Tidbits on April 29, 2005
Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 
Archives of Tidbits: Tidbits Directory --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Bob Jensen's home page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/

Campaign for Trinity University --- http://www.trinity.edu/departments/public_relations/case_statement/index.htm 

Music:  Reflections (turn your speakers up) --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/reflections.htm

A lie can make its way half way around the world before the truth can get its pants on.
Winston Churchill as quoted by Alan Dershowitz at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13590

Psycho for real:  Mom's in the freezer
A case of cold stash for cash:  Do you suppose she could have died from Spam overdose?
As a teenager, Philip Schuth was teased mercilessly by the other kids because his mother still walked him to school. As an adult, he lived with his mother, cut his backyard with a scythe, and once bought $150 worth of Spam in a single grocery store outing. But the strangest thing of all would come to light over the weekend: Schuth had kept his mother's remains in a basement freezer for years while he went on collecting her Social Security checks.
"Man Who Put Mom in Freezer Had Odd History," MyWay, April 26, 2005 --- http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050426/D89N9TE80.html

Ben Gazzara:  "I was never depressed when I had cancer."
Actor Ben Gazzara, whose film credits include "Summer of Sam" and "Dogville," told a group of mental health professionals that he had more trouble beating depression than cancer. At a mood disorders symposium Wednesday, Gazzara told how a bout with oral cancer five years ago was easier to deal with than two previous episodes of depression.  "That was nothing," he said of the cancer. "And that's a reason to be depressed. I was never depressed when I had cancer." Gazzara described how his struggles with depression had stopped him from working. He finished "They All Laughed" while recovering from the first incident in 1980.  "I was in a depression during the whole shooting and I was terrific in that film," Gazzara told the audience. "And I don't remember doing it."
Alex Dominguez, "Actor Ben Gazzara says depression was tougher to beat than cancer ," Atlanta Journal Constitution, April 21, 2005 --- http://www.ajc.com/

SpongeBob Square Pants Incident:  Writings of a professor dysfunctional to a college's fund raising efforts
In an interview Wednesday night, De La Torre said that he quit — giving up tenure he won a few months ago — because of a letter from Hope’s president, James E. Bultman, criticizing his writings and suggesting that they were making it difficult for the college to raise money. While De La Torre did not release the letter, he confirmed reports that it said that his writings had “irreparably damaged the reputation of Hope in our community” and that “when people are displeased with what we do, their only recourse is to exercise their options with regard to enrollment and gifting.” Hope is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America. And the letter particularly took issue with columns De La Torre wrote in The Holland Sentinel mocking some Christian leaders. One of the columns that angered the president was a piece mocking evangelicals who criticized the role of SpongeBob SquarePants in a video encouraging tolerance toward gay people.
Scott Jaschik, "Did SpongeBob Article Cost Professor a Job?" Inside Higher Ed, April 28, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/04/28/hope
Jensen Comment:  The problem with academic freedom is that there are sharp edges on both sides of the blade.  Do you suppose there are many blonde philanthropists out there?  Hmmm!  And all my jokes about growing old --- Do you suppose?

Growing problem of "anti-Semitism" on U.K. campuses
The British Association of University Teachers has now created a blacklist against Jewish Israeli academics -- really a blue and white list -- reminiscent of the worst abuses of McCarthyism. And just as McCarthyism was a barrier to peace between the U.S. and the Soviet Union - by contributing to a dangerous atmosphere in which each side vilified and threatened the other - so too does the British lecturers' boycott endanger the progress now being made toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. It is not surprising therefore that even the Palestinian Al-Quds University in Jerusalem released a statement against the British association blacklist, saying, "We are informed by the principle that we should seek to win Israelis over to our side, not to win against them ... Therefore, informed by this national duty, we believe it is in our interest to build bridges, not walls; to reach out to the Israeli academic institutions, not to impose another restriction or dialogue-block on ourselves." . . . It's a good thing Israel has only to make peace with its Palestinian neighbors and not European university professors. The terrible message being sent by this anti-Semitic action -- anti-Semitic because it will apply only to Israeli Jews, not Arabs or Christians -- is that the Jewish state will not be rewarded for taking steps toward peace and ending the occupation. Instead it will be punished.
Alan M. Dershowitz, "From Britain, with bigotry," National Post," April 27, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/BritainBigotry

Growing problem of "anti-Semitism" on U.S. campuses
Alan Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University Law School. He is an internationally respected attorney and human rights activist. At one time he was actively involved as an attorney in the Soviet Jewry Movement and helped to free Natan Sharansky from the USSR. He is recognized as a member of the liberal establishment yet a strong supporter of Israel. He has also become aware of the continual anti-Israel bias that is growing on college campuses in the United States. Below is an edited transcript of his speech at UC Berkeley, one of the most anti-Israel campuses in the United States. Dershowitz addressed an audience of 1,200 people on April 29, 2004, about the growing problem of anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses.
"Making the Case for Israel," FrontPageMagazine, June 1, 2004 --- http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13590

Jensen Comment:  I spent an interesting year in a think tank with Alan at a time when he was on the faculty of Harvard Law School but before he became famous from his controversial books books defending the likes of Angela Davis, OJ Simpson, and many other controversial persons in famous cases.  Way back then, I learned full well that Alan's concept of the ideal lawyer is one who would put on a great defense of Hitler or OJ Simpson or Bin Ladin.  He can be very outspoken with his own personal opinions and then totally detach himself from his own opinions when coming to the brilliant defense of virtually anybody with opinions that he might find personally disgusting.  Perhaps we should have more professors with such skills when teaching both sides of a controversial issue upon which they personally have one-sided preferences.
See  http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/facdir.php?id=12
Or better yet go to http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0220641/

Some of his quotes are at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alan_m_dershowitz.html
Also see http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/alan_m._dershowitz/

Examples from various sources are shown below:

What would I do if Hitler asked me to defend him? Yes, I would defend him. The alternatives would be worse. Hitler would either go free because nobody would defend him, or go to trial without a lawyer. And I would win.

