The top picture shows Erika in her new lift. The following picture shows her in front of our wild roses. She's still in a lot of pain. But she did truly enjoy a visit from Dick and Sybil Wolff, our very dear friends from San Antonio. There's not much new news about her to report. Recovery is slow and painful --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Erika2007.htm
She wants to thank you all for your many messages of hope, faith, and encouragement.

As for me, I'm pulling weeds. The wet weather and long days means weeds, weeds, and more weeds. This week part of one garden will be dug up for a new underground 500-gal. propane tank. We need the added fuel for a new Winco generator that will be installed on a slab poured under our deck. Such is life in the mountains where the winds come roaring in to down trees and power lines.

And it's the Lupine Festival on Sugar Hill. I took many beautiful pictures yesterday. One of my shots is shown below:

You can seen more Spring 2007 pictures listed at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/2007June/
(There are a few good ones where I did not jiggle the camera. The lupine pictures are near the end of the list.)

For the Winter 2007 pictures, go to http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/2007April/

For pictures of days gone by go to http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/

Tidbits on June 20, 2007
Bob Jensen

For earlier editions of Tidbits go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
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 past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

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

Terrorism Awareness Project --- http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/

The Video Follows a Short Beaver Lodge Advertisement
A Gathering of Deans:  Dean Iniguez talks about the Bologna Accord, incorporating the humanities into B-school education, and a meeting this summer between top American and EU deans --- Click Here

From Business Week: Trying to Figure Out HD Radio (Slide Show) --- Click Here

From Business Week: A Guide to PC Security Products (Slide Show) --- Click Here

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

German composer Richard Strauss led a full life. He was nearly always controversial, exciting and popular, whether as a brash teenager, composer of cutting-edge operas or grand old man of the concert hall ---
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10972852

Judith Owen: Happy and at Home --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11122413

Aretha Franklin sings "Respect" --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11070888

The members of the Refugee All Stars are all survivors of Sierra Leone's bloody civil war ---
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10980646

Paula Cole: On the Rise Again --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10989649

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

The Sacred Fount by Henry James --- Click Here

Burning Daylight by Jack London --- Click Here

John Barleycorn by Jack London --- Click Here

In the battle against high gas prices, America is turning more and more to ethanol, the homegrown renewable fuel made from corn. But as demand for corn heats up, we may lose sight of hidden costs.
Graphic from Lon Tweeten, Time Magazine, June 14, 2007 --- Click Here

"Claiming Paine The contested legacy of the most controversial founding father," by Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason Magazine, July 2007 --- http://www.reason.com/news/show/120352.html
You can download Thomas Paine's writings for free from Project Gutenberg --- http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/p#a91

“Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.” Thomas Paine quote

“These are the times that try men's souls.” Thomas Paine quote

"If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately." Thomas Paine quote

“'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” Thomas Paine quote

“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection” Thomas Paine quote

“Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.” Thomas Paine quote

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” Thomas Paine quot

“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace” Thomas Paine quote

“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” Thomas Paine quote

The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.
Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues --- Click Here

I have a few lines in my novel, The Covenant, that go like this: 'How had the passion for a homeland, turned into a passion for killing? If the Israelis moved out of the Middle East tomorrow, all of these groups would have to find new reasons to go on, because they didn't know how to do anything else....In the end...they'd have to start blowing themselves up, because that is all that they knew how to do."
June 17, 2007 mail message from Naomi Ragen [nragen@netvision.net.il]

A lawful kiss is never worth as much as a stolen one.
Guy de Maupassant --- Click Here

Cranley pleaded guilty (to beating his girl friend and stabbing himself) and received an unusual sentence: The judge ruled that he "is not allowed to have a girlfriend for the next three years." All we can say is that if this ever happens to us, we hope we get credit for time served in high school.
Carol Muller, Opinion Journal, June 16, 2007

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
William A. Ward --- As quoted by Mark Shapiro at http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-06-12-07.htm

Some Not-So-Happy Fathers Day Messages

Children should not be allowed near men
Considering the nature and pervasiveness of men's violence, I would say that without question, children are better off being raised without the presence of men.
Daphne Patai. Professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst --- http://www.patrioticthunder.com/darbyssoapbox.htm

I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it.
Barbara Jordan, Former U.S. Congresswoman --- http://www.patrioticthunder.com/darbyssoapbox.htm

The care of children ..is infinitely better left to the best trained practitioners of both sexes who have chosen it as a vocation...[This] would further undermine family structure while contributing to the freedom of women.
Kate Millet, Sexual Politics --- http://www.patrioticthunder.com/darbyssoapbox.htm

Women Should Not Be Allowed Near Men
I feel that 'man-hating' is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them.
Robin Morgan, Editor of Ms. Magazine --- http://www.patrioticthunder.com/darbyssoapbox.htm 

A biography of Gertrude Bell investigates the woman who created Iraq out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.
Charles Glass, The Nation, June 14, 2007 --- http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20070702&s=glass

The State of Education Today
If we want to attract and retain competent teachers, we need to restore order, civility, and common sense to our public schools. We need to end the parade of bandwagon reforms and unfounded theories that have plagued public education for decades. We need to restore content to its rightful place in classrooms and ensure that teachers possess sufficient knowledge to teach it. We need to end the tyranny of unreasonable parents who extort special treatment for their children at the expense of everybody else's children. In short, our teachers need the same commonsense remedies that we owe our students.
Peter Berger, "Irreverent Commentary on the State of Education in America Today," The Irascible Professor, June 12, 2007 --- at http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-06-12-07.htm

The State of Law Today
You may recall that when the Fastows (Andrew and Lea of Enron) were sentenced to prison, they asked for (and received) sentences that did not coincide, so that they would not both be in prison at the same time and thereby disrupt their children's lives. Everyone recognized that this was only because of their race and class. Parents of minor children who are poor people of color never have their children's wellbeing considered during sentencing and, in fact, the assumption is that the child of a poor black mother does not really need that parent as much as the Fastow children needed theirs, and that the Fastows (despite stealing billions of dollars from stockholders) could still be good parents, but that a poor woman charged with theft or drug sales had little to offer a child, who might actually be "better off" without her.
"The Judgment of Paris," The Nation, June 12, 2007 --- http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=204601

There are at least four differences between that era and this one which do not prevail regarding Syria and Iran.
Professor Barry Rubin is the the editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal and the director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, as well as the author of the new book, “The Truth About Syria” --- http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=2943&cid=2&sid=5

President Nguyen Minh Triet will make a state visit to the United States on Monday, the first by a Vietnamese head of state since the end of the Vietnam War and a symbol of the increasingly close ties between the former foes.
Associated Press, PR Inside, June 17, 2007 --- http://www.pr-inside.com/vietnam-s-president-to-make-first-u-s-r155750.htm

