Universal Leonardo --- http://www.universalleonardo.org/

Color Chart: Reinventing Color from 1950 to Today --- http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/colorchart/flashsite/

Bob and Ray Comedy (1940-1980) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88761223

• The TV Show in 1952 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6UrCflVdfQ
• With a young David Letterman (Part 1) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAzZWlE3OdI
• With a young David Letterman (Part 2) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jcJMDdLqVs
• With Rhonda Fleming --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s633tMPZmA
• The Great Lakes Paper Clip Company --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK-jhXzckiE
• Comparison Shopping --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GCC5hzRXx0
• Bob and Ray with Jane Laraine and Gilda -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZfDsA5YwMs
• Slow Talkers of America (you may have to turn speakers up)--- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJyp3DvSV_8
• Report from Outer Space --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYb4DyRH7Ek

From the Financial Rounds Blog on March 20, 2008 -- - http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/

In case you're looking for a few new ways to kill some time (right - like we need more of those):

Fancast has entire episodes of many tv shows available online - free. And yes, they have Firefly and Buffy.

Crooksandliars has compiled a list of the 100 best standup comedians of all time - with links to Youtube clips for many of them.

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

March 31, 2008 message from rock musician larry@mightymoonmen.com

I just found your Enron links and stories from 2002...brings up bad memories
I wrote a song based loosely on Jeff skilling ... "Medicine Man"
You can listen to the song and read the lyrics --- www.mightymoonmen.com 
thanx

Bach and Beyond: Orpheus Plays Carnegie Hall --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88110058

Eric Bibb grew up amid the New York City folk scene in the 1950s and '60s, a scene he calls "a magical world that I was born into and never left." Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan would drop by his house. Paul Robeson was his godfather, and his uncle John Lewis famously played with the Modern Jazz Quartet. But Bibb has since become a blues guitarist and songwriter in his own right. His latest album, Get On Board, pays tribute to his musical and spiritual heroes ---
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88759231

Southern singer Lizz Wright crafts a distinct mixture of jazz, folk, gospel, and R&B, but she's been most widely celebrated as a rising star in the jazz world. Wright will perform a concert from WXPN and World Café Live in Philadelphia (complete concert_ --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88666000

You Don't Need to Know What's Not on the Test --- http://www.notonthetest.com/

André Previn --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Previn

• Playing Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zIFPEi53ao

• Previn conducts Beethoven's Symphony No.7 1973 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFi9XjNEuu8

• Greg Comedy Sketch --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQNYUJIW4sw

• With Dinah Shore and Bobby Darin --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbSAIZQhoSI

• With Dinah Shore (Melancholy Baby) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPJCRoQ9QoU

• With Ella and Peggy and Benny Goodman (Medley) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWKAd0iRpaM

• With Oscar Peterson Part 1 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55wYm8csHC4

• With Oscar Peterson Part 2 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDGzG-QWjAg

• Tchaikovsky album Anne-Sophie Mutter --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU9CY6RzTYg

• Rachmaninov Symphony Dances --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zIFPEi53ao

• Rachmaninov Symphony No.2 Mvt.3-4 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrKdPDiBZTI

• Margaret Price sings Richard Strauss Four Last Songs #3  --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r03Pceuw7E

I still  have an old 33.3 record album featuring André Previn playing Rhapsody in Blue --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_in_Blue
I could not find a YouTube video of the Previn recording.
However, here are some other video renditions:

• Leonard Bernstern Part 1/2 --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_in_Blue

• Leonard Bernstern Part 2/2 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOcuvv01nO4

• Walt Disney's Fantasia Part 1 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWH2OdC9WI8

• Walt Disney's Fantasia Part 2 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddxuynM6q0k

• Richard Clayderman (1978) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV14tyxXkpw

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

H-LatAm (Latin American History) ---  http://www.h-net.org/~latam/

Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889-1939 --- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/spalding/

Mostly Medieval: Exploring the Middle Ages --- http://www.mostly-medieval.com/explore/

What We Drove in the 50s and 60s (when gas cost less than 50 cents per gallon) --- http://www.objflicks.com/CarsWeDrove.htm

I think one might say that Iran has actually won the war in Iraq.
Madeleine Albright (who served as Secretary of State during President Clinton's second term) --- http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080327/NEWS/803270346/1002/NEWS .

We're all getting hosed. No one can consume it all, nor would anyone want to try. You'd drown. So, as best we can, we try to reduce our intake to manageable, gasping, horking gulps, and, in so doing, are able to remain ignorant of the breathtaking, mind-numbing totality of it. But what of that breathtaking, mind-numbing totality? It's not like if you don't see it, it's not there. We are like those 2-year-olds who try to hide, in hide-and-seek, by standing in the middle of a room and covering their eyes . . . For this experiment, conducted alone in a windowless room on the ninth floor of the Arlington offices of washingtonpost.com, I chose my wardrobe carefully. I remembered something I'd learned 35 years ago from James Howard Kunstler, my friend and colleague. At the time, we were both young reporters in Albany, N.Y. Kunstler had been assigned to wrestle a trained grizzly bear. He knew there was no way to win, but he figured he could at least get flattened in style . . . I'll tell you it can be, but I cannot tell you how horrible it is. It rattles the very center of your being. If you care about the state of humankind, it fills you with despair. We are as a people bleak and hostile and suspicious, filled with senseless partisanship and willing to believe anything and everything about anyone. We are full of ourselves and we hate. And we do it 24-7.
Gene Weingarten, "Cruel and Usual Punishment:  One man with more courage than brains sacrifices himself on the altar of punditry, and, in so doing, fails to redeem us all," The Washington Post, March 23, 2008 --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/18/AR2008031802463.html
There is also a video on Weingarten's experiment.

Each autumn, millions of Monarch butterflies embark on a treacherous journey across North America to the same forest in central Mexico -- a migration that baffles scientists as much as it enthralls nature lovers . . . Flying about 80 kilometers (50 miles) per day, the Monarchs reach Mexico at the end of a two-month voyage which includes more than 40 stopovers. "Sometimes it's possible to see swarms of butterflies arriving in these Mexican forests," says Ricardo Adaya, a technician at the Monarch Butterfly Reserve in Rosario, Mexico's largest such sanctuary.
"The Monarch butterfly's mysterious migration to Mexico," PhysOrg, March 22, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news125397157.html

So the rich are getting older while the poor are getting younger? Not quite. Everyone is living longer, but "affluent people have experienced greater gains, and this, in turn, has caused a widening gap"
WSJ Editors' Newsletter, March 24, 2008
Jensen Comment
Years ago over ten young workers shared in the support of one pensioner on Social Security. It's now approaching a sad state when only two workers must carry one pensioner, thereby cutting into the current living standards of each young worker.

