Tidbits on June 24, 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/

Security threats and hoaxes --- http://www.trinity.edu/its/virus/

Music: Sugar Shack --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/shack.htm  

Train of Life (Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline) ---  
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/singingman7/TOL.htm   

The press does not want to inform the reader but to persuade him he's being informed.
Nicolás Dávila

Citigroup's criminal behavior is so far-flung and ambidextrous it seems to be part of the profit structure.
William Greider

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.
Charles M. Schulz

What banks are not telling us following the hacking of 50 million credit card numbers
Consumer advocates said credit card customers have been denied crucial information in the wake of a recent data breach, as some major banks are declining to tell cardholders whether their account may have been accessed by hackers . . . Within 24 hours of last week's news of the breach, a new version of an Internet scam was circulating on the Web. In an e-mail forged to look as if it had come from MasterCard, recipients were urged to log in to a counterfeited MasterCard site and enter their account information.
Mike Musgrove, "Cardholders Kept in Dark After Breach Some Banks Decline to Tell Customers Whether Accounts Were Compromised," The Washington Post, June 23, 2005 ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202037.html?referrer=email
Jensen Comment:  I changed all of the account numbers on my credit cards.  I suggest that you do the same.

Consumer Health Websites
"Consumer Reports WebWatch, an arm of the Consumers Union publishing empire, has begun rating the 20 most-trafficked health information Web sites. The ratings -- posted on a new early release Web site, http://www.healthratings.org / , that was undergoing evident birthing pains last week-- were produced in collaboration with the Health Improvement Institute (HII), a Bethesda-based nonprofit."
Leslie Walker, "Consumer Health Websites," The Washington Post, June 21, 2005 ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/06/20/DI2005062001043.html?referrer=email

This is a good article
Arthritis is crippling more people, but there are nine key ways to beat the pain --- http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/050627/27arthritis.htm

June 23, 2005 message from Richard Campbell

I thought the following multimedia presentation may be of interest to many on the list - The presentation itself was created using Articulate's Presenter.

http://www.presenternet.com/robingood/player.html?slide=1 

Richard J. Campbell mailto:campbell@rio.edu 

Bob Jensen's threads on education technology tools are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

MSN Search introduces Spoof, a tool to let you create funny search results about a friend, family member, or co-worker. When you're done, you can send the page to the target or anyone else you think might get a laugh out of it. --- http://www.msnsearchspoof.com/index.aspx

Your phone company is lobbying to prevent competition
SBC Communications Inc., the dominant phone company in Texas, and other big phone companies say that cities should not be allowed to subsidize high-speed Internet connections -- even in areas where the companies don't yet offer the service. Since January, lawmakers in at least 14 states and the U.S. Congress have introduced bills to restrict local governments' ability to fill the gap.
Jesse Crucker and Li Yuan, "Phone Giants Are Lobbying Hard To Block Towns' Wireless Plans:  As Cities Try to Build Networks, SBC and Other Companies Say It's Unfair Competition," The Wall Street Journal,  June 23, 2005; Page A1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111948429964367053,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

A poem by Mary Fister for those who must endure long and formal faculty meetings --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/06/24/fister

I have to disagree with John Wilson on this one
In what may be the worst decision for college student rights in the history of the federal judiciary, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit this week turned back the clock a half-century and reinstated the old discredited doctrines of in loco parentis and administrative authoritarianism. In Hosty v. Carter, the Seventh Circuit ruled by a 7-4 majority that administrators at public colleges have total control over subsidized student newspapers. But the scope of the decision is breathtaking, since the reasoning of the case applies to any student organization receiving student fees. Student newspapers, speakers and even campus protests could now be subject to the whim of administrative approval.
John K. Wilson, "The Case of the Censored Newspaper," Inside Higher Ed, June 24, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/06/24/wilson
Jensen Comment:  I have to disagree to John Wilson on this one.  Students sometimes become overzealous and cause embarrassments that spill over to the entire college community such as the doctoring of a photograph of in the student newspaper at Middlebury College that made one of the Middlebury's invited speakers look like Adolph Hitler.  There are also issues of slander, obscenity, and political/religious insensitivity that can run totally out of control.  Owners of newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post have censorship controls.  Why shouldn't colleges be afforded the same controls? The Los Angeles Times recently experimented with an uncensored Wiki blog that lasted only two days because it became obscene.  Censorship versus academic freedom is not a black and white issue due to risks of slander and obscenity. 

