Bob Jensen's Tidbits on December 8, 2006

Marijuana is now the biggest cash crop grown in the US, exceeding traditional harvests such as wheat, corn and soy beans, says a new report. The study shows that 10,000 tonnes of marijuana worth $35.8bn (£18.4bn) is grown each year; the street value would be even higher. This dwarfs the $23bn-worth of corn grown, $17.6bn-worth of soybeans and $12.2bn-worth of hay.
Dan Glaster, "All-time high for homegrown as pot becomes top cash crop in US ," The Guardian, December 19, 2006 --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1975161,00.html
Jensen Comment
With a bit of street pricing and agricultural investigation, this could be written up as a classic "make-versus-buy" case for our managerial accounting courses. Alternately this could be a chapter in Freakonomics Volume II --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics
We should tell University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and co-author of Freakonomics that abortion is just not doing a sufficient job in reducing drug crime among all those dealers still living with their mothers.

ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in a coordinated effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted Wednesday. The report by the science-based nonprofit advocacy group mirrors similar claims by Britain's leading scientific academy. Last September, The Royal Society wrote the oil company asking it to halt support for groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change." ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the scientific advocacy group's report.
PhysOrg, January 3, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news87058248.html
Also see http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200701/CUL20070104a.html
Jensen Comment
The words "mislead" and "misrepresent" are a very loaded conclusions. They imply diversion or obfuscation of truth. If the truth is unknown, then funding research to discover greater accuracy is perfectly legitimate. Funding of challenges of so-called truth is perfectly legitimate. But the funding of research truly intended to obfuscate the truth is totally contrary to academe and dangerous in politics. Global warming is such a complicated phenomenon it seems that there are some undeniable truths such as recent abnormal melting of ice at the poles of the earth. But much is unknown about underlying causes and cures. Frustrations in finding causes have led some scientists to claim more than their data support on both sides of the issue.

In most societies the priesthood strives to establish a monopoly, often by draconian means, such as torture and death, in order to preserve its status. The brief flourishing of the age of science in the last two or three centuries largely brought that process to a halt but, now that the scientific method and its inherent scepticism have fallen into disrepute among the powers that be of the new establishment, the new theologies are beginning to assert their authority. The journals that were once the great pillars of science and its methods now openly practice a crude censorship of anything that smacks of heresy, while committees of self-styled scientists brand dissenters and attempt to consign them to oblivion.The peer review system, another fundamental pillar of science, has always been prone to corruption by the formation of dominant interest groups, but the present situation is orders of magnitude more serious than that. Dissenting arguments are not only excluded from peer review publications, but they are dismissed by dint of that very exclusion. Some of the high priests of the new order go to extraordinary lengths to prevent the publication of challenges to their own preachments. Then there is control of funding. Those who produce hard evidence embarrassing to the establishment (such as why 2003 was supposedly a year of record heat) are likely to find themselves bereft of cash.Alas, poor science!
John Bignell, "The shaman principle," January 15, 2006 --- http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/2006 January.htm

A scientist in any serious scientific discipline, such as genetics, would be in serious trouble if his fellow scientists were unable to confirm or replicate his claim to have found the gene for fatness. He would gain a reputation as being 'unreliable' and universities would be reluctant to employ him. This self-imposed insistence on rigorous methodology is however missing from contemporary epidemiology; indeed the most striking feature is the insouciance with which epidemiologists announce their findings, as if they do not expect anybody to take them seriously. It would, after all, be a very serious matter if drinking alcohol really did cause breast cancer.
James Le Fanu --- http://www.open2.net/truthwillout/human_genome/article/genome_fanu.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on replication are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#Replication

The great tragedy of science, the slaying of a beautiful theory by an ugly fact.
Thomas Henry Huxley as quoted by John Bignell at http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/2006 January.htm

A former US policeman and undercover drug agent has appalled narcotics officials by introducing a Christmas video for drug users on how to avoid arrest and fool the police. Barry Cooper, who is described by former colleagues as perhaps the best drug- enforcement officer in America, will next week begin marketing Never Get Busted Again, which will show viewers how to “conceal their stash, avoid narcotics profiling and fool canines every time”. Mr Cooper, who supports the legalisation of marijuana, made the video because he believes that the fight against drugs in America is a waste of money. (and precious prison space for nonviolent marijuana dealers)
Tim Reid, "How to beat the drug busts - by the best narcotics officer in America," London Times, December 23, 2006 --- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2516418,00.html
Also see the MSNBC account on December 22, 2006 --- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16322314/from/RS.1/

In yet another assault on childhood fun, the game of tag has come under fire from Addle-minded, er, Attleboro, Massachusetts. Willett Elementary School has banned tag from recess. Principal Gaylene Heppe made the decision because, as she told the Associated Press, recess is "a time when accidents can happen." . . . Citing concerns over safety and liability, the school has put a lock on all unsupervised chasing games at recess -- no tag backs, no free base -- thus ending yet another form of exercise for children. So, instead of having healthy, well-adjusted kids, Attleboro will soon have a bunch of fat kids whose parents have a litigation attorney on speed dial.
Erik Deckers, "You're Dumb!" The Irascible Professor, December 21, 2006 ---
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-12-21-06.htm

Four year old pervert in Texas? The teacher's aid probably speed dialed her lawyers as well!
The Nov. 13 letter from La Vega Independent School District http://www.lavegaisd.org/ stated his son, who was 4 years old at the time, was involved in "inappropriate physical behavior interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment" after the boy hugged a teacher's aide and "rubbed his face in the chest of (the) female employee" on Nov. 10. The letter also stated Blackwell's son, who Blackwell requested not be named in this story for privacy reasons, spent the day in in-school suspension (ISS) as punishment for the incident.
Emily Ingram, "Hug lands 4-year-old in suspension," Waco Tribune, December 10, 2006 --- http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/12/10/12102006wacoffensivetouching.html

Five year old sexual predator in Maryland? "Sexual harassment" is now on the child's school record!
Mowen said that definition comes from the Maryland State Department of Education. According to a school document provided by the boy's father, the 5-year-old pinched a girl's buttocks on Dec. 8 in a hallway at the school south of Hagerstown. Charles Vallance, the boy's father, said he was unable to explain to his son what he had done. "He knows nothing about sex," Vallance said. "There's no way to explain what he's been written up for. He knows it as playing around. He doesn't know it as anything sexual at all." The incident was described as "sexual harassment" on the school form.
Opinion Journal, December 21, 2006

My son was expelled in the 5th grade for telling another fifth grader that he liked her. I guess saying that to someone who doesn't feel the same way now constitutes sexual harrassment.
Opinion Journal, December 21, 2006