Islamic Jihadists lie with such impunity
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmad denied the group had put the press markings on the jeep and accused the Israeli military of doing so after the incident. "Islamic Jihad appreciates the work of the international and the Palestinian media," he said. But AP photos clearly show the markings on the jeep when the attack was under way.
Blame America First --- http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/06/12/ap/headlines/d8pn9eio0.txt

London's Scotland Yard on Friday released a series of videos, maps and attack plans for a plot to assault New York's financial district, prepared by al-Qaida operatives six months before the Sept. 11 attack.
"Al-Qaida's New York surveillance video released," MSNBC, June 16, 2007 --- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19254592/

The only guarantor of academic freedom is its exercise.
Michel Foucault --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault
As quoted in a recent email message from Paul Williams

Divided nations can, of course, win wars. Throughout the Civil War, for example, President Lincoln faced a vocal and determined antiwar effort in the North, and both Lincoln and Roosevelt had to defend various of their policies in the courts. Even Lincoln, however, did not have to deal with antiwar efforts targeting private citizens who were themselves supporting the government's war effort. That is new, and it will make fighting and winning the war against terror all the more difficult.
David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey, "Divide and Litigate:  The ACLU sues an American company for helping the war effort," The Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2007 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010198
Jensen Comment
The ACLU is doing its best in its "Blame America First" strategy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "incompetent."
John Bresnahan, "Reid labels military leader 'incompetent'," The Politico, June 14, 2007 --- http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0607/4490.html
Jensen Comment
Might we say the same thing about our current Senate Majority leader who would rather kill immigration reform than to have President Bush get any credit for that reform --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2007/tidbits070612.htm

Soon there will be only two worlds: Google for all intangibles and WalMart for all tangibles.
Saeed Roohani at Bryant University [sroohani@COX.NET]

Michelle Rhee heard the chatter 15 years ago, that as a Korean-American she doesn't belong teaching in an all-black school. So it will come as little surprise, she acknowledged, if similar criticism is leveled against her as chancellor of the predominately black D.C. Public Schools. . . . "When I taught in Baltimore, when I first showed up I would say the community there was a little taken aback to see a Korean woman in their schools, which were 100 percent African-American," she said Tuesday, referring to her three-year stint at the Harlem Park Community School. . . . The race issue is sure to crop up, [Northeast Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Kathy] Henderson said--unfortunately. "We are in many ways a city still polarized by race and disparity, and you see that most poignantly in the school system," she said.
"Where Prejudices Matter Most," Examiner of Philadelphia, June 16, 2007 --- Click Here

With the indictment of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) on a slew of federal corruption charges last week, The Crypt figured it was time to provide you, our readers -- most notably congressional staffers -- with a few tips to help you figure out whether your boss might be a crook. As always, all lawmakers are presumed innocent until proven otherwise. 10. He's a he. No female representative or senator has ever been to prison. Investigated, yes. Convicted or pleaded guilty, yes. Incarcerated, no. 9. He keeps asking what size your freezer is. 8. He comes from a state ending in...
John Bresnahan, "Top 10 ways to know your boss is a crook," The Politico, June 12, 2007 --- http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0607/4447.html 

10. He's a he. No female representative or senator has ever been to prison. Investigated, yes. Convicted or pleaded guilty, yes. Incarcerated, no.

09. He keeps asking what size your freezer is.

08. He comes from a state ending in a vowel. You have to go all the way back to Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) to find a lawmaker to break this streak.

07. He's a member of the Appropriations Committee.

06. His wife or kids have jobs as "consultants" for a lobbyist. A number of recent corruption scandals have featured this angle.

05. He's got a picture with Jack Abramoff on his office wall.

04. He gives you a "New Jersey hug," patting you down while looking for a wire.

03. Whenever he sees a cop, he says, "Hold this," and hands you his briefcase.

02. He calls news conferences to proclaim his innocence and blame everything on the media or the Justice Department or both.

01. When you get home from work, you find a calling card from "Special Agent X" at the FBI.

A Multimedia Model for University Home Pages

Cornell University - Humanities --- http://www.cornell.edu/humanities/

RU THR? OMW ---The University of Florida Experiment With Text Messaging
"Higher Ed Texting:  Campus text messaging for breaking news and events," by Jamie Devereaux, Converge Online, June 2007 --- http://www.convergemag.com/story.php?catid=231&storyid=105542

Higher Ed Texting
RU THR? OMW. Translation: Are you there yet? I'm on my way. At first glance that sentence is a NASA-worthy acronym. But really it is just text-speak for getting in touch with a friend. It is common in the world of text messaging to leave out vowels, abbreviate and shorten words. Texts, or text messages, are a blend of e-mail, instant messaging and cell phones. They are speedy, easy-to-use and are fast becoming the communication mode-of-choice on college campuses.

A text is instantaneous and is keyed by way of the number pad on a cell phone. The message can reach one end-user in a chat or it can be sent to large groups. People can receive texts no matter if they are on the way to class, in their dorm room or at the café. Due to these real-time functions, texts could prove beneficial at colleges and universities. Administrators and faculty could use text messaging to alert students of adverse weather conditions, school lockdowns or other campus-wide issues.

The University of Florida is one campus where text messaging has been put to use. The staff, faculty and students at UF can subscribe to a free cell phone messaging service and get in the network. The messaging system does not depend on a certain service provider (such as AT&T or Verizon) and has no related out-of-pocket cost to the university.

Other campuses that utilize text messaging are the University of Texas, the University of Central Florida, Kent State University and Clemson.
To read about the University of Florida's experience with campus-wide text messaging click here.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on tools and tricks of the trade in education technology are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

The never-ending cycle of Microsoft versus Scammer "Update Patches"

"Microsoft releases new security patch, as do scammers," AccountingWeb, June 14, 2007 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=103622

Microsoft's update was the June entry in the company's regular monthly set of security patches. This month, the patches include repairs that protect Windows users who visit web sites infected with malicious code and users who open infected e-mail messages with Outlook Express or Windows Mail. There are also repairs to the Windows Vista program that was launched earlier this year, and a patch that prevents hackers from accessing PCs.

If your computer is set to install updates automatically, you might not have even noticed the update taking place this week. If you aren't set up for automatic updates, Microsoft recommends you heed the update reminder that appears on your screen, or go to the Microsoft update website to check to see if your computer has been updated and to download updates.

What you should not do is click on the "Download this update" link that appears in an e-mail message entitled "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer." This e-mail message is being sent by scammers or hackers who are hoping you will click the link so they can install malicious software on your computer. The software, when installed, calls out to the Internet to access other programs that are then installed on your computer.

Continued in article

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

Question
What's Sifter service?