ATM Fees Keep Moving Higher
Not only are banks charging their own customers more if they use another bank's ATMs, but they're also charging higher fees for other banks' customers who use their machines. This spring, the average fee a bank charges a customer for using another bank's ATM hit a record $1.35, up from $1.29 last fall, according to Bankrate.com's Checking Account Pricing Study. Meanwhile, the average costs that ATM owners are charging noncustomers who use their machines -- also known as "surcharges" or "foreign ATM fees" -- rose to $1.40 from $1.37.
Jane J. Kim, "ATM Fees Keep Moving Higher:  Banks Increase Charges To Capture Revenue Lost As Credit-Card Use Rises," The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2005; Page D2 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111948478481267067,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal

New survey reveals salaries for Management Accountants rising
Top management accountants and finance professionals pulled ahead of public accountants in both average salary and total compensation in 2004 as the new auditing requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act took effect. Public accounting, which held the top spot in 2003, fell to 6th place last year with management accountants and finance professionals rising to first and second place, according to the findings of the 16th annual salary survey conducted by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Salaries and compensation were found to be higher for professionals holding a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) credential only ($97,908), than for those with a Certified Public Accountant credential ($93,104) alone. Professionals holding both certifications had the highest earnings of all ($105,155), and those with neither certification had the lowest ($79,763).
Andrew Priest, "New Survey reveals salaries for Management Accountants Rising," AccountingEducation.com, June 18, 2005 --- http://accountingeducation.com/news/news6298.html
Note the the link to the IMA site is incorrect in the above article.  The correct link is http://www.imanet.org/ima/index.asp

Bob Jensen's threads on careers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#careers

Best product designs according to Business Week --- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/05_27/B39410527design.htm

Many of the winning entries from this year's competition for Industrial Design Excellence Awards spring from a close observation of the customer Online Extra: Top Designers Online Extra: Top Corporate Winners Online Extra: The Catalyst Awards Online Extra: An Interactive Guide to the Winners, Past and Present Online Extra: Annual Design Awards 2005 Slide Show Consumer Goods These products have personality and listen to what users want Design Strategy Design can provide a tactical advantage by delivering a powerful brand message Disruptive Design Creative destruction can transform markets, from footwear to musical instruments Brand Extension Good design can also be an image enhancer and bring new life to existing brands Asian Design Coming up with signature looks has worked wonders for countries throughout the region European Design The Continent is pulling ahead by virtue of elegance and elan (?) Catalyst Award Winners Fine design, dandy sales: These products get the prize for also adding to the bottom line

Trivia (well maybe not so trivial) from The Washington Post on June 21, 2005

IBM just opened its fifth software development center in India and announced plans to hire 1,000 programmers for the new center by the end of 2005. How many people does the company currently employ in India at its four other centers?

A. 230,000
B. 23,000
C. 2,300
D. 230

Apple Computer Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs says which college class helped him set Macintosh apart from competitors?

A. Anthropology
B. Calligraphy
C. Greek
D. History

MIT's DSpace Explained
In 1978, Loren Kohnfelder invented digital certificates while working on his MIT undergraduate thesis. Today, digital certificates are widely used to distribute the public keys that are the basis of the Internet's encryption system. This is important stuff! But when I tried to find an online copy of Kohnfelder's 1978 manuscript, I came up blank. According to the MIT Libraries' catalog, there were just two copies in the system: a microfiche somewhere in Barker Engineering Library, and a "noncirculating" copy in the Institute Archives . . . DSpace is a long-term, searchable digital archive. It creates unchanging URLs for stored materials and automatically backs up one institution's archives to another's. Today, DSpace is being used by 79 institutions, with more on the way. But as my little story about Kohnfelder's thesis demonstrates, archiving data is only half the problem. In order to be useful, archives must also enable researchers to find what they are looking for. Sending e-mail to the author worked for me, but it's not a good solution for the masses. Long-term funding is another problem that DSpace needs to solve. "The libraries are seeking ways of stabilizing support for DSpace to make it easier to sustain as it gets bigger over time," says MacKenzie Smith, the Libraries' associate director for technology. Today, development on the DSpace system is funded by short-term grants. That's great for doing research, but it's not a good model for a facility that's destined to be the long-term memory of the Institute's research output. Says Smith: "We need to know how to support an operation like this in very lean times."
Simson Garfinkel, "MIT's DSpace Explained," MIT's Technology Review, July 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/07/issue/feature_mit.asp?trk=nl

Bob Jensen's threads on "OKI, DSpace, and SAKAI" are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Investing and borrowing news and commentaries
Blogosphere from Yahoo Finance --- http://biz.yahoo.com/special/blog05.html

