Tidbits on September 28, 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/

25 Hottest Urban Legends (hoaxes) --- http://www.snopes.com/info/top25uls.asp 

Music:

Lively folk song downloads (these are good) --- http://www.jamesreams.com/listen.html
With lots to choose from for free

Old time bluegrass banjo downloads --- http://www.silcom.com/~peterf/ideas/fiddlel.htm

Mike Maloney sings a couple of Irish folk songs --- http://www.stevevincent.org/music-samples.html

Christian folk music --- http://www.stevevincent.org/music-samples.html

Killin' Time --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/time.htm
If the sound does not commence after 30 seconds, scroll to the bottom of the page and turn it on.

In the past I've provided links to various types of music available free on the Web. 
This weekend I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Inspirational and Patriotic Music --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm#Inspirational
Romantic Music --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm#Romantic
Country and Western --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm#Country

1950s-60s Juke Box Tunes --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm#JukeBox
Humor Music --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm#Humor

Banjo, Fiddle, Bluegrass, and American Folk Music --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm#AmericanFolk
Foreign Folk Music and Other Music From Foreign Lands --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm#AmericanFolk

Jazz and Blues --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm#Classical
Classical Music Christmas and Other Seasonal Music --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm#Holiday

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

Photographs

Eternity Travel (a great site from the Museum of Science in Boston) ---  http://www.mos.org/quest/et/

Beautiful pictures of female soldiers from around the world, sorted by country.
Courtesy of the Iran Defence Forum --- http://www.irandefence.net/showthread.php?t=29
The Iran Defence Net is at --- http://www.irandefence.net/showthread.php?t=29

Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.
Jules Renard

Inbred Historians:  Diversity Problem in History Departments
Only applicants from elite universities need apply
Recent decades have opened up history faculties so that they include more female and minority scholars. But a new report released by the American Historical Association says that in key respects history departments are becoming “less diverse.” Top doctoral programs are admitting Ph.D. students from a narrow group of mostly private institutions and top departments are in turn hiring from a narrow range of institutions, the report says. The preference of elite institutions to admit graduate students from other elite institutions is, of course, nothing new. But the history report says the discipline — having become more egalitarian — is now shifting back with regard to its mix of public and private graduates. In 1966, 57 percent of history Ph.D.’s had received their undergraduate degrees from private institutions, 37 from public institutions, and the remainder from international institutions. In the 1980s, public and private graduates had achieved parity. But in the 90s, the gap returned, growing to a 47-42 percent edge for private institutions, even though far more undergraduates attend public institutions.
Scott Jaschik, "Inbred Historians," Inside Higher Ed, September 26, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/26/history 

Jensen Comment on the X-Chromosome Problem.
Elite colleges of business also have an inbreeding problem.  Often its the same lack of diversity of hiring found among Ivy-type history programs hiring their own as described above.  If it isn't that, there is the X-Chromosome Problem that leaves selected doctoral programs with an overage of X chromosomes.  Professor XR1 at top University R has a doctoral student XC2 who gets tenure at University C.  XC2 then has a doctoral student XR3 who is hired back at old University R.  XR3 then has a doctoral student XC4 who is hired at University C.  XC4 then has doctoral student XR5 who is hired . . .

Ruse by the industry to make you think you are eating less salt
How much (Salt) should you eat? Note that 2.5g sodium = 1g salt

From Number Watch, September 2005 --- http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/2005%20September.htm

The health authorities advise eating no more than 6g per day. This includes processed foods so check the ingredients lists on labels.

Note that sodium (often noted on labels in place of salt) is more than twice the strength of salt. So 2.5g sodium equals 1g salt. It is a ruse by the industry to make you think you are eating less salt.

Always taste food before adding salt because it may not need it. Be aware that salt is "hidden" in or added to many everyday foods, including breakfast cereals, biscuits, stock cubes, soup, ready-cooked meals (especially those containing meat), crisps and other snack foods

Geologic Time: The Story of a Changing Earth (from The Smithsonian)  http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/geotime/main/index.html

Chaos umpire sits,
And by decision more embroils the fray
By which he reigns: next him high arbiter
Chance governs all.
John Miltion, Paradise Lost --- http://www.heartofmath.com/first_edition/pdfs/pg481.pdf

Liking some women less and less:  Even before Rita the Katrina oil spill was a huge disaster on U.S. Gulf Coast
Hurricane Katrina unleashed at least 40 oil spills from ruptured pipelines, approaching the scale of the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill. And the delicate environmental situation has worsened as the influx of salt water has damaged the area's wetlands.
Ken Wells, "Oil, Saltwater Mar Louisiana Coast, Threaten Future:  Katrina Dumps 193,000 Barrels Over Damaged Marshlands; Fishing Areas Are Polluted," The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2005; Page A1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112743511286949395,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Where were the protective fathers when Katrina warnings grew more urgent?
It took the media a while to acknowledge that most of Katrina's victims were black. Apparently, it will take longer to mention that most of the victims were women and children. I noticed three commentators who brought up the delicate subject of the mostly missing males--George Will, Gary Bauer, and Thomas Bray, a columnist for the Detroit News. Will noted that 76 percent of births to Louisiana's African-Americans are to unmarried women, and probably more than 80 percent in New Orleans, since that is the usual estimate in other inner cities. Will wrote: "That translates into a large and constantly renewed cohort of lightly parented adolescent males, and that translates into chaos, in neighborhoods and schools, come rain or come shine."
John Leo, "All in the Family," Townhall.com, September 26, 2005 --- http://www.townhall.com/columnists/johnleo/jl20050926.shtml