All sides in a trial want to hide at least some of the truth.

Judges are the weakest link in our system of justice, and they are also the most protected.

The court of last resort is no longer the Supreme Court. It's "Nightline."

The defendant wants to hide the truth because he's generally guilty. The defense attorney's job is to make sure the jury does not arrive at that truth.

The judge also has a truth he wants to hide: He often hasn't been completely candid in describing the facts or the law.

The prosecution wants to make sure the process by which the evidence was obtained is not truthfully presented, because, as often as not, that process will raise questions.

Impure Literature
Drawing on interviews with workers in Chicago and his own covert explorations of the city’s meat-processing factories, Sinclair intended the novel to be an expose of brutal working conditions. By the time it appeared as a book the following year, The Jungle’s nauseating revelations were the catalyst for a reform movement culminating in the Pure Food and Drug Act. In portraying the life and struggles of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, Sinclair wanted to write (as he put it), “The Uncle Tom’s Cabin of wage slavery,” thereby ushering in an age of proletarian emancipation. Instead, he obliged the bourgeoisie to regulate itself — if only to keep from feeling disgust at its breakfast sausages.
Scott McLemee, "Impure Literature," Inside Higher Ed, April 29, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/04/28/mclemee

It's easy to start your own blog.  Next you might want to start an RSS.
Bob Jensen's threads on Weblogs and blogs are at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Weblog
There are many other alternatives for setting up a free blog.  See the above link for more options.

The innovation that sends blogs zinging into the mainstream is RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. Five years ago, a blogger named Dave Winer, working with software originally developed by Netscape, created an easy-to-use system to turn blogs, or even specific postings, into Web feeds. With this system, a user could subscribe to certain blogs, or to key words, and then have all the relevant items land at a single destination. These personalized Web pages bring together the music and video the user signs up for, in addition to news. They're called "aggregators." For now, only about 5% of Internet users have set them up. But that number's sure to rise as Yahoo and Microsoft plug them.
Business Week, April 22, 2005 --- , http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/  
 

"What Your College Kid Is Really Up To," by Steven Levy, Time Magazine, December 13, 2004, Page 12

Aaron Swartz was nervous when I went to interview him.  I know this is not because he told me, but because he said so on his student blog a few days afterward.  Swartz is one of millions of people who mainstream an Internet-based Weblog that allows one to punch in daily experiences as easily as banging out diary entries with a word processor.  Swartz says the blog is meant to help him remember his experiences during an important time for him --- freshman year at Stanford.  But this opens up a window to the rest of us.

Continued in the article.

Two paragraphs written by Aaron Swartz at Stanford University --- http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/001690

I have taken two IHUM (Introduction to the HUManities) courses. The first was a right-wing course in which the TF told us ‘You might think you found an error in Locke’s logic, but you should check again, because Locke was a pretty smart guy.’, got mad with me for talking about Vietnam, and suggested I drop out of school. The message of the course, I concluded, was ‘the world is just fine, so we shouldn’t do anything, and even if we did, it would just make things worse.’

The new IHUM is a left-wing course in which the TF asks us ‘Do you agree with Marx? Where was he wrong?’ and got mad at me for abusing my white male blogger knowledge power to silence the rest of the class, and suggested I go to a progressive/radical school. The message of the course, I conclude, is ‘the world is a terrible mess, but is so rotten that we can’t do anything, except maybe by purchasing more “socially-responsible” items’. (Madison Avenue is apparently the new Marx — overthrow capitalism through…more capitalism! (This theme is thoroughly documented in Thomas Frank’s early work.))

"Controversy at Warp Speed," by Jeffrey Selingo, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2005, Page A27

The deluge of messages left Mr. Corrigan wondering how so many people had found out about such a small skirmish on his campus.  So his assistant poked around on the Web and discovered that six days after the protest, a liberal blog (http://sf.indymedia.org) run by the San Francisco Independent Media Center had posted an article headlined "Defend Free Speech Rights at San Francisco State University" that included Mr. Corrigan's e-mail address.

It was not the first time that Mr. Corrigan has been electronically inundated after a campus incident.  Three years ago he received 3,000 e-mail messages after a pro-Israel rally was held at the university.

EVERYONE HAS A BEEF

Conflicts on campus are nothing new, of course.  But colleges today are no longer viewed as ivory towers.  Institutions of all sizes and types are under greater scrutiny than ever before from lawmakers, parents, taxpayers, students, alumni, and especially political partisans.  Empowered by their position or by the fact that they sign the tuition checks, they do not hesitate to use any available forum to complain about what is happening at a particular institution.

In this Internet age, information travels quickly and easily, and colleges have become more transparent, says Collin G. Brooke, an assistant professor of writing at Syracuse University, who studies the intersection between rhetoric and technology.  Many universities' Web sites list the e-mail addresses of every employee, from the president on down, enabling unencumbered access to all of them.

"That was not possible 10 years ago," Mr. Brooke says.  "Maybe I'd go to a library, find a college catalog, and get an address.  Then I'd have to write a letter.  Now it's easy to whip off a couple of sentences in an e-mail when it takes only a few seconds to find that person's address."

Read more about blogs and Weblogs and RSS at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Weblog

That's Enron-tainment:  Positive review on the new Enron movie
Alex Gibney's freewheeling -- and terrifically entertaining -- documentary, newly entered into national release, puts faces and voices to the men and women who've become household names since the scandal broke four years ago. Some of these former executives have already enjoyed (or endured) extensive face time on TV. But now they're characters in the context of a film that's been adapted from the book of the same name by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, and the big screen lends new immediacy to their appearance. That's not to say Mr. Gibney's documentary turns its characters into real people. Given the scale of the human and economic damage, of the deception and very possibly the pathological self-deception, there may not be any real people behind those scrupulously straight faces. Still, "The Smartest Guys in the Room" gives us the same sort of perverse pleasure that's been a staple of "60 Minutes" over the years -- watching world-class crooks tell world-class lies.
"That's Enron-tainment: Company's Chief Cheats Give 'Smartest Guys' Energy:  Documentary Tracing Firm's Fall Is Provocative, Proudly Partisan; 'Machuca': Classy Class Drama," The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2005; Page W1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111473473039520299,00.html?mod=todays_us_weekend_journal
Bob Jensen's threads on the history of the Enron/Andersen scandals are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm

You can download Enron's Infamous Home Video
Although it has nothing to do with the above professional movie, Jim Borden sent me a copy of the amateur video recording of Rich Kinder's departure from Enron (Kinder preceded Skilling as President of Enron).  This video features nearly half an hour of absurd skits, songs and testimonials by company executives.  It features CEO Jeff Skilling proposing Hypothetical Future Value (HPV) accounting with in retrospect is too true to be funny during the subsequent melt down of Enron.  George W. Bush (then Texas Governor Bush and his father) appear in the video.  You can download parts of it at  http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm#HFV
 

Warning:  The above video is in avi format and takes a very long time to download.  It probably dovetails nicely into Alex Gibney's new Hollywood movie.

Footnote:  Rich Kinder left Enron, formed his own energy company, and became a billionaire --- http://www.mcdep.com/MR11231.PDF

Internet is newest place to plead case
Defendants in high-profile criminal and civil cases are increasingly using the Internet in an attempt to influence the public, the media and even potential jurors. From simple discussion groups to ultra-slick multimedia shows, the sites are giving unprecedented message control to those who stand to lose their fortune or freedom. "Is it a trend? Absolutely," said Richard Levick, a Washington-based litigation consultant who has designed Web strategies for his clients. "We're going to see a lot more of this into the future. Defendants are going to demand it." An Illinois capital case spawned one of the first sites 10 years ago. Lawyers for Girvies Davis, who said he did not commit the 1978 murder that put him on Death Row, built a home page in 1994 to publicize his plea for mercy. It attracted enormous attention. Media outlets from ABC News to People magazine ran stories on Davis, and Brian Murphy, one of the defense attorneys, said Web surfers sent a deluge of e-mails to then-Gov. Jim Edgar. "I don't have any idea whether it had any effect at all, but we didn't get the outcome we were looking for. Girvies was executed on May 17, 1995," said David Schwartz, who also represented Davis.
John Keilman, "Internet is newest place to plead case," Chicago Tribune, April 25, 2005 --- http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0504250225apr25,1,3303011.story?coll=chi-techtopheds-hed

Jensen Comment:  I wonder if we will one day see an explosion of Web sites protesting grades in college, sites that name names, show instructor comments (or lack thereof) on term papers, etc.

Amazon may not be the place to plead your case
Several months ago, Christy Serrato bought a iPod mini digital-music player through Amazon.com Inc.'s Web site. When it failed to arrive, she sent a number of e-mails to the seller, without a reply. Only after another round of e-mails did she finally get a refund, roughly two months after her purchase. The challenge for Ms. Serrato, a software saleswoman in San Francisco, was that, while she used Amazon's Web site -- the seller was actually one of the 925,000 independent merchants that sell through Amazon. When one of these purchases goes awry, consumers aren't always sure who is responsible, or even where to complain.
Mylene Mangalindan, "Who's Selling What on Amazon:  Some Shoppers Are Confused As Independent Merchants Make Up More of Site's Sales," The Wall Street Journal,  April 28, 2005; Page D1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111464129681318824,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal
Bob Jensen's fraud updates are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Teenagers are not, in fact, superior Web geniuses
"Teenagers are not, in fact, superior Web geniuses who can use anything a site throws at them," the study concludes. Rather, there are "cognitive, developmental and behavioral differences" between adults and teenagers, which the report defines as people between the ages of 13 and 17. And those differences make teens less than expert when it comes to effective Web surfing. For Web retailers, the study -- which is far from definitive -- suggests some rethinking may be in order. It indicates that many Web sites are either shooting over the heads of their intended teen targets or just aren't designed to suit teenage tastes -- with complex navigation tools, hard-to-find instructions and search options, and visually boring sites.
Jeanette Borzo, "Teens Don't Know Everything," The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2005; Page R9 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111401164267912052,00.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report

I guess they just wanted to borrow the stuff for one night
A television, stereo, and VCR were stolen over the weekend from a house in the small town of Kremlin. Undersheriff Jerry Niles said the woman who lives at the house called deputies Monday night to say that someone broke into her house again while she was away, returned the electronics gear, even restoring the wiring and repairing a door jamb damaged in the original break-in. "It was spooky," Niles said. He said it was the first time he has ever seen all of the property taken in a burglary returned like that. Deputies are still investigating the case.
"Burglar With Conscience Returns Items," Newsday.com, April 28, 2005 ---
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-burglar-returns,0,1996502.story

Women on the endangered species list?
Never mind the spotted owl. A new study suggests that pollution could hasten the demise of a species much dearer to man: women. Swedish fishermen who were exposed to high levels of industrial waste, pesticides and other pollutants had a higher proportion of male Y chromosomes in their sperm, scientists said. Why is that worrisome? Because an egg fertilized by a Y chromosome sperm will produce a boy while an X chromosome sperm results in a girl. And there are already 33 million more men than women in the world, according to the Population Reference Bureau. "The more exposed the fishermen were to the chemicals, the more Y chromosomes we found," Prof. Aleksander Giwercman of Malmo University in Sweden told Reuters. The study focused on dangerous pollutants such as dioxin, DDT and PCBs used commercially for decades before being banned. "This is more evidence that chemicals which everyone is exposed to have an effect on the function of the reproductive system," Giwercman said.
Corky Siemaszko, "Dirty genes, fewer gals?" New York Daily News, April 28, 2005 --- http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/304476p-260580c.html

Walt Mossberg's Mailbox, April 28, 2005 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111463925099218775,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

Q: I am a broker who sells land in rural or remote locations. Increasingly, my clients want high-speed DSL or cable Internet services, but they are often unavailable in the rural areas. Are there rural options available?

