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

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

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

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

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

FORA.tv (video and podcasts) brings together content from the Hoover Institution, the Global Philanthropy Forum, the World Affairs Council, the American Jewish Committee, and dozens of other organizations --- http://www.fora.tv/

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

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

Teaching Materials (especially video) from PBS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For readers who are not familiar with Adobe Presenter, the following videos are informative:

Overview Tutorial Video--- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kqcfq7s2Js 

Part 1 of another overview video--- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwtr0Keclbw 

Part 2 of another overview video --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXBKFrfsAyk 

Acrobat Connect Professional features the following applications in addition to Acrobat Connect Professional: --- http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/
Also see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Presenter#Applications

Adobe Acrobat Connect (formerly Breeze Training)
Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional Events (formerly Breeze Events)
Adobe Presenter (formerly Breeze Presenter)

• Unlimited and customizable meeting rooms
• Multiple meeting rooms per user
• Breakout sessions within a meeting
• VoIP
• Audio integration
• Video conferencing
• Meeting recording
• Screen sharing
• Notes, chat and whiteboarding
• User management, administration and reporting
• Polling
• Central content library
• Collaboration Builder SDK

 

Adobe Presenter --- http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/

Rapidly create high-impact Adobe Flash presentations and eLearning courses from PowerPoint

With just a few clicks in PowerPoint, you can transform drab presentations into engaging Adobe® Flash® multimedia experiences. Easily add narration, animations, interactivity, quizzes, and software simulations to eLearning courses.

Key capabilities

• Easily create professional Flash presentations and self-paced courses complete with narration and interactivity.
• Import and edit video in any format and export as SWF.
• Record and edit high-quality audio.
• Help ensure consistency with branding and customization.
• Deliver advanced quizzes and surveys with question pooling and randomization.
• Publish content as a PDF file, preserving all of your animations.
• Create AICC- and SCORM-compliant content.
• Integrate with Adobe Acrobat® Connect™ Pro software to deploy, manage, deliver, and track content

October 22, 2008 message from David Fordham, James Madison University [fordhadr@JMU.EDU]

I'll probably catch a lot of flack for this, so I'm ready to be royally flamed:

I have a question relating to Accounting Education using Computers and Multimedia. I apologize up front to those who are offended such a post, so please, just go ahead and hit Delete now...

For those who aren't too irritated: I have a question about Adobe Presenter.

Adobe Presenter is a recording add-in that let's you add sound narration to a PowerPoint presentation. It's a lot easier to use than the video editing software I'm using (iMovie, Final Cut, and especially my favorite, Adobe Premier CS3). Our instructional technology folks are trying to "sell it" as a great tool to replace the cumbersome video editing software I typically use.

HOWEVER, I'm having trouble figuring out how to get the PowerPoint slide transitions to work.

I have no problem with custom animations WITHIN a slide... the product seems to properly execute the entrance, motion, and exit of objects *on* a particular slide. The problem I'm having deals with the transitions BETWEEN slides.

The way I use PowerPoint, it illustrates my talk, lecture, presentation, etc.... I talk, and while I'm talking, I move from slide to slide quite quickly. I'll have a slide with a photo, and I'll click the next slide which will have a successive photo or illustration. I make HEAVY use of specific slide transitions (fades, page turns, pushes down, pushes sideways, uncovers, followed by re-covers, etc.) depending on the educational effect I wish to convey to the audience, to reinforce the relationship between the topics covered by the slides. The cover/uncover/recover, the fades to black, the stripes to color, etc. all are useful communication aids.

But Presenter seems to discard my slide transitions, and force me to "jump" from one slide to the next, in a sudden "cut". I don't want a sudden cut, I want a specific transition.

Jumps are distracting. Jumps hurt the eyes, especially since I'll go through 100 slides in a 10-minute lesson. Especially distracting are those times I "fade to black" to indicate a major shift of thought... jumping from bright color, suddenly to black, back to bright color, is painfully distracting compared to a slow fade in and out.

I've tried everything I can think of, and our tech support people don't seem to be much help, they say that "you can't do that". I find it unbelievable that a product as professional as Adobe would not recognize the communication importance of transitions as an essential communications adjunct. I find it unbelievable that they would make a product which recognizes and operates the in-slide animations, but discards and ignores the between-slide animations. After all, PowerPoint includes the slide transitions as an important feature, why would Adobe discard this? I'm just overlooking a setting or radio-button or something.

Can anyone tell me where to find the slide-transition feature? I'm using Adobe Presenter 6.0.432, build 432. I've also tried the copy of Presenter 7.0 that our instructional tech dept has, and I can't find it there either.

Again, I'm sorry for posting something so closely related to the listserv topic. I'll try not to waste everyone's time too much with on-topic questions like these...

David Fordham
James Madison University
PS: Isn't it funny how you never hear the term "flamed" anymore? One of those "flash-in-the-pan words that seem old-fashioned nowadays, I guess...

October 22, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi David,

I read the following at http://snipurl.com/pptransition s [www_adobe_com]

PowerPoint slide transitions (animation effects that are applied by PowerPoint when one moves from one slide to another) is NOT supported by Adobe Presenter. These effects are dropped in output generated from Adobe Presenter.

Any animations applied on objects in any slide is preserved by Adobe Presenter. For example if you have a slide where five bulleted lines of text appear one after another will be retained by Adobe Presenter.

Bob Jensen

Confessions of a Ghost Writer

"Paper Money," by Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, October 22, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/10/22/mclemee 

But after a while, it became clear that I had a serious disqualification for this line of work: the lack of speed. (Speed of production, that is; amphetamines were never part of the process.) In his article, Mamatas reports that he could turn out a term paper in 20 minutes. I spent longer than that just on the outline. By black-market standards, this was highly unprofessional.

It was a matter of time before I left the business. And then my conscience started playing catch-up.

A few months after hacking out a final paper for some kid with more cash than brains, I met a woman who was working on her dissertation. Its topic was something I knew just enough about to be able to ask some questions. For a guy with no good moves, this was a good move. Word from our mutual friends was that the interest was reciprocal. But it soon turned out that the grapevine was only doing me just so many favors.

She mentioned having suspicions about the work being handed in by some of her students. And — she continued — the word was that I had first-hand information about the market for ghost-written papers. Could I tell her more about that, at some point? (This in a tone more curious than overtly disapproving; but still....)

