Tidbits
on March 4, 2005
Bob
Jensen at Trinity
University
For earlier editions of New
Bookmark
s go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Archives of Tidits: Tidbits Directory --- 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/.
Bob Jensen's home page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/
An investment in knowledge
always pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin as quoted by Mark Shapiro at http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-03-03-05.htm
Barry Cushing passed away on March 1, 2004.
It is a great sadness to me, because Barry was once one of my
doctoral students. I am grateful for our last evening together in Orlando last
August. Barry led an exemplary life as an accounting educator/researcher and as
a human being. This is a great loss.
His Web page is at http://home.business.utah.edu/~actbec/
I love it and use it all the time. If some module has it wrong,
users can easily fix it up themselves.
Jimmy Wales wanted to build a free encyclopedia on the
internet. So he raised an army of amateurs and created the self-organizing,
self-repairing, hyper-addictive library of the future called Wikipedia ---
http://www.wikipedia.org/
Daniel H. Pink, "The Book Stops Here," Wired Magazine, March
2005 --- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/wiki.html?tw=wn_tophead_4
Jensen Comment: When I tried adding my own modules., Jimmy wrote back (seriously)
that he liked the material didn't have enough hard drive to put up my long modules.
He thought I was just too verbose. Can you
believe that? (Don't answer, please.)
Now I'm even more grateful for the generosity of Information Technology Services
(ITS) at Trinity University and my good friends with big servers in the Computer
Science Department. Please get well and hurry back Gerald Pitts.
(I operate out of more than one server here at Trinity. And please, no
jokes about hogs from Iowa.)
No, surely not in my case
In the early '90s, psychiatrists and clinicians were
beginning to hear of a new medical term, "internet addiction." At
first, this was met with a lot of skepticism and denial, however, it became
evident that the more people logged on to cyberspace, the more they got
hooked. The 10 Symptoms You Need To Watch Out For:
AskMen.com --- http://www.askmen.com/fashion/body_and_mind/16_better_living.html
This report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, authored by
Lee Rainie and John Horrigan, takes a critical look at how the Web has
mainstreamed into our lives, which is certainly the case in my life.
Internet: The Mainstreaming of Online Life --- http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/Internet_Status_2005.pdf
Beware of your tax preparer: Just say no to loans based upon
anticipated tax refunds
A refund-anticipation loan is a bank loan, short-term
borrowing based on the amount you expect from your federal tax refund. It is
also a popular marketing tool for the big tax-preparation companies, appealing
especially to people living from paycheck to paycheck. In some limited
circumstances, refund-anticipation loans can be beneficial. But for most people,
"they're completely unnecessary, an extremely expensive drain on expected
refund money," said Jean Ann Fox, director of consumer protection at the
Consumer Federation of America. "It's money out of the pockets of the
working poor," Fox said. The federation and the National Consumer Law
Center have been leading the campaign against refund-anticipation loans for
several years, with some success. Fees have dropped and disclosures have
improved. But that doesn't change the fact that these so-called instant
refunds, with interest rates to make usurers blush, are an expensive way to get
use of your own money for a few extra days.
Kevin G. Demarrais, "Quick cash back comes at a cost: Have a
bit of patience, and enjoy your whole tax refund," Houston Chronicle,
February 27, 2005 --- http://www.chron.com/CDA/umstory.mpl/business/3058554
Bob Jensen's threads on consumer frauds are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm
Just
another settlement day at Merrill Lynch
Bucking a spate of previous rulings favorable to the securities industry,
arbitrators ordered Merrill
Lynch & Co. to pay a Florida couple more than $1 million for failing to
disclose that its analysts had conflicts of interest in recommending stocks.
Jed Horowitz, "Merrill Ordered to Pay 2 Clients Over Analyst Conflicts on
Stocks," The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2005; Page C3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110962110354266151,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
Jensen Comment: Merrill Lynch has one of the worst fraud records on Wall
Street. Eliot Spitzer once claimed he had enough smoking guns to bring
down Merrill Lynch if he chose to do so. You can read more by searching
for "Merrill" at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraudrotten.htm
FTC Annual Fraud Report
The FTC of the US has released its Annual Fraud Report, in which, among other
things, it reports an increase in identity theft, amounting to losses of as much
as $548 million in the US alone.
FTC:
Identity theft, online scams rose in '04 - Computerworld
Gerald Trite's Business Blog, February 17, 2005 --- http://www.zorba.ca/blog.html
Bob Jensen's fraud updates are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
FTC helpers if suspect someone else has become you --- http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtsummary.pdf
FTC helpers in getting your credit report and FICO score --- http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/index.html
FTC consumer warnings --- http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm
Does employee blogging activity
pose a threat to enterprise security? According to Alyn Hockey, director of
research at Clearswift, it does, and on two fronts. "Blogging has
definitely emerged as a potential security threat," Hockey says.
"Especially when practiced by disgruntled or malicious employees. But
simple carelessness is also a factor. They don't necessarily have to have bad
intentions to do some damage to a company's brand and reputation."
John K. Waters, "Blogging: New threat to enterprise security?" ADT
Newsletter, March 3, 2005 --- http://newsletters.101com.com/sdg/n.asp?pc=HWEB03&nl=23,38,44,36
Bob Jensen's threads on blogging are at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Weblog
Blame it on us baby boomers!
Alan's implying that I'm going to be
collecting more than you working stiffs can afford.