The Gulf Coast: A Victim of Global Warming?
There are troubling signs in the meteorological record of a link between global warming and hurricane intensity, says Emanuel, a professor in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. But the best available science suggests that the now-scattered populations of the Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama coasts are the victims of mere happenstance. There are simply too few examples of catastrophic hurricanes hitting U.S. shores to make out any statistical trend, says Emanuel. "It would be absurd to attribute the Katrina disaster to global warming," Emanuel wrote on his website this month.
Wade Roush, "The Gulf Coast: A Victim of Global Warming?" MIT's Technology Review, September 24, 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/09/wo/wo_092405roush.asp?trk=nl

TCU Coach Takes the Test
More evidence that many universities are losing (or never had) quality control on athlete admissions and grading
The National Collegiate Athletic Association punished Texas Christian University’s men’s track program on Thursday for a set of rules violations that included some of the most egregious and unusual examples of academic fraud in recent history. They included an instance in which a former assistant coach took a final examination alongside a track athlete — with the consent of the faculty member in the course — and then swapped his version of the test with the athlete’s, allowing him to pass.
Doug Lederman, "NCAA Finds Fraud at TCU," Inside Higher Ed, September 23, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/23/tcu

You can read more about quality control problems in college athletics at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book05q3.htm#CollegeAthletics

Smoking Grasso:  Is It Time to Dumb Down or Shut Down Engineering Colleges?
With the return of students to campuses this month comes annual hand wringing over the lack of diversity in our science and engineering classes. The United States is at a 14-year low in the percentage of women (16.3 percent) and African Americans (7.1 percent) enrolling in engineering programs. An engineering student body that is composed largely of white males is problematic not only because of its narrow design perspective, but also because failing to recruit from large segments of the population means the number of new engineers we produce falls well short of our potential. Although this is not a new problem, it is becoming ever more urgent. We are faced with an engineering juggernaut emanating from India and China, with more than 10 Asian engineers graduating for every one in the United States. Educated at great institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology or Tshingua University, these engineers are every bit as technically competent as their American counterparts. So here we sit at the beginning of the 21st century, in the most technologically advanced nation on the planet, with a comparatively small supply of home grown engineers, facing an explosion of technical mental horsepower overseas . . . If we do, our progeny stand a fighting chance of having a life worth living. And by giving engineering a larger, more socially relevant framework, expanding it beyond the narrow world of algorithms, the field should prove more attractive to women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups.
Domenico Grasso, "Is It Time to Shut Down Engineering Colleges?" Inside Higher Ed, September 23, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/09/23/grasso
Jensen Comment:  Grasso's proposal to take the hard technical courses out of engineering curricula for the sake of diversity hardly gives me comfort in his vision of future "engineering" graduates.  Let's dumb down our engineers so they can compete better with Asians and Indians?  Give us a break! If we want more diversity lets try harder to get improve the skills and motivation of diverse inputs into the programs rather than dumb down the programs themselve.

Down's Syndrome Mice Offer Hope
Scientists have transplanted a nearly entire human chromosome in mice in a medical and technical breakthrough that could reveal new insights into Down's syndrome and other disorders. The genetically engineered mice carry a copy of the human chromosome 21. It is the smallest of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes with about 225 genes. Children suffering from Down's syndrome, which is one of the most common genetic disorders, inherit three copies of the chromosome instead of two. The achievement caps 13 years of research by scientists at the National Institute for Medical Health in London and the Institute of Neurology. "We are very optimistic that we will be able to get insights into what goes wrong with people with Down's," said Dr Victor Tybulewicz, who headed the research team.
"Down's Syndrome Mice Offer Hope," Wired News, September 23, 2005 --- http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,68972,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4

"The Real Reasons You're Working So Hard ...and what you can do about it," Business Week Cover Story, October 3, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/BWOct3

The good news -- if there is any, time-challenged amigo -- is that you are not alone. More than 31% of college-educated male workers are regularly logging 50 or more hours a week at work, up from 22% in 1980. Forty percent of American adults get less than seven hours of sleep on weekdays, reports the National Sleep Foundation, up from 31% in 2001. About 60% of us are sometimes or often rushed at mealtime, and one-third wolf down lunch at our desks, according to a survey by the American Dietetic Assn. To avoid wasting time, we're talking on our cell phones while rushing to work, answering e-mails during conference calls, waking up at 4 a.m. to call Europe, and generally multitasking our brains out.

. . .

This epidemic of long hours at the office -- whether physically or remotely -- defies historical precedent and common sense. Over the past 25 years, the Information Revolution has boosted productivity by almost 70%. So you would think that since we're producing more in fewer hours, such gains would translate into a decrease in the workweek -- as they have in the past. But instead of technology being a time-saver, says Warren Bennis, a University of Southern California professor and author of such management classics as On Becoming a Leader, "everybody I know is working harder and longer."

And the long-hour marathons aren't a result of demanding corporations exploiting the powerless. Most of the groggy-eyed are the best-educated and best-paid -- college grads whose real wages have risen by more than 30% since the 1980s. That's a change from 25 years ago, when it was the lowest-wage workers who were most likely to put in 50 hours or more a week, according to new research by Peter Kuhn of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Fernando A. Lozano of Pomona College.

With so many managers and professionals stuck at work, there is a growing consensus among management gurus that the stuck-at-work epidemic is symptomatic of a serious disorder in the organization of corporations. The problem, in a nutshell-to-go is this: Succeeding in today's economy requires lightning-fast reflexes and the ability to communicate and collaborate across the globe. Coming up with innovative ideas, products, and services means getting people across different divisions and different companies to work together. "More and more value is created through networks," says John Helferich, a top executive and former head of research and development at Masterfoods usa, a division of Mars Inc. and the maker of such products as M&Ms. "The guys who are good at it are winning."

