While I'm under contract to write a book I suspended weekly editions of Tidbits. However, when my monthly editions of New Bookmarks become too cluttered with tidbits I will occasionally come out with a special edition of Tidbits.

Erika in on April 16, 2008 looking south for Spring that seems like it will never arrive
She's standing on her elevator
Her elevator does not go all the way to the top (top floor that is)
Notice how straight her spine became after the 10th surgery

Below are our Azaleas in April versus June

Below is Erika's Rock Garden in April (after losing most of our snow) versus June
In March there was over a foot of block ice (under deep snow) on the rocks

Below are our wild roses in April versus June

Below is our driveway in April versus July

And last but not least, here's a snow covered view of Mt. Washington from my desk in April
The Twin and Kinsman Mountain Ranges look higher only because they're closer
Mt. Washington is 28 miles away as the crow flies
The snow was almost gone on our lawn before we had this light snowfall
There really isn't much springtime up here until late May

Poems About Mountains --- http://www.poetseers.org/poem_of_the_day_archive/poems_about_mountains

All the birds have flown up and gone;
A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other -
Only the mountain and I.

It probably should be "mountain and me," but that doesn't rhyme.

Tidbits on July 8, 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

Take Just One Minute --- http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh289/Impish_Dragon/?action=view&current=Untitled.flv

Video Pick: Pixar's Magical Short, Presto --- http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/07/video-pick-pixa.html

WorldWideScience --- http://worldwidescience.org/

Carnegie Institution for Science --- http://www.ciw.edu/ 

Cop for a Day --- http://www.baltimorepolice.org/join-the-team/media-center/cop-for-a-day

The Walrus [video) --- http://www.walrusmagazine.com/

Mr. T. Bear (inspirational) --- http://www.mrbearmovie.com/

Absalom, Absalom! [William Falkner] --- http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/absalom/

King's Last March [civil rights history) http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/king/

Abbot and Costello --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbot_and_Costello

• Who's on First --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPrm6luPmME
• Bloopers --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwz9Kn6ug-Y
• Math --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WMi5TUJDso
  Also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1fJDIXEq9w
• 1952 with Desi --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmVV6MoZ8M0
• Colgate Comedy Hour --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IVBi95AyWg
• Susquehannah Hat Company --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSp0sMHVEpQ
• Ride'em Cowboy (I don;t know what Ella was doing in this one in 1942) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHSWnh3aYNE
• When they meet Frankenstein --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg5N9FJc__Q
• Lost in a Harem --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC1UH3AhSeo
• Out of the Depths of an Ancient Tomb --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOhbiIUSmvA
• TV Cartoon (1967) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCvd3DM5R1Y 
• Dollar a Day Impersonation --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lihJSg-ZYE
• Computer Sketch --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj9g76ZgKb0

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

Back to the Sixties --- http://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

Meglio Stasera --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WlcDBwIfVE

Orchestra Baobab in Concert (nearly two hours full concert) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91597883

John Coltrane: Saxophone Icon, Pt. 2 --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91859910

Artifact: Hear! Hear the pipes are calling! The surprising history of the bagpipe --- http://www.reason.com/news/show/126873.html

Listening Post's Top 10 Hottest Music Sites --- http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/07/listening-posts.html
Bob Jensen's preferred listening site --- http://www.tropicalglen.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

Lost Titles, Forgotten Rhymes: How to Find a Novel, Short Story, or Poem Without Knowing its Title or Author --- http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/lost/

Free videos, textbooks, and tutorials in various fields --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

Many more free online tutorials in various fields --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials

Online poems and poets --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#OnlinePoems

Especially for Children --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Children

Lehman Special Correspondence Files http://ldpd.lamp.columbia.edu/lehman/
Hervert H. Lehman is a former mayor of New York City, Governor of NY, and U.S. Senator from NY

President Bush and the top U.S. military commander warned Israel Wednesday against bombing Iran, suggesting the U.S. doesn't want to get involved in a third war. "This is a very unstable part of the world and I don't need it to be more unstable,"
Richard Sisk, "Don't bomb Iran, Bush warns Israel," Daily News, July 2, 2008 --- Click Here
But there are rumors that Dick Cheney wants Israel to hit Iran before he leaves town --- http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/379352/cs/1/

Co-Authored Declaration of Independence
Jefferson was famously proud of having written the Declaration of Independence. But his first draft, Mr. de Bolla reminds us, underwent major revision. About a quarter of what Jefferson wrote, in fact, was dropped from the final document, and a good portion of what remained was changed by Franklin and Adams, among others.
Mark Leepson, "The Founding of Fireworks," The Wall Street Journal, July 3, 2008, Page A9 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121504525079024919.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Near the end of his career, Carlin was more bitter than funny—It's Bad for Ya is a righteous tirade that provokes more nods than laughs—but he never lost his unparalleled ability to play with words. He deconstructed the phrases that we use absentmindedly, exposing our hypocrisies—and our human condition—in the process. He was a comic genius because he was a linguistic master. As Carlin said in his most famous routine: "I thank you for hearing my words... They're my work, they're my play, they're my passion. Words are all we have, really." But Carlin's comedy was not simply about dirty words; it was about the English language, and our collective fear of it. He used more expletives than Howard Stern, but his obsession was linguistics, not lasciviousness. As Carlin told CNN in 2004, "[I]f I hadn't chosen the career of being a performer, I think linguistics would have been a natural area that I'd have loved-to teach it, probably...Language has always fascinated me." He was especially fascinated with the blunting of language for comfort's sake. Carlin ridiculed our watering-down of sexual descriptions and ethnic categories, not to mention our mourning clichés, all of which he believed were the real-life manifestations of George Orwell's "Newspeak," utilized to obscure reality, numb the mind, and discourage criticism. As much as Carlin loathed theology, war, greed, and hypersensitivity, he was most disgusted when religious puritans, the military, corporations, and P.C. "classroom liberals" mangled the language for the purpose of soothing the masses. When I saw Carlin perform in the ‘90s, the biggest laugh of the night came from his observation that "the unlikely event of a water landing," discussed in every preflight safety lecture, sounds suspiciously like "crashing into the fucking ocean."
Marty Beckerman, "The Cunning Linguist Remembering George Carlin's literary genius," Reason Magazine, June 23, 2008 --- http://www.reason.com/news/show/127137.html

Teaching, I find is a lot like Susan Sarandon’s Annie Savoy describes baseball. It “may be a religion full of magic, cosmic truth, and the fundamental ontological riddles of our time, but it’s also a job.
James Tuten, "Baseball, ‘Bull Durham’ and the Classroom," Inside Higher Ed, June 27, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/06/27/tuten

As a result, the bank has been growing fast. With an average loan size of only $450, it now has more than 900,000 clients – 15 times as many as it had in 2000. This strong growth suggests that the bank's for-profit model makes both borrowers and lenders better off. Yet the triumph is not good news for everyone. In the economic sector that Compartamos serves – those making about $10 a day – the international charity brigade is at risk of becoming obsolete. Perhaps this explains why people who make their living giving away other people's money are badmouthing Compartamos for the vulgar practice of earning "too much" profit. Lending to microenterprises took off some years ago as economists recognized that the poor, just like the middle class, can make productive use of credit. The most famous microfinancier is Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
Anastasia O'Grady, "Markets for the Poor in Mexico," The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2008; Page A11 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121478119445214333.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