Common now, you can work harder than you've been working: Push that barge
and lift that bail
"I fear that we may have already committed more
physical resources to the baby-boom generation in its retirement years than our
economy has the capacity to deliver. If existing promises need to be changed,
those changes should be made sooner rather than later. We owe future retirees as
much time as possible to adjust their plans for work, saving, and retirement
spending. They need to ensure that their personal resources, along with what
they expect to receive from the government, will be sufficient to meet their
retirement goals.
Testimony of Chairman Alan Greenspan Economic outlook and current fiscal issues
Before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives March 2, 2005
My unfinished essay on the "Pending Collapse of the United States" --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/entitlements.htm
Once again, blame it on us baby boomers!
Bodiford experienced what many Americans may soon face:
a shortage of physicians that makes it hard to find convenient, quality health
care. The shortage will worsen as 79 million baby boomers reach retirement age
and demand more medical care unless the nation starts producing more doctors,
according to several new studies. The country needs to train 3,000 to
10,000 more physicians a year — up from the current 25,000 — to meet the
growing medical needs of an aging, wealthy nation, the studies say. Because it
takes 10 years to train a doctor, the nation will have a shortage of 85,000 to
200,000 doctors in 2020 unless action is taken soon. The predictions of a
doctor shortage represent an abrupt about-face for the medical profession. For
the past quarter-century, the American Medical Association and other industry
groups have predicted a glut of doctors and worked to limit the number of new
physicians. In 1994, the Journal of the American Medical Association predicted a
surplus of 165,000 doctors by 2000.
"Medical miscalculation creates doctor shortage," USA Today,
March 3, 2005 --- http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050303/1a_cover03.art.htm
Note to AARP: Australians seem to like their
form of private account social security
Clare says the people least likely to shift are those
in industry or public defined benefit funds, where many receive above the super
guarantee from their employers plus other benefits. People who are happy
with their fund and elect to keep it when they change jobs will be among the
main drivers of choice. That is, they will exercise choice by rejecting their
new employer's default fund. With about 20 per cent of the workforce changing
jobs each year, this is a significant group.
"A switch in time," Sydney Morning Herald, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/03/01/1109546861995.html
Robin Square Tape
Comedian Robin Williams said it all when he walked on
stage with a piece of white tape over his mouth. Williams was to have
performed a song lampooning conservative critic James Dobson, whose group had
criticised cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants for appearing in a video it
branded "pro-homosexual." . . . Marc Shaiman, who wrote Williams'
original routine, said he decided to withdraw the material after ABC raised
objections that would have led to him re-writing 11 of 36 lines. ABC declined to
comment.
"Censorship at Oscars irks many," Aljazeera, March 1. 2005 --- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AA763FF7-03FC-40F4-AD8C-53A449F3CE5C.htm
Phoenix, Oregon Citizen Square Tapes
In wake of Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich's ban on state
employees speaking to two Baltimore Sun staffers and an Ohio mayor's prohibition
on city employees speaking to the local Business Journal, a small town Oregon
mayor has announced that all media contact with town officials or employees must
be made through her office.
"Another Government Official Bans Contact with Press," Editor and
Publisher, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000825822
We would hate to have Senator Byrd be remembered as a
champion of minority rights movement
At 9:51 on the morning of June 10, 1964, Senator Robert
C. Byrd completed an address that he had begun fourteen hours and thirteen
minutes earlier. The subject was the pending Civil Rights Act of 1964, a measure
that occupied the Senate for fifty-seven working days, including six Saturdays.
A day earlier, Democratic Whip Hubert Humphrey, the bill's manager, concluded he
had the sixty-seven votes required at that time to end the debate. . . . Never
in history had the Senate been able to muster enough votes to cut off a
filibuster on a civil rights bill. And only once in the thirty-seven years since
1927 had it agreed to cloture for any measure.
"Civil Rights Filibuster Ended," U.S. Senate, June
10, 1964 --- http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Civil_Rights_Filibuster_Ended.htm
There's that N-word again
A pair of Jewish groups accused Sen. Robert Byrd on
Wednesday of making an outrageous and reprehensible comparison between Adolf
Hitler's Nazis and a Senate GOP plan to block Democrats from filibustering. A
GOP senator called for Byrd to retract his remarks. Byrd spokesman Tom Gavin
denied that Byrd, D-W.Va., had compared Republicans to Hitler. He said that
instead, the reference to Nazis
in a Senate speech on Tuesday was meant to
underscore that the past should not be ignored....
Alan Fram, "GOP Jewish Group Critizes Byrd's Remarks," MyWay,
March 2, 2005 --- http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050303/D88J6OG00.html
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
expressed outrage at the remarks of West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, who
suggested that some Republican tactics on judicial nominations were similar to
Adolf Hitler's use of power in Nazi Germany. In remarks from the Senate floor
yesterday, Sen. Byrd compared a Senate rule cutting off debate on nominations to
Hitler's use of constitutional means to push legislation through the German
Reichstag at the start of the Nazi era. Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National
Director, issued the following statement: "It is hideous, outrageous and
offensive for Senator Byrd to...
"Senator's Hitler Comparison on Judicial Nominees 'Offensive and
Insensitive'," Anti-Defamation League, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/4660_52.htm
Jensen Advice:
"Dear Senator Byrd, Refrain from the N-word. Please call Republican
Senators Little Eichmans!"