Unfortunately, the communication, coordination, and teamwork so essential for success these days is being superimposed on a corporate structure that has one leg still in its gray flannel suit. Without strict gatekeepers (read secretaries), Tom, Jane, and Harry feel free to plug themselves into your electronic calendar. You and a colleague in another part of the company may dream up a great idea for a new product -- but it takes months to get approvals from your boss, his boss, and their boss. Or the corporate bigwigs order you to join a taskforce that is supposed to promote collaboration and innovation -- but it ends up taking a big chunk of your time. And no matter how many layers of management were supposed to be taken out, there always seem to be more people on the e-mail distribution lists.

You are not imagining things. Despite years of cutting corporate bloat, managers are a much bigger share of the workforce than they were 15 years ago. "We've added a new set of standards without fully dropping the old," says Thomas H. Davenport, professor of information technology and management at Babson College and author of the new book Thinking for a Living.

Continued in the article

Getting Angry Can Be a Good Thing --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4859208
Cecilia Munoz is vice president of the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza. Born in Detroit to Bolivian immigrants, she has worked on behalf of Hispanic-Americans. Munoz was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2000.

"Teaching the Benefits of Balance More B-schools are including courses on managing the complex relationship between your career and your life," by Jeffrey N. Gangemi, Business Week, October 3, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/BWOct3b

And it may be even more important in attracting and retaining top-notch women workers. According to "The New Workforce Reality," a study by the Simmons School of Management and Bright Horizons Family Solutions, an organization based in Watertown, Mass., that provides work-life counseling, 88% of women respondents listed respect for family and personal time as an important attribute in an employer, and 82% said they place value on working for an organization that's flexible in granting time off.

That's why B-schools are trying to help students better juggle their varied responsibilities. Stewart Friedman, a professor of organizational management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, teaches "Total Leadership," a course for both full-time and executive MBA students that preaches greater integration between personal and professional life.

. . .

BEYOND GOOD PAY. 
If any successful company is a model that embodies the opposite of "caffeine culture," says Hunt, it's SAS Institute, a privately held software company based in Cary, N.C. Hunt leads students through a case study that examines why SAS enjoys a 98% customer-retention rate year-to-year, when the average in U.S. industry is 80%. It also shows consistent growth and profits in the highly competitive software industry.

Students observe connections between customer satisfaction and SAS's 97% employee-retention rate, which alone is estimated to save between $60 million to $75 million annually in HR costs. And with on-site day care, health care, and workout centers, hours that employees would otherwise spend driving to the doctor's office conserved an additional million dollars last year, estimates Jeff Chambers, the vice-president for human resources at SAS.

"I thought the best job was the one that paid the most money," says Marc Vaglio-Laurin, manager of certification test development at SAS, who got his MBA from Duke University Fuqua School of Business in 1989. But having spent seven years in corporate finance with four different companies, Vaglio-Laurin says even after 10 years at SAS, he would never voluntarily leave his post.

Continued in article
 

Fewer American Women Dying of Breast Cancer
There is more good news in the battle against breast cancerbreast cancer. Newly released figures show that deaths continue to decline, dropping about 2% a year since 1990. The drop was most dramatic among women under the age of 50, whose breast cancers tend to be more aggressive and harder to treat. The number of breast cancer deaths for this age group declined by 3.3% annually between 1990 and 2002. The figures were published today by the American Cancer Society, which reports each year on breast cancer trends. ACS officials credited earlier diagnosis and better treatments for the "slow, steady drop" in breast cancer deaths over the 12-year period.
Salynn Boyles, "Fewer American Women Dying of Breast Cancer:  Deaths Have Dropped Steadily for More Than a Decade," WebMD, September 22, 2005 --- http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/112/110386.htm?z=1727_00000_5024_hv_03

Teflon:  The Next Big Fraud in Litigation
Now that fraudulent asbestos claims have made the tort lawyers wealthy
"Claims against Teflon just don’t stick," by Doug Bandow, Cantonrep.com, September 22, 2005 --- http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=243424&Category=14&fromSearch=yes

Teflon is a wonder product. Before Teflon, washing a pan or pot was among the most disagreeable of tasks. Cleaning up is a very different task in today’s post-Teflon world.

There are even some unintended health and safety benefits from Teflon kichenware. You can cook using less fat, grease or oil, which is better for your heart, and there’s less chance of fire.

It’s a wonderful example of how a profit-minded company, in this case DuPont, came up with something that makes life easier, healthier and safer — all at once.

But no good deed goes unpunished in today’s legal system. In July, attorneys filed a $5-billion class action lawsuit against DuPont over the alleged health effects of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.

There are 14 plaintiffs, “but the class of potential plaintiffs could well contain almost every American that has purchased a pot or pan coated with DuPont’s nonstick coating,” explained attorney Alan Kluger.

Continued in article

From U.S. News & World Report, September 24, 2005

NEW! Diseases & Conditions
Allergy & Asthma Center Brain & Behavior Center Heart Center		Bones, Joints & Muscles Center Cancer Center

Best Places to Work in Federal Government
2005 Best Places to Work rankings, which rate job satisfaction among federal government employees at 248 organizations. Here you will find ratings of employee satisfaction, rankings by demographic group, and "Best in Class" scores for 10 workplace quality measurements, such as "Effective Leadership" and "Work/Life Balance." The rankings are created by the Partnership for Public Service and American University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation.
"Best Places to Work in Federal Government," US News and World Report ---
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/best-places-to-work/home.htm

Office of Management & Budget on the top ---
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/best-places-to-work/rankings/agency-honor-roll.htm