The future? The disappearance of sun spots was the hot topic at a recent international solar conference held at Montana State University. For the past two years, the sun has undergone a phase of relative inactivity, meaning usual solar phenomena such as sun flares, sun spots, and solar eruptions have all but disappeared. "It's a dead face," researcher Saku Tsuneta says of the solar surface. Tsuneta is with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and was one of the participants at the MSU conference The good news is that without such intense solar activity disruptions to space technology and even our beloved gadgets here on earth have been minimal. While this provides some relief to those of us whose cell phones dropped calls at the tiniest solar flare, scientists are concerned that this means bigger things to come for Earth's climate. Dana Longcope, a solar physicist at MSU, explains that the sun generally runs on an 11-year cycle and that there is usually a minimum of activity as the cycles change. The last cycle peak was in 2001 and the next cycle is predicted to peak around 2012. The sun is now as inactive as it was two years ago, and scientists aren't sure why. Some have even suggested that the inactivity portents the beginning of a new ice age. Geophysicist Phil Chapman, the first Australian NASA astronaut, confirms that there are indeed no sun spots currently on the solar surface. He also notes that the earth has cooled by about 0.7 degrees Celsius between January 2007 and January 2008, and says, "This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record, and it puts us back to where we were in 1930." Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is also certain that it's an indication of a coming cooling period. He warns that climate change caused by man is "a drop in the bucket" compared to the fierce cold that can inactive solar phases can bring.
dascalle, "Will Earth's Future Be a FROZEN One?...rather than a hot one?" Free Republic, June 29, 2008 ---
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038172/posts

Why do weeds grow better in the city?
Not only did the weeds grow much larger in hotter, CO2-enriched plots — a weed called lambs-quarters, or Chenopodium album, grew to an impressive 6 to 8 feet on the farm but to a frightening 10 to 12 feet in the city — but the urban, futuristic weeds also produced more pollen. Even more alarming was the way that the increased heat and CO2 accelerated and perverted the succession of species within the plots. Typically, a cleared area in the Eastern United States, if left to itself, returns to native woodland. This process varies with the site and circumstances, but in its archetypical form fast-growing annual weeds cover the soil first, playing the role of what ecologists classify as “pioneer plants.” These gradually give way to longer-lived perennial weeds, which are in turn replaced by shrubs and trees.
Tom Christopher, "Can Weeds Help Solve the Climate Crisis?" The New York Times, June 29, 2008 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/magazine/29weeds-t.html

Writing for a narrow majority, Justice David Souter noted that "American punitive damages have been the target of audible criticism in recent decades" and agreed that the problem is "the stark unpredictability of punitive awards." State practices vary widely, from no punitive damages to headline-grabbing judgments. Some offer nine review factors for juries to consider, some seven, some have no set approach. The results are highly unpredictable, with the court concluding, "We are aware of no scholarly work pointing to consistency across punitive awards in cases involving similar claims and circumstances."
Gordon Crovitz, "Common Sense on Punitive Damages," The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2008; Page A11 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121478179475314385.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Militants soon attacked the patrol again, the statement said, and 29 more insurgents were killed. "During this engagement, insurgents attempted to disguise themselves in women's clothing in order to escape," it said. The number of NATO and coalition troops in Afghanistan has been increased and more Afghan soldiers and policemen are on duty, but there has been no let-up in the violence and the Taliban insurgency shows few if any signs of weakening. More than 6,000 people were killed in Afghanistan last year and there are signs that this year the toll could be higher, with neither side able to gain the upper hand.
Yahoo News, June 28, 2008 --- http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080628/wl_nm/afghan_violence_dc_1

The U.S. Congress has refused to give the FBI $11 million to expand the use of data mining in counter-terrorism efforts. American politicians are generally hostile to government use of data mining, a technique widely used, for decades, in business (marketing), law enforcement (catching criminals) and the military (finding the enemy). This last use has become much more sophisticated since the U.S. Department of Defense began pouring billions of dollars a year into finding ways to defeat IEDs (improvised explosive devices, usually roadside bombs). The effort to lower IED casualties has opened up all sorts of opportunities...
"Congress Blinds The FBI." Strategy Page, July 1, 2008 ---  http://strategypage.com/
Jensen Comment
The FBI has been unable to make this point to Congress, mainly because some key legislators are ideologically opposed to data mining, and refuse to acknowledge the widespread success of the technique in civilians and military sectors.

Meanwhile some senators got sweetheart deals from mortgage companies seeking Congressional favors (which mortgage companies finally got)  --- http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/the_obamas_and_their_mortgage_1.html

John Edwards hauled out former Joint Chief of Staff chair Hugh Shelton to attack Clark. As everyone knows the military vote in the South is a big deal, and Shelton, along with a lot of other military people, don't like Clark . . . In September Shelton said that Clark was relieved of his assignment as NATO commander because of "integrity and character issues." He never said what these were.
James Ridgeway, "John Edwards's Mudslinging Ways," Village Voice, November 10, 2002 --- http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0346,mondo5,48665,6.html

There is no terrorist threat in this country. This is a lie. This is the biggest lie we've been told.
Michael Moore

If someone did 9/11 to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California - these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!
Michael Moore

I'm a millionaire, I'm a multi-millionaire. I'm filthy rich. You know why I'm a multi-millionaire? 'Cause multi-millions like what I do.
Michael Moore

The Iraqis who have risen up against the U.S. occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win.
Michael Moore
Jensen Comment
As far as I know British soldiers were not standing between warring "tribes" of Minutemen killing and torturing each other in unimaginable horror.

Michael Moore's homepage pleads for young people to volunteer to help the Democratic Nominating Convention and Shut Down the Republican Convention
The following modules appear at his homepage --- http://www.michaelmoore.com/

NOW: Volunteer to Work at the Republican National Convention --- https://jobs.quickhire.com/scripts/msp2008.exe
September 1st - 4th: Help SDS Shut Down the RNC in St. Paul --- http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080328130926247

Michael Moore is actively pushing for Wesley Clark to be Obama's VP Running Mate
Jensen Comment
I think Moore wants Wesley Clark, more than any other viable prospect, to be President or Vice President because, unlike Obama, Clark cannot be manipulated by the GOP. Until Obama won the nomination, Michael Moore was never in favor of Obama: Here's a quote that Moore removed from his Webpage and would like us to forget:

Barack Obama is a good and inspiring man. What a breath of fresh air! There's no doubting his sincerity or his commitment to trying to straighten things out in this country. But who is he? I mean, other than a guy who gives a great speech? How much do any of us really know about him? I know he was against the war. How do I know that? He gave a speech before the war started. But since he joined the senate, he has voted for the funds for the war, while at the same time saying we should get out. He says he's for the little guy, but then he votes for a corporate-backed bill to make it harder for the little guy to file a class action suit when his kid swallows lead paint from a Chinese-made toy. In fact, Obama doesn't think Wall Street is a bad place. He wants the insurance companies to help us develop a new health care plan -- the same companies who have created the mess in the first place. He's such a feel-good kinda guy, I get the sense that, if elected, the Republicans will eat him for breakfast. He won't even have time to make a good speech about it.
Michael Moore, "Who Do We Vote For This Time Around?" January 2, 2008 --- http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=220

Hence Moore wants Wesley Clark to be a defacto Commander and Chief behind the scenes even if Clark's not the Vice President. Wesley Clark as joined the advisory team for Obama:
"Clark Finds a Home Among Obama Advisors (updated)." by Ed Lasky, American Thinker, July 1, 2008 --- http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/07/clark_finds_a_home_among_obama.html

On Sunday, Wes Clark, who had been on Hillary Clinton's campaign list of advisers, seems to have adroitly switched sides to support Barack Obama and did so in a very maladroit way. He impugned the character of John McCain and his war-record on Meet The Press Sunday.

