October 2007 Update on Erika --- She can now drive herself!
In January 2007, surgeons broke Erika's back in three places and reconstructed her spine with an extraordinary amount of titanium. I'm pleased to say that on October 3 she drove the Jeep Cherokee all by herself. This 1999 Jeep is our winter car with all-wheel drive for deep snow. Our summer car is a 1989 Cadillac that I inherited from my father in 2001.Because the summer car has lower seats, Erika still cannot get out of that car without help. However, she can get in and out of the Jeep by herself and drive to and from town by herself. She's contended over the years that the Jeep is a more comfortable car, at least for her, than our old Cadillac. Since the Jeep's snow tires make a rather loud whine on the highway, I tend to prefer the summer car in the summer.

You can read about Erika's surgeries and see her pictures at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Erika2007.htm

Other pictures are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/

 

Ann Margaret in Viet Nam in 1966

Ann Margaret Videos

The Early Years --- http://www.ann-margret.com/1961_1969.htm
Updates --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Margaret
     In March 1966, Ann-Margret and entertainers Chuck Day and Mickey Jones teamed up for a USO tour to entertain U.S. servicemen
     in remote parts of Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia. She still has great affection for the veterans and refers to them as "my gentlemen."
     Ann-Margret, Day and Jones reunited in November 2005 for an encore of this tour for veterans and troops at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.

Forwarded by a Very Good Friend
Also see http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/margret.asp

Richard , (my husband), never really talked a lot about his time in Viet Nam other than he had been shot by a sniper. However, he had a rather grainy, 8 x 10 black and white photo he had taken at a USO show of Ann Margaret with Bob Hope in the background that was one of his treasures.

A few years ago, Ann Margaret was doing a book signing at a local bookstore. Richard wanted to see if he could get h er to sign the treasured photo so he arrived at the bookstore at 12 o'clock for the 7:30 signing.

When I got there after work, the line went all the way around the bookstore, circled the parking lot and disappeared behind a parking garage. Before her appearance, bookstore employees announced that she would sign only her book and no memorabilia would be permitted.

Richard was disappointed, but wanted to show her the photo and let her know how much those shows meant to lonely GI's so far from home. Ann Margaret came out looking as beautiful as ever and, as second in line, it was soon Richard 's turn.

He presented the book for her signature and then took out the photo. When he did, there were many shout s from the employees that she would not sign it. Richard said, "I understand. I just wanted her to see it."

She took one look at the photo, tears welled up in her eyes and she said, "This is one of my gentlemen from Viet Nam and I most certainly will sign his photo. I know what these men did for their country and I always have time for 'my gentlemen.'"

With that, she pulled Richard across the table and planted a big kiss on him. She then made quite a to-do about the bravery of the young men she met over the years, how much she admired them, and how much she appreciated them. There weren't too many dry eyes among those close enough to hear She then posed for pictures and acted as if he were the only one there

Later at dinner, Richard was very quiet. When I asked if he'd like to talk about it, my big strong husband broke down in tears. "That's the first time anyone ever thanked me for my time in the Army," he said

That night was a turning point for him. He walked a little straighter and, for the first time in years, was proud to have been a Vet. I'll never forget Ann Margaret for her graciousness and how much that small act of kindness meant to my husband.

I now make it a point to say "Thank you" to every person I come across who served in our Armed Forces. Freedom does not come cheap and I am grateful for all those who have served their country.

If you'd like to pass on this story, feel free to do so. Perhaps it will help others to become aware of how important it is to acknowledge the contribution our service people make.

On behalf of those who DO appreciate all that you did for us, thank you to each of you who receive this message who have served or are serving our country in the armed services or any other service.

 

The sad and often unspoken truth of the matter is this: Americans have been conditioned less to understand Iraq's complex military reality than to feel sorry for those who are part of it. The media struggles in good faith to respect our troops, but too often it merely pities them. I am generalizing, of course. Indeed, there are regular, stellar exceptions, quite often in the most prominent liberal publications, from our best military correspondents. But exceptions don't quite cut it amidst the barrage of "news," which too often descends into therapy for those who are not fighting, rather than matter-of-fact stories related by those who are. As one battalion commander complained to me, in words repeated by other soldiers and marines: "Has anyone noticed that we now have a volunteer Army? I'm a warrior. It's my job to fight." Every journalist has a different network of military contacts. Mine come at me with the following theme: We want to be admired for our technical proficiency--for what we do, not for what we suffer. We are not victims. We are privileged . . . The media is but one example of the slow crumbling of the nation-state at the upper layers of the social crust--a process that because it is so gradual, is also deniable by those in the midst of it. It will take another event on the order of 9/11 or greater to change the direction we are headed. Contrary to popular belief, the events of 9/11--which are perceived as an isolated incident--did not fundamentally change our nation. They merely interrupted an ongoing trend toward the decay of nationalism and the devaluation of heroism.
Robert E. Kaplan, "Modern Heroes Our soldiers like what they do. They want our respect, not pity," The Wall Street Journal, October 4, 2007 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010686  

Experiencing the War: Stories from the Veterans History Project (Ken Burns) ---  http://www.loc.gov/vets/stories/thewar/

MASH in Action --- This one is unbelievable but true!
How to treat a wounded soldier with an embedded live RPG --- http://www.militarytimes.com/multimedia/video/rpg_surgery

Bravo America --- http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/huston/10082007.htm
Bravo America --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/BravoAmerica.asf 

 

 

Tidbits on October 10, 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/

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

Set up free conference calls at http://www.freeconference.com/  

Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons --- http://zipskinny.com/

If you want to help our badly injured troops, please check out
Valour-IT: Voice-Activated Laptops for Our Injured Troops  --- http://www.valour-it.blogspot.com/

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

Rob Sutton on how to deal with jerks (assholes) at work:  Should you hire at least one in your department?
Rob Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, talks about his "No Asshole Rule" and why he is trying to perfect indifference (Video) --- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/article2393769.ece
In his literal last lecture at Carnegie-Mellon, Randy Pausch said something to the effect that if there’s a jerk you really don’t like, be patient and wait long enough and the jerk will most likely do something that you really like (other than dropping dead). That's truly been my experience, although jerks typically go back to being jerks.

Watch Randy’s entire last lecture (streaming video or Google video for 1 hour plus 45 minutes) --- http://cmu.edu/uls/journeys/

YouTube has formally announced a new, official channel of political videos called CitizenTube. Edited by Steve Grove, YouTube’s News & Politics Editor, the channel appears intended to aggregate select political videos already appearing on the rest of the site. --- http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/govblog/?p=269

Winners of KPMG's Integrity/Ethics Videos Contest --- http://www.kpmgcampus.com/whoweare/ethics.shtml

I linked to this several months ago, but it's worth a second look.
How NOT To Use Powerpoint By Comedian Don McMillan --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpjrHzgSRM

Garfield - The Record Breaker Russian subs --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzNgUdDxHVI

Homemade video tutorial on streaming media --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNDZg-YtE48

Homemade video tutorial (very basic) on how to record streaming audio on your PC --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPHSDOyj5f8
Note the passing reference to a free sound recorder called Audacity --- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Note that if you are watching a lecture video that's pretty much a talking head, it saves a lot, I mean a LOT, of file space to only capture the audio.
This might, for example, work very well when capturing parts of  the many UC Berkeley, YouTube, Yale, or Harvard video lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Just in case source streams disappear from the Internet, I suggest capturing what's important to you and saving to external media such as a CD or DVD disk.
Capturing also allows you to only capture what is relevant to you or your students without having to spend a lot of time waiting for the good parts.