Like it or not, military bashing has a downside
CNN saw its prime-time ratings drop sharply in
February, falling further behind Fox News. CNN's ratings dipped 16 percent
overall and 21 percent in prime time during February, according to Nielsen Media
Research, as some of the cable news channel's biggest stars lost viewers. Fox
News was the only one among the four cable news networks to post ratings gains
during the month. Fox News is owned by News Corp., which is The Post's parent
company. In 2002, Fox News surpassed CNN in the ratings and has been the leader
ever since. Fox saw its ratings...
"CNN Sinking in Fox Hole," New York Post, March 3, 2005 --- http://www.nypost.com/business/22209.htm
Also see http://www.variety.com/VR1117918742.html
Paint the red states blue: John's going to learn
from Republicans
Democratic vice presidential candidate and former
senator John Edwards will be among visiting fellows at Harvard University's
Institute of Politics this spring, the school announced yesterday. Edwards, 51,
of North Carolina ran for the Democratic nomination for president before being
chosen as U.S. Sen. John Kerry's running mate last year. He will join U.S. Rep.
Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) and Michael Deaver, international vice chairman of Edelman
Worldwide and former deputy chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan.
Typically, visiting fellows meet with various student groups to discuss topical
issues and their experiences in public and...
"Ex-Kerry running mate to join Harvard as fellow," Boston
Herald, March 3, 2005 --- http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=71250
A not so pleased Walt Mossberg
So, I've been looking for a simple, reasonably priced
product that includes all the hardware and software needed to do these tasks,
and can be easily operated by mere mortals. I thought I'd found it when I came
across a seemingly simple $49 gadget from ADS Technologies called Instant Music
-- a small white box specifically built to turn LPs and tape cassettes into
digital files.
Walter Mossbert, "Digitizing Your LPs and Tapes: ADS Gadget Falls
Short In Converting Old Music; The Jim Croce Test," The Wall Street
Journal, March 2, 2005; Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110971919612167604,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal
Would beleaguered Vermont taxpayers also vote for raising taxes to
fund their own Vermont Guard?
Fifty-two communities in Vermont are, in effect, determining their own foreign
policy today — voting on a referendum that would urge state leaders to stop
sending the state's National Guard (search) troops to war. The resolution would
also ask President Bush to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. The issue
was raised across the state at Vermont's annual Town Meeting Day (search), where
residents usually gather to vote on local issues. But the Washington Times
reports that the referendum is part of a growing anti-war sentiment across the
state including in Brattleboro, Vermont, where officials removed the phrase
"freedom is...
Brit Hume, Fox News, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,149189,00.html
Holy Scary! The manual on how to end civilized civilizations
Doesn't Bin Laden get it? He's also educating his enemies if and when he or his cohorts cease power.
Nobody can be secure from this type
of terrorism among fanatics on any side of a dispute.
In the year since the September 11 attacks, few more
chilling documents have emerged than "Military Studies in the Jihad Against
the Tyrants," a how-to terrorism manual that investigators believe has been
used by followers of Osama bin Laden. The 180-page volume, seized from the
Manchester, England home of a bin Laden disciple, offers jihad members guidance
on subjects such as assassination, forging documents, and preparing poisons in
its 18 chapters. The terrorism manual was placed into evidence last year by
prosecutors during the federal trial of four men accused of involvement in the
1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (the below English
translation was also placed in evidence). All four defendants were convicted and
sentenced to life in prison.
"Bin Laden's Terrorism Bible," The Smoking Gun --- http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/jihadmanual.html
While TSG has previously published small excerpts from this terror bible, we now present the entire document, a remarkable window into bin Laden's network of cold-blooded fanatics.
Title, Opening Pages, And Introduction (11 pages)
First Lesson: General Introduction (4 pages)
Second Lesson: Necessary Qualifications And Characteristics For The Organization's Member (7 pages)
Third Lesson: Counterfeit Currency And Forged Documents (3 pages)
Fourth Lesson: Organization Military Bases "Apartments-Hiding Places" (4 pages)
Fifth Lesson: Means of Communication And Transportation (15 pages)
Sixth Lesson: Training (3 pages)
Seventh Lesson: Weapons: Measures Related To Buying And Transporting Them (5 pages)
Eighth Lesson: Member Safety (5 pages)
Ninth Lesson: Security Plan (12 pages)
Tenth Lesson: Special Tactical Operations (7 pages)
Eleventh Lesson: Espionage (1) Information-Gathering Using Open Methods (10 pages)
Twelfth Lesson: Espionage (2) Information-Gathering Using Covert Methods (15 pages)
Thirteenth Lesson: Secret Writing And Ciphers And Codes (17 pages)
Fourteenth Lesson: Kidnapping And Assassinations Using Rifles And Pistols (23 pages)
Fifteenth Lesson: Explosives (13 pages)
Sixteenth Lesson: Assassinations Using Poisons And Cold Steel (8 pages)
Seventeenth Lesson: Interrogation And Investigation (15 pages)
Eighteenth Lesson: Prisons And Detention Centers (2 pages)
Another scary sign of the times
Juvenile offenders were infrequent arrivals to Texas'
death row until the 1990s, when escalating juvenile violence and a new breed of
young killer prompted a severe reaction from the criminal justice system. Only
four Texas juvenile offenders were executed for crimes committed in the 1970s.
Ditto for the 1980s, though one inmate from that decade remains on death row.
The turbulent 1990s saw a different story. An explosion of juvenile crime,
including a huge increase in juvenile homicides, brought the gloves off. Most
juvenile offenders currently on Texas' death row — 25 of 28 — committed
their crimes in that...