Thanks George:  Dumb and Dummers in charge of government agencies?
How Many More Mike Browns Are Out There?
A Time Magazine inquiry finds that at top positions in some vital government agencies, the Bush Administration is putting connections before experience  . . . The Bush Administration didn't invent cronyism; John F. Kennedy turned the Justice Department over to his brother, while Bill Clinton gave his most ambitious domestic policy initiative to his wife. Jimmy Carter made his old friend Bert Lance his budget director, only to see him hauled in front of the Senate to answer questions on his past banking practices in Georgia, and George H.W. Bush deposited so many friends at the Commerce Department that the agency was known internally as "Bush Gardens." The difference is that this Bush Administration had a plan from day one for remaking the bureaucracy, and has done so with greater success. As far back as the Florida recount, soon-to-be Vice President Dick Cheney was poring over organizational charts of the government with an eye toward stocking it with people sympathetic to the incoming Administration. Clay Johnson III, Bush's former Yale roommate and the Administration's chief architect of personnel, recalls preparing for the inner circle's first trip from Austin, Texas, to Washington: "We were standing there getting ready to get on a plane, looking at each other like: Can you believe what we're getting ready to do?"
Mark Thompson, Karen Tumulty, and Mike Allen, "How Many More Mike Browns Are Out There?" Time Magazine, September 25, 2005 --- http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1109345,00.html

Mossberg:  Yahoo Email Delivers That Desktop Feel Most Users Expect
Web-based email programs, like Yahoo Mail, have long been inferior to email programs that take the form of standard applications installed on your computer. The Web offerings have been short on features, short on email storage and clumsy to use. Lately, however, that has begun to change. A number of major Web-mail providers have introduced versions that offer much more of the ease of use and power of desktop email programs like Microsoft Outlook. Yet they still retain the core advantage of Web-mail services: They can be accessed from any computer, Windows or Mac, with your settings and preferences always present. All you need is an Internet connection and a Web browser.
Walter Mossberg, "Yahoo Email Delivers That Desktop Feel Most Users Expect," The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2005; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,personal_technology,00.html

The Dow moved from $600 to over $10,000 in 40 years
The Wall Street Journal Flashback, September 26, 1961
Stocks broke to new low ground on the current decline, with aluminum, aircraft and missile shares under special pressure. The Dow-Jones industrial average sank 9.71 points, or 1.38%, to 601.86, its lowest level since July 25, just prior to President Kennedy's Berlin crisis speech.

Really dumb bank robbers
"Dumb and Dumber's tears win less jail time," Sydney Morning Herald, September 25, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/09/24/1126982270076.html

They were dubbed "Dumb and Dumber" because of the clues they left.

Even Carroll's lawyer described the crime as "absurd".

Mr Smith pointed to the fact Carroll and Prince robbed the WestStar Bank, where they were regular customers. Their Australian accents made them easily identifiable.

During the robbery, the pair wore name tags from the Vail sports store they worked at, and tried to buy plane tickets to Mexico with the stolen loot.

Prosecutors denied it was a robbery committed by bumbling fools.

"Two athletic young men going into a bank with what looked like real firearms and pushing people around is an horrific event," assistant US lawyer Greg Holloway said.

Both Carroll and Prince were also ordered to pay $US21,658, which represents the funds not yet recovered from the bank robbery.

Brain scans reveal truth about lying: it's easier to be honest
Lying is more difficult than telling the truth, and that may be the key to a better lie-detection test, researchers say. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania said they made the discovery when they watched brain scans of volunteers as they gave honest answers or told lies. The brain's frontal lobe, the region that regulates thinking, puts a lot more effort into devising a lie than telling the truth, and brain scans document that activity. The finding, in the journal Human Brain Mapping and discussed in an article in the latest issue of the journal Nature, is said to advance the science of detecting deception.
"Brain scans reveal truth about lying: it's easier to be honest," Sydney Morning Herald, September 24, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/09/23/1126982230876.html

We're dopes about drug use:  Ecstasy preferred over booze even among adults
Everyone knows but doesn't say that the reason nightclubs want to charge for water is they don't make enough from alcohol because their young customers prefer ecstasy. During the millennium New Year's Eve celebrations in the city, police were stunned by the good behaviour of the record crowd. Drug experts claimed the mob's docility was due to its widespread consumption of ecstasy instead of alcohol. While the prohibition of heroin has been widely embraced because of the drug's addictive nature and obvious social problems it engenders, society has turned a blind eye and come to an uneasy truce with other illicit drugs. But with drug use no longer solely the province of the experimenting young, that truce may come under threat. Harm minimisation advocates say the increasing disconnect between public rhetoric and private drug use is hypocritical and doomed. They beaver away on legalisation and demonising zero-tolerance advocates.
Miranda Devine, "We're dopes about drug use," Sydney Morning Herald, September 25, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/09/24/1126982266527.html 

"Is Meth A Plague, A Wildfire, Or the Next Katrina? Or is it a million times more horrible than all of them combined?" by Jacob Sullum, Reason Magazine, September 2, 2005 --- http://www.reason.com/sullum/090205.shtml

Conflicts of Interest
Is this what is behind the New York Times support for eminent domain that empowers developers?
Those “values” and “democratic ideals” included using eminent domain to forcibly evict 55 businesses—including a trade school, a student housing unit, a Donna Karan outlet, and several mom-and-pop stores—against their will, under the legal cover of erasing “blight,” in order to clear ground for a 52-story skyscraper. The Times and Ratner, who never bothered making an offer to the property owners, bought the Port Authority–adjacent property at a steep discount ($85 million) from a state agency that seized the 11 buildings on it; should legal settlements with the original tenants exceed that amount, taxpayers will have to make up the difference. On top of that gift, the city and state offered the Times $26 million in tax breaks for the project, and Ratner even lobbied to receive $400 million worth of U.S. Treasury–backed Liberty Bonds—instruments created by Congress to help rebuild Lower Manhattan. Which is four miles away . . . Nowhere was this anti-populist, ends-justify-the-means approach on more naked display than after the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 ruling in Kelo v. City of New London. That June 23 decision upheld governments’ broad leeway to use eminent domain to transfer property from one private owner to a richer one—in that particular case, from Connecticut homeowners to an upscale real estate development. While much of the country howled in protest at the fact that, in the words of dissenting Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, “nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory,” the Times, in an editorial entitled “The Limits of Property Rights,” let out a lusty cheer. Kelo, the paper declared, is “a welcome vindication of cities’ ability to act in the public interest” and “a setback to the ‘property rights’ movement, which is trying to block government from imposing reasonable zoning and environmental regulations.”
Matt Welch, "Why The New York Times ♥s Eminent Domain," Reason Magazine, October 2005 --- http://www.reason.com/0510/co.mw.why.shtml