"Former ambassador Joseph Wilson asked a federal judge Wednesday not to force him to testify in the CIA leak case and accused former White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby of trying to harass him on the witness stand," the Associated Press reports from Washington. Hmm, for a guy who burst onto the scene three years ago as the most garrulous figure since Ted Turner, and who then wrote a book called "The Politics of Truth," Wilson is awfully averse to testifying under oath.
Opinion Journal, December 21, 2006

As one of a series of measures to establish a personality cult, Saparmurat Niyazov had a gold statue of himself put on top of a building in the capital, Ashgabat. The statue revolves so it always faces the sun. Niyazov, who was appointed president for life in 1999, changed the names of the months in honour of members of his own family. . . . Niyazov outlawed ballet and opera and banned men from listening to car radios; he also banned the use of recorded music at weddings and other public events.
"The personality cult of Turkmenbashi," The Guardian, December 21, 2006 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
Saparmurat Niyazov, ruler of Turkmenistan, who dubbed himself "Turkmenbashi," or "father of the Turkmen." He died unexpectedly on December 21, 2006 (since "December" is not the name of a month in Turkmenistan, he really died on Rukhnama 11, 2006).

British writer David Irving wasted no time Friday offending Jews and black people at a news conference, a day after his return from Austria where he was imprisoned for denying the Holocaust. At a news conference in London, Irving endorsed actor Mel Gibson's drunken comments earlier this year that Jews were responsible for all modern wars . . . He said sales from his book on World War II German Gen. Erwin Rommel enabled him to walk into a car showroom with a paper bag stuffed with cash to buy a "(racial slur) brown" Rolls-Royce.
"David Irving: 'Mel Gibson was right'," The Jerusalem Post, December 22, 2006 --- Click Here

The international Global Voices summit brings together political refugees, human rights advocates and people just determined to save the world -- or a part of it. What they have in common is a deep certainty that the internet can do more than just sell us stuff. Exciting things happen when dedicated bloggers from around the world meet for the first time. For Briton Rachel Rawlins, being introduced to Tunisian exile Sami Ben Gharbia was the chance to meet a personal hero.Gharbia is the creator of the Tunisian Prison Map -- an idea inspired by a New York Times interactive map charting murder locations in New York City. Gharbia turned the concept on its head: Instead of showing government figures on crime, he'd display where his former government was behaving criminally, imprisoning political dissidents for daring to speak out.
Quinn Norton, "Bloggers Shrink the Planet," Wired News, December 21, 2006 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72319-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

In this startling and absorbing new book, which created a considerable storm in Germany when it was published in 2005, Götz Aly advances another explanation. It was, he says, material factors that persuaded the great mass of Germans to support Hitler and the Nazis almost to the very end. The Nazi leadership, he claims in Hitler's Beneficiaries, made the Germans into "well-fed parasites. Vast numbers of Germans fell prey to the euphoria of a gold rush.... As the state was transformed into a gigantic apparatus for plundering others, average Germans became unscrupulous profiteers and passive recipients of bribes." . . . In his new book, he caused an even greater upset in Germany than before by arguing that it was not only the elites whose support for the Nazi regime was based on rational, nonideological grounds but also the vast mass of the people. How does his new claim stand up to critical scrutiny?
Richard J. Evans, "Parasites of Plunder?" The Nation, December 20, 2006 --- http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070108/evans

The American military rushed into Iraq with too few troops — “They chose to go into battle with a ground combat capability,” General Barry McCaffrey is approvingly quoted as saying, “that was inadequate, unless their assumptions proved out.” And neocons had no real clue about what would spring up immediately behind us as we raced into Baghdad. So back home we declared “Mission Accomplished” — even as the jihadists and ex-Baathists were filtering through our attenuated lines to begin their insurrection. When we did belatedly react, the U.S. military ended up terrorizing civilians and tried to use clumsy, brute force instead of sophisticated counterinsurgency tactics against an ever more subtle enemy that hid among civilians. General Tommy Franks, as the henchman of an imperious Donald Rumsfeld, was undeniably clever enough to force-feed his flawed plans down the throats of the Pentagon’s top brass but not wise enough to understand the nature of asymmetrical warfare and counterinsurgency — and thus predictably bailed to write his memoirs and hit the lucrative lecture circuit before his victory was mussed up.
Victor Davis Hanson, "A review of Fiasco: The American Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks (Penguin Press, 2006, pp. 496), December 23, 2006 --- http://victorhanson.com/articles/hanson122306.html
Jensen Comment
I think the main assumption that failed was that the Iraqi people would be so happy to be freed from Saddam's harsh dictatorship that they would gladly come together and form the jewel of democracy in the Middle East. We should have learned in Bosnia and Afghanistan that freeing Muslins from tyrants does not make them either grateful or give them peace among themselves. We never learn.

Will Fannie eventually become an even bigger taxpayer loss than the infamous Savings and Loan frauds?
Fannie Mae's stock price has been on an upswing since late summer, reflecting investor confidence that a Democratic Congress would make strict scrutiny of the mortgage giant less likely (see the nearby chart). And there's no doubt that with Barney Frank wielding the gavel in the House Financial Services Committee, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will have a pal on Capitol Hill. Mr. Frank is already talking about expanding the companies' operations (and thus taxpayer exposure to any financial accident) . . . The well-documented allegation is that Fannie's managers manipulated earnings to ensure that their bonuses and incentive compensation were maximized. If Fannie didn't in fact reach those earnings targets -- and it has since restated its earnings by $6.3 billion -- then that money does not belong to the managers who "earned" it.
"Ill-Gotten Raines," The Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2006; Page A18 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116658240822955337.html?mod=djemITP

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to ship thousands of California inmates to prisons in other states to reduce overcrowding is faltering because few prisoners - some intimidated by powerful gangs -- have volunteered to move. . . . Sources familiar with prison operations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on behalf of the department say that gang leaders have instructed members not to take the offer of moving out-of-state because it will upset balances of power in prisons and leave gang members left vulnerable due to reduced numbers.
Mark Martin, "Gang intimidation threatens Schwarzenegger's prison plan: Few inmates volunteer to move to other states," San Francisco Chronicle, December 22, 2006 --- Click Here

Canada a haven for pedophiles
A newly released report says that the age of consent for vaginal sex in Canada – currently set at 14 – has made this country a favorite destination for child-sex “tourism”. The Global Monitoring Report on the Status of Action against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, says that Canada’s age of consent has made Canada a haven for pedophiles. The report was issued by the Bangkok-based organization, End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, or ECPAT International. It gives Canada 17 recommendations, including raising the age of consent from 14 to 16.
Hilary White, "Age of Consent at 14 Makes Canada Favoured Sex Tourism," Raiders News Network, December 20, 2006 --- http://www.raidersnewsnetwork.com/full.php?news=1381

Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where the crime these aliens commit is highest, the police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their immigration status. In Los Angeles, for example, dozens of members of a ruthless Salvadoran prison gang have sneaked back into town after having been deported for such crimes as murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and drug trafficking. Police officers know who they are and know that their mere presence in the country is a felony. Yet should a cop arrest an illegal gangbanger for felonious reentry, it is he who will be treated as a criminal, for violating the LAPD’s rule against enforcing immigration law.
Heather Mac Donald, "The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave," City Journal ---
http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html

A writer is someone who spends years patiently trying to discover the second being inside him, and the world that makes him who he is. When I speak of writing, the image that comes first to my mind is not a novel, a poem, or a literary tradition; it is the person who shuts himself up in a room, sits down at a table, and, alone, turns inward. Amid his shadows, he builds a new world with words. This man—or this woman—may use a typewriter, or profit from the ease of a computer, or write with a pen on paper, as I do. As he writes, he may drink tea or coffee, or smoke cigarettes. From time to time, he may rise from his table to look out the window at the children playing in the street, or, if he is lucky, at trees and a view, or even at a black wall. He may write poems, or plays, or novels, as I do. But all these differences arise only after the crucial task is complete—after he has sat down at the table and patiently turned inward. To write is to transform that inward gaze into words, to study the worlds into which we pass when we retire into ourselves, and to do so with patience, obstinacy, and joy.
Orhan Pamuk, "MY FATHER’S SUITCASE: The Nobel Lecture, 2006," The New Yorker, December 25, 2006 --- http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061225fa_fact1

One of the things I've learned on the Google is to pull up maps. It's very interesting to see -- I've forgotten the name of the program -- but you get the satellite, and you can -- like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It reminds me of where I wanna be sometimes.
George W. Bush on an interview with CNBC. He failed to mention that he could also see where he doesn't wanna be ever."

A new report by scientists studying Louisiana's sinking coast says the land here is not just sinking, it's sliding ever so slowly into the Gulf of Mexico. The new findings may add a kink to plans being drawn up to build bigger and better levees to protect this historic city and Cajun bayou culture. If the land is shifting - even slightly - engineers may need to take that into consideration as they build new levees and draw lines across the coast to identify areas that should and shouldn't be protected.
PhysOrg, January 3, 2007 --- http://physorg.com/news86929148.html

Nothing good is going to come from political haggling over some hypothetical Social Security crisis decades in the future, when our economy will be vastly different and hugely more productive. From the completion of a worldwide fiber-optic broadband Internet to cornucopian energy and medical advances, the global economy is engaged in a siege of accelerating innovation that will unify it and enrich it increasingly as time passes. But no legislative reshuffling of taxes and spending today will enhance the economy's ability to support medical care, housing and transport for the aged in the future. That will depend not on actuarial trumpery but on the realities of productivity, technology, immigration and global trade and investment. The key is keeping the economy open to outside investors as our population ages and as the productive center of the global economy shifts toward Asia. As Michael Milken points out, the younger workers around the globe will use their increasing savings to buy the assets of American seniors as they grow older, thus offering liquidity to our retirees, sustaining U.S. asset prices, and expanding U.S. opportunities.
George Gilder, "Economics Is Not For Actuaries," The Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2007 --- Click Here

Changes in Cisco VPN for tunneling into (updating) your on-campus networked files

Although my comments below apply to my Trinity University networked files, they may apply to many of you who maintain networked files back on your own campus. My networked files are mainly Drive U (email Personal Folders), Drive W (faculty Web server), and Drive J (LAN drive). In prior years when I had an office on campus, I installed GoToMyPC on my office computer. As long as the computer was turned on I could, thereby, operate that computer from anywhere in the world from virtually any computer. In technical terms GoToMyPC is a very "thin client" alternative and a very ethical company ---
Click Here

After I retired from teaching in Texas and moved to New Hampshire, Trinity extended me emeritus services for computing and a secretary. However, I no longer have an office on campus and our Computer Center was not enthusiastic about maintaining a campus computer for my GoToMyPC home base. Techies at Trinity recommended that I install Cisco VPN's free service (at least its free to me) --- Click Here

Basically I was happy with VPN although there were a few minor frustrations. For example saving a file from MS FrontPage, MS Excel, or MS Word can take the better part of the day. But the work around for this is to update all the files on my local (New Hampshire) computer and then transfer the updated files through VPN to the campus network drives via Windows Explorer. This is reasonably fast and effective. You cannot access VPN from public computers such as those found in Internet cafes and public libraries. This is possible with GoToMyPC.

Over the recent holidays, techies at Trinity installed a security upgrade to VPN that I find totally frustrating. If I'm connected to VPN, I can access my network drives. However, I cannot go to off-campus Websites on my browsers (Internet Explorer and Foxpro). To access off-campus Websites I must disconnect from VPN.

All the flip flopping between VPN Connect and VPN Disconnect would be tolerable if it wasn't for a glitch in MS Outlook. If I disconnect from VPN in order to access off-campus Websites, MS Outlook does not work properly when I eventually re-connect to VPN. The only way to get MS Outlook to work properly is to reboot my entire system --- which is a genuine pain.

So that brings me to a work-around that I'm using. When I start my computer I do not connect to VPN or open MS Outlook. Instead I access my email via the Internet. For Trinity University the Web Link is https://exchange.trinity.edu/
I'm certain most other colleges have an Outlook Web Access site. I can then read my email messages, send out replies, delete the junk, etc. But I cannot save message to my Drive U Personal Folders or update my Drive J and Drive W files. For that I must connect to Cisco VPN. For Drive U Personal Folder access I must reboot and open MS Outlook.

I'm still learning about Outlook Web Access. I've not yet discovered how to add a digital signature to my messages sent via OWA. I'm also having troubles converting to HTML formatting.

There are of course other work-arounds that do not use VPN or GoToMyPC. One is to use the old fashioned and reliable FTP transfers (which to my knowledge will not work for my Drive U email Personal Folders) which work for LAN and Web drives. I keep a large set of files maintained on the Computer Science Department Web server --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/
I maintain these files with FTP. You can read more about FTP services at http://www.trinity.edu/its/faqs/

Question
Stickam up!
Where are young people (and others) turning for uncensored videos, photos, and other Web site content?

