I recently sent out an "Appeal" for accounting educators, researchers, and practitioners to actively support what I call The Accounting Review (TAR) Diversity Initiative as initiated by American Accounting Association President Judy Rayburn --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR.htm

Outgoing President Rayburn has some parting comments in support of her TAR Diversity Initiative in the Summer 2006 edition of Accounting Education News --- http://aaahq.org/pubs/AEN/Summer06.pdf

Tidbits on August 2, 2006
Bob Jensen

For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.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 Blogs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
 

Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   
 

Bob Jensen's various threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
       (Also scroll down to the table at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ )

Click here to search this Website 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/

Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Question: Did she really get angry or was she playing along with the Comedy Central spirit?
Hilarious Stephen Colbert interview of Eleanor Holmes Norton --- Click Here

Breaking Through Poverty with Microfinance from the  Grameen Foundation --- http://www.gfusa.org/

• BYU TV has a short video (for PBS) on how microfinance can lift the poor out of poverty.

• NPR has an interesting (short, 4 minute) NPR newscast on micro finance in which "a group of bankers and MBA students assemble to talk about micro-financing. The group tries to imagine what life would be like without insurance, credit cards and bank accounts"

Kevin Sites in War Hot Zones (History) ---  http://hotzone.yahoo.com/

Dog  Wins a Game of "Simon Says" --- http://www.metacafe.com/watch/154224/simon_says_with_a_dog/

She's Really, Really Blonde --- http://www.metacafe.com/watch/114136/beautiful_but_stupid/

Free music downloads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

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

Art of the States --- http://artofthestates.org/
Includes collections titled, "Music of Memory" and "Parody Pieces"

From NPR
A Country Music Outlaw, Resurrected --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5573820

Bitkraft --- http://www.bitkraft.com/

From NPR
A Visit with the Soul Queen of New Orleans --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5526014

From NPR
Reggae versions of songs by Radiohead --- http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc117/

Gina from Lifehacker has a feature how-to on finding free music online. She suggests couple of places on finding free music, such as Google, Singing Fish, WebJay, del.icio.us, Amazon’s Top Free Music downloads, MP3 blogs. Google’s query on finding files (in this case, using mp3 and wma file extension for music) is the most popular method introduced around blogsphere --- http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/find-free-music-on-the-web.html

THE HYPE MACHINE audio blog aggregator --- http://hype.non-standard.net/

Photographs and Art

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

John Barbato's Collected Poems 1964 - 2002 is Now Available On-line at Lulu.com ---
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/7/prweb415159.htm

Meeting of Frontiers is a bilingual, multimedia English-Russian digital library that tells the story of the American exploration and settlement of the West, the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest --- http://international.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfhome.html

All Empires History Forum --- http://www.allempires.com/

HyperHistory Online --- http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html

History World --- http://www.historyworld.net/

World History International --- http://history-world.org/

MacroHistory:  PREHISTORY TO THE 21st CENTURY --- http://www.fsmitha.com/

When The Sleeper Wakes by Herbert G. Wells --- Click Here

Brain Juice Biographies --- http://www.brain-juice.com/main.html

100 Best Novels --- http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

Read Steady Book Reviews --- http://www.readysteadybook.com/index.aspx

Knowledge is our most powerful engine of production; it enables us to subdue nature and force her to satisfy our wants.
British Economist Alfred Marshall as quoted by Nick Schulz --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110008738

Robert Heilbroner commented on how mathematics brought great rigor to economics, unfortunately, as he opined, it also brought mortis.
Paul Williams in a recent email message

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure.
Thomas Jefferson --- http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/foley/

Ahmed says he always knows who the air marshal is on a flight: "It's the guy who's reading People magazine upside down and is looking right at me."
Ahmed Ahmed, Axis of Evil' Comedy, on Tour --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5589877

Television is more interesting than people. If it were not, we would have people standing in the corners of our rooms.
Alan Coren --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Coren

Ride me down easy lord, ride me on down
Leave word in the dust where I lay Say
I'm easy come, easy go,
And easy to love when I stay.
Bill Joe Shaver as quoted in a recent email message from Patricia Doherty [pdoherty@BU.EDU]

Washing Clothes Instructions Forwarded by Paula

Never thought of a "washer" in this light before. . .what a blessing!
' Washing Clothes Recipe' -- imagine having a recipe for this ! ! !

Years ago an Alabama grandmother gave the new bride the following recipe:

This is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrapbook - with spelling errors and all.

WASHING CLOTHES

Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert. Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water.

Sort things, make 3 piles 1 pile white, 1 pile colored, 1 pile work britches and rags.

To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boiling water.

Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and boil, then rub colored don't boil just wrench and starch.

Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and starch.

Hang old rags on fence.

Spread tea towels on grass.

Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water. Turn tubs upside down.

Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.
================================================
Post this over your washer and dryer. Next time when you think things are bleak, read it again, kiss that washing machine and dryer, and give THANKS First thing each morning you should run and hug your washer and dryer, also your toilet---those two-holers used to get mighty cold!

For any non-southerners out there: "wrench" means rinse. ;)

AND WE TH INK WE HAVE IT ROUGH!!!

Jensen Comment
Of course our modern conveniences use more water, and gas or electricity. They also require experts to repair. Furthermore these appliances always malfunction of weekends or holidays. And there are no backup conveniences when they are needed the most. Who has a reserve outhouse or a washboard these days?

