Also see the birth of a Belgian foal --- http://pets.webshots.com/album/10519080ccLeKlOkTP

I started out earlier this morning thinking back to our St. Patrick's Day parties in San Antonio that generally kicked off the wonderful wildflower season in Texas. Then my mind wandered to other times and other places in my life.

Iowa (Twenty Years) --- those wonderful years before becoming an adult

• Heavy horses --- thick-necked gentle giants leaning into leather hames

• Mother's fingers making magic on the keyboard at a roller rink on Saturday nights and in church on Sunday mornings

• Hot summer nights in the country listening to the corn ripple in the wind and squeak when it grows
  Yeah corn stalks actually squeak in August, and these are sounds known well by high school couples
  mooning (or is a better word spooning?) in Iowa corn fields on summer nights

• All the other joys of growing up --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/max01.htm

Colorado (Three Years)

• Chusing down the Copper Bowl trail by day and drinking beer with racer chasers at night in Aspen (before it became an extension of Hollywood)
  Fortunately there were never enough top racers to spread around so that there were always a few left over racer chasers for me (and free Gov. Spitzer)

• Wearing white shirts to work on my first professional job (Ernst & Ernst) in the tallest building, then, in downtown Denver

• Watching the Christmas lights on the State Capitol grounds across the lawn from my University of Denver teaching office
  (I went to school and taught at the University of Denver while also working half days for Ernst & Ernst)

• Skiing down a St Mary's Glacier and other Colorado glaciers on hot summer days

• Trail rides in Bear Creek meadow land before it became a housing suburb

California (Five years in graduate school plus two more years later on in a think tank)

• Discovering that it might be nice just living the rest of my life in the Stanford University Library

• Sparkling nights in San Francisco by the Bay

• All those kick turns in Squaw Valley plus the ski days in Heavenly Valley and nights in South Shore Tahoe casinos

• Towering redwood giants and the many sea lions, abalone, and crashing surf of the Pacific Ocean

• Wine tours in Napa Valley

Michigan (three years before tenure)

• Some of the best faculty colleagues ever and wonderful doctoral students taking my courses

• Joys of becoming a father and chores of tending to a useless Basset Hound on an abandoned dairy farm

• Joys of buying our first home on a small acreage with a house and a carriage house

• Agony of waiting for Michigan State and Notre Dame to settle which team would be Number 1 in the nation
  and then watching Duffy's best team ever finding Rolaids relief in a 10-10 tie --- What happened Bubba and Ara?

Maine (eight years plus two years on leave of absence)

• Puffing up with my first named professorship (the Nicolas Salgo Professor of Accounting)

• Wading in cold Atlantic surf, digging for clams, and steaming lobsters on the beach in front of our summer cottage
  (our deck was less than twenty feet from water at high tide)

• Learning that you really can have fun partying with the same ten couples every weekend

Florida (four years)

• Riding our horses in the 100,000 acres of piney woods across the road. The forest extended all the way into South Georgia and is now partly owned by Ted Turner.

• Watching Springtime Tallahassee spring into Technicolor in March and April

• Succumbing to Seminole Fever and tailgate parties in the autumn semesters
  (Why did Bobby win so often but almost always lose the big ones to Gators and Hurricanes?)

Texas (twenty four years)

• Weekends in Fredericksburg and watching the miles and miles of wildflowers come to life right around St. Patrick's Day every spring

• Enjoying scholars from divergent disciplines across campus

• Seeing so much of some retired military friends that we really became surrogate family

• Super Bowl parties that really were super

• Those St. Patrick's day parties at the home of Widow Vera Sergeant (now 95 years young)
  and the follow-up Sunday Pastrami Bashes at the home of Widow Birdie Lea Corcoran (an Irish name if there ever was one)

• The many trips to Canada, Mexico, Germany, Finland, Sweden, England, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and wonderful New Zealand

New Hampshire (almost three years)

• The fantastic foliage of autumn

• The ever-changing weather, winds, and seasons looking out at the mountains

• Not having to commute to work in blizzards and even in beautiful sunshine

• Our tiny but faithful church congregation

• The even stronger bonding of two soul mates in times of troubles

• The joys of flowers in spring and riding my tractor

The soul mates' picture below was taken in front of our fireplace in Texas sometime around 1987. We no longer fit in those duds.

The following picture of Bluebonnets in Texas was taken April 2007 by Debbie Bowling and her husband Sam.

Spring flowers don't arrive in the White Mountains until June. But the Lupin are great when the snow finally melts.

Tidbits on March 15, 2008
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/

CPA Examination --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination

On May 14, 2006 I retired from Trinity University after a long and wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm

Google Maps Street View --- http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/

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

Jared Massey was awarded $40,000 after being tasered by a Utah State Patrolman --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH_qVJfaYZA
In his case it turned out profitable to peacefully refuse to cooperate with law enforcement.
You can read about the court decision at http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8529728
Jensen Comment
 In my opinion the Utah State Patrolman John Gardner could’ve handled this non-cooperating speeder much differently. I would’ve phoned in for backup just to have witnesses to the speeder’s non-cooperation, albeit non-threatening refusals to cooperate. Then his continued and witnessed non-cooperation could be used later on in court. Besides the longer the incident drags on the better the odds that the speeder will grow impatient and cooperate

Robert Frost Lectures (1947 at Dartmouth College) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87991813

Biology Animation Library --- http://www.dnalc.org/ddnalc/resources/animations.html

National Archives Experience --- http://www.digitalvaults.org/

Ecology, Art, and Technology --- http://www.ecoarttech.net/

British Empire Exhibition 1938 --- http://www.empireexhibition1938.co.uk/

Federal Bureau of Investigations: Art Crime Team --- http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/artcrimeteam.htm

Lone Ranger Story (on the David Letterman Show) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhB4kDwZu7M

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

Grada Makes Irish Music New --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87945801

Mean Kitty Rap --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qit3ALTelOo

The Stan Kenton Band (that I heard this band twice in Iowa ballrooms many years ago)

• Artistry in Rhythm (Kenton's theme song) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3EkI3ISz28

• Artistry in Percussion --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqym9TRs2D0

• With Stan Getz in Sweden --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUHhSP-9K_0

• With Maynard Ferguson (on trumpet) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLtP0L5dIq8

• It's Been a Long, Long Time --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3kLN5_BWCU

• Macarthur Park --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA0Iat3AdN8

• Chaipas --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBeCf1AkcXw

• With June Christy (Lovely Way to Spend an Evening) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWLUgP5bGqk

• Street of Dreams --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqym9TRs2D0

Bob Jensen listens to music free online (and no commercials) --- http://www.slacker.com/ 

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

Diseases of the Mind: Highlights of American Psychiatry through 1900 --- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/diseases/

Robert Frost Lectures (1947 at Dartmouth College) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87991813 

Yes I was closing down other prostitution rings while frequenting this prostitution ring, but I assure you this is normal for attorney generals. It’s standard operating procedure.
Eliot Spitzer in Pictures --- http://longorshortcapital.com/spitzer-in-a-ring-of-pictures.htm
Eliot Spitzer Scandal Inspires Plethora of Jokes and Parody Songs (e.g., by Letterman and Leno) --- Click Here
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/03/11/eliot-spitzer-scandal-inspires-plethora-jokes-parody-songs
Also see http://www.objectivistcenter.org/showcontent.aspx?ct=1542&h=53
You can read more about the truly remarkable and talented Eliot Spitzer at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Spitzer

All of this underscores what has long been obvious: The vast majority of asbestos claims are bogus. The plaintiffs lawyers know it, which is why, instead of trying to defend these claims, they've fought every attempt by Grace to examine them. Now that they've lost that battle, they argue that because Grace settled such claims in the past, they should continue to pay them going forward. That decision now rests with Judge Fitzgerald. Comparisons are being made to federal Judge Janis Jack, who several years ago blew up bogus silicosis claims. But unlike the recent silica fraud, some Grace plaintiffs do have asbestos-related disease. Judge Fitzgerald has to weed out the many false claims from the few legitimate ones, but she does have the tools to do it. The medical community long ago established diagnosis criteria that account for dosage, exposure, and work and medical histories. Plaintiffs lawyers have tried to keep these common-sense standards out of courtrooms, but they clearly belong in any court whose goal is just compensation.
"Some Asbestos Grace," The Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2008; Page A8 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120494308054321521.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Editorial Criticizes Anachronisms in Barack Obama's 2007 Speech in Selma --- http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/saywhat.asp

"Obama's Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11" by Brian Ross and Rehab El-Buri, ABC News, March 13, 2008  ---
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=4443788
Also see "For someone who's done so well, Michelle has a decidedly bleak vision of America," by Dorothy Rabinoqitz, The Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2008; Page A19 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120536820611932015.html?mod=djemEditorialPage
Jensen Comment
Now we know where Michelle Obama gets some of her hate-America speech material. The deep-seated hatred of Senator Obama's pastor and wife for America is likely to hurt Obama with the silent majority of voters in the November 2008 presidential election. I doubt that he can distance himself from his wife, but he distance himself as far as possible from his (hopefully former) pastor. Karl Rove must be sneaking out at night to dance in the streets.

John McCain said he thinks the GOP has gone astray. On the other hand, the" Democratic Party is a fine party " that he "has no problems with." --- http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/mccain.asp

We have a bit of bipartisan action taking place this week on the floor of the U.S. Senate. A Republican and a Democrat Senator: DeMint of South Carolina and McCaskill of Missouri, are going to offer an amendment to a bill that would require a two-thirds vote of the senate for any pork (or earmark, as they like to call it) spending to be approved. McCain will be there to cast a vote. Now Hillary and Obama say that they're both going to sponsor the amendment.

In the meantime .. let's take a peek at the presidential candidate earmark records for the 2008 budget:

Hillary Clinton: 212 earmarks totaling $266 million.

Barack Obama: 53 earmarks totaling $126 million

John McCain: 0 earmarks totaling $0.0 million.

Neal Boortz, Pork Spending Scorecard, March 11, 2008 --- http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html
Jensen Comment
Don't be misled that earmark pork waste is just a Democratic Party fraud. Many GOP representatives and senators are truly depressed that John McCain won the nomination to be the GOP candidate for the U.S. presidency.

Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton announced Monday that they would co-sponsor Senate legislation that would ban all lawmaker sponsored “earmarks” (many of which flow to colleges and universities) from 2009 spending bills. The legislation, which is being sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), now has the support of all three major presidential candidates, as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a longtime crusader against earmarks, backed DeMint’s legislation some time ago. In a news release, Obama said that reforms in the process of awarding earmarks, which are known derisively as pork barrel projects, have failed to fix a “broken” system. “We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’ seniority, rather than the merit of the project. We can no longer accept an earmarks process that has become so complicated to navigate that a municipality or nonprofit group has to hire high-priced D.C. lobbyists to do it. And we can no longer accept an earmarks process in which many of the projects being funded fail to address the real needs of our country.” He said he favors DeMint’s one-year moratorium and would not be requesting any earmarks for Illinois this year. “The jig’s up on earmarks,” DeMint said.
Inside Higher Ed, March 11, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/03/11/qt
Jensen Comment
This is mostly show on the part of Democratic and GOP candidates for the presidency. The odds of this Senate initiative eventually passing in the House are smaller than the odds of my winning the NH Powerball lottery this week. In both cases I would be overjoyed at winning, but I'm not in the least bit optimistic. Earmarks won't go away, although in this election year the term may disappear and be replaced by something like pork chops.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois is a big booster of Mr. Obama, but he declares himself "disappointed" in his Illinois colleague's embrace of the (earmarks pork) moratorium proposed by GOP Senator Jim DeMint. Similarly, New York Senator Chuck Schumer has parted ways with Hillary Clinton over the proposed time-out on earmarks. Mr. Schumer privately expressed disgust when Senator DeMint held a news conference outside the Capitol building that featured a man in a 6-foot-tall pink pig suit ridiculing Congressional excess . . . For his part, Mr. DeMint says his colleagues are acting like addicts who refuse to admit they have a problem. He told Politico.com this week: "We need to go cold turkey." Anything less would be "like telling an alcoholic, 'Don't drink as much.'"
John Fund, Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2008

The (pending farm subsidy) giveaways are so large that the House version is the first farm bill ever that would raise taxes to pay for it -- by $14 billion, mostly on the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies. This only discourages new foreign investment in the U.S. at a time when the weak dollar is already chasing it away. It's a sign of how insidious these welfare programs are that the Farm Bureau, traditionally an antitax outfit, recently signed off on the tax hikes in return for the subsidies. Both bills also allow farmers to keep exploiting a loophole that lets them cash in twice. First, they can lock in loan subsidies at the lowest possible price for their crops; then later they can sell those same crops at a higher market price. The government pays the farmer the difference between the two prices, and the farmer gets the maximum price at market. Hence, when corn prices plunged in 2005 after a bumper crop and Gulf Coast supply disruptions after Hurricane Katrina, many farmers locked in an estimated $3.8 billion in subsidy payments at low prices. But they also cashed in when they sold the crops later after prices rebounded. And speaking of cashing in, Congress has also spurned the Bush Administration's sensible proposal to establish a $200,000 income ceiling in order to receive subsidies. Instead, full-time farmers will be able to earn up to $1 million per farm ($2 million for a married couple) and still be eligible for a USDA handout. That means you can be in the top 0.2% in income in the U.S. and still get a subsidy check from Uncle Sam. Yet Robert Goodlatte of Virginia, the Republican who helped craft the House bill, says with a straight face that the bill is "real reform and a real safety net for the farmer." Yes, thank heavens for that millionaire safety net.
"Amber Waves of Green," The Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2008 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120536530524731873.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

"These are not American values or Western values," she (Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) told OIC ambassadors in Washington on Monday. "They are universal values, values that are lived and practiced by the majority of Muslims in the world, many of whom are citizens of democracies."
Patrick Goodenough, "Human Rights, Liberty Are Values Practiced by Most Muslims, Says Rice," CBS News, March 11, 2008 --- http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200803/CUL20080311c.html

A western New York businessman will be fined millions of dollars for falsely billing the Department of Defense and he likely will not serve any time behind bars. Christopher Alf, an Amherst native, who splits his time between homes on Florida and Hamburg, was not in court on Thursday. He has one of the best legal teams money could buy. The team consists of Vice President Cheney's personal lawyer and the man who served as Secretary of the Air Force during the Clinton administration. Senator Charles Schumer expressed dismay. He told 2 On Your Side "blue collar criminals, they go to jail, I don't see why white collar criminals don't because they can hire fancy lawyers. Anybody who rips off the federal government should never get another government contract again." One of Alf's lawyers says National Air Cargo is still doing work for the U.S. Government. Alf's Orchard Park based company, National Air Cargo ships supplies to military bases. Last October, the company pled guilty to essentially cheating the U.S. government out of millions of dollars for falsely billing the Department of Defense. Federal Judge William Skretny has re-scheduled sentencing because he wants to review the plea agreement before formally accepting it on the record. The company agreed to pay $28-million in fines and restitution. The plea does not call for any jail time, because the charges are only against the company and not individuals.
Josh Boose, "Federal Judge Will Have Final Say On $28 Million Plea (Company ripped off govt, no one in jail)," WGRZ, March 7, 2008 --- http://www.wgrz.com/sports/sports_article.aspx?storyid=56038

If all this wasn't enough to keep union leaders awake at night, there is a well-funded school-choice ballot initiative being drafted which might, under present circumstances, have a shot at passing in November. And the union knows full well that any proposal that gives parents a real choice in education works against their self interest. Could Nevada become the first state to approve a statewide, universal school voucher bill? That has about as much chance as the Giants beating the Patriots, John McCain winning the Republican presidential nomination, or Barack Obama beating Hillary Clinton.
Chuck Muth, "Nevada Tax Fight," The Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2008; Page A8 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120494431816721577.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

The suggestion in the obituaries that he (William F. Buckley, Jr.) united free-market economists with other conservatives is especially misleading. Free-market economists have always been on a different track from the kind of political and social conservative that Buckley exemplified. He was a friend of free markets, but on moral grounds rather than because he thought the market a more efficient method of allocating resources than the government, though he thought that also. The conservative economic movement has had two major streams, which are convergent. One is the Austrian school, whose best-known exemplar was Friedrich Hayek. Hayek argued powerfully that socialism doesn't work, because it does not enable the aggregation of the information required to operate a modern economy; for that, the price system is necessary, because prices impound and transmit information far more effectively than a centralized economic controller can do. Hayek's insight was vindicated by the collapse of the communist system. But his influence has been mainly in Europe, where it has been, however, considerable, especially in the nations transitioning from communism. The other stream, largely independent of the Austrian, originated with maverick economists, such as Milton Friedman, Aaron Director, and George Stigler, who at the height of the 1930s depression, when free-market economics was in the dog house and the Soviet Union's collectivist economy was widely admired including among economists, had the temerity (like Hayek) to argue that collectivist regulation of the economy was inferior to leaving the regulation of economic activity to the market. The school expanded slowly after World War II; Ronald Coase, a brilliant English economist who moved to the United States, was an influential critic of regulation. While Director and Stigler mounted a strong challenge to conventional views of antitrust, Stigler and especially Friedman challenged a wide range of governmental policies.
Richard Posner, The Becker-Posner Blog, March 9, 2008 --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Although a friend and skiing companion of Milton Friedman, Buckley had little interest in economic issues per se, and he was not concerned with the effects of taxation, regulation, and other economic policy issues. He recognized and accepted that his support of strong armies would lead to a much bigger government. He had a well-publicized conversion toward legalizing the use of drugs, a conversion influenced by Milton Friedman's strong stand in favor of legalized drugs. Discussions by economists of regulation, competition, and other economic issues generally concentrate on their contribution to economic efficiency, and the analysis of conditions under which competition and private enterprise promotes efficiency. Friedman, Hayek, and George Stigler, three leading free market economists of the twentieth century ,were very much interested in these issues, but they also took a much broader view. For example, in Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman claims that greater freedom should be the goal of economic activity, and also discusses the connection between political and economic freedom: "economic freedom is an end in itself…economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom". Hayek's Road to Serfdom and Constitution of Liberty argues that a private enterprise system is crucial for the achievement of political and social freedoms.
Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, The Becker-Posner Blog, March 9, 2008 --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Fannie, of course, occupies a curious middle ground between the public and private sector as a result of its privatization in 1968 as a Government Sponsored Enterprise, or GSE. While owned by its shareholders, Fannie is regulated by a government agency and is able to borrow money cheaply, thanks to an implicit guarantee by Uncle Sam. It uses those funds to buy and securitize home loans -- lots of them. At year end, the company owned in its portfolio or had packaged and guaranteed some $2.8 trillion of mortgages or 23% of all U.S. residential mortgage debt outstanding.
Jonathon R. Lange, Is Fannie Mae the Next Government Bailout?" Barron's, March 8, 2008 --- Click Here

A gun rights organization in the United States is accusing the media of trying to conceal the fact that a gunman who attacked students at Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav seminary was stopped by an armed student at the school. Authorities report that Ytizhak Dadon, 40, was a "private citizen who had a gun license and was able to shoot the gunman with his pistol," according to a statement released today by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. In its earlier reporting on the tragedy, WND confirmed, "One terrorist reportedly was shot to death (not true) by a student who was armed…"
"Press 'ignore' terrorist stopped by armed student 'Yitzak Dadon's apparently well-placed bullets interrupted a rampage'," WorldNetDaily, March 7, 2008 --- http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=58323
Jensen Comment
In fairness the climate for terror is much hotter in Israel than in the U.S., but this is yet another illustration of how the media cherry picks what it reports according to political criteria. I'm opposed to arming students and teachers, but I do think pilots should have weapons (including Tasers) locked in a cockpit secure case.

Alaa Abu Dhein, the child-murderer from the East Jerusalem village of Jabal Al Mukaber, had a blue Israeli identity card, which meant he and his family enjoyed Israeli medical care, and social security benefits. He was twenty, and was about to get married in a few months. He worked as a driver. Some have said for the yeshiva where he murdered students, but the Rabbis deny this. He watched the school for weeks, planning his "heroic" act. He walked up the steps carrying a box. He met three young boys who joked: "What are you bringing us, a television?" He then put down the box, took out a kalashnikov and murdered two of them, without another word. He walked into the library and began to shoot every single person there, checking each one was dead, and firing a few more shots if he wasn't sure. When there wasn't anyone left in the library, he started up the steps to the roof, firing in the air. A student shot him twice, but didn't kill him. An army officer, David Schapiro, coincidentally home on leave, heard the shots. He had just finished bathing his two and four year-old babies, but he left his pregnant wife, took his rifle, and headed towards the shooting. Risking his life, he entered the building -which he knew well having spent time there learning and praying-reconnoitered the terrorist, and fired sixteen shots into him, finally ridding the world of this "hero" as he is being called among his fellow Palestinians, who admire people who kill (Jewish) children.
Naomi Ragen, Email message on March 9, 2008 --- nragen@netvision.net.il

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved a plan to build up to 750 new homes in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. The project was first signed off in 1999, but stopped two years later after Palestinian labourers refused to go on. Israel's housing minister said the construction at Givat Zeev would address "the demographic needs of Jerusalem". But the decision provoked an angry reaction from Palestinian leaders. For the Palestinians there are few issues as contentious as the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, says the BBC's Crispin Thorold in Jerusalem.
"Israel approves settlement growth," BBC News, March 9, 2008 --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7286264.stm
Jensen Question
Why does Israel keep looking for trouble?

A leader of Mahmoud Abbas's US-backed Fatah party has come out in support of the terrorist war being fought against US and British forces in Iraq. PA text books (which the U.S. helped pay for) for school children also push attacks on American and British forces. Mahmoud Ismail, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, expressed his support for the war on the US during an interview on official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV, which is under the control of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The clip was recorded and translated by Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors incitement on PA television.
Ezra HaLevi, "Fatah Leader, School Books Supports Terrorism Against US in Iraq," Israel National News, March 9, 2008 --- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125485 

The military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization today labeled this week's Jerusalem yeshiva shooting massacre an "heroic act," called for more terror attacks against Israelis and urged Fatah to forge a unity government with the Hamas terror group. The official statement came hours before Abbas told an international group today peace talks with Israel should continue despite the bloody attack, in which eight yeshiva students were gunned to death while studying in their school's main library. "Despite all the circumstances we're living through and all the attacks we're experiencing, we insist on peace. There is no other path," Abbas said today in a speech marking International Women's Day. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Abbas' military wing, meanwhile released an official pamphlet obtained by WND declaring their appreciation of "the heroic operation in Jerusalem." "We bless the martyr [who carried out the shootings] with all the blood of the heroes of the resistance and with the soil of our land," continued the Fatah statement. "Kill them and then Allah will torture them in your hands and Allah will give you victory over them and will bring joy to the hearts of the believers," said the Al Aqsa statement, quoting a verse from the Quran.
Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily, March 8, 2008 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=58387
Jensen Comment
And the United States with the blessings of President Bush is poised to give tens of millions more to the Fatah organization for more of such "heroism."