Now, cheating my customers out of an education had never seemed a cause for concern. They were doing a pretty thorough job of that on their own. But suddenly I could picture things from the vantage point of an earnest, hard-working instructor who would no more have gamed the system than she would have held up a bank.

All the rationalizations fell away in a second; the embarrassment, so long evaded, now finally hit home. The experience was mortifying. Twenty years later, I still feel it. Regret always comes too late to do anyone much good, but better late than never.

Continued in article

"Plagiarism and 'Atonement'," by Eugene Volokh, The Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2006; Page A18 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116588497688347029.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

Two nurses, both aspiring novelists, helped tend British soldiers during World War II. Briony, the protagonist of Ian McEwan's award-winning novel "Atonement," is fictional. The late Lucilla Andrews is real: She became an author, pioneering romantic "hospital fiction," and also wrote a memoir of her war years. Therein lies the latest plagiarism scandalette to hit the news, sparked by an article in the British press. To be a credible character in a historical novel, Briony had to do the things wartime nurses did, and see the things they saw. It is no surprise that Mr. McEwan read Andrews's book when researching his own; and several passages from his book strongly resemble passages from her memoir.

"Our 'nursing' seldom involved more than dabbing gentian violet on ringworm, aquaflavine emulsion on cuts and scratches, lead lotion on bruises and sprains," wrote Andrews (to give one example). "In the way of medical treatments, she had already dabbed gentian violet on ringworm, aquaflavine emulsion on a cut, and painted lead lotion on a bruise. But mostly she was a maid," wrote Mr. McEwan.

Plagiarism? Legally actionable? Ethically reprehensible? Bad manners? Or good research, needed to produce accurate historical fiction?

Plagiarism is easy to condemn but often hard to define. This is partly because the legal rules differ sharply from the ethical ones, and the ethical rules in scholarship, journalism and fiction differ from each other. And it is partly because the rules for using the facts uncovered by writers of history -- whether memoirists, historians or contemporaneous journalists -- must be different from the rules for using the original phrases that the writers created.

Let's start with the law. It generally bans not plagiarism as such, but rather copyright infringement. (Trademark law might play a role in extreme plagiarism cases, but not in the typical ones.) And copyright infringement is both broader and narrower than what most people see as "plagiarism."

For instance, an author can be held liable under copyright law even when he credits the original source from which he copies. The law concerns itself more with protecting authors' ability to profit from their works than with ensuring credit where credit is due. So if I translate Mr. McEwan's novel into Russian without his permission, trumpeting Mr. McEwan's authorship and saying that I am merely the translator, I am a copyright infringer, though not a plagiarist.

On the other hand, an author is not liable for copying the facts that others have discovered, regardless of whether he gives credit. Copyright law doesn't give authors exclusive rights to facts, because such a monopoly would undermine debate, scholarship and literature. If I write a scholarly legal article that uses without attribution historical facts uncovered by another scholar, my failure to attribute is a serious ethical breach -- but not copyright infringement.

So on to professional ethics, which properly differs depending on the profession. Academics have the most stringent obligations. If I write an academic work using, without attribution, facts uncovered by another historian, I commit two sins: First, I falsely claim originality for my own work. Second, I wrongly deny a scholar credit that is important to the scholar's reputation. The academic must therefore scrupulously attribute those facts that others have uncovered, and the long and heavily footnoted format of academic books and articles makes this easy.

But the rules for newspaper articles that mention historical matters are different. Such articles usually don't claim originality of historical research; no reader would assume that snippets of history in an article about modern-day Iraq stem from the journalist's own archival research. The articles do not generally deny historians due professional credit: Scholars get professional respect chiefly based on other scholars' use of their work, not based on citations by reporters. And because space is short, and good journalism often relies on multiple historical sources, newspaper articles can't be expected to acknowledge each historian whose work the journalist used.

The rules for novels are in between. Novelists are similar to journalists, but they do have space at the end of the book to briefly acknowledge the historical works on which they rely, without distracting from the novel's flow. If you've relied substantially on another's work, acknowledging this is the kind thing to do. Omitting the acknowledgment probably isn't unethical; it's not a lie, or the denial of the credit needed for success in the original author's profession. But it isn't very nice.

Yet what about copying not just facts, but also another author's words, either literally or in a close paraphrase? Would a general acknowledgment at the end of the book be enough to justify this? Or is such copying impermissible, at least unless you expressly note it using quotation marks, or by writing "as Lucilla Andrews said"? In academic work, the answer is simple: Quote the original, and insert a footnote at the place you quote it. But what about a novel?

A historical novel, to be accurate, must borrow those words needed to accurately reproduce the historical facts, even when the facts were uncovered by others. If nurses treated ringworm by dabbing gentian violet on it, that's what they did, and novelists must be able to say so. Nor can a novelist note the borrowing using quotation marks and footnotes, as they would interrupt the novel's flow. Writers who strive for factual accuracy must thus remain free to closely paraphrase the factual accounts of others.

On the other hand, when the historian or memoirist depicted the facts in a colorful way that she herself created, the particular words shouldn't be copied, at least without express acknowledgment. A historical novelist is responsible for creating his own colorful descriptions.

So where does this leave Mr. McEwan? Likely not guilty on any of the counts, if the account in the newspaper that first broke the story (the Nov. 26 Daily Mail) is thorough. Mr. McEwan borrowed facts, and those words that accurately described the facts. He is not guilty of copyright infringement, or of taking another's original expression without specific notation. And while he did rely on Andrews's autobiography, his acknowledgments page noted being "indebted" to Andrews and her book. Any such acknowledgment could always be made more prominent; but it appears to have been prominent enough.

More broadly, we should recognize that not all use of another's words requires detailed acknowledgment. Words represent facts; and facts, once revealed, are there to be used, including in novelists' unfootnoted prose.

Mr. Volokh is a professor of law at UCLA School of Law.

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

"Suit Alleges Fraud in 'Resolving' Troubled Student Loans," by Paul Basken, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 23, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/10/5550n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Stretched across the brick wall at the far end of Sallie Mae’s Indiana call center, the hand-drawn banner looked to be a typical tribute to college basketball’s annual March Madness.

Instead of listing the nation’s top 64 college teams, however, Sallie Mae managers had filled out their brackets with the names of the workers in telephone headsets who sat hunched over computers behind long lines of connected desks.

Each week, the operators who “resolved” the greatest dollar volume of delinquent student loans advanced along the brackets, picking up department-store gift certificates worth $10, $20, or more along the way.

Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest student-loan company, proudly shows off the 54,000-square-foot cinderblock barn and its rows of $9-an-hour phone operators. The facility, tucked inside a Muncie industrial park, is evidence, the company says, of Sallie Mae’s commitment to helping borrowers pay off their education loans with a minimum of financial distress to either the students or the government's guaranteed-loan system.

Such work helped prevent more than $16.7-billion in potential student-loan defaults in 2007, according to USA Funds, a guarantee agency that works with Sallie Mae on debt-collection efforts.

“As a result, U.S. taxpayers saved more than $16-billion in potential default costs, and student-loan borrowers avoided an estimated $5.5-billion in additional loan costs,” USA Funds said in its most recent annual report.

But others, including those who have experienced life on opposite sides of the telephone lines, suggest that the Muncie facility is part of a carefully orchestrated system that ensures many student debts are grown as large as possible, ballooning Sallie Mae’s profits, before taxpayers and debtors get stuck with the final bill.

Ballooning Debts

A former Sallie Mae employee, in a "false claims" lawsuit against the loan company recently unsealed in federal court in Indiana, alleges that the student-loan giant used the practice of granting forbearances to systematically balloon student-loan debts.

With a forbearance, struggling borrowers get a temporary break from making payments on their loans. But the interest on the loans continues to accumulate, often leaving borrowers in a worse financial bind over time.

The forbearance, meanwhile, can help the lender, especially in circumstances unique to Sallie Mae. A federal student loan enters default status if it goes unpaid for more than 270 days, and lenders face financial penalties on all their federally guaranteed loans if too many of their customers default. Because a forbearance stops the 270-day clock, it helps a loan company keep its default rate from rising, while also letting the amount of borrower debt increase.

When a loan enters default status under the federal system, its ownership passes to a guarantee agency—one of the 35 nonprofit entities nationwide that use federal money to repay student-loan companies when borrowers default. The guarantee agency is then responsible for trying to collect the loan.

Most guarantee agencies are independent of the lenders they oversee. Sallie Mae, however, has a contractual arrangement with USA Funds, the nation’s largest guarantee agency, that gives Sallie Mae extensive financial and operational control over the guarantor that oversees its work. USA Funds, with only about 75 employees of its own, pays Sallie Mae about $250-million a year to provide hundreds of workers to perform most of its guarantor operations. That effectively has left Sallie Mae since 2000 in the role of overseeing its own lending activities.

Rules Eased

The ability of lenders to offer forbearances grew in 2002, when the Education Department eased rules to permit “verbal” forbearance agreements, in which the lender needs only the borrower’s spoken permission over the telephone.

That change in departmental rules fostered the abuses, said the plaintiff in the Sallie Mae lawsuit, Michael Zahara, who worked from November 2004 through August 2005 at the Las Vegas offices of the Student Assistance Corporation. The Student Assistance Corporation is the division of Sallie Mae that performs certain jobs for USA Funds, including contacting borrowers whose loans have entered default.

In his complaint, Mr. Zahara says telephone agents working for Sallie Mae on behalf of USA Funds routinely falsified borrower requests for forbearances, often just dialing a borrower’s telephone number and letting the line sit open for a few minutes, so that the company’s computers would record an apparent conversation.

The agent would then list the borrower as having approved a forbearance, when no such approval occurred, he alleges. The law requires the lender to send a written confirmation to the borrower by mail, but it doesn’t require any proof that the letter was received.

Mr. Zahara pursued his case under terms of the False Claims Act, in which a plaintiff who successfully identifies fraud against the government can receive a share of the recovery. The case seeks triple the amount of the money lost by the federal government. The suit offers no estimate of the losses in dollars alleged to have been suffered by taxpayers or borrowers, though it states that the call agents falsely claimed to have obtained verbal forbearances in "tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands" of cases.

He filed the case in November 2005, and it remained under seal while the federal government evaluated whether to participate in it. A federal judge in Indiana, Sarah Evans Barker, ruled on June 20 that the seal could be lifted after federal lawyers said they would not immediately join the case but would allow it to proceed with the potential for joining it later.

Accuser Fired

Mr. Zahara said he was fired from his job in Las Vegas after he reported his concerns about the practice to federal investigators. Sallie Mae moved much of the operations to its new Indiana facility in October 2006, and Jeff Whorley, the executive vice president in charge of the Student Assistance Corporation, left Sallie Mae in January 2007.

A Sallie Mae spokesman, Tom Joyce, said the company had not been served with any legal documents related to the case and could not comment on it. Sallie Mae’s practices, however, “are consistent with all laws and regulations as they relate to verbal forbearance in the guaranteed student-loan program,” Mr. Joyce said.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's fraud updates are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

"The Econ Major’s Marginal Utility,"  by Andy Guess, Inside Higher Ed, October 23, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/10/23/econ

Given the many and conflicting reasons why students choose their majors — they liked an introductory course, it leads to well-paying jobs, it’s something they’re interested in, their parents made them do it — it’s understandably difficult to pinpoint how they truly feel about their area of concentration.

A working paper that is making the rounds on the blogosphere tries to break down the question, focusing on what economics majors think about their chosen subject. And, as part of a Teagle Foundation initiative encompassing a number of different fields, the research examines how economics as a major fits into an overall liberal education. It’s an area of intense recent interest, especially as economics continues to increase in popularity among undergraduates and as some in the field point out its growing tendency to emphasize technical rigor over broader understanding or moral context.

“That’s the direction that the economics profession is going,” said David Colander, the Christian A. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Economics at Middlebury College and co-author of the paper. “That is fine as one possibility, but it’s pulling economics away from its broader liberal arts foundations.”

The report is based on two separate electronic surveys, one randomized and one more directed toward majors at top “research liberal arts” colleges. In total, there were over 1,700 respondents, and in general they like studying economics. Almost 79 percent said they were “highly satisfied” or “satisfied” with the major.

Students’ happiness with their major appears to vary by type of institution, with one factor making all the difference: whether or not a college has a competitive business program. That, the authors argue, determines whether students who would rather study business are forced to settle for economics. If a college has a restricted-entry business program, the survey found that economics majors at that institution are on the whole less satisfied because some may have had to choose the concentration as a second choice.

“This data suggests that the presence of an unrestricted-entry business program has a positive impact on the satisfaction levels of economics majors,” the authors write. “When such programs exist, the economics major is not forced to balance both the goals of students who would rather be in business programs with the goals of students who would study economics either way; therefore the economics major can more easily suit all of its students’ demands.”