See Time Magazine's photo essay of living without electricity --- Click Here 
 

While the media focuses on Lebanon, the bigger tragedy in the Congo is largely ignored
Though Congo’s civil war supposedly ended four years ago, and the nation’s first democratic elections in more than four decades are scheduled for Sunday, the fighting and chaos here continue to kill about 1,250 people each day, mostly from hunger and disease. In all, nearly four million people have died as a result of the conflict since 1998, almost half of them children under the age of 5, according to the International Rescue Committee.
"War’s Chaos Steals Congo’s Young by the Millions," by Lydia Polgreen, The New York Times, July 30, 2006 ---
Click Here

See Time Magazine's photo essay on the Congo tragedy --- Click Here
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2006/congo_elections/?internalid=AOT_h_07-30-2006_congos_battle_

Contrary to media claims that Beirut is being systematically destroyed by bombs, the evidence is quite to the contrary --- http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21814&only&rss

The long-term environmental damage to Lebanon as a whole is more worrisome --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1674159/posts

Hezbollywood? Evidence mounts that Qana collapse and deaths were staged --- http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/8997.htm
Also see http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0%2C7340%2CL-3283816%2C00.html

Israel’s response to Hezbollah has demonstrated to the enemies of the Jewish state that Israel will stand up and fight. This is in marked contrast to Spain, France and Germany under Schroeder, who have blinked and withdrawn responding to Islamic terror or threatened terror. Thankfully, our country’s leaders appreciate that we are at war with international terrorism.
Ed Koch, "FUTURE DETERRENCE AT STAKE," New York Press, August 2, 2006 --- http://www.nypress.com/19/31/news&columns/opinion.cfm

Question
What's the Elephant-in-the-Room syndrome?

Forget NATO:  Europe Will Not Fight to Suppress Hezbolla
Europe will chastise Jerusalem and beseech Beirut and excoriate Washington and aggrandize Kofi Annan, but it will not fight in Lebanon to support Israel and America in suppressing Hezbollah. Why? Europe is not ignorant or cowardly; rather, Europe is collectively suffering what savants call the double wall of denial, or what is drolly known as the Elephant-in-the-Room syndrome . . . The elephant is Iran. The double wall is that not only can Europe not talk about Iran as the command and control of Hezbollah in Lebanon, but also Europe won't let the United Nations Security Council talk about the facts that those are Iranian missiles with Iranian agents with Iranian war aims to destroy Israel and defeat America in Iraq, the Gulf, the ummah.
John Bachelor, "War Elephant,"  The New York Sun, July 25, 2006 ---
http://regimechangeiran.blogspot.com/2006/07/war-elephant.html

The complex and changing world of enemies and friends
Iranians view the Taliban as a C.I.A. creation formed to drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. The Islamic fundamentalists that control the Iranian government had no official relations with the Taliban and the two groups have different interpretations of Islam. In Iran, the C.I.A., Israel, and British intelligence, are often blamed for most things that go wrong.
"Iran's Sept. 11 theories and feelings about Iraq," by Ramin Talaie, Downtown Express, April 1, 2003 ---
http://www.zwire.com/Site/News.Cfm?Newsid=7569906&Brd=1841&Pag=461&Dept_Id=513885&Rfi=6

Iran did help the U.S. during the war with Afghanistan. When we went after the Taliban, we made deals with the Iranians through third parties to do search and rescue operations near the Iran-Afghan border. On the west, Iran shares a vast border with Iraq, and Iranians fought a bloody eight-year war to defend the opposing Iraqi forces while the U.S. and the Europeans provided arms and intelligence to Saddam Hussein. In Tehran, a taxi driver told me stories from the frontlines of that war. He told me about his unit getting hit with chemical bombs and how devastating it was. When I was there, the United Nations and Iran were building camps on the old battlefields for anticipated Iraqi refugees.

Iranians do not like Saddam, but they do not trust what the U.S. is going to do [post Saddam]. They do not like Bush putting them in the "axis of evil."

Yet even with a U.S. economic embargo for more than 20 years, many Iranians love most everything American. Iranian boys and girls, born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, wear DKNY shoes purchased in Dubai, and listen to the latest hip-hop CD's fresh from the thriving black market.

"Terror's Playbook:  Al Qaeda manual is a blueprint for hate that reveals a sinister plot to invade & conquer,"
by William F. McCants, New York Daily News, July 30, 2006 ---
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/439083p-369945c.html 

Most Americans know that Al Qaeda and its franchises are willing to sink to any depth to destroy the United States. But few people realize just how deep those depths are.

The public's knowledge of the terror group's goals and motives is largely confined to the English translations of Osama Bin Laden's and Ayman al-Zawahiri's propaganda. Consequently, Al Qaeda and like-minded groups, or "jihadis," are viewed either as unthinking zealots or misguided freedom fighters.

"The Management of Savagery" - a book written in 2004 by Abu Bakr Naji, a high-level Al Qaeda strategist - suggests that both perspectives are off the mark.

Most jihadi writings in Arabic are similar to those already available in English. These are lengthy exposés on the Western plot to destroy Islam, dense with religious references meant to justify a violent response to this plot. Naji's book is different. Unlike typical jihadi tracts, this genre eschews religious propaganda in favor of scientific analysis, drawing on close readings of Western political theories.

In "The Management of Savagery," Naji argues that the jihadis failed in the past to establish an Islamic state because they were focused on toppling local regimes. These efforts were fruitless, he argues, because jihadis were seen as fighting their own people, which alienated the masses. Moreover, the local governments proved impervious to revolution as long as they were supported by the U.S. Based on his understanding of power politics, Naji says that the jihadis had to provoke the United States to invade a country in the Middle East.

This would 1.) turn the Muslims against local governments allied with the U.S.; 2.) destroy the U.S. aura of invincibility, which it maintains through the media, and 3.) create sympathy for the jihadis, who would be viewed as standing up to Crusader aggression. Moreover, the invasion would bleed the U.S. economy and sap its military power, leading to social unrest at home and its ultimate withdrawal from the Middle East.

Naji had hoped that Afghanistan would play out in this manner for the U.S., as it did for the Soviets. Now, Naji places his hopes on Iraq. Once the U.S. withdraws from Iraq, he contends, the jihadis must quickly move to invade neighboring countries.

Some countries are particularly ripe for jihadi incursion: Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen, as well as North West Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. These areas were selected by Al Qaeda because of each region's geographic features, weak central governments, the receptivity of the people and the proliferation of weapons and jihadi propaganda. The plan, according to Naji, is to conduct small- to medium-scale attacks on crucial infrastructure (like oil or tourism), which will cause the government to draw in its security forces. Chaos or "savagery" will erupt in the unpoliced areas.