Audio interview with one of the eleven openly-gay college presidents in the U.S.  Roosevelt University's Charles R. Middleton discusses sexual orientation discrimination among college presidents, contrary to the mission statements of most colleges --- http://chronicle.com/media/audio/v54/i07/middleton/

WSJ Video of the World Bank's Ranking of the Best and Worst Places to Do Business --- Click Here

Top Nations out of 178 Countries That Welcome Foreign Operations:

Low Ranking Countries Highlighted in the Videos:

"Doing Business 2008: Making a Difference," International Finance Corporation --- http://ifc.org/ifcext/media.nsf/Content/Doing_Business_2008   

MASH in Action --- This one is unbelievable but true!
How to treat a wounded soldier with an embedded live RPG --- http://www.militarytimes.com/multimedia/video/rpg_surgery

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

Born in Baltimore, Md., on April 7, 1915, Holiday had an affinity for jazz from childhood. Her father, Clarence, was a rhythm guitarist for Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, and Holiday recalls "many a wonderful hour" spent listening and singing along to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith on the Victrola at a local whorehouse. Holiday ran errands for Alice, the brothel's proprietor, and gladly accepted hours of listening time in place of payment.
Billie Holiday: 'Lady Sings the Blues' (Full Concert) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14894620
The Life of Billie Holiday --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Holiday

Gaetano Donizetti is a composer who seems to defy categorization. He wrote more than five dozen operas, and his works are nearly impossible to cubbyhole. He became a master of dark, historical dramas, with works like Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda, and his Lucia di Lammermoor is among the finest examples of romantic tragedy.
Donizetti's 'The Daughter of the Regiment' (Acts 1 and 2) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14776446

Baltimore's Confident New Conductor Marin Alsop Ushers in New Era for the Baltimore Symphony --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14732880

Tater People --- http://www.frontiernet.net/%7Ejimdandy/specials/sweettators/

Link Forwarded by Richard Reams, [rreams@trinity.edu]
Leonard Bernstein, one of the greatest American composers who wrote the scores to classic shows like "West Side Story" and "Candide," is the first of 31 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Icons featured throughout October.
Each day, a new Icon's video, biography and bibliography becomes available at www.glbtHistoryMonth.com.

Leonard Bernstein

Photographs and Art

Autumn PowerPoint Show (use the arrow keys for picture transitions) --- Click Here

Billie Holiday (Moonlight in Vermont) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StNAmz7kpe4

Painted with Words: Vincent van Gogh's Letters to Emile Bernard --- http://www.themorgan.org/collections/swf/exhibOnline.asp?id=600
Also see Van Gogh's Letters --- http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/

Butterflies and Moths of North America --- http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

Tom Robinson Photographs --- http://www.tomrobinsonphotography.com/

Virtual Landscapes of Texas --- http://www.lib.utexas.edu/books/landscapes/index.html

Recently formed Canyon in Texas --- Click Here

 

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

Experiencing the War: Stories from the Veterans History Project (Ken Burns) ---  http://www.loc.gov/vets/stories/thewar/

The "Mahdiyya" Qur'an --- http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/mahdiyya-quran/index.shtml

Vagabox Quotations --- http://www.vagabox.com/vagabox03.html

Painted with Words: Vincent van Gogh's Letters to Emile Bernard --- http://www.themorgan.org/collections/swf/exhibOnline.asp?id=600
Also see Van Gogh's Letters --- http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/

The White Company by Arthur Conan Doyle --- Click Here

The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson --- Click Here

A Tale Of A Tub by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) --- Click Here

My good neighbors forwarded this link.
"What Ails the Short Story, by Stephen King, The New York Times Sunday Book Review, September 30, 2007 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/books/review/King2-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

. . . We could argue all day about the reasons for fiction’s out-migration from the eye-level shelves — people have. We could marvel over the fact that Britney Spears is available at every checkout, while an American talent like William Gay or Randy DeVita or Eileen Pollack or Aryn Kyle (all of whom were among my final picks) labors in relative obscurity. We could, but let’s not. It’s almost beside the point, and besides — it hurts.

Instead, let us consider what the bottom shelf does to writers who still care, sometimes passionately, about the short story. What happens when he or she realizes that his or her audience is shrinking almost daily? Well, if the writer is worth his or her salt, he or she continues on nevertheless, because it’s what God or genetics (possibly they are the same) has decreed, or out of sheer stubbornness, or maybe because it’s such a kick to spin tales. Possibly a combination. And all that’s good.

What’s not so good is that writers write for whatever audience is left. In too many cases, that audience happens to consist of other writers and would-be writers who are reading the various literary magazines (and The New Yorker, of course, the holy grail of the young fiction writer) not to be entertained but to get an idea of what sells there. And this kind of reading isn’t real reading, the kind where you just can’t wait to find out what happens next (think “Youth,” by Joseph Conrad, or “Big Blonde,” by Dorothy Parker). It’s more like copping-a-feel reading. There’s something yucky about it.

Last year, I read scores of stories that felt ... not quite dead on the page, I won’t go that far, but airless, somehow, and self-referring. These stories felt show-offy rather than entertaining, self-important rather than interesting, guarded and self-conscious rather than gloriously open, and worst of all, written for editors and teachers rather than for readers. The chief reason for all this, I think, is that bottom shelf. It’s tough for writers to write (and editors to edit) when faced with a shrinking audience. Once, in the days of the old Saturday Evening Post, short fiction was a stadium act; now it can barely fill a coffeehouse and often performs in the company of nothing more than an acoustic guitar and a mouth organ. If the stories felt airless, why not? When circulation falters, the air in the room gets stale.

And yet. I read plenty of great stories this year. There isn’t a single one in this book that didn’t delight me, that didn’t make me want to crow, “Oh, man, you gotta read this!” I think of such disparate stories as Karen Russell’s “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” John Barth’s “Toga Party” and “Wake,” by Beverly Jensen, now deceased, and I think — marvel, really — they paid me to read these! Are you kiddin’ me???

Talent can’t help itself; it roars along in fair weather or foul, not sparing the fireworks. It gets emotional. It struts its stuff. If these stories have anything in common, it’s that sense of emotional involvement, of flipped-out amazement. I look for stories that care about my feelings as well as my intellect, and when I find one that is all-out emotionally assaultive — like “Sans Farine,” by Jim Shepard — I grab that baby and hold on tight. Do I want something that appeals to my critical nose? Maybe later (and, I admit it, maybe never). What I want to start with is something that comes at me full-bore, like a big, hot meteor screaming down from the Kansas sky. I want the ancient pleasure that probably goes back to the cave: to be blown clean out of myself for a while, as violently as a fighter pilot who pushes the eject button in his F-111. I certainly don’t want some fraidy-cat’s writing school imitation of Faulkner, or some stream-of-consciousness about what Bob Dylan once called “the true meaning of a pear.”

So — American short story alive? Check. American short story well? Sorry, no, can’t say so. Current condition stable, but apt to deteriorate in the years ahead. Measures to be taken? I would suggest you start by reading this year’s “Best American Short Stories.” They show how vital short stories can be when they are done with heart, mind and soul by people who care about them and think they still matter. They do still matter, and here they are, liberated from the bottom shelf.