The exact nature of his research -- past and present -- remains a mystery, as does the work of other key Iranian scientists whose names appear in documents detailing what U.N. officials say is a years-long, clandestine effort to expand the country's nuclear capability. The documents, which were provided to the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear agency, in recent months by two countries other than the United States, partly match information in a stolen Iranian laptop turned over by Washington. IAEA officials say these documents identify Fakhrizadeh and other civilian scientists as central figures in a secret nuclear research program that operated as recently as 2003. So far, however, Iran is refusing to shed light on their work or allow U.N. officials to question them. After being presented with copies of some of the new documents, Tehran denied that some of the scientists exist.
John Warrack, "U.N. Alleges Nuclear Work By Iran's Civilian Scientists," The Washington Post, March 11, 2008 --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031003097_pf.html
Jensen Comment
This is surprising coming from the U.N. and even more surprising in terms of the newspaper that published the story.

Scientists are attacking the global campaign to ban plastic shopping bags, saying the activists' claim that the modern conveniences are responsible for the deaths of 100,000 animals and one million seabirds is based on a "typo" in a 2002 report and there is no scientific evidence showing the bags pose a direct threat to marine mammals. Researchers and marine biologists have told the London Times plastic bags pose, at best, a minimal threat to most marine species, including seals, whales, dolphins and seabirds. "I've never seen a bird killed by a plastic bag," said Professor Geoff Boxshall, a marine biologist at the London Natural History Museum. "Other forms of plastic in the ocean are much more damaging. Only a very small proportion is caused by bags."
"Anti-plastic crusaders stuck holding the bag," WorldNetDaily, March 9, 2008 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=58447

"The Marines are unwelcome here." These weren't the comments of a banana republic dictator or the rantings of a religious radical. These were the words of Tom Bates, the elected mayor of Berkeley. It's difficult to match up the animosity of the residents of Berkeley, Calif., USA, with the residents of Ramadi, Anbar, Iraq. I met Ramadis who were so happy to have the Marines among them that they literally hugged and kissed them on the streets. Children made high-five signs when they saw Marines of the 3rd battalion 7th Marines on patrol and residents insisted they come in to drink chai and eat goats the hosts were willing to kill in their honor.
Matt Sanchez, WorldNetDaily, March 7, 2008 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=58280 

In the (WSJ) editorial, Ohio's corporate tax rate was cited as being 10.5%, based on a two-year-old set of numbers. Today, the actual effective corporate tax rate is only 3.6%. In two years, that tax rate will be zero, as Ohio will become one of only four states without a corporate-profits tax. Ohio is also one year away from becoming one of only 10 states without a tax on business tangible property (machinery, equipment, fixtures, and inventory). New machinery and equipment is already tax-exempt. Finally, Ohio's personal income tax is in the fourth year of a five-year series of rate cuts that will reduce all tax rates by 21% from their pre-reform levels. In sum, Ohio's tax structure is much more business friendly than the editorial asserts.
"The Governor Says Ohio Is Good for Business," The Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2008; Page A19 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120528257968628935.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

The U.S. now produces 6.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels each year -- a number expected to jump to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Many plants, from switchgrass to poplar trees, are potentially good sources of renewable fuel, especially if scientists figure how to process them more efficiently. Corn, however, is almost universally regarded as an environmentally-unfriendly crop that compares poorly to other biofuel sources and requires enormous quantities of fertilizers and pesticides to grow. But in the U.S., corn is king, and a combination of early adoption and agro-industry lobbying made it the most common plant-based fuel. If that trend continues, say sustainability scientists Simon Donner and Christopher Kucharik, fertilizer pollution will expand an oxygen-starved region in the Gulf of Mexico, spelling doom for crustaceans, fish and the people whose livelihoods depend on catching them.
Brandon Keim, "Corn-Based Biofuels Spell Death for Gulf of Mexico," Wired News, March 13, 2008 ---
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/corn-based-biof.html

Jensen Comment
Unemployment is also higher in states that discourage new business with high personal income tax and other taxes such as Maine, Michigan, and Ohio vis-a-vis Texas, Florida, and Delaware. It also varies by skills and experience where there are labor shortages in all states in some trades such as software technicians. CBS News recently ran a special showing a serious shortage of skilled factory workers in America. The loss of factory jobs oversees is mostly among unskilled workers that can be easily replaced in Asia and elsewhere. Skilled factory workers are another matter entirely. Also there are plentiful jobs that unemployed and unskilled American workers shirk such as migrant farm workers, roofers, chamber maids, and restaurant kitchen workers. "Across the country, some 26 percent of companies expect to increase the size of their work force between April and June" --- Click Here

The fence Khapova refers to surrounds the correctional facility UF 91/9, an all-women's prison camp some 20 miles away from the Siberian capital, Novosibirsk. Her ball gown is one of three outfits she will don for the prison's main event of the year - the annual "Miss Spring" beauty contest . . . Former inmate Natasha Patalakhova, 29, who served eight years for armed assault, directed the pageant when she was in prison and her involvement helped her secure an early release. But Natasha has found life difficult on the outside. As an ex-convict and a refugee from Kazakhstan, she has been unable to get the papers she needs to work or even to travel. "My prison days continue to haunt me," she says.
Maria Yatskova, "Siberian prison's beauty pageant." BBC News, March 11, 2008 --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/7281761.stm

What the drugs themselves have not destroyed, the warfare against them has. And what once began, perhaps, as a battle against dangerous substances long ago transformed itself into a venal war on our underclass. Since declaring war on drugs nearly 40 years ago, we've been demonizing our most desperate citizens, isolating and incarcerating them and otherwise denying them a role in the American collective. All to no purpose. The prison population doubles and doubles again; the drugs remain.
Ed Burns et al., "The Wire's War on the Drug War," Time Magazine, March 17, 2008, Page 50 --- http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1719872,00.html
Jensen Comment
I consider this another in a long line of articles that lie with statistics. The authors of the HBO series called The Wire would make drug abuse legal if not tied to crimes of violence. The only data cited is in a Pew Center report showing  that 1 of every 100 adults in the U.S. — and 1 in 15 black men over 18 — is currently incarcerated. But this is misleading since the percentage of those incarcerated for drug abuse alone (apart from more crimes inflicted on other victims) is miniscule. They never mention any data to support their recommendation to not incarcerate drug abusers.

The above article that quotes no genuine supporting data. It would have us believe without supporting evidence that our prisons are filled with mostly drug abusers for crimes in which the only victims are themselves. Actually, a miniscule percentage of prisoners have not inflicted injury on other victims. Slightly over 10% of the arrests (not necessarily charged or convicted) for drug abuse (1,357,800 arrests in 2005) out of a total of 10,369,800 arrests in 2005  --- http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/08s0318.pdf
Arrested drug abusers have a much lower probability of being charged and imprisoned relative to most other arrests. Incarceration in prison for drug abuse apart from more serious  crimes is a relatively low percentage of the prison population. Most of those in prison are there for other more serious crimes as well.

I think the authors of this Time Magazine article are trying to mislead the public. The War on Drugs is generally credited with arrests for more serious crimes than drug abuse. Often the War on Drugs is successful in finding violent criminals such as those selling assault weapons. Halting the war on drugs, in my viewpoint, will be dysfunctional on preventing more serious crimes unless other "war" measures to take its place are enacted.

This article stops short of recommending what will really reduce violent crime --- the legalization of drugs. Think of how many heroin addicts will stop committing crimes if they can get high quality heroin cheaply by prescription if they stay crime free. Think of how we can put the drug cartels out of business if we sell narcotics by prescription at Wal-Mart. There's no magic solution to drug addiction, but there is a solution to much of the crime caused by making drugs illegal.

I give Time Magazine an F on the above article written by writers of The Wire.
Also see ""Non-Judgmental" Nonsense," by Thomas Sowell, Creaters.com, March 2008 --- http://www.creators.com/opinion/thomas-sowell.html

"Wall Street Sex Scandals: A Partial History," by Heidi Moore, The Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2008 ---
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/03/10/wall-street-sex-scandals-a-partial-history/

And, yes, we know Spitzer isn’t a Wall Streeter–in fact, he is the antithesis. (CNBC reported today that the traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange whooped and hollered when they heard reports that Spitzer “was linked” to an escort service). Still, this all is a reminder that the financial district hasn’t always been gleaming skyscrapers and Starbucks. Consider this passage from City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920: Adjacent to the Wall Street business district, prostitutes worked in saloons along Greenwich Street, taking men upstairs….In addition, immediately south of Wall Street was the Battery Tenderloin, on Whitehall Street…The Water Street area, however, remained the most significant and poorest waterfront zone of prostitution….Amid the rookeries, rat pits and dance halls, prostitutes ‘exposed in each window to the public view’ plied their trade.

Of course, in the new Bloombergian New York, those days seem distant indeed. Still, let us take a by no means comprehensive walk down memory lane, to when Wall Street, both by geography and by industry, has been a victim of akrasia .   Former Keefe Bruyette & Woods Chief Executive James McDermott was found guilty in 2000 on six of seven counts of insider trading for allegedly tipping off an exotic dancer, Kathryn Gannon–stage name, Marylin Star–to upcoming bank mergers. Gannon, who reaped $88,000 in profit from the information, also was found guilty. BP Chief Executive John Browne left both his post at the oil company and his directorship at Goldman Sachs Group last year after it was revealed that Lord Browne had lied to a court about his young male lover, whom he had met through an escort-service Web site. A group of six women sued Dresdner Kleinwort in 2006 for $1.4 billion on allegations that male executives entertained clients at strip clubs and even brought prostitutes back to the office. The case was settled out of court in 2007. Canadian hedge fund manager Paul Eustace in 2007, by his own admission in a deposition filed in court, lied to investors and cheated on his wife with a stripper. In 1987, Peter Detwiler, vice chairman of E.F. Hutton & Co., was, according to court testimony, instructed by his client, Tesoro Petroleum Corp. Chairman Robert V. West, to hire a blonde prostitute for the finance minister of Trinidad & Tobago, which had been supporting a tax issue that would have hurt Tesoro’s profits. Back to Spitzer. We couldn’t help by notice that governor–client No. 9, in court documents–apparently requested an escort from the Emperors’ Club VIP to be sent from New York to Washington, where he was staying at the Mayflower Hotel in Room 871. The date: Feb. 13, the day before Valentine’s Day.

Jensen Comment
I haven't noticed in the press, but surely some reporter by now has made a comment to the effect that Governor Spitzer had his own version of the "Mayflower Madam." Client No. 9 may have been Governor Spitzer, but Clients 101-429 currently reside in the hallowed halls of Congress. The Emperor's Club had a great thing going in posh Washington DC hotels paid for by lobbyists. It's all part of the earmarking process where the phrase "stick in your ear" originated. I doubt that the FBI will dare expose Washington DC members of the Emperor's Club.

Actually Governor Spitzer may survive this scandal. President Clinton and Senator Ted Kennedy survived worse scandals with taxpayer-funded playmates (read that interns). At least Eliot bought the very best with his own money. However, not one of the Emperor's Club members is as smart or as charismatic as JFK who purportedly frolicked with freebies from filmland ---Prince Jack and  Pretty Maids All in a Row. Has the real cause of JFK's aching back ever been disclosed to the public?

Happy Birthday Mr. President ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4SLSlSmW74

Great Recipes

Recipezaar --- http://www.recipezaar.com/

"Dying Professor, Famous for His Last Lecture, Testifies Before Congress," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 13, 2008 --- Click Here

Randy Pausch held up an 8-by-10 picture of his three children and his wife — who, he noted, will soon be his widow — as he testified before a U.S. House appropriations subcommittee this afternoon, urging lawmakers to provide more money for research on pancreatic cancer.

Mr. Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and co-founder of its Entertainment Technology Center, is fighting the terminal disease and said doctors don’t expect him to make it through the year. Testifying on behalf of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, he wore a purple bracelet and purple tie, the group’s symbols.