. . .

Also lest we forget, Wes Clark, like so many closely associated with Barack Obama, has been a beneficiary of money from George Soros.  Right after receiving large chunk of change from Soros, Wes Clark again let loose a broadside against American support for Israel in its battle with Hezbollah, calling it "a serious mistake".  
He will find a comfortable home among Barack Obama's team of advisers.

Jensen Comment
Since Obama has so little knowledge and experience in military matters, it is altogether possible that the defacto next Commander and Chief will be Michael Moore's choice Wesley Clark. Now that's really scary to most of the top brass in the current military and to me.  Clark opposes our support of Israel against the Hezbollah and military resistance of Iran's takeover of Iraq.

If you’re Barack Obama, and you’re looking for a retired general to make the implausible case that you’re ready to handle America’s national security concerns, you can’t afford to be choosy. So Obama is stuck with Wesley Clark – a man whose public utterances are usually bizarre and often hilarious . . . During the Kosovo War, he created so many problems with his ill-advised statements to the press that Shelton was forced to convey a message from Secretary of Defense William Cohen to “get your #$*#& face off the TV. No more briefings. Period.”
Dan Calabrese, July 7, 2008 --- http://www.northstarwriters.com/dc185.htm

Colin Kahl, a national security professor at Georgetown who is Mr. Obama’s Iraq policy coordinator, wrote a paper in April suggesting the US should leave a “residual” force of 60,000 to 80,000 troops – far below the current 150,000 but much higher than the anti-war Democratic base would wish.
Edward Luce, "Obama under fire over Iraq troop pledge," Financial Times, June 24, 2008 ---
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/292c39c0-4217-11dd-a5e8-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

But Obama is ignoring Kahl's advice. On July 3, 2008 he reiterated his unilateral fixed time table for having all U.S. troops out of Iraq in 16 months.
"Barack Obama Reiterates his Stance on Iraq," July 3, 2008 --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2WS0kiX5Os
 Jensen Comment
Sadly, ignoring Colin Kahl's  takes away our best bargaining chips when negotiating with Iran to not take over Iraq's oil fields for Iran and Syria in the wake of our surrender. Iran will most likely allow U.S. troops to be unharmed during the pull out before unleashing stoked-up Shiite power to take over Iraq in much the same manner as Hezbollah has taken over Lebanon. In fairness Obama has even more frequently claimed he would take military action, even re-invade Iraq, if U.S. homeland security was immediately threatened. But it's not likely that he will view Iran's takeover of Iraq as a threat to U.S. homeland security. His dilemma will be the increased threat to Israel that he's vowed to protect.

There's a close parallel between how Iran-backed Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (read that Hezbollah) took over Lebanon and how Iran-backed Moqtada al-Sadr will most likely take over Iraq. Iran probably figures that the same formula that worked in Lebanon will work in Iraq once the last U.S. troops are withdrawn. President Obama will not view the loss of Lebanon or Iraq as  immediate threats to U.S. homeland security, but these losses most certainly spell immediate trouble for Israel's security. The question is increasing how much our long-run homeland security is tied to Israel's homeland security in the presence of Iran's mission of destroying Israel. The most likely long-run scenario, in the face of nuclear holocaust, is that Israelis will be moved --- mostly to Europe and America. Since Europe is quickly becoming a Muslim stronghold, it's most likely that most Jews will opt for America. This may be a win-win scenario for American scholarship,  technology advances, medical advances, and one-party control of Washington DC under the name of "MoveOn." that replaces the Democratic Party to get rid of the last vestiges of conservatism.

And once Israel is out of the Middle East there may even be a meltdown of weapons of mass destruction --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl32Y7wDVDs 
Of course by then, America's national debt will have risen from $55 trillion today to $12 tredecillion at a time when $10,000 bills are worth more as wallpaper than as a medium of exchange. Such inflation is inevitable with vastly increased egalitarian entitlements.  The U.S. will quickly become a bit player on the world economy relative to China, Brazil, India, Russia, and all valuable parts of South and Latin America gobbled up by Venezuela. Hopefully, the rich nations of the new world order will send us foreign aid in remembrance of how generous we were in their times of need --- http://trumanstake.blogspot.com/2008/03/global-poverty-act-of-2007-s2433.html

"I'm glad I'm not young anymore."

Action Needed to Avoid Mission Failure
Having a major governmental accounting-type problem on CPA examinations bolstered this module in most U.S. accounting education programs, but it most likely is tokenism compared to the sink hole forming in our Federal, state, and local governments. Much of our hope for the future depends upon having a more stable, enlightened, dedicated, ethical, and knowledgeable body of civil service workers to keep our naive and often corruptible elected officials from losing this nation.

The problem is that it really takes no expertise to run for any elected office. We're in a bigger mess when the government civil service is cannot counter the ignorance and ethically-challenged elected leaders.

"Action Needed to Avoid Mission Failure,' Warns Study," AccountingEducation.com, June 26, 2008 ---
http://accountingeducation.com/index.cfm?page=newsdetails&id=147252 

Identifying the new skills and competencies that federal financial managers will need to face 21st century challenges is the focus of a research paper released recently by the AGA (Association of Government Accountants).

21st Century Financial Managers: A New Mix of Skills and Educational Levels? warns that with 60 percent of the US workforce eligible for retirement over the next 10 years and the commensurate mass retirement of skilled and experienced government financial managers, federal agencies could be left vulnerable to mission failure.

According to AGA Director of Research Anna Miller, "This report is of particular importance given the magnitude of the anticipated problem. The study highlighted those areas in which we must act if we are to avoid compromising standards of accountability and transparency to taxpayers."

Continued in article

The Association of Government Accountants --- http://www.agacgfm.org/homepage.aspx

The U.S. is now dangling on a debt and accountability cliff on the side of that sink hole, and virtually none of our presidential or congressional candidates for office are willing to face these issues because the voters themselves won't have any part of sacrificing to save our great nation.

Truth in Accounting or Lack Thereof in the Federal Government (Former Congressman Chocola) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWTCnMioaY0 
Part 2 (unfunded liabilities of $55 trillion plus) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Edia5pBJxE
Part 3 (this is a non-partisan problem being ignored in election promises) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG5WFGEIU0E

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 
Also see "US Government Immorality Will Lead to Bankruptcy" in the CBS interview with David Walker --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS2fI2p9iVs
Also at Dirty Little Secret (David Walker) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGpY2hw7ao8

At the moment the overwhelming majority of our top accounting graduates do not aspire to civil service.
Therein lies much of the problem for our future.

June 27, 2008 reply from Richard C. Sansing [Richard.C.Sansing@TUCK.DARTMOUTH.EDU]

And now, a rebuttal from the late George Carlin.

"Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks."

Richard C. Sansing
Professor of Accounting
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
100 Tuck Hall Hanover, NH 03755

Jensen Comment
You can watch George Carlin saying this on video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlXoIVLJWCY

"Nuclear's Tangled Economics:  John McCain says new plants can help solve the energy crisis and address climate change. It's not that simple," by John Carey, Business Week, June 26, 2008 --- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_27/b4091024354027.htm?link_position=link3 

To power America's future, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) has an energy plan with a distinctly French accent. "The French are able to generate 80% of their electricity with nuclear power," the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee points out. "There's no reason why America shouldn't."