A very negative book review

"Under the Spell of Malthus: Biology doesn’t explain why societies collapse," by Ronald Bailey, Reason Magazine, August/September 2005 --- http://www.reason.com/0508/cr.rb.under.shtml 

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond, (New York: Viking, 592 pages, $29.95)

Jared Diamond’s new book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, is neither “superb” (The New Statesman), “incisive” (The Washington Post), “magisterial” (BusinessWeek), nor “insightful and very important” (Boston Herald). It is, instead, a telling example of how a smart man can be terribly misled by a fixation on one big idea. In this case, Diamond, a biologist, is trying to apply biology’s master narrative to human societies.

In 1838 the founding father of modern biology, Charles Darwin, read the 1798 edition of the Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Population. Malthus famously concluded that human population increased at an exponential rate, while food supplies grew at “arithmetic” rates. Thus population would always outstrip food supplies, dooming some portion of humanity to perpetual famine. As a description of human behavior, it was, as we shall see, a wildly inaccurate argument. But it sparked a genuine revolution in the life sciences.

Reading Malthus was a “eureka” moment for Darwin, who declared in his autobiography, “I had at last got a theory by which to work.” Darwin realized that Malthus’ thesis applied to the natural world, since plants and animals produce far more offspring than there is food, nutrients, and space to support them. Consequently, Darwin noted, “It at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The results of this would be the formation of a new species.” This insight launched one of the most important modern scientific theories, the theory of biological evolution by means of natural selection.

. . .

Similarly, Diamond describes how Polynesian seafarers settled Easter Island by 900 A.D. This 66-square-mile island is one of the more remote scraps of land on the planet. It lies in the South Pacific 2,300 miles from Chile and 1,200 miles from the next nearest Polynesian island. Easter Islanders don’t seem to have had any contact with outsiders until Dutch explorers stumbled on them in 1722. Archaeological evidence shows that Easter Island was once covered with a subtropical forest which was home to the world’s biggest species of palm (now extinct). Today, no native tree species exceeds seven feet in height. Evidently the Easter Islanders cut down all of their trees by 1600, leaving none to regenerate the forests. This complete deforestation caused severe soil erosion, which cut farmers’ crop yields, leading to starvation and cannibalism. Easter Island society apparently “collapsed” in a civil war around 1680, at which time the island’s population may have declined by 70 percent.

When Diamond discusses the “collapse” of the Mayan civilization in Central America around 900 A.D., he hauls out the standard Malthusian explanation: “It appears to me that one strand consisted of population growth outstripping available resources: a dilemma similar to one foreseen by Thomas Malthus in 1798.” This population/resource imbalance led to civilization-destroying warfare, which Diamond declares is “not surprising when one reflects that at least 5,000,000 people…were crammed into an area smaller than the state of Colorado.” Before nodding your head in sage agreement with this analysis, keep in mind that Colorado itself is today crammed with 4.5 million people whose standards of living are vastly more luxurious than those of 10th-century Mayan nobles and peasants.

Anthropologist Lisa Lucero of New Mexico State University at Las Cruces told USA Today that she disagrees with Diamond’s analysis of the “collapse” of the Mayan civilization: “There’s no evidence for massive violence and massive disease among the classic Maya.” She believes the evidence indicates that the Mayans simply moved on because of widespread drought.

. . .

Meanwhile, Diamond calls on Americans, Europeans, and Japanese to reject their “traditional consumer values.” So in essence, Diamond’s solution to the problems he believes humanity faces is to reduce the living standards of the world’s wealthiest societies (U.S., Europe, Japan) and curb economic growth in the poorer countries. This is Malthus’ legacy at its worst, and when Diamond embraces it, Collapse collapses into claptrap.

U.S. money is not doing the job in securing nuclear sites in Russia
Despite U.S. Help, Program Faces Resistance, Delays Amid Chill in Relations A Warehouse Sits Empty
The warehouse shows how the effort to secure Russia's vast arsenal remains an uphill battle even as concerns about nuclear terrorism have risen in the post-9/11 world. So far, the U.S. has provided state-of-the-art security for 48 of the 85 nuclear warhead storage and handling sites slated for upgrades, but there could be dozens more sites that the two sides may never agree to work on. With Russian nationalism and oil revenues on the rise, the relationship is increasingly uneasy. Russian officials say flatly that they will never allow the Americans near two huge weapons assembly facilities that are believed to hold a quarter of the country's highly enriched uranium and plutonium not already in warheads. Since 1991 the U.S. has spent about $7 billion on Russian nuclear security and achieved some important successes. To help Russia meet its arms-control treaty commitments, the U.S. has paid to slice hundreds of nuclear-launch missiles, submarines and bombers into scrap metal. Thousands of weapons scientists have received at least temporary nonweapons work. In a separate commercial venture, 250 metric tons of highly enriched uranium taken from dismantled warheads have been blended down and burned as fuel in American nuclear-power reactors.
Carla Ann robbins and Alan cullison, "In Russia, Securing Its Nuclear Arsenal Is an Uphill Battle," The Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2005; Page A1 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112770020335451782,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Save the face of communism and starve the people
North Korea has formally told the UN it no longer needs food aid, despite reports of malnutrition in the country . . . Analysts say North Korea might be worried that accepting more food aid now could be perceived as a sign of weakness. The North may also have lost patience with efforts by foreign agencies to monitor deliveries of food, according to the BBC's Seoul correspondent, Charles Scanlon. In recent years, the UN and other international agencies have been feeding up to six million of the poorest and most vulnerable North Koreans.
"North Korea rejects UN food aid," BBC News, September 23, 2005 ---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4273844.stm
 

The American Distance Education Consortium --- http://www.adec.edu/admin/adec-background.html

What is ADEC?
ADEC is a non-profit distance education consortium composed of approximately 65 state universities and land-grant colleges. The consortium was conceived and developed to promote the creation and provision of high quality, economical distance education programs and services to diverse audiences, by the land grant community of colleges and universities, through the most appropriate information technologies available.