The professor described to the lawmakers on the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies how he became an accidental celebrity last year by giving an inspirational “last lecture” that has been viewed millions of times on YouTube. He says he is trying to use that fame to raise awareness about pancreatic cancer, a disease on which little medical progress has been made in the past 30 years.

“We don’t have a Michael J. Fox” to speak for pancreatic cancer “because people die too fast,” said Mr. Pausch, referring to the actor who has been a powerful advocate for Parkinson’s disease since his diagnosis. Those who get pancreatic cancer are “dead within a year, 75 percent of the time,” he said.

“Pancreatic cancer is a disease that I think we can beat, but it’s going to take more continued courage and funding from our government,” he said in closing.

He almost didn’t make it to the hearing. On Monday he was hospitalized for complications from his chemotherapy treatment. He described himself as “more wobbly today than I thought I would be” during an interview after his testimony.

“Let’s face it,” he said, explaining his determination to make the trip and testify. “The only way you get funding is to rattle a lot of cages."

Randy's entire last lecture and commentaries are linked at Carnegie-Mellon University --- http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/index.shtml

TiVo (pronounced TeeVo) = digital video recorder (DVR) mostly used to capture television shows for replay later on according to an annual fee that downloads television schedules making it easier to choose what and when to record. History of this device and its controversies are summarized at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiVo

Find Out Some "Secret Features" of TiVo
“Tapping Your TiVo's Hidden Talents,” by Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2008, Page D8 --- Click Here (Slow Loading)

"YouTube Coming to TV, With TiVo the Gateway," by Brian Stelter, The New York Times, March 13, 2008 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/technology/13tivo.html

Pick up the remote, turn on the television and watch YouTube.

The blurring of the television and the computer, envisioned by technology enthusiasts for years, advanced another step on Wednesday when TiVo, the popular maker of digital video recorders, announced an agreement with YouTube that will deliver millions of Web videos directly to users’ TV screens.

“TiVo’s strategy is to bridge the gap between Web video and television and make as much content available as possible for our subscribers,” said Tara Maitra, TiVo’s vice president and general manager for content services.

TiVo is the latest entrant into the marketplace for porting Internet videos to television. Apple has introduced a version of Apple TV with similar features. Although several companies are trying to merge online content with the big screen in the living room, no one product dominates the market.

“Leaning forward at my computer screen, I’ve got this giant amount of content,” said Dmitry Shapiro, the founder of Veoh, one such company. “But as soon as I want to relax in my living room with friends, I’m stuck with what’s on my TV.”

TiVo pioneered the digital video recorder technology that enabled television viewers to time-shift their favorite shows, and its set-top boxes are increasingly acting like digital video retrievers and receivers as well. The company already makes video from about 40 partners available through its box.

Just as users can sign up for a season pass to record “Desperate Housewives” on ABC, they will be able to subscribe to CNet video clips, CBS episode recaps and other segments and have the content downloaded to their hard drives. The YouTube clips, however, will be streamed by broadband Internet connection.

When it is introduced this year (the exact time has not been specified), the YouTube service will be available only to TiVo users who have up-to-date hardware — a Series 3 or HD set-top box — and a broadband connection.

Of the four million TiVo users nationwide, more than half get their set-top box from a cable operator. Of the 1.7 million who bought their box directly from TiVo, only about 800,000 have the necessary broadband connection.

Continued in article

Time Machine:  A Built-in Feature on a Mac for Backing Up the Entire Computer System Painlessly
(simpler than Vista's tedious alternative for a PC)
With its new Leopard operating system, Apple tried to solve one of the most nagging problems faced by home-computer users: how to regularly back up their computers completely and painlessly. Leopard includes a feature called Time Machine that automatically and continuously backs up a Macintosh computer's entire hard disk, without requiring the user to do any tedious setup or have any technical knowledge. Time Machine is a key selling point for Leopard and the Mac. It is more complete, and yet simpler, than the built-in backup feature in Vista Home Premium, the most popular home version of Windows.
Walter S. Mossberg, "Apple's Time Capsule Gives You Easy Way To Back Up Wirelessly," The Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2008; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120476918311515527.html

Questions
Should you believe these many claims that the equity capital markets are inefficient and that it's worth investing the time and money to beat the market?

Answer
A Dartmouth College finance professor would have us conclude that in recent years the equity markets are a bit like Las Vegas. It's possible to leave Las Vegas more than a million dollars ahead if you take high risks, but the odds are decidedly in favor of the casinos. Similarly, it's possible to beat the stock index funds if you take the risks, but the odds are definitely against beating the index funds.

This we return to the age old paradox. It's rather useless to carefully conduct a financial analysis of audited accounting reports in an effort to gain superior knowledge to take advantage of more naive investors. On the other hand if a sufficiently large number of investors did not make a sufficient number of "sophisticated-knowledge" buys and sells the equity markets might be less efficient. Even in efficient markets we must remain diligent in restraining earnings management and other types of creative accounting ploys that mislead sophisticated investors.

Sophisticated investors (apart from insiders) cannot take advantage of naive investors because there are so many sophisticated investors. Of course insiders can exploit efficient markets, but the SEC spends most of its budget trying to prevent insider trading. If the SEC was not successful in this effort by and large, the equity capital markets would cease to exist. This is why corporate executives turned more to stealing from their own companies (e.g., outrageous salaries, kickbacks and options backdating) rather than in exploiting inside information for direct buying and selling of their (or their sex partners and family) own shares at timely points in time.

"Can You Beat the Market? It’s a $100 Billion Question," by Mark Hulbert, The New York Times, March 9, 2008 --- Click Here

The study, “The Cost of Active Investing,” began circulating earlier this year as an academic working paper. Its author is Kenneth R. French, a finance professor at Dartmouth; he is known for his collaboration with Eugene F. Fama, a finance professor at the University of Chicago, in creating the Fama-French model that is widely used to calculate risk-adjusted performance.

In his new study, Professor French tried to make his estimate of investment costs as comprehensive as possible. He took into account the fees and expenses of domestic equity mutual funds (both open- and closed-end, including exchange-traded funds), the investment management costs paid by institutions (both public and private), the fees paid to hedge funds, and the transactions costs paid by all traders (including commissions and bid-asked spreads). If a fund or institution was only partly allocated to the domestic equity market, he counted only that portion in computing its investment costs.

Professor French then deducted what domestic equity investors collectively would have paid if they instead had simply bought and held an index fund benchmarked to the overall stock market, like the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund, whose retail version currently has an annual expense ratio of 0.19 percent.

The difference between those amounts, Professor French says, is what investors as a group pay to try to beat the market.

In 2006, the last year for which he has comprehensive data, this total came to $99.2 billion. Assuming that it grew in 2007 at the average rate of the last two decades, the amount for last year was more than $100 billion. Such a total is noteworthy for its sheer size and its growth over the years — in 1980, for example, the comparable total was just $7 billion, according to Professor French.

The growth occurred despite many developments that greatly reduced the cost of trading, like deeply discounted brokerage commissions, a narrowing in bid-asked spreads, and a big reduction in front-end loads, or sales charges, paid to mutual fund companies.

These factors notwithstanding, Professor French found that the portion of stocks’ aggregate market capitalization spent on trying to beat the market has stayed remarkably constant, near 0.67 percent. That means the investment industry has found new revenue sources in direct proportion to the reductions caused by these factors.

What are the investment implications of his findings? One is that a typical investor can increase his annual return by just shifting to an index fund and eliminating the expenses involved in trying to beat the market. Professor French emphasizes that this typical investor is an average of everyone aiming to outperform the market — including the supposedly best and brightest who run hedge funds.

Professor French’s study can also be used to show just how different the investment arena is from a so-called zero-sum game. In such a game, of course, any one individual’s gains must be matched by equal losses by other players, and vice versa. Investing would be a zero-sum game if no costs were associated with trying to beat the market. But with the costs of that effort totaling around $100 billion a year, active investing is a significantly negative-sum game. The very act of playing reduces the size of the pie that is divided among the various players.

Even that, however, underestimates the difficulties of beating an index fund. Professor French notes that while the total cost of trying to beat the market has grown over the years, the percentage of individuals who bear this cost has declined — precisely because of the growing popularity of index funds.

From 1986 to 2006, according to his calculations, the proportion of the aggregate market cap that is invested in index funds more than doubled, to 17.9 percent. As a result, the negative-sum game played by active investors has grown ever more negative.

The bottom line is this: The best course for the average investor is to buy and hold an index fund for the long term. Even if you think you have compelling reasons to believe a particular trade could beat the market, the odds are still probably against you.

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm

Avoid hucksters that try to sell you knowledge of how to take advantage of naive investors in inefficient equity markets!
Especially avoid those high pressure "FREE workshops" in posh hotels that try to sell books, software, and schemes for beating the market.

"SEC goes after infomercial personalities in investor workshop fraud," AccountingWeb, March 11, 2008 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=104771 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against two promoters who illegally made millions selling a get-rich-quick stock trading system they touted on TV and at investor workshops at hotels in dozens of cities nationwide.

The Commission's complaint alleges that Linda Woolf and David Gengler, both of Utah, duped seniors and others who had attended free introductory seminars into believing they would make extraordinary stock market profits if they bought expensive "Teach Me to Trade" (TMTT) classes, mentoring, and computer software.

In order to con victims into paying as much as $40,000 for TMTT products and services, the Commission alleges that Woolf and Gengler lied about their success with the trading system, when in truth neither Woolf nor Gengler ever purchased TMTT's products or became successful traders.

"The allegations depict a cold-hearted scheme that preyed on the elderly, the desperate, and even the unemployed by promising financial security while instead robbing victims blind," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "The Commission's charges should send a warning to all those who would masquerade as successful traders on TV while prowling the country for victims."

Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, added, "The evidence shows they callously urged customers to go into debt to purchase expensive products and services. Today's charges make clear that we will hold accountable those who prey on seniors and other investors."

The Commission's complaint alleges that at their workshop presentations between 2003 and 2006, Woolf and Gengler made false and misleading statements to sell TMTT packages of personal mentoring, software and classes ranging in price from approximately $11,000 to $40,000. According to the Commission's complaint, Woolf and Gengler also appeared in television infomercials portraying themselves as successful former TMTT customers, with Woolf targeting retirees, among others. In his workshops, Gengler urged investors to borrow against their retirement accounts to follow TMTT strategies.

Through false stories of their own trading success and bogus claims of a 96.5 percent success rate for TMTT students who purchased personal mentoring, courses, and software, Woolf and Gengler convinced attendees that they, too, would make extraordinary profits in the stock market if they followed TMTT's trading strategies that emphasized options trading and short-term swing trading.

In one infomercial, for example, Woolf told how she used to be an elementary school teacher and was able to replace her entire income after attending TMTT workshops. "I had no idea it was that easy to learn how to make money in the stock market," Woolf said. In another infomercial, Gengler claimed, "If you can simply follow steps and follow our principles, you'll make money. It's that simple."

Instead, the Commission alleges, Woolf and Gengler are unsuccessful traders, with Woolf having never declared a trading profit on her federal tax returns and Gengler typically declaring losses, or no profits. However, Woolf reaped approximately $4 million in commissions from selling TMTT packages, and Gengler made approximately $2.25 million, according to the Commission's complaint.

The Commission's complaint against Woolf and Gengler seeks disgorgement of their ill-gotten gains, civil money penalties and permanent injunctions enjoining the defendants from violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.

In a related action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has announced the filing of an indictment against Woolf and Gengler.

The Commission acknowledges the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Florida Attorney General's Office.

The Commission's investigation is continuing.

Bob Jensen's threads on investing scams are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#Investing

This citation was forwarded by Don Ramsey
"Why business ignores the (research of) business schools," by Michael Skapinker, Financial Times, January 7, 2008

Chief executives, on the other hand, pay little attention to what business schools do or say. As long ago as 1993, Donald Hambrick, then president of the US-based Academy of Management, described the business academics' summer conference as "an incestuous closed loop", at which professors "come to talk with each other". Not much has changed. In the current edition of The Academy of Management Journal.