Mike Tolson, Houston Chronicle, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354194/posts
The gangs of New York are
getting younger and younger. Concerned prosecutors across the city are warning
that the city's violent street toughs are recruiting a new generation of
baby-faced followers. The rise of teen gangs was highlighted this month by the
shooting death of Bronx football star Fernando Correa, who had refused to join a
local gang. But across the city, children younger than 10 are being forced to
choose sides, prosecutors and law enforcement sources told the Daily News.
"It's been building. There are rumblings in the elementary schools,"
said a law enforcement source. "Everybody says they're wanna-bes....
Elizabeth Hayes, "Nine-year-olds forced into gangs: Elementary
schools now in the clutches as toughs extend recruiting," New York Daily
News, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/284825p-243953c.html
Engine Out
Over the North Pole
A British Airways 747 that flew from Los Angeles to
England after one of its four engines failed during takeoff has set off a
controversy over the risk of flying 10 hours with a dead engine.
Passengers heard the pops, and people on the ground saw sparks flying out from
beneath the wing. A British Airways 747 had an engine fail during takeoff in Los
Angeles 10 days ago. But instead of returning to the airport to land,
Flight 268 continued on across the U.S, up near the North Pole, across the
Atlantic -- all the way to England. The flight, with 351 passengers on
board, didn't quite make it to London, its scheduled destination. It eventually
made an emergency landing in Manchester, England, setting off a controversy over
the risk of flying 10 hours with a dead engine hanging under the wing.
"Crossing the Atlantic With a Dead Engine," The Wall Street Journal,
March 1, 2005, Page D1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110963519929666421,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal
Perish the Thought: I think
foundations should be diverting more money away from universities and into
schools like this. It's time to get more serious about the future of many
young people who can fill the biggest labor voids in America.
Students have flocked for years to the College of Lake
County in Grayslake to tinker with refrigerators, learn how to repair cars and
hone their accounting skills. But now, thanks to a new $36.4 million
state-of-the-art technology building, they're doing it with some of the latest
technology available, including high-tech equipment that can scan car
computers. "We're teaching them the systems they're going to need
when they go out and work," said Lourdene Huhra, dean of the business
division. "Our equipment is as good as the equipment they'll use on the
job." The building opened in mid-January and is designed to provide a
central location for programs offered by the college's business and engineering,
math and physical science divisions.
"College rolls out high-tech facility," Chicago Tribune,
February 27, 2005 --- http://snipurl.com/TribFeb27
Would you
please repeat what you just said
Ear-wax-removal kits claim to soften excessive ear wax
if you place three to five drops of the carbamide peroxide solution in your ear
twice daily for as many as four days. But listen up: That ear-wax-removal kit
you can buy over-the-counter could cause more problems than it solves. . . I
don't believe in self-irrigation," says Stephen Epstein, an ear specialist
who runs the Ear Center in Wheaton, Md. The removal kits require a consumer to
perform a "relatively blind procedure," since a person can't see
exactly what he's doing, he says. Moreover, he says, if an infection ensues, you
might end up needing two or three visits to the doctor and a course of
antibiotics. Dr. Epstein says he sees three to five people a month who have
tried the kits with poor results. Sometimes, the solutions irritate the ear
canal, causing itching or inflammation. At worst, the wax could run deeper into
the ear, leaving residue on the eardrum.
Gintautas Dumcius, "Removing Wax From Your Ears," The Wall Street
Journal, March 1, 2005; Page D6 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110963135300766318,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal
Jensen Comment: The article goes on to report that not all experts agree
with Stephen Epstein.
After the
adverse publicity, I wonder if his speaking fees have increased or decreased?
Administrators (University of Wisconsin --- Whitewater)
wrestled with the decision to host Churchill, as Hamilton and several other
schools canceled appearances. It was decided to go forward as planned only when
it was determined that the event could be held safely, and after an exchange of
letters with Churchill in which he said he expected to be paid his $4,000
honorarium even if the event was shelved, and that he would use some of the
money to come and speak on another occasion to those who wanted to hear him.
"Wisconsin university prepares for Churchill," Rocky
Mountain News, March 1, 2005 --- http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3584230,00.html
Bob Jensen's threads on Ward Churchill are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/hypocrisyChurchill.htm
I've been invited to speak at hundreds of universities, but no university has ever paid me as much as $4,000. (Sigh!) Just as of late, as fate would have it, I'm beginning to envision little eichmans in the accounting profession. I also know a couple of auditors who resemble Rudolf Hess.
It would help if you put it on your passport
. . . we identify as “totalitarian radicals,” “anti-American
radicals,” “leftists,” “moderate leftists” and “affective leftists.”
(The latter includes mostly entertainment figures whose politics are emotionally
rather than intellectually based in a way I will get to below.) We have arranged
the grid this way, even though we think it feeds certain illusions, to
accommodate those who expressed anguish over the grid in its original format
where there were no such...
"Defining the Left," y David Horowitz, FrontPageMagazine.com,
March 2, 2005 --- http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=17190
Treading
softly but surely on pros in college sports: Many more basket weaving
diplomas expected
College sports programs tiptoed Monday into an
uncertain new world of academic accountability, as the National Collegiate
Athletic Association unveiled a complex system for monitoring the classroom
progress of Division I athletes and gave the public its first glimpse at how
individual colleges fared under the new standards. The system could
eventually punish institutions that fail to keep their athletes moving toward a
degree. But no penalties are attached to this first year's reports, and the NCAA
has modified the system in recent weeks in ways that delay or soften the
potential blows against sports programs.
