teach these exceptional children who require methods
that are different from those used to teach the average student. In
addition to these special needs students, teachers in some schools also
may be working with large numbers of non-English speakers.
Today there are more students in the regular
classrooms who have behavior problems and who frequently disrupt
classes. They're not, by any means, all exceptional children with
behavior disorders. In the past, these were the kids who were expelled
or who dropped out because schools didn't tolerate disobedience and
disrespect, and parents supported that attitude. Too many hours of
learning time are wasted while teachers deal with such disruptive
students and the paperwork these incidents generate.
As our society has grown more legalistic and
less willing to accept personal responsibility, school administrators
have become more compliant in dealing with complaining parents. This
puts teachers in an untenable position. If the teacher insists on
disciplining a student for misbehaving, it may be seen as a challenge to
the administrator's authority and an affront to the parent. But if the
student isn't disciplined, the teacher's authority is undermined, and in
most cases the student continues to be a problem in class.
Once I was asked to adjust my grading so that a
high school senior who had attended only half my classes and had done
very few assignments could graduate. He was the son of a prominent
community leader, and the principal didn't want any "trouble." When I
refused, the principal was outraged! It's difficult to convince students
to make the effort to learn when they know someone will rescue them from
their bad decisions.
Drug and alcohol abuse and early sexual
experiences are significant problems among the young in every strata of
society. These behaviors seriously interfere with learning, impair
judgment, and create depressive and aggressive behaviors that often
disrupt the classroom. To make matters worse, students are constantly
sent messages through the media and video games that violence, overt
sexual expression, and disrespectful behaviors are "cool." To be "bad"
is good, so we have more students who seek to disrupt the learning
environment in order to get attention and earn the respect of their
peers through misbehavior. To make matters worse, the laws make it
virtually impossible to suspend or expel disruptive “exceptional
students” even when they are capable of understanding the consequences
of their actions. This creates an inequity that undermines discipline in
the classroom and teaches the students that they don't have to be
responsible.
The most significant influence on a child's
ability to learn is the parent and the home environment. Today many
parents have less time available to spend with their children monitoring
homework, teaching social skills, self-discipline and responsibility.
Many must work longer hours sometimes on multiple jobs just to make ends
meet. As the income of an increasing number of families falls below the
poverty line, more children lack the nutrition they need for normal
brain function and development. Even among those who are not poor, poor
eating and exercise habits take their toll on learning.
Continued in article
"Business Ethics Magazine Lists Top Corporate Citizens:
Environmental awareness is boon for high-tech firms," SmartPros, May
4, 2006 ---
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x52863.xml
Business Ethics Magazine has released its
annual survey of the "100 Best Corporate Citizens," with Waterbury,
Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters topping the list.
The coffee company was cited for its
"meticulous attention to corporate social responsibility," including its
pioneering work in the fair trade movement, which pays coffee growers
stable, fair prices. Green Mountain has been among the top 10 companies
on Business Ethics' list for four years running.
Now in its seventh year, the list for 2006 is
striking because of the dominance of technology firms among the top 10,
including Hewlett-Packard, Advanced Micro Devices, Motorola and Agilent
Technologies.
Why the strong showing by tech? "Surprisingly,
it's not due to financial out-performance," said Marjorie Kelly, editor
of Business Ethics, "since none of the top tech companies ranked in the
top 10 in financial returns." Instead, Kelly noted, most top tech
companies do well on environmental issues. They also tend to be active
in their communities and score high in employee relations, she said.
"These firms know that to attract and retain talent, it pays to be
socially enlightened. High-tech seems to be a genuinely socially
responsible sector."
The list saw quite a bit of turnover from 2005,
with 33 companies appearing for the first time. Newcomers Johnson &
Johnson and McGraw-Hill Companiesscore particularly high in workforce
diversity. Newcomer Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls rates high marks
because of products that help conserve energy.
The 100 Best Corporate Citizens list puts a
numerical rating on service to these various stakeholders.
Environmental, social and governance ratings are drawn from an online
social research database created by KLD Research & Analytics, Inc.
Search engines work wonderfully when you want
to find something in a long stretch of text. Just type in a word or
phrase, and the computer quickly scans through a Web page or Word
document and picks it out. But for a computer to do the same thing with
an image -- find a particular person or object somewhere in a video
recording, for instance -- is much more difficult. Whereas a human eye
instantly distinguishes a tree from a cat, it's a lot of work to teach a
computer to do the same.
That challenge is being tackled by researchers
at MIT's Center for Biological and Computational Learning (CBCL), led by
Tomaso Poggio, the Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences and
Human Behavior. Some students at the center are proposing software that
could work, say, with surveillance cameras in an office building or
military base, eliminating the need for a human to watch monitors or
review videotapes. Other applications might automate computer editing of
home movies, or sort and retrieve photos from a vast database of images.
It might also be possible to train a computer to perform preliminary
medical diagnoses based on an MRI or CT scan image.
But the work to make such exciting applications
possible is daunting. "The fact that it seems so easy to do for a human
is part of our greatest illusion," says Stanley Bileschi, who this month
earned his PhD in electrical engineering and computer science at the
CBCL. Processing visual data is computationally complex, he says, noting
that people use about 40 percent of their brains just on that task.
There are many variables to take into account when identifying an
object: color, lighting, spatial orientation, distance, and texture. And
vision both stimulates and is influenced by other brain functions, such
as memory and reasoning, which are not fully understood. "Evolution has
spent four billion years developing vision," Poggio says.
Scientists have traditionally used statistical
learning systems to teach computers to recognize objects. In such
systems, a scientist tells a machine that certain images are faces, then
tells it that certain other images are not faces. The computer examines
the images pixel by pixel to figure out, statistically, what the face
images have in common that the nonface images do not.
For instance, it might learn that a set of
pixels representing the brow is a brighter than the pixels representing
the pupils, and that the two sets are a standard distance apart. It
might notice that the mouth tends to be horizontal, and that there is a
sharp change in brightness where the head stops and the background
begins. Once trained, it can look at new images and see how closely they
match the rules.
Compare these numbers with the total body count in Iraq Simmering conflict in Congo has killed 4 million
people since 1998, yet few choose to cover the story. TIME looks at a
forgotten nation--and what's needed to prevent the deaths of millions more.
Simon Robinson and Vivienne Walt, "The Deadliest War In The World:
Simmering conflict in Congo has killed 4 million people since 1998, yet few
choose to cover the story," Time Magazine Cover Story, May 20, 2006
---
Click Here
There's a spouse out there for almost everyone of any age
Twenty years ago, unmarried, college-educated
women over age 30 got some bad news, and America took great pity on
them.
The impetus was a Newsweek cover story in June
1986 titled "Too Late for Prince Charming?" It showcased a study by Yale
and Harvard researchers suggesting that 30-year-old white,
college-educated single women had only a 20% chance of finding husbands.
At age 40, the probability fell to 2.6%. Using hyperbole and humor that
became infamous then, and sound far more awful today, Newsweek said
those 40-year-olds were "more likely to be killed by a terrorist" than
land a mate.
A lot of us recall the hand wringing over that
study, the countless articles and TV debates, the tearful conversations
between single women and their mothers. The statistics were later
challenged by U.S. Census Bureau demographer Jeanne Moorman, who
calculated that those 30-year-olds actually had a 58% to 66% likelihood
of finding a husband; for 40-year-olds it was 17% to 23%. But the
Harvard-Yale study's core message -- that educated, career-focused women
risk spending their lives alone -- still reverberates today.
Well, it turns out that less than 10% of
college-educated women now ages 50 to 60 have never been married, census
records show. And I did something far less scientific: I checked in with
10 women who in 1986 appeared in Newsweek and other media reports about
the study. Eight of them had found a husband. Two others were single by
choice.
Dysfunctional Families: Should they run or stay and fight?
"Home Remedy," by Paul Raiburn, The New York Times, May 28, 2006
---
Click Here
Three years ago, Mary Beth Towell, a counselor
in Canton, Ohio, was assigned to a family in a crumbling neighborhood of
dilapidated houses, drug dealers and gangs. Even in that tough
neighborhood, this family stood out as desperate. In a single month,
child-protective services fielded more than 30 calls from teachers,
police officers and others demanding that the children be removed.
The mother had bipolar disorder and was a heavy
marijuana user. The children's father no longer lived in the home. Two
of the girls, 15 and 10, and a boy, 11, were violent and suicidal. They
threatened one another with knives and fought viciously. (The remaining
child, a 14-year-old girl, was somehow O.K.)
Few families in such bad shape survive intact.
The children may be sent to residential treatment centers or juvenile
corrections facilities. "These programs generate high recidivism rates,"
says Bart Lubow, director of the program for high-risk young people at
the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. And they can cost at least
$50,000 a year per child. "That would be O.K. if you were getting a
reasonable return on your investment," Lubow says. "But the outcomes are
very poor."
Stark County in Ohio is trying something
different. Towell was part of a team using an innovative antiviolence
program called multisystemic therapy, or MST. Developed over the last 30
years by Scott Henggeler, a clinical psychologist and a professor of
psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina, it is based on
the assumptions that families should remain together and that all of the
causes of antisocial behavior should be attacked at once.
Taking his cues from family therapy as well as
from social ecology, which emphasizes that behavior is shaped by
multiple aspects of the environment, Henggeler studies the ecosystem
composed by family, neighborhood, schools, peer groups and the broader
community. Instead of removing children from that ecosystem, he tries to
change it: solve the drug problems and the legal problems, get kids away
from delinquent peers and encourage academic success.
A central idea is to focus on the parents. "We
want the therapist to build the competency of the parents, because the
parents are going to be there after the therapist leaves," he says. If
the parents can't handle the job, he might ask an uncle, aunt or
grandparent to fill in.
MST therapists like Towell have small caseloads
— four to six families at a time. They visit the families every day, if
necessary, and are always on call. If the police grab a child at 2 a.m.,
the therapist can help sort things out. Because of this intensive
effort, MST isn't cheap. It typically lasts four to five months and
costs between $5,000 to $7,500 per child. To make it cost-effective, it
is directed at kids at high risk of expensive out-of-home placements. If
enough of them can be kept at home, the program can pay for itself — and
even save communities money.
MST is one of only a handful of "evidence
based" programs that have been shown to be effective for violent
children. In a recent 14-year evaluation, kids who had been through MST
programs had 54 percent fewer arrests and spent 57 percent fewer days in
jail. "These programs have a higher success rate than what else is out
there," Henggeler says. The single most important piece of the treatment
is getting children away from deviant peers.
While the program has become more popular in
recent years, it is still relatively small. Edward Latessa, head of the
division of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, contends
that MST is one of the best programs for delinquent kids, but he adds
that it isn't for everyone. "The problem with MST is it's a difficult
model to implement," he says. "It requires a caregiver that's really
committed. It's not easy, so some agencies give up." With such concerns
in mind, Henggeler has set up a private company called MST Services to
help communities develop programs, train therapists and make sure they
stick with the program. Meanwhile, he is extending MST-style programs to
other arenas, like the treatment of sexual offenders and abused or
maltreated kids.
Towell had surprisingly good luck with the
Canton family. She discovered that the children liked to draw, and she
helped them join art classes. There they met the sort of other kids she
wanted them to associate with. With pressure from Towell, the mother
cleaned herself up and made the commitment to turn things around. It
wasn't easy, but it worked. "She was willing to do whatever it took,"
Towell says. "That's when we have the most successful cases."
Paul Raeburn is the author of "Acquainted With the Night," a
memoir of raising children who have depression and bipolar disorder.
While more than a few curmudgeons have offered
their honest opinions about statistics, we here at the Scout Report like
to provide our readers with the facts and let them decide on their own.
Fortunately, there are sites like the Economic Statistics Briefing Room
provided by the White House. Here, visitors can peruse sections that
offer information on income, output, transportation, and prices. Drawing
on the research and statistical databases of several dozen federal
agencies (including the National Agricultural Statistics Services),
visitors can view tables and charts that offer such timely material as
crude oil prices, poverty rates, and household wealth. Within each
section, visitors can view summary statistics, and then if they wish,
they can proceed to the homepage of the agency that provided each set of
information.
I
knew about this earlier but I waited until Neal gave me permission to
announce it. I think the FAF made a good choice.
From:
Neal Hannon [mailto:njhannon@f-a-f.org] Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 12:20 PM To: Jensen, Robert Subject: FAF
Hi Bob,
Here’s an update on
my new job. As of June 1, 2006, I joined the FAF as Director, Financial
Reporting Technologies. In my new role, I will guide the Foundation,
the FASB and the GASB in their efforts relating to XBRL and other
reporting technologies. The challenges in the new position are many and
I will need the support of the entire financial community to be
successful. Thank you for all your help and support and I look forward
to a continuing relationship in my new role.
Neal
Neal J. Hannon
Director, Financial Reporting Technologies
Financial Accounting Foundation
Norwalk, CT 06856
Work: 203-956-5219 Cell: 401-225-6082
Fighting Words
A former Marine's favorite books on
the military.
1. "Once an
Eagle" by Anton Myrer (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968).
Quite simply,
America's "War and Peace." "Once an Eagle" is the finest novel ever
written about what it means to spend a career in the military, and how
the military relates to the civilian world. Myrer traces the career and
personal life of a talented, often selfless career soldier from the 1916
Pershing expedition along the Mexican border to the beginnings of the
Vietnam War, skillfully blending in human foibles, political debates and
the moral dilemmas that leaders always must face. A Marine veteran of
Iwo Jima, Myrer writes with great skill about combat and with
intelligence about a variety of societal and human issues.
2. "Hell In a
Very Small Place" by Bernard Fall (Lippincott, 1966).
For anyone who
believes that France's Dien Bien Phu operation in Vietnam in 1954 was
little more than a blunder, and for anyone who believes that the French
were not capable fighters in Vietnam, this comprehensive and often
surprising nonfiction account of the siege that brought France to its
knees will be a deserved surprise. Bernard Fall, the Frenchman who was
the most perceptive observer of Vietnam's shaky march away from French
colonialism, wrote several books about Vietnam; he was killed while on a
patrol with the U.S. Marines in 1966. This book--his best--shows us the
underappreciated complexities of that war, the regional issues that
drove many local decisions and the tragic heroism of France's finest
fighting forces.
3. "History
of the Second World War" by B.H. Liddell Hart (Putnam, 1970).
Liddell Hart is
most remembered for his essays on strategy (he largely coined the
doctrine of the "indirect approach") and for his early advocacy of
armored warfare in the years following World War I. It was an advocacy
ignored by the British, studied and adapted by the Germans. But this
book, which he was still working on at his death in 1970, is his
masterpiece. Leaving politics behind, Hart gives us a splendid
chronology of the war from a military context, which allows the reader
to cover the entire global landscape of the war from beginning to end.
The book's only defect is Hart's forgivable imbalance of attention paid
to the European theater as opposed to Asia. Americans who have not read
beyond our own military experiences in World War II emphatically need to
read this book, in order to comprehend the ferocity of the
German-Russian warfare, which is too frequently overlooked in our own
discourse.
4. "The
Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer (Harper & Row, 1971).
This memoir from
the perspective of one who fought on the German side in World War II is
probably the most overwhelming book ever written about ground combat.
Guy Sajer, an Alsatian drafted into the German army, fought for three
years as an infantry soldier, mostly on the Russian front. Germany
fielded an army of 12 million soldiers and lost 3.7 million combat dead,
a preponderance of those casualties occurring in the mind-boggling,
massive engagements with the Soviets. Sajer, who had no politics and
little enthusiasm for soldiering, nonetheless demands an understanding
of the immensity of this human experience, and is the perfect voice to
ask for it.
5. "The Guns
of August" by Barbara W. Tuchman (Macmillan, 1962).
This is
the book that every policy maker pushing for the invasion of Iraq should
have read, marked, learned from and digested before sending the U.S. off
to war. Barbara Tuchman's brilliant analysis of how World War I began in
the summer of 1914 is remarkable not only for her understanding of the
issues at play among national leaders, but also for her descriptions of
how the trenches became immediately bogged down, resulting in a
four-year war from which Europe has never fully recovered. The Germans
were certain that World War I would be over in six weeks, but unforeseen
circumstances and unintended consequences are the rule in warfare.
Instead of a quick march to Paris, the summer of 1914 saw, horribly,
several nations begin the process of bleeding and spending themselves
away from greatness.
Mr. Webb, former secretary of
the Navy, is the author of eight books, including "Fields of Fire," a
novel about the Vietnam War. He is now a Democratic candidate for the
U.S. Senate in Virginia.
What gratitude is all about
Forwarded by Auntie Bev
The Whale
If you read the front page story of the SF Chronicle, you would have read
about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of
crab traps and lines.
She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to
struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped
around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.
A fisherman spotted her just east of the FarraloneIslands (outside the
Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help.
Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was
so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her ... a
very dangerous proposition.
One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.
They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.
When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous
circles.
She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged
them, pushed gently around-she thanked them. Some said it was the most
incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.
The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him
the whole time, and he will never be the same.
May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate ... to be
surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that
are binding you.
And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.
I pass this on to you, my friend, in the same spirit.
Forwarded by Auntie Bev
Here is a math trick so unbelievable that it will stump you. Personally I
would like to know who came up with this and why that person is not running
the country.
The easy way: Click on your calculator and do it while you read it.
1. Grab a calculator. (you won't be able to do this one in your head)
2. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the area code)
3. Multiply by 80
4. Add 1
5. Multiply by 250
6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number
7. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again.
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134 Email:
rjensen@trinity.edu
I recently sent out an "Appeal" for accounting educators, researchers, and
practitioners to actively support what I call The Accounting Review (TAR)
Diversity Initiative as initiated by American Accounting Association President
Judy Rayburn ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR.htm
Online Video and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Audio presentations from the Milken Institute.
These are really interesting. On everything from the economic impact of
terrorism to globalization to education to civil liberties to medicine.
I have a feeling if Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson were around today,
this is what they would be listening to!
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and
video available free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
SPOON PLAYING. "If you can keep the beat by tapping the
floor with your toes or by drumming on the table with your fingers, you,
too, can play the spoons," says A. Claude Ferguson.
TENNESSEE. Transcription of the "Company Store Ledger" at
the Bright Hope Furnace in western Greene County, Tennessee for the years
1834-35. Contains an index to the several hundred names found in the ledger.
http://www.kiva.net/~jeskewic/brighthope.html
From The New Yorker
The New Yorker publishes a selection of letters, journal entries, and
personal essays by soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines who served in the
current war in Iraq. Here, five of the servicemen read from their work,
accompanied by their photographs.
"The Home Front" The New Yorker, June 5, 2006 ---
http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/060612on_onlineonly01
Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose
Bierce (1842 1914) ---
Click Here
Bartleby, the Scrivener by
Melville Herman (1819-1891) ---
Click Here
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles
Dickens (1812-1870) ---
Click Here
Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library
plan to make ''a third of a million'' e-books available free for a month at the
first World eBook Fair. Downloads will be available at the fair's Web site from
July 4, the 35th anniversary of Project Gutenberg's founding, through Aug. 4.
The majority of the books will be contributed by the World eBook Library. It
otherwise charges $8.95 (euro6.98) a year for access to its database of more
than 250,000 e-books, documents and articles. But the book fair will not be the
last chance for e-bookworms to devour works ranging from ''Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland'' to ''Old Indian Legends,'' not to mention dictionaries and
thesauruses, without paying for them. Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart,
who first announced the ambitious plan a month ago, said Friday the partners are
on track to make 1 million books available for the annual fair's one-month run
in 2009, with more appearing in subsequent years. About 100,000, he said, will
be permanently available at the handful of Project Gutenberg sites on the
Internet.
"Electronic book devotees may want to set aside some extra screen
time this summer, as two nonprofits are preparing to provide free access to
300,000 texts online," PhysOrg, June 2, 2006 ---
http://www.physorg.com/news68484530.html Project Gutenberg ---
http://promo.net/pg/ World eBook Library ---
http://worldlibrary.net/ World eBook Fair ---
http://worldebookfair.com/
Also see
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16956
Maybe the anti-immigrant slogan should be: "Keep
America stupid--seal the borders!" See module from the Boston Globe given below
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality,
they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to
reality. Albert Einstein as recently quoted
by Mark Shapiro at
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-06-07-06.htm
Women now make up more than 60 percent of all
accountants and auditors in the United States, according to the Clarion-Ledger.