. . .

They have chosen an auspicious occasion on which to beat themselves up: this year is The Academy of Management Journal's 50th anniversary. A scroll through the most recent issues demonstrates why managers may be giving the Journal a miss. "A multi-level investigation of antecedents and consequences of team member boundary spanning behaviour" is the title of one article.

Why do business academics write like this? The academics themselves offer several reasons. First, to win tenure in a US university, you need to publish in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. Accessibility is not the key to academic advancement.

Similar pressures apply elsewhere. In France and Australia, academics receive bonuses for placing articles in the top academic publications. The UK's Research Assessment Exercise, which evaluates university research and ties funding to the outcome, encourages similarly arcane work.

But even without these incentives, many business school faculty prefer to adorn their work with scholarly tables, statistics and jargon because it makes them feel like real academics. Within the university world, business schools suffer from a long-standing inferiority complex.

The professors offer several remedies. Academic business journals should accept fact-based articles, without demanding that they propound a new theory. Professor Hambrick says that academics in other fields "don't feel the need to sprinkle mentions of theory on every page, like so much aromatic incense or holy water".

Others talk of the need for academics to spend more time talking to managers about the kind of research they would find useful.

As well-meaning as these suggestions are, I suspect the business school academics are missing something. Law, medical and engineering schools are subject to the same academic pressures as business schools - to publish in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and to buttress their work with the expected academic vocabulary.

Bob Jensen's threads on the irrelevance of academic research to the profession of accountancy can be found at the following links:

http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#AcademicsVersusProfession

http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

Question
What's the main difference between RateMyProfessor versus RateMyCop sites?

The www.RateMyProfessor.com site might be embarrassing to some professors, but the RateMyCop may be seriously dangerous to some law enforcement officers --- http://www.ratemycop.com/
Note the five most rated column on the right side of the page.

Both sites are guilty of self-selection bias. The raters in both instances are self-selected and are likely to be outliers.

Actually it’s possible for the public to fight back against the RateMyCop site. Responders to the RateMyProfessor site must usually show some relationship to a professor such as having had a course or part of the course from that professor. Any adult can rate a cop (based upon what any stranger writes) without ever meeting that cop personally. At the moment there are only a few defenders of unknown officers, but the credibility of RateMyCop will go downhill when over 99% of all responders on RateMyCop have had no contact whatsoever with the officer in question positively or negatively. Professors and their employers tend to ignore the RateMyProfessor site. Hopefully, the public and law enforcement agencies will either ignore the RateMyCop site or bring it down with a tidal wave of phony respondents never having met the officers in question.

My threads on the RateMyProfessor site are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#GradeInflation

"Law, Business, and Engineering Professors Are Found to Be Highest-Paid," by Audrey Williams June, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 14, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i27/27a01001.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The average salary of college faculty members rose 4 percent this year, according to a survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

Law professors had, for the most part, the highest average pay, no matter what their status or where they worked. Full professors of law earned an average of $129,527 in 2007-8; associate professors earned $94,444, on average. Assistant professors of law earned an average of $79,684, a figure that was topped only by business professors at the same level, the survey found.

Law professors were the top earners as instructors, with an average salary of $63,174.

Other disciplines that commanded high salaries were engineering and business. Average salaries for full professors in those disciplines were $107,134 and $102,965, respectively.

Among new assistant professors, those in business had the highest average salary, at $86,640. Their average pay topped that of their counterparts in law by about $7,700.

The three disciplines with the lowest average salaries for full professors were English, visual and performing arts, and parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies, the survey found. Those faculty members earned about $76,000.

Average salaries at private institutions rose 4 percent, compared with 3.7 percent the year before. At public institutions, average salaries climbed 3.9 percent, the same increase as last year. Public baccalaureate colleges, however, saw a 4.5 percent increase in average salaries, up from 4.2 percent.

The salary information included in the CUPA-HR survey was reported by 838 public and private institutions and covers about 211,400 faculty members. The survey categorizes salaries by discipline and rank rather than by institution, like the annual faculty-pay survey conducted by the American Association of University Professors.

The full report is available on the CUPA-HR Web site (http://www.cupahr.org).

***************

Now that the excitement of Super Tuesday has passed, we should remember the kinds of policies and principles at stake. Exhibit A: three pieces of legislation pending in Congress that would dramatically increase the liability of private companies for alleged acts of employment discrimination. The first would resurrect the discredited idea of "comparable worth." The second would add various sexual orientations to the classifications protected from employment discrimination. The third is a plaintiffs' bar wish list, aimed mostly at overturning cases it lost in the Supreme Court . . . There are actually two versions of comparable worth legislation, the Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. The former is co-sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama; the principal sponsor of the latter is Sen. Hillary Clinton (Mr. Obama is a co-sponsor). Both would push companies to set wages based not on supply and demand -- that is the free market -- but on some notion of social utility. The goal is to ensure that jobs performed mostly by men (say, truck drivers) are not paid more than those performed mostly by women (paralegals, perhaps) . . . The third measure -- the Civil Rights Act of 2008, introduced on Jan. 24 by Sen. Kennedy (co-sponsored by Sens. Clinton and Obama) -- is the plaintiffs' bar wish list. It would, among other provisions, eliminate existing damage caps on lawsuits brought under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act; add compensatory and punitive damages to the Fair Labor Standards Act; and push states into waiving sovereign immunity in individual claims involving monetary damages. It would also give authority to the National Labor Relations Board to award back pay to undocumented workers.
Roger Clegg, "Equal Rights Nonsense," The Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2008; Page A16 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120243354900752415.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

Jensen Comment
Sports Management graduates are mostly male varsity athletes who are in abundant supply for rather low-paying coaching jobs in middle schools and high schools. Nursing graduates are predominantly female in short supply and as of late have relatively high-paying careers. Isn't it ironic that an assistant middle school football coach who barely graduated in Sports Management might ultimately have to be legally upgraded to Nursing pay with a whole lot less job stress, science courses, and bad hours? The Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, if taken to extremes in the final legislation, are mixed blessings at the university level. These will quell much, but not all, of the interdisciplinary strife among faculty. Average pay in all disciplines will be equal irrespective of supply and demand. Universities will have to give enormous pay raises to some lower-paid disciplines having surplus labor supply. For example suppose that there are nearly 100 applicants for an Assistant Professor of Primary School Education tenure track opening relative to disciplines having excess labor demand (say Computer Science that graduates less than 10% women and gets very few if any female or male PhD applicants for every tenure track opening). The collegiate losers will be students already facing faculty shortages of teachers in some disciplines like Computer Science.  Economists have concluded for years that price fixing and equalization are generally a disaster except for believers in the Marxist  Labor Theory of Value. Both the Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act are disasters for universities seeking to make education more affordable for students. The only way this will be possible in most colleges will be to revert more and more tenure track positions to part-time temporary teaching positions.

The problem in hiring faculty is that some disciplines offer greater competitive salaries than in other disciplines. For example, the average new PhD in Computer Science ceteris paribus has more alternatives for high paying employment in industry than do many (most?) other disciplines. Denying demand/supply pricing in the law is a disaster for students who want more and more courses in Computer Science, Nursing, Business, Medicine, and many other professional disciplines. Already some students, especially graduate students, in Business and Computer Science are entering degree programs in other countries, especially in Europe and Asia. Some schools in these nations (e.g., China) are now offering courses only in English to attract top U.S. talent. Will the U.S. really be better off with dwindling national undergraduate and graduate programs in the professions? Since law professors are now the highest paid faculty members on average, and most members of Congress are lawyers, there's still hope for the demise of or significant watering down of both the Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act before enactments.

The biggest winners from the other disastrous proposed legislation will be tort lawyers seeking uncapped punitive damage awards for such things as fraudulent asbestos and other medical claims under the Civil Rights Act of 2008. The plaintiffs' bar is flashing  middle fingers to the U.S. Supreme Court. Lawyers rant and rave about excessive CEO compensation (and they're correct) while allowing themselves court awards far in excess of what CEOs fraudulently truck home. Watch the cost of medical insurance malpractice insurance take another leap upward when this legislation passes. Will the last obstetrician in practice please turn out the lights! In reality we must have obstetricians. What the tort lawyers really want is for taxpayers to ultimately pay the insurance premiums from seemingly boundless tax revenues. Ultimately billions of tax dollars will then be diverted to tort lawyers in uncapped punitive damages.

What are the big faculty cat fights all about? --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#CatFights

"The Syllabus Becomes a Repository of Legalese:  As dos and don'ts get added, some professors cry 'enough'," by Paula Wasley, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 14, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i27/27a00102.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The syllabus for a course on American literature at the University of South Alabama seems pretty routine at first glance. It includes among its required readings, for instance, The Great Gatsby and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

But near the bottom of Page 3 is something not related to course work — a detailed clause on classroom behavior: "Students are expected to arrive on time, not to leave early, not to wear caps inside the classroom, and to follow traditions of decorum and civility."

Course syllabi have long been as varied as the instructors who composed them. Indeed, many faculty members are loath to share them, for fear of intellectual theft.

But increasingly the contemporary syllabus is becoming more like a legal document, full of all manner of exhortations, proscriptions, and enunciations of class and institutional policy — often in minute detail that seems more appropriate for a courtroom than a classroom.

Take, for example, the injunction that appeared recently on an introductory-religion syllabus at Wartburg College: "Keep your e-mail 'inbox' tidy so that you may receive timely notices from your professor."

Such clauses have cropped up on college syllabi around the country for a variety of reasons. Some have been required by the college or university. Since the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act, a statement about students with disabilities has become de rigueur. This fall the University of Missouri at Columbia added a statement on "intellectual pluralism" to its syllabi. Some institutions require the inclusion of an inclement-weather policy.

Heading off conflict is another goal. Faculty members concerned about campus violence add codicils to their syllabi declaring their commitment to a "safe and supportive learning environment"; others include disclaimers about potentially controversial films and readings.

With its ever-lengthening number of contingency clauses, disclaimers, and provisos, the college syllabus can bear as much resemblance to a prenuptial agreement as it does to an expression of intellectual enterprise. But experts say that when things go wrong in the classroom, fuzzy expectations are almost always to blame.

"Our own experiences suggest that when trouble arises in a class, the conflict often began, in some way, with the syllabus," wrote Joseph Kenneth Matejka and Lance B. Kurke in a 1994 article on the syllabus for the journal College Teaching.

"You wouldn't think it was that important," says Mr. Matejka, a professor of leadership and change management at Duquesne University's Graduate School of Business. Still, he says, research indicates that the syllabus is "the single biggest determining variable in determining the success and reaction to the course." The well-designed syllabus, he notes, lays out right from the start the goals, requirements, and operating principles of the course.

Continued in article

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

"Ethanol from Garbage and Old Tires:  A versatile new process for making biofuels could slash their cost," by Kevin Bullis, MIT's Technology Review, March/April 2008 --- https://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/20199/?nlid=925 

Question
Is homework credit sometimes dysfunctional to learning?
If the instructor allows face-to-face study groups, extra-help tutorials, and chat rooms, what is so terrible about this Facebook study group?

Answer
Apparently its the fact that ten percent course credit was given for homework that was discussed in the study group. It seems unfair, however, to single out this one student running the Facebook study group. If the students were "cheating" by sharing tips on homework, they were probably also doing it face-to-face. All students who violate the code of conduct should be sanctioned or forgiven based on the honor code of the institution.