Doug Lederman, "New Way to Keep Score," Inside Higher Ed, March
1, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/new_way_to_keep_score
Not
treading so softly on college athletics: Sometimes you can't even pay to
have an article published
As a student in a new investigative
journalism course at Rutgers University last fall, Fraidy Reiss dove headlong
into the assignment to write two articles exploring subjects at the university.
Her first piece, about Rutgers's system for evaluating teachers, was the lead
story in the student-run Daily Targum one day last October. For her second
article, Reiss explored a set of programs and services available only to Rutgers
athletes, including special sections of a communications course, financed by an
alumnus, and a bevy of tutors and monitors to help athletes with their work and
make sure they go to class, among others. The instructor in the
investigative journalism course worked with her on the article, as did student
editors at The Targum, which helps sponsor the class. The article garnered an A+
grade in the course, and Targum editors spent weeks trying to help her shape the
piece for publication, and paid $250 to cover the costs of an open records
request she filed for reports on athletes' grades. But this month, the
newspaper's editors told Reiss that they would not run the article, saying it
was too one-sidedly critical of the sports program. Frustrated, Reiss decided
(with the help of an alumnus critical of the Scarlet Knight sports program) to
try to publish the article as an advertisement in The Daily Targum. But last
week, the newspaper rejected the ad, too.
Doug Ledgerman, "Hitting Too Close to Home," Inside Higher Ed,
March 2, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/hitting_too_close_to_home
Jensen Comment: The Targum and university officials are
probably adding fuel to the fire. By rejecting both the article and the
advertisement, the rejection publicity itself will motivate every student to
read the article. Furthermore, folks around the world will be eagerly
awaiting when this article when and if it appears on the Web.
Say
what? Another victim of television and Viagra
Britain's big pub companies are trying to reinvent the
traditional British pub, best known for its fireplace, bad food and warm beer.
The reason: Britons are drinking less beer these days, and even less at the
pub. To further entice post-office customers, the Case offers a $1
discount on coffee or tea if they linger in the pub. To beef up the offer, Mr.
Senior last year spent about $3,200 on a professional coffee machine. "I
told him he was mad to spend that," Mrs. Senior says. Yet, coffee sales
have since jumped to about $380 a week from about $100 previously, she says.
"We've got to sell everything we can," Mr. Senior says. "If you
want an ice cream or a hot chocolate, we've got to be able to supply it. There
are very few places left where you can sell beer full stop."
Jensen Comment: The pubs are becoming after-hours post offices and
mini-marts. I think I preferred the old-style dark and quiet pubs with
charcoal burning fireplaces, cockney accents, and bad food.
Mum's the
Word: I bet they still whisper to their mistresses and friends on Wall
Street
Fewer U.S. companies are offering earnings guidance to
investors and analysts, a survey found. Just 55% of firms offered guidance last
year, down from 72% in 2003. Those Providing Forecasts Fell Last Year to
55% From 72%; Drawback for Smaller Investors?
Gregory Zuckerman, "CEOs Turn Mum About Projecting Earnings," The
Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110964376210666684,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
Mum's not
the word in Blog land
Some eight million Americans now publish blogs and 32
million people read them, according to the Pew Internet & American Life
Project. What began as a form of public diary-keeping has become an important
supplement to a business's online strategy: Blogs can connect with consumers on
a personal level -- and keep them visiting a company's Web site regularly.
Riva Richmond, "Blogs Keep Internet Customers Coming Back," The
Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2005; Page B8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110963746474866537,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
Bob Jensen's threads on Weblogs and blogs are at http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Weblog
Optic
nerve hypoplasia
Opthalmologists are baffled by the rising prevalence of
a rare condition called optic nerve hypoplasia, which can cause visual
impairment or total blindness in babies. "It used to be so rare that
people would trade slides of the few known cases," says Michael Brodsky, a
pediatric neuro-ophthalmologist at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
in Little Rock. Since the 1970s, however, diagnoses of optic nerve hypoplasia
have escalated. Dr. Borchert says he alone has seen at least 500 victims, and he
estimates there are thousands of cases nationwide. Hard numbers on children who
are blind or visually impaired are difficult to obtain. But, says Dr. Brodsky,
"these cases are now filling up our clinics."
Kevin Helliker, "Pediatric Puzzle: A Sharp Increase In Infant Vision
Problem Baffles Doctors," The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2005; Page D1
--- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110963006386166280,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal
Just think of the interest that's
piling up at $2,877 per hour each 24 hours of each of seven days of every week
U.S. authorities announced one of the largest
individual criminal tax cases ever, accusing a Washington telecommunications
businessman of failing to pay about $210 million in taxes. A federal grand
jury in Washington returned a 12-count indictment last Wednesday under seal that
charged Walter Anderson, 51 years old, with a plan to evade federal and District
of Columbia taxes. Mr. Anderson was arrested Saturday at Washington Dulles
International Airport after he stepped off a flight from London. The
indictment alleges Mr. Anderson earned nearly $450 million through investments
and offshore operations that he established to make it appear as if he wasn't
personally earning the money, the Justice Department said.
"Man Is Accused Of $210 Million Tax Evasion," The Wall Street
Journal, March 1, 2005, Page D2 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110963908825166585,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal
What has
life expectancy risen to in the United States?