Last week's Fed-led sale of Bear at least had the virtue of sending a message that bad things happen to reckless investors. Bear took a highly leveraged flyer on the mortgage securities market, ran into a liquidity crisis as its creditors lost confidence, and had to ask the Fed for help to avoid bankruptcy. The $2 sale price was a shock to Bear employees and investors. But it was also condign market punishment for bad decisions, and a bracing lesson for future investors. Meanwhile, the Fed's more troubling agreement to guarantee Bear's mortgage paper could at least be justified in the name of avoiding a larger financial breakdown.  . . .  If Bear holders don't like the $2 price, they have every right to oppose it while taking their chances with customers and creditors. If Mr. Dimon wants to pay more for Bear, that's also his prerogative, but then he shouldn't demand that the Fed continue to guarantee his paper. He's getting Bear at such a great price that he ought to accept the mortgage-backed securities risk almost as a public service. We suspect that's what the J.P. Morgan of the Panic of 1907 would have done . . . The immediate political message is also terribly damaging. Congress is already poised to overreact to the mortgage turmoil with a general bailout for subprime borrowers, and yesterday's actions will only feed that beast. At least the $2 share price wasn't a bailout for Bear shareholders; at $10 a share, that's a harder argument to sell, especially when taxpayers are also still indemnifying those Bear-J.P. Morgan creditors. This makes us wonder if Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson isn't already preparing to cave to Congress on the larger bailout.
"Pushovers at the Fed," The Wall Street Journal,  March 25, 2008; Page A22 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120640465860361041.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

China's official Xinhua New Agency published commentary Sunday accusing Pelosi of ignoring the violence caused by the Tibetan rioters. "'Human rights police' like Pelosi are habitually bad tempered and ungenerous when it comes to China, refusing to check their facts and find out the truth of the case," it said. "Her views are like so many other politicians and western media. Beneath the double standards lies their intention to serve the interest groups behind them, who want to contain or smear China," it said.
Cara Ana, Yahoo News, March 23, 2008 --- http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080323/ap_on_re_as/china_tibet

Of course, whenever gun ownership rights are debated, anti-gun activists like to point out that about 30,000 people are killed by guns in America every year -- although they seldom note that about 60 percent of those deaths are suicides, or that the firearm murder rate has dropped by 40 percent in the past 15 years, or that far more people are killed by motor vehicles or medical malpractice every year than are killed by guns. And they never mention how many crimes have been prevented by citizens bearing arms. Once again, that's a hard thing to quantify. One U.S. government survey in the 1990s estimated that more than 80,000 Americans a year used guns in an effort to protect themselves or their property against crime. Other estimates put the number far higher, at more than 2 million crimes prevented each year by the presence of privately-owned firearms. But those are estimates and extrapolations – which means we can argue about the numbers all day long.
Gordon Dillow, "Gun statistics you seldom see," OC Register, March 23, 20008 --- http://www.ocregister.com/articles/gun-homeowner-year-2003954-police-irvine

A media monitoring organization and a British citizen forced the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to apologize for blatant anti-Israel news coverage. They caught the network “red-handed,” reporting falsely. The BBC has frequently been accused of biased coverage slanted against Israel; Israeli government officials have summoned the BBC to explain itself in the past.
Hana Levi Julian, "BBC Caught Red-Handed on Anti-Israel, False Coverage," Israel National News, March 24, 2008 --- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125664

The head of the top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Wednesday it was having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India. The head of the top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Wednesday it was having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India.
Yahoo News, March 26, 2008 --- http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080327/tc_nm/att_workforce_dc

\US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday that America's Social Security program for the retired is "financially unsustainable" and needs an urgent overhaul . . . Paulson said the Social Security program's cash flows are projected to turn negative in under 10 years and that a Social Security trust fund would likely be exhausted in 2041 without urgent reform. Social Security's unfunded obligation, the difference between the present values of Social Security inflows and outflows less the existing trust funds, equals 4.3 trillion dollars over the next 75 years and 13.6 trillion on a permanent basis, according to the Treasury.
PhysOrg, March 25, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news125677122.html
Bob Jensen's threads on the disaster of entitlements are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India. The world's poorest nations still harbor the greatest hunger risk. Clashes over bread in Egypt killed at least two people last week, and similar food riots broke out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon this month. But food protests now crop up even in Italy. And while the price of spaghetti has doubled in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.
Katherine Corcoran, "Food Prices Soaring Worldwide," Breitbart, March 24, 2008 --- http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VJULF00&show_article=1

Sen. Barack Obama's Chicago church published an open letter from a Palestinian activist that labels Israel an "apartheid" regime and claims the Jewish state worked on an "ethnic bomb" that kills "blacks and Arabs."The letter, discovered by the blog Sweetness & Light, was published on the "Pastor's Page" of the Trinity United Church of Christ newsletter reserved for Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose anti-American, anti-Israel remarks landed Obama prompted the presidential candidate to deliver a major race speech last week."I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the white supremacists of South Africa," wrote the letter's author, Ali Baghdadi. "In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs."
Aaron Klein, WebNetDaily, March 25, 2008 ---  http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=59884

Merrill A. McPeak, Sen. Barack Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman, yesterday sought to deflect calls for his resignation over comments he made during an interview in which he implied U.S. politicians are afraid of Jewish voters in Miami and New York City and that American Jews are the "problem" impeding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Aaron Klein, "Top Obama adviser deflects 'Jewish problem' remarks," WorldNetDaily, March 28, 2008 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60140

Baghdadi's "open letter" is an anti-Israel screed, in which he states, among other things, that "what the Zionist Jews did to the Palestinians is worse than what the Nazis did to the Jews, because . . . Jews should have learned from their tragic experience" (a sentiment he attributes to Arnold Toynbee) and that Israel and apartheid South Africa "both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs."
The WSJ Editors on March 27, 2008 point out that Baghdadi's "Open Letter to Oprah" (Oprah is also a worshiper alongside BaracK Obama) at the Trinity Church of Christ in Chicago that still features this anti-Zionist letter at its Website --- http://tucc.org/upload/tuccbulletin_june10.pdf 
The letter was printed in the Church Bulletin on June 10, 2007.