Ryerson U. Student Faces Expulsion for Running a Facebook Study Group
A student at Ryerson University, in Toronto, is facing expulsion for running a Facebook study group, the Toronto Star reports. Chris Avenir, a first-year engineering student, is facing expulsion from the school on 147 counts of academic charges — one for himself, and one for every student who used the Facebook group “Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions” to get homework help. University officials say that running such a group is in violation of the school’s academic policy, which says no student can undertake activity to gain academic advantage. Students argue, however, that the group was analogous to any in-person study group. Of course, this wouldn’t be the first Facebook-related expulsion hearing. The expulsion hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Hurley Goodall, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 7, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2801&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Jensen Comment
My approach was to assign homework for no credit and then administer online quizzes. Students were assigned different partners each week who attested to observing no cheating while an assigned "partner" took the online quiz. You can read the following at --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5342/acct5342.htm

  Most every week beginning in Week 2, you will be required to take an online quiz for a chapter from the online textbook by Murthy and Groomer.  This book is not in the bookstore.  Students should immediately obtain a password and print the first three chapters of the book entitled Accounting Information Systems: A Database Approach.  You can purchase a password at
http://www.cybertext.com/forms/accountform.shtml
You will then be able to access the book and the online quizzes at any time using the book list at http://www.cybertext.com/
Each week students are to take an online quiz in the presence of an assigned student partner who then signs the attest form at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5342/attest.htm
The online quizzes are relatively easy if you take notes while reading the assigned chapter.  You may use your notes for each quiz.  However, you may not view a copy of the entire chapter will taking a quiz.

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

Silicon Light Bulbs to Compete with Fluorescent Bulbs
Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1880, and, since the 1920s, the incandescent light bulb has remained largely unchanged. While that's a testament to Edison's ingenuity, it's also a bulb that uses up to 95% of its power to generate heat rather than light. In order to improve this efficiency, the fluorescent bulb has recently gained popularity as an alternative that uses about 25% of its power for light and lasts up to 10,000 hours, compared with the incandescent bulb's 1,500-hour lifetime. However, unlike the recyclable incandescent bulb, fluorescent bulbs contain phosphor and mercury - toxic chemicals that could pose disposal problems on a large scale. But a company from Ottawa, Canada, is hoping to create a light bulb that further increases the efficiency of fluorescent bulbs, while using completely non-toxic materials. Since 2003, Group IV Semiconductor has been working on a unique bulb design, one that uses a tiny computer chip in place of a traditional wire filament or gas. The new bulbs, officially called solid state light bulbs, use low-cost silicon technology originally developed for fiber optic networks in the early 2000s. The chips were intended to boost the light signal, increasing its speed and allowing it to travel longer distances. Today, silicon is widely used in cell phones, computers, and other electronics. But as the telecommunications market began to lose its appeal, Group IV's chief executive Stephen Naor looked into other applications. As he explains, in North America alone, 2.2 billion light bulbs are replaced every year, and lighting is a $12-billion global industry.
Lisa Zyga, PhysOrg, March 8, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news124031744.html

Question
Is brain enhancement morally right or wrong?

March 9, 2008 message from David Albrecht [albrecht@PROFALBRECHT.COM]

Another article in today's NYT.  We've talked about this before, but it's on-going and will undoubtedly become a bigger issue.  In the final paragraph I've cited there, a researcher claims that the ethics in considering the ethically of using performance enhancing drugs differs between professional sports and academia, because of competition.  I might be off base here, but I see lots of competition.  I see lots of competition amongst accounting professors in getting the highest SET scores, getting articles in the best journals, and serving on the best committees (and the competition is not always friendly, either).  Especially getting articles into better journals.  The ranking of the journal really matters.  And historical record keeping?  Academic record keeping and the attendant summary statistics rival those of baseball!  Some say that professional sport is about competition and entertainment.  Well, don't we have that here in accounting?  The two ways in which  accountics-research publications add value is (1) faculty at the elite schools winning a competition, and (2) entertainment.

David Albrecht
Bowling Green

March 9, 2008
Smartening Up

Brain Enhancement Is Wrong, Right?

By BENEDICT CAREY

So far no one is demanding that asterisks be attached to Nobels, Pulitzers or Lasker awards. Government agents have not been raiding anthropology departments, riffling book bags, testing professors’ urine. And if there are illicit trainers on campuses, shady tutors with wraparound sunglasses and ties to basement labs in Italy, no one has exposed them.

Yet an era of doping may be looming in academia, and it has ignited a debate about policy and ethics that in some ways echoes the national controversy over performance enhancement accusations against elite athletes like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

In a recent commentary in the journal Nature, two Cambridge University researchers reported that about a dozen of their colleagues had admitted to regular use of prescription drugs like Adderall, a stimulant, and Provigil, which promotes wakefulness, to improve their academic performance. The former is approved to treat attention deficit disorder, the latter narcolepsy, and both are considered more effective, and more widely available, than the drugs circulating in dorms a generation ago.

Letters flooded the journal, and an online debate immediately bubbled up. The journal has been conducting its own, more rigorous survey, and so far at least 20 respondents have said that they used the drugs for nonmedical purposes, according to Philip Campbell, the journal’s editor in chief. The debate has also caught fire on the Web site of The Chronicle of Higher Education, where academics and students are sniping at one another.

But is prescription tweaking to perform on exams, or prepare presentations and grants, really the same as injecting hormones to chase down a home run record, or win the Tour de France?

Some argue that such use could be worse, given the potentially deep impact on society. And the behavior of academics in particular, as intellectual leaders, could serve as an example to others.

In his book “Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution,” Francis Fukuyama raises the broader issue of performance enhancement: “The original purpose of medicine is to heal the sick, not turn healthy people into gods.” He and others point out that increased use of such drugs could raise the standard of what is considered “normal” performance and widen the gap between those who have access to the medications and those who don’t ­ and even erode the relationship between struggle and the building of character.

“Even though stimulants and other cognitive enhancers are intended for legitimate clinical use, history predicts that greater availability will lead to an increase in diversion, misuse and abuse,” wrote Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and James Swanson of the University of California at Irvine, in a letter to Nature. “Among high school students, abuse of prescription medications is second only to cannabis use.”

But others insist that the ethics are not so clear, and that academic performance is different in important ways from baseball, or cycling.

“I think the analogy with sports doping is really misleading, because in sports it’s all about competition, only about who’s the best runner or home run hitter,” said Martha Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. “In academics, whether you’re a student or a researcher, there is an element of competition, but it’s secondary. The main purpose is to try to learn things, to get experience, to write papers, to do experiments. So in that case if you can do it better because you’ve got some drug on board, that would on the face of things seem like a plus.”

Continued in article at:  http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/03/09/weekinreview/09carey.html&tntemail1=y
 

March 10, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

It all comes down to issues of whether competitive edge is deemed unfair to other participants.

I think physical and brain enhancing drugs and prostheses are morally wrong in competitions only if they have side effects that are not acceptable to the majority of participants. If there are unacceptable health risks to a majority of participants then a few participants willing to risk the side effects gain unfair competitive advantage including academic as well as sports competitions. Academic competitions include such things as SAT tests and other school admissions tests. However, if the majority of participants are willing to take these risks (such as when side effects are mild or assumed to be nonexistent) then there is no unfair competitive advantage as long as the majority of users get more or less the same benefits to a point where no user gains and unfair competitive advantage. For example, we do not ban test takers or football players from having a cup of coffee before they compete.

The issue gets cloudy when persons have handicaps that prevent them from being competitive unless they take special drugs or wear a prosthesis that allows them to compete possibly to a point where they have a competitive edge. This is supposedly why a very fast runner without feet caused such a stir since his bouncy carbon fibre prosthesis on each foot purportedly gives him an edge over other runners. At the moment he's causing a stir because he wants to compete with the fastest runners of the world in the Olympics games. This is why a Stanford University alumnus golfer with physical handicap making him unable to walk all day in a golf course is banned from using a golf cart in PGA tournaments that require all golfers to walk the course and endure the fatigue of such walking.

There's now a new "deep brain" electronic surgical treatment for persons afflicted with Parkinson's disease that has a side effect of enhancing memory beyond memory powers before they had Parkinson's disease. There may eventually be drugs for the treatment of various brain ailments such as Alzheimer's disease that may in fact be brain enhancing to where users on such drugs have competitive edges. It's unfair to deny persons with terrible brain diseases access to such drugs even though there are side effects that discourage normal people from taking such brain enhancing drugs. The issue then is whether to restrict afflicted persons on such brain enhancing drugs from competitions such as being contestants on the Jeopardy game show on television.

Most of the conflict centers on unfair competitive edges. Typically unfair competitive edges are banned in sports and mental "games." But life is not all a game and the "competitive edge" argument sometimes becomes very blurry. We can ban a footless runner from Olympic games but we cannot ban him from running for pleasure and entertainment. We can ban super-enhanced memory persons from Jeopardy games, but we cannot ban them from reading and writing. It becomes particularly cloudy if super-enhanced memory persons want to enroll in schools and compete with classmates in examinations, term paper writing, and class discussions. At the moment I think the problem is academic since we do not yet have memory drugs that are of great concern in competitions. But the day will come when this will be an issue in games and schools. For example, the day may come when any person not on brain enhancing drugs has zero percent chance of graduating summa cum laude.

Bob Jensen

The Financial Psychology of Worry and Women

March 12, 2008 message from Ricciardi, Victor [victor.ricciardi@kysu.edu]

I thought you would enjoy reading my new working paper on negative emotion, gender, and money management. The paper is entitled “The Financial Psychology of Worry and Women."

The abstract of the paper (and links to free copies of the paper)  is available at:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1093351

Also, if you scroll down the webpage you can download a PDF file of the paper.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best,

Vic Ricciardi

Contact information:

Victor Ricciardi
Assistant Professor of Finance
Kentucky State University

SSRN Coordinator: Behavioral & Experimental Research
The Social Science Research Network at www.ssrn.com

Work# (502) 597-6284
victor.ricciardi@kysu.edu

Electronic copies of my papers are available from my author page at the SSRN Electronic Library at:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=262799
 

Question
Is there a need for a change in tenure criteria for humanities and some social science disciplines?

"A Call for Slow Writing," by Lindsay Waters, Inside Higher Ed, March 11, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/03/10/waters

What will it take to make essays the standard of achievement once again in the scholarly world? This is not where we are: Books are the gold standard for tenure in most of the humanities and some of the social sciences, so much so that journal articles almost don’t even count. As august a figure as Helen Vendler assured me recently that essays could never replace books as a basis for tenuring junior colleagues. So, in departments of English as on Wall Street, counting is all that counts. “It’s the bottom line, stupid.” Countability is the thing whereby you’ll catch the conscience of the dean, as a friend of Hamlet might advise the young Danish assistant professor or the young Shakespeare scholar. Articles don’t make a thumping sound when you drop them on a table the way a body might in Six Feet Under.

I have claimed elsewhere (subscription required) that the book-for-tenure system is coming to an end, that it is unsustainable, that its growth has been an obscenity, because it was mindless, because it sought to make something automatic and machine-like play the role that should only be played by the soul. Please excuse my antiquated language: The “soul,” I remind you, is that faculty of the human body whose juices are made to flow by the exercise of judging myself whether something is of merit. In earlier publications I have charged that professors have been seeking to dodge the one activity that is most essential to their own development when they outsource tenure decisions to bureaucracies and counting replaces reading as the central job of tenure committees, because in that situation content goes by the by. Personally, for me as a publisher, the situation that has arisen is sad beyond endurance. I believe the contents of the books I publish matter. I am not selling milk, which does sustain life, but is homogenized by comparison to book. In fact, milk’s the very definition of homogenized. Each of the books I publish is different.

Books are the standard now, and for me to ask you to think that the future will feature the renaissance of journals and the replacement of the book by the essay might seem crazy. (You should know that it does not seem crazy to many of the leading university press publishers.) My suggestion is not crazy; it’s utopian. We don’t live in that world I am asking you to imagine, the world in which essays are the norm, but if we were to imagine that world could exist even for a second, how might seeing things that way cause us to change what we are doing?