Then, the jihadis will move into these security vacuums and provide basic services to people, who will welcome an end to the instability. The final goal is to establish a single global state ruled by a pious Muslim dictator, the caliph, who will implement a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Drawing on the experience of jihadis in Egypt and Algeria, Naji cautions his readers that no plan will succeed unless the jihadis learn how to respond to public opinion and manipulate the media.

Many Westerners underestimate just how sophisticated and ruthless our enemy is. Reading Naji is a start to better understand our foes' mind-set, particularly because his text has Al Qaeda's seal of approval. The manual is available at www.ctc.usma.edu/naji.asp . Without this kind of information, the American people and our lawmakers and judges will never fully understand the awful magnitude of what we face.

This understanding is crucial for generating the bipartisan support and action so badly needed to effectively wage the long-term battle against those who would threaten our way of life. Only by knowing the depths to which the enemy will sink to defeat us will we be able to have a meaningful discussion of how far we should go to destroy them.

McCants translated "The Management of Savagery." He is a fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

Questions
What is the best method of peer review?
Is it truly a value-adding process?
What are the ethical concerns?
And how can new technology be used to improve traditional models?

"Nature's Debate on Peer Review and Test of Open Review," Issues in Scholarly Communication from the University of Illinois, July 27, 2006 --- http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/

From Nature... "Peer review is commonly accepted as an essential part of scientific publication. But the ways peer review is put into practice vary across journals and disciplines. What is the best method of peer review? Is it truly a value-adding process? What are the ethical concerns? And how can new technology be used to improve traditional models?"

The Nature debate consists of 22 articles of analyses and perspectives from leading scientists, publishers and other stakeholders on such subjects as listed above. Readers are invited to comment on the various articles.

Additionally, for a period of three months, Nature is holding it's own "peer review trial".

Again, from Nature: "The trial will not displace Nature's traditional confidential peer review process, but will complement it. From 5 June 2006, authors may opt to have their submitted manuscripts posted publicly for comment. Any scientist may then post comments, provided they identify themselves. Once the usual confidential peer review process is complete, the public 'open peer review' process will be closed. Editors will then read all comments on the manuscript and invite authors to respond. At the end of the process, as part of the trial, editors will assess the value of the public comments."

Nature's site on this debate is at http://www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/debate/index.html

Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm

July 28, 2006 reply from Alexander Robin A [alexande.robi@UWLAX.EDU]

Two quotes from a couple of Bob Jensen's recent posts:

"Of course we knew students are obsessed with grades." (from the RateMyProfessors thread)

"The problem is that universities have explicit or implicit rankings of "journal quality" that is largely dictated by research faculty in those universities. These rankings are crucial to promotion, tenure, and performance evaluation decisions." (from the TAR thread)

These two issues are related. First, students are obsessed with grades because universities, employers and just about everyone else involved are obsessed with grades. One can also say that faculty are obsessed with publications because so are those who decide their fates. In these two areas of academia, the measurement has become more important than the thing it was supposed to measure.

For the student, ideally the learning is the most important outcome of a class and the grade is supposed to reflect how successful the learning was. But the learning does not directly and tangibly affect the student - the grade does. In my teaching experience students, administrators and employers saw the grade as being the key outcome of a class, not the learning.

Research publication is supposed to result from a desire to communicate the results of research activity that the researcher is very interested in. But, especially in business schools, this has been turned on its head and the publication is most important and the research is secondary - it's just a means to the publication, which is necessary for tenure, etc.

It's really a pathetic situation in which the ideals of learning and discovery are largely perverted. Had I fully understood the magnitude of the problem, I would have never gone for a PhD or gotten into teaching. As to what to do about it, I really don't know. The problems are so deeply entrenched in academic culture. Finally I just gave up and retired early hoping to do something useful for the rest of my productive life.

Robin Alexander

July 28, 2006 reply from Carol Flowers [cflowers@OCC.CCCD.EDU]

Interestingly, I used to believe that education should be run as a business. However, as this has occurred, I have seen that education has no longer become the issue. The value of education has been lost on the grade and funding. And, colleges (in order to "stay in business") have allowed standards to be watered down to "give the customer what they want and what they are willing to pay for".

This is reflected in Rate My Professor. The individual postings rarely mention what they have learned from the class but whether the teacher is easy and which instructors you can be assured will GIVE you a good grade--all with minimal effort involved on the students part, of course. What really is a surprise to me is that students BELIEVE they are "A" students. If they enroll with an instructor who doesn't provide an acceptable grade for them, the instructor is the problem. After all, they got high grades in the other classes!! I see instructors being pulled into this popularity contest to survive. Since funding is very directly tied to retention, it becomes obvious what needs to be done to be "successful as an instructor."

With the No Child Left Behind policy, everyone must pass. Education is now an entitlement instead of being earned. I keep hearing about the sad state of affairs in education. Yet, no one indicates that this could be turned around if the country's value system changed instead of just throwing money at the problem. Sadly, I see the deterioration of education from my mother's generation to my son's. American society no longer places value on it (as in the past). It used to HAVE TO BE EARNED. That is not the case, anymore. Now it can be bought!!

Signed,
Frustrated in Academia

When Professors Accept Research Money from Questionable Sources
Last week, news reports surfaced that Patrick J. Michaels, a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, and Virginia’s state climatologist, is receiving money from coal-burning utility companies pleased with his public skepticism about global warming.
David Epstein, "Helping a Global Warming Skeptic," Inside Higher Ed, July 31, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/31/warming

Bob Jensen's threads on "Appearance Versus the Reality of Research Independence and Freedom" are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ResearchIndependence

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan --- FactCheck.org --- http://www.factcheck.org/

Then again, maybe we're all entitled to our own facts!