That is an estimated 843,000 women in the accounting and auditing work force. AccountingWeb, "Number of Female
Accountants Increasing," June 2, 2006 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=102218
Perhaps it was as easy to uncover the truth as it
was to demonstrate the falsehood. Author - Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero
According to Census Bureau statistics from 2000,
American Indians make up 2.8 percent of the U.S. population. However, only 0.3
percent of students in medical schools and 0.5 percent of students enrolled in
schools of pharmacy are American Indians. Rob Capriccioso, "Indian Training Centers at Risk," Inside Higher Ed,
June 7, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/07/indians
Lead in to Commencement Address by Former Senator Bill Bradley at Ithaca
College President Williams, members of the faculty, members of
the class of 2006, friends and family of the class of 2006. I want to continue
my acknowledgments. I'm very sensitive, I want to make sure that I acknowledge
every element of this community. And so let me borrow from Garry Trudeau and
continue my acknowledgments: and so I recognize Chairman Bill Haines and members
of the board of trustees, bored members of the trustees, those who watch "The
Sopranos," those who watch "American Idol," those who still watch the reruns of
"Frasier," those who don't like TV. Denizens of Ithaca, denizens of the night,
knights of Tompkins County, people of class, classy people, people of height,
the vertically constrained, people of hair, the indifferently coiffed, the
optically challenged, the temporarily sighted, the insightful, the out of sight,
the out-of-towners, the Afrocentrics, the Eurocentrics, the Eurocentrics with
Eurail passes, the eccentrically inclined. The sexually disinclined, people of
sex, sexy people, earthy people, animal companions, friends of the earth,
friends of the boss, the temporarily employed, the differently employed, the
differently optioned, people with options, people with stock options, Knick
fans, Celtic fans, those who don't have the wisdom to be either Knick or Celtic
fans, the divestiturists, the deconstructionists, the home constructionists, the
homeless, the temporarily housed at home, and, God save us parents, the
permanently housed at home. Good morning!
Bill Bradly, "Graduates Get an Earful, From Left, Right and Center," The New
York Times, June 11, 2006 ---
Click Here
In April 2006 I commenced reading a heavy book entitled Great Minds in
Management: The Process of Theory Development, Edited by Ken G. Smith
and Michael A. Hitt (Oxford Press, 2006).
The essays are somewhat personalized in terms of how theory
development is perceived by each author and how these perceptions changed
over time.
In Tidbits I will share some of the key quotations as I
proceed through this book. The book is somewhat heavy going, so it will take
some time to add selected quotations to the list of quotations at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/GreatMinds.htm
The Development of Stakeholder Theory: An Idiosyncratic
Approach
R. EDWARD FREEMAN
PG. #422 FREEMAN
During this time, I began to work with Professor William Evan, a
distinguished sociologist at Penn. I was very flattered when Evan called me
one day and asked to meet to discuss the stakeholder idea. Evan saw this
project as a way to democratize the large corporation. Even though he was
an impeccable empirical researcher, he immediately saw the normative
implications of coming to see business as "serving stakeholders." We began
to meet weekly and talk about how to do the "next project" after
Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, even though that project
wasn't yet finished. We began an empirical study aimed at seeing how Chief
Executive Officers made trade-offs among stakeholders and we began to plan a
book that would deal with the normative implications of reconceptualizing
the corporate governance debate in stakeholder terms. While we never
finished the book, we did complete a number of essays, one of which is
reprinted countless times in business ethics textbooks. What I learned from
Bill Evan was invaluable: to be the philosopher that I was, rather than some
positivist version of a social scientist. Evan gave me the courage to
tackle the normative dimension, in an intellectual atmosphere, the modern
twentieth-century Business School that had disdain for such analysis.
In summary, I spent most of my time from 1978 until 1982
teaching executives and working with them to develop very practical ways of
understanding how they could be more effective in the relationships with key
stakeholders. In the summer of 1982, I sat down at my home in Princeton
Junction, New Jersey and drafted the initial manuscript of Strategic
Management: A Stakeholder Approach. I tried to set forth a method or
set of methods/techniques for executives to use to better understand how to
manage key stakeholder relationships. In addition, I wanted to track down
the origins of the stakeholder idea, and give credit to its originators and
the people whose work I had found so useful.
PG. #432 & 433 FREEMAN
Open questions remain. For instance:
Is there a useful typology of enterprise strategy or
answers to questions of purpose?
How can we understand the relationship between
fine-grained narratives of how firms create value for stakeholders, and
the idea of stakeholder theory as a genre or set of loosely connected
narratives?
If we understand business, broadly, as "creating value
for stakeholders' what are the appropriate background disciplines? And,
in particular what are the connections between the traditional "social
sciences" and "humanities"?
How can the traditional disciplines of business such as
marketing and finance develop conceptual schemes that do not separate
"business" from "ethics" and can the stakeholder concept be useful in
developing these schemes?
If we understand "business," broadly, as "creating value
for stakeholders," under what conditions is value creation stable over
time?
Can we take as the foundational question of political
philosophy, "how is value creation and trade sustainable over time"
rather than "how is the state justified"?
I am certain that there are many additional research
questions, and many more people working on these questions than I have
mentioned here. I hope this paper has clarified some of my own writing in
the stakeholder area, and provoked others to respond.
If I try to summarize the lessons for management theorists
of the development of stakeholder theory they would be four. First, don't
underestimate the role of serendipity and context. My role would have been
very different, indeed probably nonexistent, if a few key life events had
unfolded differently. Second, don't underestimate the contributions of
others. Really, my own contribution has been to try and synthesize the
contributions of many others. I am always amused and somewhat horrified
when I'm at a conference and am introduced as the "father of stakeholder
theory." Many others did far more work, and more important work than I did,
and that continues today as stakeholder theory unfolds in a number of
fields. Third, pay attention to the real world of what managers,
executives, and stakeholders are doing and saying. Our role as
intellectuals is to interpret what is going on, and to give better, more
coherent accounts of management practice, so that ultimately we can improve
how we create value for each other, and how we live. That, I believe is a
kind of pragmatist's credo. Finally, surely the author has a role in
management theory. Overemphasis on reviews, reviewers, revisions, and the
socialization of the paper-writing process can lead to a kind of collective
group think. I believe that I could not have published the work in
Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach as a set of A-journal
articles. By publishing a book, I managed to create a voice, building
heavily on the voices of others that could express a point of view. I
believe that in today's business school world, that is much more difficult,
and that we need to return to a more ancient idea of the author in
management theory.
Jeffrey Pfeffer,
PhD ’72, and Robert I. Sutton would like to foment a little
revolution—one in which leaders in business and the world at large base
their decisions on facts and logic, not ideology, hunches, management
fads or poorly understood experience. Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II
Professor of Organizational Behavior, and Sutton, a professor of
management science and engineering and, by courtesy, of organizational
behavior in the Graduate School of Business, are the authors of Hard
Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from
Evidence-Based Management (Harvard Business School Press, 2006). STANFORD
asked them about bringing more reason to organizational life.
What’s some of the
total nonsense that occurs in companies?
Sutton: Probably the biggest single
problem for human decision making is that when people have ingrained
beliefs, they will put a much higher bar for evidence for things they
don’t believe than for things they do believe. Confirmation-seeking
bias, I think, is what social psychologists call it. Organizations can
have amazingly good evidence, but it has no effect on the decisions they
make if it conflicts with their ideology.
Do you have a
favorite unsupported belief?
Pfeffer: One would be stock options.
There are more than 200 studies that show no evidence that there is a
relationship between the amount of equity senior executives have and a
company’s financial performance. . . . Just as you would never bet on a
point spread on a football game because it encourages bad behavior, you
should not reward people for increasing the spread in an expectations
market.
Overreliance on financial incentives of all
sorts drives all kinds of counterproductive behavior.
Evidence-based
management derives from evidence-based medicine. Explain what kind of
decision making we’re talking about.
Continued in interview
Distance Learning Today will be a quarterly supplement to
USA Today newspaper Dr. John G. Flores, CEO of The United States
Distance Learning Association, today announced his organization's
sponsorship of "Distance Learning Today," a quarterly supplement in USA
TODAY. "Distance learning is transforming the American educational
landscape, through on-line technology, video conferencing systems, satellite
delivery and other media," Flores said. "We expect this supplement to be an
invaluable guide for millions of present and potential distance learners as
well as a means for our member institutions and corporate sponsors to reach
them." The first supplement will appear in September and is expected to
exceed twenty pages. Editorial will include features on the distance
learning revolution, financing a distance education, increasing acceptance
of distance learning degrees among employers, technology requirements and,
importantly, how to evaluate the quality of a distance learning offering.
"Today, there are thousands of institutions offering degrees and
certifications for distance learners," Flores said. "It's timely to provide
the public with a reliable information resource concerning this dynamic
educational alternative." Formed in 1987, the United States Distance
Learning Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the
needs of the distance learning community by promoting the development and
application of distance learning for education and training and by providing
advocacy, information, networking and distance learning opportunities.
PRWeb, June 9, 2006 ---
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/6/prweb396750.htm
"Was Earning That Harvard M.B.A. Worth It?" by Abby Ellin, The
New York Times, June 11, 2006 ---
Click Here
THE popularity of the (MBA)
degrees has surged. In 1970, for example, business schools handed out
26,490 M.B.A.'s, according to the Department of Education. By 2004,
after a period marked by an economic boom and heightened competition for
top-flight business careers, that figure had jumped to 139,347. But
opinion and data appear divided on the tangible benefits of an M.B.A.
. . .
In 2003, Professor Mintzberg tracked the
performance of 19 students who graduated from the Harvard Business
School in 1990 and were at the top of their class academically. Ten of
the 19 were "utter failures," he said. "Another four were very
questionable, at least," he added. "So five out of 19 did well."
Research varies on the value of an M.B.A. A
2006 study by the Lubin School of Business at Pace University, looking
at 482 companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, found that only
162 of them had chief executives with graduate degrees in business. The
companies with chief executives who went to more prestigious schools did
no better than those who went to less prestigious schools, according to
the study. Why this was so is unclear.
"One possibility is that if you don't have a
graduate degree from a top school then you have to work that much harder
to succeed," said Aron A. Gottesman, an associate professor at Pace and
a co-author of the study.
On the other hand, Professor Gottesman and a
colleague found in a separate study, published earlier this year in the
Journal of Empirical Finance, that mutual fund managers with M.B.A.'s
from BusinessWeek's 30 top-ranked business schools — including Harvard —
generally outperformed other mutual fund managers. Professor Gottesman
is not sure why this was so, either. "One possibility is that at
higher-quality schools they simply teach better technical skills," he
speculated. "Or students at top-tier schools have a higher I.Q."
The site would provide information about such
basics as public safety, emergency services, education, health care and
jobs. U.S. Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Barack
Obama, an Illinois Democrat, serve as honorary co-chairmen of the group.
"...the more mangers take, the less
investors make."
"If you do not believe we are we are in teh marketing business,
consider rate of fund failure....there have been 30,000 funds in
history, 11,000 of them are gone....Even in the last 5 years,
25%, actually 27% of all equity funds have vanished....I am
afraid to say, it is largely a marketing business."
It was either betray her students’ confidence
or perhaps let rape go unpunished.
Patricia O’Toole, former dean of students at
Notre Dame College, in Ohio, may have thought she was bound to stay
tight-lipped about students who confided in her, but the Cuyahoga County
Prosecutor’s Office didn’t agree.
On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted O’Toole on
three counts of failure to report a felony.
According to officials in the prosecutor’s
office, two Notre Dame students told O’Toole last October that they had
been sexually assaulted by Daniel Carl Wolfe, a 19-year-old student. The
officials said the dean then received an internal complaint in which a
third woman said Wolfe had assaulted her. That report indicated that
Wolfe had a 17-year-old woman in his room who was so drunk she had to be
taken to the hospital, according to court filings.
Jamie Dalton, a spokeswoman for the
prosecutor’s office said that, in December, police were investigating a
separate incident involving Wolfe, and came to ask O’Toole a question.
O’Toole then told campus police officers that she had knew of two other
incidents that the college should include in its filings under the
Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime
Statistics Act, a federal law that requires
colleges to make an annual report of campus crime.
O’Toole had not come forward with the
information earlier, however, and declined to give officers the names of
the accusers, because she apparently had told the students that she
would keep their identities secret. Police had to find the students on
their own.
“If she would have reported this immediately,
we might not have any other Jane Doe’s,” Dalton said, referring to other
unnamed women who were allegedly assaulted by Wolfe.
“She was concerned about their identities,”
Dalton said, “but what about the whole rest of the campus? What about
other people that could have been victimized?”
According to Ohio law, failure to report a
felony is a fourth degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty
of 30 days in a jail and a $250 fine.
The law grants exemptions from the reporting
requirement in specific circumstances, for members of the clergy, for
example, and for counseling services “provided in an informal setting by
a person who, by education or experience, is competent to provide those
services.”
Peter D. Brown, associate executive director of
the American College Personnel Association, said that “every student
affairs professional has to balance the confidence of students and
helping students, with, of course, legal obligations,” he said. “It’s
often a tight line to follow.”
Brown added that staff members who deal with
student conduct are often faced with students saying “Hey this happened
to me, I’m just telling you but don’t want you to do anything about it.”
Mary Ann Kovach, a spokeswoman for Notre Dame,
said that, when the allegations came to light in December, O’Toole was
placed on administrative leave “while we were trying to figure out what
was going on,” Kovach said. O’Toole then resigned. Kovach said Notre
Dame could not comment further on the matter, because of the pending
legal action.
Wolfe was suspended, and, before he could be
expelled, transferred to Defiance College in Ohio. Defiance has learned
of the allegations, and is currently preparing to expel Wolfe. He is
being charged with 22 counts of crimes, ranging from rape and assault,
to kidnapping, against six different women. Wolfe could not be reached
for comment.
O’Toole could not be reached, either, and
officials at the prosecutor’s office said that she may not have a lawyer
yet.
Carnegie-Mellon University joins the open sharing initiative
A collection of "cognitively informed," openly
available and free online courses and course materials that enact
instruction for an entire course in an online format.
Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University ---
http://www.cmu.edu/oli/index.html
Maybe the anti-immigrant slogan should be: "Keep America stupid--seal
the borders!"
From Opinion Journal on June 7, 2006
The Boston Globe website published the
pictures of each valedictorian
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/gallery/valedictorians?pg=25
in Boston's high schools and other high school
programs. As you thumb through the pictures, it is striking how many of
these students are immigrants. So many, that I decided to take some
statistics. The Globe listed the country of birth for each student. For
some US-born students I guessed that they were 2nd generation immigrants
(for instance if they were Vietnamese). Almost 2/3 of the Boston
valedictorians are either immigrants or children of immigrants. From my
analysis: here is the breakdown of the 38 valedictorians:
1st or 2nd generation US 63.2%
Later than 2nd generation US 32.8%
Born in the US 52.6%
Born overseas 47.4%
*** END QUOTE ***
Maybe the anti-immigrant slogan should be:
"Keep America stupid--seal the borders!"
Jensen Comment
The valedictorian in Princeton's Class of 2006 is an illegal immigrant who
from age four raised himself out of a NYC slum. His inspiration as a child
was a single book on the ancient world. Now he's an expert on classical
studies. His current problem is now how to remain in the U.S.
Political Correctness of the Worst Kind in a Prestigious University There are Afrocentric historians who make factual
claims that contradict existing historical evidence, such as the claim that
Aristotle stole his philosophy from the library at Alexandria when, as Mary
Lefkowitz points out, that library was not built until after Aristotle’s
death. Lefkowitz was shocked to get no support from her colleagues when she
pointed out factual errors of this kind, and even more shocked when the dean
of her college (Wellesley) told her that “each of us had a different but
equally valid view of history.” And so on (there’s a lot of the “so on” in
the book)
Scott McLemee, "The Truth? You Can’t Handle the Truth!" Inside Higher Ed,
June 7, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/06/07/mclemee
Fortunately, Why Truth Matters
by Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom, is something different. As polemics
go, it is short and adequately pugnacious. Yet the authors do not paint
their target with too broad a brush. At heart, they are old-fashioned
logical empiricists -– or, perhaps, followers of Samuel Johnson, who, upon
hearing of Bishop Berkeley’s contention that the objective world does not
exist, refuted the argument by kicking a rock. Still, Benson and Stangroom
do recognize that there are numerous varieties of contemporary suspicion
regarding the concept of truth.They bend over backwards in search of every
plausible good intention behind postmodern epistemic skepticism. And then
they kick the rock.The authors run a Web site of news and commentary,
Butterflies and Wheels.
And both are editors of The Philosophers’ Magazine,
a quarterly journal. In the spirit of full
disclosure, it bears mentioning that I write a column for the latter
publication.
Scott McLemee, "The Truth? You Can’t Handle the Truth!" Inside Higher Ed,
June 7, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/06/07/mclemee
Weapons of Ass Destruction Security forces thwarted a bombing in a southern
Afghan town by capturing a donkey laden with explosives and a man who was
plotting to blow up the animal in a rebel attack, a government spokesman
said Thursday. The donkey had 30 kilograms of explosives and several land
mines strapped to its back hidden in old sacks, said Ali Khail, a local
government spokesman in Qalat town. The charge was linked to a
remote-controlled detonator. Acting on a tip-off, the man and animal were
captured as they walked into the city from the surrounding countryside in
Zabul province, where Taliban rebels are believed to hide.
"Afghan donkey attack thwarted," Globe and Mail as linked in the
Opinion Journal, June 9, 2006 ---
Click Here
If top scientists can do it, why can't the American Accounting
Association (especially its new electronic publication platform) offer an
opportunity for "a peer-reviewed publication that publishes all rigorously
performed science, a vibrant online forum that encourages scientific
dialogue and debate, and will offer a hassle-free process that gets your
work online within weeks"?
As reported in the
Chronicle of Higher Education's Blog, and
Peter Suber's
Open Access Blog,
the Public Library of Science appears poised to start the publication of
PLoS OPEN. It will be "a peer-reviewed
publication that publishes all rigorously performed science, a vibrant
online forum that encourages scientific dialogue and debate, and will
offer a hassle-free process that gets your work online within weeks." It
will "offer multidisciplinary scope, rapid turn-around, open review, and
powerful personalization and discussion tools." Additional
characteristics (from the PLoS site):
Inclusive scope. The boundaries between
different scientific fields are becoming increasingly blurred. At
the same time, the bulk of the scientific literature is divided into
journals covering ever more restrictive disciplines and
subdisciplines. In contrast, PLoS ONE will be a venue for all
rigorously performed science, making it easier to uncover
connections and synergies across the research literature.
Objective peer review. Peer reviewers are
routinely asked to comment on whether papers are sufficiently novel
or immediate to justify publication. Such subjective judgements can
seriously delay the publication of good science. PLoS ONE will
concentrate on identifying those papers that are rigorously and
technically sound. Such work will be rapidly published and presented
for open and continuous review so that the whole community can be
involved in judging impact....
Interactive papers. A paper in a
traditional journal is a static marker in an ongoing process.
Authors looking back on papers written 6 months or a year ago will
see things that they might now have written differently. New data
may have arisen to strengthen or alter some of the conclusions. We
will provide authors with ways to make those changes and so
acknowledge the evolution of their ideas. This doesn't alter the
scientific record—the original paper is still the original paper—but
authors and readers can build upon it.
PLoS ONE will offer a new approach to the
way that scientific research is communicated. Like all revolutions,
this will take time, and the launch of PLoS ONE will only be the
first step. New features and functionalities will be continually
added to PLoS ONE while existing ones will be applied to an
ever-increasing body of literature. We cannot do this alone and want
to invite all members of the scientific community to help us shape
the development of PLoS ONE and the future direction of scholarly
publishing.
Business Week's Special Report on Computer Security, June 7, 2006
---
Click Here
Phisher Kings Court Your Trust
Computer-based fraudsters are finding new ways to trick people -- not
technology -- to get the information they seek
What I Learned at Hacker Camp
It's easy to create malicious code, penetrate firewalls, and steal
personal and financial information. "Ethical hacker" Andrew Whitaker can
show you how
A Guide to PC Security Products
Slide show: Concerned about your computer, but confused about how to
keep it safe? Here's a look at some helpful hardware and software
Stopping a Scam from Spreading
Thwarted by bigger banks, ID thieves are taking aim at smaller financial
institutions. One credit union provides a model for fighting back
At a flea market I just bought the hard drive you sent to Best Buy for
repairs One year ago, Hank Gerbus had his hard drive
replaced at a Best Buy store in Cincinnati. Six months ago, he received one
of the most disturbing phone calls of his life. "Mr. Gerbus," Gerbus recalls
a stranger named Ed telling him. "I just bought your hard drive in Chicago."
Gerbus, a 77-year-old retiree, was alarmed. He knew the old hard drive was
loaded with his personal information -- his Social Security number, account
numbers and details of his retirement investments. But that's not all. The
computer also included data on his wife, Roma, and their children and
grandchildren, including some of their Social Security numbers.
Bob Sullivan, The Red Tape Chronicles, MSNBC, June 5, 2006 ---
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/06/one_year_ago_ha.html#posts
Jensen Comment
Years ago I had a hard drive replaced and discovered that it had scads of
Cisco data. Evidently the vendor reconditioned a Cisco hard drive without
erasing the Cisco data when the hard drive was sent to me as a replacement
drive.
“An unknown individual” with “an ax to grind”
against the college’s president creates plagiarized documents and
affixes the president’s name to them. Later, the “ax grinder” posts the
articles on the president’s Web page without his knowledge and then
waits, patiently, for years to “spring his/her trap.” Only years later —
when critics attacking the president in ways that are “unworthy of a
Christian, church-centered institution” find the plagiarized documents
in an archive of decommissioned Web pages — do they come to light.
In language that could have been drawn from an
academic cloak and dagger novel (and a not very good one at that), an
external panel appointed by trustees at Wesley College confirmed Friday
that President Scott D. Miller’s name appeared on at least three
documents in the late 1990s that were clearly plagiarized from the work
of others. But the committee but said it was impossible to know without
“a skilled forensic scientist” whether Miller or someone “out to get”
the president had been responsible for creating and posting the
fraudulent articles. Based on the committee’s
report and recommendations (courtesy of the
Wilmington, Del. News Journal), Miller apologized to the victims
of the plagiarism and to Wesley’s students, staff and alumni Friday
(while insisting he did no wrong), and trustees said the president would
keep his job.