In a mid-June speech, part of a continuing blitz on energy issues, McCain laid out his vision for 100 new nuclear plants—45 of them to be built by 2030. They would help meet America's energy needs, and because nukes don't emit greenhouse gases, they would fight global warming as well. McCain also wants to borrow from the French playbook by reprocessing and reusing spent nuclear fuel and by providing government incentives to get all this done. Nukes now produce 20% of U.S. electricity, says McCain senior policy adviser Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin: "To move north of that, we have to be aggressive."

BUDGET BUSTERS But McCain may not want to follow the French example too closely. While France's existing 59 atomic plants are relatively trouble-free, its largest nuclear company, Areva, has run into difficulties building next-generation reactors in France and Finland. The Finnish project is two years behind schedule and more than $1.5 billion over budget, while construction of the other plant, in Normandy, was temporarily halted in late May because of quality concerns. And while France has the world's biggest fuel-reprocessing program, it still hasn't found a permanent home for a growing pile of highly radioactive waste that's left over. The waste sits in heavily guarded storage at Areva's La Hague reprocessing plant.

The U.S. nuclear industry believes that delays and cost overruns, which helped kill new plant construction in the late 1970s, are less likely today, thanks to now-standardized reactor designs and a streamlined U.S. government licensing process. That process has yet to be tested, though, and costs for new plants are climbing. Two years ago, the price of a 1,500-megawatt reactor was pegged at $2 billion to $3 billion. Now it's up to $7 billion and rising, as the cost of concrete, steel, and other materials and labor soars. MidAmerican Energy Holdings (BRK), a gas and electric utility owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK), shelved its own nuke plan earlier this year, saying it no longer made economic sense. "The country badly needs new nuclear plants to deal with the climate issue," says John W. Rowe, chief executive officer of Exelon (EXC), currently the largest nuke operator, and chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group. "But they are very expensive, very high-risk projects."

So risky and expensive, in fact, that building new ones won't happen without hefty government support. NRG Energy (NRG), Dominion (D), Duke Energy (DUK), and six other companies have already leaped to file applications to construct and operate new plants largely because of incentives Congress has put in place. The subsidies include a 1.8 cents tax credit for each kilowatt hour of electricity produced, which could be worth more than $140 million per reactor per year; a $500 million payout for each of the first two plants built (and $250 million each for the next four) if there are delays for reasons outside company control; and a total of $18.5 billion in loan guarantees. The latter is crucial, since it shifts the risk onto the federal government, making it possible to raise capital from skittish banks. "Without the loan guarantees, I think it would be very difficult for the first wave of plants to move forward," says David W. Crane, CEO of NRG.

Even $18.5 billion won't guarantee the debt needed to build dozens of reactors, though. And the current limit on the loan guarantee is just one bottleneck. Only two companies, Japan Steel Works and France's Creusot Forge, a unit of Areva, are capable of forging key reactor parts such as massive pressure vessels. There are also shortages of contractors with nuclear certification and of skilled workers—even a lack of potential sites for new reactors. The proposed plants are all next to existing reactors. Builders of the power plants, utility executives say, are unwilling to commit to fixed prices and fixed schedules. Most companies want to be paid their actual costs, including overruns, plus a reasonable return, says one CEO.

That's why experts say the much-heralded nuclear "renaissance" will be slow to flower. "I'm not quite sure the number McCain put out is obtainable," says Adrian Heymer, senior director for new plant deployment at the Nuclear Energy Institute. "If there are any hiccups in coming in on time or on budget, it will be a struggle to go much beyond the first eight or 10 plants." Exelon's Rowe adds that the industry can't grow until the government solves the waste problem, either by opening a proposed storage site in Nevada, or by setting up surface storage facilities around the country. And in the long run, to cut the amount of waste, he says, "it's very clear that we've got to have a fuel-recycling technology."

The trouble is, separating out plutonium in the spent fuel for reuse is costly and dangerous, argue critics like Princeton University physicist Frank N. von Hippel. And in any case, worries over separated plutonium being diverted to make bombs led the U.S. to ban reprocessing 31 years ago.

The upcoming election will pull many of these issues into the limelight. The nuclear industry's call for still more government support will find a more sympathetic ear in McCain than in Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.). The presumptive Democratic nominee agrees nuclear energy could help combat global warming, but he says there are better alternatives. Indeed, many Democrats and renewable power advocates are upset that the playing field is tilted so far in favor of nukes. Robert Fishman, a veteran utility executive who is now CEO of solar startup Ausra, says the investment tax credit sought by the solar industry would cost less than 1% of the dollars going to nukes and fossil fuels. "I don't think we've done a good job laying out to Senator McCain what the renewable industry can do for the country," Fishman says. So it looks like a few nuclear plants may come online in the U.S.—some as early as 2016—but not as many as McCain wants.

Continued in article

"The War Over Offshore Wind Is Almost Over:  It's no longer if, but when, where, and how many wind farms will go up along the U.S. coast," Business Week, June 26, 2008 --- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_27/b4091052403644.htm

Wind farms are springing up in Midwestern fields, along Appalachian ridgelines, and even in Texas backyards. They're everywhere, it seems, except in the windy coastal waters that lap at some of America's largest, most power-hungry cities. That's partly because the first large-scale effort to harness sea breezes in the U.S. hit resistance from an army led by the rich and famous, waging a not-on-my-beach campaign. For almost eight years the critics have stalled the project, called Cape Wind, which aims to place 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound about five miles south of Cape Cod. Yet surprisingly, Cape Wind has largely defeated the big guns. In a few months it may get authorization to begin construction. Meanwhile, a string of other offshore wind projects is starting up on the Eastern Seaboard, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Great Lakes.

Much of the credit—or blame—for this activity goes to Jim Gordon, the man who launched Cape Wind in 2000. His goal is to provide up to 75% of the electric power on Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard by tapping the region's primary renewable resource: strong and steady offshore breezes. He has methodically responded to every objection from Cape Cod property owners and sometime-vacationers, ranging from heiress Bunny Mellon and billionaire Bill Koch to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). "This is like trying to put a wind farm in Yellowstone National Park, as far as we're concerned," says Glenn Wattley, CEO of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the opposition's lobbying arm.

Since 2000, Cape Wind's Gordon has burned through $30million of his own wealth, much of it to pay for studies of the site. The result is a four-foot-high stack of environmental reports, including three federal applications looking at the wind farm's potential impact on birds, sea mammals, local fishermen, tourism, and more. "We've gone through a more rigorous evaluation process than any prior energy project in New England," says Gordon, who built natural-gas-fired power plants before starting Cape Wind.

Victory is by no means certain. Cape Wind could yet bog down in litigation or be nixed by the feds, Gordon concedes. Even if Washington O.K.'s the project, he must find a way to finance it. Expected costs have more than doubled in the last eight years, to over $1.5billion, by some estimates. And assuming the funding comes through, engineering and construction could drag on for three or more years.

Regardless of how this all plays out, Gordon has secured his spot as one of U.S. wind power's pioneers. When it comes to building natural gas and oil rigs in federal waters, energy companies must follow clear government rules. But until Cape Wind floated its first proposal, Washington had never spelled out how to develop an offshore wind farm. Gordon's plan prodded the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that oversees energy extraction from public lands, to take action. The regulators hope to release detailed rules for utilizing wind, wave, and tidal power by yearend, at which point the path will be cleared for applications from a dozen or so wind projects in federal waters, with nearly as many under way in state areas. "We'll see an incredible flurry of proposals to tap ocean resources for clean and renewable energy," says Maureen A. Bornholdt, program manager at the MMS's Office of Alternative Energy Programs.