A: Yes. You can tell them that, in most places, high-speed Internet service is available via satellite. DirecTV offers a service called Direcway, which works anywhere with a clear view of the Southern sky. It downloads data at 500 kilobits per second, which is equivalent to the slower DSL offerings.

It's been years since I tested satellite Internet service, so I can't offer an evaluation. But the Direcway service has some drawbacks. It doesn't work well with fast Internet gaming, because there is some latency in the home-to-satellite connection. It also isn't compatible with most Virtual Private Network, or VPN, connections that link homes securely to corporate networks. And its upload speed is quite slow, at just 50 kbps.

Also, Direcway is relatively costly. There's a $600 upfront cost for a special satellite dish, and the monthly fee is $60, much more than most DSL and cable rates. But, in areas without DSL or cable, it may be worth it.

Jensen Comment:  The satellite solution is not ideal.  Note the upload problem mentioned above (upload means the things like messages and files that you send someplace else).

Fake-Drug Sales Thrive on Web
Drug-industry executives think the Internet and mail-order operations will be the biggest source of counterfeit drugs over the next five years, according to a report released today by Ernst & Young. Of the executives surveyed, 43% identified illegal Internet and mail-order pharmacies as the growing threat, while 35% identified the secondary wholesale market. That is a shift; the secondary market is currently the biggest entry point, according to 41% of those polled.
Heather Won Tesoriero, "Fake-Drug Sales Thrive on Web," The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2005; Page D4 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111465461647719182,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal

Trivia from the Washington Post on April 26

Which Middle Eastern country recently announced that all camel racers will be mechanical by 2007?

A. Oman
B. Qatar
C. Saudi Arabia
D. United Arab Emirates

Grossly exaggerated and fabricated (obesity) scare campaign
With tremendous media fanfare last year, Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced that overweight and obesity had killed 400,000 Americans in 2000. The CDC paper making this claim, led by Gerberding and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, laid the foundation for billions of dollars in government and industry initiatives and an aggressive new national advertising campaign to combat what she called a "tragic and unacceptable" health crisis. But it has finally been exposed for what it is: a grossly exaggerated and fabricated scare campaign
( http://snipurl.com/TooFat ).
Sandy Scwarz, "Bon Appetit! ," Tech Central Station, April 25, 2005 --- http://www.techcentralstation.com/042505D.html

Sounds a bit too much like putting human rubbish in rubbish containers in a dump
Government and opposition MPs are teaming up in a joint plan to house anti-social tenants in special iron huts to reduce city disputes and prevent people from being forced onto the street. The plan from the Christian Democrat CDA, Liberal VVD and opposition Labour PvdA is focused at troublesome tenants who have long been a nuisance factor. Instead of being evicted, they will be given a 'last chance residence', newspaper 'De Telegraaf' reported on Monday. Christian Democrat MP Mirjam Sterk wants to prevent tenants who disturb their neighbourhood ending up on the street. She said: "The trouble will only have been relocated, not resolved".  The CDA is being inundated with complaints about troublesome neighbours and Sterk believes that between "the normal house" and "the street", a transitional home is missing. The party will submit a legislative proposal to Parliament allowing the relocation of anti-social neighbours to container homes in a specifically designated and remote area of a city.
"Anti-social tenants face life in 'container homes'," Expatica, April 25, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/HumanTrashCans

Quantum Computing May Seem Too Far Out, But Don't Count on It
Science, including the science of building computers, often works in three phases. First, a scientist has an idea that other scientists regard as more science fiction than science. A few years later, a few other scientists begin to realize that the idea isn't so improbable after all. And a few years after that, the idea starts to be taught to undergraduates as though it is old hat. That's what's happening with quantum computing, a radical redesign of computers that could result in unimaginably fast machines. A generation ago, a few physicists had the brainstorm that such machines might be possible -- even though Albert Einstein himself regarded it all as nonsense. Now, at the University of California, Berkeley, you have C191: Quantum Information Science and Technology, a senior-level class that's a co-production of the school's physics, chemistry and computer-science departments.
"Quantum Computing May Seem Too Far Out, But Don't Count on It," The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2005; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111437977771115415,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

Feedback
This concept, which arose from the early days of electronics, has become one of the most powerful in engineering and applied science. Anyone who wishes to evaluate some of the claims made by people like computer modellers needs to appreciate the basics of feedback. While you need complex numbers to understand it fully, the basic concepts can be illustrated by means of the simple feedback equation as developed for early electronic amplifiers
John Brignell, "Feedback," Number Watch --- http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/feedback.htm

A broken wrist cost more than $US17,000 to fix in the US, where Mark Coultan discovered bulk billing had an altogether different meaning.
The economist Paul Krugman has summarised it this way: "The United States has the most privatised, competitive health system in the advanced world; it also has by far the highest costs, and close to the worst results."
"Small bump, big bill," Sydney Morning Herald, April 25 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/04/24/1114281452417.html

It's not a tunnel of love:  Trap-building ants torture prey
A fierce species of Amazonian ant has been seen building elaborate traps on which hapless prey are stretched like medieval torture victims, before being slowly hacked to pieces. With cunning and patience, Allomerus decemarticulatus worker-ants cut hairs from the stem of the plant they inhabit, and use the tiny fibres to build a spongy snare, Nature magazine reports. This ingenious feat of engineering has only ever been observed in one other species of related ant, French researchers say. What the ants do is cut hairs to clear a path under the plant stem, while leaving some hairs standing to form "pillars" on top of which the lethal platform will sit. Using the plant hairs they have harvested, the ants weave the platform itself, which is bound together and strengthened using a special fungus. When the ants have completed the chamber they puncture holes all along its surface, each just big enough to poke their heads through. Then, hundreds of worker ants climb into the chamber and wait for an unfortunate victim.
"Trap-building ants torture prey," BBC News, April 23, 2005 --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4472521.stm