This is when you hope there's an eternal hell
The incident, possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on the victims, began Saturday, March 22, when attackers used a script to post hundreds of messages embedded with flashing animated gifs. The attackers turned to a more effective tactic on Sunday, injecting JavaScript into some posts that redirected users' browsers to a page with a more complex image designed to trigger seizures in both photosensitive and pattern-sensitive epileptics.
Kevin Poulsen, "Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients via Computer," Wired News, March 28, 2008 --- http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/03/epilepsy

Question
What former Andersen partner, who watched the Andersen accounting firm implode alongside its client Enron, has been traveling for years around the United States warning that the United States economy will implode unless we totally come to our senses?
Hints:
David Walker is the top accountant, Controller General, of the United States Government.
He was a featured plenary speaker a few years back at an annual meeting of the American Accounting Association.
See his "State of the Profession of Accountancy" piece in the October 2005 edition of the Journal of Accountancy.
Also see http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/jul2006/walker.htm

Watch the Video of the non-sustainability of the U.S. economy (CBS Sixty Minutes TV Show Video) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS2fI2p9iVs

Over 500,000 Safe Sites for Kids
KidZui's Parent Plan Lets Children Explore In Safe Corner of Web
This week marks the launch of a parental-control service with a somewhat different approach. It's called KidZui, and it aims to offer kids a safe subset of the Internet where they can roam freely without triggering parental worry. KidZui, for children ages 3 to 12, hopes to emphasize the positive, rather than the negative. The service, from a San Diego company of the same name, claims to encompass 500,000 safe sites, photos and videos, ranging from pop culture to science, comics and games to history. You can watch the latest "American Idol" contestant, learn about dinosaurs, delve into history or visit popular kids' sites, such as Webkinz and Club Penguin. The sites, photos and videos included in KidZui are approved by a team of about 200 parents and teachers across the country, and are ranked by age, so that a site that might be right for an 11-year-old isn't served up to a 4-year-old. While a child can establish a list of friends in KidZui, and can share content with them, there is no instant-messaging or email function.
Walter S. Mossberg, " The Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2008 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120597536349250547.html

The KidZui homepage is at http://www.kidzui.com/

Also see:

Stay Safe Online --- http://www.staysafeonline.info/ 

"New, free Miss America browser aims to keep kids safe on the Internet," MIT's Technology Review, October 4, 2007 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/19480/?nlid=581

Question
How can you best publish books, including multimedia and user interactive books, on the Web?
Note that interactive books may have quizzes and examinations where answers are sent back for grading.

My Answers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
 

US News 2008 Rankings of Graduate Schools --- http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad

Bob Jensen's threads on controversial media rankings of colleges and universities --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings

"3 of the Funniest E-Mail Messages From Students to Professors -- and What They Say About Technology," Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 24, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2838&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
These are funny and sad at the same time. They say more about today's students than education technology.

If you're bothered by the advertisements when you play RealPlayer media, you might consider installing the add-free version --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/help/faq/download_and_install_realplayer.shtml

"Don't Like RealPlayer? You've Got Options Some folks say RealPlayer is loaded with ads. Here's how to play its media files without getting more than you want.," by Steve Bass, PC World via The Washington Post, March 25, 2008 --- Click Here

I fell into the RealPlayer quagmire minutes after I sent some friends a link to thesandhill crane webcam. They were kvetching because the webcam uses RealPlayer to stream the media--and no one wanted to install the bloated, ad-encumbered program.

I don't blame them. Except for when some loopy editor asks me a question about RealPlayer, I keep it off my system.

I'm not the only one with this attitude. Tom Spring, one of our news guys, recently reported that anti-spyware groupStopBadwarehas RealPlayer in its sights. Read "RealPlayer Gets Slapped with 'Badware' Label" for details.

Instead of bothering with the official version of RealPlayer, I have an alternative--a special version that doesn't have adware or other annoyances.

Here's the skinny: You can safely download a special version of RealPlayer, one that hasn't a bit of adware, never nags you, and doesn't litter your system with icons. It's not stripped down, either; it's just missing all those annoyances.

You can get this version of RealPlayer from a perfectly legit source: the BBC. What's cool is that few people know thatthis version is different.

The unofficial story, according to one source, is that the BBC's charter prevents it from "showering their viewers with craptastic ads for random American companies," so to get the BBC to Webcast in RealPlayer format, RealNetworks had to produce an ad-free player. Whether that story is true or not, the RealPlayer that the BBC Radio site offers is the real thing, just without the adware. Go to the BBC site todownload the player; you'll eventually land on a Real.com page, but you'll be downloading the BBC version.

Want to scan across 360 degrees of landscape from the top of Mount Everest? Head forPanoramas.dkand you'll be above the cloud cover. Move your mouse side to side (or up and down) while holding down the left mouse button--and hold onto your seat. For more dizzying panoramas, zip over to thehome page. [Thanks, Sandra C.]

Want more eye candy? Can do.Charmed Labshas a gizmo that uses a standard digital camera to capture astonishingly high-resolution images. No, I mean very hi-rez. As you zoom in on an image, you'll find yourself astonished by the details. Trythis image; after it loads, click on one of the thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. There are plenty more to see on theGigipansite. Have patience, though: All of these images take forever to load, even with lots of bandwidth. [Thanks, Guido.]

I want to be sure your installation of the BBC RealPlayer is neat and clean, so here's my step-by-step:

That's it--RealPlayer's loaded and you're good to go.

Run, I say, run quickly, becauseThe 6 Cutest Animals That Can Still Destroy Youare on the loose. It's fascinating stuff, for sure, but the language in the narrative is occasionally a little crass (yet funny).

Thinking of buying a newFord Mustang? You might want to get a horse instead.

So even the BBC version of RealPlayer isn't good enough for you? No worries (and no whining); I have another option for you.

Michael M., from Dripping Springs, Texas, reminded me aboutReal Alternative, which comes with Media Player Classic. Both of the apps are free and have no known adware or spyware. In combination, they play all of the Real media files; the package includes plug-ins for Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape, and Mozilla, so you can play music and videos right off the Web.

While you're here, you might as well think about grabbing the freeQuickTime Alternativeas well. With it installed, you won't need to have Apple's bloated QuickTime player, either.

Some of you have to spend time on the phone. When things get boring, fire upZe Frank's kaleidoscopeand cook up some colorful and dazzling patterns.

Snowball Fightis a cute and addictive Shockwave game. I got to level three. Use the cursor to position the red players and release the button to throw. Don't worry, the file the site's askiing you to download is a safe plug-in. I know, you've already got Flash and Shockwave, so I haven't a clue why it's necessary.