ADEC Mission and Guiding Principles The driving vision behind the organization is the extension of educational content and opportunity beyond the traditional boundaries of the university walls, to serving not simply on-campus students but lifelong learners, broader domestic and international communities, under-served populations and even K-12 schools and the corporate/business community.

Through ADEC, members engage in a teaching and learning model that epitomizes a university without walls that is open, accessible, and flexible. The model seeks to provide instructional delivery and/or access anywhere, anytime, and to virtually anyone who seeks it.

Primary emphasis is placed on educational and informational programs and services that fall within the traditional areas of competitive advantage for land-grant institutions. Specifically, this includes programs related to food and agriculture; nutrition and health; environment and natural resources; community and economic development; and children, youth, and families.

Guiding Principles
The consortium draws upon the best and most effective subject matter specialists and information resources to share knowledge and content with learners. ADEC programming is offered locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally and is characterized by the following guiding principles:

Design for active and effective learning.

Principle: Distance learning designs consider context, needs, content, strategies, outcomes and environment.

Support the needs of learners.

Principle: Distance learning opportunities are effectively and flexibly supported.

Develop and maintain the technological and human infrastructure.

Principle: The provider of distance learning opportunities has both a technology plan and a human infrastructure.

Sustain administrative and organizational commitment.

Principle: Distance education initiatives are sustained by an administrative commitment to quality distance education.

ADEC members seek to meet local, state, national and international demands through provision of distance education opportunities and place equal emphasis on each of the traditional land grant imperatives of teaching, research and service.

ADEC is designed to serve diverse audiences using appropriate combinations of technologies including: Internet2, commodity Internet, satellite uplinks, downlinks, VSATs, digital television and audio conferencing. These communications tools help ADEC member institutions interact with learners domestically and internationally. Typical methods of distance learning include: one-way video/two-way audio satellite, two-way video and audio conferencing, multiple user audio-only conferencing, Internet based access to educational programs.

Bob Jensen's threads on distance education alternatives are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm

THE OTHER WAR By Stephanie Gutmann (Encounter, 280 pages, $25.95)

More sad evidence of media bias and incompetence
She gives us a number of other examples in convincing detail. There is the famous case of 12-year-old Mohamed al-Dura, killed during a crossfire between Palestinians and Israeli troops. France 2, a large, state-financed TV network, disseminated a 10- to 20-second scrap of videotape filmed by a Palestinian stringer with a narrative line saying that the boy had been shot by Israelis. This claim was accepted as gospel by other channels. A painstaking investigation later proved that, because of the caliber of the bullets used and the angle of fire, the Israelis could not be charged with the boy's death. This exoneration came too late to have any effect on world perception. The list is endless -- slovenly reporting coupled with bias makes for distorted journalism. Ms. Gutmann feels that the situation is improving. For one thing, the Israelis have tightened up the process of granting press cards, filtering out "reporters" with strong prejudices and flimsy credentials. For another, readers and viewers have discovered that journalists can be as self-serving as anyone else. A number of Web sites have come into being to bring truth and objectivity to otherwise distorted accounts. "The Other War" has a similar purpose and accomplishes it forcefully.
Sol Schlindler, ""Bookmarks," The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2005; Page W12 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112743140458249257,00.html?mod=todays_us_weekend_journal

Dressing up accounting reports under FAS 106:  Retired Sears employees get 106'd
Sears Holdings Corp. has begun to notify its retirees that it will make further cuts to their medical benefits, citing rising health-care costs and competition from retailers that provide little or no medical coverage to retired employees. The moves are the latest in a series of cuts in retiree benefits in recent years. In the past, such cuts helped Sears generate income, thanks to accounting practices that transform reductions in retiree benefits to accounting gains.
Amy Merrick, "Sears Plans More Cuts To Retirees' Medical Benefits," The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2005; Page A2 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112742906285649152,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

A summary of FAS 106 is available at http://www.fasb.org/st/summary/stsum106.shtml
The entire standard can be downloaded free (scroll down) from http://www.fasb.org/st/#fas125

Riding on the rims
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said Friday it will close an undisclosed number of plants in various locations, part of a sweeping restructuring aimed at improving its North American tire business and saving up to $1 billion over the next three years. The Akron, Ohio, company, one of the world's largest tire makers, did not say how many jobs would be affected. It also did not say how many plants it will close or their locations, but added that cutting high-cost capacity will be a key consideration. Goodyear said it plans to cut high-cost manufacturing capacity between 8 percent and 12 percent, resulting in expected annual savings of $100 million to $150 million. The company also said it would increase sourcing from Asia and seek other ways to boost productivity. The company said it would record restructuring charges between $150 million and $250 million over the next three years. The company said it is targeting total cost cuts between $750 million and $1 billion by 2008.
"Goodyear Tire to Shut Down Plants," Earthlink, September 23, 2005 ---
http://start.earthlink.net/article/bus?guid=20050923/43337dc0_3ca6_1552620050923-166254225