Why you should zero out your credit card debt and pay cards off in full every month thereafter
But all is not tulips and nectar over at MBNA, the largest independent issuer of credit cards. Yesterday it reported a poor quarter and ratcheted down earnings expectations for the year. Its stock sank to a two-year low. Credit card giant Capital One Financial had a better quarter, but its stock has been slumping lately, too. Bad news for the credit card companies may be better news for us. There are signs at both companies that consumers may be responding to higher rates by doing something almost completely unexpected and practically un-American: paying down credit card debt.The credit card industry presumes, based on happy experience, that Americans will borrow more money each quarter to support their spending habits, regardless of the direction of interest rates, and that enough consumers will be happy simply to pay off just enough debt to allow them to borrow more. But last quarter MBNA, to its apparent shock, found that "results were further impacted by unexpectedly high payment volumes from U.S. credit card customers," and that "the payment volumes were particularly higher on accounts with higher interest rates."
Daniel Gross, "Americans Pay Off Credit Card Debt! This is not science fiction. It's really happening," Slate, April 22, 2005 --- http://www.slate.com/id/2117224/

Upwardly mobile gay college president
A Berkeley dean talks about taking Hampshire’s top job, politically active campuses, and becoming one of the few openly gay college presidents
Scott Jaschik, "Upwardly Mobile Academic: Ralph J. Hexter," Inside Higher Ed, April 18, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/careers/2005/04/18/hexter
Jensen Comment:  Dr. Hexter's Website is at http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~hexter/

I guess I had somewhat similar experiences when moving from a large state university to Trinity University
All people, not just other psychologists. Everyone has a unique perspective of the world. My non-psychology friends introduced me to new ideas to explore; ideas that came from the view of the world they received through the window of their disciplines. I was at once stimulated intellectually and humbled. I was reminded that a true understanding of people entails far more than what we learn from research only in psychology. So, what is it like teaching in a small liberal arts college? Well, I guess there ain’t nothin’ else like it in the world, and I, for one, am happy to have spent over 25 years doing it.
Hank Cetola ,"From Specialist to Generalist," Inside Higher Ed, April 11, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/careers/2005/04/11/cetola

Cut out the middleman:  Be your own publisher
When Amy Fisher finished writing her memoir about shooting her lover's wife, she told her agent not to send the manuscript to New York publishers. Instead, Fisher, who made headlines in 1992 as the 17-year-old ''Long Island Lolita,'' turned to iUniverse in Lincoln, Neb. The company charges authors several hundred dollars to convert a manuscript into a book and make it available for sale online.
Sarah Glazer, "How to Be Your Own Publisher," The New York Times, April 24, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/books/review/24GLAZERL.html

iUniverse --- http://www.iuniverse.com/

iUniverse, the leading online book publisher, offers the most comprehensive book publishing services in the self-publishing industry—awarded the Editor's Choice award by PC Magazine and chosen by thousands of satisfied authors as the leading print-on-demand book publisher.

We help authors to prepare a manuscript, design and self-publish a book of professional quality, publicize and market their book, and print copies of their book for sale online and in bookstores around the world.

As an innovative book publisher, we also offer exclusive services such as our acclaimed Editorial Review and our revolutionary Star Program, designed to discover and nurture exceptional new talent within our growing author community.

Don't wait any longer to get that manuscript off your desk and into the marketplace. With iUniverse as your book publisher, you can become a published author in a matter of weeks. Why not get started today?

Jensen Comment:  What I would do is carefully investigate the claim of "helping to market your book."  Marketing takes money, sometimes lots of it.  Some publishing companies spend lots of money and have established distribution channels.  Advertising is very expensive.  Why should someone else want to invest heavily in you new book?

The Charitable Foundation Scam
Donors get those perks because they agree to relinquish control over the money. But since they appoint the organization's board, they can retain a great deal of influence over it. Regulators and lawmakers suspect that many wealthy people have used these organizations more for tax planning than for any charitable aim and are pushing for tighter rules as part of a broader crackdown on charitable tax exemptions. "I'm deeply disturbed that with a good number of supporting organizations, people are taking multimillion-dollar tax deductions for what they claim are contributions to charity, yet too often the result is a thimbleful of benefit to charity," said Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Stephanie Strom, "A Tax Benefit for Big Donors Often Bypasses Idea of Charity," The New York Times, April 25, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/business/25taxes.html?

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

Al-Qaeda launched its first Kurdish website
The al-Qaeda terrorist group, led by the notorious Jordanian leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, launched its first Kurdish website on Tuesday. The new website - known as Pegy Jehad or live Jihad - contains a Fatwah with up-to-date news on terrorist activities in Iraq. The homepage also contains anti-Shiite banners and a photograph of Baghdad's former governor Paul Bremer embracing a leading Shiite cleric while standing next to the American US secretary of State Colin Powell. Users of the website have the opportunity to send and receive news through a series of email addresses opened through the hotmail internet email provider. Pegy Jihad is al-Qaeda's first website in Kurdish. Previously, the propagation of Kurdish documents and recordings was left to a group known as Ansar al-Sunna, which mainly operates in Kurdistan. The organisation is an outshoot of Ansar al-Islam, a group with ties to Iran and whose administration officials have links to al-Qaeda. Ansar al-Sunna began in September 2001 and came from the unification of several Islamist groups originating from the mountains of northern Iraq on the Iranian border. In March 2003, US special forces attacked and scattered most of the Ansar al-Sunna fighters. The group is responsible for the many attacks against the Kurdish political parties.
ADNKI, April 26, 2005 --- http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.157386006&par=0
 

While Wal-Mart has won on Main Street, it's been the loser on Wall Street
But while Wal-Mart has won on Main Street, it's been the loser on Wall Street. Over the past year, its shares have fallen 19%. An owner of Kmart stock, which began trading as Sears Holdings in March, is more than 200% ahead. Wal-Mart trades at 20 times its earnings last year. Based on Lehman Brothers estimates, Sears Holding trades at a steeper price-to-earnings ratio of 27.
"Wall and Main," The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111473424232420292,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing

I know that I have mentioned that Wikipedia is a great free knowledge sharing service, a free and interactive online Encyclopedia.  I would like you to think of ways you can quickly add to (or edit) modules instantaneously from your browser.