“The board is confident that this is a very
self-contained set of events,” said David Wilks, a lawyer who represents
the Dover, Del., liberal arts college, and to whom Miller referred all
questions. “Nothing like this has repeated itself in the last six years,
and given the undeniable success and achievement the president has had
in every area of his performance, the board is satisfied that this
matter is closed.”
. . .
Mask, the faculty member who brought forward
several of the charges against Miller, said he found aspects of the
panel’s report troubling. “If you had a faculty member who was
outrageously popular with students, unquestionably an excellent teacher,
and it was found that she or he had committed plagiarism, their career
would be over, and I don’t know why it should be different for a college
president,” he said. “What was called for here was an investigation into
plagiarism, and what we have is that close associates of Dr. Miller’s
have found there were three serious new instances of plagiarism for
which there has been no explanation.”
Continued in article
Review of plagiarism charges against Wesley president was orchestrated
by consultant who’s a mentor to the accused So when Wesley’s president, Scott D. Miller,
faced plagiarism charges this spring,for the
second time in his career, the trustees — after rallying to Miller’s defense
— agreed to conduct an independent review of the accusations and of the
college’s overall status. They asked Fisher, their trusted adviser, to put
together a review panel, and he recruited three current or former college
presidents, all of whom have worked with or for Fisher on other university
consulting jobs.
In its report last month,the review panel
concluded that plagiarism had occurred, but said it could not figure out
whether Miller or someone else had committed it. Over all, the report
praised Miller for essentially saving the college, saying he was “in the
midst of one of the most successful college presidencies in the nation.”
Fisher’s involvement, even at some distance, in the review of Miller
troubles some observers on the campus and elsewhere, given what they say are
the very close ties between Fisher and the president.
Doug Lederman, "A Question of Independence," Inside Higher Ed, June
7, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/07/wesley
Plunging proportions of African American first-year students at UCLA This fall 4,852 freshmen are expected to enroll at
UCLA, but only 96, or 2%, are African American — the lowest figure in
decades and a growing concern at the Westwood campus. For several years,
students, professors and administrators at UCLA have watched with
discouragement as the numbers of black students declined. But the new
figures, released this week, have shocked many on campus and prompted school
leaders to declare the situation a crisis.
Rebecca Trounson, "A Startling Statistic at UCLA,"The Los Angeles Times,
June 3, 2006 ---
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-ucla3jun03,1,5599672.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage
In a telephone interview before the meeting,
Carnesale described the preliminary numbers for black freshmen as "a
great disappointment" and said that UCLA has been trying for years to
boost those levels, within the limits allowed by law.
He and other officials at UCLA and elsewhere said the problem of
attracting, admitting and enrolling qualified black students is found at
competitive universities across the country and that its causes are
complex. In California, the problem is rooted partly in the restrictions
placed on the state's public colleges and institutions by Proposition
209, the 1996 voter initiative that banned consideration of race and
gender in admissions and hiring.
Other factors include the socioeconomic inequities that undermine
elementary and high school education in California and elsewhere, with
minority students disproportionately affected because they often attend
schools with fewer resources, including less-qualified teachers and
fewer counselors.
Many students and professors also say the declining presence of blacks
on campus discourages some prospective students from attending, thus
exacerbating the problem. Some of those interviewed, including UCLA
sociologist Darnell Hunt, said the campus could be doing more than it
is.
Hunt, who heads UCLA's Bunche Center for African American Studies, and
several colleagues have been studying the issue as part of a multiyear
research project on the challenges facing black students in California
universities.
In a draft of a report to be released this month, the researchers
compared the admissions criteria and processes at UC's three most
competitive campuses: UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. (At the
latter, the incoming black freshman class stands at 52 students, or
1.1%, even lower than the others.)
The report found that UC San Diego's admissions process relied most
heavily on numbers, while UC Berkeley's was most "holistic," allowing a
single reader to review all parts of an applicant's file, including
academic and personal achievements or challenges.
At UCLA, in what admissions officials have described as an attempt to
increase fairness and objectivity, applicants' files are divided by
academic and personal areas, and read by separate reviewers. The
researchers asserted that UC Berkeley's process may be the fairest,
because it allows students' achievements to be seen in the context of
their personal challenges.
In an interview, Hunt acknowledged the difficulty for a campus like
UCLA, which received 47,000 applications this year. Yet he criticized
the school for rejecting many black students based on what he described
as factors of questionable validity, and that he said may be linked more
to socioeconomic privilege than academic merit.
"There's a common misperception that this is a horrible problem but that
black students just need to do better," he said. "But most of the black
students who don't get in go to other top-notch schools — Harvard, Duke,
Michigan. We're losing students who could be here."
Ward Connerly, the conservative former UC regent who was an architect of
Proposition 209, countered that the issue was not the law he helped
create.
"The problem — and this is an old song, I know — starts with the small
number of black students who are academically competitive," he said,
pointing out that many also choose to attend historically black colleges
or private schools. "But I don't think we solve this problem by
tinkering with the admissions criteria to make it easier to get in."
No matter the cause, the effect is apparent on campus.
Karume James, 20, a graduating senior who led a recent student protest
on campus over the issue, said he remembered the excitement he felt when
he arrived at UCLA for student orientation in the summer of 2003.
Then just 17, James was preparing to transfer to the big-city campus
from a community college in Riverside, his hometown. And he recalled
what he felt when he looked around.
The average American consumer/homeowner has
little to no chance of getting an honest or fairly priced mortgage in
today's double standard, murky mortgage environment. That is if you are
a consumer/homeowner attempting to discover what is fair from a mortgage
fee/interst rate pricing standpoint and what is not. As a result The
Homeowners Consumer Center & its partner The Mortgage Inspection Service
are recruiting honest mortgage brokers/lenders who are ready to compete
in their local markets with an honest approach in working with
consumers/homeowners.
(PRWEB) May 31, 2006 -- The Homeowners Consumer
Center (Http://www.HomeownersConsumerCenter.Com)
along with its partner the Mortgage Inspection
service (Http://www.MortgageInspectionService.com)
have called for a national consumer alert to all
homeowners about the realities of the current US mortgage market, in the
form of five critical consumer tips they need to know. At the same time
the Homeowners Consumer Center is seeking information about locally
owned mortgage firms/lenders that are tired of trying to compete against
dishonest mortgage lenders. The targets of this campaign are as follow:
1. TV Pitchmen promising consumers/homeowners they will get numerous
mortgage firms to compete for a mortgage deal, or that someone should
have called so and so. The problem; the sales pitch does not always
measure up to what the consumer actually gets ( a much higher than
market interest rate, ridiculous fees or both).
These same types of ads often times say, or talk about a "no point"
gimmick, which is not exactly "no fees", if you are a consumer. The
actual translation is the consumer just got a higher interest rate and a
higher monthly mortgage payment.
2. National Homebuilders in many to most cases exclude borrowers from
getting a competitive quote from local mortgage lenders. Typically the
homebuilder prices the home buyers mortgage products 25 to 125 basis
points over par (par=the best available interest rate for the borrower)
and frequently these transactions are loaded with junk mortgage fees. If
the borrower wants to get a competitive quote he/she or they get told, "
the house will cost more", or they will not get a "bonus". What the
homebuilder failed to tell the consumer is that because they are a
"mortgage banker", they are not required to disclose the "yield spread
premium" to the borrower=higher monthly mortgage payment. Mortgage
brokers are required to disclose yield spreads to consumers.
A second severe problem with homebuilders is that they frequently tell
appraisers what they want their homes to sell for, rather than allow the
appraiser/appraisal firm to their job. "Either hit our values", the
homebuilder wants (real or not), or they find another
appraiser/appraisal firm that will. If there is a real estate bubble
burst this year, it will start with homebuilders slashing their in some
cases false valuations. Inflating real estate appraisals/massive
appraisal fraud is the ticking time bomb that could potentially crush
the US economy/real estate markets nationwide. Once again Wall Street
was asleep at the switch for a disaster that could be worse than the S&L
crisis of the 1980's.
3. Mortgage Lead generation scams on the Internet.: Once again the
consumer/homeowner can get taken for a ride, or ends up with a much more
expensive mortgage product. Most Internet providers have gladly sold
advertising space to just about any lender, honest or not. Do business
with local or well known mortgage firms.
4. Real Estate firms that also want to be the consumer's mortgage
lender. We feel it is the ultimate conflict of interest for a real
estate agent/firm to also be wearing the hat of mortgage lender. We
believe the functions of real estate sales & real estate financing need
to be separate. Next to national homebuilders blackmailing appraisal
firms into unrealistic valuations, are real estate agents acting as
mortgage lenders doing the same thing. Consumers are advised to steer
clear of real estate agents/brokers also acting as mortgage bankers.
5. If anyone is looking to the Bush Administration, HUD, or the US
Senate or House Banking Committees for help, don't hold your breath. In
light of the Abramoff & Duke Cunningham Congressional bribery scandals
one would hope that a consumer/homeowner friendly environment might
exist. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In reality banks and mortgage bankers are not held to the same standards
as are mortgage brokers with respect to serious consumer disclosure
issues. At the very top of this list are 'yield spread premiums" (a kick
back for increasing the mortgage interest rate).
Many have concluded, unlike mortgage brokers, banks and mortgage bankers
are not being required to disclose these kick-backs because, they are
the number one contributer to US House & Senate Banking Committees.
President Bush had his Gala re-election campaign party in part financed
by a mortgage lender that has been ordered to pay $300 million+ back to
consumers.
The Homeowners Consumer Center (Http://HomeownersConsumerCenter.Com)
and The Mortgage Inspection Service (Http://MortgageInspectionService.Com)
want consumers/homeowners to understand these realities and at the same
time they would like to partner with local, reputable mortgage
firms/lenders that are interested in advancing educational campaigns in
their communities so that consumers will be better educated when making
application for mortgages or refinances. The goal of this campaign is to
increase originations for participating mortgage firms/lenders & at the
same time give the consumer an honest mortgage product/refinance.
The Homeowners Consumer Center also think it important that states and
the federal government eliminate loop holes that prevent transparency in
a mortgage transaction, regardless of a lenders status as broker, banker
or the amount of money they contributed/paid to a politician.
Honest mortgage lenders/brokers who want to treat their customers with
honesty are encouraged to contact the Homeowners Consumer Center
(
Http://HomeownersConsumerCenter.Com ) for more
information about a state by state campaign to get the word out about
honest or hard working mortgage lenders. To join the Homeowners Consumer
Center in this campaign, mortgage firms/ lenders will be required to
agree to a realistic consumer disclosure agreement. A straight forward
approach like this is long over due in todays mortgage world. Homeowners
& consumers deserve better, and The Homeowners Consumer Center and its
partner, The Mortgage Inspection Service think this is a very solid step
to try to cure problems associated with an out of control mortgage
industry.
It pays to be an illegal If Congress adopts the Bush plan and gives amnesty
to illegal aliens, Senate Republicans will be asking President Cheney for a
pardon. Bush wants to grant illegal aliens amnesty while sounding like he's
really cracking down on them. It tells you where Americans stand on illegal
immigration that Bush has to pull the Democrat trick of hiding from the
public what he really believes when it comes to immigration. The "path to
citizenship" that Bush and the Senate are trying to pawn off on Americans
requires that illegals pay huge fines and back taxes. "Huge" is defined as a
$2,000 fine and taxes for three of the last five years. Even with the
special Two Years Tax-Free package for illegals, this is about as likely as
me paying my dad back the money I "borrowed" from him when I was in college.
Ann Coulter, "It pays to be an illegal," Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,
June 4, 2006 ---
Click Here
Financial Woes of Case Western Reserve University An undisclosed number of non-faculty employees lost
their jobs at Case Western Reserve University last week, as the institution
started a round of layoffs,
The Cleveland Plain Dealerreported. Large
deficits at the university led this spring to faculty anger, which in turn
led to the
resignation of Edward M. Hundertas president. Inside Higher Ed, May 30, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/30/qt
ACLU's Free Speech Advocacy Depends on Who's Doing the Speaking Meyers thinks the ACLU's backing of the Maloney
bill is an indication that the organization has strayed from its
"traditional free-speech roots" and turned to "identity politics." It's hard
to imagine the ACLU of 10 or 20 years ago asking government to monitor
advertising. But the ACLU now has issue-oriented lobbies inside it. They are
called "projects" and include the "Reproductive Freedom Project," the
"Women's Rights Project" and the "Lesbian and Gay Rights Project." The
influence of the projects, and the money they bring in, often tend to sway
the ACLU away from its once primary concern about free speech.
John Leo, "ACLU's Free Speech Advocacy Depends on Who's Doing the Speaking,"
Lifenews.com, June 4, 2006 ---
http://www.lifenews.com/nat2323.html
THE ROLE OF EMOTION IN THE DISTANCE
EDUCATION EXPERIENCE
"Presence, a sense of 'being there,' is
critical to the success of designing, teaching, and learning at a
distance using both synchronous and asynchronous (blended) technologies.
Emotions, behavior, and cognition are components of the way presence is
perceived and experienced and are essential for explaining the ways we
consciously and unconsciously perceive and experience distance
education." Rosemary Lehman, Distance Education Specialist Manager at
the University of Wisconsin-Extension, explores the idea that
understanding the part emotion plays in teaching and learning "can help
instruct us in effective teaching, instructional design, and learning
via technology." Her paper, "The Role of Emotion in Creating Instructor
and Learner Presence in the Distance Education Experience" (JOURNAL OF
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE LEARNING, vol. 2, no. 2, 2006), is available online
at
http://www.jcal.emory.edu/viewarticle.php?id=45
Journal of Cognitive Affective Learning (JCAL)
[ISSN: 1549-6953] is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published
twice a year by Oxford College of Emory University. To access current
and back issues go to
http://www.jcal.emory.edu/ . For more
information, contact: Journal of Cognitive Affective Learning, c/o Prof.
Ken Carter, Oxford College of Emory University, 100 Hamill Street,
Oxford, GA 30054 USA; tel: 770-784-8439; fax: 770-784-8408;
email:
kenneth.carter@emory.edu
USING BLOGGER TO GET STARTED WITH E-LEARNING
In "Using Blogger to Get Teachers Started with
E-Learning" (FORTNIGHTLY MAILING, May 25, 2006), Keith Burnett discusses
how "[s]imple class blogs can be used to post summaries of key points,
exercises, links to Web pages of value, and to provide a sense of
continuity and encourage engagement with the material." He includes a
link to an online blogging tutorial and to examples of how some
instructors are using blogs in their classes. The article is online at
http://fm.schmoller.net/2006/05/using_blogger_t.html
Fortnightly Mailing, focused on online
learning, is published every two weeks by Seb Schmoller, an e-learning
consultant. Current and back issues are available at
http://www.schmoller.net/mailings/index.pl. For more information,
contact: Seb Schmoller 312 Albert Road, Sheffield, S8 9RD, UK; tel: 0114
2586899; fax: 0709 2208443;
email:
seb@schmoller.net
Web:
http://www.schmoller.net/
BOOKS VS. BLOGS
"Why would I write a book and wait a year or
more to see my writing in print, when I can blog and get my words out
there immediately?" In "Books, Blogs & Style" (CITES & INSIGHTS, vol. 6,
no. 7, May 2006), Walt Crawford, both a book author and a blogger,
considers the different niches and purposes of the two communication
media. The essay is online at
http://cites.boisestate.edu/civ6i7.pdf
Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large [ISSN
1534-0937], a free online journal of libraries, policy, technology, and
media, is self-published monthly by Walt Crawford, a senior analyst at
the Research Libraries Group, Inc. Current and back issues are at
available on the Web at
http://cites.boisestate.edu/ . For more information contact: Walt
Crawford, The Research Libraries Group, Inc., 2029 Stierlin Ct., Suite
100, Mountain View, CA 94043-4684 USA; tel: 650-691-2227;
Web:
http://waltcrawford.name/
Abstract: "An effective metadata system can be
established with the participation of multiple teams each with a
different perspective, the subject matter expert (SME) teams. Each SME
team is comprised of multiple members. The SME teams are given a
carefully chosen concrete task that spans their different perspectives.
As they work on the task in facilitated joint meetings, a taxonomy team
records the comments of SME teams. The taxonomy team is comprised of
multiple, independently tasked recorders. The intent is to define and
capture metadata and taxonomy definitions from each of several different
vantage points. Each recorder provides separate reports that are
consolidated into a single report with resulting recommendations for
metadata and taxonomies. These recommendations are then validated by an
independent set of SME participants. A case study using this method is
presented. The results are compliant with SCORM, IEEE-LOM and IMS-MD
specifications."
"In discussions about the future of the
university, little has been said about how these changes will affect its
spatial layout, even though a university's physical characteristics must
complement and strengthen its mission." In "Designing the University of
the Future" (PLANNING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION, vol. 34, no. 2, 2005-2006,
pp. 5-19) Rifca Hashimshony and Jacov Haina discuss several factors,
including teaching and learning technology, that may define what the
physical facilities of the university of the future will look like.
The paper is online ---
Click Here
Planning for Higher Education is published by
the Society for College and University Planning, 339 E. Liberty, Suite
300, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA; tell: 734-998-7832; fax: 734-998-6532;
email:
info@scup.org
Web:
http://www.scup.org/
According to a survey conducted by the
Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers: "Nearly three out
of 10 students spurned a college because it lacked a facility they
thought was important."
"Facilities Can Play Key Role in Students'
Enrollment Decisions, Study Finds" by Audrey Williams June THE CHRONICLE
OF HIGHER EDUCATION, May 30, 2006
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/05/2006053002n.htm
(Online access requires a subscription to the Chronicle.)
>I just received this request for some sort of
ball park figure for a starting salary. My school is in Ohio, in the
midwestern part of the US.
Dear David
There are salary surveys around the place. I
would suggest hitting Google or I think it is the NACE website.
Regards
Andrew Priest
May 26, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen
I tend to discourage students from putting too much emphasis on
starting salaries. The important factors are learning opportunities,
client exposures, nature of job assignments, work loads, degree of
travel, family supportiveness, and growth potential.
Salary varies by locale and by size of firm with smaller local firms
generally paying less (but possibly with greater chances for promotion
and partnership admission). Salary also varies by job security with
governmental accountants often making less but having tremendous job
security and benefits.
Liquorice compounds could be a key component for cheaper, more
effective liver cancer treatment, reports Lisa Richards in Chemistry
& Industry magazine.
See PhysOrg, June 5, 2006 ---
http://www.physorg.com/news68703822.html
Regrowing the Damaged Brain In recent years, scientists have discovered that
the brain has a remarkable capacity for self-repair. Hoping to take
advantage of this ability, researchers have developed a technology to
deliver electrical stimulation directly to brain tissue. The therapy, now
being tested in large clinical trials, could boost the brain's repair
mechanisms and improve recovery after stroke. Studies in both laboratory
animals and humans have shown that after stroke, neurons near the damaged
tissue begin to reorganize themselves in an attempt to compensate for the
injured areas. However, this healing ability can be hit or miss -- some
patients regain the ability to walk or talk while others are left
permanently disabled.
Emily Singer, "Regrowing the Damaged Brain: Electrically stimulating the
cerebral cortex could help stroke recovery," MIT's Technology Review,
June 8, 2006 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16966&ch=biotech
[Click
here for illustrations of the brain's areas and device's functions.]
Defibrillation's Alternative: A new approach would stop ventricular
fibrillation before it started Treating a failing heart by zapping it with a
painful, powerful electrical shock has become a common procedure. Now, a
medical device company, based in West Henrietta, NY, has patented a
technique that avoids the need for such dramatic treatment, by predicting
the onset of fibrillation -- the heart rhythm that can lead to sudden death
-- and treating it before it occurs. The preventative treatment does, like
defibrillation, involve electrically stimulating the heart, says Michael
Weiner, CEO of Biophan Technologies. But this new technique's weak signal
would be minuscule compared to the jolt that defibrillators normally
deliver. "I know patients with defibrillators who live in fear of that
son-of-a-gun going off," he says.
Duncan Graham-Rowe, "Defibrillation's Alternative: A new approach would stop
ventricular fibrillation before it started," MIT's Technology Review,
June 7, 2006 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16964&ch=biotech
A Huge Amount of Data on Family Comparisons ---
Click Here
Ernst & Young Computer Stolen Thousands of Hotels.com customers may be at risk
for credit card fraud after a laptop computer containing their personal
information was stolen from an auditor, a company spokesman said Saturday.
The password-protected laptop belonging to an Ernst & Young auditor was
taken in late February from a locked car, said Paul Kranhold, spokesman for
Hotels.com, a subsidiary of Expedia.com based in Bellevue, Washington. "As a
result of our ongoing communication with law enforcement, we don't have any
indication that any credit card numbers have been used for fraudulent
activity," Kranhold said. "It appears the laptop was not the target of the
break-in." Both Hotels.com and Ernst & Young mailed letters to Hotels.com
customers this past week encouraging them to take appropriate action to
protect their personal information.
"Data Breach: Hotels.com Customers," Wired News, June 4, 2006 ---
Click Here
One of our former students, a partner with E&Y,
told us that at the Minneapolis office they were encrypting all the
laptops. He said it was painful and expensive, but probably worth it. I
guess so.