Students’ Level of Satisfaction With Economics Major, by Availability of Business Program

	Highly Satisfied	Satisfied	Somewhat Satisfied	Unsatisfied
Unrestricted-entry Business Program	42.9%	40.1%	14.8%	2.2%
No Business Program	36.1%	52.1%	11.2%	0.6%
Restricted-entry Business Program	22.3%	50.3%	22.8%	4.6%

Source: “What Economics Students Think of the Economics Major”

Perhaps not surprisingly, over a third of economics majors, 37.3 percent, find it difficult. The majority, 54.1 percent, said the major was at a “medium” level of difficulty. But even that differed by institution type: “Students generally considered the majors more difficult at liberal arts schools than at state schools. The difference is most pronounced in economics, considered hard by 25.4% of state school students compared to 40.2% of students at liberal arts schools. At research liberal arts school, the major was considered even harder; 44.2% of students considered the economics major hard.”

Viewed next to econ majors’ perceptions of other majors, it’s clear that they find themselves near the top in terms of difficulty, with only mathematics, physics and chemistry rated as harder. “This suggests to us that the economics major has found a balance in terms of analytic difficulty and general understanding, which is about right for an undergraduate liberal education,” the report concludes.

What about what students say they actually learn? Of those who responded, 88.5 percent said “the economic way of thinking,” followed by 75.5 who said they learned “how an economy works,” 70.2 who thought they only learned “a set of somewhat connected models” and 56.8 percent who said they’d picked up math and statistics. Students could choose multiple responses, with “economic literature” receiving the lowest rate, 38 percent.

When applied to specific goals of a liberal education, however, the results are more varied. Colander pointed out, for example, that although 61.3 percent of respondents said the major was “highly successful” at teaching critical thinking skills, only 21.4 percent said the same about moral reasoning skills.

The study also looked at some differences in perceptions of the economics major by gender: “While preparing for work and ability to communicate are considered important to both sexes, men tend to favor a stronger focus on critical thinking while women favor a stronger focus on living in a global society, breadth of interests and living with diversity.”

 

Recommendation for a Baseball Novel by a Kid

"Play Ball," by Michael Nelson, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 22, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/

Jason Wuerfel has no dog in the fight that begins tonight between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies. He’s the vice president and director of baseball operations for the Traverse City Beach Bums, a Frontier League team in Traverse City, Michigan, that plays in Wuerfel Park and whose two chief officers are John (CEO) and Leslye (CFO) Wuerfel, Jason’s parents. An English major at the University of Michigan, Jason pitched for the Wolverines from 1999 to 2003. A couple years later he published his debut novel, Pray for Rain: A Baseball Story. I stumbled across Jason’s book while searching Amazon for something else. Nothing about the book is auspicious. It was written by, well, a kid. The name of the publisher appears nowhere on or in the book. No blurbs from other authors or baseball players anoint the back cover. I bought the book because it was the only contemporary college baseball novel I could find. And it turned out to be terrific — wonderful dialogue, interesting characters, and a good enough plot hung on the scaffolding of an academic year. I really do recommend it. Liberal arts college guy that I am, though, I found myself focusing on the ways in which Division I baseball at Michigan (as portrayed in the novel) differs from low budget, nonscholarship, relatively anonymous Division III baseball. Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on electronic literature http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

From Jim Mahar's Blog on October 20, 2008 --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/

Southwest's infatuation with fuel hedges backfires - MarketWatch: --- Click Here

"Given oil's relentless ascent, investors have been dumbfounded that Southwest's hedging program wasn't universally used by other airlines, who unfailingly blame their weak financial performance in part on rising fuel costs.
Then came the crash. Oil is now trading at half the price it fetched just three months ago. Suddenly, Southwest's aggressive bet on the market went bad"

No it did not go "bad". Almost by definition hedges will lose money when the risk the firm is hedging moves in their favor. So airlines worry about jet fuel prices. Holding other things constant, airlines drop in value as teh fuel prices rise and vice versa. So, their hedges are designed to "lose" money when the firm can better handle the losses and make money when operations would otherwise be hurting. In doing so they allow the firm (Southwest in this case) to focus on what they do well (run an airline) and not worry about what is outside of their control (price of fuel). The hedges are not designed to make money 100% of the time.

Jensen Comment
I think Southwest is probably more worried about the "cost" of future hedges than it is about what it may have lost (an opportunity loss only) when fuel prices plunged. When the outlook is very strong for future increases in fuel prices, good deals for airline hedging commence to disappear. Options become very high priced, and futures contracts have higher spreads between spot and futures prices (known as basis). Even though fuel prices have plunged in the past few months, the outlook is not at all good since none of the candidates the presidency or Congress is promising to strive for an end to deficit spending and a stronger dollar. Without a continued weakening of the U.S. dollar fuel prices are bound to rebound. The weakening dollar is the major cause of the long-term rise in fuel prices.

Bob Jensen's Excel summary of hedging strategies might be useful in some courses, particularly courses focused on FAS 133. You may download my Excel workbook file --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/Calgary/CD/Graphing.xls

Bob Jensen's hedge accounting tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm

Grant Thornton is Being Sued Separately

"Jury Finds Parmalat Defrauded Citigroup," by Eric Dash, The New York Times, October 20, 2008 --- Click Here

A New Jersey jury found that Parmalat, the Italian food and dairy company, had defrauded Citigroup and awarded the bank $364.2 million in damages.

The 6-to-1 verdict cleared Citigroup of any wrongdoing after a five-month civil trial that delved into complex, off-balance-sheet accounting that enabled Parmalat to artificially raise its earnings.

The verdict was returned on Monday in New Jersey Superior Court in Hackensack.

For Citigroup, the decision will most likely be the last in several accounting scandals that entangled it earlier this decade. The bank previously reached settlements over its roles in Enron and WorldCom. But more litigation is coming.

The bank is expected to face billions of dollars in legal claims over its role in the subprime mortgage market and is engaged in another battle with Wells Fargo over the takeover of the Wachovia Corporation.

Parmalat’s new management, including its chief executive, Enrico Bondi, had sought up to $2.2 billion in damages from Citigroup, contending its bankers designed a series of complex transactions that helped Parmalat “mask their systemic looting of the company” while collecting tens of millions in fees. The Italian company collapsed in 2003 under billions of dollars of debt.