"The Power of Postpositive Thinking," Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, August 2, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/08/02/mclemee

In particular, a dominant trend in critical theory was the rejection of the concept of objectivity as something that rests on a more or less naive epistemology: a simple belief that “facts” exist in some pristine state untouched by “theory.” To avoid being naive, the dutiful student learned to insist that, after all, all facts come to us embedded in various assumptions about the world. Hence (ta da!) “objectivity” exists only within an agreed-upon framework. It is relative to that framework. So it isn’t really objective....

What Mohanty found in his readings of the philosophy of science were much less naïve, and more robust, conceptions of objectivity than the straw men being thrashed by young Foucauldians at the time. We are not all prisoners of our paradigms. Some theoretical frameworks permit the discovery of new facts and the testing of interpretations or hypotheses. Others do not. In short, objectivity is a possibility and a goal — not just in the natural sciences, but for social inquiry and humanistic research as well.

Mohanty’s major theoretical statement on PPR arrived in 1997 with Literary Theory and the Claims of History: Postmodernism, Objectivity, Multicultural Politics (Cornell University Press). Because poststructurally inspired notions of cultural relativism are usually understood to be left wing in intention, there is often a tendency to assume that hard-edged notions of objectivity must have conservative implications. But Mohanty’s work went very much against the current.

“Since the lowest common principle of evaluation is all that I can invoke,” wrote Mohanty, complaining about certain strains of multicultural relativism, “I cannot — and consequently need not — think about how your space impinges on mine or how my history is defined together with yours. If that is the case, I may have started by declaring a pious political wish, but I end up denying that I need to take you seriously.”

PPR did not require throwing out the multicultural baby with the relativist bathwater, however. It meant developing ways to think about cultural identity and its discontents. A number of Mohanty’s students and scholarly colleagues have pursued the implications of postpositive identity politics. I’ve written elsewhere about Moya, an associate professor of English at Stanford University who has played an important role in developing PPR ideas about identity. And one academic critic has written an interesting review essay on early postpositive scholarship — highly recommended for anyone with a hankering for more cultural theory right about now.

Not everybody with a sophisticated epistemological critique manages to turn it into a functioning think tank — which is what started to happen when people in the postpositive circle started organizing the first Future of Minority Studies meetings at Cornell and Stanford in 2000. Others followed at the University of Michigan and at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Two years ago FMS applied for a grant from Mellon Foundation, receiving $350,000 to create a series of programs for graduate students and junior faculty from minority backgrounds.

The FMS Summer Institute, first held in 2005, is a two-week seminar with about a dozen participants — most of them ABD or just starting their first tenure-track jobs. The institute is followed by a much larger colloquium (the part I got to attend last week). As schools of thought in the humanities go, the postpositivists are remarkably light on the in-group jargon. Someone emerging from the Institute does not, it seems, need a translator to be understood by the uninitated. Nor was there a dominant theme at the various panels I heard.

Rather, the distinctive quality of FMS discourse seems to derive from a certain very clear, but largely unstated, assumption: It can be useful for scholars concerned with issues particular to one group to listen to the research being done on problems pertaining to other groups.

That sounds pretty simple. But there is rather more behind it than the belief that we should all just try to get along. Diversity (of background, of experience, of disciplinary formation) is not something that exists alongside or in addition to whatever happens in the “real world.” It is an inescapable and enabling condition of life in a more or less democratic society. And anyone who wants it to become more democratic, rather than less, has an interest in learning to understand both its inequities and how other people are affected by them.

A case in point might be the findings discussed by Claude Steele, a professor of psychology at Stanford, in a panel on Friday. His paper reviewed some of the research on “identity contingencies,” meaning “things you have to deal with because of your social identity.” One such contingency is what he called “stereotype threat” — a situation in which an individual becomes aware of the risk that what you are doing will confirm some established negative quality associated with your group. And in keeping with the threat, there is a tendency to become vigilant and defensive.

Steele did not just have a string of concepts to put up on PowerPoint. He had research findings on how stereotype threat can affect education. The most striking involved results from a puzzle-solving test given to groups of white and black students. When the test was described as a game, the scores for the black students were excellent — conspicuously higher, in fact, than the scores of white students. But in experiments where the very same puzzle was described as an intelligence test, the results were reversed. The black kids scores dropped by about half, while the graph for their white peers spiked.

The only variable? How the puzzle was framed — with distracting thoughts about African-American performance on IQ tests creating “stereotype threat” in a way that game-playing did not.

Steele also cited an experiment in which white engineering students were given a mathematics test. Just beforehand, some groups were told that Asian students usually did really well on this particular test. Others were simply handed the test without comment. Students who heard about their Asian competitors tended to get much lower scores than the control group.

Extrapolate from the social psychologist’s experiments with the effect of a few innocent-sounding remarks — and imagine the cumulative effect of more overt forms of domination. The picture is one of a culture that is profoundly wasteful, even destructive, of the best abilities of many of its members.

“It’s not easy for minority folks to discuss these things,” Satya Mohanty told me on the final day of the colloquium. “But I don’t think we can afford to wait until it becomes comfortable to start thinking about them. Our future depends on it. By ‘our’ I mean everyone’s future. How we enrich and deepen our democratic society and institutions depends on the answers we come up with now.”

Portions of the Colloquium will be made available online. For updates, and more information on the Future of Minority Studies project, check the FMS Web site.

A version of the keynote speech from this year’s Colloquium, “Multiculturalism, Universalism, and the 21st Century Academy,” by Nancy Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University, will appear soon at Inside Higher Ed.

Earlier this year, Oxford University Press published a major new work on postpositivist theory, Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self,by Linda Martin Alcoff, a professor of philosophy at Syracuse University. Several essays from the book are available at the author’s Web site.

 

Hatsize Camtasia Update
Camtasia began as an effective and efficient way to video capture computerized explanations of technical processes. These videos can be served up for replay by students over and over until they get the technical steps down pat --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm

July 27, 2006 message from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU]

I just completed a Camtasia training session in a virtual lab environment using www.hatsize.com  technology.