It's easy to understand why entrepreneurs are rushing in. Winds at sea blow stronger and more steadily than on land, where they are slowed by forests, hills, and tall buildings. Unlike terrestrial winds, sea breezes also tend to keep blowing during the hottest times of the day, when the most power is needed. Within a few miles of much of the U.S. coastline, in almost any direction, wind resources are more abundant and dependable than anywhere outside the Great Plains. Exploiting this resource could supply about 5% of all U.S. electricity by 2030, says the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Putting turbines in open water is not a cheap proposition. It costs up to twice as much as in rural expanses. But the economics still work well in the Northeast, where open land is scarce, electricity is pricey, and demand for power keeps surging as populations swell. The Northeast is heavily dependent on electricity from natural gas, which has doubled in price in the past year. What's more, most state governments in this region have passed laws dictating that a growing share of power must come from renewable resources. These states "have to build offshore," says Bruce Bailey, president and CEO of AWS Truewind, which assesses wind resources. "They won't be able to meet their [renewables goals] if not."

In Hull, Mass., a faded Victorian-era beach town just across the bay from Boston, there's already a windmill spinning above the local high school and another over the dump. Four more turbines are planned for the waters just a mile and a half from one of Greater Boston's busiest public beaches. Thanks to the two functioning windmills, power rates in the town haven't risen in seven years, although they've doubled statewide. With four more, Hull could meet all of its needs with homegrown energy, says town manager Phil Lemnios.

Throughout New England, shrunken shipbuilding and fishing towns have begun to view offshore wind power as a source of investment and jobs. In Rhode Island, a consortium of fishermen is vying with Bluewater Wind, a unit of wind-farm developers Babcock & Brown (BNB), to put turbines in state waters near Block Island. Across the region, planners hope to reanimate shipyards by building not just turbines and foundations but also the specialized ships needed to transport and erect supersized towers and blades. In Delaware, Bluewater Wind has a project in development that could produce as much as 600 megawatts 12 miles from Rehoboth Beach; it scored an industry first in late June, when it inked a long-term contract to supply electricity to Delmarva Power. Bluewater's project may well become the first functioning offshore wind farm in North America.

The shores of the Great Lakes, with their strong winds and shallow waters, are also luring developers. Cleveland is among a handful of cities planning wind farms. With offshore wind as a driver, the Rust Belt city wants to remake its waning industrial base into a launchpad for green energy projects.

Down in the Gulf of Mexico, a consortium of oil-and-gas-industry veterans has leased tracts stretching from Galveston, Tex., to the Mississippi Delta to develop offshore wind. Their startup, Wind Energy Systems Technology, plans to adapt retired oil rigs to cut the cost of building offshore plants to a fraction of current prices, says CEO Herman J. Schellstede. The rigs also let them site the turbines farther out at sea. Today's offshore windmills are built on gigantic steel tubes bored into the seabed. It's a proven approach, but it demands a lot of costly steel and can't go too deep. Moving farther offshore on rigs allows developers to tap stronger winds—and the turbines are out of sight.

Continued in article

Prospects for Solar Energy Aren't So Hot
Further dampening hopes for a big solar-energy boom, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has abruptly slapped a moratorium on new applications to put solar collectors on federal land. The agency says it has a backlog of more than 130 applications and needs to conduct a region-wide environmental-impact study on the industry before it will accept any more. The study will take 22 months to complete, however. Few argue against trying to preserve precious water sources and protect desert tortoises and other creatures that might not enjoy cohabiting with sprawling fields of mirrors. But many solar advocates wonder why the government is not acting as cautiously when it comes to drilling for oil and gas.
"Freezing the sun," The Economist, Jun 26th 2008 --- http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11637342

Here's added nuz for yuz neuters out their:
The online hangout Facebook is getting more serious about grammar. No more should users see jarringly incorrect declarations such as "Debbie changed their profile picture." Users who haven't specified their gender in their Facebook profiles will be asked to do so in the coming weeks. That way, Facebook doesn't have to default to "their" or the made-up word "themself," as it had been doing. While not knowing someone's gender poses grammatical challenges in English, it has created even larger headaches as Facebook expands to other languages, where a gender-neutral option isn't available in plural form.
"Facebook to users: Let's cut grammatical errors," MIT's Technology Review, June 27, 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/21023/?nlid=1175
 

2008 EDUCAUSE Survey of Top Issues for Higher Education --- http://www.educause.edu/2008IssuesResources/15516

Security and ERP Systems are numbers 1 and 2; Infrastructure rises; Change Management, E-Learning, and Staffing move into top ten

Bob Jensen's (dated) threads on ERP are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245glosap.htm

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

Microsoft Office for $70 Per Year
Microsoft Corp. will begin selling its Office programs to consumers on a subscription basis starting mid-July, in a bid to reach thrifty PC buyers who would otherwise pass on productivity software. The software bundle, which also includes Microsoft's Live OneCare computer security software, will be sold at nearly 700 Circuit City stores for $70 per year. Bryson Gordon, a group product manager for the Office group, said in an interview that the agreement with Circuit City Stores Inc. is not exclusive, and that the bundle will be available at other retailers and on PCs sold by the likes of Dell Inc. in the future . . . Office is a well-established cash cow for Microsoft, but the relatively new OneCare software has been slow to catch on, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst for the independent research group Directions on Microsoft. If this model succeeds -- and Rosoff gives it good odds given the low price tag -- that might change.
"Microsoft to sell Office, OneCare for $70 a year," MIT's Technology Review, July 2, 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/21041/?nlid=1187

Here's the Catch
Buying those programs the traditional way would cost about $200; consumers who want to replace Office 2007 with "Office 14," rumored to be set for a 2009 release, would have to pay full price.

Wow! It's hard to believer PayPal will go this far in protecting eBay customers
Can PayPal continue to afford this kind of protection?
On June 20, eBay announced that it will fully reimburse buyers and sellers when transaction problems arise, providing they use eBay’s PayPal payment service. That means eBay will foot the bill when, say, a buyer purchases an item that was misrepresented on the site or not sent. So, if that too-good-to-be-true bargain Gucci bag turns out to be a cheap knockoff, eBay will give the buyer a refund. The additional protections will go into effect this fall. “We’re combining the power of eBay and PayPal to give all buyers and sellers more confidence and trust,” said Lorrie Norrington, eBay’s president of Marketplace Operations in a statement. “Buyers who pay with PayPal on eBay will be covered, with no limits, on most transactions.”
Catherine Holahan, Business Week, June 19, 2008 --- http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/06/post_7.html?link_position=link3

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

"Australia vs. eBay," The Wall Street Journal Asia, June 26, 2008 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121442890505904767.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

EBay is an Internet company that has found a way to make money by offering a product -- its online auction platform -- that hadn't existed before. So quick, someone fetch the antitrust regulators.

At issue is eBay's proposal to require its Australian customers to use its proprietary payment system, PayPal, for transactions. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission thinks the move is anticompetitive because eBay's position as Australia's "leading online marketplace" means that shutting out other payment methods would hobble them unfairly. So on June 12, the Commission issued a draft ruling that would bar eBay from going ahead with its plan. The Commission is now preparing its final verdict on the matter.