Stephen King is the author of 60 books, as well as nearly 400 short stories, including “The Man in the Black Suit,” which won the O. Henry Prize in 1996.

 

 

I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes. The moral effect should be good and it would spread a lively terror.
Winston Churchill commenting on the British use of poison gas against the Iraqis after World War I
The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in the war, the secret Ottoman-German Alliance having been signed in August 1914. It threatened Russia’s Caucasian territories and Britain’s communications with India via the Suez Canal. The British and French opened overseas fronts with the Gallipoli (1915) and Mesopotamian campaigns --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I#Ottoman_Empire
Poison Gas in World War I --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_gas_in_World_War_I
the British Army embraced gas with enthusiasm and mounted more gas attacks than any other combatant.[citation needed] This was due partly to the British spending most of the latter years of the war on the offensive --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_gas_in_World_War_I#British_gas_attacks
The British used adamsite against Russian revolutionary troops in 1919 and mustard against Iraqi insurgents in the 1920s; Spain used chemical weapons in Morocco against Rif tribesmen throughout the 1920s] and Italy used mustard gas in Libya in 1930 and again during its invasion of Ethiopia in 1936.[19] In 1925, a Chinese warlord, Zhang Zuolin, contracted a German company to build him a mustard gas plant in Shenyang, which was completed in 1927 --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_gas_in_World_War_I#British_gas_attacks

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
Oscar Wilde --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

I hit him to get his attention. I shot him to calm him down. I killed him to reason with him.
Henry Rollins --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Rollins

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
Thomas Jefferson --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
Carl Sagan --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for them Mexican immigrants.
Texas politician

If you speak the truth, have one foot in the stirrup.
Turkish proverb

Facts are always popping up to confuse the theories.
Carlo Dossi --- Click Here

In response to a warning letter sent by Shurat HaDin to the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) more than 9 months ago, GPO Director Danny Seaman has written a formal acknowledgment that FRANCE 2 Television staged the infamous news footage depicting a Palestinian child being shot to death by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in September 2000. This is the first time in the seven years since the footage broadcast that the Prime Minister's Office has confirmed that a journalistic fraud had been perpetrated against the IDF by government owned FRANCE 2 television. Shurat HaDin had written Seaman contending that mounting evidence proved that cameramen and news editors from FRANCE 2 had deliberately staged and then misleadingly edited the footage aired by the French government television on in September 2000. The emotional footage, repeatedly broadcast around the world on CNN and other cable stations, ignited anti-Israeli violence in the Palestinian Authority and Israeli Arab communities and spurred international condemnation of the IDF. The Palestinian youth Muhammad al-Dura, allegedly seen being killed in the video footage, became the poster child in the Arab world for the current intifada violence and fueled hundreds of terror attacks against Israeli citizens and Jewish communities worldwide. Thousands of Jews and Arabs have been killed in the ensuing violence following the broadcast. The Shurat HaDin letter demanded that, in light of the fraudulent broadcast and the grievous harm that it unleashed against Israel as well as the massive numbers of victims attributable to the fake footage, Seaman must strip FRANCE 2 of its press credentials.
October 1, 2007 email from Naomi Ragen [nragen@netvision.net.il]  and http://www.israellawcenter.org/
Jensen Comment
But the biased media has already done its irreparable damage for the past seven years.

So what's wrong about Canada's health care system?
Canada's Health Care Plan:  A Personal Sicko Experience --- Click Here

Sixty-seven percent of American employees are living paycheck to paycheck, according to results released this week from the 2007 "Getting Paid In America" survey. The online survey by the American Payroll Association asked respondents how difficult it would be to meet their current financial obligations if their paycheck were delayed for a week. An overwhelming 31,640 of more than 47,000 respondents said they'd find it difficult to meet their financial obligations if their paycheck were delayed. This is a 2 percent increase from 2006 . . .
AccountingWeb, September October 2006, 2007 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=104038

Faculty members identify as liberals and vote Democratic in far greater proportions than found in the American public at large. That finding by itself won’t shock many, but the national study released Saturday at a Harvard University symposium may be notable both for its methodology and other, more surprising findings. The 72-page study — “The Social and Political Views of American Professors” — was produced with the goal of moving analysis of the political views of faculty members out of the culture wars and back to social science. The study offers at times harsh criticism of many of the analyses of these issues in recent years (both from those hoping to tag the professoriate as foolishly radical and those seeking to rebut those charges). The study included community college professors along with four-year institutions, and featured analysis of non-responders to the survey (two features missing from many recent reports). The results of the study find a professoriate that may be less liberal than is widely assumed, even if conservatives are correctly assumed to be in a distinct minority. The authors present evidence that there are more faculty members who identify as moderates than as liberals. The authors of the study also found evidence of a significant decline by age group in faculty radicalism, with younger faculty members less likely than their older counterparts to identify as radical or activist. And while the study found that faculty members generally hold what are thought to be liberal positions on social issues, professors are divided on affirmative action in college admissions.
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, October 8, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/08/politics 
Also see "Political Shocker: Faculty Moderates," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, September 19, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/19/politics
Also see "The Politically Correctness Fracture of Academe" at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#PoliticalCorrectnessFracture

Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed. The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand." Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men.
Marcus Oscarsso, "Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle," London Daily Mail, October 10, 2007 --- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=484903

A public access television station in Aspen, which boasts of being the first such station in the nation, for the first time in remembrance has decided to squash a movie – at least for now – targeting an Australian production that denies the Holocaust happened and affirms the gas chambers saved lives by disinfecting prisoners. The controversy has stirred up the trendy Aspen, where the local public access television station, after 35 years of service, rarely creates turmoil and more often features the heart-pounding action of the local high school football team, or local school theatrical productions. But in this case, the words have been strong. The video is "very offensive," GrassRoots TV board president Alan Feldman told the local Aspen Daily News. "Especially with my background. I'm Jewish. My family was murdered in the Holocaust."
WorldNetDaily, October 9, 2007 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58048

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Nobel Peace Prize laureate, described the lessons she had learned from her country's Hsayadaws, its Buddhist holy teachers, in an article for a Japanese newspaper in 1996. One of them told her what it would be like to fight for democracy in Burma: "You will be attacked and reviled for engaging in honest politics, but you must persevere. Lay down an investment in dukkha [suffering] and you will gain sukha [bliss]."
Philip Delves, Broughton, The Wall Street Journal, October 4, 2007 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119144623100748099.html

Two Saudi men were to receive 7,000 lashes each for committing ``homosexual acts,'' Saudi Okaz newspaper reported Thursday. Saudi authorities started executing the court order Tuesday, which had been divided into separate phases, the report added. Another Saudi man, meanwhile, was to receive 470 lashes separately for doing drugs and resisting the security forces. The Saudi judiciary system is based on the strict principles of Islamic sharia law.
Deutsche Presse via email, no url, October 4, 2007 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1906428/posts

This story is about a two-part process that led to unbelievable decisions. First, the Veterans' Committee took away benefits from some very deserving American veterans. Second, the committee gave benefits to veterans of another country who don't live in the United States, and never have lived in this country or been American citizens. I opposed both actions.
Representative Mike Turner (Republican from Ohio's Third Congressional District) , "Democrats give away veterans' benefits," The Times-Gazette, October 4, 2007 ---  http://www.timesgazette.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=147067&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=&S=1

