$30 Million Gift to the Stanford Graduate School of Business

Anne T. and Robert M. Bass to Give Stanford Graduate School of Business $30 Million --- http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/bass_gift.shtml

No More Canadian GAAP
Sometime around 2010, Canada will cease to have a unique set of accounting principles which have generally been very close to U.S. GAAP.  Canada will move to international IASB standards now used in Europe and many other parts of the world.  The U.S. is working closely with the IASB toward the same goal, but in countries like the U.S. and China, the progress will be much slower until the IASB standards tighten up on various types of contracting.
See http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060111.RGAAP11/BNPri

January 12, 2006 message from David Fordham, James Madison University [fordhadr@JMU.EDU]

There is a joke going around in Europe:

Pity the poor Canadians. They COULD have had the very best of everything: British culture, French cuisine, American technology...

Instead, they've got American culture, British cuisine, and French technology!

Back when I was working for the American division of a Canadian company, the Canadian executives always said that Canada being so close to the U.S. was like sleeping with an elephant... no matter how gentle or benevolent the creature was towards you, you still can't help being jostled and buffeted and knocked around by every little wiggle and squirm that the beast makes.

David Fordham
JMU

January 12, 2006 message from David Raggay [draggay@TSTT.NET.TT]

You may already know that the US SEC and the IASB are working on what is known as a convergence project -which aims to eliminate major differences between US GAAP and IFRS. At a recent seminar in Argentina, Sir David Tweedie, Chairman of the IASB, indicated that they were working towards abolishing the SEC-required reconciliation for companies wishing to list on US exchanges but which produce IFRS accounts, by 2007.

It therefore does not seem unrealistic that there will be little or no difference between IFRS and US GAAP by the end of this decade.

David

With Kind Regards,

David Raggay
Partner - Quality Assurance
Pierre, Raggay & Co. / IFRS Consultants
48 Mucurapo Road, St. James,
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, W.I.

January 12, 2006 reply from Gerald Trites [gtrites@GMAIL.COM]

EU financial Institutions have adopted IFRS. They also need to conform to the requirements of Basel II, which has led them to change their reporting requirements. As a result, they have adopted XBRL and among the 25 countries have agreed that they would work to making use of XBRL to meet the filing requirements on an electronic basis using this standard. They are using the IFRS XBRL taxonomy, with extensions, and also have adopted a COREP taxonomy to enable the requirements of both filing requirements (IFRS with stock exchanges and Basel II with regulators) to be met with the one standard - XBRL.

Very progressive of them.

In case you've been really sweating out the latest inverted yield curve

"Don't Sweat the Inverted Yield Curve: No One Really Knows What It Means," Knowledge@Wharton,  University of Pennsylvania, January 2006 --- http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1362.cfm

Consider the inverted yield curve as the equivalent of an economic bogeyman. It's when the natural order up-ends and short-term interest rates are higher than long-term ones.

The Treasury bond yield curve inverted December 27 for the first time in five years. That gave shudders to those who see the phenomenon as a harbinger of recession. And yet, the U.S. economy is strong, and surveys show most forecasters think it will stay that way. So what does the inverted yield curve really mean?

"I think it sometimes portends a recession, sometimes not," says Marshall E. Blume, finance and management professor at Wharton. This time, it probably does not, he adds. "All the forecasts are quite favorable. There aren't any real excesses in the economy at the current time, and you usually think of recession as a tonic to the economy, to undo excess."

Business inventories are not excessively high, Blume notes. Recent government data has shown inflation picking up, which can lead to recession. But most of that is due to the oil-price jump last year, and oil has leveled off and doesn't appear likely to rise further. Also, the economy is less dependent on oil than it was during the recession-bound '70s, so oil-price increases are less likely to infect the broader economy, Blume says.

In fact, it's a bit of a stretch to describe today's yield curve as inverted, suggests Wharton finance professor Robert F. Stambaugh. "I certainly wouldn't describe it as a sharply inverted yield curve. It's 'flatish' and downward-sloping in some segments."