Citigroup said it was a victim of Parmalat’s fraud and countersued for damages. On Monday, Citigroup said it was delighted that a jury had vindicated its position. “We have said from the beginning that we have done nothing wrong,” the bank said. “Citi was the largest victim of the Parmalat fraud and not part of it.”

Officials from Parmalat could not be reached, but the company is expected to appeal the decision.

Citigroup was the first financial services firm to go to trial in the United States over Parmalat’s accusations. Parmalat is pursuing separate claims against the Bank of America and Grant Thornton, the accounting firm, in Manhattan federal court. That case is expected to go to trial next year; both companies have denied any wrongdoing.

More on Grant Thornton and Parmalat --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#GrantThornton

In-Substance Defeasance and Other Off-Balance Sheet Contracting --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#OBSF2

Keeping Score on the SEC in 2008

"The SEC in 2008: A Very Good Year? A terrific one, the commission says, tallying a fiscal-year record in insider-trading cases, and the second-highest number of enforcement cases overall. But what would John McCain say?" by Stephen Taub and Roy Harris, CFO.com, October 22, 2008 --- http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/12465408/c_12469997

It was a great year for Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement, according to the SEC. In a fiscal-year-end summary, it notes, for example, that it brought the highest number ever of insider trading cases.

And altogether, it took the second-highest number of enforcement actions in agency history.

"The SEC's role in policing the markets and protecting investors has never been more critical," said Linda Chatman Thomsen, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "The dedicated enforcement staff has been working around the clock to investigate and punish wrongdoing."

The celebration of these records and near-records, however, comes during a time of widespread charges of what critics call lax policing by the regulator. They question its performance before the powderkeg of subprime mortgage lending, amid loose standards within major financial institutions, exploded into the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression. Just a month ago, Republican presidential candidate John McCain promoted the replacement of SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, while many legislators have supported folding the SEC and other agencies into one larger, more encompassing financial regulator.

But this day, at least, was one for the SEC proudly to recount the 671 enforcement actions it took during the most recent fiscal year. And it made special note of how insider trading cases jumped more than 25 percent over the previous year.

Among those trading cases, the SEC seemed to prize most highly the charges against former Dow Jones board member David Li, and three other Hong Kong residents, in a $24-million insider-trading enforcement action, along with the charging of the former chairman and CEO of a division of Enron Corp. with illegally selling hundreds of thousands of shares of Enron stock based on nonpublic information.

Market manipulation cases surged more than 45 percent. They included charges against a Wall Street short seller for spreading false rumors, and charging 10 insiders or promoters of publicly traded companies who made stock sales in exchange for illegal kickbacks.

Among the major fraud cases, the SEC sued two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers for fraudulently misleading investors about the financial state of the firm's two largest hedge funds. The regulator also charged five former employees of the City of San Diego for failing to disclose to the investing public buying the city's municipal bonds that there were funding problems with its pension and retiree health care obligations and those liabilities had placed the city in serious financial jeopardy.

Illegal stock-option backdating was also a big focus of the agency in 2008. The SEC charged eight public companies and 27 executives with providing false information to investors based on improper accounting for backdated stock option grants.

The SEC said that another growth area involved cases against U.S. companies that use corporate funds to bribe foreign officials, an activity precluded by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In 2008, the SEC filed 15 FCPA cases. Since January 2006, the SEC has brought 38 FCPA enforcement actions — more than were brought in all prior years combined since FCPA became law in 1977.

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

Bob Jensen's threads on creative accounting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#Manipulation
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/AccountingTricks.htm

Peter, Paul, and Barney: An Essay on 2008 U.S. Government Bailouts of Private Companies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm

Meanwhile in the U.K., the Government Protects Reckless Bankers

"Off the legal hook: The law does not protect individuals from the recklessness and failings of company directors. It should," by Prim Sekka, The Guardian, October 25, 2008 --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/25/banking-law

The current financial crisis has been manufactured in company boardrooms. Its authors include the best executive directors, non-executive directors, accountants, lawyers and sundry business advisers. Most directors received profit-related remuneration. Innocent stakeholders lost savings, investments, jobs, homes and pensions.

Among many reckless acts, bank executives used depositors' and investors' monies to place clever bets on the movement of interest rates, exchange rates, commodity prices and virtually everything else. They borrowed heavily. At some banks, for every £1 of shareholder investment, directors borrowed £33 – inother words, they had a leverage ratio of 33:1, meaning that just over 3% of the company was financed by long-term funds. This meant that if the value of the bank's assets declined by just over 3%, the bank would technically be bankrupt. Many banks had even higher leverage ratios. With the full approval of auditors, most of them reported toxic assets as good. They also moved more than $5tn of assets and liabilities off balance sheet. All this helped to improve earnings and maximise the profit related remuneration of bank directors. There is a clear conflict of interests between the interests of directors and wellbeing of business stakeholders. It is difficult to see how the directors exercised reasonable care, skill and diligence in devising their policies.

Successive governments have been too keen to shield their friends from public scrutiny. No independent inspectors were appointed to investigate failures at Polly Peck, The Accident Group, Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), or Versailles Group Plc. Such is the hold of deregulationist philosophies that the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) does not even have an in-house unit to investigate major corporate abuses. It outsources that function to major auditing firms, the very firms which have given a clean bill of health to the accounts of distressed banks.

Abuses by big names in the City have been flagged before. For example, a 1997 government report on Guinness plc found "firstly, the cynical disregard of laws and regulations; secondly the cavalier misuse of company monies; thirdly, a contempt for truth and common honesty. All these in a part of the City which was thought respectable". Yet little has been done to enhance people's rights against executive abuses.

Section 171 of the Companies Act 2006 states that a director must act in good faith, promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members [shareholders] as a whole and in doing so have regard (among other matters) to "(a) the likely consequences of any decision in the long term, (b) the interests of the company's employees, (c) the need to foster the company's business relationships with suppliers, customers and others, (d) the impact of the company's operations on the community and the environment, (e) the desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct, and (f) the need to act fairly as between members of the company".

Lawyers could use this law to argue that directors have been negligent and harmed the interests of stakeholders. However, directors do not owe a 'duty of care' to any individual shareholder, employee, depositor or any other stakeholder. The interests of stakeholders, such as employees, pension schemes members, suppliers, customers and local communities have been subordinated to the interests of the company. Though the shareholders may bring class actions to sue directors for negligence, the law does not empower employees, pension scheme members or depositors to do the same. Neither an individual shareholder nor any other stakeholder can sue auditors as they only owe a 'duty of care' to the company, as a legal person. Auditors enjoy too many liability shields and can escape liability even after admitting negligence.