"Comparison Shopping by Phone:  New cell-phone software tries to connect shoppers with nearby products," by David Talbot, MIT's Technology Review, June 14, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18894/ 

A new mobile-phone service promises to make shopping easier by locating stores that carry the product the user craves. Other kinds of cell-phone software help people find the nearest store of a certain type--electronics, shoe, or hardware, for example. But the new service, called Slifter, claims to be the first to find specific products within stores. It's a great idea--in theory. In reality, Slifter generally provides long product-information lists that aren't always useful and don't have data from every retailer. Still, this indicates where location-aware mobile technology might be headed if the underlying data were more comprehensive and mined by better search engines. To determine a starting point for each search, Slifter uses GPS hardware embedded into cell phones; alternatively, a user can enter his or her zip code. But a Slifter search made near Boston for the words "ice cream" sent me to a KB Toys store for a toy with "ice cream" in its name--no actual ice-cream retailers appeared in the results. Equally frustrating, a search for specific car models only gave me online car listings. In fairness, the New York City startup says it's not trying to master cars or food. And its CEO, Alex Muller, says the company is "backfilling" search requests with online listings, reckoning that consumers would rather find something than nothing. Muller says that Slifter's forte is consumer electronics. That may be true, but the first hit on a search for "iPod Nano," performed in Cambridge, MA, suggested that I buy iSkins--an iPod accessory--and that I should do so at a CompUSA store 26 miles away, in Salem, NH. I had to scroll through five screens of search results to find an actual iPod Nano music player. Even then, the software did not suggest the Apple retailer a half-mile away; instead, it sent me to an electronics store farther away. Similarly, a search for a Motorola Razr phone gave tons of listings for accessories. After I scrolled down to the first actual phone listing, the software suggested, oddly, the CompUSA outlet in faraway Salem, NH, again.

Jensen Comment
On the computer I get a somewhat similar service from Amazon.com --- http://www.amazon.com/
Click on the arrow to the right of the search box and note the many product categories.
Up here in the mountains I shop a lot using Amazon and get some great deals. Shipping is sometimes free and reasonably priced otherwise.

For example, when Erika needed a bigger wheel chair because of her "turtle shell" back brace, I found that local store prices up here in New Hampshire ran over $600, and I would have to wait until the store ordered and received the item. I found the same wheel chair model through Amazon for $139 that included free shipping. The product was delivered inside my garage in less than five days.

Bob Jensen's shopping helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm

Sears pays the difference in salaries and maintains benefits of their called-up military reservist employees --- http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp

The Yale Law Journal: Pocket Part --- http://www.thepocketpart.org/

Bob Jensen's legal studies helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Law

Economics Lesson Plans --- http://www.mcrel.org/lesson-plans/economics/index.asp

Center for Gender and Refugee Studies --- http://cgrs.uchastings.edu/

From Trinity College
The Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life --- http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/ 

Bob Jensen's threads on social science and philosophy tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social

Mind Science Foundation --- http://www.mindscience.org/

Bio-Link: Online Instructional Resources and Clearing House --- http://www.bio-link.org/resMaterial.htm

Bob Jensen's links to science and medicine tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Science

Probability Tutorials --- http://www.probability.net/

Gizmo: Developmental Math --- Click Here

Bob Jensen's links to free online mathematics and statistics tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics

Santa Clara University Virtual Library --- http://campustechnology.com/articles/48506 

June 12, 2007 message from Barry Rice [brice@LOYOLA.EDU]

Santa Clara University is debuting its new library--even though it won't be finished until next fall--in Second Life, the online virtual community.
 

More at http://campustechnology.com/articles/48506 .

 

Barry Rice

AECM Founder

 

_________________________

E. Barry Rice, MBA, CPA
Director, Instructional Services
Emeritus Accounting Professor
Loyola College in Maryland
BRice@Loyola.edu
410-617-2478
www.barryrice.com
Facebook me! www.facebook.com/p/Barry_Rice/20102311

 

Using Speech Recognition in a Search Engine
Boston-based startup EveryZing has launched a search engine that it hopes will change the way that people search for audio and video online. Formerly known as PodZinger, a podcast search engine, EveryZing is leveraging speech systems developed by technology company BBN that can convert spoken words into searchable text with about 80 percent accuracy. This bests other commercially available systems, says EveryZing CEO Tom Wilde.
Kate Greene, "More-Accurate Video Search:  Speech-recognition software could improve video search," MIT's Technology Review, June 12, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18847/

Bob Jensen's threads on video searching are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

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

Question
Why are you likely to be disappointed with speech recognition software?

I used Dragon on two previous computers and found it to be about 90% accurate. The key is the recommended voice training that should precede the use of this speech recognition product. Dragon will train within reason to accents and dialects. For example, David Raggay has a British/Trinidad accent. Dragon should do quite well when trained to his accent. I suspect it has a bit harder time with some other accents and dialects, but with sufficient training Dragon should catch on to those variations.

I used Dragon in failed efforts to translate video tape audio into text. Those of you who’ve known me over the years know that I carry a video camera to almost every session I attend at a conference. In most instances speakers allow me to video tape their presentations. In some cases I also got permission to post their remarks at my Web site. There are many examples at my Web site. For example, you can read Paul Pacter’s presentation about the early development of IAS 39 when he was still on the staff of the International Accounting Standards Board --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/pacter.htm

The problem with using speech recognition transcription software for obtaining text of conference presentations is that you generally cannot have conference speakers do a speech recognition training session before they make a presentation. Without such training, Dragon or any other speech recognition system will have trouble with accents and dialects.

In general, whenever I wanted to transcribe my video tapes of presentations into text, Dragon failed badly. My poor human secretaries had to pour over the video tapes themselves in very tedious efforts to transcribe the speakers’ comments into text. And that was only about 60% accurate because my secretaries were good at their jobs but were not familiar with the technical terms of most presentations I wanted them to transcribe, including technical terms that are not in the dictionary. My secretaries also had troubles with accents, dialects, and voice fade outs on the video tapes.

 I do not yet have Vista on any of my computers and am usually not in a great hurry to catch the brass ring on any Microsoft upgrade. Microsoft always releases products before their time. I’d rather wait until you folks iron out many of the bugs.

 My problem with speech recognition software is that I found dictation to be a slow process when combined with editing needed after the text files were generated. The problem is more me than the software. I tend to type and think more efficiently than I speak and think --- Dahh!

 A real problem can be Internet links (URLs). Most everything I deal with these days is accompanied by a slew of URLs. It’s highly impractical to read links and other scholarly references into speech recognition software. When writing directly, I simply cut and paste URLs and references.

 When you get down to it, a huge problem with speech recognition is the lack of a “Cut and Paste” clip board. Sure you can cut and paste after you have a dictation draft on your screen, but what a pain this becomes. It’s like having to eat stale leftovers.

 In the final analysis I found that speech recognition software installed on my system ended up being rarely used. My secretaries were better but far from perfect when transcribing my video tapes into text. And they really, really hated those job assignments!