Jensen Comment
I so seldom use RealPlayer that I'm not all that bothered by the advertisements. I used to be more bothered with how difficult RealPlayer made it to find the free player as opposed to the version that they wanted to sell. That irritation is not nearly so troublesome today. I do watch RealPlayer media on NPR quite often, but the advertisements on NPR are tasteful after the first advertisement of about a minute or so that must be endured. For example, try http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15933032

What proportion of telemarketing firms cheat the public and even the charities with distorted accounting ploys

"Misreporting Fundraising: How Do Nonprofit Organizations Account for Telemarketing Campaigns? Elizabeth K. Keating Boston College Linda M. Parsons The University of Alabama Andrea Alston Roberts Boston College, The Accounting Review, Volume 83, No. 2, March 2008, pp. 417-446 ---
http://www.atypon-link.com/AAA/doi/pdf/10.2308/accr.2008.83.2.417

The purpose of this study is to examine the frequency, determinants, and implications of misreported fundraising activities. We compare state telemarketing campaign reports with the associated information from nonprofits’ annual Form 990 filings to directly test nonprofits’ revenue and expense recognition policies. Using a conservative approach that understates the extent to which nonprofit organizations violate the reporting rules, our study indicates that 74 percent of the regulatory filings from nonprofit organizations fail to properly report telemarketing expenses. Smaller nonprofits, less monitored firms, and those with less accounting sophistication are more likely to inappropriately report telemarketing costs as a component of net revenues rather than as expenses. Nonprofits that use external accounting services are more likely to properly classify the cost of their telemarketing campaigns as professional fundraising fees.

. . .

Prior research has supported a concern by regulators and donors that nonprofits have incentives to understate fundraising costs and may inappropriately allocate these costs to other activities. Additionally, a number of studies provide evidence that donors direct their charitable gifts to nonprofits that report higher program ratios and lower fundraising ratios. With more than 76 percent of the more than $240 billion in annual contributions to nonprofits in the U.S. coming from individual donors (American Association of Fundraising Counsel [AAFRC] Trust for Philanthropy 2003), misreporting by nonprofits can potentially have a large effect on the distribution of donations among nonprofit organizations.

Our study provides empirical evidence of how frequently fundraising costs are misreported, and examines the methods used and the factors associated with these decisions. This study directly tests the veracity of nonprofits’ reporting practices by comparing federally mandated nonprofit financial reports to disclosures of revenues and costs of telemarketing campaigns filed by telemarketing solicitors in certain states. Additionally, it is the first paper to specifically consider the effect of accounting sophistication on nonprofit reporting practices.

We design our tests to produce conservative estimates of telemarketing revenue and expense by using only the single largest reported telemarketing campaigns conducted each year for a nonprofit by each of its telemarketing solicitors. These estimates of total annual telemarketing revenues and expenses are then compared to the nonprofit’s annual IRS informational filing. Because our design biases against incorrectly labeling a nonprofit a misreporter, we may not have fully detected net reporting, particularly by organizations with contributions raised without the assistance of professional solicitors. This is particularly a concern for the larger organizations in our sample as they are more likely to generate contributions from multiple sources. Thus, we may have underestimated the degree to which misreporting occurs.

Despite our conservative test design, we find that over 74 percent of the organizations in our sample fail to properly report telemarketing expenses. Twenty-seven percent of firm-years contain misreported revenues. Of the remaining 73 percent, a majority misclassify their reported costs in a category other than professional fundraising fees, and 9 percent engage in cost allocations, meaning that not all telemarketing costs are reported as fundraising expenses. Using an even more conservative design that compared a single year ofcampaign revenue and expenses to the sum of three years of firm-wide contributions and fundraising expenses, 14 percent of this sample is misreporting revenues. Of the remaining sample, 53 percent report telemarketing expenses as other than professional fundraising fees and, at least, another 4 percent is allocating telemarketing costs to an expense category other than fundraising.

Our results provide strong evidence that nonprofits misreport telemarketing fees, which affects how program and fundraising ratios are reported. The effect on reported ratios of misreporting is substantial. We find that by misreporting telemarketing expenses the nonprofits in our sample could understate the fundraising ratio by as much as 15 percent. Of the misreporting we detect, most occurs among small nonprofits that have limited accounting sophistication. Our findings suggest that nonprofits that have greater accounting sophistication and those likely to be subjected to greater external monitoring are less likely to be classified as a misreporting firm. We find that the factors associated with the more prevalent activity of misreporting revenue differ from those related to expense classification and allocation. Higher accounting sophistication and more external monitoring appear to play a greater role in moderating revenue misreporting. Only the use of professional outside accountants appears related to proper classification of telemarketing costs as professional fees. We interpret these results as suggesting that misreporting decisions may be driven either by incentives to improve reported results or a lack of familiarity with accounting. Prior research has implicitly or explicitly attributed misreporting to managerial incentives. Our study is the first to specifically consider accounting sophistication as a factor inmisreporting.

SOP 98-2 requires nonprofit organizations to allocate costs incurred jointly for fundraising and program activities to several expense categories. However, the occurrence of expense allocation should be related to the joint activity, not systematically associated with organizational characteristics. Allocation of telemarketing costs to an expense category other than fundraising is less often associated with larger organizations and those that have relatively higher levels of debt. This finding implies that allocation may occur more often in small organizations in order to improve reported fundraising ratios, or is more prevalent in organizations that have less accounting sophistication or fewer monitoring mechanisms.

These findings can inform the current debates by state and federal regulators as they search for ways to improve the quality of nonprofit financial reports. In particular, we provide evidence to policy makers that, in addition to regulation and monitoring, educating Form 990 preparers can improve accounting quality.

Bob Jensen's threads on telemarketing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#Telemarketing

Credit Cards:  Funny and Sad Sites

March 26, 2008 message from Bill Hazelton [bill@optimum-interactive.com]

Mr. Jensen-

I just wanted to drop you a note about your web site. I have been doing research on some personal finance and I found a few of your threads pretty helpful actually. Lots of great tidbits and links and stuff to personal finance and credit-related stuff. Admittedly, the site isn’t the sexiest thing in the world, but in terms of great resources and very helpful “bread crumbs” I found it very useful. You probably don’t care, but thought you might appreciate some feedback.

This is the one thread in particular that I’m talking about: http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fees.htm  , although there are several “rabbit hole” threads that I found myself wandering down.

So I just wanted to say “hey” and also send you a few of credit/personal finance related resources that I found pretty unique and very interesting. Let me know what you think.

I just love this one for all the young people out there. Talks about how 20 somethings ending up doomed with credit card debt before they even get started. Pretty scary, I actually recommended the book to my neighbor’s college-aged daughter. She rolled her eyes, of course:

http://www.strappedthebook.com/facts.php 

Just a forewarning on this video … the language is a little lively but it’s worth watching, particularly for all the parents out there.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4A4Dx6I0yag&feature=related 

This one is hilarious but a little depressing. Outrageous credit card spending stores. Again, hilarious but disgusting simultaneously.

http://www.apply4-credit.com/blog/top-20-most-outrageous-credit-card-overspending-stories/ 

Although I didn’t see it, you probably already have this on your site, it’s basically all the Worst Industry Practices in the credit card industry. Should be a must read for anyone before they get a credit card:

http://www.truthaboutcredit.org/worst-practices 

Anyway, thanks again for all the great info/resources … let me know what you think of these.