Richard H. Brodhead, Duke University’s president, gave a speech Saturday in which he apologized for several decisions and inactions taken by the institution in responding to rape allegations against four of its lacrosse players — allegations that have since been discredited. Brodhead defended Duke’s basic approach of saying that the alleged crime would have been terrible, but that the accused students needed to be presumed innocent. But he also expressed regrets, for which he apologized. “First and foremost, I regret our failure to reach out to the lacrosse players and their families in this time of extraordinary peril,” he said. He also said that some professors and that some of their comments were “ill-judged and divisive.” While the professors “had the right to express their views,” he said. “the public as well as the accused students and their families could have thought that those were expressions of the university as a whole. They were not, and we could have done more to underscore that.” In addition, Brodhead said that “by deferring to the criminal justice system to the extent we did and not repeating the need for the presumption of innocence equally vigorously at all the key moments, we may have helped create the impression that we did not care about our students. This was not the case, and I regret it as well.”
Inside Higher Ed, October 1, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/01/qt

Russia is again flexing its aviation muscles, resuming Cold War-like global operations in ways that create new complications for the United States Air Force. On Aug. 17, Russian bombers flying long-range missions fanned out from the North Pole over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, inaugurating what Russian President Vladimir V. Putin called a permanent return to strategic aviation operations.
John A. Tirp, "Bear in the Air, Air Force Magazine, October 2007 --- http://www.afa.org/magazine/oct2007/1007watch.asp

Then there's the not-so-little matter of North Korea's continuing missile proliferation. Last week the State Department's Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation announced new sanctions against a North Korean company for spreading missile technology. The company -- Korean Mining and Development Corp., or Komid -- is a long-time offender. The U.S. Treasury last year called it "Pyongyang's premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and weapons related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons." The new State Department finding reads: "A determination has been made that a North Korean entity has engaged in activities that require the imposition of measures pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act, as amended, and the Export Administration Act of 1979 . . ." Since little happens in North Korea without the regime knowing, this is evidence that Kim is still in the proliferation business.
"Nuclear Secrets," The Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2007; Page A16 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119128934994945989.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

The sad and often unspoken truth of the matter is this: Americans have been conditioned less to understand Iraq's complex military reality than to feel sorry for those who are part of it. The media struggles in good faith to respect our troops, but too often it merely pities them. I am generalizing, of course. Indeed, there are regular, stellar exceptions, quite often in the most prominent liberal publications, from our best military correspondents. But exceptions don't quite cut it amidst the barrage of "news," which too often descends into therapy for those who are not fighting, rather than matter-of-fact stories related by those who are. As one battalion commander complained to me, in words repeated by other soldiers and marines: "Has anyone noticed that we now have a volunteer Army? I'm a warrior. It's my job to fight." Every journalist has a different network of military contacts. Mine come at me with the following theme: We want to be admired for our technical proficiency--for what we do, not for what we suffer. We are not victims. We are privileged . . . The media is but one example of the slow crumbling of the nation-state at the upper layers of the social crust--a process that because it is so gradual, is also deniable by those in the midst of it. It will take another event on the order of 9/11 or greater to change the direction we are headed. Contrary to popular belief, the events of 9/11--which are perceived as an isolated incident--did not fundamentally change our nation. They merely interrupted an ongoing trend toward the decay of nationalism and the devaluation of heroism.
Robert E. Kaplan, "Modern Heroes Our soldiers like what they do. They want our respect, not pity," The Wall Street Journal, October 4, 2007 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010686  

Officials said several leading aides to Al Qaida network chief Abu Ayoub Al Masri have been killed by the U.S.-led coalition. They said two out of the four foreign aides of Al Masri remain alive. On Sept. 25, the U.S. military killed an Al Qaida chief deemed responsible for transporting foreign operatives to Iraq. The Al Qaida commander, identified as Abu Osama Al Tunisi, was killed in a U.S. air strike as he met his colleagues in Musayib, about 60 kilometers south of Baghdad. Shortly before he died, Al Tunisi wrote a letter that warned of a threat to Al Qaida operations in Karkh. The lettter, found by the U.S. military, sought guidance from Al Qaida leaders amid coalition operations that hampered Al Tunisi's network.
"Last letter from doomed Al Qaida chief: 'We are so desperate for your help'," World Tribune, October 1, 2007 --- http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2007/ss_iraq_09_30.asp

Muslim jihadist leaders interviewed for a new book were ecstatic about statements from television talk host Rosie O'Donnell about the war in Iraq and the global war on terror, agreeing with her outspoken views. Some even invited her on a "fact finding mission" to the Middle East. "I agree with what this O'Donnell says. ...We welcome Rosie O'Donnell to stay among us and to get to know the truth from being here, like many American peace activists are doing," said Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist organization.
"Oh, Rosie! Terrorists invite her to Mideast," WorldNetDaily, September 26, 2007 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57860
Sadly, Rosie declined the invitation (possibly because terrorist intolerance for gays and lesbians) --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57954
Watch a video of Rosie calling for impeachment --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se8O2qLwJhI 
Rosie Accuses Bush of 9/11 Conspiracy --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPeAGZt2BCA
Rosie needs more fact finding. Scientific evidence now supports the counter theories that debunk the 9/11conspiracy theories --- http://www.jod911.com/ 

This regnant campus culture helps to explain why Columbia University, which bars ROTC from campus on the ground that the military bars open homosexuals from service, welcomed Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose government publicly executes homosexuals. It explains why Hofstra's law school invites to speak on legal ethics Lynn Stewart, a lawyer convicted of aiding and abetting a terrorist client and sentenced to 28 months in jail.
Michael Barone, "Ivory Tower Decay," RealClearPolitics, October 8, 2007 --- http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/10/ivory_tower_decay.html

The U.S. military commander alleges that Iran's ambassador to Iraq belongs to an elite force of the Iranian revolutionary guard that has targeted U.S. forces.
Anne Garrels, "Petraeus Steps Up Accusations Against Iran," NPR, October 8, 2007 --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15084571
Also see "Petraeus Steps Up Accusations Against Iran" --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15080765

In his address at the UN, Ahmadinejad laid out his case for Islamic supremacy. He claimed that all of the world's problems are the consequence of two things. First, by his reading of history, after the Second World War, "The victors of the war drew the road map for global domination and formulated their policies not on the basis of justice but for ensuring the interests of the victors over the vanquished nations." The second cause for the world's woes is the world powers' rejection of Islam. As he put it, "The second and more important factor is some big powers' disregard of morals, divine values, the teachings of prophets and instructions by the Almighty God... Unfortunately, they have put themselves in the position of God!" Thankfully for Ahmadinejad, this "corrupted" world order will soon be swept away. Either the "corrupted" powers will "return from the path of arrogance and obedience to Satan to the path of faith in God," or "the same calamities that befell the people of the distant past will befall them as well." Concluding his UN remarks Ahmadinejad pledged, "Without any doubt, the Promised One who is the ultimate Savior… will come. In the company of all believers, justice-seekers and benefactors, he will establish a bright future and fill the world with justice and beauty. This is the promise of God; therefore it will be fulfilled."
Caroline Glick, "Column One: Ahmadinejad's overlooked message," Jerusalem Post, October 1, 2007 ---
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411504466&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Who is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? --- http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/09/who_is_mahmoud_ahmadinejad_1.html