 The speech recognition world is and probably always will be a very limited world. It works best when it is fully trained to your voice before being used for transcription. It works lousy without this tedious training beforehand.

 By the way, I donated hundreds of video tapes I recorded over the years to the Accounting History Library at the University of Mississippi. You can go to this library and play any of these tapes. If you’re interested in doing so, contact Dale Flesher at the University of Mississippi --- http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/facstaff.html

June 14, 2007 reply from Bill Ellis [wmhne@AOL.COM]

I’ve been following the thread on speech recognition and have experienced similar outcomes with my projects.

I attempted to use Dragon to transcribe videos made of lectures and presentations. I use a high-end DV cam with great audio capability. I use wireless mikes. Unfortunately, the VR results were as you described even with the best quality audio. Dragon did not work simply transcribing from the original recordings for all the reasons you mentioned. My next attempt was to repeat in my voice what I listened to on the tapes. This was very time consuming and still not satisfactory. Dragon worked somewhat OK after I’d trained it. I’ve yet to come up with a seamless solution. I finally hired a medical/legal transcription company to do the work. They did perfect work. They signed off on each page indicating it was an accurate transcription. Even though it cost $3.75 per page (40 pages per hour of video average) or $150/hour of video the results were worth it. Plus it moved it off of my pile and let me do other more productive tasks. I’d like to learn of a more efficient solution to this. The documents we produced to capture knowledge when coupled with screen shots of the presentations pasted into the text were very useful. I’ll continue to hire out the work until I discover a better way.

I’ve given up on Dragon, but will give VISTA a try when I tackle my next project. I’m certain I’ll find the limitations are just as you’ve mentioned.

Bill Ellis
Furman University

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

Bob Jensen's threads on education tricks and tools of the trade are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

Text-to-Speech (Audio) is Quite Good Unless There Are Words Not in a Standard Dictionary

Try it out at http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal
Try this free software on such terms as "homoscedasticity" and "heteroscedasticity."
The woman sounds like she stayed too long at the martini bar.

This software is useful for blind persons --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped

The pioneer in this technology was Bell Labs.

Also see http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Curriculum/Reading/textScreen.php 

Bob Jensen's threads on  speech/text recognition are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Speech.htm

eLearning Africa --- http://www.elearning-africa.com/

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

Question
Why are employees and customers stealing so much more from Wal-Mart?
Are internal controls failing?

Shoppers at Wal-Mart stores across America are loading carts with merchandise and strolling out without paying. Employees also are helping themselves to goods. Recent public disclosures from the world's largest retailer suggest inventory losses at its U.S. stores -- so-called ''shrinkage'' -- are getting worse, due to shoplifting, employee theft, paperwork errors and supplier fraud. The hit is likely to rise to more than $3 billion this year for Wal-Mart Stores, which generated sales of $348.6 billion last year, according to retail consultant Burt Flickinger III. Analysts say the increase in theft may be tied to Wal-Mart's highly publicized decision last year to no longer prosecute minor cases of shoplifting. Former employees also say staffing levels, including security personnel, have been reduced, and a union-backed group contends worker discontent is playing a role. Wal-Mart denied it has cut security staff and said employee morale is rising rather than falling.
"Sticky fingers and a big loss at Wal-Mart U.S. Wal-Mart stores are facing a rising inventory loss caused by shoplifting, employee theft and paperwork error. Anne D'innocenzio and Marcus Kabelby, Miami Herald, June 14, 2007 --- http://www.miamiherald.com/103/story/139020.html
Jensen Comment
Think of the added perks. When an employee steals cart loads of merchandise there's no withholding tax and thief's are not likely to report ill-gotten gains on tax forms. Wal-Mart made a terrible decision to cut back on prosecuting theft.

Technology is no substitute for bad works
Podcasts are becoming popular for educational purposes. Increasingly students in K-12 and in higher education are creating podcasts to demonstrate what they are learning. The technology is becoming so important that online course management systems, such as Angel Learning, are now incorporating features enabling content providers to include podcasting. However, many of those I've heard appear to be created by individuals experimenting with the technology and suffer from poor quality in the audio, content, and speaker presentation....
Patricia Deubel, "Podcasts: Where's the Learning?" T.H.E. Journal, June 2007 --- http://www.thejournal.com/articles/20764

Podcasts: Improving Quality and Accessibility
Podcasts are increasingly being used in K-12 and in higher education. In part 1 of this two-part series, I discussed their nature, demonstrated their potential for learning, and pointed out that in developing podcasts, students become involved with the project method, which is a real-world experience. I also voiced my concern that many podcasts I've heard suffer from poor quality of the audio, content, and speaker presentation. Accessibility is also a major issue that is being overlooked in their development. Let's now look at what you might do to improve the quality and accessibility of your podcasts, so that all learners can benefit, including those with disabilities....
Patricia Deubel, T.H.E. Journal, June 2007 --- http://www.thejournal.com/articles/20818

Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side of education technologies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm

Alumni and Students Fighting Back Against College Administrators and Faculty
The merits of these disputes seem less important than the fact that there is now earnest and public discussion about the performance of college administrators, who, like career government bureaucrats, are usually adept at avoiding accountability. Stakeholders are suddenly feeling empowered . . . Does it seem uncouth that students and alumni are pouring their criticisms into press releases? It shouldn't. Colleges and universities have largely brought this stakeholder activism on themselves -- when they decided to become instruments of fashionable politics instead of repositories of knowledge.
"A College Education," The Wall Street Journal,  June 16, 2007 --- Click Here

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

New Phishing Lures
Computer-based fraudsters are finding new ways to trick people—not technology—to get the information they seek

"Tech Special Report," Business Week, June 13, 2007 --- Click Here

Phisher Kings Court Your Trust
Computer-based fraudsters are finding new ways to trick people -- not technology -- to get the information they seek

What I Learned at Hacker Camp
It's easy to create malicious code, penetrate firewalls, and steal personal and financial information. "Ethical hacker" Andrew Whitaker can show you how

A Guide to PC Security Products
Slide show: Concerned about your computer, but confused about how to keep it safe? Here's a look at some helpful hardware and software

This Bug Is Nasty, Brutish, And Sneaky
Cyberthieves have raised the stakes with a clever new program almost immune to detection

Stopping a Scam from Spreading
Thwarted by bigger banks, ID thieves are taking aim at smaller financial institutions. One credit union provides a model for fighting back

Dazed and Confused: Data Law Disarray
A profusion of legislation regarding privacy and data breaches puts businesses in a bind and consumers at risk

Gator is Dead. Long Live Claria
The company that annoyed countless Net surfers with its adware is reinventing itself with a new custom portal service

"The 25 Worst Web Sites," by Dan Tynan, PC World, September 21, 2006 --- http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127116/article.html

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

Computer File Extensions

June 15, 2007 message from Jay ( www.dotwhat.net ) [webmaster@dotwhat.net]

Hi Bob,

 

I've just found your site (http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm) through Google, while looking for computer resource pages.