Set aside the fact that consumers Down Under have plenty of choices of where to trade their goods online, including Trading Post, an offshoot of telecommunications giant Telstra, Gray'sOnline Auctions, Oztion and several other smaller operators. EBay is certainly more popular, but in a market with low barriers to entry mere success doesn't an antitrust offender make. The Commission's investigation smacks of a basic misunderstanding of how market competition really works.

The Commission's draft finding is also anti-innovation, since eBay's experiment with a new business model is also at stake here. The company argues the move to PayPal will improve the user experience by reducing payment fraud. But it's also trying to determine the market price for the valuable platform it provides to sellers. EBay already charges a fee for each auction it hosts. Now it wants to see if use of its platform is worth the additional fees sellers must pay to accept PayPal payments.

Little wonder that the main objectors are the sellers, who pay PayPal's fees. Most, like Phil Leahy of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance, say they're defending consumer choice. But given their own financial stake in the outcome, they're not exactly disinterested consumer champions. They object to the price eBay wants to charge. No regulation is forcing these sellers to use eBay.

The other "aggrieved" parties are banks and credit card companies such as the Australian Bankers' Association and American Express, which argue that they'll lose business if eBay shuts them out. EBay responds that other forms of payment -- namely bank-to-bank transfers and credit cards -- aren't as cheap or secure as PayPal. These companies could respond by improving their products. Instead, they're making their case to the antitrust regulator rather than to consumers.

EBay may be the dominant player today in Australia and in other big markets such as the United States and the European Union. But its position isn't sacrosant. Established companies and start-ups are trying everyday to find ways of retailing online that will offer maximum benefits to both consumers and sellers. If anything, the low barriers to entry for online traders make the Internet an even more fluid -- and innovative -- marketplace than most. As Yahoo! has found out recently, the fortunes of technology companies can change swiftly when a better idea comes along.

The danger here is that regulators will stop such innovation in its tracks, to the detriment of entrepreneurs and consumers. This would be particularly ironic in Australia, which has thrived in recent decades by unleashing market forces, not shackling them. The successes of companies like eBay are just that -- successes, not threats.

Correcting for Grade Inflation
It can't get much more complicated!

"A New Approach to Grade Inflation," by Abbott Katz, Inside Higher Ed, July 1, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/07/01/katz 

Bob Jensen's threads on grade inflation are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/higherEdControversies.htm#HomeworkDeclining

More on the Bare Sterns Scandal

From Jim Mahar's blog on July 1, 2008 --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/

Financier Starts Sentence in Prostitution Case - NYTimes.com

It has not been a good year for Jeff Epstein. A billionaire money advisor who owned his own island in the Caribbean as well as a large townhouse in NY, Epstein used to be known for his secrecy, smart friends, dislike of suits and ties, and yoga. That has changed in the past year. In fact, it has changed in a big way! Read on:

Financier Starts Sentence in Prostitution Case - NYTimes.com:

"On Monday morning, he turned himself in and began serving 18 months for soliciting prostitution....It is a stunning downfall for Mr. Epstein...a tabloid monument to an age of hyperwealth. Mr. Epstein owns a Boeing 727 and the largest town house in Manhattan. He has paid for college educations for personal employees and students from Rwanda, and spent millions on a project to develop a thinking and feeling computer and on music intended to alleviate depression.

But Mr. Epstein also paid women, some of them under age, to give him massages that ended with a sexual favor, the authorities say."

 

In addition to these charges, he was also recently was identified as a major investor in Bear Stearns' (where he used to work) hedge funds that collapsed last year:

Remember a month or so ago when the WSJ had a series of articles on Bear? I thoght they were great. Well this may be better! By Bryan Burrough who helped write "Barbarians at the Gate" (one of my all time favorites).

From Jim Mahar's blog on June 30, 2008 --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/

What Really Killed Bear Stearns? - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times:

One look in:
 

"According to Mr. Burrough’s account, Bear did not have a liquidity problem, at least at first. In fact, he said it had more than $18 billion in cash to cover its trades when the week began. There were no major withdrawals until late in the week, after rumors flew that the company was in trouble.

A top Bear executive told Mr. Burrough, “There was a reason [the rumor] was leaked, and the reason is simple: someone wanted us to go down, and go down hard.”

Bear executives frantically tried to find the source of the rumors, but failed to do so in time. They have their suspicions, and they have turned over the names to federal authorities that are investigating the matter."

 

If that was all the article would be great, but there is so much more. Granted some is based on rumor and sort of one sided and designed to sell magazines, but who cares? A very good read!
 

And the NY Times Deal Book goes even further providing links to Fed meetings on the collapse. This will definitely be used in class!

Bob Jensen's threads on "Rotten to the Core" are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm

Question
What does a student's blinkless stare signify?

a. Daydreaming
b. Confusion
c. Anger
d. Stoned
e. Death

"Facial-Recognition Software Could Give Valuable Feedback to Online Professors," Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 27, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3126&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Many professors who teach online complain that they have no way of seeing whether their far-away students are following the lectures — or whether the students have fallen asleep at their desks. But researchers at the University of California at San Diego say they have a solution. They recently tested a system that can detect facial expressions of online students and determine when they find the material difficult, so that cues could be sent to the professors telling them to slow down.

Jacob Whitehill, a doctoral student at the university working on the research, presented results from the experiment this week at the Intelligent Tutoring Systems 2008 conference in Montreal.

In the experiment, eight subjects were shown short video clips of lectures while a Web cam tracked their facial expressions — looking for smiles, blinks, raised eyebrows, and the like. The subjects were then asked to report how difficult they found each section, and to take a quiz on the material. Mr. Whitehill says that the system correctly detected when students were having trouble (the most reliable indicator: students blinked less when they were struggling to understand).

The system could be used to give valuable feedback to professors teaching online, says Mr. Whitehill. “It’s not going to be perfect by any means,” he says, but it’s better than no student feedback at all. “Professors say that they can’t see the students. This could do it for them automatically.”

Visualization of Multivariate Data (including faces) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm 

June 30, 2008 reply from Amy Dunbar [Amy.Dunbar@BUSINESS.UCONN.EDU]

There are so many ways around the issue of online students not engaging. I have discussion boards labeled “content modules” and “quizzes” as well as others, including a “water cooler” board that always has great threads going! In addition, each group has its own board. By reading through the posts, I can figure out where the problem areas are, and I do small clips that explain difficult concepts. The neat thing about an online class is that the students have to engage or they can’t do the homework and projects. Because the students meet in their groups to discuss the weekly quiz (aka homework), they teach each other. Every week they evaluate each other, so free riders quickly come to the surface. Last week was a project week: here’s a couple board postings:

>12 hours and many IMs to Dunbar later, I think I got it!!
>Finally done! It took me so much time that I gained at least 2 pounds as I was always sitting and staring at the screen!
>Ok guys, 16 hours later, here is my project.

These students are engaging.

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

"America's Universities Are Living a Diversity Lie," by Peter Schmidt, The Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2008; Page A11  --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121460672212612067.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Thirty years ago this past week, Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. condemned our nation's selective colleges and universities to live a lie. Writing the deciding opinion in the case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, he prompted these institutions to justify their use of racial preferences in admissions with a rationale most had never considered and still do not believe – a desire to offer a better education to all students.

To this day, few colleges have even tried to establish that their race-conscious admissions policies yield broad educational benefits. The research is so fuzzy and methodologically weak that some strident proponents of affirmative action admit that social science is not on their side.

In reality, colleges profess a deep belief in the educational benefits of their affirmative-action policies mainly to save their necks. They know that, if the truth came out, courts could find them guilty of illegal discrimination against white and Asian Americans.