Those who believe encryption to be a panacea
should read the recent works of Bruce Schneier (www.counterpane.com
, which, by the way, is headquartered in
Minneapolis) who wrote one of the earliest and most popular texts on
cryptography. He has been totally disenchanted with encryption for quite
a while.
Security is not a condition, but a process.
Belief in the omnipotence of encryption is based on the tenet that
security is a condition, and therefore you only need to find a
"technical" (more appropriately a "techie") solution to the problem of
deviations from the secure state. Real world is not so, and therefore we
need to look at security as a process.
In that view, encryption is just a means to an
end, and not an end in of itself. Management of keys, passwords,
adoption of security policies, all have a great role to play in the
"process".
Couple of points: My Dell has a feature whereby
one can set a password that needs to be entered as the computer boots. I
don't think that protects the data on the computer. The hard drive could
be removed and read directly by anyone having the right equipment.
Encrypting the data is more secure, I believe.
I'm not sure why Kate says it's a painful process. I use BestCrypt on my
lowly data on all my personal computers. It's easy to use and even
facilitates data backup since it creates a file that loads as a virtual
drive. Backing up can be done by just copying that file to whatever
medium you wish to use.
It seems to me a better method would be to put
client data on servers and access when the data is needed. If the
decrypt program is easy to use, the person with the laptop can decrypt
the data stored on the laptop. I expect that every thing will require
passwords, but they can be identified in many cases.
Given the problems in the last year [VA, AICPA,
Choice Point, E&Y and I am certain that there are others] companies are
going to have to take strong action to protect data.
Have a Good Day!
June 6, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen
Sam’s correct about not putting all the data on a laptop. However, at
times some of the data must be stored on the client (laptop) machine if
that machine is doing the edits.
One means of encrypted access to a server is the Cisco VPN system
that I’m now using to access servers back at Trinity University. It
works fairly well but is slow. I think this is due to the decryption
process.
I noticed a huge difference in software use with the Cisco VPN. I
never edit a file back on the server and save it directly because this
is painfully slow, especially with MS FrontPage. I edit a file on my
local machine and then save it back to the server using Windows Explorer
(which shows my Network drives). This is a faster process.
If my laptop is stolen, the thieves would only be able to access the
Network drives if they know my password which is nowhere on my laptop.
However, if there were something of value in my Network files on a
Trinity University server, a thief could force me to disclose the
password in much the same manner as a thief can force a person to
withdraw money from an ATM machine.
I cannot access files on Network servers that I am not authorized to
access, e.g., files of other professors.
Jagdish is correct in stating that the problem is not so much one of
password and encryption protection as it is a process such as
partitioning server files in order to limit which files an employee can
access. It is absurd, for example, that a single VA Employee could
compromise all personal data of millions upon millions of retired
military and active duty military. No one employee should have access to
such a large file. More internal controls are required to limit what
files he or she can access even in front of the barrel of a gun.
More and more applications are offering the
ability to map various addresses and locations, and users seem to enjoy
having this option embedded into such programs. With that in mind, users
may also find Mapping Service 1.0 quite helpful. Essentially, the
application allows users to selected an address in an email (or other
document) and then immediately use the mapping function to display a map
using Google Maps. This version is compatible with computers running Mac
OS X 10.4.6.
In his writings, Benjamin Franklin once
observed, “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and
rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the
writing.” Franklin certainly followed this sage advice, as people
continue to read his works and replicate some of his experiments (and
adventures) across the globe. 2006 happens to mark the three-hundredth
anniversary of his birth, and a consortium of interested organizations
and individuals have created this website to act as a clearinghouse of
information about the various celebrations, exhibits, and other such
activities that will be taking place over the next couple of years to
celebrate Franklin’s life and accomplishments. Complete with a typeface
that would be familiar to those reading American printed works of the
18th century, the homepage contains sections on the ongoing Franklin
exhibition that is traveling the world and an education area that
contains materials for teachers seeking to incorporate discussion of
Franklin into their classrooms. The “Programs” area is a real gem, as it
contains links to a variety of projects (including a multimedia site
designed by middle school students that examines Franklin’s legacy)
created in honor of this most momentous occasion.
Measuring something as subjective as the
feeling or state of happiness is a tricky business. While some may take
pleasure in closing a big financial merger, others may be content to
watch a babbling brook as they sip lemonade. The BBC has never shied
away from taking on such weighty matters and they have recently created
this website to complement their ongoing series titled “The Happiness
Formula”. Users may wish to orient themselves to the site by viewing
some of the short video clips featured on the right- hand side of the
site’s homepage. The site also contains material on the relationship
between economic success and overall happiness levels and the health
benefits of happiness. The site is rounded out by a place where visitors
can offer their own suggestions for improving happiness and another area
where they can take a quiz on happiness.
To the millions of individuals with harried
lifestyles, the artistic flourish or design of a fork or knife may
escape notice. However, the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York is
intimately concerned with such matters, and they have created this
delightful online exhibit that explores the design of various table
tools and accessories from 1500 to 2005. As its focal point, the website
is primarily concerned with the “Big Three” of the table: the fork, the
knife, and the spoon. Visitors can browse through the interactive
timeline offered here that traces through each utensil’s respective
evolution, as well as read three short “biographies” of each. Along the
way, visitors are treated to images of a ponderous spoon from 17th
century Germany and a dagger-like knife from 16th century France. The
site also contains a number of specialized thematic offerings, such as
short essays and images that address the ergonomics of the table,
flatware for children, and the naturalism movement in tableware design.
Two on Bankruptcy and Credit Bankruptcy:
Maxed out in American [Real Player]
Since the creation of that now celebrated sheep
Dolly in Scotland back in 1996, there has been a deluge of talk (and
significant scholarly work) about the possibility of creating
scientifically engineered humans. This recent documentary from the
people at the Independent Lens organization takes a close look at the
current research being done in the field of reproductive technology. On
the homepage, visitors can look through sections that offer profiles of
the people featured in the film, ask questions of the filmmakers, and
also read a provocative and thoughtful essay by Professor Lori Andrews
of the Chicago-Kent College of Law about the ethical ramifications of
various reproductive technologies. Visitors will not want to miss the
“Talkback” area, which features some rather heated debate and a few
retorts, which might be expected given the sensitive material covered by
such a program.
Flashback from The Wall Street Journal, June 5,
1986
Oil prices tumbled to six-week lows in what many
industry analysts and traders said could be the beginning of another
move toward $10 a barrel. Oil prices have been extremely volatile, and
some analysts have been predicting that prices will range between $10
and $16.
An article published in the March 2006 issue
of the CPA Journal says "Accounting did not cause the recent corporate
scandals such as Enron and WorldCom. Unreliable financial statements
were the results of management decisions, fraudulent or otherwise. To
blame management's misdeeds on fraudulent financial statements casts
accountants as the scapegoats and misses the real issue....". The
article can be accessed at
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2006/306/essentials/p48.htm
Any thoughts from anybody??
Ganesh M. Pandit
Adelphi University
June 6, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen
Shame on the Lin and Wu!
Enron's Chief Accounting Officer, Rick Causey,
now sits in prison after having admitted to falsifying accounts. He
refused to testify in the Lay/Skilling trial unless granted immunity
from other prosecution.
Other Enron executives, including some
accountants, have confessed to accounting fraud.
Accounting fraud committed by accountants
purportedly because their bosses ordered them to knowingly participate
in the fraud does not make the fraud non-accounting fraud no matter what
the NYSSCPA Society tries to tell us.
The NYSSCPA Society published this Lin and Wu
article. Recall that the NYSSCPA Society only took CPA licenses away
from CPAs convicted of drunk driving and overlooked CPA fraud for
decades in New York. I don't place much stock in this NYSSCPA Society
defense of accountants. I don't find the article that you mention even
worth citing. The authors did not do their homework on the Enron or
Worldcom scandals.
When Andersen auditor Carl Bass sniffed out both
charge-off and derivatives accounting fraud, his boss David Duncan had
him removed from the Enron audit.
The Worldcom fraud was Accounting 101 where over
$1 billion in expenses were knowingly capitalized by the CFO and top
accounting executives. The top accountant mainly involved confessed that
he knew what he did was against the law but played along because of his
need for the large paycheck. Only when Worldcom internal auditor Cynthia
Cooper finally figured out what was going on and refused to play along
was this enormous accounting fraud brought to light.
These were huge ACCOUNTANT frauds contrary to
what the Lin and Wu would like to make you believe with a whitewash
article that should be beneath the professional standards of a CPA
society. CPAs are under tremendous pressure to lobby on behalf of
clients to water down Section 404 of SOX. The NYSSCPA is simply playing
along with defending accountants who knowingly committed felonies. Now
if they also had DWI convictions they'd be in bigger trouble with the
NYSSCPA Society.
I don't think that this article is trying
establish that this is not an accounting fraud...regardless of the title
of the article. It is only saying that there were several parties in
addition to the accountants who helped this fraud! :)
It must be obvious from all the media reports
that there were "parties in addition to the accountants". Lay was not an
accountant; Skilling was not an accountant; Fastow never qualified as a
CPA. So, if the Lin & Wu paper is merely stating the obvious, why
publish it?
The only obvious answer is that the paper was
approved for publication, not as a professional, but a political,
statement. As Bob says,
"CPAs are under > tremendous pressure to lobby
on behalf of clients to water down Section > 404 of SOX. The NYSSCPA is
simply playing along with these clients and > their CPAs."
Think for a moment about how articles are read
and interpreted. Most academic articles are published in so-called
"academic" journals - to be read by other academics and thereafter
consigned to the dust of history. A few establish new theories or lines
of enquiry; rather more either mine an already existing line of enquiry
or justify themselves in other ways such as maintaining or establishing
academic reputations. Dr Johnson famously wrote "No man but a fool ever
wrote, except for money" - and the money doesn't have to be a direct
flow of cash. There are a few selfless souls who find academic
accounting an end in itself, but they are thin on the ground.
Most professional articles are read far more
widely. But they are often skimmed or "headlined", with summaries - or
less - tossed around for any manner of reasons. Whether it was their
intention or not, what L and W have done is to provide ammunition in the
defence of a group - accountants - who, as the NYSSCPA and other
professional groups, seek to deflect responsibility and accountability
when they should be engaging in a much more profound examination of
accounting policies, procedures and ethics. Articles such as that by L
&W are harvested for sound bites by the profession's apologists and
replayed ad infinitum for the benefit of any politician / lobbyist who
will lend an ear.And, as Bob says, that comes down to yet more pressure
to roll back the one major advance in accountability the accounting
world has experienced in a very long time. All in all, its NOT "A Good
Thing".
A quote.... "Then came Sarbanes-Oxley, which
required that option grants be reported within two business days. A new
paper by Lie and Randall Heron of Indiana University, still unpublished,
finds that evidence of backdating virtually disappears after Aug. 29,
2002, when the requirement took effect."
(My apologies if others have posted this
previously).
Fear in the European Union (EU) of the
potential collapse of one of the Big Four accounting firms surfaced this
week when a briefing document, prepared for members of the EU delegation
meeting in Beijing with Chinese officials on accounting and auditing
issues, was shown to XFN-Asia. “The audit firms wish to have a limit of
their liability, at least to acts for which they can be held directly
responsible for. There is a particular fear that the next corporate
scandal would reduce the Big Four to Big Three,” it said, according to
AFX News Limited.
The audit giants have been lobbying member
states for legislation that will limit their liability to shareholder
claims. A study currently underway in the EU of the economic
consequences of the liability issue will be concluded by September of
this year, AFX News says.
“Towards the end of the year, I intend to be in
a position to assess the options and decide what can be done,” the
position paper said as a proposed response to a question about a
collapse of any of the Big Four.
While the Big Four prepare for limited
liability in the EU, China, a market in which they are all seeking a
larger presence, is subjecting their audits to close examination and at
times, public rebuke.
Last week, Ernst & Young (E&Y) was forced to
retract data on nonperforming loans in China’s banking sector. E&Y
estimated that China’s bank held $900 billion in bad loans, a number it
later said was “factually erroneous” and “embarrassing.” But the
official Chinese estimate of $164 billion is not accepted by most
analysts, the Wall Street Journal says. “There are hidden NPLs there,”
Mei Yan, a bank analyst at Moody’s Investor Services told the Journal.
She said that Beijing’s estimates were based on a very narrow definition
of a bad loan.
Deloitte and Touche has been sued in China for
failing to expose falsified accounts in its audits of Guandong Kelon
Electrical Holdings Co., AFX News says.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has
been inspecting local affiliates of each of the Big Four firms and will
issue a report in late June on the strength and independence of the
firms, according to the Washington Post. Government officials in Japan,
the Post reports, have indicated that they lack confidence in the
ability of local Japanese firms to uncover fraud in their clients.
Chuo Aoyama PwC, a local affiliate of
Pricewaterhousecoopers (PwC), was banned from auditing for two months by
the FSA last week. While PwC said that it would support the affiliate,
it announced that it would form a new Japanese auditing firm that will
compete with Chuo Aoyama, that it hopes will be running by July, the
Post says.
The first installment of
RevenueRecognition.com’s “Experts and Authors” program features an
excerpt from Miller Revenue Recognition Guide, 2006 by Financial
Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF)
member Ashwinpaul C. Sondhi and Scott A. Taub, acting chief accountant
of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The program is
designed to provide in-depth insight and analysis on critical revenue
and compliance related issues.
“Our Experts and Authors program will bring
tremendous value to financial professionals who are struggling with
today’s complex revenue accounting and compliance guidelines,” Gottfired
Sehringer, Executive Editor of
RevenueRecognition.com said in a prepared statement announcing the
program. “With access to the latest ideas from practitioners and
regulators, readers will have a better understanding of how to make
important judgments for reporting revenue and managing compliance.”
RevenueRecognition.com is a website dedicated
to educating finance professionals on revenue management and related
issues. The Experts and Authors program is designed to deliver
perspectives from top-notch financial professionals on issues such as:
revenue recognition; Sarbanes-Oxley compliance; internal controls;
corporate governance/ethics; SEC and FASB guideline compliance; Merger
and Acquisition (M&A) issues; contract management; billing and revenue
accounting; revenue reporting and forecasting; international revenue
accounting; and industry specific revenue challenges.
Okay, now, see, there are the stereotypes
again.... I really should know better — having just discovered a new
online publication called the
International Journal of Motorcycle Studies. It came to my attention
thanks to
Political Theory Daily Review, itself an
incomparable and altogether indispensable website. (For more on it, see
this article.)
Four issues of IJMS have appeared so far. The next is due in July.
The title might sound tongue-in-cheek. The
contents most assuredly are not. The ratio of substantial, intelligent
articles to resume-padding chuff would be creditable for a print-format
scholarly journal — let alone one that exists entirely online, available
to readers free. I expected numerous citations of Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig’s quasi-autobiographical novel
— in which riding cross-country cures the narrator of the nervous
breakdown he suffered as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago.
But such references are mercifully scarce. The reader is more likely to
come across an allusion to Donna Haraway’s agenda-setting theoretical
work on
the cyborg (no longer a sci-fi concept, but
rather something like a metaphor for the way we live now, in a world
where human beings increasingly become the missing link between monkey
and machine).
There is something rather cyborgic about
academic/biker hybridity itself. In the contributors’ notes, an author
will usually list not only scholarly credentials but also the make of
his or her ride.
The emphasis of the journal’s articles,
which are peer-reviewed, falls mainly on the social and cultural
dimension of motorcycling, rather than its mechanics. Some of the best
papers explore the history of bike clubs over the past century.
Or longer, actually. The Federation of American
Motorcyclists, formed in 1903, emerged as a umbrella organization to
incorporate enthusiasts from already established clubs, according to an
interesting (and lovingly researched) study by William L. Dulaney, a
visiting assistant professor of communication at Western Carolina
University.
Dulaney does not reveal the make of his
motorcycle, but he spent 10 years riding with an “outlaw” club. You
picture him lecturing with a pool cue in his hand, using it to point to
the chalkboard and to menace students (perhaps to their pedagogical
benefit).
In this context, however, the term “outlaw” has
a particular meaning that does not necessarily connote violence. An
outlaw club is simply one that has refused the Foucaultian regime of
subjective normalization imposed by the American Motorcyclist
Association. They are not (necessarily) criminal — just sensitive to
bureaucracy.
By the Great Depression, Dulaney notes, many
clubs had embraced the “enduring biker pastime” of “the massive
consumption of alcohol and general good-natured debauchery.” (It’s so
important to have traditions.) In 1947, the AMA leadership denounced
certain exceptionally wild clubs — for example, the Pissed Off Bastards
of Bloomington — in the name of the 99 percent of motorcycling
enthusiasts who were clean-cut, law-abiding citizens. In defiance, some
outlaw clubs accepted the label “one-percenters,” incorporating the
symbol “1%” (inscribed within a diamond) into their club logos.
All one-percenters are outlaws. But not all
outlaws are one percenters. Nor (archetypal imagery notwithstanding) do
cycle clubs primarily attract Y-chromosome Caucasian lumpen roustabouts.
The Motor Maids, the first all-female club, received an AMA charter in
1941 (and thus are not outlaws). Now in their 76th year, they still
ride. And as another paper notes, there are also fundamentalist
Christian clubs, and gay clubs, and ethnicity-based groups like the
Ebony Angels and the New York club called the Sons of David. Some biker
organizations are serious about maintaining sobriety, just as much as
the Hells Angels are committed to avoiding it.
To learn more about the Footnote Gang
(or whatever the group was that got IJMS started) I contacted Suzanne
Ferriss, one of the managing editors. She is a professor of English at
Nova Southeastern University, in Fort Lauderdale, and among other things
the co-author of A Handbook of Literary Feminisms (Oxford
University Press, 2002).
The timing of the telephone interview seemed
appropriate. As Ferriss explained how academic-biker culture acquired
its own journal, the distant rumble of Rolling Thunder came in through
the window of my study.
It all started about six years ago, Ferriss
said, in the wake of a series of panels at regional meetings of the
Popular Culture Association. (It might be worth interrupting her
narrative to give some background: Founded in the late 1960s, the
association predates much of what is now called “cultural studies,” a
field that only began to establish itself in American academic life
about 20 years ago. The PCA’s own internal culture and outlook have
always been far more populist than theoreticist. Not that its members
are averse to analysis. But the PCA’s flagship publication, Journal
of Popular Culture, tends to resemble a smart fanzine more than it
does, say, a special issue of Diacritics devoted to “Six Feet
Under.")
Anyway, to continue: People involved in the PCA
sessions began working on an edited collection of papers. The volume was
accepted by the University of Wisconsin Press, only to become a casualty
of budget cuts. (The editors are looking for a new publisher.) But by
then a network of scholars interested in motorcycle culture was taking
shape.
“We had a list of about 300 people who’d been
involved in the PCA panels,” says Ferris, “or who had expressed
interest.” A core group of volunteers wanted to work on a journal, and
Ferriss’s institution, Nova Southeastern University, was willing to host
it online. The editorial board of six scholars reflected the sense that
the journal should be international in scope: it had two members each
from Britain, Canada, and the United States.
The editorial board also has an honorary
member, best known as Sputnik — an activist prominent in the struggle
against helmet laws. “The journal doesn’t have a position on that or any
other political issue,” Ferriss told me. However, Sputnik’s advisory
role lends the whole enterprise “biker cred.” As publisher of Texas
Road Warrior Motorcycle Magazine, he is, as the saying goes, an
organic intellectual.
IJMS also has an audience in the motorcycle
industry itself. For example, it is read by the professional historians
who work for particular companies. “We knew this was a subject that had
a wider readership,” she said, “and that the journal would not just be
of interest to academics.”
The first issue went up in March 2005. Since
then, several editors and contributors have also had work in the
anthology Harley-Davidson and Philosophy, published this year by
Open Court. It’s an interesting collection, if by no means exhaustive.
(The papers scarcely more than namecheck Gilles Deleuze, for example,
even though his concepts of deterritorialization, nomadology, and “line
of flight” seem quite biker-friendly.) But the paper by Bernard E.
Rollins, a professor of philosophy and biomedical sciences at Colorado
State University, certainly has a great title: “ ‘It’s My Own Damned
Head’: Ethics, Freedom, and Helmet Laws.”
Continued in article
P. D. James choices as to the top five mystery novels
1. "Tragedy at Law"
by Cyril Hare (Harcourt, Brace, 1943).
For me there is
particular charm in books written before or during World War II, not
least because I find myself engrossed in that very different world. In
"Tragedy at Law" we travel with a High Court judge, Mr. Justice Barber,
as he moves in state from town to town presiding over cases. But someone
obviously wishes him dead, and twice he narrowly escapes. The amateur
detective is a defending barrister, Francis Pettigrew, once in love with
the judge's wife and a man of ability and probity who has never quite
achieved success. Author Cyril Hare was himself a judge, and the book
provides a fascinating portrayal of the judge in court and of the
coterie of people, including barristers, who travel with him. Written
with elegance and wit, "Tragedy at Law" is regarded by many lawyers as
the best English detective story set in the legal world.
2. "The Franchise
Affair" by Josephine Tey (MacMillan, 1949).