 

I run a file extension resource website, www.dotwhat.net for the Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems (and others) and would be grateful if you would consider linking to my site. I realise that you already link to similar websites, so I appreciate that this may not be possible.

 

Many thanks for your time,

 

Kind regards

 

Jay
www.dotwhat.net

"CEO Guide to Technology, Social Networks, Prediction Markets, and the Semantic Web" Business Week, June 16, 2007 --- Click Here

"Computing's Next Generation," Business Week, June 16, 2007 --- Click Here

"Apple Reignites the Browser Wars:  The maker of the hotly anticipated iPhone is on the hunt for market share, with new versions of its Safari Web browser. Watch out, Microsoft," by Aaron Ricadela, Business Week, June 12, 2007 --- http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2007/tc20070611_080304.htm?link_position=link1

On June 11, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs stepped up his assault on the software giant. In a speech before Apple developers, Jobs, clad in his traditional uniform of black turtleneck and jeans, announced new versions of Apple's Safari Web browser for the ubiquitous Windows operating system. That gives PC users a no-risk way to sample Apple software (Safari is free), and possibly an incentive to switch to a Mac computer or buy an iPhone. And to make sure there are enough programs for interested buyers, Jobs also offered Safari's underlying Web technologies to outside software developers so they could write programs for Apple products, including the iPhone, the company's latest potential blockbuster product that goes on sale June 29.

Surfing Safari Taken together, the moves could sway more companies to enter Apple's orbit and potentially reignite a browser war that's been dormant for several years. Apple holds about 5% of the Web browser market, vs. 78% for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which the company includes with Windows, and 15% for the open-source Firefox browser, according to Jobs. But Apple's anemic share of the browser market didn't deter Jobs. During his speech, he demonstrated Safari running twice as fast as Microsoft's browser on common tasks. "We've got the most innovative browser. We've also got the fastest browser for Windows," Jobs crowed to the audience. "Who knows, maybe we can grow our Safari share in the future. We're going to try."

The battle isn't just about browser market share. Windows users already have downloaded Apple's iTunes music software more than 500 million times, according to Jobs. A fast-running Windows version of Safari could give Windows users a better taste of the company's design aesthetic and technical chops, helping to reinvigorate sales of Apple computers, though the company still holds a small share of the overall PC market. "They have little to lose and some things to gain with the unified look on iPhone, if Safari is running on a Windows machine," says Charles Wolf, president of investment consulting company Wolf Insights. "The browser might be another Trojan horse like iTunes—maybe a few [users] go out and buy a Mac."

Apple may have another way to entice Windows users to switch to the Mac: Jobs disclosed that the next version of Mac OS X, code-named Leopard, will include Apple software called Boot Camp that lets users switch from a Mac to a Windows environment, without a performance penalty. The operating system is scheduled to be available in October. "We know how to reach these customers," says Jobs. Microsoft declined to comment on Apple's plans to woo developers, but in a statement said: "With hundreds of millions of Windows users, it's not a surprise that a company that makes Web browsers would want it to work with Windows."

Continued in article

New, Albeit Shaky, Partnership Forming Between Professors and the FBI

"Unlikely Bedfellows," by Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed, June 13, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/13/fbi

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and higher education as a whole have enjoyed a decidedly un-cozy relationship since the Vietnam War – a fact that many in academe have found to be just fine with them, thanks.

But if the FBI and higher education still aren’t the best of friends, they appear to be interacting a lot more. Reports this week about a nationwide FBI outreach program in which agents set up meetings with college leaders to discuss strategies for safeguarding academic research from unfriendly foreign interests have fueled growing concerns that the two entities are cozying up in uncomfortable ways these days in the name of national security.

And yet the reports have also raised awareness of the agency’s potential value as a resource as colleges confront the vulnerability inherent in an open system producing reams of research on topics intimately tied to America’s economic and physical security.

“Much of the nation’s intellectual property is produced in universities, in which they have a culture of sharing and openness. Yet, there are countries and there are intelligence services that would exploit these types of studies,” said Bill Carter, a spokesman at FBI headquarters in Washington. Academic freedom, Carter said, must “coexist with government concerns.”

“Now that the world has changed, it’s more open. We have business delegations coming into the country, we have thousands and thousands of foreign students that an intelligence service could penetrate or utilize … for intelligence-related purposes,” Carter said. “We have direct evidence that’s taking place.”

The FBI’s Counterintelligence Domain Program, which charges field offices across the nation with identifying vulnerable entities, including colleges and businesses, and with briefing their leaders about resources to strengthen security, is nothing new, Carter said.

Bob Hardy, director of contracts and intellectual property management for the Council on Governmental Relations, a group that helps universities navigate federal rules on research, added that his organization has known of the FBI meetings with college leaders for at least a year. Nevertheless, The Boston Globe’s report Tuesday of the Boston field office’s efforts to meet with local college leaders — a spokeswoman for the local office said Tuesday that its director has met with administrators at Boston, Hampshire and Smith Colleges, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Universities of Massachusetts at Amherst and Rhode Island, and Worchester Polytechnic Institute, all since February — has attracted some more public attention.

That’s despite the fact that the meetings themselves appear to be mainly informational in nature. “It was really the FBI contacting us and saying, ‘We understand that you’re doing more and more international collaboration through research and other activities of an educational nature and we want people to be aware of potential problems that could compromise intellectual property — and we have a whole cadre of resources that can educate faculty and others on these issues,’” said Robert Weygand, vice president of administration at the University of Rhode Island. Weygand attended a meeting in early May, he said, with the university’s president and the local FBI officials.

Suggestions for safeguarding intellectual property reflect common sense, said Special Agent Gail A. Marcinkiewicz, the spokeswoman for the Boston FBI field office: Be skeptical of people who seem oddly interested in learning details of your research for no apparent reason; take notice if you’re finding graduate students in areas they shouldn’t be accessing.

Continued in article

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

More tax preparers indicted over telephone tax refund scams
"We saw limited but serious instances of abuse," said IRS Acting Commissioner Kevin M. Brown. "We used our enforcement resources to move swiftly and decisively to protect this valuable refund for the vast majority of taxpayers and tax preparers who are requesting it properly. We want everyone who is eligible for the telephone tax refund to get it but not to inflate the amount requested." The IRS has been monitoring telephone excise tax refund requests for potential problems. Shortly after the tax-filing season opened in early January, the agency observed problems with returns from some tax preparers that indicated possible criminal intent. Along with the search warrants carried out by the IRS, other tax preparers across the nation who prepared questionable telephone tax refund requests received visits from IRS revenue agents (auditors) and special agents. The IRS has advised taxpayers to stay away from unscrupulous promoters and tax preparers who make false claims about the telephone tax refund and suggest that many, if not most, phone customers can get hundreds of dollars or more back under this program.
AccountingWeb, June 2007 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=103623

Bob Jensen's threads on tax and consumer frauds are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm

Reporting Assessment Data is No Big Deal for For-Profit Learning Institutions

"What Took You So Long?" by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, June 15, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/15/cca

You’d have been hard pressed to attend a major higher education conference over the last year where the work of the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education and the U.S. Education Department’s efforts to carry it out were not discussed. And they were rarely mentioned in the politest of terms, with faculty members, private college presidents, and others often bemoaning proposals aimed at ensuring that colleges better measure the learning outcomes of their students and that they do so in more readily comparable ways.