Life expectancy in the U.S. climbed to a record in
2003, as deaths from heart disease and cancer declined. According to
information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, average life
expectancy rose to 77.6 years in 2003 from 77.3 years in 2002.
Jennifer Corbett Dooren, "Americans' Life Expectancy Rose to Record High in
2003," The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2005; Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110963558261366439,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal
Jensen Comment: Medicare has significantly extended the life expectancy of
a citizen in the U.S. while it significantly lowers the expected life of the
United States itself.
Bob Jensen's unfinished essay on entitlements is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/entitlements.htm
War Shortages
General Motors Corp. will offer to repurchase new cars
bought by dealers from its five divisions. This is to reduce the
"wild" trading that might result if dealers had to reduce stocks
involuntarily and prevent cars from falling into "bootlegger" hands.
The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 1942
The Vioxx fallout hits multiple sclerosis
patients.
Tysabri had received accelerated approval from the
FDA just three months ago because clinical trials had shown it to be twice as
effective as alternative therapies in preventing flare-ups of MS, which is a
degenerative and eventually fatal disease. Tysabri is also easier to take than
alternative treatments, and tolerated by a subset of MS patients who can't take
the others at all. But for the indefinite future everyone will have to do
without because two of the thousands of patients who've received Tysabri
developed a rare neurological disorder. Those two patients happened to also be
on another immuno-suppressive MS treatment called Avonex. There is no reason to
believe that Tysabri has caused this disorder when used alone. There's
plenty of blame to go around here, starting with the trial lawyers and their
climate of fear. Congressmen who demagogue about non-existent FDA safety
"lapses" aren't much better. But we're also disappointed with CEOs who
imagine they're doing patients and shareholders a favor with such rash
decisions. In retrospect, Merck CEO Ray Gilmartin only strengthened the hand of
the lawyers by withdrawing Vioxx when the FDA would have been content with
relabeling.
"Drug Twilight Zone," The Wall Street Journal, March 2,
2005; Page A16 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110972765984167851,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep
New oxymoron: Hungarian
wedding
"Most Hungarian Adults Single for the First Time in History, Report," Weird
News, March 1, 3005 --- http://snipurl.com/HungarianWeddings
Hungarians should seek out marriage proposal
consulting that seems to lead to more nuptials in the U.S.
This is just the sort of anxiety that sends men
hot-footing off to companies such as the Massachusetts website 2propose.com, run
by Paul Alden, a former wedding photographer. Like its rivals, such as
anexclusiveengagement.com or anamazingproposal.com, the site offers a range of
services, from 100 proposal concepts for $US9.99 ($12.70) to a more expensive
tailored service in which proposal co-ordinators sort out a specific plan and
arrange it all. Ideas in the basic package include painting "Marry
me" on bowls at a bowling alley, hiring out the Magic Kingdom Rose Garden
at Disneyland and getting yourself delivered to your beloved's door inside a
box. Some of the 3000 people who register on the site each month opt for
something far more elaborate, says Alden. He mentions a man who arranged for a
fake television crew to ambush him and his girlfriend as they took a carriage
around Central Park and then "film" him going down on one knee.
Another client remembered his girlfriend being upset at not being able to land
near a beautiful waterfall in Hawaii as they flew over in a helicopter on
holiday. Alden's company tracked down the only pilot licensed to land at the
spot. He brought them down, produced a picnic and, when they got back to the
airport, the couple were taken by limo to a restaurant where they were serenaded
by a violinist. Total cost: about $US3750, not including the air fares to
Hawaii.
"Popping the question goes professional," Sydney Morning Herald, March
3, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/03/02/1109700540627.html
Let's hope that single parents in Hungary don't go by
way of those in the U.K.
The reasons for this moral decline are as clear as the
aforementioned statistics are bleak. As James Bartholomew argues in his recent
book "The Welfare State We're In" (Politico's, 2004), the blame
rests squarely on the growth of the welfare state, which has removed personal
responsibility in large areas of people's lives and substituted dependency on
the state and the rule of the bureaucrat. The state is complicit in the
breakdown of the family; consider Mr. Bartholomew's example of how the state has
promoted single-parent families by taxing married couples -- and abolishing the
marriage allowance -- while giving increasing amounts of money to single
parents. No wonder, then, that from 1972 to 1992 the proportion of
children living with a lone parent tripled to 21% from 7%. The link with rising
crime is reflected in one shaming statistic: One-third of the people in U.K.
prisons spent time in an orphanage at some time in their childhood. One prison
governor, on being asked how many of the inmates had formerly been taken into
foster care, replied: "Nearly all of them." Indeed, the collapse
of the traditional nuclear family has hit the poorest classes quite
disproportionately, with nearly a quarter of girls whose fathers were unskilled
workers becoming teenage mothers, mostly outside marriage. Divorces have risen
sevenfold since 1960, and these also have been much more common among the poor.
Russell Lewis, "Unruly Britannia," The Wall Street Journal
(Europe), March 3, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110980295622868708,00.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep
What giant
search engine turned ten years old? It's almost reached puberty.
Which web powerhouse was started by two Stanford geeks
as a simple search page with a silly name and became the biggest thing on the
internet? Nope, not Google. Try again. The invisible giant turns 10.
Still, the adulation must rankle the folks at a certain company (Google)
just down the road in Silicon Valley - another search engine founded by two
precocious Stanford grads with a cute name, colorful logo, and simple homepage.