Bill Hazelton
818-887-9422

Bob Jensen's threads on the dirty secrets of credit card companies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#FICO

"Hammering out Wikipedia's financial future, argument by argument," MIT's Technology Review, March 23, 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/20455/?nlid=958

Scroll the list of the 10 most popular Web sites in the U.S., and you'll encounter the Internet's richest corporate players -- names like Yahoo, Amazon.com, News Corp., Microsoft and Google.

Except for No. 7: Wikipedia. And there lies a delicate situation.

With 2 million articles in English alone, the Internet encyclopedia ''anyone can edit'' stormed the Web's top ranks through the work of unpaid volunteers and the assistance of donors. But that gives Wikipedia far less financial clout than its Web peers, and doing almost anything to improve that situation invites scrutiny from the same community that proudly generates the content.

And so, much as how its base of editors and bureaucrats endlessly debate touchy articles and other changes to the site, Wikipedia's community churns with questions over how the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees the project, should get and spend its money.

Should it proceed on its present course, soliciting donations largely to keep its servers running? Or should it expand other sources of revenue -- with ads, perhaps, or something like a Wikipedia game show -- to fulfill grand visions of sending DVDs or printed books to people who lack computers? Is it helpful -- or counter to the project's charitable, free-information mission -- to have the Wikimedia Foundation tight with a prominent venture capital firm?

These would be tough questions for any organization, let alone one in which hundreds of participants can expect to have a say.

The system ''has strengths and weaknesses,'' says Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's co-founder and ''chairman emeritus.'' ''The strength is, we don't do anything randomly, without lots and lots of lots of discussion. The downside is we don't get anything done unless we actually come to a conclusion.''

Even the foundation's leaders aren't unified. Florence Devouard, a French plant scientist who chairs the board, said she and other Europeans involved with the project are more skeptical than Americans such as Wales about moneymaking side projects with for-profit entities.

The project's financial situation is not exactly dire. Although the group does not have an endowment fund with interest fueling operations, cash contributions jumped to $2.2 million last year, from $1.3 million in the prior year. With big gifts recently, the foundation's budget is $4.6 million this year.

In the past year, the foundation has tried to become less of an ad hoc outfit, expanding staff from less than 10 people to roughly 15 and moving to San Francisco from St. Petersburg, Fla. It has a new executive director, Sue Gardner, formerly head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s Web operations, who expects to add professional fund-raisers and improve ties with Wikimedia patrons.

''Two years ago, if you donated $10,000, you might not even get a phone call or a thank-you letter,'' Wales said. ''That's just not acceptable.''

Gardner appears to favor an incremental strategy, stretching the staff to 25 people by 2010, with the budget increasing toward $6 million. Even such relatively simple changes, she said, would keep the foundation from missing out on business partnerships and other opportunities.

For example, project leaders would like to hold ''Wikipedia Academies'' in developing countries, to encourage new cadres of contributors in other languages. Wales also wants to implement software that makes it less technically daunting for newcomers to edit Wikipedia articles -- an idea that has been discussed for at least two years.

It might seem surprising that such a low-key agenda could prove contentious, given that Wikimedia and Wales have also encountered complaints of being incautious with donors' money. But some Wikipedians want the foundation to be spending more.

Continued in article

"Wikipedia's nonprofit group gets a huge boost: $3M from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation," MIT's Technology Review, March 27, 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/20471/?nlid=967

Since new car warranties can be enforced at all those car dealers, a new car is virtually a commodity that can be purchased anywhere based on the best price and transportation deal. Of course used cars cannot be commodities since each one is unique.

"Navigating the Web to Purchase a Car:  A Guide to Sites That Help Pinpoint The Car You Want," by Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2008; Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120589261537147495.html

A few weeks ago, I received a dreaded phone call at 8:30 a.m. telling me he wasn't going to make it. The "he" in this case was my car, and the bearer of bad news was my mechanic. My 1994 Saab bit the dust when its timing belt broke, and after discussions about the cost of the repair versus the value of the car, I accepted the fact that I'd need to start looking at buying another vehicle.

I headed online to start researching (I was looking for a used car) but was overwhelmed by an avalanche of information. Everyone seemed to have something to say about cars, whether in blogs, community forums, editorial reviews, Kelley Blue Book values, Carfax reports or local dealer sites. As I discussed my findings with friends and family, more people than not were surprised to hear about the variety of research and price comparisons available online.

This week's column is an overview of sites that may help you or someone you know browse for a new or used car on the Web. I used sites ranging from trusted resources like ConsumerReports.org to search engine tools like Yahoo Autos. This column can't possibly mention every car-searching resource on the Web; rather, it's just a taste of what's available.

Edmunds.com and ConsumerReports.org both feature informative data on a number of new and used vehicles. Edmunds is a free site specifically geared toward cars, including an online magazine for enthusiasts called Inside Line and a Web forum for discussions about automobiles called CarSpace. I used various tools on Edmunds.com, including one that estimates the true cost to own a specific car over time. I especially enjoyed reading an article titled "Confessions of a Car Salesman," which proved uncanny in predicting a range of tricks and techniques the salespeople used when I first visited a car dealership.

Edmunds offers a four-step pricing system, which includes getting quotes from dealers, and a payment calculator, which estimates monthly payments. Edmunds teams up with AutoTrader.com to help perform searches for certified pre-owned or used cars online.

Consumer Reports covers products as well as cars but keeps much of its most useful data behind a Web-site subscription, which costs $26 annually or $5.95 monthly (magazine subscribers can pay a discounted price of $19 a year). You need this subscription to access CR's respected ratings and certain sections of its Web forums. These ratings were helpful to me, as they assessed numerous aspects of specific car models, including trouble spots by year, performance, safety and fuel economy.

CR also offers valuable lists such as "All Recommended Cars," "Best and Worst Used Cars" and "Reliable Used Cars by Price." A car-buying calculator is an asset to this site that helps you decide whether it would be smarter to buy or lease a vehicle.