The Truth About Oil
From Fortune Magazine's Preview Guide on September 26, 2005

"The Truth About Oil," pp. 102-111: The talk of travelers this summer was rising gas prices, and as we move into autumn, prices don't seem to be falling with the leaves. This has left many Americans angry, but not necessarily for the right reasons. First of all, while the magnates of Big Oil are certainly raking in the profits, they're not the ones setting the sky-high prices — the markets are. Hedge funds aren't to blame, either. They account for less than 3% of volume in oil futures. Besides, fear of a dwindling supply drives oil prices harder than speculation. That fear itself may be misguided. While oil is not a renewable resource, economists expect that high fuel prices will spur oil companies to dig deeper and farther afield for oil, eventually leading to larger supplies and cheaper prices. In fact, the Department of Energy projects that worldwide refining capacity will increase 61% over the next 20 years in plenty of markets that will be more than happy to supply gasoline and other refined petroleum products to the U.S. Should the government intervene in the interim? It depends on whom you talk to, but the last time the federal government imposed price controls in the 1970s, the end result was shortages, gas lines, and little change in prices. Students will see how myths about the current oil pinch have Americans directing their ire at the wrong targets. Discussion Questions: How has the spike in gasoline prices impacted gas station owners? When do station owners make the biggest profits? How do they attempt to raise their profit margins?   Define peak-oil theory. What are some of the flaws in the theory? Do you agree with the contention that the worldwide oil supply will critically trail demand in the near future? Why or why not?   How is the U.S. especially vulnerable to oil shocks? Short of enforcing bureaucratic controls, in what ways can the U.S. government help bring down energy prices?

 

Will the last departing person from Hollywood please turn out the lights
Ever since jumping into the entertainment business in 2002, Wagner and his outspoken partner, Mark Cuban ( http://www.blogmaverick.com ), have been openly challenging established modes of distribution in Hollywood. They're building a high-tech, new-model, vertically integrated studio. Their 2929 Prods. and digital production house HDNet Films produce low-cost movies; HDNet Film Sales raises financing for them overseas; Magnolia Pictures Distribution books them on the 200-screen art-house Landmark Theater chain; and for the first time, with "Bubble" in January, the high-definition cable channel HDNet Movies will air the films at the same time that they go out through their nascent DVD division. "I like Mark and Todd's energy and enthusiasm," Soderbergh says. "They're free-thinking." . . . Last summer, Soderbergh shot the murder mystery "Bubble" on location along the southern Ohio/West Virginia border, with locals who had never acted. Soderbergh used three of the same high-definition Sony 950 cameras George Lucas deployed on the "Star Wars" movies. "I just wanted to make a movie about love and jealousy," Soderbergh says, "but in an environment that you don't often get to see in movies. The whole appeal was the simplicity of it. The idea was just to not tart it up. These cameras make it easy to go in without any lights, on all real locations." "Bubble" is downright radical. Debbie Doebereiner, its 40-ish star, is the blue-eyed, chubby general manager of a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Parkersburgh, W. Va. Casting director Carmen Cuba scoured the area, approaching people who fit writer Coleman Hough's descriptions, then interviewed them at length on tape.
Anne Thompson, "Soderbergh challenges 'out of whack' studios," Breitbart.com, September 23, 2005 --- http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/23/MTFH01570_2005-09-23_11-00-19_SCH325697.html

No yen for it, at least not enough
Japan's government debt, already the highest in the industrialized world, rose 1.7 percent to a record high of 795.8 trillion yen ($7.1 trillion) at the end of June, according to a report released by the Finance Ministry.
"Japan's National Debt Hits Record High," Yahoo News, September 23, 2005 --- http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050923/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_government_debt

No Comment:  The ACLU vs. America
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Alan Sears the co-author (with Craig Osten) of the new book,
The ACLU vs. America: Exposing the Agenda to Redefine Moral Values
"The ACLU vs. America," Frontpage, September 26, 2005,  http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19607

New Politics of Race at Berkeley
Berkeley has had a lot of Asian American students for years, but never so many as now. Last year, according to the Office of Student Research, Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander students made up just over 40 percent of the student body. This year’s freshman class was just under 48 percent Asian, a record high, according to admissions officials, who said that, once the final tally of registered students is completed, the number of Asian and white students on campus will be nearly the same. In this year’s freshman class, white enrollment is 31 percent, Latino enrollment 11 percent, and black enrollment 3 percent, with the remainder divided among “other” and those who did not identify their race or ethnicity. Part of the reason for the increasing Asian percentages, according to Richard Black, associate vice chancellor for admissions and enrollment, is simply that Berkeley’s environs have a lot of Asian families. There may be more to it, though. Not only is Berkeley accepting Asian applicants at a higher rate — 34 percent as opposed to 27 percent for the overall population in 2005 – but Asian students are choosing Berkeley more often, too. Of all Asian applicants accepted to the university, 49 percent chose to attend Berkeley, as compared to only 43 percent of students generally, Black said, a “modest indication that Asian students receive greater opportunities at Berkeley as compared to some other [ethnic groups].”
David Epstein, "New Politics of Race at Berkeley," Inside Higher Ed, September 23, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/23/berkeley

NEVER ACT ON RETIREMENT ADVICE FROM ANYONE WHO EARNS A COMMISSION AT YOUR EXPENSE!
The Motley Fool Newsletter on September 27, 2005

Stockbrokers? Ha! They wrecked more retirement plans than anybody when they pushed lousy stocks like Enron and WorldCom right up to the crash.

Financial planners? Estate planners? Nix that too! Most work for big banks and financial firms and are nothing more than insurance or annuity salesmen in disguise. They're after a fat commission that will come out of your pocket.

Your brother-in-law? Probably not! Let's face it -- to really be on top of everything that impacts how well you live in retirement, you'd need to be a tax expert... Medicare benefits guru... stock picker... economist... senior's law expert... and Social Security advisor all rolled into one.