For professors who abuse classrooms for personal viewpoints
David Horowitz isn’t mentioned by name in a two-page statement being released today by 26 higher education organizations. But the statement, on “academic rights and responsibilities,” is a response to Horowitz’s “Academic Bill of Rights,” which many professors view as an assault on their rights. Organizers of the statement being issued today say that it was an effort to state publicly that academe is not monolithic ideologically and that colleges can — without the government — deal with professors (a distinct few, according to most academic leaders) who punish students for their views. Organizers hoped the statement would deflate the movement in state legislatures and Congress to enact the Academic Bill of Rights. Horowitz called the statement “a major victory” for his campaign and said that it opened up the possibility that he would work directly with colleges on remaining differences of opinion, rather than seeking legislation.
Scott Jaschik, "Detente With David Horowitz," Inside Higher Ed, June 23, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/23/statement

"Locating Bourdieu," by Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, June 23, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/06/23/mclemee

He was especially sharp (some thought brutal) in analyzing the French academic world. At the same time, he did very well in that system; very well indeed. He was critical of the way some scholars used expertise in one field to leverage themselves into positions of influence having no connection with their training or particular field of confidence. It could make him sound like a scold. At the same time, it often felt like Bourdieu might be criticizing his own temptation to become an oracle.

In the course of my own untutored reading of Bourdieu over the years, there came a moment when the complexity of his arguments and the aggressiveness of his insights suddenly felt like manifestations of a personality that was angry on the surface, and terribly disappointed somewhere underneath. His tone registered an acute (even an excruciating) ambivalence toward intellectual life in general and the educational system in particular.

Stray references in his work revealed glimpses of Bourdieu as a “scholarship boy” from a family that was both rural and lower-middle class. You learned that he had trained to be a philosopher in the best school in the country. Yet there was also the element of refusal in even his most theoretical work — an almost indignant rejection of the role of Master Thinker (played to perfection in his youth by Jean-Paul Sartre) in the name of empirical sociological research.

There is now a fairly enormous secondary literature on Bourdieu in English. Of the half-dozen or so books on him that I’ve read in the past few years, one has made an especially strong impression, Deborah Reed-Danahay’s recent study Locating Bourdieu (Indiana University Press, 2005). Without reducing his work to memoir, she nonetheless fleshes out the autobiographical overtones of Bourdieu’s major concepts and research projects. (My only complaint about the book is that it wasn’t published 10 years ago: Although it is a monograph on his work rather than an introductory survey, it would also be a very good place for the new reader of Bourdieu to start.)

Continued in article

From the Carnegie Foundation News and Announcements in June 2005
 

The Risk Return Tradeoff in the Long-Run: 1836-2003
The risk–return tradeoff is fundamental to finance. However, while many asset pricing models imply a positive relationship between the risk premium on the market portfolio and the variance of its return, previous studies find the empirical relationship is weak at best. In sharp contrast, this study, demonstrates that the weak empirical relationship is an artifact of the small sample nature of the available data, as an extremely large number of time-series observations is required to precisely estimate this relationship. To maximize the available time-series, I employ the nearly two century history of US equity market returns from Schwert (1990), exploring the empirical risk-return tradeoff for a variety of specifications that allow for asymmetric volatility, regime-switching, and additional factors associated with intertemporal (ICAPM) hedging demands. Similar to studies that use the more recent US equity price history, conditional market volatility in the historical data is persistent and displays strong asymmetric relationships to return innovations. Further, the conditional correlation between stock and bond markets is closely related to periods of documented financial crises. Finally, in contrast to evidence based upon the recent US experience, the estimated relationship between risk and return is positive and statistically significant across every specification considered.
Christian T. Lundblad, "The Risk Return Tradeoff in the Long-Run: 1836-2003," SSRN Working Papers, October 2004 --- http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=671324

Daniel Patrick Moynihan once called this "thievery"
Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint are calling for legislation to bring an immediate halt to the ongoing political raid on the surplus payroll taxes collected by Social Security. Congress now spends that cash on current programs--from cotton subsidies, to defense, to the Dr. Seuss Museum. Every day that Congress fails to act, another $200 million is spent rather than being saved for future retirement. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once called this "thievery," and if corporate America were engaged in this type of accounting fraud Eliot Spitzer would be hauling CEOs to jail.
"A Surplus Idea Congress should give workers back their extra Social Security taxes," The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2005 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006860