The annual meeting of the Career College Association, which represents 1,400 mostly for-profit and career-oriented colleges, featured its own panel session Thursday on Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’ various “higher education initiatives,” and it had a very different feel from comparable discussions at meetings of public and private nonprofit colleges. The basic theme of the panelists and the for-profit college leaders in the audience at the New Orleans meeting was: “What’s the big deal? The government’s been holding us accountable for years. Deal with it.”

Ronald S. Blumenthal, vice president for operations and senior vice president for administration at Kaplan Higher Education, who moderated the panel, noted that the department’s push for some greater standardization of how colleges measure the learning and outcomes of their students is old hat for institutions that are accredited by “national” rather than “regional” accreditors, as most for-profit colleges are. For nearly 15 years, ever since the Higher Education Act was renewed in 1992, national accreditors have required institutions to report placement rates and other data, and institutions that perform poorly compared to their peers risk losing accreditation.

“These are patterns that we’ve been used to for more than 10 years,” said Blumenthal, who participated on the Education Department negotiating panel that considered possible changes this spring in federal rules governing accreditation. “But the more traditional schools have not done anything like that, and they don’t want to. They say it’s too much work, and they don’t have the infrastructure. We had to implement it, and we did did implement it. So what if it’s more work?,” he said, to nods from many in the audience.

Geri S. Malandra of the University of Texas System, another member of the accreditation negotiating team and a close adviser to Charles Miller, who headed the Spellings Commission and still counsels department leaders, said that nonprofit college officials (and the news media, she suggested) often mischaracterized the objectives of the commission and department officials as excessive standardization.

“Nobody was ever saying, there is one graduation rate for everyone regardless of the program,” Malandra said. “You figure out for your sector what makes sense as the baseline. No matter how that’s explained, and by whom, the education secretary or me, it still gets heard as one-size-fits-all, a single number, a ‘bright line’ ” standard. “I don’t think it was ever intended that way.”

The third panelist, Richard Garrett, a senior analyst at Eduventures, an education research and consulting company, said the lack of standardized outcomes measures in higher education “can definitely be a problem” in terms of gauging which institutions are actually performing well. “It’s easy to accuse all parts of higher education of having gone too far down the road of diversity” of missions and measures, Garrett said.

“On the other hand,” said Garrett, noting that American colleges have long been the envy of the world, “U.S. higher education isn’t the way it is because of standardization. It is as successful as it is because of diversity and choice and letting a thousand flowers bloom,” he said, offering a voice of caution that sounded a lot like what one might have heard at a meeting of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities or the American Federation of Teachers.

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

Yahoo Shareholders View Executive Pay as Excessive
I.S.S., along with Glass Lewis and Proxy Governance, criticized the compensation committee for awarding bonus and retention pay in the form of 6.8 million stock options to Terry S. Semel, Yahoo’s chief executive, in a year when the company’s shares dropped nearly 35 percent. I.S.S. valued Mr. Semel’s pay in 2006 at $107.5 million, making him one of the nation’s best-paid executives. Separately, Yahoo shareholders rejected approximately 2-to-1 a proposal that would have tied executive compensation to competitive performance. They also rejected, by wider margins, proposals to establish a committee to oversee Yahoo’s human rights practices and to require the company to fight censorship and protect freedom of access to the Internet in countries with repressive regimes.
Miguel Helft,  "Dissident Shareholders Send Message to Yahoo," The New York Times, June 13, 2007 --- Click Here

Bob Jensen's threads on excessive compensation are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#OutrageousCompensation

ILLINOIS CPA SOCIETY'S 2007 SURVEY ON ACCOUNTING WOMEN
Recently at its Women's Leadership Breakfast, the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS) released the results of its fifth annual "Accounting Women: 2007 Survey on the Role of Women in CPA Firms." The survey found only slight shifts in hiring and retention patterns from the prior years' figures and that women are still underrepresented in key leadership positions. The survey, conducted through the Illinois CPA Society's Women's Executive Committee, tracks the percentage of women in Illinois CPA firms at three levels: senior/staff; senior manager/manager; and partner/principal. The 2007 survey document was sent to 78 Illinois firms with 15 or more professionals. While the percentage of women entering public accounting firms has decreased from 52 percent in 2004 to 49 percent in 2007, the number of women being retained at the senior manager/manager and partner/principal levels has slowly climbed from 39 percent to 42 percent and 16 percent to 18 percent, respectively, over this same period. Also, although the number of women in the most senior positions has moderately increased, the number of men continues to far outweigh women in the partner/principal positions.
Andrew Priest, AccountingEducation.com, June 2007 ---
http://accountingeducation.com/index.cfm?page=newsdetails&id=144980

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 fourteen 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.htm

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

Link forwarded by Debbie Bowling
"Wine country too pricey? Try brewery hopping," CNN, June 13, 2007 --- Click Here

Bob Jensen's travel helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#travel

From the Scout Report on June 16, 2007

SightSpeed 6 --- http://www.sightspeed.com/plans/free 

Despite the widespread availability of certain communication technologies, sometimes there is no substitute for “being there”. While this application can’t bring people physically closer, it does allow users to make video calls and send video mails to anyone with an email address. Additionally, users can also make computer to computer voice calls, if they are so inclined. This particular version of SightSpeed is compatible with computers running Windows 2000, XP, and Vista or Mac OS X 10.3.9.

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MM3-Web-Assistant-Proxy Offline Browser 2007 --- http://www.proxy-offline-browser.com/ 

Even in an era of highly connected and online computers, sometimes one just has to go offline. For people who do choose to occasionally embark into this offline world, this helpful application might just make the transition a bit easier. Essentially, Proxy Offline Browser creates a copy of all webpages visited during any given browsing session and allows users to visit them later while offline.

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Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Development  http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-95297-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Food for the Cities --- http://www.fao.org/fcit/index_en.asp

Urban Agriculture News --- http://www.urbanagriculture-news.com/

Greenroofs.com --- http://www.greenroofs.com/

From The Washington Post on June 15, 2007

Which presidential candidate recently received the most unique visitors to their related YouTube videos?