The indignity is all the greater when you consider Yahoo!'s numbers: 165 million
registered users, 345 million unique visitors a month, $49 billion market cap,
and a 62 percent increase in revenue last quarter, bringing 2004 total revenue
to $3.6 billion. Yahoo! makes more money and has more patents, services, and
users than Google; it even has its own yodel. Given its recent blowout financial
results and the expected continued explosion of online advertising, Yahoo! may
very well be the most valuable business on the Web. And yet, as Jerry Yang and
David Filo's startup celebrates its 10th anniversary March 2, Yahoo! is the
biggest consumer Internet company you may almost never think about.
"The UnGoogle (Yes, Yahoo!)," Wired Magazine, March 2005 --- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/yahoo.html?tw=wn_tophead_4
Hero cat
finds a home in Bangor --- now it has to learn English
A little Iraqi has a new home in Maine. H.P. the cat
was adopted by National Guard troopers serving with the 152nd Field Artillery
Battalion. Spc. Jesse Cote said the cat was starving and toothless when they
found it. But the GI's were able to nurse H.P. back to health. The cat ate and
slept with the soldiers and even helped them. Cote said H.P. would be the first
to react to mortar fire and was their warning of incoming.
"Iraqi Cat Who Helped U.S. Troops Finds American Home," ClickOnDetroit,
March 1, 2005 --- http://www.clickondetroit.com/family/4241748/detail.html
One woman's solution to long-term
care
The 82-year-old Marin County woman cannot walk and says
she has no place to go, so she has remained planted in a hospital bed at Kaiser
Permanente San Rafael Medical Center for the past year. Despite every
effort by Kaiser officials to get her out, Nome has refused to leave or pay the
$3,090 a day that the hospital charges to put her up. She said she will continue
squatting at Kaiser until a place is found in Marin where she can live and get
the treatment she requires. "When you pay Kaiser insurance month
after month for 50 years like I have, you expect to be treated like a good
patient and a human being," Nome said the other day from her hospital bed.
"If I had known that Kaiser would take me for only a couple of days and
then would expect my family to take care of me, I would have paid my family what
I paid for insurance."
Peter Fimrite, "OVERSTAYING HER WELCOME Disgruntled patient hasn't budged
from hospital for a year," The San Francisco Chronicle, March 1,
2005 --- http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/01/MNG76BII1M1.DTL
One home invasion intruder put away
for life
Chelsea (Alabama, Shelby County) man shoots armed
intruder to death after being tied The Associated Press An armed, masked
intruder was shot to death by a Chelsea man who managed to free himself after he
was tied up and his wife held at gunpoint during a robbery in their home, Shelby
County authorities said. Sheriff Chris Curry said a female accomplice was
arrested while attempting to flee the scene. Sheriff's officers did not
immediately release the name of the man who killed the intruder during the home
invasion about 2 a.m. Sunday. The suspected burglar...
Birmingham Times, February 28, 2005 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1353390/posts
This might replace one-sheet teaching evaluations
What you say or do when teaching, you may be on Candid Camera or student Web
sites
Brick Township school officials might ban cell phones
after a student's phone cam videotaped a teacher's outburst. Students said the
teacher began yelling when students failed to show respect to the national
anthem. The tape was posted on several independent Web sites.
"Teacher's Outburst Caught On Camera Student Shoots Teacher On
Cell Phone Camera," NBC, March 2, 2005 --- http://www.nbc10.com/news/4245196/detail.html
The Heavier Side
Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener, the Father of
Cybernetics, by Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman. Basic Books, 423 pages,
$27.50.
It is hardly the greatest scientific mystery of the
20th century, but it is a riddle just the same: why did Norbert Wiener - gray
eminence of gray matter, inventor of cybernetics, founding theorist of the
information age - abandon his closest young colleagues just as they were about
to embark on an exciting new collaboration on the workings of the brain?
Cornelia Dean, "A Brilliant Mind and an Anguished Life," The
New York Times, March 1, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/science/01book.html?
Jensen Comment:
Jensen Comment: Now the
Lighter Side
Norbert Wiener (1894-1964), US mathematician. The archetype of the genius and
absent-minded professor.
http://dalido.narod.ru/NW/NW-quote5.html
http://people.cornellcollege.edu/ltabak/publications/articles/wiener.html
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Wiener_Norbert.html
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jcdverha/scijokes/Wiener.html
http://www.anvari.org/shortjoke/Science_Humor/199.html
http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=9224
http://www.angelfire.com/co/1x137/cybros.html
The list actually seems endless
Female
assistant professors earn on average 91 percent of what their male counterparts
earn.
Scott Jaschick quoting a report by Yale graduate students, "Larry Summers
Isn't Alone," Inside Higher Ed, March 1, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/insider/larry_summers_isn_t_alone
Jensen Comment: I didn't investigate the 91 percent claim, but I suspect
this is just one more way of using statistics to mislead. Graduate
students of Yale should be above such an unethical tactic. My guess is the
following: Salaries and benefits of new hires of females are probably as
high or higher than salaries and benefits of male hires in all respective
disciplines. I really doubt that there is gender discrimination within any
discipline. Even within the highest paying disciplines, such as computer
science, I suspect that all women hired in Ivy League schools are getting no
less than their male counterparts at the assistant professor level.
The discrepancy in pay arises between disciplines, not between men versus women. Some disciplines have a much higher supply of applicants making it possible (although many do not view as politically correct) to land top assistant professors at lower salaries. In other disciplines such as computer science, the number of male and female applicants is so small and so competitive that higher offers must be made to land a top candidate, female or male. In the discipline of accountancy, my guess is that there is a much higher proportion of female PhD graduates than in computer science. These females are getting assistant professor offers equivalent to their male counterparts, and those offers are higher than in most other disciplines because there are so few male and female accountancy doctoral students across the world.