Popular Web sites like YouTube and MySpace have hired the equivalent of school hallway monitors to police what visitors to their sites can see and do by cracking down on piracy and depictions of nudity and violence. So where do the young thrill-seekers go? Increasingly, to new Web sites like Stickam.com, which is building a business by going where others fear to tread: into the realm of unfiltered live broadcasts from Web cameras.
Brad Stone, "Young Turn to Web Sites Without Rules," The New York Times, January 2, 2007 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/technology/02net.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The Stickam (or is that sick am?) site is at http://www.stickam.com/
Stickam is concerned about the safety and privacy of all of the members of our community, especially minors. However, it is important to keep in mind that Stickam is intended for broad general use and some users may consider some content available on Stickam is offensive, indecent or objectionable. AVC can not be held responsible for any content Posted by Stickam users. While Stickam has established rules keeping children under the age of 14 from becoming a member, it is easy for children to lie about their age and thus gain access to Content which may be inappropriate and unintended for them. It is up to parents to properly supervise their children’s online activities. Certain parental control protections are commercially available which can assist parents in supervising their children’s online activities such as computer hardware, software, and filtering services which can be used to block a child’s access to websites such as Stickam.com. You can find tools that will assist you in supervising your children’s online activities by clicking here --- http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=parental+control+software

Help for the younger generation's planning ahead for their financial futures

"A Glimpse of the Future: Savings and asset accumulation among Americans 25–34," Journal of Accountancy, January 2007 --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/jan2007/special2.htm

Bob Jensen's personal finance bookmarks are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm

Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fees.htm

PDF Now Means Pretty Darn Fearful
Computer security researchers said Wednesday they have discovered a vulnerability in Adobe Systems Inc.'s ubiquitous Acrobat Reader software that allows cyber-intruders to attack personal computers through trusted Web links. Virtually any Web site hosting Portable Document Format, or PDF, files are vulnerable to attack, according to researchers from Symantec Corp. and VeriSign Inc.'s iDefense Intelligence. The attacks could range from stealing cookies that track a user's Web browsing history to the creation of harmful worms, the researchers said. The flaw, first revealed at a hacker conference in Germany over the holidays, exists in a plug-in that enables Acrobat users to view PDF files within Web browsers. By manipulating the Web links to those documents, hackers and online thieves are able to commandeer the Acrobat software and run malicious code when users attempt to open the files, according to Ken Dunham, director of the rapid response team at VeriSign's iDefense Intelligence.
"Researchers: Adobe's PDF Software Flawed," PhysOrg, January 4, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news87093505.html

Bob Jensen's threads on computing and network security are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm

Study: Age, sex affect traffic accidents
Purdue University engineering researchers showed statistical differences in traffic accident injuries depend upon the gender and age of drivers, the university said. Researchers found significant differences in the severity of injuries sustained in accidents involving men and women and drivers within three age groups: young, 16-24; middle-aged, 25-64; and older, 65 and above. Among the findings, foregoing seat belts increased the likelihood of injury by 119 percent for young women, 164 percent for middle-aged women and 187 percent for older women. Fatalities were more likely for middle-aged men who fall asleep at the wheel, speed, had an accident at an intersection or after midnight Friday or Saturday, researchers said. The same factors had no significant effect on the injury levels for middle-aged women.
"Study: Age, sex affect traffic accidents," PhysOrg, January 3, 3006 --- http://physorg.com/news87050400.html

Investment Helpers
From the Journal of Accountancy January 2007 Smart Stops on the Web --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/jan2007/news_web.htm

Onward and Upward
www.mynextphase.com
Here CPAs and financial advisers can get a free trial membership and explore some of the nonfinancial considerations of retirement, such as how to handle change and revisit past interests as future options. Retirement Resources has links to Web sites on health, recreation and working after retirement. Find books on successful retirement in Suggested Reading, get the free newsletter Next Phase News and download research findings in “Retirement Trends and Truths.”
Get the Financial Facts
http://kimsnider.blogs.com
This blog, created by the founder and president of Kim Snider Financial Communications, has dozens of posts from financial journals and Web sites on topics including annuities, bonds, cash flow investments, financial education and investment principles. Find out how Kim Snider invests her own money and learn her portfolio management strategies with a free informational session.

A Helping Hand
www.finaid.org
Personal financial planners with clients that have kids in school will want to bookmark this Smart Stop for guides on navigating financial aid, loan and scholarship information. Find links to aid programs from the military and federal and state governments, as well as resources on education tax benefits and financial aid applications. Get calculators to project college costs and help with family budgeting. Or go to Beyond Financial Aid for a financial aid checklist and links to college selection and jobs and internship sites.

Money Matters
www.pfblog.com
Follow this blogger’s personal finance journey to learn about the 10 best domestic equity fund managers and how to properly close a credit card account. Look up your life expectancy in the Archives or go to the PFBlog Digest to get the scoop on paying off student loans, starting salaries for college grads and how 529 plans affect financial aid eligibility.

Make a Clean Break
www.womansdivorce.com
Financial advisers looking for divorce resources for female clients can go to this site’s Downloadable Documents section for state-specific divorce forms, parenting, separation and property settlement agreements. The Legal Considerations for Women and Financial Information sections offer divorce strategies and advice on choosing an attorney.

Why was I passed over again this year?
2006 Foot-in-Mouth Awards --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72320-0.html?tw=wn_index_25

Women Partners in the Big 4 Accounting Firms
For the tenth consecutive year, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP tops the Big Four accounting firms in percentage of women partners, principals and directors, according to Public Accounting Report's 2006 Survey of Women in Public Accounting. The survey revealed that Deloitte's percentage of women partners, principals and directors is currently 19.3 percent, surpassing that of KPMG (16.8 percent), Pricewaterhouse Coopers (15.8 percent) and Ernst & Young (13.5 percent). Deloitte has held this lead every year since the inception of the survey in 1997, according to Jonathan Hamilton, editor, Public Accounting Report.
SmartPros, December 26, 2006 --- http://accounting.smartpros.com/x55948.xml

Women now make up more than 60 percent of all accountants and auditors in the United States, according to the Clarion-Ledger. That is an estimated 843,000 women in the accounting and auditing work force.
AccountingWeb, "Number of Female Accountants Increasing," June 2, 2006 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=102218

Jensen Comment
About thirteen years ago, Deloitte embarked on a "Women's Initiative" to help female employees break the glass ceiling --- http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/section_node/0,1042,sid=2261,00.html

Bob Jensen's accounting career helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers

A great helper site for HDTV shoppers --- http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5102926-1.html

Also see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1760553/posts#comment?q=1

"The HDTV Dilemma: Pay for TiVo's Recorder Or Settle for Cable's?" by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/personal_technology.html

If you just got a high-definition television, one of the best things you can buy to complement it is a digital video recorder, or DVR, the tapeless gadgets that save programs so you can watch them when you choose.