Google, Yahoo and AOL all present special search-results pages when you search for a specific car for sale, using drop-down menus and various ways to sort results. Google Base for automobiles, found by selecting "Vehicles" from www.google.com/base, is a list of data submitted to Google. Drop-down menus help broaden or narrow results by sorting the data according to certain attributes, such as make or price. Vehicle-search results can be viewed in one of three formats: List View, Table View or Map View -- an illustration of each car's location in relationship to a Zip Code. I found Table View most useful because it organized data in smart, spreadsheet-like displays so I could quickly skim through columns listing price, color, amenities and mileage.

But not all car searches within Google Base returned the same drop-down-menu options for sorting. In a few instances, I couldn't sort my search results by model year. Google Base does show the date on which each car was listed.

Yahoo Autos, found at www.autos.yahoo.com, teamed up with Cars.com to offer richer content, including a Car Finder feature that helps people narrow down what type of new car they might like according to price, driving style and fuel (type and economy). Yahoo even tries to answer car questions with its Yahoo Answers Q&A tool, which lets people submit questions. I found user reviews on this site, as well as expert reviews provided by NewCarTestDrive.com, an auto-review site.

The used-car section in Yahoo Autos reminded me of Google with its drop-down menus and results that displayed in list or map views. List view shows plenty of information in one glance, including an image of the car for sale and the number of additional available photos. From this list, users can link directly to view or order Carfax reports or email the dealer, saving time wasted on excess mouse clicks and browsing.

AOL Autos, found at http://autos.aol.com, does a nice job of integrating Web 2.0 features such as pop-up menus that appear within a page rather than in an entirely new Web page. Vehicle-search results are found by entering a few criteria for a new or used car, and used-car results can be further narrowed by adding or subtracting desired specifics listed on the far left of the screen. Some specs include model type, engine, year or extras like heated seats or a sunroof.

This site can also condense numerous used-car listings into one graph that illustrates car prices in relationship to mileage or year. Selecting any point on the graph reveals a short description of a vehicle's location, price and mileage. For new cars, AOL Autos offers lengthy expert reviews from NewCarTestDrive.com, as well as user reviews.

Both Yahoo Autos and AOL Autos walk users through steps to get price quotes from dealers for new cars.

Carfax.com provides car-history reports using vehicle-identification numbers, or VINs. For a $30 fee, used-car buyers can use Carfax.com for 30 days. This report shows a vehicle's history such as if it was a rental or not, how many different owners it had, how long each owner possessed the vehicle and where it came from. Tips pop up within these reports, including one that warned me about "curbstoning," a term that describes an individual without a dealer's license looking to sell a number of cars by posing as a private seller.

As can be expected, many newspaper Web sites offer automobile sections that display digitized classified ads, so be sure to check your local paper's Web site.

At the end of the day, test-driving a car will be a true test as to whether or not you like it -- no matter how much research you've done online. But knowing your stuff before you visit a dealership can save money and time.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's helpers for buying automobiles and other vehicles --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Vehicles

"Colleges' Earmarks Grow, Amid Criticism Money from Congress flows to directed grants as peer-reviewed research struggles," by Jeffrey Brainard and JJ. Hermes, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 28, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i29/29a00101.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

A record-breaking number of Congressional pork-barrel projects this year has loaded college and university plates with more of these controversial grants than ever before. The number of institutions receiving earmarks has shot up despite growing worries that the noncompetitive grants undermine the American scientific enterprise, and in spite of promises by some lawmakers to cut back.

An exclusive analysis by The Chronicle shows that legislators channeled more than 2,300 projects to 920 institutions, mostly for research, in the 2008 fiscal year. That is a 25-percent increase in the number of colleges and universities over 2003, when The Chronicle last surveyed earmarks. The total dollar amount for 2008 is at least $2.25-billion. The spending is a slight increase from five years ago, though it is a bit lower when adjusted for inflation. But it is a huge jump from 10 years ago, when pork spending totaled $528-million.

Earmarks are given out by members of Congress — without review of the projects' merits by knowledgeable scientists — by sprinkling the money into annual spending bills to favor constituents. This year, for the first time, it is possible to see just how widespread the practice is: A new law requires Congress to identify the sponsor of every earmark.

The numbers and names show "a system that's out of control," says Michael S. Lubell, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society.

The danger of increased earmarking, critics charge, is that it continues even as legislators have fallen behind in spending for scientific grants awarded the conventional way, through open competition and peer review. Competition is widely regarded as having made America's science the world's best, and the strength of that science has helped make America's economy the world's biggest. Earmarks have neither beneficial effect, some studies suggest, and other countries' research and trade are catching up.

The dirty little secret about earmarks for science is that while college officials occasionally fret about them in public, they chase them in private. At meetings of the Association of American Universities, a group of 62 research institutions, some presidents regularly complain that earmarks are squeezing out peer-reviewed awards — "and then they go home and call up their congressman to ask for an earmark," said one president, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to be free to discuss the meetings.

Politicians are similarly conflicted. On the presidential-campaign trail, earmarks are getting high-profile attention. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, battling for the Democratic slot, supported a one-year moratorium, though they both handed out generous earmarks to colleges last year. Sen. John McCain, the expected Republican nominee, wants to abolish them. But members of both parties in Congress are likely to maintain their support for earmarks.

A Zero-Sum Game?

Some of this year's academic pork went for campus roads, classroom buildings, and other construction projects, but two-thirds, or $1.6-billion, was directed to scientific research at almost 500 institutions, The Chronicle's analysis shows. That represents about 5 percent of all federal money for academic research.

The war in Iraq and rising gasoline prices clearly influenced the topics of earmarked research, sparking interest in studies of brain and spinal-cord injuries, biofuels, and fuel cells. (See articles.)

Compared with 2003, the average value of earmarks for higher education has dropped because Congress spread roughly the same amount around many more projects. For 2008, the median earmark was $462,000, down from $497,000 in 2003.

That's not the only change in how research is supported. Until a few years ago, Congress had been raising spending for peer-reviewed grants much more than it had for earmarks. The budget of the National Institutes of Health doubled between 1998 and 2003, to $27-billion.

But since 2003, peer-reviewed federal research grants have become significantly harder to win, making earmarks more difficult to ignore. The budgets of the NIH and the National Science Foundation, the two principal federal sources for academic research money, have declined, considering inflation. In 2008 each agency expects to approve about one in five grant applications, down from one in three in 2001.

A stream of university representatives have visited Capitol Hill in recent months to plead for relief. They warn that the tight budgets are driving talented young scientists away from research and damaging the country's capacity for innovation. Congress took note of the issue last year and passed the America Competes Act, which promised to double spending on the NSF and other physical-sciences programs over seven years.

But the legislators have already fallen short of this goal. Most of the increase proposed for 2008 was cut from the final version of a spending bill after Democrats and the president deadlocked over government spending.