A. John McCain
B. Hillary Clinton
C. Rudy Giuliani
D. Barack Obama
 

Updates from WebMD --- http://www.webmd.com/

June 12, 2007

• Court Weighs Autism-Vaccine Link
• Antibiotic Use Linked to Asthma
• Alzheimer's Set to Explode
• Diabetes: Early Heart Disease
• Celiac Disease Clue Found

June 13, 2007

• How States Rank on Health Care
• More Sleep Boosts Athletes
• Patients School Docs in Manners
• More Breast Cancer Info Urged
• Tests May Spot Early Alzheimer’s

June 14, 2007

• Colgate Warns of Fake Toothpaste
• Ovarian Cancer: 4 Early Symptoms
• Genetics Revolution Arrives
• Several Conditions, Better Care?
• How States Rank on Health Care

June 16, 2007

• Does Pregnancy Weight Loss Help?
• TB Patient to Get Lung Surgery
• New Breast Cancer Gene Common
• Tick Time: Prevent Lyme Disease
• Colgate Warns of Fake Toothpaste

Students Pay a Price for Staying Up Late
Two studies being released today will point to the problems college students face when they don’t sleep. One paper presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies will present evidence that students who go to bed late are more likely to have poor quality sleep, which may affect their mental health and academic performance. The other paper finds academic problems associated with pulling all-nighters.
Inside Higher Ed, June 13, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/13/qt

"When Is a Pain Doctor a Drug Pusher?" by Tina Rosenberg, The New York Times, June 17, 2007 --- Click Here

Virtually everyone who takes opioids will become physically dependent on them, which means that withdrawal symptoms like nausea and sweats can occur if usage ends abruptly. But tapering off gradually allows most people to avoid those symptoms, and physical dependence is not the same thing as addiction. Addiction — which is defined by cravings, loss of control and a psychological compulsion to take a drug even when it is harmful — occurs in patients with a predisposition (biological or otherwise) to become addicted. At the very least, these include just below 10 percent of Americans, the number estimated by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to have active substance-abuse problems. Even a predisposition to addiction, however, doesn’t mean a patient will become addicted to opioids. Vast numbers do not. Pain patients without prior abuse problems most likely run little risk. “Someone who has never abused alcohol or other drugs would be extremely unlikely to become addicted to opioid pain medicines, particularly if he or she is older,” says Russell K. Portenoy, chairman of pain medicine and palliative care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and a leading authority on the treatment of pain.

The other popular misconception is that a high dose of opioids is always a dangerous dose. Even many doctors assume it; but they are nonetheless incorrect. It is true that high doses can cause respiratory failure in people who are not already taking the drugs. But that same high dose will not cause respiratory failure in someone whose drug levels have been increased gradually over time, a process called titration. For individuals who are properly titrated and monitored, there is no ceiling on opioid dosage. In this sense, high-dose prescription opioids can be safer than taking high doses of aspirin, Tylenol or Advil, which cause organ damage in high doses, regardless of how those doses are administered. (Every year, an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 Americans die from gastrointestinal bleeding associated with drugs like ibuprofen or aspirin, according to a paper published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.)

Still, doctors who put patients on long-term high-dose opioids must be very careful. They must monitor the patients often to ensure that the drugs are being used correctly and that side effects like constipation and mental cloudiness are not too severe. Doctors should also not automatically assume that if small doses aren’t working, that high doses will — opioids don’t help everyone. And research indicates that in some cases, high doses of opioids can lose their effectiveness and that some patients are better off if they take drug “holidays” or alternate between different medicines. Pain doctors also concede that more studies are needed to determine the safety of long-term opioid use.

But with careful treatment, many patients whose opioid levels are increased gradually can function well on high doses for years. “Dose alone says nothing about proper medical practice,” Portenoy says. “Very few patients require doses that exceed even 200 milligrams of OxyContin on a daily basis. Having said this, pain specialists are very familiar with a subpopulation of patients who require higher doses to gain effect. I myself have several patients who take more than 1,000 milligrams of OxyContin or its equivalent every day. One is a high-functioning executive who is pain-free most of the time, and the others have a level of pain control that allows a reasonable. quality of life.”

Continued in article

Portable Surgery Box Can Be Taken Virtually Anywhere in the World
The morning's sessions began with one called "Tales of Invention," where innovators, who were not so much inventors working on African problems as inventors who happened to be African, described their work. One, in particular, stood out: Seyi Oyesola, a physician who invented something he called a "hospital in a box." It was a simple, portable (well, 150-pound), resilient set of medical devices that makes surgery possible even in the worst parts of the world. The hospital in a box has anesthetic equipment, a defibrillator, a burn unit, plaster-making tools, surgical tools, and an operating table.
Jason Pontin, "TED Day 3: Candor and Inspiration The penultimate day of Chris Anderson's African conference is pleasing," MIT's Technology Review, June 14, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/17624/

Jensen Comment
This could be an extremely expensive way to beat the law. Moral hazards abound! Uninsured people requiring huge amounts of medical care may suddenly form new friendships with MSU employees. Although they may not pay rent directly, there are all sorts of imaginative ways to cheat on the system. What happens when Aunt Mabel wills the family farm out in California to Professor X, lives with Professor X just long enough to qualify for medical insurance, and then is carted off to a nursing home. Will medical insurance follow in such circumstances and for how long? Can Professor X have multiple live in relatives or friends?

The losers in health are much better at college football
"How States Rank on Health Care," by Miranda Hitti, WebMD, June 13, 2007 --- http://www.webmd.com/news/20070613/how-states-rank-on-health-care

State Rankings

Here is the list of how the states and Washington, D.C., ranked overall. States with the same ranking are listed together.

1. Hawaii
2. Iowa
3. New Hampshire, Vermont
4. Maine
5. Rhode Island
6. Connecticut
7. Massachusetts
8. Wisconsin
9. South Dakota
10. Minnesota
11. Nebraska
12. North Dakota
13. Delaware
14. Pennsylvania
15. Michigan
16. Montana, Washington
17. Maryland
18. Kansas
19. Wyoming
20. Colorado, New York
21. Ohio, Utah
22. Alaska, Arizona, New Jersey
23. Virginia
24. Idaho, North Carolina
25. Washington, D.C.
26. South Carolina
27. Oregon
28. New Mexico
29. Illinois
30. Missouri
31. Indiana
32. California
33. Tennessee
34. Alabama
35. Georgia
36. Florida
37. West Virginia
38. Kentucky
39. Louisiana, Nevada
40. Arkansas
41. Texas
42. Mississippi, Oklahoma

"Longer Life for Organic Fruit:   Organic apples will last for months in nitrogen-filled jars," by Kate Baggott, MIT's Technology Review, June 14, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/18892/

Forwarded by Dick Haar

This letter was written by Charles Grennel and his comrades who are veterans of the Global War on Terror. Grennel is an Army Reservist who spent two years in Iraq and was a principal in putting together the first Iraq elections, January of 2005. It was written to Jill Edwards, a student at the University of Washington who did not want to honor Medal of Honor winner USMC Colonel Greg Boyington. Ms. Edwards and other students (and faculty) do not think those who serve in the U.S. armed services are good role models. _________

To: Edwards, Jill (student, UW)
Subject: Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs

Miss Edwards, I read of your student activity regarding the proposed memorial to Col. Greg Boyington, USMC and a Medal of Honor winner. I suspect you will receive a bellyful of angry e-mails from conservative folks like me.