The trouble is, it's hard to find a DVR that can record in high definition, so most people wind up simply going with the bare-bones high-definition DVR capability built into the set-top box supplied by their cable or satellite service.

But TiVo, the pioneer in digital video recording, has recently entered the high-definition recorder market with a high-end, high-priced product. It's called the TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder and it sells for a whopping $800, as much as some HDTVs themselves. And that doesn't include the $12.95 a month it costs to subscribe to TiVo.

I've been testing the new TiVo and I like it a lot, but it's hard to swallow that huge price, especially since the new Series3 model doesn't include some nice features available on the much cheaper Series2 version, which doesn't record in high definition. It also can't handle certain cable features.

So, why not just stick with the high-definition DVR supplied by the cable company? After all, while it isn't free, it's cheaper than the TiVo.

The answer is that, at least in my recent experience with the nation's biggest cable company, Comcast, the high-definition DVR it supplies is just awful. If cable boxes were sold at retail like consumer-electronics devices, the Comcast DVR I tested, built by Motorola, would get creamed by better competitors.

My Comcast box, a Motorola DCT3412 I, which Comcast rents for about $12 a month, holds a maximum of 15 hours of high-definition programming or 60 hours of standard programming. The TiVo holds up to 35 hours of high-definition programs or up to 300 hours of standard.

Also, the user interface on the Comcast box is crude and confusing -- nothing like the elegant interfaces people have become used to on their personal computers and devices like iPods. The TiVo interface, by contrast, is effective and attractive.

The worst problem is that the Comcast box flubs the basic functions of a DVR. It is maddeningly slow at responding to commands sent by the remote control to pause, play, fast-forward and rewind. You press pause and nothing happens. So you press it again. You try to return to normal speed after fast-forwarding through commercials and the unit takes so long to obey your command that you badly overshoot the resumption of the program.

This latency problem didn't affect just one dud of a Motorola box. In our home, we have four of these units, and three have the problem. All, of course, share the capacity limitations and user-interface problems.

In the program grid, even on a 50-inch, high-definition screen with acres of room, the Comcast box displays just four rows of stations at a time. Until recently, there was a fifth row, but now that has been replaced by an ad. The ad not only sucks up space, but also is aggravating because it gets selected each time you reach the bottom of the grid screen.

Advertising is fine, but in this case, sacrificing 20% of an already paltry information screen for an ad just shows contempt for users.

By contrast, the basic TiVo grid shows eight rows of stations at a time, and offers an alternate view that packs in even more information using two vertical columns: one displaying stations and the other showing a list of shows scheduled in the coming hours.

And, unlike the Comcast box, the TiVo Series3 can be programmed from a Web site, so if somebody at the office tells you about a great show, you can tell the TiVo to record it long before you get home. The new TiVo can also play music and display photos that are stored on Windows and Macintosh PCs on your home network. The Comcast box can't.

But the TiVo also has some downsides. Unlike older TiVos, it's intended to replace, not complement, a cable box. So, installing it requires a visit from cable-company technicians to install gadgets called cable cards that plug into the back of the TiVo. In my case, that process took over two hours. Even worse, these cable cards don't support Comcast's on-demand feature, which allows you to see certain programs and movies whenever you choose.

And the new Series3 lacks the capability of cheaper TiVos to let you transfer recorded shows to computers and portable devices.

Also, unlike the Comcast box, the TiVo doesn't have a filtered grid display showing only high-definition shows, which is handy once you become addicted to HD.

Fortunately, it may be possible to get some, but not all, of TiVo's superior features by just waiting. In 2007, Comcast and TiVo expect to roll out an option for downloading TiVo software to Comcast boxes. This would provide the TiVo interface without sacrificing Comcast features such as on demand. The pricing and details haven't been announced. Comcast is also working on other new user interfaces and features using non-TiVo technology.

But, for now, the choice is tough. The Comcast high-definition DVR is a cheaper, but flawed product and the TiVo Series3 is an excellent, but overpriced one.

"A New Prescription For Watching iPod Video: We Test the Myvu Viewer And Like Its Big-Screen Effect; Juicing Up the Dork Factor," by Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2006; Page D1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/the_mossberg_solution.html

We tested the iPod-specific version and wore the Myvu to watch various types of videos, including music videos, television shows and movies. Overall, it's a pretty cool device, with a good-looking visual illusion that MicroOptical says is comparable to watching a 27-inch screen from six feet away. It would certainly come in handy on a long flight. But you'll scare yourself if you look in the mirror. We can't imagine wearing one while walking down the street, even though it's designed to enable seeing above and below the bar of space where its screen appears.

MicroOptical isn't the only maker of a new video-viewing device, and competitors have proposed products that juice up the dork factor tenfold. One company proposed a device designed to strap around your head and hover over one eye. Another company, which introduced its Myvu-like technology at a recent conference, used a hefty interface box, partly because this unit is aimed at PCs and game consoles as well as portable players.

A lot of this technology was developed for the military. Tank drivers, for example, used MicroOptical's technology so as to view information on a projection monitor while driving and remaining aware of their surroundings.

Myvu comes with accessories to ensure that you're comfortable while using it, which makes sense, as a three-hour movie could really take its toll under the wrong conditions.

Continued in article

Walt Mossberg describes how to transfer contacts from Outlook to Outlook Express --- http://online.wsj.com/article/mossberg_mailbox.html

Q: How can I transfer my contacts from my work computer's Outlook program to my home computer's Outlook Express program -- assuming that I can't directly connect the two computers by USB, wireless or other direct link?

A: Using Outlook's Import and Export function, from the File menu, you would export the Contacts as a "Comma Separated Values" file, then save that to your hard disk. Next, copy this file to a USB thumb drive, or burn it to a blank CD. Then, take the thumb drive or CD home, insert it in your home PC, and copy the file to its hard disk. Then, fire up Outlook Express, open the address book, and select "Import" from the File menu. Choose "Other Address Book," then choose "Text File (Comma Separated Values)." Locate the file, and you should be able to import it.

New Gadgets --- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/play.html?pg=9

The Lives They Lived (odd winners from the staff of The New York Times Magazine, December 31, 2006)
This issue is largely an idiosyncratic selection, chosen by our editors and writers, who are often following their own passions and curiosities (generally not my choices) --- http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html

How do scholars search for academic references?

Scholarpedia Launches at the end of 2006

From the University of Illinois Issues in Scholarly Communication blog on December 28, 2006 --- http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/

Scholarpedia feels and looks like Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Indeed, both are powered by the same program - MediaWiki. Both allow visitors to review and modify articles simply by clicking on the edit this article link.
However, Scholarpedia differs from Wikipedia in some very important ways:
• Each article is written by an expert (invited or elected by the public).
• Each article is anonymously peer reviewed to ensure accurate and reliable information.
• Each article has a curator - typically its author -- who is responsible for its content.
• Any modification of the article needs to be approved by the curator before it appears in the final, approved version.