Continued in article

Now let's see what can be done about the hemorrhaging Amtrak
The U.S. Postal Service reported today it concluded fiscal 2005 with a net income of $1.4 billion on record revenues of $70 billion and record volume of 212 billion pieces of mail. "Financially, we are in the best position we've been since the 1970s," said Postmaster General John E. Potter at the December meeting of the Board of Governors. "Despite the strong financial and productivity records of recent years, we are facing a modest increase in postage rates in January."
USPS ENDS YEAR IN BLACK AND DEBT FREE; ESCROW FUND LOOMS --- http://www.usps.com/communications/news/press/2005/pr05_108.htm

Here's a unique argument for polygamy
Chechnya has lost so many men to war that survivors should be legally allowed to take several wives, acting Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov has said.
"Polygamy proposal for Chechen men," BBC News, January 13, 2006 --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4610396.stm

Government Subsidies to Publisher of Textbooks
Why did the federal government give $25,511,064 to a non-government organization last year to prepare the textbooks for teaching civics to schoolchildren? Since 1997, the Center for Civic Education has received at least $110,418,717 from the government and has succeeded in essentially taking over the supply of materials for teaching civics in American schools. President Bush eliminated this funding in his 2006 budget, but 38 senators, led by Arlen Specter, R-Penn., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, joined 98 representatives, led by Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, and David Obey, D-Wis., to have this funding restored.
Henry Lamb, "End federally funded textbooks," WorldNetDaily, January 14, 2006 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48336

Elephants on Vodka
Indian elephants preparing to perform in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator are drinking daily doses of vodka to help them survive temperatures as low as minus 28 degrees Celsius, a media report said. The elephants are working for the Moscow State Circus, which on Sunday plans to hold its first show in Mongolia in 25 years, the UB Post newspaper said in a report posted on its website.
"Hic! Jumbo drinks to beat winter," Hindustan Times, January 14, 2006 --- http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1598358,00050004.htm

Is there moral hazard in linking performance pay of teachers to their students' test scores?
Over the objections of the teachers' union, the Board of Education here on Thursday unanimously approved the nation's largest merit pay program, which calls for rewarding teachers based on how well their students perform on standardized tests. The $14.5 million program, which immediately replaces a model with lower incentives, would distribute up to $3,000 annually per teacher and up to $25,000 for senior administrators.
Ralph Blumenthal, "Houston Ties Teachers Pay to Test Scores," The New York Times, January 13, 2006 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/national/13houston.html

"Another Chinese Export Is All the Rage: China's Language," by Howard W. French, The New York Times, January 11, 2006 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/international/asia/11china.html 
Jensen Comment
At Trinity University, double majors in Chinese and Business Administration is increasingly popular, especially among top students.

"What Is Environmental Accounting?" AccountingWeb, January 6, 2006 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=101639

Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is a cover title used to describe different aspects of this burgeoning field of accounting. The focus of EMA is as a management accounting tool used to make internal business decisions, especially for proactive environmental management activities. EMA was developed to recognize some limitations of conventional management accounting approaches to environmental costs, consequences, and impacts. For example, overhead accounts were the destination of many environmental costs in the past. Cost allocations were inaccurate and could not be traced back to processes, products, or process lines. Wasted raw materials were also inaccurately accounted for during production.

Each aspect of EMA has a general accounting type that serves as its foundation, according to the EMA international website. The following examples indicate the general accounting type followed by the environmental accounting parallel:

Management Accounting (MA) entails the identification, collection, estimation, analysis, and use of cost, or other information used for organizational decision-making. Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is Management Accounting with a focus on materials and energy flow information, with environmental cost information.

Financial Accounting (FA) comprises the development and organizational reporting of financial information to external parties, such as stockholders and bankers. Environmental Financial Accounting (EFA) builds on Financial Accounting, focusing on the reporting of environmental liability costs with other significant environmental costs.

National Accounting (NA) is the development of economic and other information used to describe national income and economic health. Environmental National Accounting (ENA) is National Accounting focusing on the stocks of natural resources, their physical flows, environmental costs, and externality costs.