The UK is ill-equipped to investigate the current financial crisis, or prosecute its architects. Individual stakeholders have lost property, but are not in a position to sue negligent directors and auditors. Thus the UK state is failing in its duty to protect the property rights of its citizens. There is an urgent need to abandon deregulationist policies and revise corporate laws.

From the Scout Report on October 24, 2008

AltMove Manager 2.1.4 --- http://www.deskex.com/Altmove/index.asp 

AltMove Manager doesn't reinvent the mouse, but it certainly enhances its general functionality. With AltMove Manager, users can quickly and easily minimize and restore windows, grab screenshots, and even magnify a window under the mouse. Visitors can also consult the Actions menu to add a few more functions, if they wish to do so. This version is compatible with computers running Windows NT and newer.

---

Express Scribe 4.26 --- http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html

If you're hoping to transcribe a speech for an upcoming project, you'll want to look over Express Scribe 4.26. With this transcription player, users can adjust the playback speed, manage various audio files, and even use a set of multi-channel controls. This particular version of Express Scribe is compatible with computers running Windows 95 and newer.

Bob Jensen's helpers for speech recognition are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#SpeechRecognition

Free online textbooks, cases, and tutorials in accounting, finance, economics, and statistics --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

Education Tutorials

Cultivating Demand for the Arts: Arts Learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy ---
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG640.pdf

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

Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

Molecular Movies: A Portal to Cell & Molecular Animation (video) --- http://www.molecularmovies.com/

Pure and Applied Chemistry --- http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/

USDA: Animal Welfare Information Center --- http://awic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=3&tax_level=1

Zorba Paster on Your Health --- http://www.wpr.org/zorba/

From the Scout Report on October 24, 2008

Study documents dramatic rise in the incidence of food allergies among children Study: Food allergies on the rise in kids http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-10-22-food-allergies_N.htm 

WebMD: Food Allergy in Kids Up 18% http://www.webmd.com/allergies/news/20081022/food-allergy-in-kids-up-18- percent 

Food Allergy Among U.S. Children: Trends in Prevalence and Hospitalizations [pdf] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db10.pdf 

Kids With Food Allergies [pdf] http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/ 

The Food Allergy Research and Resource Program [pdf] http://www.farrp.org/ 

The Food Allergy & Anaphlyaxis Network [pdf] http://www.foodallergy.org/ 

 

Bob Jensen's threads on free online science, engineering, and medicine tutorials are at --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Science

Social Science and Economics Tutorials

Nuclear Deterrence in the Age of Nuclear Terrorism Video
Graham Allison, MIT's Technology Review, November/December 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=95
Graham Allison, a professor of government at Harvard University and the director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, talks about the threat of nuclear terrorism.

UNdata --- http://data.un.org/
Other data --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics

Robert Shiller's Financial Markets Course at Yale (Video and Audio on Demand) --- http://oyc.yale.edu/economics/financial-markets/

From Jim Mahar's Blog on October 23, 2008 --- http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/

WOW! Now and then you get an email that changes your whole day for the better. That was what I just got from Jacob over at MoneyScience.com. WOW. I definitely know what I will be doing! Watching and listening. It does not et much better. The opportunity to listen in on one of the most respected FinanceProfessors in the world!

From MoneyScience --- Click Here

 The good folks at Yale have recently made Professor Robert Shiller's Spring Financial Markets Course at Yale available to the Public as Video and Audio (mp3).

The Course took place in the Spring 2008, so events have overtaken us somewhat, but still you have an excellent introduction to Financial Markets from one of the pre-eminent Economists of his generation - with Guest Lectures from such luminaries as Carl Icahn and Stephen Schwarzman and Lawrence Summers.

The Bidding Game [Game Theory] --- http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.article.asp?a=3681

From MIT's Sloan School of Management Open Courseware Project --- http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/

MIT OpenCourseWare | Sloan School of Management | 15.220 Global Companies today confront an increasing array of choices regarding markets, locations for key activities, outsourcing and ownership modes, and organization and processes for managing across borders. This course provides students with the conceptual tools necessary to understand and work effectively in today ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-220Spring-2008/CourseHome/ - 15k - 2008-07-31

MIT OpenCourseWare | Sloan School of Management | 15.220 Global This section contains information about additional reading materials regarding the course.ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-220Spring-2008/Readings/ - 18k - 2008-07-31
[ More results from ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-220Spring-2008 ]

New Markets/New Entrants Global Strategy and Organization Elena Page 1. 1 New Markets/New Entrants Global Strategy and Organization Elena Obukhova
MIT Sloan School of Management February 2008 Page 2. 2 ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-220Spring-2008/8186556F-F5F2-467A-8FFF-46370C9FF1C4/0/lec7.pdf - 2008-07-31

 The Spirit of High Tech Entrepreneurship at MIT: What s Hot and Page 1. 15.220 Spring 2007 Global Strategy and Organization 15.220 Donald
Lessard MIT Sloan School of Management MIT Sloan Fellows ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-220Spring-2008/18B6BA33-8812-4AF7-BF2F-C03250487723/0/lec1.pdf - 2008-07-31
[ More results from ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Sloan-School-of-Management ]

Free Online MIT Course Materials | Sloan School of Management MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS COURSES FROM MIT OPENCOURSEWARE.ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/ - 59k - 2008-10-17

Free Online MIT Course Materials | Newsletter | MIT OpenCourseWareHere is the current “MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter. Subscribe and you’ll receive notification of new courses and other OCW news.ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/about/newsletter/ - 19k - 2008-10-17

Free Online MIT Course Materials | New Courses | MIT The following courses were published by MIT OpenCourseWare within the past twelve months.ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/new/ - 51k - 2008-10-22

Free Online Course Materials | Courses | MIT OpenCourseWareFree Courses, Lecture Notes, Syllabus, Tutorials, Audio & Video from MIT professors. All Free. No registration. | MIT OpenCourseWare | ocw.mit.eduocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/all-courses.htm - 101k - 2008-10-23

Other Open Courseware from Major Universities --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Podcasts from the Society for Applied Anthropology & the University of North Texas --- http://sfaapodcasts.net/

"Yale Doubles Number of Free Online Courses," Converge Magazine, October 20, 2008 ---
http://www.convergemag.com/story.php?catid=421&storyid=107973
These are not just course materials. These are entire courses on video.

Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Philosophy tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social

Law and Legal Studies

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

Math Tutorials

The Bidding Game [Game Theory] --- http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.article.asp?a=3681

National Portrait Gallery: Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture --- http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/ballyhoo/
Face-to-Face blog - Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery --- http://face2face.si.edu/

Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics

History Tutorials

Stereoviews of the French Second Empire (Napoleon)1855-1870 --- http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/History/subcollections/StereoFranceAbout.html

SoundAboutPhilly --- http://www.gophila.com/soundabout/

Tarahumara People: National Geographic Magazine http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/tarahumara-people/gorney-text

Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm  

Language Tutorials

Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Languages

Music Tutorials

Great Conversations in Music [multimedia] --- http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/greatconversations/great-home.html

Bob Jensen's links to music tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Music

Writing Tutorials

"How to Write With Style," by Kurt Vonnegut --- http://literature.sdsu.edu/onWRITING/vonnegutSTYLE.html

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

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

October 22, 2008

• Slow Down to Lose Weight?
• Fat Injections Safe for Breasts?
• Who Has Highest Suicide Risk?
• 2 Deaths Spur Delta Crib Recall
• Canada to Ban BPA Baby Bottles

Features

• Using the Web to Boost Health
• Cereal: The Perfect Fitness Food
• Learn to Simplify Your Life
• Foods to Lower Your Cholesterol
• 10 Health Benefits of Sex

October 23, 2008

• Warm Hands, Warm Heart?
• Gardasil: Safe at 2-Year Mark?
• Hydrogen Sulfide May Help BP
• Guarded Optimism for MS Drug
• The Psychology of Political Ads

October 24, 2008

• 50% of Doctors Prescribe Placebo
• Insurance Costs Outpace Wages
• Experimental Pill May Treat MS
• Gardasil: Safe at 2-Year Mark?
• Warm Hands, Warm Heart?

October 28, 2008

• FDA: 2 Bayer Products 'Unlawful'
• 10 Tips for Cancer Prevention
• Video Games Zap Diabetes Risk
• Scarier: Spiders or Diabetes?
• Top 5 Food Trends for 2008

October 29, 2008

• E. coli Risks of a Red Meat Diet
• Grapes May Fight High BP
• Tai Chi May Help Control Asthma
• 'Smart Choices' Food Labels
• FDA: 2 Bayer Products 'Unlawful'

 

 

"Many cough medicines lack effective dose, say doctors, studies," by Kayce T. Ataiyero, PhysOrg, October 24, 2008 ---
http://www.physorg.com/news144063817.html

"Feel-good foods: What you eat can affect your mood," by Julie Deardorff, PhysOrg, October 24, 2008 ---
http://www.physorg.com/news144063723.html

Still, there's growing recognition in the medical community that the right food choices can improve your mood. Though drugs are often considered the first line of treatment for depression, a dietary change might be all you need, says James Gordon, a psychiatrist who advocates non-drug approaches to depression.

Gordon, a clinical professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, believes what we eat affects how we think and feel. "It's a wake-up call to let us know our body is out of balance."

Food can help restore that equilibrium, Gordon wrote in his new book, "Unstuck" (The Penguin Press, $25.95). The trick is knowing which key nutrients to include, and which foods to avoid.

Nutritional changes aren't a magic bullet; they're subtle pieces of a treatment plan that might also include therapy, exercise_one of the most effective depression busters_and stress-reduction techniques.

But "diet can help with virtually any chronic condition" including depression, said registered dietitian Wendy Bazilian, who holds a doctorate in public health. Just remember that major depression might require an integrative approach that uses food in conjunction with other therapies, including medication and counseling. And never abruptly stop taking medication even if you're experiencing side effects such as weight gain and sexual dysfunction; talk to your doctor about tapering down.

Eat more ...

1. Salmon. Fatty, cold-water fish such as salmon contain omega-3 fatty acids, which keep cell membranes pliable and flexible, said neurosurgeon Larry McCleary, founder of a research group that looks at natural ways to treat health issues. It's also in tuna, anchovies and sardines, but since fish fat is also a good place to store heavy metals, pesticides and poylchlorinated biphenyls (PCB), consider plant-based sources, including walnuts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds and green, leafy vegetables.

2. Oatmeal, soy milk and two scrambled eggs. This meal will give you 500 milligrams of tryptophan, an amino acid that's a precursor for the neurotransmitter serotonin, the brain's feel-good hormone. Many antidepressants are designed to prolong the activity of serotonin in our cells, but you can actually increase the levels by eating carbohydrates (with the exception of fructose, the sugar in fruit), said Judith Wurtman, author of "The Serotonin Power Diet" (Rodale, $24.95).

3. Spinach: Low levels of the B vitamin folate, found in spinach, peas, navy beans, orange juice, wheat germ or avocado, may play a role in depression in some patients, said Brent Bauer, director of the Mayo Clinic's Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program.

4. Vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D has been shown to help with seasonal affective disorder, said Bruce Hollis, professor of pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina. It may also have an anti-inflammatory effect and increase the flexibility of cell membranes, making the brain's neurotransmitters work better. While primarily generated after the skin soaks up the sun's ultraviolet B rays, Vitamin D can be obtained from oily fish and supplemented products like cow or soy milk and orange juice.

But Hollis says the recommended daily allowance - 200 to 400 international units per day_is far too low. Instead, supplement with 2,000 IU's or higher, especially between October and April for Chicagoans. At these levels, though, food isn't a good option, since you'd have to drink a gallon of milk a day and no one needs those calories, Hollis said.

5. Broccoli and blueberries: When combined with protein in fish, chicken and turkey, high-fiber, non-starchy vegetables help stabilize blood sugar levels, said Jack Challem, author of "The Food-Mood Solution" (Wiley, $24.95). "Our moods usually track with blood sugar levels," Challem said. "When our blood sugar is on the rise right after we eat, most people feel pretty contented. If it goes up too high, people feel sleepy because high blood sugar turns off orexins, a family of neuropeptides involved in feeling alert." Superfruits such as blueberries are high in antioxidants, which are substances that absorb the free radicals produced by stress. Too many free radicals cause wear and tear on the body. Challem recommends green leafy vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and kiwifruit.

6. Quinoa. Whole grains, a good source of B vitamins, break down and release sugar slowly, so you don't get high levels of insulin and the ups and down of blood sugar, said Gordon. Quinoa, a seed that is classified as a grain, is considered one of the best sources of protein in the vegetable kingdom. Also try oats, brown rice, or whole wheat bread or pasta.