At Columbia University, Ahmadinejad devoted the majority of his speech to a discussion of the role of science in human affairs. While most coverage surrounded his refusal to renounce his call to annihilate Israel, his central message, that he rejects the right of people to be free to choose their paths in life, was ignored. His remarks on the issue were dismissed as "weird" or "unintelligible." Yet they were neither. Speaking as "an academic," Ahmadinejad said that from his perspective, the role of science is to serve Islam and that any science that does not serve Islamic goals is corrupt. As he put it, "Science is the light, and scientists must be pure and pious. If humanity achieves the highest level of physical and spiritual knowledge but its scholars and scientists are not pure, then this knowledge cannot serve the interests of humanity." Elaborating on this notion, he argued that Western scientists serve corrupt governments who reject the pure and pious path of Islam and therefore are used as agents for corruption. Tellingly, Ahmadinejad moved directly from his assault on non-Islamic scientists and regimes to a defense of Iran's nuclear program. The message was clear: Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is done in the name of Islam and therefore it is inherently legitimate. As far as he is concerned, refusing to allow Iran to pursue nuclear weapons is tantamount to an assault on God.
Caroline Glick, "Column One: Ahmadinejad's overlooked message," Jerusalem Post, October 1, 2007 ---
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411504466&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

While interviewing Todd Gitlin recently for an Inside Higher Ed podcast, I was tempted to ask if he had deliberately avoided using Gramsci’s line in his new book, The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideals, just published by John Wiley and Sons. And even were the Democrats in control of the executive and legislative branches, the fact is that the Republican Party will still be able to rely on its organizational “bulldozer” — capable of staying relentlessly on message, even (and especially) when reality gets in the way. It is “a focused coalition with two, and only two, major components,” writes Gitlin, “the low-tax, love-business, hate-government enthusiasts and the God-save-us moral crusaders.” In contrast, the Democrats subsume “roughly eight” constituencies, by Gitlin’s reckoning: “labor, African Americans, Hispanics, feminists, gays, environmentalists, members of the helping professions (teachers, social workers, nurses), and the militantly liberal, especially antiwar denizens of avant-garde cultural zones such as university towns, the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and so on.” This is not the place to rehearse Gitlin’s whole analysis. He gave an overview of the book at TPM Cafe recently, and our podcast discussion covers some of the major points. But it seems worth noting that Gitlin’s earlier complaints about “identity” and the jargonizing folkways of the academic left, while not entirely absent from The Bulldozer and the Big Tent, are much less prominent here than in some of his other writings. He appears to recognize that said cohorts do indeed have a place under the big tent — over in the section for “the militantly liberal” and “antiwar denizens of avant-garde cultural zones.”
Scott McLemee, "The Bulldozer and the Big Tent," Inside Higher Ed, October 3, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/10/03/mclemee

In the North American Review in 1934, the progressive writer Roger Shaw described the New Deal as “Fascist means to gain liberal ends.” He wasn’t hallucinating. FDR’s adviser Rexford Tugwell wrote in his diary that Mussolini had done “many of the things which seem to me necessary.” Lorena Hickok, a close confidante of Eleanor Roosevelt who lived in the White House for a spell, wrote approvingly of a local official who had said, “If [President] Roosevelt were actually a dictator, we might get somewhere.” She added that if she were younger, she’d like to lead “the Fascist Movement in the United States.” At the National Recovery Administration (NRA), the cartel-creating agency at the heart of the early New Deal, one report declared forthrightly, “The Fascist Principles are very similar to those we have been evolving here in America.” Roosevelt himself called Mussolini “admirable” and professed that he was “deeply impressed by what he has accomplished.” The admiration was mutual. In a laudatory review of Roosevelt’s 1933 book Looking Forward, Mussolini wrote, “Reminiscent of Fascism is the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices.…Without question, the mood accompanying this sea change resembles that of Fascism.” The chief Nazi newspaper, Volkischer Beobachter, repeatedly praised “Roosevelt’s adoption of National Socialist strains of thought in his economic and social policies” and “the development toward an authoritarian state” based on the “demand that collective good be put before individual self-interest.”
David Boaz, "Hitler, Mussolini, Roosevelt:  What FDR had in common with the other charismatic collectivists of the 30s," Reason Magazine, October 2007 --- http://www.reason.com/news/show/122026.html

Rampaging Muslims have killed 10 Christians, injured 61 others, destroyed nine churches and displaced more than 500 people in northern Nigeria, according to eyewitnesses – all because Muslim high school students claimed a Christian student had drawn a cartoon of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, on the wall of the school’s mosque. The rampage occurred Sept. 28 in the town of Tudun Wada Dankadai, in Nigeria's northern state of Kano.
"Again! 10 Christians slaughtered over alleged Muhammad cartoon 61 injured, 9 churches burned, hundreds displaced after rumored 'insult' to Islam," WorldNetDaily, October 5, 2007 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58015 

A spokeswoman for Mr. Andrews said there were some signs to suggest Africans were having more difficulty settling into Australia than those from other parts of the world. "It's more anecdotal (evidence)," she said, citing media reports of some serious crimes involving Sudanese. "The African intake was up to about 70 per cent and obviously there are some issues that have become apparent ... just difficulties in terms of settling in to the community." Many Sudanese, through no fault of their own, had lived through years of violence and conflict and lacked education, she said. "A lot of people from African regions need extensive trauma and torture counselling," she said.
David Crawshaw, "Africans have 'trouble settling here'," The Australian, October 2, 2007 --- Click Here

Two months after insisting that they would roll back broad eavesdropping powers won by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress appear ready to make concessions that could extend some crucial powers given to the National Security Agency.
Eric Lightbough and Carl Hulse, "Democrats Seem Ready to Extend Wiretap Powers, The New York Times, October 9, 2007 --- Click Here

Men's room misdemeanant Larry Craig said he would retire Sept. 30 as Idaho's senior U.S. senator. Then he said he'd wait until a judge considered his motion to withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct. Yesterday, as the Associated Press reports, a judge told him to go fly a kite, but he announced that he plans to linger in the Senate anyhow. We have just six words to say to Sen. Craig. Five of them are "or get off the pot."
Carol Muller, Opinion Journal, October 5, 2007

Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.
Paul Gauguin (Artist, 1848 - 1903) --- Click Here

Democracy is four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Ambrose Bierce --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce

Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?
Mark Twain --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

We are being fed false and misleading information, in matters big and small. It has come from trusted sources such as established newspapers, experienced journalists, Pulitzer Prize winners and Nobel Peace Prize winners. It has been going on for a long time, sometimes by carelessness and sometimes by deliberate lying. I have compiled a list of 101 such incidents.
Randall Hoven, Media Dishonesty Matters, American Thinker, October 8, 2007 --- http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/10/media_dishonesty_matters.html

"The 4 Boneheaded Biases of Stupid Voters (And we're all stupid voters.)," by Bryan Caplan, Reason Magazine, October 2007 --- http://www.reason.com/news/show/122019.html

Here's a quiz to help stupid voters find the optimal candidate for them --- http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460
But then again, politicians often do not keep campaign promises and seldom have the power on their own to do so anyway.