EMA is a broad set of approaches and principles that provide views into the physical flows and costs critical to the successful completion of environmental management activities and increasingly, routine management activities, such as product and process design, capital budgeting, cost control and allocation, and product pricing, according to the EMA international website.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on triple bottom accounting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#TripleBottom

Financial Statements Are Still Valuable Tools for Predicting Bankruptcy
Despite growing public skepticism over how useful financial statements are in providing information to investors, researchers at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business have found that the value of financial ratios for predicting bankruptcy has not declined significantly over time. Professors Maureen McNichols and William Beaver and graduate student Jung-Wu Rhie have reexamined the usefulness for predicting bankruptcy of financial ratios such as return on assets (net income divided by total assets), cash flow to total liabilities (earnings before interest, depreciation, and taxes divided by both short- and long-term debt), and leverage (total liabilities to total assets). The study explored how three forces have influenced this predictive value over the past 40 years.
"Financial Statements Are Still Valuable Tools for Predicting Bankruptcy," Stanford Graduate School of Business Newsletter, November 2005 --- http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/acctg_mcnichols-beaver_bankruptcy.shtml

Bob Jensen's threads on the economic theory of accounting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#EconomicTheory

From The Scout Report on January 13, 2006

Pluralism Project --- http://www.pluralism.org/index.php 

Like many academic projects, the Pluralism Project began as a small gathering of academicians interested in exploring a rapidly changing phenomenon of social life, in this case, the world of religion. Since its inception in 1991, the Pluralism Project (located at Harvard University) has engaged in a broad research agenda that includes providing educational resources to college educators and disseminating reports on the nature of religion in American cities. On their site, visitors can learn about their activities, and perhaps most interestingly, examine some of the online resources they have created. These resources include calendars of religious events, online slide shows (such as the one that profiles a Hare Krishna community in West Virginia) and bibliographies of key works dealing with various faiths, including Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam. Finally, visitors can also sign up to receive their monthly email newsletter.

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U.S. Congress Votes Database http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/ 

While many people may eventually become aware of how their elected officials in the U.S. Congress voted on a particular bill or resolution, this database created by the Washington Post will allow them to find out rather quickly. Utilizing a variety of authoritative data sources (such as the web site of the Senate and the Library of Congress’s THOMAS site), the database contains the results of every vote cast in the Congress since 1991. Visitors can look at vote results in a variety of different ways, such as particular Congress or a particular individual. Recently, they also added a selection of “Votes by Type”, such as those cast on impeachments, treaties, and vice- presidential tiebreakers. Additionally, the site contains a RSS feed of recent votes by each member of Congress.

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Katrina Index: Tracking Variables of Post-Katrina Reconstruction http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/200512_katrinaindex.htm 

The Brookings Institution has released a number of reports on the efforts to rebuild the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina over the past few months, and a number of them have garnered significant attention by policymakers and other interested parties. This 47-page report authored by Bruce Katz, Matt Fellowes, and Mia Mabanta, gives a detailed data-oriented summary of the recent progress that has occurred. Some of their findings are not particularly encouraging, including the revelation that unemployment rates continue to rise throughout the affected region and that buying food is still rather difficult to do throughout the metropolitan area. The report does offer some positive news, such as the fact that the number of open bus routes in Orleans Parish has increased. Overall, this is a very well- researched paper that should prove valuable to anyone with an interest in the future reconstruction and sustainability of this area.

AOL OKs $25million settlement over suits
America Online Inc. agreed to pay customers as much as $25 million to settle claims that it wrongly billed them for some online services and products.
Thom Weidlich, "AOL OKs $25million settlement over suits: Service wrongly billed its clients, plaintiffs claim," Bloomberg News, January 7 2006 ---
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zaol07jan07,0,3506879.story?coll=sfla-business-headlines

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

Question
What is the 70 Percent Solution to managing innovation?