That underscores what is arguably a trade-off between money for earmarks and for peer-reviewed work. Consider that the $1.6-billion in Congressional earmarks for academic research this year could have paid for the entire increase called for by the America Competes Act in 2008, with $1-billion to spare. If that money were given to the NIH, it would have allowed the agency's budget to keep pace with inflation.

University officials talk up spending for merit-based awards when they visit their Congressional representatives, but they send mixed messages by requesting earmarks during the same meetings, said a higher-education lobbyist, who asked not to be named so he could speak freely about the private sessions. Given that the earmarked money is guaranteed to come to a lawmaker's district and money for peer-reviewed grants is not, "which part of the message do you think the member is going to listen to?" he says.

Lawmakers, of course, are aware that it's far easier to claim credit for a direct earmark. In news releases sent to their home districts, they regularly boast about their successes at delivering the money to colleges.

Institutions that receive lots of research earmarks are unapologetic about accepting them with open arms. Take Mississippi State University, which topped The Chronicle's list of institutions receiving the most earmarks in 2008. The institution pursues the set-asides because "we're in a poor state," says Kirk H. Schulz, vice president for research and economic development. He credits earmarks for helping Mississippi State lay the groundwork — by starting research programs — that has increased the money it gets for peer-reviewed federal awards. (But that growth has not been remarkable, roughly matching the average for all academic institutions.)

Bob Jensen's threads on the politically correct fracture in academe are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#PoliticalCorrectnessFracture

Question
Can you record HDTV television shows without paying an annual fee such as the TiVo annual fee?

Answer
Sadly no due to failure of the FCC to enforce a rule.

"The Truth About DVRs:   Wondering why you can't buy a digital video recorder without also signing up for TiVo or a specific cable service?" by Stephen H. Wildstrom, Business Week, February 2008 --- http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080226_493768.htm?sub=techmaven 

It's a sad story. Effective July 1, 2007, the Federal Communications Commission required cable companies to separate the security functions of their set-top boxes from other roles, such as tuning, recording, etc. This change was supposed to free consumers from the tyranny of having to accept whatever set-top box the cable company chose to offer. Instead they would be able to buy a box at retail and connect it to a cable network by getting a device called a CableCARD from the cable operator.

However, pretty much nothing has gone the way it was supposed to in the eight months since the FCC edict took effect. The cable companies offer CableCARDs, but they don't make them particularly easy to get. Even if you can get one, the technology is fraught with problems. It took two Comcast engineers two trips to my house to get a TiVo HD system working. And even when it works, you can't get on-demand or pay-per-view programming. Naturally, if you pay for the cable company's box instead, those services work just fine.

Meanwhile, consumer-electronics makers have fled the independent set-top box business thanks to foot-dragging by cable operators and the sluggish process of getting their products certified by CableLabs, the industry's research-and-standards arm. CableLabs and the operators have also scared consumer-electronics companies out of making third-party set-top boxes by insisting that CableCARDs will soon be superseded by a software-only solution called the Open Cable Platform.

As a result, I know of only two third-party CableCARD devices that are really aimed at the mass market: the aforementioned TiVo HD and a cable tuner made by ATI that plugs into computers running on Windows Media Center. The TiVo, priced at $299, has enjoyed considerable success, though it does require a TiVo subscription in addition to monthly cable charges. The ATI TV Wonder hasn't done as well. It is available for purchase only as part of a new computer system and adds significantly to the cost. Microsoft (MSFT) has reportedly become very frustrated with the whole CableCARD effort and may give up on it.

When cable carriers started offering boxes with DVRs built in, they pretty much drove third-party boxes off the shelves. The CableCARD mandate was supposed to revive the market, but without serious enforcement efforts by the FCC, I doubt that will ever happen.

Bob Jensen's (slow loading) threads on TiVo are at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#TiVo

"Adobe Puts Free Version Of Photoshop Online," The Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2008; Page B7 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120658319262967571.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop on Thursday launched a basic version available for free online.

San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Systems Inc. says it hopes to boost its name recognition among a new generation of consumers who edit, store and share photos online.

While Photoshop is designed for trained professionals, Adobe says Photoshop Express, which it launched in a "beta" test version, is easier to learn. User comments will be taken into account for future upgrades.

Photoshop Express will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser. And, once they register, users can get to their accounts from different computers.

Web-based software is increasingly popular, and Adobe knows it's got to get on that train, said Kathleen Maher, an analyst at Jon Peddie Research.

Many kinds of software are available for use online in a trend known as "software as a service," or "cloud computing." The earliest were e-mail programs, but they now include services to create and manage content and even whole operating systems. And they don't require time-consuming upgrades because they're maintained by the service provider.

Google Inc. provides a host of such services, as do Microsoft Corp. and others.

"This is the battlefield where Adobe and Microsoft and Google are going to fight some pretty big battles," Ms. Maher said.

Photoshop enters the online photo-management arena many years after such services first appeared. Some companies have already made a big name for themselves, like 9-year-old storage solution Shutterfly Inc., photo-editing service Picnik or image-sharing site Photobucket Inc.

Adobe says providing Photoshop Express for free is part marketing and part a strategy to create up-sell opportunities. It hopes some customers will move from it to boxed software like its $99 Photoshop Elements or to a subscription-based version of Express that's in the works.

Ron Glaz, a research analyst at IDC, says the move was necessary for Adobe to keep pace. Users are less likely to switch to a software they aren't familiar with, he said.

"They have a whole market that they are missing out on, and they need to make sure that the market is aware there is a Photoshop solution for them. As that market grows and becomes more sophisticated, hopefully it will generate money," Mr. Glaz said

"It's one of those things, if you can't beat them, join them," Mr. Glaz said. "If they don't join them, the long run could be really painful."

You can download the free version of Photoshop Express (beta)  from http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopexpress/
Click on the picture to proceed.
You can get a boxed version for $99.

Jensen Comment
Suppose you've got picture of your dog that you would like to touch up. In Photoshop Express you can remove picture blemishes and red-eye, converting to grayscale, cropping and resizing, and more, although most touch up features are available in other competitor alternatives such as Flickr, Shutterfly, Picnik and Photobucket. If you have something cheaper (than the very expensive professional Photoshop Pro) such as JASC/COREL Paintshop Pro, you will not find many of the popular features of PSP in Photoshop Express.

Question
Why might you request that your college let you produce and deliver an online course?

August 27, 2008 message from Lou Squyres [squyrell@MUOHIO.EDU]

I'm trying to sell to my department the opportunity for me to teach intro to accounting (financial) online this fall. (blackboard, with Houghton Mifflin supplememtal materials)

I could really use help with

1: the sales pitch-folks who've made it work, how they made it work, technological tips for teaching nontraditional students...