History on One-Room Schools --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-room_school
History of the Farm --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm
History of Chemistry --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry
History of Philosophy --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy 
History of Psychology --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology
History of Accounting --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting

Wikipedia is a great online free Encyclopedia --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Note that you can instantaneously edit virtually any module such as History of the Farm.  Simply click on the tab "Edit this Page."   Text is changed easily, but there is a bit of syntax to learn for some items.  You can also insert links to other Web sites relevant to the topic.  .  I suggest you look up knowledge topics of special interest to you and think about ways that you can almost effortlessly improve the modules. 

For example, in about a minute I added a link to my site at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting#External_links

Move over boys, the money is on the women
At present, women millionaires (in the U.K.) between the ages of 18 and 44 and over 65 outnumber male millionaires, the report says. They own 48 per cent of the nation's personal wealth. But significant change will occur as a result of the rise in "financially sophisticated younger women", who will swell the numbers of those who inherit their wealth.
Sarah Womack, "Move over boys, the money is on the women," The Age, April 23, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/WomenMillionaires

Is there a real Super Woman with X-Ray vision?
Previous tests in London and New York led to mixed results. British scientists were convinced but there was doubt in the US where she could only determine the illnesses of four out of seven people. The latest experiments were carried out by Professor Yoshio Machi at Tokyo University, who specialises in studying apparent superpowers in human beings. Professor Machi said: "We did a whole range of tests, and the strangest thing was that we found she could also use her abilities on photographs, even on tiny passport photos. "She was able to look at them and apparently see what the problem was. Her ability is not x-ray vision, but she definitely has some kind of talent that we can't explain yet."
"X-ray vision girl amazes scientist," Ananova --- http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1370018.html

One nation under your belief system:  Shouldn't "your" be "any" or "my?"
The students in Vincent Pulciani's seventh-grade class were reciting the Pledge of Allegiance this week when they heard the voice over the intercom say something they'd never heard before, at least not during the Pledge. Instead of "one nation, under God," the voice said, "one nation, under your belief system." The bewildered students at Everitt Middle School in Wheat Ridge never even got to "indivisible," according to Vincent's mother, Christina Pulciani-Johnson.
Valerie Richardson, "Altered Pledge of Allegiance stuns students," Washington Times, April 23, 2005 --- http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050422-111131-2272r.htm

New labor union disclosure form (LM-2 )is an eye opener
The rank and file are also beginning to see a precise breakdown of how their money is spent. Prior to the new form, unions could lump millions into vague categories such as "overhead," or the ever-favorite "other disbursements." Unions must now account for dollars spent on anything from the grievance process to organizing to politics. This will help to keep leaders accountable and perhaps reduce such fraud as the officials of a Washington, D.C., teachers union who apparently bought mink coats and alligator shoes with dues money. The forms will also shine a light on one of labor's darkest, dampest, corners: trusts. These affiliates are barely regulated slush funds into which unions funnel dues and then spend at will. The Detroit Free Press ran articles in 2001 detailing three such funds that the United Auto Workers ostensibly set up to finance worker training but in fact were also used by the top brass to sponsor Nascar racing, host political parties and underwrite trips to Palm Springs. Under the new rules, unions will have to account for this trust spending.
"Big Labor's Secrets," The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2005; Page A14 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111438772677015598,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

Ancient Egypt corpses unearthed
Archaeologists digging in a 5600-year-old funeral site in southern Egypt have unearthed seven corpses thought to date to the era, as well as an intact figure of a cow's head carved from flint . . . The find is significant because little is known about the early phase of Predynastic period. That era predates the unification of upper and lower Egypt that triggered the well-known Dynastic era, when ancient Egypt's pharaohs ruled.
"Ancient Egypt corpses unearthed," Aljazeera, April 20, 2005 --- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0910E89E-D101-4A85-9ED8-DF6029EAB8DC.htm

SWAT Monkey:  Animal rights activists aren't going to like this way of saving police lives
Major city police departments in the US use paramilitary Swat teams for hostage situations and in situations involving heavily armed criminals. Truelove told local newspapers the idea came to him in a dream about 18 months ago. The test monkey could be trained to unlock doors and search buildings for police on command, Truelove said. The capuchin monkey is considered one of the smartest primates, known by many for its decades-long association with organ grinders. A capuchin monkey weighs 1.3 to 3.5kg and lives 15 to 20 years.
"Monkeys to join police Swat teams?" Aljazeera, April 19, 2005 ---
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8F7ED36E-AEC7-44A8-85BF-E70E6070F4B1.htm

Myths versus facts about the No Child Left Behind law
There are two things wrong with the NEA's claim that NCLB is an unfunded mandate: The law is neither a mandate, nor is it unfunded. The nonpartisan General Accounting Office dismissed the mandate claim last October. The law only provides funds to those states that wish to receive them. Any state that wants to reject the dollars -- and the rules that accompany them -- is free to do so. That no state has yet taken this route provides an on-the-ground basis for rejecting the complaint out of hand. As for funding, the law does contain this clause: "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to . . . mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this Act." Placing this clause at the heart of its complaint, the NEA offers up three arguments. The silliest says congressional appropriations fall short of amounts authorized. Never mind that federal aid to education reached a historic high in 2005, when spending reached $12.7 billion. That number, says the NEA, still falls short of the $20.5 billion that had been authorized in 2002. This misleading argument attempts to turn a ceiling into a floor, an architectural feat that would leave no room for congressional discretion. As all lawmakers and union leaders well know, congressional authorizations limit -- they do not compel -- expenditure. Neither Johnson, nor Carter, nor Clinton, to say nothing of Reagan, signed education appropriation bills that reached their authorized limit. Indeed, virtually every federal program is funded below its authorized level. Were the courts to accept the NEA claim and compel all appropriations to equal authorized limits, the federal deficit would immediately balloon to levels beyond the wildest imagination of the most unabashed Keynesian.
Martin R. West and Paul E. Peterson, "Sue First, Teach Later," The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2005; Page A18 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111465878943419249,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