Answer
"The 70 Percent Solution:  Google CEO Eric Schmidt gives us his golden rules for managing innovation," CNN Money, December 1, 2005 --- http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2005/12/01/8364616/index.htm

How has "Don't be evil" helped Google? When I showed up, I said, "You've got to be kidding." Then one day, very early on, I was in a meeting where an engineer said, "That would be evil." It was as if he'd said there was a murderer in the room. The whole conversation stopped, but then people challenged his assumptions. This had to do with how we would link our advertising system into search. We ultimately decided not to do what was proposed, because it was evil. That kind of story is repeated every hour now with thousands of people. Think of "Don't be evil" as an organizing principle about values. You and I may disagree on the definition of what is evil, but at least it gives us a way to have a very healthy debate.

But as you've grown, outsiders apply their own view of what is evil and use it to point out your company's flaws. There's nothing wrong with that. We believe in that sort of criticism. But the way "Don't be evil" works is no different from pulling the rip cord on the Japanese assembly line. Any person on the assembly line can pull the rip cord to stop the line. Think of it as employee empowerment

Does Google have some kind of grand strategic plan for the new products it creates? Virtually everything new seems to come from the 20 percent of their time engineers here are expected to spend on side projects. They certainly don't come out of the management team.

But you decide which arrows you put the wood behind, so to speak. Right? Yes, but we do that once there's sufficient critical mass, which is if there's a small set of engineers and a product manager who are excited about something.

What do you do with your 20 percent time? Well, 20 percent time applies to the technical staff. It does not apply to sales or management. Here's how it works for management: We spend 70 percent of our time on core search and ads. We spend 20 percent on adjacent businesses, ones related to the core businesses in some interesting way. Examples of that would be Google News, Google Earth, and Google Local. And then 10 percent of our time should be on things that are truly new. An example there would be the Wi-Fi initiative--which I haven't kept up with myself. God knows what they've done in the last week. I've been too busy on core search and ads.

How do you enforce that 70/20/10 rule? For a while we put the projects in different rooms. That way, if we were in one room too long, we knew we were not spending our time correctly. It was sort of a stupid device, but it worked quite well. Now we have people who actually manage this, so I know how I spend my time, and I do spend it 70/20/10.

Continued in article

Partnership for a Nation of Learners --- http://www.partnershipforlearners.org/ 

We're glad you're here! If you're a museum, library or public broadcaster, we want to help you work together to address local needs, increase civic engagement and improve the quality of life in your community.

On this site you will find resources that will help you to partner effectively with each other and with other organizations in your area – case studies, exercises, tools – as well as information about training events and sources of project funding.

Coping with students seeking special favors near the end of each semester
Tis the season when the chasm between delightful and detestable students is at its greatest. There are many mature, polite, grateful, eager-to-learn students — or most of us would leave the field — but as the nights grow colder, the immature, rude and entitled students emerge from their dorm rooms and head towards our offices. As the holidays approach, the whining minority who clamor for special attention unfortunately eclipse those eager souls who love learning, show talent, work hard, express enthusiasm and evince creativity. Cursed be all undergrads requesting special treatment!
Mary McKinney, "Coping With ‘Oy Vey’ Students," Inside Higher Ed, December 19, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/12/19/mckinney 

Options Markets for Sporting Even Tickets
A Chicago company, Sports Reserve, has opened up an options market for tickets to major sporting events. For a fee, you can buy an option (they call them "Fan Forwards") to purchase a ticket to a sporting event (like the Super Bowl) for a particular team. So, if you've got the good sense to be a UConn Huskies fan, you can currently buy two Fan Forwards to the 2006 Final Four at a current price of $245 each. This gives you the right to buy two upper deck seats to the Final Four at their face value of $140 each if UConn makes it. If not, the Fan Forwards expire, and would be worthless.
"Options Markets For Tickets," Financial Rounds, January 10, 2006 ---
http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/2006/01/options-markets-for-tickets.html
Jensen Comment
These options do not fall under FAS 133 accounting rules since FAS 133 excludes underlyings based upon weather or sporting outcomes. 