You may be too young to appreciate fully the sacrifices of generations of servicemen and servicewomen on whose shoulders you and your fellow students stand. I forgive you for the untutored ways of youth and your naivete. It may be that you are, simply, a sheep. There's no dishonor in being a sheep as long as you know and accept what you are.

William J. Bennett, in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997 said: Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident. We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep.

Then there are the wolves and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy. Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.

Then there are sheepdogs and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf. If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the unchartered path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.

We know that the sheep live in denial; that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids schools. But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid's school. Our children are thousands of times more likely to be killed or seriously injured by school violence than fire, but the sheep's only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and so they chose the path of denial.

The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours. Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn't tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports, in camouflage fatigues, holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, Baa. Until the wolf shows up; then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog.

The students, the victims, at Columbine High School were big, tough high school students, and under ordinary circumstances they would not have had the time of day for a police officer. They were not bad kids; they just had nothing to say to a cop. When the school was under attack, however, and SWAT teams were clearing the rooms and hallways, the officers had to physically peel those clinging, sobbing kids off of them.

This is how the little lambs feel about their sheepdog when the wolf is at the door. Look at what happened after September 11, 2001 when the wolf pounded hard on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for a righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed, right along with the young ones.

Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes. The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference. You want to be able to make a difference. There is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, but he does have one real advantage. Only one. And that is that he is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population.

There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious, predatory crimes of violence: assaults, murders and killing law enforcement officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims by body language: slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out of the herd that is least able to protect itself. Some people may be destined to be sheep and others might be genetically primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most people can choose which one they want to be, and I'm proud to say that more and more Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs.

Seven months after the attack on September 11, 2001, Todd Beamer was honored in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey . Todd, as you recall, was the man on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who called on his cell phone to alert an operator from United Airlines about the hijacking. When they learned of the other three passenger planes that had been used as weapons, Todd and the other passengers confronted the terrorist hijackers. In one hour, a transformation occurred among the passengers, athletes, business people and parents from sheep to sheepdogs and together they fought the wolves, ultimately saving an unknown number of lives on the ground.

There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men. Edmund Burke.

Only the dead have seen the end of war. Plato

Here is the point I like to emphasize, especially to the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn't have a choice.

But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious, moral decision. If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior's path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.

This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between.

Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. It's ok to be a sheep, but do not kick the sheep dog. Indeed, the sheep dog may just run a little harder, strive to protect a little better and be fully prepared to pay an ultimate price in battle and spirit with the sheep moving from baa to thanks.

We do not call for gifts or freedoms beyond our lot. We just need a small pat on the head, a smile and a thank you to fill the emotional tank which is drained protecting the sheep. And when our number is called by The Almighty, and day retreats into night, a small prayer before the heavens just may be in order to say thanks for letting you continue to be a sheep. And be grateful for the thousands, millions of American sheepdogs who permit you the freedom to express even bad ideas.

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. They wake up in the morning and that's the best they're going to feel all day.
Dean Martin

You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.
Dean Martin

I once shook hands with Pat Boone and my whole right side sobered up.
Dean Martin

There's a statue of Jimmy Stewart in the Hollywood Wax Museum, and the statue talks better than he does.
Dean Martin

American people have the ability to laugh at themselves. It is one of the things that makes this country the great country that it.
Desi Arnaz

You have to be very careful when you let someone win.
James Caan

Some guys say beauty is only skin deep. But when you walk into a party, you don't see somebody's brain. The initial contact has to be the sniffing.
James Caan

To get over my divorce, I got a prescription to live at the Playboy Mansion for a while.
James Caan

I'm sort of a Walter Mitty. I got fewer brain cells than most people, so when I got friendly with cowboys, I started rodeoing. When I was calf-roping, there was something about the dirt that made me feel clean.
James Caan

I never rode a bull - I'm not that stupid.
James Caan

My least favorite phrase in the English language is "I don't care."
James Caan

Forwarded by Dick Haar

What is patience?

Now that I'm older,
People think I have more patience.
Turns out, however, that
I just don't give a sh _ _!

Tidbits Archives --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

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

Three Finance Blogs

Jim Mahar's FinanceProfessor Blog --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/
FinancialRounds Blog --- http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/
Karen Alpert's FinancialMusings (Australia) --- http://financemusings.blogspot.com/

Some Accounting Blogs

Paul Pacter's IAS Plus (International Accounting) --- http://www.iasplus.com/index.htm
International Association of Accountants News --- http://www.aia.org.uk/
AccountingEducation.com and Double Entries --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/
Gerald Trite's eBusiness and XBRL Blogs --- http://www.zorba.ca/
AccountingWeb --- http://www.accountingweb.com/   
SmartPros --- http://www.smartpros.com/

Bob Jensen's Sort-of 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

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

Shared Open Courseware (OCW) from Around the World: OKI, MIT, Rice, Berkeley, Yale, and Other Sharing Universities --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Free Textbooks and Cases --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

Free Mathematics and Statistics Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics

Free Science and Medicine Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Science

Free Social Science and Philosophy Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social

Free Education Discipline Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm

Teaching Materials (especially video) from PBS

Teacher Source:  Arts and Literature --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/arts_lit.htm

Teacher Source:  Health & Fitness --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/health.htm

Teacher Source: Math --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/math.htm

Teacher Source:  Science --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/sci_tech.htm

Teacher Source:  PreK2 --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/prek2.htm

Teacher Source:  Library Media ---  http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/library.htm

Free Education and Research Videos from Harvard University --- http://athome.harvard.edu/archive/archive.asp

VYOM eBooks Directory --- http://www.vyomebooks.com/

From Princeton Online
The Incredible Art Department --- http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/

Online Mathematics Textbooks --- http://www.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.html 

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives --- http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/doc/intro.jsp

Accountancy Discussion ListServs:

For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for free) go to   http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

AECM (Educators)  http://pacioli.loyola.edu/aecm/  AECM is an email Listserv list which provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets, multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc Roles of a ListServ --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm

CPAS-L (Practitioners) http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/  CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments, ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed. Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or education. Others will be denied access.

Yahoo (Practitioners)  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA. This can be anything  from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA.

AccountantsWorld  http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1  This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and taxation.

Business Valuation Group BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com  This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag [RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM]

Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone:  603-823-8482 
Email:  rjensen@trinity.edu