…Currently, Scholarpedia hosts Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience, Encyclopedia of Dynamical Systems and Encyclopedia of Computational Intelligence. Although all three will eventually be published in a printed form, they will also remain freely available and modifiable online. (Producing a hard copy of each encyclopedia is important for archiving; besides, many academicians have a preconception that the prestige of an online article is not as high as that of a printed one.)

If there is enough interest and support from the public, Scholarpedia will grow in the following directions:
• The neuroscience chapter of Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience will be a seed to start Encyclopedia of Cognitive Neuroscience, and then Encyclopedia of Neuroscience
• Encyclopedia of Dynamical Systems will be a seed to start Encyclopedia of Applied Mathematics, and then Encyclopedia of Mathematics.
• Encyclopedia of Computational Intelligence will be a seed to start Encyclopedia of Computer Science.

Read more at Scholarpedia --- http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Main_Page

From the University of Illinois Issues in Scholarly Communication blog on December 27, 2006 --- http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/

The launch of the new PLoS ONE scholarly research portal looks like a big win for open access research content from a number of angles. PLoS ONE is posting research and will allow interactive review before and after publication for scientific articles via a very sophisticated publishing environment. The PLoS ONE platform applies many of the best practices of social media, providing ready access to comments posting and awareness of active discussions to draw in more active discussions. PLoS ONE will publish all papers that are judged to be rigorous and technically sound, and had already posted more an 100 papers by its launch - a remarkable number for a just-launched scholarly journal of any kind. By contrast Nature's recently shuttered open-review portal trial, which ran for around four months, attracted only 71 authors willing to post their work online and attracted 92 technical comments.

As we noted in our latest news analysis article one of the keys to successful social media products is a dedicated core of trusted contributors who will be able to ensure editorial success. PLoS ONE starts with a global editorial board of more than 200 scholars, ensuring a broad array of inputs for reviewing content. Some of the fears about having content rejected after having had it exposed to comments prior to publication may be relieved by the PLoS ONE policy that allows papers that have been already rejected by PLoS Biology and Medicine journals to be re-submitted via PLoS ONE. This is a potentially valuable feature, allowing research that may not have yet reached the highest levels of acceptance to mature through its exposure to comments from a broader audience.

PLoS ONE is finally opening the doors to the potential for fundamental changes in how scholarly research proves its worth. With an open exchange of ideas and commentary facilitated by technologies long available to the general public and a solid body of research and reviewers PLoS ONE holds out the potential to liberate the highest levels of scholarly innovation from the regimen of the printing press. Changing the way that research is paid for was a good first step for open access, but with the ability to eliminate artificial distribution bottlenecks that choke off natural conversations PLoS ONE may do for scholarly research what Wikipedia has done for reference materials - with much more integrity in the underlying editorial processes.

John Blossom, Content Blogger 12/22/06

Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

How do scholars search for academic references?

Scholarpedia --- http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Main_Page

PLoS One --- http://www.plosone.org/home.action

Google Scholar --- http://scholar.google.com/
Not to be confused with Google Advanced Search which does not cover many scholarly articles --- http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

Microsoft's Windows "Live Search" or "Academic Search" ---
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?scope=academic&q=

Amazon's A9 --- http://a9.com/-/search/advSearch

Beginning October 23, 2003, Amazon.com offers a text search of entire contents of millions of pages of books, including new books ---
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/10197021/ref%3Dsib%5Fmerch%5Fgw/104-3984945-7813514

How It Works --- http://snurl.com/BookSearch
A significant extension of our groundbreaking Look Inside the Book feature, Search Inside the Book allows you to search millions of pages to find exactly the book you want to buy. Now instead of just displaying books whose title, author, or publisher-provided keywords that match your search terms, your search results will surface titles based on every word inside the book. Using Search Inside the Book is as simple as running an Amazon.com search.

Soon to be the largest scholarly library in the world:
Google Book Search --- http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search

Answers.com --- http://www.answers.com/

Wikipedia (heavily used by scholars in spite of authenticity risks)--- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s

Other Scholarly Search Engines (CrossRef and Scirus.) --- http://privateschool.about.com/b/a/116956.htm
Also see http://www.library.uq.edu.au/internet/scholsearch.html

Scholarly search tools

CiteBase
Citebase is a trial service that allows researchers to search across free, full-text research literature ePrint archives, with results ranked according to criteria such as citation impact.

Gateway to ePrints
A listing of ePrint servers and open access repository search tools.

Google Scholar
A search tool for scholarly citations and abstracts, many of which link to full text articles, book chapters, working papers and other forms of scholarly publishing. It includes content from many open access journals and repositories.

OAIster
A search tool for cross-archive searching of more than 540 separate digital collections and archives, including arXiv, CiteBase, ANU ePrints, ePrintsUQ, and others.

Scirus
A search tool for online journals and Web sites in the sciences.

UCLA Library Scholarly Search Helpers --- http://www2.library.ucla.edu/googlescholar/searchengines.cfm

University of Kansas Scholarly Search Helpers --- http://www.lib.ku.edu/technology/searchengines/scholar.shtml

Social scientists and business scholars often use SSRN (not free) --- http://www.ssrn.com/

If you have access to a college library, most colleges generally have paid subscriptions to enormous scholarly literature databases that are not available freely online. Serious scholars obtain access to these vast literature databases.

Librarian's Index to the Internet --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#Librarian'sIndex

Searching the Deep Web --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#DeepWeb

Open Access Shared Scholarship --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

University Channel (video and audio) --- http://uc.princeton.edu/main/

Bob Jensen's links to electronic literature, including free online textbooks and other learning materials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

December 30, 2006 message from TranslationDirectory.com [onoshko@mail.uar.net]

Dear Robert,

We are sorry we are coming back to you so late - please forgive us the delay.

This is to let you know we have published your glossary at

www.TranslationDirectory.com/glossaries/glossary017.htm

Category: www.TranslationDirectory.com/glossaries.htm

Please verify if everything is fine for you.

If you have other glossaries, please don't hesitate to submit them to us.

Have a prosperous Year of 2007!