Bob Jensen's tutorials on derivatives accounting are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/caseans/000index.htm
 

Pathetic literacy levels of college graduates
Christopher Phelps reflects on his students’ finals and a new report on the pathetic literacy levels of college graduates.
Inside Higher Ed, December 20, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/12/20/phelps

Heart-burn cure may be worse than cause
Holiday revelers beware: Seasonal indulgences such as eggnog and fruitcake might give you heartburn, but the acid-fighting medicine you take for relief might lead to something worse, researchers say. People on popular prescription drugs for treating acid reflux — Prilosec, Prevacid and Nexium — seem more prone to getting a potentially dangerous diarrhea caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile, new research shows. C-diff, as it's known, can cause severe diarrhea and crampy intestinal inflammation called colitis.
Lindsey Tanner, "Heart-burn cure may be worse than cause," The Seattle Times, December 20, 2005 --- http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002693164_heartburn20.html

On the heels of damaging audit inspection outcomes by the PCAOB in the U.S., the Canadian CPAB finds serious deficiencies in Canadian audits
The CPAB report also called for firms to improve audit quality after it found five of 87 engagements chosen for review suffered "serious deficiencies," and were not conducted in accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards. "In each of the cases, we felt the firm had not done enough audit work to support its opinion given the financial statements," he said.
"Many accounting firm managers break policy: audit:  CPAB review finds over half did not report all their investments, securities of clients." Shirley Won, The Globe and Mail, December 20, 2005 ---  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051220/RACCOUNTING20/TPBusiness/Canadian 

One of the areas needing improvement for the firms was compliance with firm policies and procedures ensuring auditor independence. Of the 87 audits inspected, five were found to be deficient and not performed in accordance with General Accepted Accounting Standards (GAAS). Specifically, insufficient audit evidence was provided to support the audit opinion. Thiessen continued, “Over the past two years, CPAB has instigated a number of changes to improve the quality of audits in this country. These improvements are now being implemented and should enhance the credibility of financial statements of public companies and confidence in Canada’s capital markets.”
AccountingWeb, December 21, 2005 --- http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=101596 

 Bob Jensen's threads on fraudulent and incompetent audits are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#IncompetentAudits

"Glass shape 'affects drink size'," BBC News, December 23, 2005 --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4552668.stm

The US researchers from Cornell University asked 198 students and 86 bartenders to pour a shot of alcohol.

They found students poured 30% more into the short glasses, while bar workers faired only slightly better at 20%, the British Medical Journal said.

The groups poured more than a standard shot measure into both types of glasses.

Students also said they thought the tall glasses held more, suggesting they were trying to compensate for size when pouring into the short, wide glasses.

The people participating in the study were asked to pour four different types of drinks - vodka tonic, rum and cola, whisky and gin and tonic.

Practice led students to pour less into tall glasses, but did not affect the amount put in the short ones, while bar staff poured less in each.

Lead researcher Brian Wansink said the findings suggested people should think more carefully about the measures they pour and it might be useful to mark on glasses to signify what equates to a shot.

And he added: "If short tumblers lead even bartenders to pour more alcohol than tall highball glasses the way to better control alcohol consumption is to use tall glasses or to use glasses with the alcohol level marked on them - and to realise that, when alcoholic drinks are served in a short wide glass, two drinks are actually equal to two and a half."

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
I think this study confounds short/tall with wide/narrow.  If an accurate single shot is poured into a wide glass, the amount of booze in a wide glass is spread so wide that it looks like almost nothing is in the glass.  Bartenders seeking happy customers may want a bit more booze showing up in the glass.  In a very narrow glass, a shot rises further up on the sides and is more visible in the glass.  This is probably why many bars have short and very narrow glasses or upward-tapered (stem ware) glasses for patrons drinking booze straight..  The study would be more interesting if tapered glasses were compared when they taper in opposite direction (e.g., tapered up as in a martini glass versus tapered down as in a chemistry beaker.  With tapered glasses of the same height, my guess is that the bartenders would pour more booze into the beakers.