"The Franchise Affair"
is an unusual detective story in that it contains no murder. It is,
however, enthralling from beginning to end. A 15-year-old girl, Betty
Kane, who has obviously been assaulted, accuses two eccentric and
isolated women, Miss Marion Sharp and her elderly mother, of kidnapping,
starving and forcing her to work for them as a servant. Opinion in their
small town is outraged, and the two ladies are at risk from the mob as
well as the law. The amateur detective, a local solicitor becoming set
in his comfortable ways, takes on the challenge of defending the two
women. The setting and the people come brilliantly alive and, despite
the absence of egregious violence, the tension never slackens.
3. "The Moving
Toyshop" by Edmund Crispin (Lippincott, 1946).
Edmund Crispin is one of
the few mystery writers able to combine situation comedy and high
spirits with detection. "The Moving Toyshop" is set in Oxford--a popular
city for mystery writers--and has as its detective an eccentric amateur,
Gervase Fen, a professor of English at the university. A murder is
discovered in a toyshop, but when the police arrive the shop itself has
disappeared. Suspension of disbelief is occasionally needed, but this
spirited frolic of a detective story retains its place as one of the
most engaging and ingenious mysteries of its age.
4. "Murder Must
Advertise" by Dorothy L. Sayers (Harcourt, Brace, 1933).
Dorothy L. Sayers is a
writer of the Golden Age still read with pleasure today. One of her most
enjoyable novels, and the most credible judged as a mystery, is "Murder
Must Advertise," set at Pym's Advertising Agency in London. A copywriter
has written to the agency's chief saying that something undesirable is
going on in the office, but before he can explain, his body is found at
the foot of an iron staircase, his neck broken. Mr. Pym hires a private
detective to investigate, and Lord Peter Wimsey, under the pseudonym Mr.
Death Bredon, takes a job as copywriter. Before he unravels the mystery,
five people will die and Lord Peter will be drawn into a vicious network
of blackmail and drug peddling. The novel shows Sayers's virtues of
originality, energy and wit. Anyone interested in what it was like to
work in an advertising agency in the 1930s has only to read "Murder Must
Advertise." Copywriters today may feel that little has changed.
5. "Dissolution" by
C.J. Sansom (Viking, 2003).
"Dissolution" has
established historian C.J. Sansom as one of the most promising new
writers of detective fiction. The book is set in 1537, when England is
torn by the Reformation. The terrifying Henry VIII has proclaimed
himself Supreme Head of the Church and his power is being enforced by
savage new laws and a network of secret informers. A team of
commissioners is sent out to investigate the country's monasteries. At
one, a commissioner is found dead, his head severed from his body, his
murder accompanied by sinister acts of sacrilege. The hero, Matthew
Shardlake, a hunchback lawyer, intelligent and incorruptible, is ordered
by Thomas Cromwell to uncover the truth. His investigation involves him
in treachery and danger, leading him to question everything he believes.
The sights, the voices, the very smell of this turbulent age seem to
rise from the page.
Ms. James's most recent mystery is
"The Lighthouse" (Knopf), published in November.
As a former Guggenheim Fellow, I especially appreciate the following
editorial.
"A Noble Virtue Under Siege: Do Americans still understand the
meaning of honor?" by Josiah Bunting III, The Wall Street Journal, June
6, 2006 ---
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110008477
In our culture of therapy, self-absorption and
celebrity, "honor" has very little cachet. An abuse of honor--say, by
perpetrating a public fraud or acting duplicitously in private life--is
but the occasion for the administration of comforting words of
understanding, the application of medicines to assuage lingering
anxieties and the invitation to appear on "Oprah," the better to explain
the forces that, overwhelming meager resources of conscience and
character, impelled a dishonorable act. Next may come an invitation to
undertake the labor of a book, more fully to explore and expiate the
fall from grace. Closure (as it is called) will then, at last, be
obtained.
In short, there is no shame in actions once
known as dishonorable, and the virtues that supported honor seem
moribund. Chastity and modesty--so important to honor in social
relations--are treated as relics from Jane Austen and "Little Women."
When a high-school girl defends a sexual encounter on the grounds that
an American president said that her particular act was not really sex,
both she and her role model are, if not completely forgiven, understood
to be, as members of the human family, subject to the same vagaries of
uncontrollable temptations as you and I.
Things used to be so different. James Bowman's
"Honor: A History" offers a brilliantly astringent accounting for the
disappearance of honor as a normative standard of conduct in American
society. Mr. Bowman traces the idea of honor from its classical origins
to its aristocratic and democratic forms. Along the way, he discusses
religious teachings (in Christianity and Islam), philosophical
definitions (e.g., Aristotle and Nietzsche) and literary treatments
(Arthurian legend, Shakespeare, Hemingway). Throughout, he cites the
emblems of honor--or dishonor--in current events and popular culture.
Perhaps most pertinent to the present moment, he surveys America's use
of honor (and prestige) as causes (and justifications) for going to war,
indeed for serving in the armed forces.
As late as the mid-1960s, lest we forget,
members of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations prized "toughness" in
foreign affairs and considered national honor a principal justification
for fighting in Vietnam. There was a need, the architects of foreign
policy felt, "to avoid a humiliating U.S. defeat (to our reputation as a
guarantor)." What was on the line, Mr. Bowman writes, "was the
'prestige' that was really old-fashioned honor under a different name."
Yet the war was not always justified to the American people in such
terms, and when Richard Nixon promised "peace with honor," few believed
him: Honor was, by then, understood as a slipshod synonym for "this is
all we can take. We've done all we reasonably could for our ally."
In the West, the identity of personal with
national honor was part of the fighting spirit in World War I, though it
nearly sank in the slime of Passchendaele and the Somme. Its last
florescence was in World War II, Mr. Bowman observes. And even then,
"honor" and "duty" in the stiff, upper-class sense of the terms gave
way, during the war, to a democratic ideal: the average guy "just doing
a job." For America, this antiheroic theme was part of a national
self-definition. "We were still, surely, different from . . . those
old-fashioned jingoist or imperialist forebears who had been able to
speak unashamedly of honor and its demands."
The rhetoric surrounding war changed over
time--in Korea, in Vietnam, in the Balkans and now in Iraq. Governments
came to feel, Mr. Bowman argues, that appeals to national honor,
prestige and reputation for toughness no longer worked. The Marines may
remain determined to keep their honor clean, but no such justification
seems to animate the country as a whole in its role in the world. When
terrorists took over Fallujah in 2004 and the Marines moved in to take
them out, Mr. Bowman remembers a commentator saying: "This isn't about
national security anymore: it's about pride and credibility." True
enough, but the words were rare and tell-tale. Mr. Bowman notes that
only in a post-honor society would such an explanation be necessary:
Pride and credibility, he argues, are "commonly used substitutes for the
old-fashioned sounding 'honor.' " They imply "jealousy for reputation"
and the respect that countries and armies once demanded and expected.
Can honor be resuscitated? As Mr. Bowman notes,
"honor is stark and unforgiving," and early-21st-century America does
not like stark choices. ("Then it is the brave man chooses / While the
coward turns aside," in the words of the old hymn.) "Character," meaning
resolution, the persistence in right action whatever its costs, seems a
quaint and Victorian crotchet. Citizens feverishly, fitfully, deplore
the inadequacies of body armor for their Marines and soldiers; three
days later, they have moved on. Did you say 32 Iraqis were blown up this
morning, and a soldier killed, north of Baghdad? Shame. Let's see what
that does to the president's poll numbers.
How well America understands its enemies'
notions of honor--and how prepared the country is, itself, to act
honorably--will be tested between now and the fall elections. A failure
to understand, though not inevitable, may be writ large in a headline
like this one: "Administration Announces Withdrawal of 28,000 American
Troops by End of Year." As Vo Nguyen Giap and Ho Chi Minh must have
smiled the first time they heard the word "Vietnamize," radical
Islamists will rejoice at such a development, irrefutable evidence that
America neither understands their own misbegotten notions of honor nor
has the will, if it does understand, to act honorably in confronting
them.
Mr. Bunting is president of the H.F. Guggenheim Foundation in New
York.
Forwarded by Paula
I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all
use a little more calmness in our lives.
By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find
inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to
finish all the things you've started and never finished."
So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't
finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle
of Merlot, a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a
bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac
prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos and a box of
chocolates.
You have no idea how freaking good I feel. Please pass this on to those
you feel might be in need of inner peace.
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134 Email:
rjensen@trinity.edu
I recently sent out an "Appeal" for accounting educators, researchers, and
practitioners to actively support what I call The Accounting Review (TAR)
Diversity Initiative as initiated by American Accounting Association President
Judy Rayburn ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR.htm
Online Video and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
"CBS Offers Downloads of TV Shows on iTunes," The Washington Post,
June 8, 2006 ---
Click Here
Note: Some YouTube posts use language that might be considered
objectionable.
* Star Trek Cribs
* Don Rickles Roasted on The Dean Martin Show
* Trailer Parody of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
* Crispin Glover on Letterman
* Hip-Hop Highlight -- Newcleus: 'Jam On It'
* Intro to The Muppet Show
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and
video available free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Reintroduced from Janie It's hard to kiss the lips that chew your ass out all day long ---
http://jbreck.com/itsshardtokiss.html
(Click on the play button in the upper left corner)
From the Baker Library at the Harvard Business School
Coin & Conscience: Popular Views of Money, Credit and Speculation ---
http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/cc/
Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
They also understand that the really
rich won't pay the (inheritance) tax anyway
because they hire lawyers to avoid it.
"Taxes Everlasting: Why the superrich don't mind the death tax," The Wall
Street Journal, June 8, 2006 ---
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008487
Over the past year or so, the British
cultural historians
Lisa Jardineand Annie Watkins conducted two
surveys designed to pin down a consensus on novels that had "changed reader's
lives." First, they interviewed 400 women, most of them involved in the arts,
media, and university life. "Absolutely every woman we spoke to had her
favourite," they
reported recentlyin Britain's Guardian
newspaper. Beyond the enthusiasm evinced by the interviewees, Jardine and
Watkins were struck by the wide range of responses: . . . "The men's list was
all angst and Orwell. Sort of puberty reading," Jardine
cheekily toldthe Sydney Morning Herald. "We
found that men do not regard books as a constant companion to their life's
journey, as consolers or guides, as women do... They read novels a bit like they
read photography manuals." Nick Gillespie, "What's Your
Favorite Novel? A recent survey of men's and women's favorite books points to a
more fundamental question—and a fascinating answer," Reason Magazine, June 9,
2006 ---
http://www.reason.com/links/links060906.shtml
What can (college)
athletes do to protect their image? For starters, they should cultivate a
positive one off the field. Some athletes have recently lived together off
campus in their senior years and used their residences for all-campus parties.
The potential for alcohol poisoning, date rape, and disruption to neighbors is
very real if these parties go unmonitored. In addition, it is critical that
individuals take responsibility for their actions and monitor the behavior of
their peers. There are many aspects to being on a team for better and for worse.
Finally, one way to monitor image is not to splash photos of questionable
conduct over Facebook.com. This is not to say “misbehave, just as long as you
keep it quiet.” Avoiding poor conduct is most important, but posting shameless
photos is simply dumb. David Tuttle ---
http://www.trinity.edu/departments/student_affairs/student_conduct/2006report.htm
Gore's credibility is damaged early in the film when
he tells the audience that, by simply looking at Antarctic ice cores with the
naked eye, one can see when the American Clean Air Act was passed. Dr. Ian
Clark, professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa (U of O)
responds, "This is pure fantasy unless the reporter is able to detect parts per
billion changes to chemicals in ice." Air over the United States doesn't even
circulate to the Antarctic before mixing with most of the northern, then the
southern, hemisphere air, and this process takes decades. Clark explains that
even far more significant events, such as the settling of dust arising from the
scouring of continental shelves at the end of ice ages, are undetectable in ice
cores by an untrained eye. Tom Harris, "The gods are laughing,"
National Post in Canada, June 7, 2006 ---
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=d0235a70-33f1-45b3-803b-829b1b3542ef&
What Schumer doesn't understand is that these are
the very areas for which citizens of his own state (NY)
have been leaving in droves to relocate. That's why
Atlanta, with nearly five million residents, is home to the Centers for Disease
Control, the world's busiest airport and the largest telecommunications
infrastructure in the nation. And it's no secret now that Atlanta, home to the
tallest building in the nation outside of New York or Chicago -- right behind
New York's Chrysler Building -- was considered a major target following 9/11.
Throw in CNN's headquarters being located in Atlanta, and I think there's a
fairly good reason, beyond peanuts, to bring this area up to speed with those
cities that have, to now, enjoyed the lion's share of urban security funds.
Matt Towery, "Revenge of the peanut farmers," Townhall, June 8, 2006 ---
Click Here
Tom Robinson had long wondered about his family
tree. He never suspected its roots might lie in the Mongolian steppe. The
Florida accountant knew his great-great-grandfather came to America from England
-- but beyond that the trail went cold. So he turned to "bioarchaeology" to test
his DNA. He was in for a surprise. According to a British geneticist who
pioneered the research, Robinson appears to be a direct descendant of Genghis
Khan, the Mongol warrior. Some scientists say that claim goes too far, though
few doubt Robinson's DNA reveals a direct genetic link to Mongolia.
"Descended from Genghis Khan? DNA test tantalizes a Florida
accountant," PhysOrg, June 7, 2006 ---
http://physorg.com/news68906418.html
Jensen Comment
If all this is true, Tom Robinson is not especially unique. The Gehghis Khan
purported was very horny and has over 16 million direct decedents ---
http://snipurl.com/FertileMale
A letter from Hotels.com to its customers said E&Y
"was taking additional steps to protect the confidentiality of its data" by
encrypting the customer data. A Hotels.com spokesperson said it doesn't appear
that the laptop was the target of the car break-in or that credit cards had been
used inappropriately. This is at least the third
reported case of E&Y laptop theft that occurred in
February. On Feb. 9, E&Y auditors left a secured room in a Miami hotel
conference room for lunch and came back to find their laptops missing. Security
footage shows two men entering and leaving the room within the one-minute delay
of the auto-lock door. On Feb. 13, E&Y sent a letter to Bay Area clients warning
that their Social Security numbers and other personal data were on a laptop
stolen from an employee's locked car. The sensitive data was password-protected,
according to the accounting firm.
"Another E&Y Laptop Stolen," SmartPros, June 7, 2006 ---
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x53391.xml
In April 2006 I commenced reading a heavy book entitled Great Minds in
Management: The Process of Theory Development, Edited by Ken G. Smith and
Michael A. Hitt (Oxford Press, 2006).
The essays are somewhat personalized in terms of how theory
development is perceived by each author and how these perceptions changed over
time.
In Tidbits I will share some of the key quotations as I proceed
through this book. The book is somewhat heavy going, so it will take some time
to add selected quotations to the list of quotations at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/GreatMinds.htm
Developing Resource Dependence Theory: How Theory is Affected
by its Environment
JEFFREY PFEFFER
PG. #453 & 454
PFEFFER 21.5 THE POLITICS OF THEORY IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
There are, I believe, many misconceptions about theory and theory development in
the organization and social sciences, particularly on the part of younger
scholars. In concluding this discussion of the development and evolution of
resource dependence theory, it is useful to both review these beliefs and see
how they play out in understanding the growth and development of resource
dependence.
The first, most strongly held, and possibly most harmful
mistaken belief is that theories succeed or fail, prevail or fall into disuse,
primarily, and some would maintain exclusively, on the basis of their ability to
explain or predict the behavior that is the focus of the theory. Moreover,
there is a belief that a theory's success in prediction and explanation is
particularly important in explaining its success if there are competitive
theories covering the same dependent variables. This belief is erroneous in at
least two ways.
First of all, as argued elsewhere (Ferraro, Pfeffer, and Sutton,
2005), theories may create the environment they predict, thereby becoming true
by construction rather than because they were originally veridical with the
world they sought to explain. To the extent people believe in a particular
theory, they may create institutional arrangements based on the theory that
thereby bring the theory into reality through these practices and institutional
structures. To the extent people hold a theory as true, they will act on the
basis of the theory and expect others to act on that basis also, creating a
normative environment in which it becomes difficult to not behave on the basis
of the theory because to do so would violate some implicit or explicit
expectations for behavior. And to the extent that people adhere to a theory and
therefore use language derived from and consistent with the theory, the theory
can become true because language primes both what we see and how we apprehend
the world around us, so that talking using the terminology of a particular
theory also makes the theory become true.
Second, the philosophy of science notwithstanding, theories are
quite capable of surviving disconfirming evidence. Behavioral decision theory
and its numerous empirical tests have shown that many of the most fundamental
axioms of choice and decision that underlie economics are demonstrably false
(e.g., Bazerman, forthcoming), but economics is scarcely withering away. Nor
are the specific portions of economic theory predicated on assumptions that have
been shown to be false necessarily any less believed or used. A similar
situation is true in finance, where assumptions of capital market efficiency and
the instantaneous diffusion of relevant information, so that a security's market
price presumably incorporates all relevant information available at the time,
have withstood numerous empirical and theoretical attacks. To take a case
closer to organization studies, the reliance on and belief in the efficacy of
extrinsic incentives and monetary rewards persists not only in the lay community
but in the scholarly literature as well. So, Heath's (1999) insightful study of
what he terms an extrinsic incentives bias is as relevant to the domain of
scholars as it is to practicing managers and lay people.
What this means for resource dependence theory is that to the
extent that claims that it is virtually dead (Carroll, 2002) are true and that
it has been subsumed by transactions cost theory, this state of affairs may say
less than one might expect about the comparative empirical success or
theoretical coherence of transactions cost theory. As David and Han (2004: 39)
summarized in their review of sixty-three articles empirically examining
transaction cost economics, "we...found considerable disagreement on how to
operationalize some of TCE's central constructs and propositions, and relatively
low levels of empirical support in other core areas." Instead, the comment
about the relative position of resource dependence and transactions cost theory
may say more about the politics of social science and the fact that power is
currently out of vogue and efficiency and environmental determinism such as that
propounded by population ecology and other perspectives reifying an impersonal
environment, with all of their conservative implications, is currently more in
favor.
Jeffrey Pfeffer, PhD
’72, and Robert I. Sutton would like to foment a little revolution—one in
which leaders in business and the world at large base their decisions on
facts and logic, not ideology, hunches, management fads or poorly understood
experience. Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational
Behavior, and Sutton, a professor of management science and engineering and,
by courtesy, of organizational behavior in the Graduate School of Business,
are the authors of Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense:
Profiting from Evidence-Based Management (Harvard Business School Press,
2006). STANFORD asked them about bringing more
reason to organizational life.
What’s some of the total
nonsense that occurs in companies?
Sutton: Probably the biggest single problem
for human decision making is that when people have ingrained beliefs, they
will put a much higher bar for evidence for things they don’t believe than
for things they do believe. Confirmation-seeking bias, I think, is what
social psychologists call it. Organizations can have amazingly good
evidence, but it has no effect on the decisions they make if it conflicts
with their ideology.
Do you have a favorite
unsupported belief?
Pfeffer: One would be stock options. There
are more than 200 studies that show no evidence that there is a relationship
between the amount of equity senior executives have and a company’s
financial performance. . . . Just as you would never bet on a point spread
on a football game because it encourages bad behavior, you should not reward
people for increasing the spread in an expectations market.
Overreliance on financial incentives of all sorts
drives all kinds of counterproductive behavior.
Evidence-based management
derives from evidence-based medicine. Explain what kind of decision making
we’re talking about.
Continued in interview
Many scientists, notably anthropologist, on government grants oppose open
access publishing At first glance, it seems that the research world
is united against the
Federal Research Public Access Act.Scholarly
associations are lining up to express their anger over the bill, which would
have federal agencies require grant recipients to publish their research papers
— online and free — within six months of their publication elsewhere. Dozens of
scholarly groups have joined in two letters — one organized by the
Association of American Publishersand
one by the
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
To look at the signatories (and the tones of the letters),
it would appear that there’s a wide consensus that the legislation is bad for
research. The cancer researchers are against it. The education researchers are
against it. The biologists are against it. The ornithologists are against it.
The anthropologists are against it. All of these groups are joining to warn that
the bill could undermine the quality and economic viability of scholarly
publishing.
Scott Jaschik, "In Whose Interest?" Inside Higher Ed, June 15, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/15/open
How to find what students are thinking and how they are socializing The answer given by Shawn McGuirk, director of judicial
affairs, mediation and education at Fitchburg State College, in Massachusetts,
was that, if institutions want to know what the kids are doing these days,
they’ll want to know what they’re doing on Facebook. The good, and the bad. In a
Magna Publications Web seminar for student affairs staff members Wednesday,
McGuirk said that colleges should use Facebook faux pas as teachable moments
whenever possible, rather than embracing Facebook as policy or law enforcement
tool.
David Epstein, "The Many Faces of Facebook," Inside Higher Ed, June 15,
2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/15/facebook
Cheap Drinking Water from the Ocean A water desalination system using carbon nanotube-based
membranes could significantly reduce the cost of purifying water from the ocean.
The technology could potentially provide a solution to water shortages both in
the United States, where populations are expected to soar in areas with few
freshwater sources, and worldwide, where a lack of clean water is a major cause
of disease.
Aditi Risbud, "Cheap Drinking Water from the Ocean: Carbon nanotube-based
membranes will dramatically cut the cost of desalination," MIT's Technology
Review, June 12, 2006 ---
Click Here
Question
What's the newest outsourcing trend in student cheating?