We need to slow down, and remember that the essay has been the main form for humanistic discourse. The book is an outlier. Many of the writings that changed the direction a scholarly community was marching toward were essays. Think of Edward Said’s “Abecedarium Culturae” or Paul de Man’s “The Rhetoric of Temporality,” to stay in recent history and not begin, as I easily could, an epic catalog from Montaigne’s “De l’amitie” onwards. Some of the most important books are collections of essays, sometimes assembled with no pretence to forging a unity of them, such as John Freccero’s Dante: The Poetics of Conversion. One could give many examples.

There is no good reason why the essay should not replace the book, and a lot of good reasons why it should. I am tempted to say — in order to be maximally provocative — that anyone who publishes a book within six years of earning a Ph.D. should be denied tenure. The chances a person at that stage can have published something worth chopping that many trees down is unlikely. I ask you: How are you preparing for the future that could be yours and mine? We — I mean the world in general — don’t need a lot of bad writing. We need some great writing. “Pump Up the Volume” has been the watchword in the scholarly world and in America long before that movie with Christian Slater came out. “Don’t Believe the Hype” somehow got twisted into “Believe the Hype” along the way, too. Totally.

The big problem that afflicts the humanities in the United States is not a problem of quantity. Yes, I know, some politicians ridicule university administrators who retain on their staff professors who produce so little by way of income, student-credit hours served, and publications. The newspapers said that U.S. troops could “walk tall again” after conquering Granada. Will professors be able to walk tall again if they produce tall heaps of publications on the scale of manufactured goods coming out of the factories in Suzhou? (If you don’t know where Suzhou is, look it up. It’ll do you good. You are going to want to know in fewer years than you can imagine.)

No, the productivity problem of professors in the U.S. is not one of quantity, but quality. (Same is actually the case in China, too.) I recently got a book proposal that I decided to look at closely rather than reject it summarily as I knew it deserved. It consisted of a welter of confusing sentences. It was contemporary, very up-to-date, located right where the profession is. And the scholar, though young, was very accomplished in the way the world judges achievement, a dozen or more fellowships, a book from a major press, tenure too at a respectable university. But the views in the proposal were those manufactured by others and the linking of them in the proposal had no coherence, and the problem was manifest in the clumsy writing. Who had ever read anything by this young scholar seriously before, I wondered?

Has social passing come to grad school? A friend teaches in a clinic to help people from 3 to thrice 20 to remedy problems of speaking and reading. I have been curious about the stories she tells me of people in their 50s confident enough about their personal success in life to address what used to be a source of deep embarrassment — the fact that although they could talk like a college grad they could not read better than a second-grader. It takes great self-acceptance to go to the clinic at that age and confess you cannot read and to be taught the things little kids learn.

Continued in article

"Rethinking Tenure — and Much More," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, December 9, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/12/08/mla 

Bob Jensen's threads on tenure controversies in the humanities disciplines are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#MLA

Question
Today's students have a spectacular hunger for experience — real and virtual. But can they hold still long enough to learn?

"Dwelling in Possibilities:  Our students' spectacular hunger for life makes them radically vulnerable." by Mark Edmundson, Chronicle of Higher Education's Chronicle Review, March 14, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i27/27b00701.htm?utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

This hunger for life has a number of consequences, for now and for the future. It's part of what makes this student generation appealing, highly promising — and also radically vulnerable. These students may go on to do great and good things, but they also present dangers to themselves and to the common future. They seem almost to have been created, as the poet says, "half to rise and half to fall." As a teacher of theirs (and fellow citizen), I'm more than a little concerned about which it's going to be.

Internet technology was on hand for my current students from about the time they were eight years old; it was in 1995 that the Netscape browser made the Internet accessible to everyone. And the Internet seems to me to have shaped their generation as much as the multichannel TV, with that critical device, the remote control, shaped the students who registered for my classes a decade ago. What is the Internet to current students?

Consider first what it is not. A friend of mine, who has assiduously kept a journal for 40 years, calls the journal, which now runs to about 40 volumes, a "life thickener." His quotations and pictures and clips and drawings and paintings give density and meaning to the blind onrush that life can be. He looks back through the volumes and sees that there was a life and that to him it meant something. To my students, I suspect, my friend would look like a medieval monk, laboring over his manuscripts, someone with a radically pre-postmodern feel for time, someone who did not, in fact, understand what time actually is.

An Internet-linked laptop, one may safely say, is not a life thickener. At the fingertips of my students, the laptop is a multiplier of the possible. "I dwell in possibility," says Emily Dickinson, "a fairer house than prose." Well, my students want to dwell there with her and, it seems, to leave me in the weed-grown bungalow, prose.

My university recently passed an edict: No one, damn it (insofar as edicts can say damn it), is going to triple major. Everyone now who is worth his tuition money double majors: The students in my classes are engineering/English; politics/English; chemistry/English. An urban legend in my leaf-fringed 'hood is that someone got around this inane dictum about triple majors by majoring in four subjects — there was, it seems, no rule against that. The top students at my university, the ones who set the standard for the rest, even if they drive the rest a little crazy, want to take eight classes a term, major promiscuously, have a semester abroad at three different colleges, connect with every likely person who has a page on Facebook, have 30 pages on Facebook, be checked in with and check in at every living moment.

One day I tried an experiment in a class I was teaching on English and American Romanticism. We had been studying Thoreau and talking about his reflections (sour) on the uses of technology for communication. ("We are in great haste," he famously said, "to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.") I asked the group, "How many places were you simultaneously yesterday — at the most?" Suppose you were chatting on your cellphone, partially watching a movie in one corner of the computer screen, instant messaging with three people (a modest number), and glancing occasionally at the text for some other course than ours — grazing, maybe, in Samuelson's Economics rather than diving deep into Thoreau's "Economy" — and then, also, tossing the occasional word to your roommate? Well, that would be seven, seven places at once. Some students — with a little high-spirited hyperbole thrown in, no doubt — got into double digits. Of course it wouldn't take the Dalai Lama or Thoreau to assure them that anyone who is in seven places at once is not anywhere in particular — not present, not here now. Be everywhere now — that's what the current technology invites, and that's what my students aspire to do.

Internet-linked computers are of course desiring machines — machines for the stimulation of desire. But so is a TV, so in a certain sense is a movie screen. What makes the Internet singular is its power to expand desire, expand possibility beyond the confines of prior media. (My students are possibility junkies.) You can multiply the number of possible clothing purchases near to infinity and do it with stunning speed. You can make all the pleated skirts in the world appear almost all at once, for you to choose from. As we talked about this in class — with Thoreau's disapproving specter looking on (sometimes it appears that Thoreau disapproves of everything, except the drinking of cold water) — something surprising came out. The moment of maximum Internet pleasure was not the moment of closure, where you sealed the deal; it was the moment when the choices had been multiplied to the highest sum. It was the moment of maximum promise, when you touched the lip of the possible: of four majors and eight courses per term and a gazillion hits on your Facebook page, and being everyplace (almost) at once, and gazing upon all the pleated skirts that the world doth hold.

This is what Immanuel Kant, were he around to see it, might have called the computer sublime (he called something like it mathematical sublimity). The moment when you make the purchase, close the deal, pick a girlfriend, set a date: All those things, the students around the Thoreau table concurred, were a letdown, consummations not really to be wished for. The students were a little surprised by the conclusions they came to about themselves. "It's when I can see it all in front of me," one young woman said, "that's when I'm the happiest."

Ask an American college student what he's doing on Friday night. Ask him at 5:30 Friday afternoon. "I don't know" will likely be the first response. But then will come a list of possibilities to make the average Chinese menu look sullenly costive: the concert, the play, the movie, the party, the stay-at-home, chilling (or chillaxing), the monitoring of SportsCenter, the reading (fast, fast) of an assignment or two. University students now are virtual Hamlets of the virtual world, pondering possibility, faces pressed up against the sweet-shop window of their all-purpose desiring machines. To ticket or not to ticket, buy or not to, party or no: Or perhaps to simply stay in and to multiply options in numberless numbers, never to be closed down.

And once you do get somewhere, wherever it might be, you'll find that, as Gertrude Stein has it, there's "no there there." At a student party, about a fourth of the people have their cellphones locked to their ears. What are they doing? "They're talking to their friends." About? "About another party they might conceivably go to." And naturally the simulation party is better than the one that they're now at (and not at), though of course there will be people at that party on their cellphones, talking about other simulacrum gatherings, spiraling on into M.C. Escher infinity.

It's possible that recent events in the world have added intensity to students' quest for more possibilities, more and more life. The events of September 11, which current college students experienced in their early teens, were an undoubted horror. But they had the effect, I think, of waking America's young people up from a pseudo-nihilistic doze. Before New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the middle-class American teenager's world had been a pleas-ure dome, full of rare delights. It was the reign of television: the oracle that knows everything and can take you anywhere. Television brought images of bliss, and its ads showed you the products that you needed to buy in order to achieve it. The well-known Jeep ad that depicted hip kids tossing Frisbees and laughing like rock stars had nothing to do with the properties of a Jeep. It was a persona ad that advertised the sort of person you'd be when you acquired the product. The ad was an emblem of the consumer moment: Buy in order to be.

Students wanted to be cool. They wanted to be beyond reproach. There was a sense abroad that if you simply did what you were supposed to do, kept low to the ground and stayed on the conveyor belt, the future that TV promised would be yours. Everything was a mode of entertainment, or could be transformed into one, after it had been submitted to Letterman-like or Leno-like ridicule. The president was a genial boy from Arkansas who awoke one day and found himself in office. But that had not slaked his boyishness at all. He still wanted a version of what everyone did: all-nighters, pizza, and his pals. The president was a dog who couldn't stay on the porch. My students — the guys in particular — often found him the perfect image of success: You need never grow up; need never abandon college-boy mode. The couch where you sat, hours a day, in lordly condescension, monitoring the box, would in time morph into an airship to swoosh you into your dreams.

But then there came the day of near apocalypse in America, September 11, 2001. The prospect of hanging, Doctor Johnson observed, does wonders to concentrate the mind. Well, the mind of America has been concentrated. No one believes that the whole edifice is likely to come down around us soon. But everyone now lives charged with the knowledge that today, tomorrow, next week, we can suffer an event that will change everything drastically. A dirty bomb in the middle of a great city, poison wafting in soft clouds through a subway system, a water supply subtly tainted: Such things would not only derange the lives of those they touch directly, they'd discompose and remake America in ways that would be, to say the least, none too sweet. Tomorrow the deck may be shuffled and recut by the devil's hand. So what shall we do now?

Continued in article

"Harsh Realities About Virtual Ones," by Michael Bugeja, Inside Higher Ed, March 11, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/03/11/bugeja

Since the 1990s, educators have been focusing on access to Internet as a means of engagement, concerned about the digital divide; now that the divide has been bridged, we are concerned about access to education.

Cause and effect here correlate.

Rising costs of a college degree at our wireless colleges and universities have resulted in increasing public scrutiny, student debt and budget models based on marketing rather than pedagogical concepts. Academe’s insatiable investment in virtual worlds, social networks and other consumer applications is a benchmark of how far we will go and how much money we will spend in the name of engagement.

In the past decade we have seen consumer technology used as delivery system, then as content in the classroom and finally as classroom, building and campus itself, and in every case, pedagogy changed to accommodate the application and the interface, adding courses to the curricula and fees to tuition.

In the past two years, tuition has spiked about 12 percent at most four-year institutions. Room and board rates have been rising on average 5 percent annually over the same time period. Driving these rates is an engagement industry, largely corporate, relying on wireless campuses to vend their virtual products and on teaching excellence centers to advertise their brands in the name of engagement.