It's a real dilemma. On the one hand, you'll probably leak fewer dollars trusting no one but yourself with your retirement. On the other hand, it's next to impossible for you to maximize the profit-power of your retirement dollars on your own and to be an expert in all of the areas that impact what you do with your nest egg.

Tada!

September 26, 2005 message from mseckman@rockwellcollins.com

I saw this item on tidbits and think these are good questions for students to consider in a social view of the pension situation in the United States. However, besides the social implications, accounting students should have a controllership view of pension issues. Otherwise, when the PBGC bail out happens, they may not be prepared. Several additional questions.

1. The principle of conservatism requires pension plan valuations to assume a discount rate at a point in time, yet the return on assets assumption reflects an estimated long term rate. Discuss the reasonableness of those rates in light of liabilities that will be paid over the next 50 years?

2. What is the incentive for contributions to the pension plan and how does it appear in the financial statements?

3. Why would a pension plan sponsor over fund the plan? Discuss the implications of the discount rate and return on asset assumptions in over funding.

4. What is pension immunization and when does it make sense to immunize?

Mark S. Eckman
And remember, ERISA stands for Every Ridiculous Idea Since Adam.

Mark was referring to the following Tidbit on
Perhaps these pensions should not be included since these airlines are probably going to dump their pension obligations on the Federal Government anyway.

From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Week in Review on September 22, 2005

TITLE: Delta, Northwest Omit Pensions from Filings
REPORTER: Susan Carey and Evan Perez
DATE: Sep 16, 2005
PAGE: A3 LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112683441976042541,00.html 
TOPICS: Advanced Financial Accounting, Financial Accounting, Pension Accounting

SUMMARY: The article discusses pension funding requirements, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC), and legislative actions in detail.

QUESTIONS:
1.) What is the implication of the statement in the article title that these two airlines have omitted pension payments from bankruptcy court filings.

2.) What is an underfunded pension plan? What are possible different measures of a pension plan's funding level? Who establishes requirements for funding pension plans?

3.) What is the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC)?

4.) Why might U.S. Congress enact a law to delay requirements for funding company pension plans? In your answer, consider the plight of the PBGC as described in this article.

5.) Why are discount airlines better able to compete and remain profitable than are so-called legacy airlines?

Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island

PARADISE LOST By John Milton, an illustrated edition introduced by Philip Pullman (Oxford, 374 pages, $28)

Unadorned by scholarly apparatus, the book is meant to facilitate direct exposure to the poem without mediation from editors and notes. Mr. Pullman readily admits that, in such a barebones format, "ten thousand jewels have had to lie untouched," and he urges further reading in any number of annotated editions. What his volume lacks in learned detail, though, it amply makes up for in verve and sweep and in the sheer pleasure derived from Milton's language. Mr. Pullman heightens the drama of the story -- Satan's infiltration of Paradise and the fall of man -- with brief introductions to each of the poem's twelve books, and the illustrations, mostly by Michael Burgers from 1688, are apt and elegant. Presented in this way, the poem is so enticing that readers may ultimately agree with Mr. Pullman that "no one, not even Shakespeare, surpasses Milton in his command of the sound, the music, the weight and taste and texture of English words."
David Yezzi, "Bookmarks," The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2005; Page W12 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112743140458249257,00.html?mod=todays_us_weekend_journal
 

Are there wrinkles in your broadband?
Some new BROADband exports from Germany
Germany is the homeland of the nudist movement. In the late 19th century, youngsters from teeming cities formed back-to-nature clubs. Called Freikoerperkultur, or "Free Body Culture," nudism soon grew into a mass movement. Briefly outlawed by the Nazis, nudism kept a faithful following. In Communist East Germany, it was a cherished and tolerated expression of freedom. Today, Germany's nudist organizations are losing members, and the people still in the game are a wrinkled bunch. Just 50,000 Germans now belong to nudist clubs, less than half the number of the early 1970s, and most are over the age of 50. In the U.S., nudism is said to be growing. The American Association for Nude Recreation, which says it has 50,000 members, says it got a boost in the 1990s, when the Internet helped nudists find others sharing their pastime. Now, too, there are clothing-optional resorts and cruises. With new features like spas and broadband connections, most of today's nudist clubs are a far cry from the rustic nudist colonies of the past.
Cecili Rohwedder, "Why German Nudists Are Wearing Frowns As Others Disrobe," The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2005; Page A1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112743477668449388,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Video of Monkey teasing tigers http://gprime.net/video.php/monkeyteasingatiger 

Pretty in Pink?  This is not funny at the University of Iowa
A University of Iowa law professor received death threats and abusive e-mail messages after she criticized the university for maintaining a tradition of painting the visiting locker room in the football stadium pink, The Des Moines Register reported. The pink decor dates to the 1970s as part of a strategy of softening up football opponents. The Register said that the threats — apparently from Iowa football fans who admire the strategy — started after Erin Buzuvis, a law professor, told a local reporter: “With a pink locker room, you’re saying that ‘You are a girlie man. You are weak, like a girl.’ That implies that girls are non-dominant, therefore, lesser. And that is offensive.”
Inside Higher Ed, September 26, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/26/qt

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/.

International Accounting News (including the U.S.)

AccountingEducation.com and Double Entries --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/
        Upcoming international accounting conferences --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/events/index.cfm
        Thousands of journal abstracts --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/journals/index.cfm
Deloitte's International Accounting News --- http://www.iasplus.com/index.htm
Association of International Accountants --- http://www.aia.org.uk/ 
WebCPA --- http://www.webcpa.com/
FASB --- http://www.fasb.org/
IASB --- http://www.fasb.org/
Others --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm

Gerald Trite's great set of links --- http://iago.stfx.ca/people/gtrites/Docs/bookmark.htm 

Richard Torian's Managerial Accounting Information Center --- http://www.informationforaccountants.com/ 

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