Support for the U.S. is surging in some parts of the Muslim world?
Released today, the poll commissioned by the nonprofit organization Terror Free Tomorrow and conducted by Pakistan's foremost pollsters ACNielsen Pakistan shows that the number of Pakistanis with a favorable opinion of the U.S. doubled to more than 46% at the end of November from 23% in May 2005. Those with very unfavorable views declined to 28% from 48% over the same period. Nor is this swing in public opinion confined to Pakistan. A similar picture is evident in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. Again that's largely because of American generosity in the wake of a natural disaster. A February 2005 poll by Terror Free Tomorrow showed that 65% of Indonesians had a more favorable opinion of the U.S. as a result of American relief to the victims of last December's tsunami. If these changes in Pakistan and Indonesia influence thinking in other countries, then we could be looking at a broader shift in public sentiment across the Muslim world.
Husain Haqqani and Kenneth Ballen, "Our Friends the Pakistanis:  Support for the U.S. is surging in some parts of the Muslim world," The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2005 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007699

Al-Qaeda Networks Uncovered in Morocco
Investigations into Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad bil-Maghrib (the Monotheism and Jihad group in Morocco) cells broken up by Moroccan security have revealed the inroads al-Qaeda has made into the region (see Terrorism Focus, Volume II, Issue 22). From the testimony of the arrested Belgian national Mohamed R'ha, al-Qaeda has emphasized the restructuring of its organization in Saudi Arabia and set up affiliate organizations in North Africa. As part of the broader restructuring plan, the Algerian Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat (GSPC) is to rejoin bin Laden's organization and provide support bases for its expansion, in order to more...
Stephen Ulph, "Al-Qaeda Networks Uncovered in Morocco," Jamestown Foundation, December 13, 2005 --- http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369848

Bob Jensen's threads on the disastrous DMCA are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright

A little like the Marshall Jevons (Breit and Alzinga) Academic Murder Mysteries
Thomas B. Jones, who has 35 years of experience in higher education as a professor of history, academic administrator and educational consultant, answers that question with The Missing Professor (Stylus), which he readily admits is a “rank amateur” writing effort.. . . The 146-page book focuses on a protagonist named Nicole Adams, who, against the advice of her father and a faculty mentor chooses to teach at the struggling university, in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa. The antagonists are just about everyone else, including backward hat wearing students, evil-minded administrators, and a cat, Munchkin, who just can’t leave Nicole’s love life alone.
Rob Capriccioso, "Professor Nancy Drew to the Rescue," Inside Higher Ed, January 12, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/12/missing

Bob Jensen's selections of some murder mysteries written by professors are in the latter portions of the document at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/muppets.htm

New Yahoo Service Looks To Improve ROI Of Online Ads
Yahoo Inc. and Marketing Management Analytics Inc. on Friday launched a service that helps advertisers determine the effectiveness of online ads on sales. The move comes as marketers are under increasing pressure by companies to justify the high cost of advertising, both on and offline. The new service delivers returns on investment by assessing ads on Yahoo and measuring their effectiveness against ads on other media, whether it's on another web site or on television or print. Besides the comparison of marketing campaigns, the service provides recommendations to marketers on how to maximize the effectiveness of their overall spending on advertising. The service would be available at an additional cost. Greg Stuart, president and chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, said marketers are increasingly under pressure to show chief executives and financial officers that advertising dollars are having a positive affect on sales.
Antone Gonsalves, "New Yahoo Service Looks To Improve ROI Of Online Ads," InformationWeek, December 16, 2005 --- http://www.internetweek.cmp.com/showArticle.jhtml?sssdmh=dm4.161133&articleId=175004707 

Bob Jensen's threads on the controversies of ROI analysis are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/roi.htm

A major university struggling with finances returns a $11 million gift: 
They should've given it to Seminole's football team
Florida State University announced Wednesday that it would return $11 million in gifts to a chemistry professor and his foundation. Robert A. Holton, the donor, gave the money for a new chemistry building and for other purposes, but Holton and the university have been fighting over how the funds would be used.
Inside Higher Ed, January 12, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/12/qt

High Versus Low Caste System Among College Faculty
The abuses placed upon adjunct faculty members by college administrations are legion, long-standing, and not likely to lead to change anytime soon — despite intermittent committees, activist organizations, and other groups of well-meaning but naïve educated people. Still, hope blooms eternal and the forces of justice press onward. I am not about to add to that fray, but rather, will reflect upon a higher caste of faculty. How much higher, though, is up to debate.
Izzy Academic, "Doing Hard Time, Full Time, Inside Higher Ed, January 12, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/01/12/izzy