North Dakota:  Ernie Fischer said it was difficult to get the young bull moose away from the cattle, and workers put it in a separate corral until it could be released. The moose also broke fences on the ranch 20 miles south of Mandan. It's not the only such incident in south central North Dakota this year. Emmons County rancher Sam Gross recently reported a lone bull moose in his cattle herd, and a moose also was spotted in a cattle herd in McIntosh County.
"Confused Moose Thinks He's a Cow," Philadelphia Examiner, October 4, 2007 ---
 http://www.examiner.com/a-972109%7EConfused_Moose_Thinks_He_s_a_Cow.html
Jensen Comment
There's precedent for this. I recall many years ago when a moose would not leave a cow's pasture. That cow had zero interest in her horny suitor and completely ignored him.

A few weeks ago, a new edition of the selected works of Edmund Wilson appeared. Another monumental book this season is David Michaelis’s Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography (HarperCollins). The critic and the cartoonist never crossed paths, so far as anyone knows. But there is some overlap between these publications, it seems to me. The biography of Charles M. Schulz, who died in 2000, calls to mind Wilson’s The Wound and the Bow, a collection of essays published in 1941 and reprinted in the second of the two Library of America volumes . . . The sophisticated part of Eco’s sensibility can recognize in Schulz’s art a depth that is full of shadows: “These children (e.g., Charlie Brown and Lucy) affect us because in a certain sense they are monsters: they are the monstrous infantile reductions of all the neuroses of a modern citizen of industrial civilization.” But the depths aren’t an abyss. The little monsters, while sometimes cruel, never become unspeakable. They “are capable suddenly of an innocence and a sincerity which calls everything into question....” Charles Schulz was a neurotic, no doubt; but most neurotics aren’t Charles Schulz. He was something else. And it may be that we need an Italian semiotician to remind us just what: “If poetry means the capacity of carrying tenderness, pity, [and] wickedness to moments of extreme transparence, as if things passed through a light and there were no telling any more what substance they are made of,” as Eco wrote, “then Schulz is a poet.”
Scott McLeMee, "Good Grief," Inside Higher Ed, October 10, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/10/10/mclemee
 

Five Best Books Providing Insight Into Iran


 Persian Gulf
Insights into Iran can be gleaned from these masterly works.

BY MICHAEL LEDEEN
The Wall Street Journal
Saturday, October 6, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

1. "The Strangling of Persia" by W. Morgan Shuster (Century, 1912).

Iranians tend to believe that their destinies are shaped by powerful forces beyond their reach--and it's not just a collective fantasy. In the early 20th century, control over Persia was brutally exercised by Russia and Britain. Desperate Persian rulers of the time turned to the U.S. to find an expert who could sort out the kingdom's ransacked treasury. The man they chose, W. Morgan Shuster, fell in love with Iran and worked feverishly to introduce virtuous financial practices. He never had a chance; the Russians and Brits sent him packing. "The Strangling of Persia" is a remarkable account of life in a failed, corrupt state and a tale of heartbreak for an American who foolishly believes that he can prevail by force of will and hard work. Lessons for strategists abound.

2. "Know Thine Enemy" by Edward Shirley (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997).

When Reuel Marc Gerecht worked for the CIA as a Middle Eastern specialist (1985-94), the agency would not allow him to venture into Iran. But when he left the CIA to become a scholar (he is a colleague of mine at the American Enterprise Institute), he decided to sneak into the country by hiring a driver and hiding in a padded box on the floor of a truck. In "Know Thine Enemy," written under the pen name Edward Shirley, Mr. Gerecht describes the trip and what he found. "An Iranian can scream 'Death to America!' one moment and ask you sincerely a minute later to help his sister get a visa to the States, a land they both adore," he writes. "Those feelings are not contradictory; they are sequential. Commitments come and go, then return." Given Iranians' similar love-hate feelings about the mullahs who rule them and the West's decadence, he asks: "How do you know when Iranians aren't lying to themselves?" Mr. Gerecht doesn't know. How could he? They themselves don't.

3. "The Adventures of Haji Baba of Ispahan" by James Morier (1824).

James Morier, a British diplomat in Persia in the early 19th century, published "The Adventures of Haji Baba of Ispahan" to great success in 1824. Morier's tale, about a barber's son who seeks his fortune, is a delightful series of encounters that cut to the heart of Iranian society. We see the Chief Executioner explaining to Haji: "Do not suppose that the salary which the Shah gives his servants is a matter of much consideration with them: no, the value of their places depends upon the range of extortion which circumstances may afford, and upon their ingenuity in taking advantage of it." The culture of corruption is little changed in contemporary Iran. And the religious fanaticism that Morier tweaked also echoes down the years: A character named Nadan who wants to become Tehran's religious leader, Morier writes, has no peer "either as a zealous practiser of the ordinances of his religion, or a persecutor of those who might be its enemies."

4. "The Persian Puzzle" by Kenneth M. Pollack (Random House, 2004).

Kenneth M. Pollack spent years at the CIA, then migrated to the National Security Council during Bill Clinton's presidency. Like every other government official who has tried to normalize relations between Iran and the U.S., he came to grief. And like most such failed dreamers, he continued to believe that there must be a way. His odyssey is the best account we have of recent Iranian history and U.S.-Iranian relations. "The Persian Puzzle" is remarkably candid about the illusions and failures of the men and women for whom Mr. Pollack worked--people he often admired.

5. "Prisoner of Tehran" by Marina Nemat (Free Press, 2007).

Marina Nemat was arrested at age 16 in 1982 and held in Tehran's infamous Evin Prison for more than two years, accused of antiregime activity. She was not an activist but a friend of leftists and a Christian. In prison, she was interrogated and tortured, then sentenced to death. But a guard named Ali had fallen in love with her and saved her from execution. She remained in prison, though, and Ali became her husband--as well as a new source of menace when he forced her to convert to Islam by threatening her family. In "Prisoner of Tehran," her gripping, elegantly written memoir, Ms. Nemat, who now lives in Canada, reminds us that it is through the details of daily life that the evils of a regime such as the Islamic Republic are best understood.

Mr. Ledeen is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His latest book, "The Iranian Time Bomb" (St. Martin's), has just been published.

Forwarded by Dr. Wolff on October 10, 2007

Matthew Todd Lauer is an American television personality,
best known as a co-host of NBC's The Today Show since 
1994.

 
He has recently travelled to Iran and sent these reports from
Tehran (Video):
 

 

Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons --- http://zipskinny.com/

And don't forget some links I carry permanently on my homepage:

World Clock --- http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time --- http://www.worldometers.info/
Interesting Online Clock and Calendar --- http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones --- http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) --- http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
         Also see http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
Projected U.S. Population Growth --- http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq --- http://www.costofwar.com/ 
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.

Bob Jensen's links to economic and social data are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (interesting facts I did not know) --- http://www.snopes.com/military/unknown.asp

Tomb of the Unknown Bugs in MS Office 2007
Errors in Excel, Access, Word, etc.

October 7, 2007 message from James Peters [jpeters@NMHU.EDU]

Our faculty at New Mexico Highlands University use the solver in similar ways and we have been forced to reinstall 2003 to effectively teach the class because of the bugs in Excel 2007's solver, there are several. Microsoft says they are working on it.

Personal comment - Office 2007 in general is a major disaster and I would highly discourage anyone from "upgrading" to it. So far, in addition to the bugs in Excel mentioned above, I have found two or three bugs in Access and would like my toolbars back on Word.