Ayn Rand at 100: "Yours Is the Glory
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alissa Rosenbaum, who won renown and the affection of millions under her chosen identity of Ayn Rand. When Jerome Tuccille wrote his semi fictional odyssey of a libertarian activist from the 1950s to the early 1970s, his title seemed inevitable: It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand. Rand was the most popular and influential libertarian figure of the twentieth century. But what is most enduringly important about her is not necessarily her explicitly political and economic philosophy. She was born February 2, 1905, in St. Petersburg, Russia, the daughter of a shop-owning chemist. When the Soviets took over, the shop was taken from him. Her family's (and nation's) privations and struggles with communism informed her first novel, We the Living (1936). In that book's indomitable heroine, Kira Argouvna, it is easy to see the reflected light of Alissa, another young girl, Soviet by cruel fate but not spirit, with little to motivate her but the desire to escape. Kira's desire ended in tragedy; Rand's in triumph.
Brian Doherty , "Ayn Rand at 100: "Yours Is the Glory" Cato Institute, April 24, 2005 --- http://www.cato.org/research/articles/doherty-050405.html

Academic feminists war on RAP
The third obstacle is academic feminism. At the University of Chicago conference, "Feminism and Hip Hop," the focus was on "crunk," the Atlanta-based style of rap that casts black men as pimps and black women as strippers and "ho's." Some speakers -- notably Ms. Bailey from Spelman and Joan Moore from Essence -- used the language of morality when describing how crunk degrades women. But when the academic feminists weighed in, moral revulsion got bracketed as naive, and we groundlings were instructed to view "Tip Drill" as part of a "hegemonic intertextuality" in which "the structures of racism, patriarchy, heterosexism and advanced consumer capitalism" are "embedded" or "inscribed" (I forget which).
Martha Bayles, "Attacks on Rap Now Come From Within," The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2005; Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111464272332918867,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

"Are We Just Really Smart Robots? Two books on the mind put the human back into human beings," by Kenneth Silber,  Reason On Line, April 2005 --- http://www.reason.com/0504/cr.ks.are.shtml

On Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins with Sandra Blakeslee, New York: Times Books, 261 pages, $25

Mind: A Brief Introduction, by John R. Searle, New York: Oxford University Press, 326 pages, $26

Neurobiology’s advances generate anxiety as well as joy and hope. On the joyful and hopeful side, there are the prospect and reality of improved treatments for brain diseases and debilities. But anxiety arises over what the science tells us, or will tell us, about ourselves. Thoughts and feelings may be reduced to brain structures and processes. Consciousness and free will may be proven unimportant or illusory. Much of what we value about ourselves, in short, may be explained—or, worse, explained away.

The prevailing trends in the philosophy of mind reinforce such concerns. The field is dominated by schools of materialism that describe mental phenomena as types or side products of physical phenomena. Mind-body dualism, which posits a separate existence for the mind, has been effectively eclipsed (although it seems to receive continued implicit acceptance from many nonexperts). Some forms of materialism argue that the mental phenomena in question do not even exist.

Continued in the article

Most likely the last gun shop in Minneapolis will be put out of business
Koscielski initially opened a store in 1995, days before the City Council adopted a moratorium on gun shops. The city tried to close his shop down, but federal courts ordered that he be allowed to continue doing business. As a result, he was given an exemption in the zoning code. In the summer of 2003, Koscielski's lease at his first location was terminated. He said he was forced to rent a site not in compliance with the zoning code, which requires that gun shops be at least 500 feet from a church, school, park or library and 250 feet from a residence. Koscielski's Guns and Ammo at 2926 Chicago Av. S. is not zoned for a gun shop. Council Member Gary Schiff faults Koscielski for "blatantly" opening a shop in an area not zoned for his business. But Koscielski, a disabled veteran, accuses the city of trying to put him out of business by leaving him no legal options for a site. "This is my Alamo. I'm really fighting for my livelihood here," Koscielski said.
Rochelle Olso, "Last gun shop may be facing final battle," Star Tribune, April 25, 2005 --- http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5366857.html

Question
Why haven't charities been more active in trying to keep the Federal estate tax on the books?

Answer:
No one wants to alienate the wealthy donors and board members who would benefit from a repeal.

Charities stand to lose roughly $10 billion a year if the federal estate tax is repealed permanently, according to a study conducted by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. That is roughly the equivalent of all the grants made by the country's 82 largest foundations in 2003.
Stephanie Strom, "Charities Are Silent on Loss of Estate Tax," The New York Times, April 24, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/national/24silence.html?

Just let a chameleon crawl across the screen
She (Jane Fonda) invited her daughter, Vanessa Vadim, a documentary filmmaker, to help her. ''Why don't you just get a chameleon and let it crawl across the screen?'' Vanessa suggested dryly.
Maureen Dowd, "'My Life So Far': The Roles of a Lifetime," The New York Times, April 24, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/books/review/24DOWDL.html

Does virtually every child have a special need, perhaps a costly special need?
With an estimated 5.7 million children in the United States qualifying for special education, similar struggles are playing out around the country. Federal laws aimed at protecting the disabled entitle those who qualify to a free and "appropriate" education tailored to their needs. But the definition of "appropriate" differs from town to town, leaving much to quarrel about. The battle is particularly intense in the suburbs, where wealthy, educated parents no longer see special education as a stigma or trap. They are pressing hard for services and accommodations to address their children's learning needs, from extra time on tests to tuition for private schools. But many suburban school districts are aggressively challenging some of the requests as indulgent interpretations of the law.
Alison Leigh Cowan, "Amid Affluence, a Struggle Over Special Education," The New York Times, April 24, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/education/24westport.html

Just pour in the scotch, I can't afford the water
Perth, like Sydney, is also experiencing climate change. The city's rainfall has fallen almost 20 per cent in 25 years. To make up the shortfall, the region's extensive groundwater catchment is being depleted at unsustainable rates. This is generally understood by the public. The State Government is now committed to building a large desalination plant, a desperate measure in ecological terms, recognition that Perth will never again be able to live off the water it receives naturally.
"Running out of water - and time," Sydney Morning Herald, April 25, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/04/24/1114281450815.html