Essentially the trainer uploaded Camtasia to the hatsize server and demonstrated certain tasks in Camtasia. Then each of the students had their own instance of Camtasia running on the server and replicated the steps by the instructor.

The instructor was able to toggle between views of the various students just as if he was physically in the lab.

The difference between this technology and Webex and Gotomeeting web conferencing software is the ability of students to work in their own workspace on the same software.

Very interesting web application software.

Richard Campbell

Richard J. Campbell
mailto:campbell@rio.edu

European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia --- http://eumc.eu.int/eumc/index.php

The recent months have seen a heated debate on freedom of speech and hate speech. This issue of the EUMC’s Magazine Equal Voices brings together different views on the issue: NGOs, representatives of different religious communities, and media experts explain how they think hate speech can be tackled, and how freedom of speech should be applied in our societies.

Alumnus and Nike founder Philip H. Knight, MBA '62, will make a gift of $105 million to Stanford University's Graduate School of Business --- http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/knight_gift.shtml

Auntie Bev verified this with Sears before sending it out
I assume you have all seen the reports about how Sears is treating its reservist employees who are called up? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up...Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years. I submit that S ears i is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution.
Auntie Bev, "Shop at Sears"

Question
What topic dominates instructor evaluations on RateMyProfessors.com (or RATE for short)?

"RateMyProfessors — or His Shoes Are Dirty," by Terry Caesar, Inside Higher Ed, July 28, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/07/28/caesar

But the trouble begins here. Like those guests, students turn out to be candid about the same thing. Rather than sex, it’s grades. Over and over again, RATE comments cut right to the chase: how easy does the professor grade? If easy, all things are forgiven, including a dull classroom presence. If hard, few things are forgiven, especially not a dull classroom presence. Of course we knew students are obsessed with grades. Yet until RATE could we have known how utterly, unremittingly, remorselessly?

And now the obsession is free to roam and cavort, without the constraints of the class-by-class student evaluation forms, with their desiderata about the course being “organized” or the instructor having “knowledge of subject matter.” These things still count. RATE students regularly register them. But nothing counts like grades. Compared to RATE, the familiar old student evaluation forms suddenly look like searching inquiries into the very nature of formal education, which consists of many other things than the evaluative dispositions of the professor teaching it.

What other things? For example, whether or not the course is required. Even the most rudimentary of student evaluation forms calls for this information. Not RATE. Much of the reason a student is free to go straight for the professorial jugular — and notwithstanding all the praise, the site is a splatfest — is because course content can be merrily cast aside. The raw, visceral encounter of student with professor, as mediated through the grade, emerges as virtually the sole item of interest.

Of course one could reply: so what? The site elicits nothing else. That’s why it’s called, “rate my professors,” and not “rate my course.” In effect, RATE takes advantage of the slippage always implicit in traditional student evaluations, which both are and are not evaluations of the professor rather than the course. To be precise, they are evaluations of the professor in terms of a particular course. This particularity, on the other hand, is precisely what is missing at the RATE site, where whether or not a professor is being judged by majors — a crucial factor for departmental and college-wide tenure or promotion committees who are processing an individual’s student evaluations — is not stipulated.

Granted, a student might bring up being a major. A student might bring anything up. This is why RATE disappoints, though, because there’s no framework, not even that of a specific course, to restrain or guide student comments. “Sarcastic” could well be a different thing in an upper-division than in a lower-division course. But in the personalistic RATE idiom, it’s always a character flaw. Indeed, the purest RATE comments are all about character. Just as the course is without content, the professor is without performative ability. Whether he’s a “nice guy” or she “plays favorites,” it’s as if the student has met the professor a few times at a party, rather than as a member of his or her class for a semester.

RATE comments are particularly striking if we compare those made by the professor’s colleagues as a result of classroom observations. Many departments have evolved extremely detailed checksheets. I have before me one that divides the observation into four categories, including Personal Characteristics (10 items), Interpersonal Relationships (8), Subject Application/Knowledge (8), and Conducting Instruction (36). Why so many in the last category? Because performance matters — which is just what we tell students about examinations: each aims to test not so much an individual’s knowledge as a particular performance of that knowledge.

Of course, some items on the checksheet are of dubious value, e.g. “uses a variety of cognitive levels when asking questions.” So it goes in the effort to itemize successful teaching, an attempt lauded by proponents of student evaluations or lamented by critics. The genius of RATE is to bypass the attempt entirely, most notoriously with its “Hotness Total.” Successful teaching? You may be able to improve “helpfulness” or “clarity.” But you can’t very well improve “hotness.” Whether or not you are a successful teacher is not safely distant at RATE from whether or not you are “hot.”

Perhaps it never was. In calling for a temperature check, RATE may merely be directly addressing a question — call it the charisma of an individual professor — that traditional student evaluations avoid. If so, though, they avoid it with good reason: charisma can’t be routinized. When it is, it becomes banal, which is one reason why the critical comments are far livelier than the celebratory ones. RATE winds up testifying to one truism about teaching: It’s a lot easier to say what good teaching isn’t than to say what it is. Why? One reason is, because it’s a lot easier for students who care only about teachers and not about teaching to say so.

Finally, what about these RATE students? How many semester hours have they completed? How many classes did they miss? It is with good reason (we discover) that traditional student evaluation forms are careful to ask something about each student. Not only is it important for the administrative processing of each form. Such questions, even at a minimal level, concede the significance in any evaluation of the evaluating subject. Without some attention to this, the person under consideration is reduced to the status of an object — which is, precisely, what the RATE professor becomes, time after time. Students on RATE provide no information at all about themselves, not even initials or geographical locations, as given by many of the people who rate books and movies on amazon.com or who give comments on columns and articles on this Web site.