Jim

October 7, 2007 message from Joseph Brady [bradyj@LERNER.UDEL.EDU] 

We use the Excel Solver in an undergraduate MIS class. We have found that it is one good way to get students to think about some kinds of DSS problems.

We have shifted over to Office 2007 this year, including Excel 2007. We did not shift to Vista – we are still running under MS XP.

We are often running into a problem with Solver. When the solver tries to find a solution, it runs out of RAM. This happens even with a small tutorial problem.

Have other people using Excel 2007 seen this problem? If so, do you know the solution?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Joe Brady
Accounting & MIS
Lerner College of Business & Economics
University of Delaware

Bob Jensen's video on how to use solver in Excel is the ExcelSolver.wmv file at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5342/

Math Error Bug in Excel 2007
Microsoft has confirmed the existence of a serious bug in Excel 2007 that can cause an incorrect amount to appear in a cell. Programmers at Microsoft are aware of the problem and are working on a fix. No date for a correcting update has been projected yet . . . It should be noted that, although the spreadsheet displays 100000, the value of the cell is correct at 65535. So if you use the cell in another formula (for example, if the mistakenly displayed presentation of 100000 appears in cell A1 and you enter the formula =A1*2 in another cell, you will see the correct result of 131070. The problem is manifesting itself in many, but not all, calculations that should produce a result of 65535.
AccountingWeb, September 2007 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=104050

Banking Online Safer Than Checks:  Why you need a Uni-Ball pen!
Phoenix is the city most at risk for identity fraud, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Their new survey shows writing a check is not safer than banking online because of a scam called "check washing." The thief erases the ink on a check, fills in whatever he wants, and cleans out your bank account. But never fear. Where there's a scam like check fraud, there's sure to be a company with a profitable solution. Uni-Ball makes a pen filled with a specially formulated ink that can't be washed off. It comes in several elegant designs, for the sophisticated check-writer.
"Banking Online Safer Than Checks," NPR, October 5, 2007 --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15027414
Jensen Comment
It might be a good idea to simply carry a Uni-Ball or similar "unwashable" ink pen with your check book.

The Uni-Ball home page is at http://www.uniball-na.com/
I think these pens or comparable pens are now carried in most office supply stores.

May 8, 2007 reply from J. S. Gangolly [gangolly@CSC.ALBANY.EDU]

Bob,

This brought back fond memories of my childhood. Then, we used "indelible pencils" which have all but disappeared.

See http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v17/bp17-05.html 

Those days in India, ball pen use in legal documents was not acceptable; it had to be indelible ink or pencil. Checks had to be signed in fountain pens or quill pens (ballpoint pen inks contain oils which separate from the ink years after use; I still have some of my class notes at Pitt, the only time I had to use ballpoint pen since I could not afford a fountain pen, and they now are all smudged, and I can barely read the notes).

Nowadays, indelible ink is used to mark (on their fingers) voters to prevent voter fraud.

Pilot, my favourite fountain pen maker (I love their Namikis) makes indelible pens. See http://www.epromos.com/product/8822269.html

Not all Uni-ball pens have indelible ink. Only premium quality ones have it. An examole is Uniball gel pen premium 207 (costing $6+):

http://www.officeworld.com/Worlds-Biggest-Selection/SAN61392/07Q3/ 

Jagdish

May 8, 2007 reply from Ravenscroft, Sue P [ACCT] [sueraven@IASTATE.EDU]

Hi Jagdish,

Do you have a retractable Namiki? I do and I love it!

Best,

Sue Ravenscroft

May 8, 2007 reply from J. S. Gangolly [gangolly@CSC.ALBANY.EDU]

Sue,

Yes, I have a Namiki retractable. Its price is midrange, but the writing experience is heavenly. . Since I bought it, I have hardly used my old Pelikan fountain pen. Neither have I used my old cross fountain pen.

Regards,

Jagdish

Because communications between students and faculty are often quite extensive and intense, I've contended, with some anecdotal evidence for support, that faculty burnout is higher for online versus onsite courses. Various faculty who stopped teaching online told me that this was a huge problem for them. Also there are complaints that workloads are higher with online teaching.

How significant is online instructor burnout?
Is there a gender difference in burnout?

"Exploring Burnout among University Online Instructors: An Initial Investigation, " by R. Lance Hogan and Mark A. McNight, The Internet and Higher Education,  vol. 10, no. 2, 2007). The paper is available on the Web at http://www.usi.edu/business/mamcknight/publications/INTHIG281.pdf .

Jensen Comment
If you're interested in the above research paper, I suggest you download it now. There is a possibility that it will not be served up free for very long.

I've also contended over the years that one way to reduce the risk of burnout is to make more use of video to explain technical things that online students are especially more apt to raise questions about repeatedly. If the videos adequately explain these things then this should cut down of the number of inquiries from confused students. See my PowerPoint illustrative Camtasia videos at the following two sites:

Also see

147 Practical Tips for Synchronous and Blended Technology Teaching and Learning, by Rosemary M. Lehman and Richard A. Berg (Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-891859-69-4)

Bob Jensen's threads on online faculty burnout are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Workloads

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

Question
What do students think about education technology?

October 5, 2007 message from Carolyn Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]

STUDIES OF STUDENTS AND IT

Since 2004, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) has conducted longitudinal studies of students and information technology.

The latest report, "The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007," presents data from a spring 2007 survey and interviews with nearly 28,000 freshman, senior, and community college students at 103 higher education institutions. Some of the findings from this year's study include:

-- "Today's students spend a lot of time online. Respondents report spending an average of 18 hours per week actively doing online activities for work, school, or recreation, and 6.6 percent (more often

male) spend more than 40 hours per week."

-- Students surveyed "overwhelmingly (85.1 percent) favor e-mail for official college and university communications. . . . A resounding 82.5 percent say they prefer a university account" rather than a commercial account for these communications.

-- "While most respondents are enthusiastic IT users and use it to support many aspects of their academic lives, most prefer only a 'moderate' amount of IT in their courses (59.3 percent)."

The research bulletin is available online at http://www.educause.edu/ers0706.

ECAR "provides timely research and analysis to help higher education leaders make better decisions about information technology. ECAR assembles leading scholars, practitioners, researchers, and analysts to focus on issues of critical importance to higher education, many of which carry increasingly complicated and consequential implications."

For more information go to

http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=4.

Other Related Studies:

"Faculty Integration of Technology into Instruction and Students'

Perceptions of Computer Technology to Improve Student Learning"

By Jared Keengwe

JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION, vol. 6, 2007 http://jite.org/documents/Vol6/JITEv6p169-180Keengwe218.pdf

"[R]eports indicate that faculty members are not integrating technology into instruction in ways that make a difference in student learning. To help faculty make informed decisions on student learning, there is need for current knowledge of faculty integration practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the relationship between faculty integration of technology into classroom instruction and students' perceptions of the effect of computer technology to improve their learning."

Current and back issues of the Journal of Information Technology Education (JITE) [ISSN 1539-3585 (online) 1547-9714 (print)] are available free of charge at http://jite.org/. The peer-reviewed journal is published annually by the Informing Science Institute. For more information contact: Informing Science Institute, 131 Brookhill Court, Santa Rosa, California 95409 USA; tel: 707-531-4925; fax: 480-247-5724;

Web: http://informingscience.org/.