From the Scout Report on December 16, 2005

The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/

Telling the story of the American Civil War can be a rather fractious and divisive process, but this website brings together a number of unique perspectives for general consideration. The Valley of the Shadow site details life in and around Augusta County, Virginia, and Frankly County, Pennsylvania from the time of John Brown’s Raid through the era of Reconstruction. Visitors will find within the site hundreds of relevant and compelling documents, including church records, maps, personal diaries, soldiers’ records, and census materials. Some of the documents (such as census records) can be viewed side-by-side for comparative purposes. The “Memory of the War” area is particularly moving as it contains first-hand recollections of the period after the war concluded in 1865. Within this area, the primary documents offered here are divided into sections that include reunions, politics, and obituaries. Overall, the site makes a fine educational resource for both young and old.

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Ripples of Genocide: Journey Through Eastern Congo [Macromedia Flash Player] http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/congojournal/ 

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has done a fine job of providing online materials and exhibitions about various genocides throughout history, and this latest offering provides a sobering and honest look at such a situation in the eastern Congo. This highly interactive site draws on the impressions and contributions of four people who visited the region in 2003 and 2004. These people include a number of journalists and activists, including Angelina Jolie and John Prendergast. Visitors can proceed through an outstanding virtual journal, which contains numerous photographs from the region, audio narration, and a number of collages. Along with this visually and aurally arresting material, the site also contains a link to a new report on the current situation in the Congo from the International Rescue Committee.

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FDA Consumer Magazine http://www.fda.gov/fdac/ 

Some readers may find the thought of reading the average government publication less than riveting, but fortunately the Food and Drug Administration’s in-house publication, FDA Consumer, is both well-written and informative. Intended for both a general audience and those concerned with the ongoing work of the FDA, the magazine offers broad coverage on both how to stay healthy and the regulatory work that is part of their mission. Every issue features a consumer quiz, commentary on recent regulatory activities, and a column from the magazine’s editor. On their site, visitors can read the complete contents of recent issues and also take a look at special issues on drug development and food labeling. The online archive is quite impressive, as it stretches back to 1989, although the contents of the entire magazine are not available for earlier years.

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Newsplorer 1.0 --- http://www.newsplorer.com/ 

There is a tremendous amount of news floating around the web, but some users may find it difficult to locate exactly what they may be looking for. This handy news reader application may be of great use to some users who find themselves vexed by this situation. Newsplorer 1.0 groups news sources by category, provides a popup windows displaying the latest news headlines, and also contains an offline browsing feature. This version is compatible with all computers running Windows 95 and newer.

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SETI@home 5.2.1 http://www.setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ 

What if a screensaver could be more than just a screensaver? While this may seem like an odd question to pose, a number of screensavers these days function as data analyzers for large-scale scientific endeavors. One of the best known of these screensavers is the SETI@home (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project. When users install this screensaver, their computer will assist in the process of analyzing data about radio or lights signals emanating from close to 30,000 sun like stars that might possess intelligent life. This version of the screensaver is compatible with all computers running Windows 95 or newer and Mac OS X 10.3 or newer.

Rough going at the New York Times, both for the paper and for its publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.
Ken Auletta, "THE INHERITANCE:  Can Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., save the Times—and himself?" The New Yorker, December 19, 2005 --- http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051219fa_fact

Flashback from The Wall Street Journal on December 19, 2005

"Toe Meets Leatherbound:  My favorite football books," by BOOMER ESIASON, The Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2005 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/fivebest/?id=110007693 .

1. "When Pride Still Mattered" by David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster, 1999).

2. "Inside the Helmet" by Peter King (Simon & Schuster, 1993).

3. "Remember This Titan" by Bill R. Yoast, with Steve Sullivan (Taylor, 2005).

4. "Semi-Tough" by Dan Jenkins (Atheneum, 1972).

5. "North Dallas Forty" by Peter Gent (Morrow, 1973).