Sincerely,

Serhiy Onoshko
CEO

Jensen Comment
The online version at Bob Jensen's Website is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245gloss.htm

Conduct U.S. Government Searches (including sites for buying goods and services from the Feds) --- http://www.firstgov.gov/

Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

Free Merriam Webster Online Dictionary/Thesaurus --- http://www.m-w.com/

Employees don't leave their job or company, they leave their boss

"Study: Poor managers create big problems," Arizona Daily Sun, January 2, 2006 --- http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2007/01/02/news/20070102_news_17.txt

For most people, it's back to work Tuesday after a holiday weekend with family and friends. And for many, a new study shows, it will be under a bad boss.

Nearly two of five bosses don't keep their word and more than a fourth bad mouth those they supervise to co-workers, the Florida State University study shows.

And those all-too-common poor managers create plenty of problems for companies as well, leading to poor morale, less production and higher turnover.

"They say that employees don't leave their job or company, they leave their boss," said Wayne Hochwarter, an associate professor of management in the College of Business at Florida State University, who joined with two doctoral students at the school to survey more than 700 people working in a variety of jobs about how their bosses treat them.

"No abuse should be taken lightly, especially in situations where it becomes a criminal act," said Hochwarter.

Employees stuck in an abusive relationship experienced more exhaustion, job tension, nervousness, depressed moods and mistrust, the researchers found. They found that a good working environment is often more important than pay, and that it's no coincidence that poor morale leads to lower production.

"They (employees) were less likely to take on additional tasks, such as working longer or on weekends, and were generally less satisfied with their job," the study found. "Also, employees were more likely to leave if involved in an abusive relationship than if dissatisfied with pay."

The results of the study are scheduled for publication in the Fall 2007 issue of The Leadership Quarterly, a journal read by consultants, managers and executives.

The findings include:

39 percent of workers said their supervisor failed to keep promises.

37 percent said their supervisor failed to give credit when due.

31 percent said their supervisor gave them the "silent treatment" in the past year.

27 percent said their supervisor made negative comments about them to other employees or managers.

24 percent said their supervisor invaded their privacy.

23 percent said their supervisor blamed others to cover up mistakes or to minimize embarrassment.

Workers in bad situations should remain optimistic, Hochwarter said.

"It is important to stay positive, even when you get irritated or discouraged, because few subordinate-supervisor relationships last forever," he said. "You want the next boss to know what you can do for the company."

And workers should know where to turn if they feel threatened, harassed or discriminated against, whether it is the company's grievance committee or finding formal representation outside the employer.

"Others know who the bullies are at work," Hochwarter said. "They likely have a history of mistreating others."

Hochwarter also recommended some methods to minimize the harm caused by an abusive supervisor.

"The first is to stay visible at work," he said. "Hiding can be detrimental to your career, especially when it keeps others in the company from noticing your talent and contributions."

The survey was conducted by mail. Workers surveyed included men and women of various ages and races in the service industry and manufacturing, from companies large and small, Hochwarter said.

"The Year in Infotech: Technology Review picks the year's most significant advances in information technology," by Kate Greene, MIT's Technology Review, December 26, 2006 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/17937/

The way we use technology is changing. A few years ago, static e-commerce sites made up much of the Internet. But now, video is taking over, and people's viewing habits are evolving. More people are searching online for video, creating, sharing, and editing it than ever before, and these activities are driving a slew of new software applications and hardware innovations. Below, we've chosen six of this year's most compelling information-technology stories, many of which relate to our culture's newfound addiction to a novel type of video experience.
Image and video search. When Google bought YouTube in October, the Internet search giant gave credibility to the burgeoning world of online video. But one fact still remains: finding a particular video clip can be difficult using a traditional search engine. This year, a number of academic and commercial enterprises tried to improve image and video search. Photo-sharing website Riya released face-recognition software that allows people to search through their photo collections by face. Later in the year, the company released Like.com, a site that lets people search for shoes, handbags, and watches by scouring the Web for similar pictures. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University made headway on automatically tagging images, and a group at the University of Leeds used cues from face-recognition software, closed captions, and original programming scripts to identify faces that appear in episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Mobile-phone projectors. While mobile devices have lots of storage space for pictures and videos, the small screen still makes viewing media awkward. But that could soon change. Clearly, Nokia understands the importance of implementing projection systems for mobile phones. Researchers at Cornell University are working on tiny microelectromechanical systems to create small, efficient projectors. And Microvision, of Redmond, WA, gave Technology Review a preview of its mobile-phone projector system, slated for display at next year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Geotagging. GPS is becoming a more common feature in mobile phones, cameras, and cars. The result is a world of people, pictures, cars, and data trails on maps. A Microsoft research project aggregates disparate sensor data to map the world in real time. Online photo-sharing site Flickr now lets people tag their photos with the name of the location where they were shot, allowing people to search for photos by geography. And Nokia is working on a project to link the physical world to the Internet via mobile phones, and GPS itself is improving its reliability.

Tools for content creation and sharing. In the past year, podcasts, online photo albums, homemade videos, and blogs have bloomed all over the Internet, and many were made by regular people just looking for their 15 megabytes of fame. A blizzard of new software and content-sharing sites has allowed for this proliferation. Yahoo Answers lets anyone be an expert by answering questions posed by others. More people are blogging from mobile phones. And video-editing software is migrating from the desktop to the Web, allowing people to interact and participate in a medium that has been closed to the average person for decades.

Continued in article

The New Internet Sales Tax
Indiana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia and more than a dozen other states have been busy laying the groundwork for an Internet sales tax regime that will charge consumers based on where they live, not where they click to when shopping online. And the system is already up and partially running . . . But never underestimate the determination of politicians to impose a new tax. The Supreme Court left open the possibility of dispensing with the brick and mortar test if complying with various sales taxes could be made dramatically easier. So six years ago the National Governor's Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures and other politicians seeking more of your money founded a new organization to oversee the mammoth effort of aligning sales taxes across state lines. And the group--the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board--has made a lot of headway.
"Attention, Online Shoppers: State politicians are creating a de facto national sales tax," The Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2006 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/hottopic/?id=110009429

Possible New Internet Tax

"The Virtual Taxman Cometh," by Clive Thompson, Wired News, December 18, 2006 --- http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72317-0.html?tw=wn_index_25

Every time you go online and kill monsters, you're creating value as surely as if you were working a shift at Starbucks. A few years back, the economist Edward Castronova stunned the game world by deducing that people playing Everquest made more than $3 an hour in real-world value by playing the game -- which gave Everquest a per-capita gross domestic product nearly as big as Russia's. WoW's economy is easily as big as that now, or larger.

Things are even more intense in a world like Second Life, because publisher Linden Labs explicitly lets you own in-game property and create new in-game objects to sell to others.

Almost everyone agrees these days that if you "cash out" -- and sell a valuable avatar or big stash of gold on eBay, exchanging virtual goods for real greenbacks -- you owe taxes on the profit. That's not news.