Continued in article

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

Among Academe's Sociology Faculty:  Men versus Women (including correlations of pay and parenthood and    productivity)
Mothers appeared, on average, to earn less than others in the cohort. The income question was asked with categories, not exact amounts. The median income for sociologists who are fathers, and for sociologists who don’t have children, was between $70,000 and $99,000. The median income for sociologists who are mothers was between $50,000 and $59,000. On many issues, mothers and fathers both reported high levels of stress related to advancing their careers while also caring for their families. Child care, the tenure process, and teaching loads were key issues for parents.
Inside Higher Ed, July 3, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/07/03/women
The study is at http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/ASAPhdMidCareer_r5.pdf 

Bob Jensen's threads on academic salaries are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Salaries
One thing commonly ignored is the important factor of varying living costs and taxes in different states of the U.S. Ignoring this greatly weakens conclusions on compensation differences.

Gender Differences Among Faculty in Terms of Compensation --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#GenderSalaryDifferences
The most significant factor in male versus female faculty compensation is the lower proportion of tenured women in some of the highest paying disciplines such as computer science, business, mathematics, and some other science disciplines. The proportion of women is increasing in some disciplines such as accounting but not in other areas like computer science where less than 10% of the doctoral graduates are women.

Pay differences between disciplines is most affected by supply versus demand irrespective of gender differences. Many colleges are making concerted efforts to reduce salary differences among tenure-track faculty, but it is very difficult in some disciplines such as accounting where there are less than 100 new PhD graduate men and women each year to meet demand of over 1,000 open tenure-track positions each year. Colleges that make offers way "below market" generally come up empty handed for PhD accountants. The demand for faculty, in turn, is greatly impacted by student choices of major where accounting has been steadily increasing in the past decade.

Controversies of affirmative action and pay raises --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#AffirmativeAction

Bob Jensen's Tips on Capturing and Presenting Online Video Lessons

June 30, 2008 message from Glen L Gray [glen.gray@CSUN.EDU]

I have philosophical questions regarding online tutoring.

I just returned from the 3-day AIS Educators Conference in Colorado. While there, I participated in a 1-hours hands-on session on using Camtasia to create on-line tutorial materials. I was impressed with the program's ability to produce the materials--and produce almost any output format.

Here are my questions:

My core IS class meets twice a week for 15 weeks. So, we have 30 75-class meetings. About 6 (20%) of those class meetings are used to explain how to do 3 hands-on projects. So, lets say I put all the material for those 6 classes online using Camtasia, then do I do about the 6 class meetings that I free up?

If fill those 6 class meetings with more stuff (2 more chapters or other readings), it seems that one could argue that I have expanded by class to the equivalent of 18 weeks (15 weeks of in-class meetings plus 3 weeks of online class "meetings").

The opposite approach would be to not have the 6 in-class meetings at all because I now have 6 online class meetings. But what would my chair and/dean think of this? Or will it be easy to convince them that this approach (not having 6 in-class meetings) is a move toward online courses, which is a goal of our university?

Glen L. Gray, PhD, CPA Accounting & Information Systems, COBAE California State University, Northridge 18111 Nordhoff ST Northridge, CA 91330-8372 818.677.3948 818.677.2461 (messages)
http://www.csun.edu/~vcact00f

July 1, 2008 reply from Steven Hornik [shornik@BUS.UCF.EDU]

Glen,

At UCF we utilize what we term M classes, for mixed mode class.  An M class is a reduced seat time class where the reduction in in-class seat time is offset by online delivery of content.  It sounds like that's what you are describing.

Steven
 

July 1, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Glen,

So I don't forget while typing this, my best tip for Camtasia recording is to learn to use the Pause/Record options (in my case I toggle the F9 key). That way you can pause recording, take a break, prep for the next module, and then start to record again. Unless you tell the viewers that you paused, they won't even know you took a break.

I always used Camtasia modules for students to use outside of class. I rarely used these inside class unless it was something I might screw up live (especially when teaching some MS Access modules).

 Camtasia worked great in relieving student frustration about not understanding or remembering all aspects of a one-time presentation in class. It surely gave me more free time, because students had much less need to come to my office to get me to repeat something technical.

 I have many hours of Camtasia video that I recorded, much of which is no longer online. One thing you have to consider when you really get serious is that video, even when tightly compressed with Camtasia Producer, still takes a lot of storage space. Instructors seldom have such space on Blackboard or WebCT servers. Trinity was very generous with me with respect to Web server space, but I felt guilty about taking too much video storage advantage of this generosity. I was saved by my really good friends in the Computer Science Department who seemed to have no problems will providing me with video serving.

 For illustrative purposes you can also view the following modules online:
I suggest viewing the wmv compressed file extensions.

 ACCT 5342 (AIS) --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5342/

 ACCT 5341 (Accounting Theory) --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5341/

Some tutorials --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/Tutorials/

Where can Camtasia be improved?
I think the biggest improvement would be to capture audio from something other than a microphone in front of speakers. For example, for my technology road shows I like to capture video from online sources like TechSmith itself. That way I can easily show parts of longer video streams. The visual parts of video capturing video seem to work quite well but the audio capturing generally sucks. I wish Camtasia had an option for capturing audio directly rather than through the speakers.

You can find some video capturing of video examples in some of my road show files at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/EdTech/Video/
For example, note the Interactive Video module and the PodcastVodcast module.

Note the poor sound of my captured Techsmith videos. This illustrates how Camtasia could be improved with an option to record video internally without having to hold a microphone in front of the speakers.

Mostly we capture computer screens and narrate what we want to demo. When there is video of a talking head, don't sweat the lip sinking too much. To get lip sinking you have to capture at a very expensive (in terms of file size) frame capture rate. Camtasia allows you to increase this capture rate, but I highly, highly recommend sticking with the default capture rate. Lip sinking only matters in a 1955 Chevy at a drive-in movie.

Remember that my best tip for Camtasia recording is to learn to use the Pause/Record options (in my case I toggle the F9 key). That way you can pause recording, take a break, prep for the next module, and then start to record again. Unless you tell the viewers that you paused, they won't even know you took a break.

I have some tips on using Camtasia at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm

Bob Jensen

This type of cheating raises all sorts of legal issues yet to be resolved for students who might've thought what they did was perfectly legal

More than 1,000 prospective MBA students who paid $30 to use a now-defunct Web site to get a sneak peak at live questions from the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) before taking the exam may have their scores canceled in coming weeks. For many, their B-school dreams may be effectively over. On June 20, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted the test's publisher, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a $2.3 million judgment against the operator of the site, Scoretop.com. GMAC has seized the site's domain name and shut down the site, and is analyzing a hard drive containing payment information. GMAC said any students found to have used the Scoretop site will have their test scores canceled, the schools that received them will be notified, and the student will not be permitted to take the test again. Since most top B-schools require the GMAT, the students will have little chance of enrolling. "This is illegal," said Judy Phair, GMAC's vice-president for communications. "We have a hard drive, and we're going to be analyzing it. If you used the site and paid your $30 to cheat, your scores will be canceled. They're in big trouble."
Louis Lavelle, "Shutting Down a GMAT Cheat Sheet:  A court order against a Web site that gave away test questions could land some B-school students in hot water," Business Week, June 23, 2008 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2008/bs20080623_153722.htm

Jensen Comment
A university admissions office that refused to accept applications from the "cheating" prospective MBA students would probably be sued by one or more students. GMAC would probably be sued as well. But it's hard to sue a U.S. District Court.