Eat less ...

Red meat. As you increase omega-3's, try to cut down on the other type of fatty acid, omega-6, which is found in beef. Though essential for brain health, omega-6's are associated with promoting inflammation. Omega-6's are also found in corn and vegetable oils.

Fried foods. Fat is a very important part of a cell's membranes. But trans fats and saturated fats make the membranes rigid; then the neurotransmitters don't work as well. Fried foods, hamburgers, french fries, butter, cheesecake, whole milk and beef are high in saturated fat. A product has trans fats if the ingredients list "partially hydrogenated oils." Food manufacturers are allowed to list amounts of trans fat with less than 0.5 gram as 0 on the Nutrition Facts panel. To avoid it, read labels.

Gas station food. Processed foods contain refined flour and give you high doses of sugar but lack critical nutrients, said Gordon. "You'll often experience a feeling of well-being from the sugar when levels are high, but when it's low you experience a letdown or fatigue." Refined sugars include white table sugar, white flour, high fructose corn syrup.

Alcohol and caffeine. Though alcohol is a stimulant in low doses, it also depletes the brain's mood elevator, serotonin. Caffeine blocks the soothing effects of the brain's "feel-good" messenger called GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid) that can calm mood and the digestive tract, said Molly Siple, author of "Eating for Recovery" (Lifelong, $17.95). "Refined foods and caffeine tend to raise the blood glucose," she said. "The drop is a route into depression."

"Prostates Grown from Stem Cells:  New proof that the mouse prostate contains stem cells could aid cancer research," by Jocelyn Rice, MIT's Technology Review, October 23, 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/21594/?nlid=1452

A single adult stem cell from the prostate of a mouse can develop into an entire functional organ, scientists reported online yesterday in Nature. The finding proves that a population of stem cells exists in the adult prostate, as many have long suspected, and it could provide insight into how prostate cancer develops.

"It's extremely exciting, the concept that you can reconstitute an entire prostate from a single cell," says Tyler Jacks, director of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, at MIT, who was not involved in the work. "That's impressive stuff."

Unlike embryonic stem cells, which can potentially develop into any cell type in the body, adult stem cells are tissue-specific. Many organs are believed to house populations of adult stem cells, but in most cases their existence remains unproven. Known adult stem cells, however, can give rise to all the cell types that characterize the organs in which they're found.

To sift out potential adult prostate stem cells, researchers at Genentech, in San Francisco, zeroed in on a group of cell-surface markers associated with suspected prostate stem cells. Since many of these markers are individually unreliable and poorly understood, the researchers tested a new one as well: a receptor protein called c-kit, which is known to be associated with other types of stem cells.

Using c-kit and three other markers, the researchers, led by senior scientist Wei-Qiang Gao, isolated a small population of likely stem cells from the prostates of mice. But while markers can point to candidates, they can't unequivocally prove the identity of a stem cell. The cell still needs to demonstrate the capacity to develop into an entire organ.

To test for that capacity, Gao and his colleagues grafted individual stem-cell candidates onto the kidneys of living mice. In order to provide necessary developmental cues, they transferred, along with each cell, some connective cells from the urogenital cavities of rats. Three months later, the researchers removed the kidneys and analyzed the fate of the grafted cells. Of the 97 single-cell transplants, 14 had grown into fully functioning prostates--complete with multiple cell types, characteristic branching structures, and prostate-specific proteins.

Other groups have grown prostates in living mice from clumps of cells, but never before from a single cell. "That's really the gold standard--that there's an adult, tissue-specific stem cell," says Scott Cramer, an associate professor of cancer biology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. The only other solid tissue for which this feat has been accomplished is the breast: a single breast stem cell can develop into an entire mammary gland.

Household hints forwarded by Maureen

Some old ones, some new.

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little stringy things off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. To really make scrambled eggs or omelets righ add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in a double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if you want a stronger taste of garlic. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Reheat Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs

Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting

When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away. Start putting in yor plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as yu go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds wil get through some gardening plastic, tey will not get through wet newspapers. Broken Glass Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes

Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!

To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrles won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or emplty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ta da! static is gone.

Measuring Cups

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?

Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope. If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! it unseals easily.

Conditioner Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies

To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever.!

Get Rid of Ants Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean (I always clean the lint from the lilter after every load of clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material...I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well...thehot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over the mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free...that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box...well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer longer.

Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mish screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it...the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!

Forwarded from Niki

The letter was sent to the principal's office after the school had sponsored a luncheon for the elderly. An old lady received a new radio at the lunch as a door prize and was writing to say thank you. This story is a credit to all humankind. Forward to anyone you know who might need a lift today.

Dear Kean Elementary:

God bless you for the beautiful radio I won at your recent senior citizens luncheon. I am 84 years old and live at the Sprenger Home for the Aged. All of my family has passed away. I am all alone now and it's nice to know that someone is thinking of me. God bless you for your kindness to an old forgotten lady.

My roommate is 95 and has always had her own radio, but before I received one, she would never let me listen to hers, even when she was napping. The other day her radio fell off the nightstand and broke into a lot of pieces. It was awful and she was in tears. She asked if she could listen to mine, and I told her to kiss my diaper.

Thank you for that opportunity.

Sincerely,

Edna

Forwarded by Professor Edwards (who ought to know)

Perks of reaching 50 or being over 60 and heading towards 70 AND PLUS!

01. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

02. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.

03. No one expects you to run--anywhere.

04. People call at 9 pm and ask, did I wake you?

05. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

06. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.

07. Things you buy now won't wear out.

08. You can eat supper at 4 pm.

09. You can live without sex but not your glasses.

10. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.

11. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.

12. You quit trying to hold your stomach in no matter who walks into the room.

13. You sing along with elevator music.

14. Your eyes won't get much worse.

15 . Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

16. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.

17. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either. 18. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.

19. You can't remember who sent you this list.

And you notice these are all in Big Print for your convenience.

Forward this to everyone you can remember right now!

Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

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

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

World Clock --- http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time --- http://www.worldometers.info/
Interesting Online Clock and Calendar --- http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones --- http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) --- http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
         Also see http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
         Facts about population growth (video) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
Projected U.S. Population Growth --- http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq --- http://www.costofwar.com/ 
Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons --- http://zipskinny.com/
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.

Three Finance Blogs

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

Some Accounting Blogs

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

Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaching Materials (especially video) from PBS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accountancy Discussion ListServs:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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