I would be shocked of there is serious gender discrimination at the hiring level in major universities. Reasons why there are so many doctoral graduates in some disciplines and such a shortage in others are very complex. I suspect many find accounting and computer science more boring even if the pay is better. I do know of several professors of accounting who got doctoral degrees in other areas (e.g., one in German Literature and several in Economics) who admitted to me that, after discovering both the hiring opportunities and salary differentials, they earned a second doctoral degree in accountancy. Of course there are some other accounting professors who for one reason or another are now teaching in other disciplines.
I might add that within the "broad" profession of accountancy the same type of gender pay differentials arise. But the difference lies within the type of accountancy (such as clerical versus ERP auditing) rather than gender bias per se. A top ERP auditor is going to get a better offer than a clerk whether that auditor is male or female.
March 1, 2005 reply from Richard C. Sansing [Richard.C.Sansing@DARTMOUTH.EDU]
A competing hypothesis that is similar to yours in spirit is that if more experienced faculty earn more and the percentage of female hires is increasing over time, the same 91% figure could be true even though after controlling for both discipline and experience, men and women have the same level of earnings.
The study, which is at:
http://www.yaleunions.org/geso/reports/Ivy.pdf
reports an unconditional mean of 91%, which controls for neither discipline nor experience. However, it reports similar disparities when controlling for rank (full, associate, assistant), so I suspect that controlling for experience wouldn't change the analysis much.
As for your comment, "Graduate students of Yale should be above such an unethical tactic.", I strive to avoid attributing to malice anything that ineptitude can also explain.
Richard C. Sansing
Associate Professor of Business Administration
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth 100 Tuck Hall
email: Richard.C.Sansing@dartmouth.edu
"Accounting Firms Hiring Thousands of '05 Grads," SmartPros, February 23, 2005 --- http://accounting.smartpros.com/x47148.xml
Feb. 23, 2005 (SmartPros) — The job market for 2005 college graduates is predicted to be the best since 2000, according to Michigan State University's annual Recruiting Trends survey. The top employers include several accounting and consulting firms.
The survey respondents are ranked according to the projected number of hires from college recruiting for the Class of 2005. The top 20 employers, followed by their projected number of hires, are:
1 - Enterprise Rent-A-Car--7,000
2 - PricewaterhouseCoopers--3,170
3 - Ernst & Young LLP--2,900
4 - Lockheed Martin--2,863
5 - KPMG--2,240
6 - Sodexho, Inc.--2,050
7 - Fairfax County Public Schools--1,600
8 - Accenture--1,540
9 - Northrop Grumman--1,266
10 - United States Customs & Border Protection--1,200
11 - Target--1,127
12 - United States Air Force--1,095
13 - Raytheon Company--1,000
14 - Microsoft--970
15 - JPMorgan Chase--810
16 - Procter & Gamble--569
17 - Liberty Mutual--545
18 - Grant Thornton--500
19 - Bank of America--413
20 - United States Air Force Personnel Center/DPKR--400According to the survey, economic sectors showing strength this year include: retail, wholesale, transportation (not including airlines), health services, entertainment and real estate.
February 28, 2005 reply from Jagdish Gangolly [JGangolly@UAMAIL.ALBANY.EDU]
Bob,
One can describe the reason for Accenture's needs for accountants in ONE word: outsourcing.
The following is from www.accenture.com webpage:
Outsourcing
Application Outsourcing
Business Process Outsourcing Accenture Finance Solutions-Accenture HR Services-AccentureLearning-Accenture Procurement Solutions-Accenture Business Services for Utilities-Accenture eDemocracy Services-Navitaire-Accenture Insurance Services
Infrastructure OutsourcingJagdish S. Gangolly,
Associate Professor
School of Business & NY State Center for Information Forensics & Assurance
State University of New York at Albany BA 365C,
1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222
email: j.gangolly@albany.edu
March 1, 2005 messages from Bob Jensen and Chuck Johnson
I hope Professor Johnson doesn’t mind if I share this with you. I suspect this is partly conjecture on his part, but it is somewhat more than conjecture. His reasoning makes sense to me. Apparently Enterprise has a different business model than other car rental firms.
There may be some fast food chains with similar models.
Bob Jensen
-----Original Message-----
From: Kenneth Johnson [mailto:kjohnson@GeorgiaSouthern.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 10:25 AM
To: Jensen, Robert
Subject: Re: Accounting Firms Hiring ThousandsBob,
FYI, EnterpriesRent-a-Car's hiring of so many college graduates is driven by the firm's basic business model. Enterprise has thousands of small offices. When business volume at a particular location reaches a certain point a new office is created a few miles away. The way I understand it, each new hire does everything, from: taking reservations, serving customers, picking up and dropping off customers, and even washing cars. Their favorite hire is a graduate of modest academic achievement but with lots of extracurricular activities and good people skills. I learned all of this from a strategic management textbook I taught out of a few years ago; Enterprise was a side-bar mini-case.
BTW, the way I read it, the 7,000 figure cited in the 2000 Michigan State University's annual Recruiting Trends survey was total college graduates, not just accountants.
Thanks for the constant stream of interesting stuff.
Chuck Johnson
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting careers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#careers
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Jesse
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