2. What teaching methods should I employ that are different than ones used in the classroom?

3. When you first proposed such a class, what were the objections and how did you address them?

Thanks for whatever advice you can offer. I've been through the archives and couldn't find anything relevant to these particular issues.

Lou Squyres, JD., CPA, MBA
Visiting Assistant Professor Business Technology
Miami University Middletown, Ohio

August 27, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Lou,

In terms of marketing an online course you might want to use a business model to show how online courses may enter new markets to get students who would not otherwise take courses from your university. Another tack is to show how online courses can result in better learning from existing students on campus. Emphasize that the drawback of online courses done well is not usually in terms of students.

If the online courses are done very well with lots of online instant messaging with the instructor and other students, online courses tend to burn out instructors.

You might also demonstrate the huge advantage of online courses for some handicapped students --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped 

I suggest you contact the best online accounting professor that I know in this business --- Amy Dunbar at the University of Connecticut. Amy is on leave this semester as a KPMG Fellow in New York City, so she may not be quite as active on the AECM this semester.

I also suggest that you make contact with some of the schools that already have online basic (and advanced) accounting courses. Of course many of these like the University of Wisconsin already had extension programs for part-time students such that marketing was probably not so intense as in colleges that do not have extensive part-time onsite courses.

Quite a few online courses and programs for training and education are identified at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm 

The advantages disadvantages of asynchronous programs (that include most online programs) are identified at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm 
Especially note the SCALE experiments at the University of Illinois where onsite versus online courses from the same instructors given to on-campus students were compared across a five year period.

Also note how the University of North Texas found that students living in dorms often preferred the online alternatives even though they could walk to class.

Bob Jensen

March 27, 2008 reply from Steven Hornik [shornik@BUS.UCF.EDU]

Lou,

I've been teaching the financial accounting in a mixed mode class for the past year now at UCF, 300+ in the fall, 200 this Spring and 900+ in the Fall. Because of the numbers we have to go to an online approach. I think there are two main hurdles to overcome in the online environment - delivering the lectures/content and overcoming the tendency of students to learn/study alone. For the first I used Camtasia studio to create lectures from all of my slides AND broke them down into relatively small lectures (ie ~15 minutes each). This way students don't have to set aside 1-2 hours to watch/listen to a lecture. Having the lectures online also allows the students to re-listen to them as often as they want, this is a big plus! If you want to see any of my lectures you can look at them here: http://www.mydebitcredit.com/test-new-page/screencasts/ 

To overcome the isolation I use several tools. I use Second Life extensively, and have written about that on this list and my blog (same as above http://www.mydebitcredit.com ) and would be happy to take you on a tour if you'd like. I also utilize an IM program called Meebo to keep in touch with my students and have found this to be very helpful. I have a widget on the course webpage so students can chat with me whenever I'm online (which is quite a lot).

Hmmm, I don't know if that answers the question regarding your sales pitch, more what I do. For learning outcomes it still comes down to student motivation. Probably the greatest advantage for those students who are motivated and disciplined enough is that online can lead to more time on task for the students and perhaps more time with the content expert - you. They will interact with you in different ways than they would in a face-to-face class and often times this is for the better.

I hope some of that helps,

Dr. Steven Hornik
University of Central Florida Dixon School of Accounting
407-823-5739
Second Life: Robins Hermano http://mydebitcredit.com 
yahoo ID: shornik

Bob Jensen's threads on education technologies are linked at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm

A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit by four high school students who claimed that Turnitin, a popular plagiarism detection service used by many schools and colleges, violated their ownership rights to their own papers. The ruling said that the box students check consenting to having their papers reviewed (and stored) makes it impossible for the students to sue. Because the students checked the box, they gave consent, even if they also stated their objections, the decision said. Further, the ruling defended the right of educational institutions to use services like Turnitin. “Schools have a right to decide how to monitor and address plagiarism in their schools and may employ companies ... to help do so,” the decision said. An appeal is expected. The decision text and a critical analysis of it appear on the blog of Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University who has been closely watching the case.
Inside Higher Ed, March 26, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/03/26/qt
 

"Federal Judge Rules That Plagiarism-Detection Tool Does Not Violate Students' Copyrights," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 28, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/free/2008/03/2250n.htm

A federal judge ruled this month that a commercial plagiarism-detection tool popular among professors does not violate the copyright of students, even though it stores digital copies of their essays in the database that the company uses to check works for academic dishonesty. The decision also has wider implications for other digital services, such as Google's effort to scan books in major libraries and add them to its index for search purposes.

The lawyer for the students who sued the company said he plans to appeal.

Judge Claude M. Hilton, of the U. S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., found that scanning the student papers for the purpose of detecting plagiarism is a "highly transformative" use that falls under the fair-use provision of copyright law. He ruled that the company "makes no use of any work's particular expressive or creative content beyond the limited use of comparison with other works," and that the new use "provides a substantial public benefit."

The case has been closely watched by the thousands of colleges who use the plagiarism-detection tool, called Turnitin, as well as by opponents of the service who hope to prevent professors from becoming anticheating police.

Last March four high-school students—two in Virginia and two in Arizona—sued iParadigms, the company that runs Turnitin, arguing that the company took their papers against their will and profited from using them. The students' high schools required papers to be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin, and the service automatically adds scanned papers to its database. The company boasts about the size of its database as a selling point, and colleges pay thousands of dollars per year to use it. The students sought $900,000 as compensation for six papers they had submitted.

Judge Hilton seemed unmoved by nearly all of the students' arguments. "Schools have a right to decide how to monitor and address plagiarism in their schools and may employ companies like iParadigms to help do so," he said in his 24-page ruling.

More Issues to Explore

"I'm definitely appealing," said Robert A. Vanderhye, a retired lawyer in Virginia who took on the students' case pro bono. "I am positive that the appellate court will reverse" on the fair-use issue, he added.

The judge, he continued, "copied" the company's brief. "He didn't even consider any of our arguments," said Mr. Vanderhye.

Specifically, Mr. Vanderhye said, the judge did not address whether or not Turnitin violated federal student-privacy laws by allowing users of the service to see papers that show students' names along with the names of their instructors and other personal information. If the tool finds that a newly submitted paper contains material that matches papers already in the database, it gives the instructor the option of retrieving the old paper for a detailed comparison.

Katie Povejsil, vice president of marketing for Turnitin, said the company was "delighted" by the ruling.

"This was a very important case for us," she said. "This clears up some questions" in customers' minds about the legality of the product.

Peter A. Jaszi, a law professor at American University, said the judge's