There are several moral issues here. From above, this is clearly cheating. But in various parts of society exam questions and answers are made available for study purposes. For example, preparation manuals for the U.S. Citizenship Test all the questions that might be asked. It is entirely possible that some MBA applicants fell for a scam that they believed was entirely legitimate. Now their lives are being messed up.

I guess this is a test of the old saying that "Ignorance is no defense" in the eyes of the law. Clearly from any standpoint, they were taking advantage of other students who did not have the cheat sheets. But the cheat sheets were apparently available to anybody in the world for a rather modest fee, albeit an illegal fee. Every buyer did not know it was illegal.

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

"Corporate Tax Cut Windfall," The Wall Street Journal,  July 1, 2008; Page A16 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121486763043717547.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

For those who still claim that tax rates don't matter to economic decisions or U.S. competitiveness, we present Exhibit A: the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act.

This law gave American companies a one-year window in 2005 to repatriate earnings from foreign subsidiaries to the United States at a 5.25% tax rate. Normally companies must pay the 35% U.S. corporate tax rate, minus a credit for whatever foreign taxes they paid on those earnings.

The IRS examined the results from this tax cutting experiment and found that the money came back in a flood. More than 800 U.S. corporations repatriated $362 billion from foreign operations. Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation had predicted closer to $200 billion. These dollars are now being invested in the U.S., rather than remaining in Europe or China. This capital infusion may be one reason that U.S. business investment rose 9.6% in 2005 – the highest rate in more than a decade.

Many Democrats, liberal groups and even some economists in the Bush Treasury opposed the measure four years ago, predicting it would lose revenue and merely be a tax holiday for profitable corporations. The Joint Tax Committee estimators also blundered again by predicting a mere $2.8 billion in revenue gains in the first year and then big losses after 2005. As always, they underestimated how tax reductions change behavior. The tax incentive raised $18 billion in 2005, and revenues have continued to exceed estimates. Instead of getting 35% of nothing, as U.S. companies kept their cash abroad, the Treasury took in 5.25% of the hundreds of billions the companies brought home.

One lesson here is how hypersensitive the trillions of dollars of annual global capital flows are to tax rates. It also underscores how damaging the U.S. corporate income tax is to American firms. Over the past decade the U.S. has gone from a below-the-average corporate tax nation to the second highest rate in the industrial world. (See table.) Many countries have slashed their corporate rates to as low as 10%. The economic impact is even worse because the U.S. is one of the few countries that taxes foreign subsidiary income when it is repatriated.

Most countries let their companies pay taxes in the country where the income is earned, and the few countries that do tax repatriated income are changing their models. Japan is the only developed nation with a higher corporate tax rate than the U.S., but the Japan Times reports that the government wants to change its tax laws to stop taxing repatriated capital.

America's tax laws are repelling capital at the same time the rest of the world is inviting these dollars and the jobs and growth that inevitably follow. House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel wants to dig the ditch deeper by taxing American companies on their foreign earnings whether or not they bring the money back to the U.S. He thinks this will raise money for the Treasury, but the likelier effect is that more American multinationals will relocate abroad.

Senator John Ensign of Nevada, the author of the 2005 holiday bill, is proposing to do the same again for one year to stimulate the economy. As a rule, we don't like temporary tax cuts because they don't provide permanent incentives. But the 2005 holiday was an exception that proved the folly of current policy.

The best response going forward would be for Congress and the next Administration to reduce sharply the corporate tax rate so it is competitive with falling rates around the world. John McCain is proposing to cut it to 25%. If Barack Obama really wanted to "run to the center," he'd see that and cut it even further. As the 2005 results show, he'd then have more tax revenue to spend on his many social programs.

Journal publishers are increasingly using plagiarism detection software
Plagiarists beware. A group of 12 publishers have begun using CrossCheck, software that ferrets out plagiarized articles submitted for publication in scholarly journals. The software was created by CrossRef, a publishing industry association, and iParadigms, a company that sells Turnitin, software that checks student papers for plagiarized material. CrossCheck is targeted at scholars. It flags passages that a submitted journal article may have in common with published journal articles. The publishers will contribute more than 29 million articles to the CrossCheck database, according to a statement released Monday by Elsevier. It and eight other publishers tested the service for six months. "By creating a pooled database of articles from multiple publishers and tested tools, we can provide assistance to the scholarly community on an unprecedented scale," Martin Tanke, Elsevier's managing director of science-and-technology journal publishing, said in the statement. Other publishers contributing to the CrossCheck database are: the Association of Computing Machinery, American Society of Neuroradiology, BMJ Publishing Group, International Union of Crystallography, Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature Publishing Group, Oxford University Press, Sage, Informa UK, and Wiley Blackwell.
Andrea L. Foster, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 27, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3124&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Scholarly Journals Using Plagiarism Detection Software
Students may not be the only ones being checked electronically for plagiarism. The company that offers the popular detection service Turnitin announced this week a new service to be used by scholarly journals.
Inside Higher Ed, April 18, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/18/qt
Also see  http://chronicle.com/free/2008/04/2546n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

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

This incoming open-sharing tide really puts pressure on universities that sponsor expensive research journals!
And what will SSRN do if the research is open shared by the authors' own universities?
Will SSRN develop a two-tier pricing system where open access research papers are free but not those from universities that have not yet signed on to open access?
Open-access advocates predicted that the move last February by Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and, later, by its Law School to require free online access to all faculty members’ scholarly articles would prompt other universities to adopt similar policies. The movement has not exactly snowballed, but another institution did just join in.Last week Stanford University’s School of Education revealed that it would require faculty members to allow the university to place their published articles in a free online database.The school’s faculty passed a motion unanimously — just as Harvard’s two faculties had — on June 10. A faculty member and open-access advocate, John Willinsky, made the policy public last week at the International Conference on Electronic Publishing, in Toronto. A video of his presentation is available.
Lila Guterman, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 30, 2008 --- http://snipurl.com/stanfordopenshare  [chronicle_com] 

The real test of open access in accounting will be what happens with the Journal of Accounting Research (JAR) if the University of Chicago signs on to this trend of open access.

Still a tougher test will be the leading journal policy (like that of The Accounting Review) that articles that it charges for in print and electronically "must not be published elsewhere."

Are we eventually going to get free access to research of leading accounting research journals because of this open-sharing tide in leading research universities?

Note that the Harvard Business School has not, to my knowledge, bought into the open sharing declarations of its sister Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Could it be because of the profitability of the Harvard Business Review current issues and archives?

Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Question
Is downloading of texts protected by "Fair Use" in U.S. Copyright Law (the DMCA)

"Georgia State: Downloading Texts is Fair Use," The University of Illinois Issues in Higher Education Blog, June 27, 2008 --- http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/

Many of us have been following the lawsuit three publishers have brought against Georgia State University for copyright infringement with great interest. In its response to the suit, Georgia State has now asserted that its online distribution of course material is permitted under copyright law's fair-use exemption. In papers filed earlier this week, the university admitted that it was offering the material online to students through electronic reserves in the library, the Blackboard/WebCT Vista course-management system, department Web pages, and other Web sites. But, it says the practice is allowed under the fair-use doctrine of the Copyright Act.

There is no clear interpretation of "Fair Use" relating to the amount of material that can be used for such activities as scholarship, teaching, reporting, and review.

In addition to advancing its fair-use argument, the university also says it is protected from federal lawsuits by sovereign immunity protections guaranteed by the 11th Amendment