This could not possibly happen in the United States (Ha! Ha!)
Answer In a unique twist to outsourcing from Britain to
India, students in British universities have been paying computer professionals
in India to complete their course assignments for a fee. The newly recognised
trend, operating mainly through the Internet, has been dubbed as "contract
plagiarism" by British academics who have tracked such malpractices. It is more
in vogue among students enrolled in IT courses in British universities.
"British students outsourcing assignments to India," The Times of India,
June 14, 2006 ---
Click Here
Actually it is very easy to outsource using
www.elance.com - This is a
subdivision of ebay - You can arrange for long distance accounting help,
software design and creation and many other areas. A service vendor can set
up shop depending on area of specialty. A tech-heavy specialty like software
design would pay a higher "rent" than a German translator. A prospective
buyer of services would request bids and within hours receive bids.
The prospective buyer would see the quality ratings
of the service providers.
Richard J. Campbell
School of Business
218 N. College Ave.
University of Rio Grande
Rio Grande, OH 45674 http://faculty.rio.edu/campbell
Another Question
If students are outsourcing their assignments, where are they spending their
time?
University of Chicago Cocktail Parties for Educational
Purposes: Don't get drunk or hit on the women On Friday afternoon at the
University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business,
students are streaming towards their weekly dinner with deans and fellow
classmates -- all 500 of them. This is just one of the GSB's many social events
throughout the year. They include corporate-sponsored cocktail hours, formal
dinners, mock receptions, and theme parties. While these gatherings may sound
like fun, they also serve a weighty purpose -- getting students a good job. In
fact, for those outside B-school, the experience may sound like a little too
much fun. After all, this is school, not a vacation. But there's a lot to be
learned from the socializing. It's an opportunity to network and scope out your
B-school buddies — and competitors." Careers are a focal point of student
socializing and networking," says Stacey Kole, deputy dean of Chicago's
full-time MBA program.
"The Art of the Schmooze," Business Week, June 12, 2006 ---
Click Here
Bob Jensen's a worried owner of a Jeep Grand Cherokee The attorney general is calling for a federal
investigation into potentially fatal problems with Jeep Grand Cherokees. This
comes just months after a freak accident at a Hamden car wash killed a
52-year-old man. A Jeep Grand Cherokee went out of control and mowed down the
man. It is called "jeep sudden acceleration," and apparently it happens when a
Grand Cherokee is shifted from neutral to drive. Doug Newman, the owner of
Newman's Connecticut Car Wash says he's seen it before -- at least four times,
"The incidents I know of with this problem all occur at the exit end of the car
wash. Upon starting the car, the car immediately red lines, goes to 2800 - 3000
RPMs, at the same time you're putting the car in gear it takes off." Problems
with sudden acceleration have also been reported at places like drive up ATMs.
Daimler Chrysler, which makes Jeep, does not acknowledge there is a problem. The
company says they did several studies that concluded "driver error is the only
plausible explanation for sudden acceleration."
"Attorney general calls for investigation into Jeep Grand Cherokees," WTNH,
June 13, 2006 ---
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=5022450
Howard Dean Having it Both Ways to Lure Voters on Both Sides:
Troops should leave Iraq, but troops should also stay in Iraq
"That's not Jack Murtha's position. It was widely
misquoted in the press. What Jack Murtha says is we need a redeployment of
our troops. That some of the troops need to come home in the next six
months. Others should be redeployed in the region (Iraq)
to maintain the capacity to fight terror where it
exists both inside and outside Iraq."
Brown then hit Dean with the apparently
irreconciliable positions of the two top House Dem leaders, displayed here.
She followed that by zinging Dean thusly:
"I got to tell you. If I'm a voter, come November
and you want me to vote Democrat, I still don't know what I'm voting for."
Continued in article
Question
Is Canada torturing its arrested terrorism suspects?
Answer (Probably not, but these claims are part of a worldwide effort to dupe
the press. Watch for false terrorist accusations to be recklessly reported in
Time Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times and The Washington Post) Terrorism experts said yesterday torture claims made by
some of the 17 suspects arrested in Toronto in connection with alleged bomb
plots are consistent with a familiar pattern. "What we have seen is that this is
pretty much standard operating procedure for [accused terrorists] to make these
kinds of complaints," said Tom Quiggin of the Centre of Excellence for National
Security in Singapore. During court hearings on Monday, several men arrested for
what police describe as an Ontario terror plot claimed prison guards had
tortured them. A jihadist training manual seized by police in Britain instructs
captured terrorists...
Stewart Bell, "Suspects' torture claims predictable, experts say," Canada's
National Post, June 14, 2006 ---
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=e59a54a4-b316-4704-898c-6974d230ba50
EBay signs up 200 millionth member EBay Inc. has now registered 200 million users of its
online auction services, which would make it the fifth-largest country in the
world if its members could form one nation, its CEO said on Tuesday.
"EBay signs up 200 millionth member," Reuters, June 13, 2006 ---
Click Here
LAS VEGAS EBay's big buying binge was the talk of
its fifth annual user convention here this week, which pulled 15,000 sellers
from around the world eager to learn what the Internet auction giant plans to do
next. While eBay Inc. is showing signs of a middle-age crisis, with slowing
growth and a sliding stock price, company executives seemed almost giddy as they
outlined plans to use their recent acquisitions to move beyond auctions -- into
communications, advertising and financial services.
"An Older, Wiser EBay, Growing Patiently," by Leslie Walker, The Washington
Post, June 15, 2006, Page D01 ---
Click Here
New Poet Laureate of the United States Donald Hall will be named poet laureate of the United
States today (June 14),
The New York Timesreported.
The position — which operates through the Library
of Congress — is designed to promote awareness of poetry. Inside Higher Ed, June 14, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/14/qt
Turn Left at the Presbyterian Church A growing number of Presbyterians are engaged in a
battle for the future of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Over the past two years,
this denomination -- my denomination -- has taken a turn toward radicalism that
threatens to tarnish a once-proud institution. At issue is the Presbyterian
Church's decision in 2004 "to initiate a process of phased, selective divestment
in multinational corporations operating in Israel." The fallout was immediate,
painful and damaging. Not only are a handful of church leaders taking positions
that are highly unpopular in the pews, they are doing so with heavy-handed,
top-down measures, actions that run contrary to long-honored traditions. Not
surprisingly, the church is experiencing problems with declining membership and
dwindling financial support -- due in large part to widespread frustration over
the direction the leadership has taken. Instead of developing policies to unite
us, the leadership is sowing seeds for further defections by large numbers.
"Turn Left at the Presbyterian Church," by Jim Roberts, The Wall Street
Journal, June 15, 2006; Page A14 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115033656216580816.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep
June 15, 2006 reply from a religion professor and ordained minister in the
Presbyterian church
Thanks, Bob.
This debate about divestment has been going on for
a couple of years now. I think it is grossly misleading to cast it in terms
either of a "right/left" controversy or simply of a struggle for power
within the Presbyterian Church. The most recent issue of The Presbyterian
Outlook has several very good articles about divestment, representing
different points of view. The Church has not done any divestment. Moreover,
as I understand it, the targets of any such divestment would be limited to
corporations that assist in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory
and/or in the construction of the "wall."
But Not Necessarily at the Local Level
Presbyterian Church dismisses UT professor
Old News I don't believe in God. I don't believe Jesus
Christ was the son of a God that I don't believe in, nor do I believe Jesus rose
from the dead to ascend to a heaven that I don't believe exists. Given these
positions, this year I did the only thing that seemed sensible: I formally
joined a Christian church. Standing before the congregation of St. Andrew's
Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, I affirmed that I (1) endorsed the core
principles in Christ's teaching; (2) intended to work to deepen my understanding
and practice of the universal love at the heart of those principles; and (3)
pledged to be a responsible member of the church and the larger community.
"Why I Am a Christian (Sort Of)," by Robert W.
Jensen, AlterNet. March 10, 2006 ---
http://www.alternet.org/story/33236/
June 12 Update
"Presbyterian church dismisses UT professor," by Andy St. Jean, The Daily
Texan ---
Click Here
UT journalism associate professor Robert Jensen has
found himself at the center of many debates. This time, the conflict lies
over his religious beliefs and membership in a local church.
The Presbyterian church he has been attending since last December was
reprimanded Friday for admitting him as a member.
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church was told by the Mission Presbytery, the
regional governing body of 157 Presbyterian churches in South and Central
Texas, that the acceptance of Jensen into membership was "irregular."
Furthermore, it was "void" because Jensen has said in the past he doesn't
believe in God.
"I believe God is a name we give to the mystery of the world that we don't
understand," Jensen said.
In a March article that appeared on several Web sites and the Houston
Chronicle, Jensen wrote a piece entitled "Why I am a Christian (Sort of),"
in which his first line reads, "I don't believe in God."
St. Andrew's was directed to move Jensen from the active roll to the
"baptized" roll, making him a non-voting member of the church. St. Andrew's
is also ordered to work with representatives to come up with an appropriate
process for receiving members in the future. The church may re-examine
Jensen's membership after these changes are implemented.
"The whole issue turns on the fact that the Book of Order's only requirement
is that a person believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior," said Terry
Nelson, stated clerk of Mission Presbytery. The Book of Order is equivalent
to the Presbyterian Church's constitution.
After the decision was rendered, the presbytery motioned to wait 45 days
before applying the ruling.
This period will hopefully allow people to cool off after a fierce debate
that had both sides using the church's law to make their point, Nelson said.
"I have never seen a presbytery where the stated clerk was put on the spot
to know the rules in the Book of Order so much, because every attempt to get
around or to abide by the rules was being made," Nelson said.
The Rev. Jim Rigby, pastor of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, knew not
everyone agreed with the decision to accept Jensen.
"Some people said, 'We want your head on a platter,'" Rigby said. "Jensen's
membership was the perfect opportunity to come after us and take out a
liberal church."
While on the surface the debate seems to concern Jensen's membership, there
is a lot more to the argument, Rigby said.
"Can a modern mind be included in the church, or must we use medieval
verbage?" Rigby said. "We are doing this for our children's children. If we
don't address the times, we are going to lose a lot of people."
The vote, which may nullify his membership in the church, has nothing to do
with whether or not he will still attend the church, Jensen said.
"If my membership is eventually declared null and void, I would still go,"
Jensen said. "The congregation at St. Andrew's has been very supportive and
caring."
I would tend to see such an
“unvitation” to membership as a
good thing, a relief from a cumbersome social commitment.
For some of us, one of the nicest benefits of godlessness is the absence
of Sunday-morning obligations.
Said Bart Simpson with a shrug of
his shoulders upon his family’s joining the Movementarians, “Church,
cult. Cult, church. So we get bored somewhere else every Sunday.”
Another Snapshot of Congressional Ethics (that infamous oxymoron) The Congressional debate over "earmarks" continues, and
not in a way that makes the GOP majority look good. This week the Members are
pushing through another 1,500 special spending projects, even as the controversy
has engulfed California's Jerry Lewis, who as House Appropriations Chairman is
earmarker in chief. Federal investigators are examining whether Mr. Lewis abused
his position by steering earmarks to his political friends and former employees.
In one case, the Justice Department is investigating whether defense industry
lobbyists were urged to contribute money to a political action committee run by
Mr. Lewis's stepdaughter, with a good portion of the money used for her own
salary. "Earmarker in Chief." The Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2006;
Page A14 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115033555119580784.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep
"Revamping the Web Browser: Surfing the Web has meant using much the
same technology for years. Now startups are working on new ways to navigate the
Net," by Wade Roush, MIT's Technology Review, June 12, 2006 ---
Click Here
Browster, for example, offers a free add-on
for Internet Explorer and the Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox
browser that's a simpler alternative to using the "Back" button. The Palo
Alto, CA, company lets people viewing a Web page, say, a list of Google
search results, see what lies beyond the hyperlinks simply by placing the
mouse over those links -- without having to click on them or open a new
window.
Meanwhile, companies like San Francisco-based
Flock are developing entirely new browsers
designed from the beginning to facilitate now-common social activities, such
as blogging, RSS-based news reading, and photo sharing.
The new technologies promise to help Web browsers
catch up with the Web itself -- which is bursting with material contributed
by users themselves. "The Web today is very different from the Web of the
'90s, which was very much a one-to-many experience," says Peter Andrews, a
senior software engineer at Flock and the lead builder of Sage, an
open-source extension for Firefox that speeds up the process of scanning
through RSS feeds. "Now you have a growing community of producers building a
many-to-many Web -- and browsers should integrate the functionality to
support that."
Of course, new versions of the most popular Web
browsers come along regularly. Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2
on April 24; Mozilla upgraded Firefox to version 1.5.0.4 on June 1. But
while each release includes a few more bells and whistles -- IE7 allows
tabbed browsing in imitation of Firefox, for example -- the basics of Web
browsing haven't really changed since the University of Illinois's National
Center for Supercomputing Applications created the first browser, Mosaic, in
1994.
Searchers move about the Web by left-clicking on
hyperlinks. The browser responds to each click by opening a new page in the
same window or, if the user chooses, a new tab or window. Returning to a
previously viewed page -- such as a list of search results -- means either
clicking the "back" button or switching tabs or windows.
This tried-and-true procedure works well enough,
and has become so familiar that it feels preordained. But is it the best
way? Is there room for change? Scott Milener thinks so. He and a friend,
Wendell Brown, stumbled onto that subject while having lunch one day in
2004. "I asked Wendell, 'Have you noticed how much we hit the back button
every day?' And he pushed me on the question. Of course the napkins started
coming out, and we invented what Browster is today."
Once a user has installed the Browster plugin,
placing the mouse's pointer over any hyperlink on a page causes a small icon
to pop up. Hovering over that icon with the pointer makes a new "window"
appear on top of the current page, showing the page to which the hyperlink
connects.
Modern Day Arsenic and Old Lace Ms. Rutterschmidt, 73, and another woman, Helen Golay,
75, pleaded not guilty last week to federal charges of mail fraud and submitting
false insurance applications. According to the authorities, the two women
extended helping hands to two homeless men, getting them off the streets and
putting them up in apartments, while at the same time plotting their deaths.
Posing as aunts, fiancées or cousins, they took out numerous life insurance
policies on the men, Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid, with themselves as the
beneficiaries, collecting over $2.2 million after the men died in separate
hit-and-run traffic cases, the authorities said.
Cindy Chang, "Two Elderly Women Suspected as Femmes Fatales in Insurance Fraud
Scheme," The New York Times, June 12, 2006 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/us/12grannies.html
The student I have been
paired with is deficient in math. Mentors are not tutors but they can give
tutorial help if it is called for. After learning how deficient my student
was in math, I decided to spend some time tutoring him. He is in an Algebra
I class that had been studying second order equations. I obtained a copy of
a test he had missed. One of the first problems was:
y = x2
+ 5, if the constant 5 is changed to 1, the curve
a. does not move
b. shifts 1 unit up
c. shifts 1 unit down
d. shifts 4 units up
e. shifts 4 units down
I said, "What would you do to find the answer?" He said, "I have to get my
calculator." I said, "Why?" He said, "I need it to work the problem."
I said, "Couldn't we just
think about the problem first? Even though it may seem hard, (as it
probably did to him), perhaps we can start by finding a simpler problem
inside this difficult problem."
. . .
What I am seeing seems to be that dependence on the
calculator has short circuited the learning of math and the development of
analytical skills. Most students who take high school algebra are not going
to be scientists, mathematicians or engineers. These skills are the most
important things they should take from their math courses. The computational
and analytical skills learned in math often can be applied to a host of
everyday problems in business, personal finance, etc.
Another effect of calculator dependence is that
many younger people are not comfortable with numbers. In my generation we
learned to do simple arithmetic (addition and multiplication) problems in
our heads, and more complex ones with pencil and paper. We can do a quick
calculation to check a price in the supermarket or to figure the tip on a
restaurant bill without having to reach for a calculator.
Today, many elementary school educators believe
that the ready availability of calculators has made learning elementary
arithmetic skills like addition and multiplication unnecessary. Working
problems without a calculator, in my view, helps students to develop those
important analytical skills. Calculators certainly have their place, and
they are essential for some problems. However, students who have developed
good basic arithmetic and analytical skills can master just about any
calculator in a few hours. Perhaps if we delayed the introduction of
calculators, our students would learn math better.
TECHNOLOGY SITESOpen a New Window
www.annoyances.org
CPAs looking for Microsoft Windows troubleshooting advice can get articles,
discussion forums and links to detailed guidance here. Users can find out
the difference between various Windows versions, see a road map of their
operating systems, learn how to customize their PCs and improve their
performance and reduce e-clutter. Take a break from the high-tech talk with
the Humor section to read “The Night Before Startup.”
Get a Checkup
www.pcpitstop.com
If your computer acts like it has gremlins in it, sign up for a free account
at this Web site and get to the heart of the matter. Run privacy and virus
scans and download software to optimize your PC’s performance. Visitors can
find out the five user behaviors on which spyware companies prey and get a
monthly newsletter with PC performance tips.
IT FYI
www.techletters.com
CPAs looking to maximize their computer’s performance can subscribe to one
of four free e-newsletters at this home page.
www.officeletter.com: The Office Letter is devoted to the
Microsoft Office suite. It offers tricks, tools and techniques for Access,
Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word.
www.boyce.us/newsletter: Jim Boyce Software Tips and Tricks
concentrates on Windows and Office applications with helpful hints on such
subjects as how to back up or move Outlook Express from one computer to
another.
www.karenware.com: Karen’s Power Tools newsletter offers
plain-language explanations for technical questions, such as what to do when
backup-disk data go bad and a discussion on error-detection strategies.
www.mikeslist.com/current.htm: Mike’s List, subtitled “The
Silly Con Valley Report,” takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to technology
with news on Apple and iPods and the “Lists o’ the Week,” which include
Mike’s picks for gadgets to get, including a combination computer mouse and
phone, or “gotta forget” ones, such as a laptop bag made of simulated human
skin.
One Step Beyond
http://malektips.com
Find free help, hints and tips here on digital cameras and photo processing,
audio players, printers and scanners. Learn how to remove adware and spyware
from your computer, sign your e-mails and recover deleted messages. Go to
the index of links for start-up business resources, such as how to accept
credit card payments online, and get graphics to spice up your desktop
publishing. Sign up for free e-mail notices for the latest PC tips on
applications from Adobe Reader to WinZip.
IRS Laptop Lost With Data on 291 People
Given the likelihood of lost luggage on airlines (especially with valuable
contents), what's more stupid than checking your laptop before a flight? An Internal Revenue Service employee lost an agency
laptop early last month that contained sensitive personal information on 291
workers and job applicants, a spokesman said yesterday. The IRS's Terry L.
Lemons said the employee checked the laptop as luggage aboard a commercial
flight while traveling to a job fair and never saw it again. The computer
contained unencrypted names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and
fingerprints of the employees and applicants, Lemons said. Slightly more than
100 of the people affected were IRS employees, he said. No tax return
information was in the laptop, he said.
Christopher Lee, "IRS Laptop Lost With Data on 291 People," The Washington
Post, June 8, 2006 ---
Click Here
Jensen Comment
Although many fewer people are victimized relative to the huge VA breach, the
extent of personal data loss for each person is immensely more serious in the
IRS loss.
"Laptop Security, Part 2: Tips on protecting your data, should
fate--or a criminal--separate you and your notebook," by James A. Martin, PC
World via The Washington Post, June 9. 2006 ---
Click Here
My guess is that your notebook is worth several
thousand dollars. I'd also guess that the data stored on it is worth much,
much more--and that you'd be entering a world of woe if your notebook were
stolen or lost.
Last week I offered tips on how to protect and
physically secure your notebook when you're out of the office. This week,
I've got tips on protecting your data, should fate--or a criminal--separate
you and your notebook.
Windows XP gives you the option of requiring a user
password to log on. Though certainly far from bulletproof, a relatively
complex password provides more protection than none at all.
A complex password includes upper- and lowercase
letters, numbers, and one or more special characters. For example, suppose
your name is Pat. You wouldn't use "Pat" as your password, would you? (You
would? My, aren't we feeling lucky?) A better password would be something
not easily identified with you.
The more complex your password, the more difficult
it is to crack--and, potentially, for you to remember. Don't make your
password so complex you can't remember it. Or, if you must store your
passwords, keep them somewhere safe. Some software programs for PCs and PDAs
give you the ability to manage and secure passwords. One example: DataViz's
Passwords Plus ($30), which lets you manage and
secure passwords on your notebook as well as your Palm OS PDA.
To create a password for your account in Windows
XP, go into Control Panel, then open User Accounts. Select the account you
want to protect with a password and click the "Create a password" button.
For more about passwords, read Scott Dunn's June "
Windows Tips ."
Some laptops now come equipped with biometric
fingerprint scanners, as an alternative or enhancement to Windows
password-protection. For more on this, see number 3, below.
Another option is to encrypt any files on your
notebook that contain sensitive data, such as customer Social Security
numbers. (Of course, as I said last week, it's best not to place any
sensitive data on a mobile system.)
In essence, encryption scrambles data into code
that only an authorized user can access. However, encrypting files, or your
entire drive, can be time-consuming, slow system performance, and increase
the likelihood you'll lose access to the data.