In fact, students at RATE don’t even have to be students! I know of one professor who was so angered at a comment made by one of her students that she took out a fake account, wrote a more favorable comment about herself, and then added more praise to the comments about two of her colleagues. How many other professors do this? There’s no telling — just as there’s no telling about local uses of the site by campus committees. Of course this is ultimately the point about RATE: Even the student who writes in the most personal comments (e.g. “hates deodorant") is completely safe from local retribution — never mind accountability — because the medium is so completely anonymous.

Thus, the blunt energies of RATE emerge as cutting edge for higher education in the 21st century. In this respect, the degree of accuracy concerning any one individual comment about any one professor is beside the point. The point is instead the medium itself and the nature of the judgements it makes possible. Those on display at RATE are immediate because the virtual medium makes them possible, and anonymous because the same medium requires no identity markers for an individual. Moreover, the sheer aggregation of the site itself — including anybody from anywhere in the country — emerges as much more decisive than what can or cannot be said on it. I suppose this is equivalent to shrugging, whatever we think of RATE, we now have to live with it.

I think again of the very first student evaluation I received at a T.A. The result? I no longer remember. Probably not quite as bad as I feared, although certainly not as good as I hoped. The only thing I remember is one comment. It was made, I was pretty sure, by a student who sat right in the front row, often put her head down on the desk (the class was at 8 a.m.) and never said a word all semester. She wrote: “his shoes are dirty.” This shocked me. What about all the time I had spent, reading, preparing, correcting? What about how I tried to make available the best interpretations of the stories required? My attempts to keep discussions organized, or just to have discussions, rather than lectures?

All irrelevant, at least for one student? It seemed so. Worse, I had to admit the student was probably right — that old pair of brown wingtips I loved was visibly becoming frayed and I hadn’t kept them shined. Of course I could object: Should the state of a professor’s shoes really constitute a legitimate student concern? Come to this, can’t you be a successful teacher if your shoes are dirty? In today’s idiom, might this not even strike at least some students all by itself as being, well, “hot"? In any case, I’ve never forgotten this comment. Sometimes it represents to me the only thing I’ve ever learned from reading my student evaluations. I took it very personally once and I cherish it personally still.

Had it appeared on RATE, however, the comment would feel very different. A RATE[D] professor is likely to feel like a contestant on “American Idol,” standing there smiling while the results from the viewing audience are totaled. What do any of them learn? Nothing, except that everything from the peculiarities of their personalities to, ah, the shine of their shoes, counts. But of course as professors we knew this already. Didn’t we? Of course it might always be good to learn it all over again. But not at a site where nobody’s particular class has any weight; not in a medium in which everybody’s words float free; and not from students whose comments guarantee nothing except their own anonymity. I’ll bet some of them even wear dirty shoes.

Bob Jensen's threads on teaching evaluations are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#TeachingStyle

Bob Jensen's threads on course evaluations and grade inflation are at http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/07/28/caesar

Bob Jensen's threads on teaching evaluations and learning styles are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#LearningStyles

Mutual Funds Watchdog Site
Featured (Positively) in USA Today on July 3, 2006, Page 3B --- http://www.fundalarm.com/

FundAlarm is a free, non-commercial Website. Our view of the mutual fund industry is slightly off-center. We help you decide when it's time to sell a fund, instead of when it's time to buy. The mutual fund industry is full of broken promises, arrogance, greed, hypocrisy -- the list goes on. We try to shine a light in the darker corners, and poke holes in balloons that could use some poking.

Bob Jensen's threads on mutual fund scandals are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#MutualFunds

Bob Jensen's investment helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#Finance

EU Ministers Agree to Fund Stem Cell Research
European ministers have struck a compromise deal allowing embryonic stem cell research to continue. It means EU members states can spend some of the bloc's over 50 billion euro science budget on stem cell programmes. Science and Research Minister Janez Potocnik said no exact figure was available
EuroNews, July 24, 2006 --- Click Here

Sociology Should Redefine Its Mission in General Education
The problem, the panel found, was that at a time that colleges are placing increasing emphasis on assessing what students learn, sociologists have focused primarily on assessing what their majors learn. Because the discipline’s role in general education is primarily educating non-majors, professors and departments need to find ways to measure learning in areas like critical thinking, not just assume that the learning takes place, the report said.
Scott Jaschik, "What Role for Sociology?" Inside Higher Ed, July 25, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/25/sociology

Universities Take on the Price-Gouging Publication Oligopoly

"Rallying Behind Open Access," Inside Higher Ed, July 28, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/28/provosts

If universities pay the salaries of researchers and provide them with labs, and the federal government provides those researchers with grants for their studies, why should those same universities feel they can’t afford to have access to research findings?

That’s part of the argument behind a push by some in Congress to make such findings widely available at no charge. The Federal Public Research Access Act would require federal agencies to publish their findings, online and free, within six months of their publication elsewhere. Proponents of the legislation, including many librarians and professors frustrated by skyrocketing journal prices, see such “open access” as entirely fair. But publishers — including many scholarly associations — have attacked the bill, warning that it could endanger research and kill off many journals.

In an attempt to refocus the debate, the provosts of 25 top universities are jointly releasing an open letter that strongly backs the bill and encourages higher education to prepare for a new way of disseminating research findings. “Widespread public dissemination levels the economic playing field for researchers outside of well-funded universities and research centers and creates more opportunities for innovation. Ease of access and discovery also encourages use by scholars outside traditional disciplinary communities, thus encouraging imaginative and productive scholarly convergence,” the provosts write.

While the letter acknowledges that the bill would force publishers and scholarly societies to consider potentially significant changes in their operations, the provosts conclude that the legislation “is good for education and good for research.”

The letter originated with the provosts of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which includes the universities of the Big Ten Conference plus the University of Chicago. Others joining the effort include the provosts of such institutions as Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Texas A&M University, the University of California, the University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University, and Washington University in St. Louis.

“I think the provosts are concerned that our scientists are doing important research, and their fields demand that they publish the research in highly respected journals, and then those journals become more and more expensive and control information in a way that is worrisome,” said R. Michael Tanner, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs of the University of Illinois at Chicago and one of those who worked on the letter. When universities can’t afford to keep all of their subscriptions, universities face the prospect that their own faculty members can’t read the findings of fellow faculty members — even when taxpayers paid for the research.