The marketing strategy is stupefyingly rhetorical. Few administrators bother to explicate “engagement,” a generic term whose synonym has come to mean “retention” — the only factor that matters in funding formulas. The student pays tuition here rather than elsewhere or not at all.

While the generic meaning of engagement is “to occupy the attention or efforts of a person or persons,” according to my unabridged Random House Dictionary, the specific meaning relates to business, as in “to secure for aid, use, or employment, etc., hire” and “to bind, as by pledge, promise, contract, or oath; make liable.”

We are outsourcing our environment when we invest in virtual worlds and social networks, and their vendors bind us by service terms that make our institutions liable.

Moreover, these corporations and the public relations agencies that represent them (often “engaging” early adopters to promote their brand) have schooled academics in advertising basics, which contain two messages, manifest and latent, as in: Purchase this toothpaste (manifest). Get the girl or guy (latent). Adapted to academe, the advertisement plays as follows: Purchase this virtual-life game (manifest). Get engaged (latent).

Advertisements also include endorsements, as in “a recent dental association survey found that 3 of 4 dentists prefer this brand over another.” In academe, any use of the word “engagement” suggests an endorsement by the National Survey on Student Engagement, whose philosophy gauges the quality of institutions by activities that give meaning and value to collegiate life.

Those activities, I contend, have proliferated technologically beyond the intent but nevertheless in the name of NSSE whose four-page survey contains only four of some one hundred questions related to technology … or, should I say, technostalgia:

• [Have you] used an electronic medium (listserv, chat group, Internet, instant messaging, etc.) to discuss or complete an assignment?
• [Have you] used e-mail to communicate with an instructor?
• [To what extent does your institution emphasize] using computers in academic work?
• [To what extent has your experience at this institution contributed to your knowledge, skills and personal development in] using computer and information technology?

I coded the NSSE 2007 College Student Report, eliminating questions on demographics, and found 23 related to interpersonal contact, 11 to critical thinking, 9 to reading and writing, 6 to commitment or work ethic, 6 to financial and other support, 5 to diversity, and 20 on a range of topics from commuting to learning communities. (Some questions contained elements of two or more categories, as in how often students included diverse perspectives in their discussions and writing assignments.)

Certainly, you might code the questions differently than I and argue that technology factors heavily now in discussions with professors or sessions with academic advisers, deleting those from interpersonal contact and adding them to technology; but keep in mind that this survey dates back to 2000 with the intent behind questions suggested by distinct terminology such as “electronic medium” to discuss an assignment or “e-mail” to communicate with a professor.

Students not only use electronic media to discuss or complete an assignment; they have become the assignment in virtual worlds as avatars and check e-mail out of boredom as well as text each other, download music, visit social networks and make online purchases in wireless classrooms during lecture.

Attempting to engage today’s students, we have embraced consumer technologies on the flawed assumption that students want to learn through the same devices that amuse and distract them.

My own profession, journalism, abandoned its constitutional responsibility to inform the electorate using these very same technologies, with this result: The public interest now is what interests the public. Media moguls embrace that notion to engage their audience, giving us a steady diet of news about Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and American Idol augmented by outsourced war and foreign correspondence with unremitting follow-ups about school violence, beautiful women gone missing, athlete and celebrity scandals, and health reporting that plays to the advertising base and is cheaper than investigative journalism.

Continued in article

Concerns about video game addiction and cyberpsychology --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#CyberPsychology

Bob Jensen's threads on Second Life virtual worlds --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#SecondLife

Question
How does accounting for time differ from accounting for money?
Remember those Taylor and Gilbreth time and motion studies in cost accounting.
How has time accounting changed in the workplace (or should change)?

The link below was forwarded by Gregory Morrison at Trinity University

Studies have shown the alarming extent of the problem: office workers are no longer able to stay focused on one specific task for more than about three minutes, which means a great loss of productivity. The misguided notion that time is money actually costs us money.
"Time Out of Mind," by Stefan Klein, The New York Times, March 7, 2008 --- Click Here

In 1784, Benjamin Franklin composed a satire, “Essay on Daylight Saving,” proposing a law that would oblige Parisians to get up an hour earlier in summer. By putting the daylight to better use, he reasoned, they’d save a good deal of money — 96 million livres tournois — that might otherwise go to buying candles. Now this switch to daylight saving time (which occurs early Sunday in the United States) is an annual ritual in Western countries.

Even more influential has been something else Franklin said about time in the same year: time is money. He meant this only as a gentle reminder not to “sit idle” for half the day. He might be dismayed if he could see how literally, and self-destructively, we take his metaphor today. Our society is obsessed as never before with making every single minute count. People even apply the language of banking: We speak of “having” and “saving” and “investing” and “wasting” it.

But the quest to spend time the way we do money is doomed to failure, because the time we experience bears little relation to time as read on a clock. The brain creates its own time, and it is this inner time, not clock time, that guides our actions. In the space of an hour, we can accomplish a great deal — or very little.

Inner time is linked to activity. When we do nothing, and nothing happens around us, we’re unable to track time. In 1962, Michel Siffre, a French geologist, confined himself in a dark cave and discovered that he lost his sense of time. Emerging after what he had calculated were 45 days, he was startled to find that a full 61 days had elapsed.

To measure time, the brain uses circuits that are designed to monitor physical movement. Neuroscientists have observed this phenomenon using computer-assisted functional magnetic resonance imaging tomography. When subjects are asked to indicate the time it takes to view a series of pictures, heightened activity is measured in the centers that control muscular movement, primarily the cerebellum, the basal ganglia and the supplementary motor area. That explains why inner time can run faster or slower depending upon how we move our bodies — as any Tai Chi master knows.

Time seems to expand when our senses are aroused. Peter Tse, a neuropsychologist at Dartmouth, demonstrated this in an experiment in which subjects were shown a sequence of flashing dots on a computer screen. The dots were timed to occur once a second, with five black dots in a row followed by one moving, colored one. Because the colored dot appeared so infrequently, it grabbed subjects’ attention and they perceived it as lasting twice as long as the others did.

Another ingenious bit of research, conducted in Germany, demonstrated that within a brief time frame the brain can shift events forward or backward. Subjects were asked to play a video game that involved steering airplanes, but the joystick was programmed to react only after a brief delay. After playing a while, the players stopped being aware of the time lag. But when the scientists eliminated the delay, the subjects suddenly felt as though they were staring into the future. It was as though the airplanes were moving on their own before the subjects had directed them to do so.

The brain’s inclination to distort time is one reason we so often feel we have too little of it. One in three Americans feels rushed all the time, according to one survey. Even the cleverest use of time-management techniques is powerless to augment the sum of minutes in our life (some 52 million, optimistically assuming a life expectancy of 100 years), so we squeeze as much as we can into each one.

Believing time is money to lose, we perceive our shortage of time as stressful. Thus, our fight-or-flight instinct is engaged, and the regions of the brain we use to calmly and sensibly plan our time get switched off. We become fidgety, erratic and rash.

Tasks take longer. We make mistakes — which take still more time to iron out. Who among us has not been locked out of an apartment or lost a wallet when in a great hurry? The perceived lack of time becomes real: We are not stressed because we have no time, but rather, we have no time because we are stressed.

Studies have shown the alarming extent of the problem: office workers are no longer able to stay focused on one specific task for more than about three minutes, which means a great loss of productivity. The misguided notion that time is money actually costs us money.

And it costs us time. People in industrial nations lose more years from disability and premature death due to stress-related illnesses like heart disease and depression than from other ailments. In scrambling to use time to the hilt, we wind up with less of it.

Continued in article

March 12, 2008 reply from David Albrecht [albrecht@PROFALBRECHT.COM]

For those who don't remember these time and motion studies (about 100 years ago), here is a summary:  http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/scientific/

Pondering your question, I keep coming back to a humorous story I read in Reader's Digest years ago.  A person's car breaks down and a mechanic with a fine reputation is summoned.  The mechanic looks over the engine, pulls out a screwdriver, and in about three seconds tightens a screw.  The mechanic then hands the driver a bill for several hundred dollars.  The driver complains about paying so much for so little of the mechanic's time.  The mechanic replies that the itemization was $0.10 for the act of tightening the screw, and hundreds of dollars for knowing what to tighten.

At this time I refrain from saying much about the Empire Club and it's ability to charge thousands of dollars per hour for the time of its models.  I'm wondering if Governor Spitzer maintained personal financials according to GAAP, would he have reported his time involvement with Empire Club as a contingent liability.

Bob, you're retired and on pension, I'm still employed and getting paid.  The time you spend surfing, writing and sharing on AECM is unrecompensed, but mine is not.  Yet, you provide much more value to AECM than I.

David Albrecht
 

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting history and theory are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm

From the Scout Report on March 7, 2008

RSS Bandit 1.6.0.1 --- http://www.rssbandit.org/ 

RSS Bandit is an RSS reader that will help users keep track of their various feeds through the inclusion of a number of novel features. Visitors can view news items in customizable newspaper views and also "expire" items so that they will be automatically deleted after a set number of days. Additionally, visitors can view comments directly in the reader and also maintain fine- grained control of how often items are downloaded. This version is compatible with computers running Windows 2000 and XP.

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Desktop Flickr 1.0.14 --- http://infinite-sushi.com/software/1001/ 

For those individuals who can't wait to see their friends latest pictures on Flickr, the popular online photo-sharing website, this desktop client will be a real find. With this application, users will be notified as soon as any of their contacts uploads new photos to the site. Additionally, visitors can also upload photos to their own Flickr account. This version is compatible with all operating systems, and of course, visitors must also have a Flickr account.

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After return and restoration, paintings by Edvard Munch to go back on display Munch's Scream to go back on show http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7275547.stm 

Munch's Scream, Madonna set for summer return in Oslo
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2008/03/04/munch-paintings-return.html   

Edvard Munch: The Dance of Life Site http://muse.calarts.edu/~rjaster/edvard-munch/index1.htm 

Edvard Munch Online http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/munch_edvard.html 

Munch Museum [Macromedia Flash Player] http://www.munch.museum.no/?id=&mid=&lang=en

 

Wal-Mart Ends Test of Linux in Stores
"This really wasn't what our customers were looking for," said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien. To test demand for systems with the open-source operating system, Wal-Mart stocked the $199 "Green gPC," made by Everex of Taiwan, in about 600 stores starting late in October. Walmart.com, the chain's e-commerce site, had sold Linux-based computers before and will continue selling the gPC. This was the first time they appeared on retail shelves. Paul Kim, brand manager for Everex, said selling the gPC online was "significantly more effective" than selling it in stores. Wal-Mart sold out the in-store gPC inventory but decided not to restock, O'Brien said. The company does not reveal sales figures for individual items. Walmart.com now carries an updated version, the gPC2, also for $199, without a monitor. The site also sells a tiny Linux-driven laptop, the Everex CloudBook, for $399. Linux software is maintained and developed by individuals and companies around the world on an "open source" basis, meaning that everyone has access to the software's blueprints and can modify them. There is no licensing fee for Linux, which helps keeps the cost of the Everex PC low. Manufacturers have to pay Microsoft to sell computers with Windows preloaded. Linux is in widespread use in server computers, but it hasn't made a dent in the desktop market. Surveys usually put its share of that market around 1 percent, far behind Windows and Apple Inc.'s OS X.
PhysOrg, March 11, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news124442371.html

Education Tutorials

Not Free
Tools of Thinking: Understanding the World Through Experience and Reason (24 lectures, Fee-based) Course No. 4413 --- http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=4413&pc=Philosophy an

Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch

Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

Breathing Earth --- http://www.breathingearth.net/

Western Waters Digital Library --- http://harvester.lib.utah.edu/wwdl/