Windows XP Professional (but not XP Home) includes
an option that lets you encrypt files on an NTFS-formatted hard drive. After
encrypting a file, you can open it just as you would any file or folder.
However, someone who gains unauthorized access to your computer cannot open
any encrypted files or folders.
To encrypt a folder in Windows XP Professional,
right-click it in Windows Explorer, choose Properties, click Advanced,
select the "Encrypt contents to secure data" check box, and click OK twice.
In the Confirm Attribute Changes dialog box, do one of the following: To
encrypt only the folder, click "Apply changes to this folder only," and
click OK; to encrypt the folder contents as well as the folder, click "Apply
changes to this folder, subfolders, and files," and click OK.
"In today's
Wall Street Journal (online subscription required) Sharon Begley
provides a rare look into the world of academic journal rankings.
She describes some of the ways that scientific journals manipulate
their "impact factors"."
and later describing his/her (I would imagine
people know, but I won't out anything) own experiences (I would add to
his below comment by saying I would be surprised if anyone who has
published a few papers has not had the reference coaching happen now and
then).
"One [way] is to ask authors to include additional citations to
other pieces in the journal. I've seen this tactic used several
times (both on my pieces and on those of colleagues). Typically,
once a piece is either accepted or in the "last round", the editor
might "suggest" other articles in the same journal which might
possibly be cited. In one case, the editor gave a colleague of mine
a list of eight possible
citations (which would have increased the total citations in the
author's bibliography by almost 50%). However, this doesn't happen
as much as you'd think, because I use my bibliography as one of the
criteria I use in deciding which journal to submit a piece to: if I
cite a good number of articles from a particular journal, it's
probably a good fit for the piece"
John B. West has had his share of requests,
suggestions and demands from the scientific journals where he submits his
research papers, but this one stopped him cold.
Dr. West, the Distinguished Professor of Medicine
and Physiology at the University of California, San Diego, School of
Medicine, is one of the world's leading authorities on respiratory
physiology and was a member of Sir Edmund Hillary's 1960 expedition to the
Himalayas. After he submitted a paper on the design of the human lung to the
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, an editor
emailed him that the paper was basically fine. There was just one thing: Dr.
West should cite more studies that had appeared in the respiratory journal.
If that seems like a surprising request, in the
world of scientific publishing it no longer is. Scientists and editors say
scientific journals increasingly are manipulating rankings -- called "impact
factors" -- that are based on how often papers they publish are cited by
other researchers.
"I was appalled," says Dr. West of the request.
"This was a clear abuse of the system because they were trying to rig their
impact factor."
Just as television shows have Nielsen ratings and
colleges have the U.S. News rankings, science journals have impact factors.
Now there is mounting concern that attempts to manipulate impact factors are
harming scientific research.
Conceived 40 years ago, impact factors are
essentially a grading system of how important the papers a journal publishes
are. "Importance" is measured by how many other papers cite it, indicating
that the discoveries, methodologies or insights it describes are advancing
science.
Impact factors are calculated annually for some
5,900 science journals by Thomson Scientific, part of the Thomson Corp., of
Stamford, Conn. Numbers less than 2 are considered low. Top journals, such
as the Journal of the American Medical Association, score in the double
digits. Researchers and editors say manipulating the score is more common
among smaller, newer journals, which struggle for visibility against more
established rivals.
Thomson Scientific is set to release the latest
impact factors this month. Thomson has long advocated that journal editors
respect the integrity of the rankings. "The energy that's put into efforts
to game the system would be better spent publishing excellent papers," says
Jim Testa, director of editorial development at the company.
Impact factors matter to publishers' bottom lines
because librarians rely on them to make purchasing decisions. Annual
subscriptions to some journals can cost upwards of $10,000.
The result, says Martin Frank, executive director
of the American Physiological Society, which publishes 14 journals, is that
"we have become whores to the impact factor." He adds that his society
doesn't engage in these practices.
Journals can manipulate impact factors with
legitimate editorial decisions. One strategy is to publish many review
articles, says Vicki Cohn, managing editor of Mary Ann Liebert Inc., a
closely held New Rochelle, N.Y., company that publishes 59 journals. Reviews
don't report new results but instead summarize recent findings in a field.
Since it is easier for scientists to cite one review than the dozens of
studies that it summarizes, reviews get a lot of citations, raising a
journal's impact score.
"Journal editors know how to increase their impact
factor legitimately," says Ms. Cohn. "But there is growing suspicion that
journals are using nefarious means to pump it up."
One questionable tactic is to ask authors to cite
papers the journal already has published, as happened to UCSD's Dr. West,
who says that he has great respect for the journal and its editors despite
this episode. He declined the request, and the journal published his paper
anyway, in March.
Richard Albert, the deputy editor of the American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, says that the request
goes out to every scientist who submits a paper. "It's boilerplate, a form
letter," he says. The letter has been in use for many years, according to
Dr. Albert, who says he has always opposed the inclusion of the passage but
was overruled by the journal's former editor.
Journals also can resort to "best-of" features,
such as running annual summaries of their most notable papers. When
Artificial Organs did this in 2005, all 145 citations were to other
Artificial Organs papers. Editor Paul Malchesky says the feature was
conceived "as a service to the readership. It was not my intention to affect
our impact factor. In terms of how we run our operation, I don't base that
on impact factor."
Self-citation can go too far. In 2005, Thomson
Scientific dropped the World Journal of Gastroenterology from its rankings
because 85% of the citations it published were to its own papers and because
few other journals cited it. Editors of the journal, which is based in
Beijing, did not answer emails requesting comment.
Journals can limit citations to papers published by
competitors, keeping the rivals' impact factors down. An analysis of
citations in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare shows very few
citations of papers in a competitor, Telemedicine and e-Health, "while we
cited them liberally," says editor Rashid Bashshur, director of telemedicine
at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Richard Wootton, editor of JTT, says that he
believes it's true that his journal cites its competitor less frequently
than Dr. Bashshur's journal cites JTT, "but it doesn't seem to me that there
is a sinister explanation." Dr. Wootton adds that "when we edit a paper...we
sometimes ask authors to ensure that the relevant literature is cited." But
"I can state unequivocally that we do not attempt to manipulate the JTT's
impact factor. For a start, I wouldn't know how to."
Scientists and publishers worry that the cult of
the impact factor is skewing the direction of research. One concern, says
Mary Ann Liebert, president and chief executive of her publishing company,
is that scientists may jump on research bandwagons, because journals prefer
popular, mainstream topics, and eschew less-popular approaches for fear that
only a lesser-tier journal will take their papers. When scientists are
discouraged from pursuing unpopular ideas, finding the correct explanation
of a phenomenon or a disease takes longer.
"If you look at journals that have a high impact
factor, they tend to be trendy," says immunologist David Woodland of the
nonprofit Trudeau Institute, of Saranac Lake, N.Y., and the incoming editor
of Viral Immunology. He recalls one journal that accepted immunology papers
only if they focused on the development of thymus cells, a once-hot topic.
"It's hard to get into them if you're ahead of the curve."
As examples of that, Ms. Liebert cites early
research on AIDS, gene therapy and psychopharmacology, all of which had
trouble finding homes in established journals. "How much that relates to
impact factor is hard to know," she says. "But editors and publishers both
know that papers related to cutting-edge and perhaps obscure research are
not going to be highly cited."
Another concern is that impact factors, since they
measure only how many times other scientists cite a paper, say nothing about
whether journals publish studies that lead to something useful. As a result,
there is pressure to publish studies that appeal to an academic audience
oriented toward basic research.
Journals' "questionable" steps to raise their
impact factors "affect the public," Ms. Liebert says. "Ultimately, funding
is allocated to scientists and topics perceived to be of the greatest
importance. If impact factor is being manipulated, then scientists and
studies that seem important will be funded perhaps at the expense of those
that seem less important."
Why Indonesia remains relatively lenient on terror Wherever he is, Osama bin Laden must be smiling. Next
week, Abu Bakar Bashir -- the al Qaeda-linked cleric known as Southeast Asia's
"emir of jihad" -- is expected to walk free from a Jakarta jail. It's all
perfectly legal. Mr. Bashir has served his time, and his terrorist organization,
Jemaah Islamiya (JI), isn't banned in Indonesia. Clearly, it's time to ask why
the world's most populous Muslim country remains relatively lenient on terror,
when the threat is so real . . . In exchange for gaining the political support
of PKS and others like it for legislative initiatives -- such as last year's
painful slashing of fuel-price subsidies -- the president sometimes turns a
blind eye when conservative Islamic ideas rear their ugly head. Other times,
former President Abdurrahman Wahid recently told us, Mr. Yudhoyono "lacks
courage."
"Jakarta's Jihadist," The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2006 ---
Click Here
Racism on the Rise in Germany: Ugly resurgence of racism with prowling
violent gangs "There are areas in Brandenburg and other parts of
the East," Mr. Heye said, "where dark-skinned foreigners might not make it out
alive." Just a couple of weeks ago, an Ethiopian-born engineer in Potsdam had
his skull smashed at a bus stop when he got into a shouting match with two
youngsters. The refugee organization Afrikarat, meanwhile, has promised to
provide football fans from abroad with a map of "no-go areas." While Mr. Heye
was at first shouted down by local politicians from all major parties for gross
exaggeration, the annual criminal statistics published the very next day
confirmed the basic trend: Violent hate crimes were up 24% in 2005 -- to 1,034
from 832 -- and continued to be most prevalent in the East. If you adjust for
the lower number of immigrants in, say, rural Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a
foreign-looking person is about 25 times as likely to be assaulted in the East
as in the West, says University of Hannover criminologist Christian Pfeifer.
Mriam Lau, "No-Go Germany," The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2006 ---
Click Here
Bringing Data Back From the Dead But there are less-expensive alternatives, including
some of the consumer software and services we tested. In some cases, the results
surprised us. Norton SystemWorks ($70,
http://www.symantec.com ), for example,
attempts to repair hard drives while they are failing. But Norton writes to the
damaged drive, which can actually worsen the problem and can make future data
recovery efforts more time consuming and costly. Disk Doctor, an application
built into SystemWorks, reported that it had repaired many clusters on one of
our test drives, but when it was done the drive would no longer boot.
David Greenberg, "Bringing Data Back From the Dead," The Washington Post,
June 4, 2006 ---
Click Here
Clean Sweep of Your Hard Drive
How do I delete my deleted files on a computer so that they can't be
recovered by anyone else?
Q:The community where I live has a one-month period (April
this year) where you can dispose of your old computers. I have several
old PCs around the house, but want to clean out the hard drives. Can you
recommend a good program that can clean sensitive data off a hard drive?
A: There are a number of such "file wiper"
programs, which permanently delete files so that they can't be
recovered. Some are free, but the one I recommend is called Window
Washer and costs $30 from Webroot Software Inc. It can be purchased at
Webroot.com and elsewhere. The program, which
also performs other tasks, has a file-wiping function called
"bleaching." It can be used multiple times.
"Study: Web is the No. 1 media," by Candace Lombardi, The New York
Times, June 6, 2006 ---
Click Here
Web media is the dominant at-work media and No. 2
in the home, according to a new report from the Online Publishers
Association.
The Web also ranked as the No. 1 daytime media.
A research project, conducted by Ball State
University's Center for Media Design, tracked the media use of 350 people
every 15 seconds. The subjects represented each gender, about equally,
across three age groups: 18 to 34, 35 to 49 and 50-plus. The people were
monitored by another person for approximately 13 hours, or 80 percent of
their waking day.
"Someone actually came into their homes and
workplaces and had a handheld computer, every 15 seconds registering their
media consumption and life activities," Pam Horan, president of the Online
Publishers Association (OPA), told CNET News.com.
According to Horan, this is the first type of study
of its kind. Previously, consumers were monitored for media usage by phone
survey or diary method.
Not surprisingly, newspaper use peaked in the
morning; that print media was consumed by 17 percent of the subjects between
8 a.m. and 11 a.m. When this media was combined with Web consumption, the
potential reach for advertisers climbed to 44 percent. During the same
morning period, the number of consumers using magazines jumped from 7
percent to 39 percent, and from 44 percent to 62 percent for television.
"The point is that there is an incremental reach
that someone can gain by putting together a multimedia campaign," Horan
said.
A conservative estimate from the study says 17
percent of overall media is consumed via the Internet, and Horan notes that
other researchers like Forrester have placed that number even higher.
The OPA-commissioned study also used census data to
determine the spending habits of its 350 monitored subjects. Web dominant
consumers' retail spending averaged $26,450, while the TV-dominant group's
spending averaged $21,401.
Yet, studies have shown that only about 8 percent
of advertising goes to the Internet, Horan said.
"I hear more and more from marketers that they have
shifted their business to be more responsive and realign. There is an active
movement by traditional advertisers to be able to explore platform
strategies," Horan said. She believes that research studies are attracting
the attention of advertisers and media buyers and may result in a faster
shift in advertising dollars to match the actual statistics of consumer
media usage.
Google Inc. will introduce a spreadsheet program
Tuesday (June 8), continuing the Internet
search leader's expansion into territory long dominated by Microsoft Corp.
Although it's still considered a work in progress,
Google's online spreadsheet will offer consumers and businesses a free
alternative to Microsoft's Excel application _ a product typically sold as
part of the Office software suite that has been a steady moneymaker for
years.
To avoid swamping the company's computers, Google's
spreadsheet initially will be distributed to a limited audience. Google also
wants more time to smooth out any possible kinks and develop more features,
said Jonathan Rochelle, the product manager of the new application.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company planned to
begin accepting sign-ups for the spreadsheet at 9 a.m. EDT Tuesday through
the ''labs'' section of its Web site. Rochelle wouldn't specify how many
people will be granted access to the spreadsheet application.
Google's spreadsheet isn't as sophisticated as
Excel. For instance, the Google spreadsheet won't create charts or provide a
menu of controls that can be summoned by clicking on a computer mouse's
right-hand button.
Rochelle said the program's main goal is to make it
easier for family, friends or co-workers to gain access to the same
spreadsheet from different computers at different times, enabling a group of
authorized users to add and edit data without having to e-mail attachments
back and forth.
The US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
has published a series of staff questions and answers related to adjustments
to prior-period financial statements audited by a predecessor auditor. Prior
period adjustments may be required, for instance, for discontinued
operations, retrospective application of a change in accounting principle,
or the correction of an error in prior-period financial statements. If the
prior-period financial statements that require adjustments were audited by a
predecessor auditor, which auditor, the predecessor or the successor, should
audit the adjustments to prior-period financial statements?
Silicon Valley loves its buzzwords, and there's none more popular today than
Web 2.0. Unless you're a diehard techie, though, good luck figuring out what
it means. Web 2.0 technologies bear strange names like wikis, blogs, RSS,
AJAX, and mashups. And the startups hawking them -- Renkoo, Gahbunga, Ning,
Squidoo -- sound like Star Wars characters George Lucas left on the
cutting-room floor.
But behind the peculiarities, Web 2.0 portends a real
sea change on the Internet. If there's one thing they have in common, it's
what they're not. Web 2.0 sites are not online places to visit so much as
services to get something done -- usually with other people. From Yahoo!'s
(YHOO)
photo-sharing site Flickr and the group-edited online
reference source Wikipedia to the teen hangout MySpace, and even search
giant Google (GOOG),
they all virtually demand active participation and
social interaction (see BW Online, 9/26/05,
"It's A Whole New Web"). If these Web 2.0 folks
weren't so geeky, they might call it the Live Web.
And though these Web 2.0 services have succeeded in luring millions of
consumers to their shores, they haven't had much to offer the vast world of
business. Until now. Slowly but surely they're scaling corporate walls. "All
these things that are thought to be consumer services are coming into the
enterprise," says Ray Lane, former Oracle (ORCL)
president and now a general partner at the venture
capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (see BW Online, 6/5/06,
"A VC's View of Web 2.0").
CORPORATE BLOGGERS. For
all its appeal to the young and the wired, Web 2.0 may end up making its
greatest impact in business. And that could usher in more changes in
corporations, already in the throes of such tech-driven transformations as
globalization and outsourcing. Indeed, what some are calling Enterprise 2.0
could flatten a raft of organizational boundaries -- between managers and
employees and between the company and its partners and customers. Says Don
Tapscott, CEO of the Toronto tech think tank New Paradigm and co-author of
The Naked Corporation: "It's the biggest change in the organization
of the corporation in a century."
Early signs of the shift abound. Walt Disney (DIS),
investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, and
scores of other companies use wikis, or group-editable Web pages, to
turbo-charge collaboration. Other firms are using button-down
social-networking services such as LinkedIn and Visible Path to dig up sales
leads and hiring prospects from the collective contacts of colleagues.
Corporate blogging is becoming nearly a cliché, as executives from Sun
Microsystems (SUNW)
chief executive Jonathan Schwartz to General Motors (GM)
Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz post on their own blogs to communicate directly with
customers.
Just as the personal computer sneaked its way into companies through the
back door, so it's going with Web 2.0 services. When Rod Smith, IBM's
(IBM)
vice-president for emerging Internet technologies,
told the information technology chief at Royal Bank of Scotland about wikis
last year, the exec shook his head and said the bank didn't use them. But
when Smith looked at the other participants in the meeting, 30 of them were
nodding their heads. They use wikis indeed. "Enterprises have been ringing
our phones off the hook to ask us about Web 2.0," says Smith.
ONE GIANT COMPUTER. Also just like the PC, Web
2.0's essential appeal is empowerment. Increasing computer power, nearly
ubiquitous high-speed Internet connections, and ever-easier Web 2.0 services
give users unprecedented power to do it themselves. It doesn't hurt that
many of these services are free, supported by ads, or at their most
expensive still cost less than cable. "All the powerful trends in technology
have been do-it-yourself," notes Joe Kraus, CEO of wiki supplier JotSpot.
In essence, these services are coalescing into one giant computer that
almost anyone can use, from anywhere in the world. When you do a Google
search, for instance, you're actually setting in motion an array of programs
and databases distributed around the globe on computer hard drives. Not only
that, people who tap services such as MySpace, eBay (EBAY),
and the Internet phone service Skype actually are
improving the tools by the very act of using them. MySpace, for instance,
becomes more useful with each new contact or piece of content added.
The collective actions, contacts, and talent of people using services such
as MySpace, eBay, and Skype essentially improve those services constantly
(see BW Online, 6/20/05,
"The Power Of Us"). "We're shifting from a
presentation medium to a programming platform," says Tapscott. "Every time
we go on these sites, we're programming the Web."
PROBLEM SOLVING. Not surprisingly, a lot of
executives remain skeptical. For some, it's hard to imagine the same
technology that spawns a racy MySpace page also yielding a new corporate
collaboration service. "There's a big cultural difference between the Web
2.0 people and the IT department," notes consultant John Hagel, author of
several books on technology and business. More than that, information
technology managers naturally don't want people using these services
willy-nilly, because they're often not secure from hackers or rivals.
Nonetheless, the notions behind Web 2.0 clearly hold great potential for
businesses -- and peril for those that ignore them. Potentially, these Web
2.0 services could help solve some vexing problems for corporations that
current software and online services have yet to tackle.
For one, companies are struggling to overcome problems with current online
communications, whether it's e-mail spam or the costs of maintaining company
intranets that few employees use. So they're now starting to experiment with
a growing array of collaborative services, such as wikis. Says Ross
Mayfield, CEO of the corporate wiki firm Socialtext: "Now, most everybody I
talk to knows what Wikipedia is -- and it's not a stretch for them to
imagine a company Wikipedia."
MORE FLEXIBLE. And not just imagine -- Dresdner
Kleinwort Wasserstein, for instance, uses a Socialtext wiki instead of
e-mail to create meeting agendas and post training videos for new hires. Six
months after launching it, traffic on the 2,000-page wiki, used by a quarter
of the bank's workforce, already has surpassed that of the company's
intranet (see BW Online, 11/24/05,
"E-Mail Is So Five Minutes Ago").
Corporations also are balking at installing big,
multimillion dollar software programs that can take years to roll out -- and
then aren't flexible enough to adapt to new business needs. "They're clunky
and awkward and don't encourage participation," grumbles Dion Hinchcliffe,
chief technology officer of Washington, D.C. tech consultant Sphere of
Influence.
That's why companies are warming to the idea of opening their
information-technology systems to do-it-yourselfers. And they spy an
intriguing way to do that with what are known as mash-ups, or combinations
of simple Web 2.0 services with each other into a new service (see BW
Online, 7/25/05,
"Mix, Match, and Mutate"). The big advantage: They
can be done very quickly with existing Web services.
BUSINESS NETWORKS. IBM, for instance, last year
helped the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Corporate Citizenship mash
together a one-stop shop for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina to find
jobs. People type into one box the kind of job they're seeking, and the site
searches more than 1,000 job boards, then shows their location on a Google
Map. "This [mashups] could be a way to provide solutions to customers within
hours instead of months," says IBM's Smith.
Companies are starting to take a page from MySpace, Facebook, and other
social-networking services. The reason: As appealing as that social aspect
is for teens and anyone else who wants to stay in closer touch with friends,
it's even more useful in business. After all, businesses in one sense are
social networks formed to make or sell something.
So it's no surprise that corporate-oriented social networks are gaining a
toehold. LinkedIn, an online service for people to post career profiles and
find prospective employees, is the recruiting tool of choice for a number of
companies. "In 2003, people thought of us as a weird form of social
networking," notes LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman. "Now, people are saying, 'Oh,
I get it, it's a business tool.'" (see BW Online, 4/10/06,
"How LinkedIn Broke Through").