“At a certain point, we can’t be held prisoner within the publication system,” Tanner said.

Tanner said he was worried about how the changes already taking place in publishing — and those that could potentially take place because of this legislation — would affect small publishers. But he said that the reality was that larger publishers were making large profits off universities like his.

Barbara Allen, director of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, said that she hoped the open letter would reshape the debate on open access. “The public debate on these issues seems to be driven by the commercial publishing sector, and the scholarly publishers were lining up with the commercial sector,” she said. The provosts wanted to make clear to Congress and others that “our needs as communities of scholars” aren’t necessarily the same as those of large commercial publishers.

It’s not at all clear that the legislation will go anywhere this year, with Congress already headed into pre-election season and debates over scholarly publishing not exactly competing with Iraq or the economy for voters’ attention. But the proposal is almost sure to return next year — and the provosts’ action marks a shift of sorts for academic leaders. Scholarly associations (many of which depend for their budgets on journal sales) have been against these kinds of changes — even as more and more of their members demand free, online access for information. The groups that represent colleges have also been less than enthusiastic about this push. The Association of American Universities — which includes most of the institutions whose provosts signed the open letter — hasn’t taken a position on the bill, and officials say that they see both benefits and problems with the legislation.

While the provosts don’t claim the legislation is perfect, they want university leaders to be decidedly on the “open access” side of the debate.

Continued in article

But many professors oppose open sharing of research outcomes --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#OpenSharing

Bob Jensen's threads on the price-gouging publication oligopoly are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#ScholarlyJournals

Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Engineering Programs Facing Up to Possible Requirements for Masters Degrees
Accounting Programs Were Forced to Do This Via Newly-Enacted State Laws for CPA Licensure

"Mastering Engineering," by David Epstein, Inside Higher Ed, July 28, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/28/engineer

“I would like to see people with an engineering education go into government,” King said. But King argues that the narrow, rigorous program required for an undergraduate engineering degree limits the amount of education engineering students get in other disciplines King hopes to see the master’s degree, rather than the bachelor’s, become the true entry level degree for professional engineers.

In King’s view, the undergraduate engineering program — “pre-engineering,” he calls it, like pre-med or pre-law — should have a lighter engineering load so that students can get a broader liberal arts education. “The abilities of engineers to move into other areas … [is] limited by the narrowness and inward-looking nature of their education,” King says in a paper titled “ Engineers Should Have a College Education,” on the Berkeley center’s Web site. A version of the essay appeared in the summer 2006 edition of Issues in Science and Technology. “Engineering is typically the one undergraduate area that is not subject, or is much less subject, to the general education requirements that are common for other undergraduates.”

Making the master’s degree the entry level degree would open up room in the undergraduate curriculum, King said, which is now chock full of the requisite science and engineering courses for professional practice. King makes some very similar suggestions to those made by the National Academy of Engineering in its 2005 report, “Educating the Engineer of 2020,” which calls for a more liberal education for engineers, and greater prevalence and recognition of the worth of professional master’s degrees. “We’re recognizing that, because of the very fast expansion of knowledge in science and engineering,” said Richard Taber, a program officer at the National Academy of Engineering, “there’s too much for a student to learn in that area in a four year degree.”

But critics cite students’ past resistance to five-year B.S./M.S. programs, and say that graduate study is often unnecessary for engineers, and would turn many students away from engineering altogether.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm

"Technology Q&A," by Stanley Zarowin, Journal of Accountancy, August 2006 --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/aug2006/tech_qa.htm#PROGRAM

TECHNOLOGY Q&A
by Stanley Zarowin
Program Excel’s page-order print sequence…
Save Excel formulas without using macros…
Search out files across a network with Google…
Print Outlook’s contacts as a paper phone directory…
Print any mix of pages/sections from a document…
Nudge a Word file that opens slowly…
Excel shortcuts.

Denied tenure for being white
New Mexico Highlands University has agreed to pay $170,000 to Gregg Turner, who was fired shortly after being denied tenure in the math department, and to expunge the tenure denial from his record, The New Mexican reported. Turner is among several faculty members who say that they were treated unfairly, in part because of a push by a university president who recently agreed to quit, to hire more Latino faculty members. The American Association of University Professors found that the way Turner and another professor were treated violated standards of academic freedom and due process.
Inside Higher Ed, July 27, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/27/qt

"Google-porn site battle puts Internet freedoms in balance," PhysOrg, July 27, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news73183749.html

At issue in the landmark case being appealed to the San Francisco circuit court of appeals is whether Google infringed on copyrights by creating links to Perfect 10 pictures copied from its website and posted elsewhere on the Internet, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

"The stakes are high and everybody is out expressing an opinion," EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann told AFP. "Links are really the whole enchilada when it comes to the worldwide web."

A Perfect 10 court victory would stifle the sharing of website links whether it be by bloggers, search engines, online newspapers, or simply people sending e-mail to friends, von Lohmann said.

"It will be the most important copyright decision for search engines in years."

The photos which Google provided links to were evidently copies made by Perfect 10 website visitors and put on other websites.

Continued in article

Question
What tune should be used to accompany the lyrics to "Topless in the Goodtime Flow Toward Old San Antonio?"

In the midst of attempts to crack down on raunchy and rowdy behavior during traditional summertime tubing river trips through this city, a San Antonio topless club is planning a tubing excursion featuring strippers. Trey Maddox, a manager at Palace Men's Club, said Sunday's excursion on the Comal River — during which men can pay $25 to join the strippers — isn't meant to fly in the face of the city's new rules. "We're not hookers, dope dealers or Mafia thugs," he said, noting that the strippers will be appropriately dressed. "We're just coming to have a good time."
"Strippers plan to tube New Braunfels river Sunday," Chron.com, July 27, 2006 --- http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4077025.html
Jensen Comment
Although we have more fun water flows up here, white water tubing just isn't the same in New Hampshire's mountains. I miss some things about San Antonio. Sigh!