But what about stuff that stays inside the game? If you played WoW for three years and racked up $4,000 worth of avatars and gold, but never cashed out -- should you still be paying annual taxes on your increased value, as if it were income? This is where the rubber hits the road, because the profits currently locked up inside these worlds are becoming big enough -- hundreds of millions at least, and maybe billions -- that they are a juicy target for the IRS.

"It'll get to the point where the dollar value becomes so sizeable that the IRS would be almost negligent if it didn't at least look into the potential of taxing these worlds," says Dan Miller, a senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee, a congressional think tank that recommends policy to lawmakers. "It's really just a matter of time before the IRS says, wait a minute."

Continued in article

December 20, 2006 message from David Albrecht

I just finished assigning grades, and am looking for something to do. It seems as if PCWorld has come to the rescue at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128122/article.html?tk=nl_wbxnws

Now, if Bob Jensen would just publish his list of the Internet's 15 best time wasters.

Dave Albrecht
Bowling Green State University

December 21, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi David,

Actually David I have 12,637 time wasters for you!

At my age it's rumored that any mental activity helps the brain forestall senility. I never fool with video and computer games because I don't consider them to be much in the way of mental activity. At best they relieve boredom, but I find them more boring than watching paint dry.

Medical studies suggest that mental activity is overrated for keeping the brain healthy. Physical activity on the other hand is underrated. For example, given a choice between a five mile walk and two hours with crossword puzzles while waiting for your next flight, the five mile walk up and down the concourse is much better for the brain.

However, five mile walks generally get boring relative to the many exciting things we can do on a computer. Especially boring is a five mile walk on a treadmill. I have a television set in front of my treadmill, but TV is so boring that a five mile walk in front of the TV is still agonizing boredom.

I prefer to walk in the mountains, but then I feel great guilt thinking of all the Tidbits that did not get written because I hiked in the hills.

Given that physical activity is so good for the brain, I force myself to go through this boring activity almost daily. I can't call it a time waster because it is so healthy even though it feels like a time waster. Probably the biggest time waster is that time we spend trying to be creative such as the time I waste trying to write poetry or fiction. This is a labor of love that generally ends up in what Microsoft deceptively calls a "recycle bin." My most creative efforts wind up in the "emptied" recycle bin.

The beauty of having chosen to be professor is that my university gave me an enormous amount of free time for creativity efforts (better known as time wasters). But Jon Bon Jovi gave me hope when he said:

Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.
Jon Bon Jovi --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Bon_Jovi

Note that Bon Jovi made no claim that you will succeed the next time you get up even though it's your tenth try or try number 12,637. (Sigh!)

Even if all our creative efforts end up in the emptied recycle bin, I guess they weren't really time wasters because of what we learned a lot while trying to be creative. Video and computer games generally are true time wasters since they do not inspire creative effort. I realize that I'm overstating here because there are a few edutainment games that inspire creativity --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment

So my advice David is to try to write a serious poem or solve one of the unsolved math problems of which there are 12,637 to date --- http://mathworld.wolfram.com/UnsolvedProblems.html
When you're not doing this take a hike! Who knows. Maybe the solution to one of those 12,637 math problems may come to mind while you're walking in the park.

Bob Jensen

Make that 12,636 unsolved math problems instead of 12,637
Grigori Perelman, in articles published on the Internet more than three years ago, claimed to have solved Poincare's conjecture, a mathematical puzzle identified in 1904 by the French mathematician Henri Poincare, the Independent said Friday. His proposed solutions to the conjecture were validated by other mathematicians in the field of topology, which is the science of surfaces. "While bringing new results to topology, Perelman's work brought new techniques to geometry," said Science in announcing the award. "It cemented the central role of geometric evolution equations, powerful machinery for transforming hard-to-work-with spaces into more-manageable ones." Earlier this year, Perelman won the highest honor in mathematics, the Fields Medal, but refused to accept it, and a separate $1 million prize offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Massachusetts. Perelman lives in St. Petersburg.

"A Russian mathematician's solution to a 100-year-old math puzzle was voted Breakthrough of the Year by Science, a leading scientific journal," MIT's Technology Review, December 22, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news86022171.html

Well I can't always be correct:
Perhaps video games aren’t such time wasters even though I hate them as much as physical exercise
Seniors should fold the cards in favor of video games to keep mentally sharp, Canadian researchers suggest. Psychology research McMaster University in Hamilton showed senior gamers who spend at least four hours a week playing action video games display an array of skills, the Toronto Star said Thursday. Doing battle in Medal of Honor drew out skills such as improved reaction times and good spatial reasoning to a awareness of their surroundings and better short-term memory. "Just as an elderly adult may do 15 minutes of weight training to fight osteoporosis, so could he or she play video games to keep the mind sharp," said psychology researcher Jim Karle, a graduate student in the university's department of psychology, neuroscience and behavior.
"Forget teenagers -- seniors got game," PhysOrg, December 22, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news86014047.html

Perhaps not too surprisingly, the study suggests however that the most effective neuroprotective therapy for Alzheimer's disease may well not be a pill, but education and intellectual activity. Mounting evidence accumulated over the last few years supports the notion that intellectual activity increases what neuroscientists call "the cognitive reserve". According to the model, a mere 5% increase in the cognitive reserve in the general population would prevent one third of Alzheimer's cases. Dr de la Fuente-Fernandez, a neurologist at the Hospital A. Marcide in Ferrol (Spain), points out that public health policies aimed at implementing higher levels of education in the general population are likely the best strategy for preventing Alzheimer's disease.

"Education -- the best pill of all for preventing Alzheimer's?" PhysOrg, December 20, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news85859731.html
Jensen Comment
If you have two hours to burn before your next flight, perhaps it is best to use half of it walking up and down the concourse and the other half working crossword puzzles, especially if there's old man Alzheimer in your family history.

But for the younger generation electronic toys are rarely educational and often a little terrifying
Industry analysts expect toy manufacturers to enjoy considerable sales gains this year, much of it fueled by consumers' purchase of expensive electronic toys like Robosapien, as well as "educational" electronic toys from companies like LeapFrog. Whether they're hoping to give their infants and toddlers an academic head start, or just entertain them, parents will have plenty of choices this holiday season. Six of the top ten FamilyFun award winning toys are electronic. But two recent studies suggest that the oft-touted educational benefits of such toys are illusory, and child development experts caution that kiddie electronics, even those bought purely for fun, can have negative side effects such as inhibiting creativity and promoting short attention spans.
Christine Rosen, "Too Many Batteries Included: Electronic toys are rarely educational and often a little terrifying," The Wall Street Journal, Friday, December 22, 2006 --- http://opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110009421