STAYING YOUNG. Despite
all the activity so far, it's still early days for this phenomenon some
techies (who can't help themselves) call Enterprise 2.0. For now, the key
challenge for executives is learning about the vast array of Web 2.0
services. And that requires more than simply checking in with the premier
Web 2.0 blog, TechCrunch (see BW Online, 6/2/06,
"Tip Sheet: Harnessing Web 2.0").
Where to start? Watch what kids are doing. If they use
e-mail at all, it's a distant fourth to instant messaging, personal blogs,
and the social networking sites, because they're much easier to use for what
matters to them: staying in touch with friends. Companies need to provide
more compelling ways for this highly connected bunch as they move into the
workforce, bringing their valuable contacts in tow. "Young people are not
going to go to companies where they can't use these new tools," says Lane.
"They'll say, 'Why would I want to work here?'"
It's also critical for executives to try out these services themselves:
Create a MySpace page. Open a Flickr account and upload a few photos. Write
a Wikipedia entry. Create a mashup at Ning.com. "The essence of Web 2.0 is
experimentation, so they should try things out," says venture capitalist
Peter Rip of Leapfrog Ventures, an investor in several Web 2.0 startups.
FREE P.R. Then there's blogging. It's
worthwhile to spend considerable time reading some popular blogs, which you
can find at
Technorati.com, to get a feel for how online
conversation works. Only then should execs try their hand at blogging -- and
perhaps first inside their companies before going public. Thick skin is a
requirement, since the "blogosphere" can be brutal on anything that sounds
like spin.
But the payoff can be substantial, if hard to quantify. Genial Microsoft
(MSFT)
blogger Robert Scoble, for instance, is credited by
many Redmond watchers with doing more to improve the company's image than
millions of dollars in public relations. In no small part that's because he
has shown a willingness to criticize his company at times.
Continued in article
When cows can fly Louisiana politics will be honorable Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, said Tuesday
that there is "an honorable explanation" for the damaging scenario being painted
by the federal government in the federal bribery probe targeting him, and he
again denied breaking any laws. Jefferson declined to discuss specifics of the
15-month investigation that has yielded two guilty pleas amid allegations that
the congressman accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Jefferson
has not been charged and would not speculate on whether he thought an indictment
was coming from the northern Virginia grand jury investigating him. In a
wide-ranging interview late Tuesday in his congressional office, the site last
month of an unprecedented FBI search, Jefferson said he has no intention of
stepping down and reiterated his plan to seek a ninth term in November.
Bill Walsh and Bruce Alpert, "Jefferson promises he has 'an honorable
explanation'": He says he'll seek re-election this year," The Times-Picayune,
June 7, 2006, ---
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-1/114966136294780.xml&coll=1
Two recent surveys offer insight into Americans’
driving habits, both good and bad. The 2006 Allstate America’s Best Drivers
Report and AutoVantage’s first annual In the Driver’s Seat Road Rage Survey
reveal different sides of one of the fundamental characteristics of American
life: driving.
Allstate America’s Best
Drivers Report
This report ranks the best drivers in the 200
largest cities across the United States. The best drivers were those who
were less likely than the national average to have an accident. To determine
where cities ranked on the list, Allstate researchers analyzed company data
to determine the likelihood drivers in those cities would experience a
vehicle collision.
“The Allstate America’s Best Driver’s Report
elevates the country’s discussion on safe driving. Our hope is that each
year the Allstate report helps facilitate an ongoing dialogue that saves
lives,” George Ruebenson, Allstate’s senior vice president for claims
service, said in a prepared statement.
According to the 2006 Best Drivers Report, the
cities with the best drivers are:
Sioux Falls, S.D., drivers are 30.2 percent
less likely to have an accident, going an average of 14.3 years between
collisions
Fort Collins, Colo., drivers are 24.0 percent
less likely to have an accident, going 13.2 years between collisions
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, drivers are also 24.0
percent less likely to have an accident, going 13.2 years between
collisions
Huntsville, Ala., drivers are 21.6 percent
less likely to have an accident, going 12.8 years between collisions
Chattanooga, Tenn., drivers are 21.2 percent
less likely to have an accident, going 12.7 years between collisions
Knoxville, Tenn., drivers are 20.7 percent
less likely to have an accident, going 12.6 years between collisions
Des Moines, Iowa, drivers are 20.6 percent
less likely to have an accident, also going 12.6 years between
collisions
Milwaukee, Wisc., drivers are 20.0 percent
less likely to have an accident, going 12.5 years between collisions
Colorado Springs, Colo., drivers are 19.0
percent less likely to have an accident, going 12.3 years between
collisions
Warren, Mich., drivers are 18.9 percent less
likely to have accident, also going 12.3 years between collisions.
For the second consecutive year, Phoenix had the
safest drivers among cities with more than 1 million residents. Drivers in
Phoenix can expect to go 9.7 years between collisions, slightly more
frequently than the national average. Phoenix is also listed as the second
least courteous city by the In the Driver’s Seat Road Rage survey.
In the Driver’s Seat Road Rage Survey
“Road rage has unfortunately too often become a way
of life, both on and off the track,” NASCAR driving legend and AutoVantage
spokesman Bobby Hamilton said in a prepared statement. “More and more, in
cities across America, people are acting out their frustrations with
dangerous results. It’s bad for professional drivers and everyday drivers
alike.”
The least courteous cities or those having the
worst road rage, according to the AutoVantage survey, are:
Miami, Fla.
Phoenix, Ariz.
New York, N.Y.
Los Angeles, Calif.
Boston, Mass.
The cities with the least road rage and therefore
the most courteous cities are:
Minneapolis, Minn.
Nashville, Tenn.
St. Louis, Mo.
Seattle, Wash.
Atlanta, Ga.
Other key findings from the AutoVantage survey
include:
1 percent of respondents admitted they
actually slammed into the car in front of them, although not always
intentionally;
24 percent reported seeing drivers running red
lights every day;
drivers in Miami are most likely to see
tailgating behavior, with 64 percent of drivers surveyed seeing it
daily. Even in St. Louis, where drivers are least likely to see
tailgating, 41 percent of drivers report seeing it daily
“This new study focuses on important attitudes and
habits of drivers on the open road nationwide,” Brad Eggleston, vice
president of AutoVantage, said in a prepared statement. “This groundbreaking
research is an important tool to help educate and influence safer driving
habits throughout the United States.”
According to Traffic Facts, a publication of the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more crashes occur on
Saturdays than any other day of the week. Sundays ranks second and Fridays
came in third. In addition, most collisions happen between 3 and 6 p.m.. The
period between 6 and 9 p.m. ranked second, while the period from 9 p.m. to
midnight finishes third. The fewest crashes occur between midnight and 3
a.m..
A number of organizations are actively concerned
with monitoring the ways in which various governments have attempted to
limit or restrict access to the Internet, and the OpenNet Initiative is one
such group. Drawing on a collaborative partnership with four academic
institutions (including the University of Toronto and Harvard Law School),
the group’s aim is “to excavate, expose and analyze filtering and
surveillance practices in a credible and non-partisan fashion.” On their
homepage, visitors will have access to a number of their research
publications, case studies, their blog, and a selection of external links of
note. Some of their more recent research papers include their investigation
into the extent to which the Republic of Yemen controls the information
environment of their citizens as well as similar efforts in Myanmar.
Overall, the site will be of great interest to those with an interest in
cyberlaw and related fields.
Art museums often publish a journal, which includes
papers primarily based on research about their specific collections. Since
2004, the Tate has been publishing its version online, as the Tate Papers.
The tag-line on the Web site promises that the journal will “cover a wide
range of subjects: artists, works of art and archives in Tate's collection,
art theory, visual culture, conservation and museology.” A quick browse of
the available papers shows that they do indeed live up to this claim. For
example, a visitor can read an article on the difficulties of conserving the
work of Joseph Beuys, an artist who often used organic materials that are
bound to decompose (such as fat and wool), but who made contradictory
statements regarding his willingness to allow his work to self-destruct. In
the same issue (Autumn 2005) a visitor can read a much more traditional
article researching the history and attribution of Thomas Gainsborough's
1781 portrait of Marie Jean Augustin Vestris, which passed from the hands of
private collectors to the National Gallery in 1888, and has belonged to the
Tate since 1955.
Summer is upon us, and it is certainly a time to
make a visual record of family gatherings, trips to the Atlas Mountains, or
other such occasions. StudioLine Photo Basic 3.4.13 is a good way to
organize such photographic memories, as users can sort their images into
albums and folders, and also utilize some of their 30 image tools to modify
their existing images. These tools can assist with exposure problems and the
seemingly omnipresent specter of red-eye. This version is compatible with
computers running Windows 98 and newer.
The idea behind the NetVeda Safety Net application
is a simple one: to allow users to control access to certain websites on
their computer and to maintain firewall protection in the process. Users of
the application can define user access based on the time of day and for
content, if they so desire. As might be expected, the application also
contains privacy controls that block the sending of personal information and
that can also generate activity reports. This version is compatible with all
computers running Windows 95 and newer.
Grandma May Truly Become Miss Piggy: Scientists hope to cure
Alzheimer's with piglet clones Scientists working in Denmark said on Friday they
planned to use piglets they had cloned in their search for a cure for
Alzheimer's disease. PhysOrg, June 8, 2006 ---
http://physorg.com/news69077612.html
Company-funded studies unveiled over the
weekend at the American Diabetes Association's annual meeting suggested
a pair of innovative drugs could benefit diabetics.
Several studies suggest Merck & Co.'s proposed
drug Januvia, for Type 2 diabetes, was effective at lowering a measure
of blood sugar without significant side effects. Januvia is awaiting
approval from the Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes,
which is more common than Type 1. Januvia is a drug known as a DPP-4
inhibitor, and if approved would likely be the first in a new class of
diabetes medicines. Novartis AG has a similar drug, Galvus, also
awaiting FDA approval.
Separately, new data from studies of Pfizer
Inc.'s inhaled form of insulin, Exubera, showed the product lowered or
maintained blood sugar without serious side effects. Pfizer's Exubera is
the first needle-free form of insulin and is set to hit the market next
month. Insulin is required to treat Type 1 diabetes and more severe
forms of Type 2 diabetes. Exubera could replace daily short-acting
insulin injections but wouldn't replace long-acting insulin.
Continued in article
Erotic images elicit strong response from brain A new study suggests the brain is quickly turned on
and "tuned in" when a person views erotic images. Researchers at Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis measured brainwave activity of
264 women as they viewed a series of 55 color slides that contained various
scenes from water skiers to snarling dogs to partially-clad couples in
sensual poses. What they found may seem like a "no brainer." When study
volunteers viewed erotic pictures, their brains produced electrical
responses that were stronger than those elicited by other material that was
viewed, no matter how pleasant or disturbing the other material may have
been. This difference in brainwave response emerged very quickly, suggesting
that different neural circuits may be involved in the processing of erotic
images.
"Erotic images elicit strong response from brain," PhysOrg, June 9,
2006 ---
http://www.physorg.com/news69083681.html
Man Meets Woman, Man Thinks Sex? When a man and woman meet for the first time, men
may be more likely to think about sex -- or at least more likely to admit
it. That's the core finding of a study in June's issue of Psychology of
Women Quarterly.
Miranda Hitti, "Man Meets Woman, Man Thinks Sex?" WebMD, June 9, 2006
---
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/123/115123
ABC News: Hospital Has Legionnaires' Disease Cases Legionnaires' disease have been diagnosed among
patients and visitors at a San Antonio hospital, and health officials
suspect the facility is the source of the outbreak. Among those diagnosed at
North Central Baptist Hospital, three have died. But health officials said
they already were ill and they didn't know how much of a factor
Legionnaire's disease played in the deaths.
"ABC News: Hospital Has Legionnaires' Disease Cases," ABC News, June
15, 2006 ---
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2078246
Car Ads Keep Selling Sex, While many car advertisements today focus on
families and young consumers, many companies continue to play to their
physically mature but adolescently-minded male base.
A page by "Sylvia"
at CarSpace.com (the social networking site from
Edmunds.com) contrasts ads from the 1970's and today, and things haven't
change much.
John Gartner, "Car Ads Keep Selling Sex," Wired News, June 9, 2006 ---
http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cars/
Check out this 1970 Dodge Charger ad on
YouTube, which depicts women as bubble-headed
playthings who swoon all over a nebbish guy because of his wheels. And
then watch the contemporary Dodge Durango ad that wasn't aired because
of it's phallic references. Yup, car advertisers love to make the pitch
all about getting laid.
Although not about sex, the Toyota Vios ad is a
clever ripoff ad about the tempetation of cars.
In his new short story collection In Persuasion Nation, absurdist
extraordinaire George Saunders offers a surreal depiction of the destruction
of individuality through consumer mega-culture
If you are a new reader of George Saunders, the
first thing you ought to know is that Saunders is the funniest writer in
America, more likely to make you laugh in public, if that's where you're
reading his books, than any writer since P.G. Wodehouse. The
competition--David Sedaris, Tom Wolfe, Christopher Buckley--isn't even
close.
It is easy, therefore, to pigeonhole Saunders,
to think of him largely as a wit and an absurdist extraordinaire. This
would be to miss his point. Saunders's laughs are a cover, a diversion,
beneath which reside some profoundly serious intentions regarding the
morality of how we live and the power of love and immanent death to
transform us into vastly better creatures than we could otherwise hope
to be. These are the biggest intentions an artist can have.
Among younger writers these days, Saunders has
many imitators. He often writes with great wit and affection about
working-class people and the situations of nonsensical hardship they
face. With so few writers left in the United States qualified (and
willing) to cover this terrain, Saunders ends up attracting some
disciples simply along class lines. But class is not his main concern.
His main concerns are much harder to pin down--unlike writers who often
can be successfully imitated, say Ann Beattie or Raymond Carver,
Saunders does not work in the mainstream tradition of North American
short fiction, nor does he have a simple style, though it may sometimes
appear so. His sensibility, always a close relative of style, is
exclusively his own, sophisticated, daring and politically unusual, to
the degree that one can't really imitate him unless one believes what he
believes--everything he does is in service of an immovably unique
worldview. In this as in several other ways, Saunders reminds me of
Flannery O'Connor, which is to say he is a radical, and only a small
number of people who really understand the convictions behind his
work--the caustic humor that, pulled back, reveals a scouring contempt
for consumer society and modern life, as well as a deep and specifically
religious eagerness for transcendent meaning--would choose to embrace
them.
No agreement or even negotiation with the Arabs until they accepted
that Zionism was invincible As I write, Israel is faced with a democratically
elected Hamas government, the legacy of its own brute military policies
toward the Palestinians. Behind Hamas's statement that it will not recognize
Israel--for which it is isolated and financially starved--we can ironically
detect the shade, and perfectly logical consequence, of the ethos of
Jabotinsky, who famously ended his 1923 essay "The Iron Wall": "The only
path to an agreement in the future is an absolute refusal of any attempts at
an agreement now." There could be no agreement or even negotiation with the
Arabs until they accepted that Zionism was invincible. For Jabotinsky
inflexibility was political doctrine.
"The Zionist Imagination," by Jacqueline Rose, The Nation, June 26,
2006 ---
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060626/rose
June 1, 2006 message from James L. Morrison
[jlm@nova.edu]
The June/July 2006 issue of
Innovate (www.innovateonline.info)
offers a range of practical ideas for using new
technologies in classrooms as well as ways to avoid common pitfalls
caused by technology. This is a one-time mailing to you; if you wish to
receive future announcements of new issues and our webcast schedules,
please take advantage of our free subscription at
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=subscribe
We open with Sir John Daniel and
Paul West’s exploration of how the digital dividends of technology
can be used to overcome the digital divide for impoverished nations
worldwide. They examine the challenges of bringing higher education to
developing nations and advocate open educational resources as a
potential solution to the problem.
(See
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=252
)
Our next three articles address
specific ways in which instructors have used the digital dividends
available to them in teaching. Ulises Mejias describes a graduate
seminar he taught on the affordances of social software--software that
allows for information exchange, collaboration, and ease of
communication. His students used the software while learning about it
and critiquing it, illustrating well the learning opportunities afforded
by this category of technology.
(See
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=260
)
S. Pixy Ferris and Hilary Wilder
examine wikis, one example of social software, as a way to bridge the
distance between students and teachers.
Adopting the linguistic theory
of Walter J. Ong, they see teachers as part of a print paradigm of
learning, whereas they propose that students are increasingly a part of
a secondary-oral paradigm characterized by certain attributes of both
oral-based cultures and print-based cultures. Wikis, they argue, can be
a pedagogical bridge between these two educational positions.
(See
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=258
)
Craig Smith focuses on chat, a common
way for online instructors to replace classroom discussion. He provides
a protocol to keep discussions focused and productive, helping teachers
realize the potential usefulness of an easily accessible technological
tool. (See
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=246
)
Technology also presents some
problems in the classroom. The easy availability of apparently anonymous
information on the Internet blurs definitions of plagiarism. While tools
such as electronic plagiarism detectors have become more common,
Eleanour Snow argues that they are not enough. She advocates online
tutorials as an easy and effective way of teaching students about
plagiarism, and offers examples and links to tutorials for teachers
eager to begin the process of educating themselves and their students.
(See
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=306
)
Howard Pitler also sees a need
to make copyright guidelines clear, but argues that copyrights should be
more flexible. He offers guidance about how copyright works and
describes Creative Commons, a Web site that provides writers and artists
a way to select the rights that they want to reserve and make it clear
to others exactly what they are allowed to reproduce and alter.
(See
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=251
)
Another difficulty inherent in the
digital age is the notorious attrition rate in online education. While
noting that drop rates for online courses should not necessarily be
equated with lack of success, David Diaz and Ryan Cartnal acknowledge
that reducing attrition in such courses should still be on educators'
agendas. In addressing this issue they examine the impact of term length
on attrition rates, advocating a shorter length to enable time-strapped
students to complete the course more efficiently. (See
Please forward this announcement to
appropriate mailing lists and to colleagues who want to use IT tools to
advance their work. Ask your organizational librarian to link to
Innovate in their resource section for open-access e-journals.
An increasing number of parents
are dealing with sex education at home -- often long before it comes up
in the classroom. And now, parents can turn to a wave of books and
videos to help address the subject with small kids, some even as young
as four.
"The trick is to find out from
the kid what they really want to know," says Dr. Charles Shubin, who
teaches pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University and the University of
Maryland. He recommends that parents choose sex-ed materials that are
age-appropriate and that they review all books and videos carefully
before showing them to their children. Here are some resources:
Book: "But How'd I Get in
There in the First Place?" by Deborah M. Roffman Price/Publisher: $14 (paperback); Perseus Publishing Comment: Ms. Roffman -- who teaches sex education at schools in
Baltimore -- thinks parents shouldn't always wait until a child asks to
bring up the topic of sex. Published in 2002 and aimed at parents of
children under seven years old, her book gives straight-forward advice.
Book: "Everything You
Never Wanted Your Kids to Know about Sex (But Were Afraid
They'd Ask)" by Justin Richardson, M.D., and Mark A. Schuster, M.D.,
Ph.D. Price/Publisher: $14.95 (paperback); Three Rivers Press Comment: This book explains in depth a child's sexual
development, the emotions a parent may experience as a child changes and
how to talk to the child about sex. Topics include nudity at home, a
child's sexual orientation, abstinence and dealing with sexually active
adolescents.
Book: "It's Not the
Stork" by Robie H. Harris Price/Publisher: $16.99; Candlewick Press Comment: "It's Not the Stork," which will be published
next month, is aimed at kids as young as four years old. Many parents
will like this book's direct approach, but some may feel it offers too
much too soon.
Book: "Where Did I Come
From?" by Peter Mayle Price/Publisher: $9.95 (paperback); Kensington Publishing Comment: Originally published in 1973, more than two million
copies of this sex-ed book have been sold in the U.S. The cartoon-style
drawings are child-friendly, if a bit cheesy. In one, a sperm wears a
top hat.
DVDs: "The Birds, the
Bees, and Me" Price/Publisher: $19.95; National Training Organization for Child
Care Providers Comment: These 20-minute DVD videos -- there's one aimed at girls
and one aimed at boys -- use cartoons, diagrams and college-age
narrators in an attempt to make young children comfortable with topic of
sex. They cover basic information about the changes a body goes through
during puberty, sexual intercourse and how a "baby" -- note, not a fetus
-- grows in a woman's body. There is also a strong abstinence message.
Invest Time for a Laugh www.dailyreckoning.com
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visitors not only get the latest market headlines and insights, but also
some laughs. For example, the Essentialist Glossary in the Extras section
defines Bill Gates as “where God goes for a loan.” Users also can read
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subscribe to the free Daily Reckoning financial e-letter or get
five secrets for investing in small- and micro-cap stocks.
Forwarded by Dick Haar
Tax his land, Tax his wage, Tax his bed in which he lays.
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes is the rule.
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat.
Tax his ties, Tax his shirts, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his booze, Tax his beers, If he cries, Tax his tears.
Tax his bills, Tax his gas, Tax his notes, Tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know That after taxes, he has no dough.
If he hollers, Tax him more, Tax him til he's good and sore.
Tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he lays.
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