"Student Expectations Study: Key Findings from Online Research and

Discussion Evenings Help in June 2007 for the Joint Information

Systems Committee"

July 2007

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/studentexpectations.pdf

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is a strategic advisory committee working on behalf of the funding bodies for further and higher education in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. For more information on JISC, see http://www.jisc.ac.uk/.

 

"UC Berkeley university puts course videos (but not for credit) on YouTube," PhysOrg, October 3, 2007 --- http://physorg.com/news110638174.html

University offerings at the dedicated YouTube channel include peace and conflict studies, bioengineering courses, and a science class titled "Physics for Future Presidents."

"UC Berkeley on YouTube will provide a public window into university life: academics, events and athletics," said vice provost for undergraduate education Christina Maslach.

The University plans to continually add videos to the channel, which officially launched Wednesday with about nine full courses consisting of approximately 40 lectures each.

Berkeley lays claim to being the first university to offer full courses on popular video-sharing website YouTube, which is based in Northern California.

The university began online broadcasts, called "webcasts," of its own in 2001 and last year began making audio "podcasts" available for download at Apple's iTunes online store.

"We are excited to make UC Berkeley videos available to the world on YouTube," said Ben Hubbard, who co-manages the university's webcast program.

"I think the whole open content movement is in keeping with what we are as a public institution, we really believe at our core that making this available to the public is truly important."
 

UC Berkeley is the first university to make videos of full courses available through YouTube. Visitors to the site at youtube.com/ucberkeley can view more than 300 hours of videotaped courses and events. Topics range from bioengineering, to peace and conflict studies, to "Physics for Future Presidents," the title of a popular campus course. Building on its initial offerings, UC Berkeley will continue to expand the catalog of videos available on YouTube.
View the Playlist Here --- http://www.youtube.com/ucberkeley 
There is a link to the most viewed videos (with star ratings) at the above page.

Examples include Integrative Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, etc.
Links to 201 videos --- http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=ucberkeley&p=r
You can search by topic in the search box at the above page.

On October 4, 2007 I could not find any accounting, finance, or economics videos at the UC Berkeley site. There were six courses that popped up for "Business."

Here's a student, who created a RealPlayer playlist, explaining how to record the audio of these videos --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUfKoXtwEu0

Also see Webcast.Berkeley [iTunes, Real Player] http://webcast.berkeley.edu/ 

UC Berkeley also has XLab --- http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/07/13_xlab.shtml

Nearly all prestigious universities now offer some form of open sharing of course materials, the most noteworthy of which is MIT. Yale, however, has some of the finest lectures on video --- http://www.yale.edu/opa/download/VLP_QuestionsAnswers.pdf

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

From the University of Texas
Take Five from the University of Texas http://www.utexas.edu/inside_ut/take5/

From Harvard
Introduction --- http://athome.harvard.edu/about/about.htm
Program List --- http://athome.harvard.edu/archive/archive.asp

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

Science Videos --- http://www.scivee.tv/

Video Lecture Search
Type in "Video Lectures" with quotation marks at http://megite.com/discover.php?q=learning
Example:  David Deutsch Quantum Computation Lectures --- http://www.quiprocone.org/quipmain.htm  

Educause Live --- http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=34&bhcp=1

You can read about these and other examples of open sharing at major universities at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Copyright Restrictions on Open Sharing/Source/Courseware Learning Materials

These are only my opinions, and they should not be taken as legal advice.
Just because something can be accessed online does not mean it is an open sharing item. Generally online items are like library books that can be accessed by the public but have copyright restrictions about copying and uses other than personal reading. If online learning materials are billed as "open sharing," or "open source" (as in the case of OCW materials at MIT) chances are that they can be used in total or in part for educational purposes in other open sharing materials if proper credits are given. In commercial materials such as books and course videos, there is vulnerability for lawsuit by the copyright owners. In my personal opinion, I think a lot depends upon how central the copyrighted material is to the purchased material. If use is incidental and credits are fully proper, then the risks of lawsuit are less than when the copyrighted material becomes more featured in the material. In any case, it is good advice to seek permission from copyright owners if the use is for some for-profit purpose. This probably includes online or onsite courses for which fees are charged to take the course. The dreaded DMCA is somewhat vague on open sharing materials, but open sharing does not mean that copyright owners have abandoned all rights. You can read more about the dreaded DMCA at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm

This is Very Important --- http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/help/faq3/index.htm
MIT is the most open sharing major university in terms of course materials --- http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
It's statement on intellectual property sets, in my opinion, precedent for most other open sharing colleges --- http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/help/faq3/index.htm

YouTube has a statement about use of YouTube videos at http://www.youtube.com/t/howto_copyright
Also see http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?topic=10550&hl=en_US

Since the term "open source" is rooted in computer software, the term is a bit cloudy when it comes to text and multimedia learning materials. You can read more about open sharing and copyrights at the following sites:

How to Excerpt Open Courseware Video, Compress It, and Serve it Up to Students

Suppose that a very long video lecture is available as open courseware for proper use in other learning materials. An instructor may only want to use parts of this lecture in another course or supplemental tutorials for a course. Searching a long video is tedious and time consuming. A better approach is to make audio or video excerpts of portions of the long lecture.

Homemade video tutorial (very basic) on how to record streaming audio on your PC --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPHSDOyj5f8
Note the passing reference to a free sound recorder called Audacity --- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Note that if you are watching a lecture video that's pretty much a talking head, it saves a lot, I mean a LOT, of file space to only capture the audio.
This might, for example, work very well when capturing parts of  the many UC Berkeley, YouTube, Yale, or Harvard video lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Just in case source streams disappear from the Internet, I suggest capturing what's important to you and saving to external media such as a CD or DVD disk.
Capturing also allows you to only capture what is relevant to you or your students without having to spend a lot of time waiting for the good parts.

If the video open sharing video is a file, you might be able to download the video file and then edit the file using something like the Producer Module in Camtasia Studio --- http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/enhance.asp

However, in most instances open sharing videos are streaming (using the term loosely here) videos for which there is no file to download. In that case the video must be captured in total or in part by software designed for such purposes. The software I like for video capturing is called Camtasia Recorder --- http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/record.asp
Also see http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/education.asp
This is cheaper alternative than many more specialized products for streaming video capture. You can download my PowerPoint file about Camtasia at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/EdTech/PowerPoint/
Links to examples are given in this slide show.

You can read about other alternatives for streaming video capture at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#StreamingMedia

When you capture streaming media as an avi file it has the advantage in that you can edit the movie and delete parts you do not want using software like Camtasia Producer  --- http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/enhance.asp
You can also add interaction "skip to" buttons, quiz questions/answers, survey questions, etc.

But captured avi files are generally enormous and cannot be stored efficiently anywhere. After you've excerpted and edited the captured video as an avi file it is almost always necessary to compress it into a wmv, mov, rm, scf, flv, or some related option such as the compression options available in Camtasia Producer. There is not generally a noticeable quality degradation in the compressed versions. However, it is not possible, at least in Camtasia, to alter the compressed version without recapturing it as an avi file.

After you have your compressed file such as a wmv you will need to get it to your students. Chances are that your Blackboard, WebCT, or Web server does not give you enough capacity to serve up a lot of video, including space-saving compressed video. The next best thing is to either distribute your video to students on CD or DVD disks or to send it to them over the Internet.

It is not generally possible to attach large video files to email messages. However there ar