How deep are their pockets?
The Big Four accounting firms -- Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Ernst & Young -- have long claimed in court cases that their units are independent and can't be held liable for each other's sins. U.S. courts to date have backed that argument. The firms say the distinction is important -- allowing them to boost the efficiency of the global economy by spreading uniform standards of accounting around the world, without worrying that one unit's missteps will sink the entire enterprise. But Deloitte e-mails seized by Italian prosecutors and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, along with documents filed in the court cases, show how the realities of auditing global companies increasingly conflict with the legal contention that an accounting firm's units are separate. The auditing profession -- which plays a central role in business by checking up on companies' books -- has become ever-more global as the firms' clients have expanded around the world. But that's creating new problems as auditors face allegations that they bear liability for the wave of business scandals in recent years.
David Reilly and Alessandra Galloni, "Facing Lawsuits, Parmalat Auditor Stresses Its Disunity:  Deloitte Presented Global Face, But Says Arms Acted Alone; E-Mail Trail Between Units:  A Liability Threat for Industry,"  The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2005; Page A1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111464808089519005,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Bob Jensen's threads on Deloitte's legal woes are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud001.htm#Deloitte
Bob Jensen's threads on the future of auditing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#FutureOfAuditing

KPMG Ousts Executive, Partners; Steps Tied to Tax-Shelter Scrutiny
Accounting firm KPMG LLP this week fired a senior executive who had headed its tax-services division as it promoted tax shelters earlier this decade, another sign of the pressure KPMG is facing as law-enforcement officials investigate the now-contentious sales effort. The New York firm also dismissed two partners who had sat on its 15-member board, the latest personnel change tied to the tax-shelter scrutiny. A KPMG spokesman says the firm doesn't discuss personnel matters. Since February 2004, KMPG has been under criminal investigation by the Justice Department's U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan for its sale of tax shelters in the 1990s and as recently as 2002. KPMG's marketing effort was publicized in hearings in 2003 by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which concluded in a report that KPMG had been an "active and, at times, aggressive" promoter of tax shelters to individuals and corporations that were later determined by the Internal Revenue Service to be potentially abusive or illegal tax shelters.
Diya Guollapalli, "KPMG Ousts Executive, Partners; Steps Tied to Tax-Shelter Scrutiny," The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2005; Page C2 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111465047380019062,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
Bob Jensen's threads on KPMG's abusive tax shelters that exceeded $1 billion in revenue to the firm are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud001.htm#KPMG 

UN policy reversal by President Bush in his second term
Significant differences between the first and second Bush terms continue to emerge. After studied silence in her White House years, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is beginning to reveal her style and values, clearly with presidential approval. She seems to be a pragmatic conservative, oriented toward problem-solving, pursuing essentially non-ideological policies. She is careful (and politically smart) to keep faith, in all her statements, with neoconservative values, but she is also finding high-profile, low-cost ways, such as extensive travel, to improve America's shaky image and relationships around the world. Several recent events are worth attention . . . The dramatic policy reversal -- personally shaped by President Bush -- resulting in a decision not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing a role for the International Criminal Court in Darfur. This was the first time in four years that the Bush administration had departed from its practice of opposing anything having to do with the ICC.
Richard Holbrooke, "Introducing Condoleezza And a Plan for Kosovo," The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111438201022415467,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

Diversity under stress
They see it as growing pains in a college trying to manage all sides of an increasingly diverse community. "To some degree, this issue may simply reflect the problems inherent in living in a small fishbowl together -- one that forces some people with amazing insensitivity, and maybe a bit of racism, to live together with others who are extremely sensitive," said Kashif S. Mansori, a Colby economics professor. "It also seems to have taken on some life as a symbolic struggle to help figure out what kind of place Colby is evolving into."
Chuin-Weo Yap, "Diversity under stress," Morning Sentinel, April 24, 2005 --- http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/1557453.shtml

Innate differences between males and females:  I didn't find anything new worth quoting here!
"Profs Spar on ‘Innate Differences’ Psychologists Pinker and Spelke debate the data behind Summers' comments," by Natalie I. Sherman, The Crimson, April 25, 2005 --- http://thecrimson.com/today/article507328.html

I guess this should be forbidden until both are over 65 years old
The Associated Press has this crime report from Trafford, Ala.:
A brother and sister were arrested on felony incest charges after the man's wife called sheriff's deputies, who allegedly caught the siblings having sex. Ronald Stewart Howze, 44, of Trafford, and Lori Ann Rotton, 41, of Smyrna, Ga., were arrested around midnight on April 7, said Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Randy Christian.
From the Opinion Journal, April 26, 2005

Payola with women instead of money
According to (Apr) 20th issue of The Epoch Times, Wu Chang-zhen(?), an expert in current 'Marriage Law' of China, announced the statistic that 95% of communist party officials, whose corruptions were exposed, had mistresses. In particular, during the investigation of those involved in 102 corruption scandals in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhuhai in 1,999, 100% of them had mistresses, which was a real shock. Using a pretty woman as a 'bribe' rather than money is becoming a raging fashion, and officials believe that the number of mistresses is the reflection of one's 'clout.'
"95% of Corrupt Officials in China have mistresses," The Epoch Times, April 20, 2005 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1392023/posts

Great Orators of the Democratic Party
-"One man with courage makes a majority."-- Andrew Jackson

-"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

-"The buck stops here."-- Harry S. Truman 

-"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."-- John F. Kennedy

Forwarded by Paula

Flylow Airways Problem Solving

After every flight, Flylow's pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet" which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, & then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Flylow's pilots & the solutions recorded by maintenance engineers. By the way, Flylow is the only major airline that has never had an accident.

(P= The problem logged by the pilot.) (S= The solution and action taken by mechanics.)

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except autoland very rough.
S: Autoland not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on backorder.

P: Autopilot in altitudehold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're for.

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, & be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmark s go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 
Archives of Tidbits: Tidbits Directory --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Bob Jensen's home page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/

 

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