"Smart Stops on the Web," by Vince Nolan, Journal of Accountancy, August 2006 --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/aug2006/news_web.htm

 

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CAREER BUILDING SITES

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The Job Hunt
www.quintcareers.com
The Quintessential Careers Web portal offers links to job databases and search engines for more than 1,400 employment and resume-writing e-stops. Accounting and finance professionals also can research the latest starting salaries by geographic location and find schools offering continuing education programs. Once you’ve landed the interview, revisit the portal for behavioral interview strategies, interview dos and don’ts and tips for avoiding interview bloopers.

The Selection Process
http://jobstar.org
You’ve done the resume-writing, posting and job-search thing and you have a few interviews lined up. Now come to this site to check out more than 300 free salary surveys, some specifically for accounting and finance, take a salary I.Q. test and learn strategies for negotiating a higher starting salary. Already employed and looking to make a change? Career Guides has resources and links to the fastest growing job opportunities and aptitude tests for new occupations.

The Juggling Act
http://wlb.monster.com
You’ve got a new job and you’re busier than ever. Maybe too busy? Go to Monster’s Work/Life Balance Web stop for tips on how to simplify your work life in sections on office culture and politics, career development and managing time and stress levels. Also get advice on negotiating a flex schedule, building workplace friendships or renegotiating your salary at review time. Take quizzes to find out whether you’re a team player or a workaholic, and whether you’re getting the most out of your downtime.

Strike a Balance
www.workforceonline.com
Looking for advice on managing your work and home lives? The Benefits section at this Smart Stop links to articles on caregivers, the cost of absenteeism and flex practices. Free registration also gets you access to newsletters on human resources and recruiting topics. Community Center discussion threads let registrants voice their opinions and share information on topics from age bias and workplace dress codes to staffing and telecommuting. Check out the business cartoons in The Buzz for a quick chuckle.

(Bob Jensen's threads on careers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers

 

 

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GENERAL INTEREST SITES

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PFP Resources
www.financialplanninghq.com
CPAs looking for links to personal financial planning information should bookmark this Web site that has links in dozens of categories, from budgeting and business financial planning to small business and software. Subscribe for free to the Planner’s Weekly, Career Adviser and Wealth Adviser newsletters and post comments and questions on the discussion board sections for case studies, career building and tax issues. Financial Planning Tips has advice for business owners, new college graduates and newlyweds.

Take a Tax Tip
www.alloysilverstein.com
This accounting firm Web site offers free weekly tax tips, such as for year-end filing, and monthly business tips, including a checklist of ways to make business meetings worthwhile. Monthly Financial Planning Tips has a discussion on how to get the most out of investment dollars, while the weekly “Money Management” column offers advice on getting tax breaks when disaster strikes and deducting investment-related expenses. Check out Client Alert for information on buy-sell agreements and long-term-care insurance.

A Site for Savings
http://soundmoneytips.com
Financial planners looking for ways to save clients money can go here for quick tips on personal finances. Users can get tips on saving money through government auctions or when moving, as well as on teaching kids about money through a link to the “Jump$tart Financial Literacy Survey.” Visitors also can find out how to pay taxes with an IRS loan and look up archive entries for previous tips.

In the Beginning
www.howstuffworks.com
Curious Web surfers can explore the how of the inner workings of everything from laptop computers to the PayPal program at this e-site. Money Stuff has an explanation of how income taxes work with detailed sections on the origins of taxes in America, including the first income tax. Looking for information on how phishing works? Read how scammers do it, learn how to protect yourself and get links to popular firewall software.

Get Noticed Then Hired
www.searchfax.com
Of the roughly 1,500 resumes executive job hunters receive for each open position, only 100 of the applicants are ever contacted for interviews. Make your resume the best fit for that position and company by using this Web site’s fax resume distribution service. Jobseekers can receive a free resume review and tips on how to improve theirs before subscribing to this paid service, which sends out your revised and targeted resume and personalized fax cover sheet to recruiters.

The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs --- http://independentsources.com/2006/07/12/worst-company-urls/

1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com

Hacking into a professor's computer to change grades of 300 students
Two students at California State University at Northridge have been charged by state authorities with illegally hacking into a professor’s computer account to change their grades and the grades of nearly 300 students, the Los Angeles Times reported. The students told authorities that they thought the professor was unfair.
Inside Higher Ed, July 26, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/26/qt

July 28, 2006 Update
Two students each face up to a year in jail for a prank that involved hacking into a professor's computer, giving grades to other students and sending pizza, magazine subscriptions and CDs to the professor's home. Chen, 20, and Jennifer Ngan, 19, face misdemeanor charges of illegally accessing computers. The pair, both students of California State University, Northridge, are scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 21.
"Students Face 1 Year in Jail for Hacking," PhysOrg, July 28, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news73239464.html

Bob Jensen's threads on cheating are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm

Adobe Photoshop Plugins --- http://thepluginsite.com/

Knowledge Media Laboratory --- http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/programs/index.asp?key=38
The Carnegie Foundation

The Knowledge Media Laboratory works to create a future in which communities of teachers, faculty, programs, and institutions collectively advance teaching and learning by exchanging their educational knowledge, experiences, ideas, and reflections by taking advantage of various technologies and resources.

The KML is currently working with its partners, including Carnegie Foundation programs, to achieve the following goals:

• To develop digital (or electronic) tools and resources that help to make knowledge of effective teaching practices and educational transformation efforts visible, shareable, and reusable.

• To explore synergy among various technologies to better support the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

• To build the capacity for faculty and teachers independently to take advantage of information and communications technologies that enable them to re-examine, rethink, and represent teaching and students learning, and to share the outcomes in an effective and efficient way.

• To sustain communities of practice engaged in collaboratively improving teaching and student learning by building common areas to exchange knowledge and by building repositories for the representation of effective practice.

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

Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm#Resources