Iron Mike has metal fatigue
Mike Tyson's role model Sonny Liston once said that someday, "they will write a blues song just for fighters. It'll be with slow guitar, soft trumpet, and a bell." Strum that guitar and ring that bell for Mr. Tyson: His 20-year boxing career ended June 11, when he refused to come out for the seventh round in his bout against journeyman Kevin McBride.
Gordon Marino, "Requiem for a Heavyweight," The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2005; Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111948308793267019,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

Also see http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050627ta_talk_remnick

What is elastin?
In the quest to replace failed or injured body parts, fabricating them out of one of the most durable materials in the body -- elastin -- makes a lot of sense. Today, Dr. Ken Gregory, director of the Oregon Medical Laser Center at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR, is using the material to engineer all kinds of quasi-natural structures: blood vessels, patches for internal injuries, replacement ear drums, bladders, and more.
David Wolman, "Natural Healing," MIT's Technology Review, June 21, 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/06/wo/wo_062105wolman.asp?trk=nl

"In Defense of Steroids:  Jose Canseco’s surprisingly sensible case for juice," by Aaron Steinberg, Reason Magazine, June 2005 --- http://www.reason.com/0506/cr.as.in.shtml

How Baseball Got Big, by Jose Canseco, New York: Regan Books, 304 pages, $25.95 On March 17, former baseball star Jose Canseco told the House Committee on Government Reform exactly what it wanted to hear. The pressure to win, he said, drives pros to steroids and subsequently pushes steroids on kids. “The time has come,” he said, “to send a message to America, especially the youth, that these actions, while attractive at first, may tarnish and harm you later.” That isn’t exactly the message he sent with his recent pro-steroid tell-all, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. And while his new tune may sound more responsible to legislators’ ears, it’s actually too bad that the former A’s slugger turned his back on his own book. Beyond the typical sports memoir material— Lamborghinis, encounters with Madonna, growing up Latino in baseball—Canseco’s book makes a rare and sustained argument in favor of steroids (and substances often used in conjunction with steroids, such as human growth hormone). Coming at a time of full-blown moral panic, with grandstanding senators trampling athletes’ privacy rights and the media blaming steroids for everything from brain cancer to suicide, Canseco’s position was a welcome one. It’s a shame he didn’t have the guts to stick with it.

 

Firms Ranked on Ethical Behavior
Engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. topped Business Ethics Magazine's annual survey of the "100 Best Corporate Citizens," a ranking of leading ethical performers on the Russell 1000 Index of publicly listed U.S. companies. The survey, published in the magazine's Spring 2005 edition, has gained national recognition as an indicator of best practices in the area of corporate social responsibility. Cited as a world leader in emissions reductions, Columbus, Ind.-based Cummins has made the list for the past six years. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. of Waterbury, Vt., received the second-highest rating, hailed as "a pioneer in helping struggling coffee growers by paying them fair trade prices." Property casualty insurers St. Paul Travelers Companies was ranked third in recognition of its community service.
"Firms Ranked on Ethical Behavior," SmartPros, June 17, 2005 --- http://accounting.smartpros.com/x48608.xml

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You must read the fine print!
Royally Screwed:  I recall that the same thing happened when people signed up for health club memberships and owed monthly payments on health clubs that no longer existed
With the lure of 30 to 60 percent savings, Vogan signed up with New Jersey-based NorVergence Inc. and even insured the small red box as required. He paid $435 a month to rent the box and an additional $13 for services, including unlimited long distance.Last summer NorVergence filed for bankruptcy, and customers like Vogan, who owns a home remodeling firm in Silver Spring, found that their troubles went far beyond the loss of phone service. They discovered they were obligated to keep paying rent on the boxes to third parties, which had bought the rental contracts from NorVergence.
Dina ElBoghdady, "Promised Savings, They Rented the Boxes And Now They're Really Paying for It:  NorVergence Went Bankrupt; Customers Still Owe," The Washington Post,  June 20, 2005; Page D01 ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/19/AR2005061900662.html?referrer=email

Forwarded by Paula

The Pentagon announced today the formation of a new 500-man elite
fighting unit called the : 
                     U . S .  REDNECK SPECIAL FORCES (USRSF).

   These North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri,
   Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Tennessee boys will be dropped 
   into Iraq and have been given only the following facts about Terrorists:

         1. The season opened today.
         2. There is no limit.
         3. They taste just like chicken.
         4. They don't like beer, pickups, country music or Jesus.
         5. They are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the death of Dale Earnhardt.

    This mess in Iraq should be over IN A WEEK.

Time waster --- http://www.widro.com/throwpaper.html

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