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One of the most important developments in the field of professional continuing education (CPE) is the relatively recent emphasis on ethics, triggering the proliferation now of many an ethics CPE course.
While absolutely a good thing when the professions insist on not just what is legal but what is ethical and, even, moral, it’s also quite sad that simple human decency should today be so unheard of as to warrant an explicit requirement.

Obviously, malpractice jokes roasting doctors, lawyers, and accountants have long been a staple of humor and given such a context the now-official appreciation for proper behavior is to be applauded.
There are certainly more intense scenarios than having ethics CPE requirements – namely, the lack of them with the world still being the way it is: the very way which first made such courses so vital!
But there’s no denying the fact that when simple human decency has to be taught so many years after kindergarten, where they were initially encountered (likely an ill-fated fact in itself, as the first place anyone should come by their ethics should be the home!), society is doomed to an evermore unhappy race to the bottom for all.

Why, just take a look at the well-established practice now of companies hiring unpaid interns to do full-time jobs – real jobs, for which these volunteers usually are not even given the defense of common workplace discrimination and harrassment laws.
No, really!
Even multi-billion-dollar corporations, for example General Electric (which managed to pay no taxes for the filing season of 2011), make substantial use of these unpaid workers daily.
What good has all the ethics CPE courses in the world truly achieved when corporate bean-counters still go on to simply invent new ways of posting a profit while increasing productivity and lowering costs on the backs of young people without money?

It’s a tough assessment, but that’s probably for the best since a whole life of continuing expert education awaits the publicly certified accountant.
Generally known as CPE for CPAs, these courses ensure that bean-counters stay on top of the latest changes in the law so that last year’s legal loopholes are used only if still applicable!

But technical matters are not the sole concern of such courses.
A big component of modern CPE for CPAs is ethics.
Yes, that’s right – plain old right and wrong!
Somewhere down the line it’s been overlooked in a major way, ethics.
Then again, unethical dealings have been part and parcel of the profession ever since the Middle Ages, when its Italian founder observed common accounting scams already prevalent even back then!

All the same, ethics CPE for CPAs is surely a good thing – specifically for course authors!
For they are prone to ever run out of fascinating topics to go over.
Many a former white-collar criminal still shakes his head at the lax practices still so widespread in the industry, almost assuring another round of scandal, scandal such as what had brought them down once.

Take the case of Sammy Antar of Crazy Eddie’s fame.
A CPA and former CFO of his cousin’s legendary retail electronics business, Sam now rails against accounting fraud of the sort which he used to practice for well over a decade.
The fact is, he is now a speaker who gives seminars on how to catch white-collar criminals.
Moreover, folks can actually earn CPE and CLE credits for attending his talks!
But the very undeniable fact that he should still have something to say – something for which audiences still gather to hear – underlines the unfortunate currency of accounting fraud.

Of course, ethics deal with morality and not mere legality.
It may be hard for numbers-crunchers to think in deeply philosophical , but that’s exactly why continuing education is a need!

When I was a personal fitness trainer, I wasn’t too delighted with the idea of an entire certification process just so as to help people exercise.
But that was nothing compared to my shock that certification had to be maintained via online CPE courses as well!
Now obviously the point of certification is to be publicly recognized as being professionally competent, and because things are constantly changing in our fast-paced modern world being competent naturally means some kind of continuing education.
My shock, however, stemmed from the common view of those outside the fitness industry that trainers are just muscle-heads and nothing more.

However, just because I was a muscle-head who happened to know a little bit about the human body doesn’t mean that everyone else curious in becoming personal trainers also do.
But more to the point and very much to my chagrin, it turned out that as much as I actually believed there was so very much, much, much, much, much more that I could not – never mind online CPE courses; I barely had the essentials covered!

My unprecedented respect for education with respect to the fitness industry now means that I no longer laugh at online CPE courses for personal trainers.
It isn’t destined to be as hard as what lawyers, doctors, and accountants have to contend with, to be certain, but neither is it just a laugh, either.
Of course it is typically memorization of facts at this point, nothing so academically rigorous that any high school student would find it new, but still – it’s a good step in the right path for the industry as a whole and one which I now not only understand but also fully support myself.
My days as a trainer have ended but I have maintained a lot of respect for continuing education for anyone.

So it turns out that Jesse James likes Nazi paraphernalia.
No relation to the iconic Wild West figure, the only claim to fame that this latter-day Jesse James has is to be married to Sandra Bullock, one of the most precious actresses of all time.
Without a doubt, she has been crowned “America’s Sweetheart” by the celebrity press for not simply her good-girl roles but for her legendary off-screen generosity, donating millions at a time, most especially in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the catastrophic trifecta of earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-crisis that has lately hit Japan.

So how could she have tolerated such an obvious lout?
They were always one of the most startling couples in Hollywood, a bad-boy/good-girl pair right out of central casting and screenwriters’ workshops.
What could they possibly have provided their guests for wedding favors?
Almost sounds like the perfect set-up for one of Tinsteltown’s formulaic romantic comedies.
However, the real life version that has played out up to now more resembles tragedy for the Oscar-winning celebrity.

As for the bad boy, he’s now happily married to tattoo model Michelle McGee, who has also posed in Nazi regalia.
In fact, McGee has the acronym “WP” etched prominently on her legs, letters which imply “white power” in racist groups but which she claims only refers to a component of the female anatomy that’s wet!

One can only imagine what was introduced as wedding favors for their guests.

Of a certain perverse fascination to many observers, however, remains the query of what Bullock knew and the follow-up ones of how could she not have if she really did not and why would she endure such racist hobbies if she actually did know.
Many hypothesize that perhaps she was just too harmless and generous, naive when it came to the white supremacist imagery long well-liked by biker culture and generous whatever the case towards such naughtiness in a “bad boy” – again, straight out of central casting: you cannot make this stuff up!

Yes, better to gossip about wedding favors instead.

Sam Antar was the former CFO of Crazy Eddie’s, his cousin’s electronics retail empire.
Sam is a much sought-after speaker on the lecture circuit currently, and his seminars may even earn CPE and CLE credits for the attendees.

That’s because he is a convicted fraudster.

Ethics continuing education courses are usually self-paced correspondence courses one takes at one’s own leisure as a part of maintaining one’s professional good standing.
Reading through Sam’s site on the worldwide web, however, is as educational as any structured academic account can be.

As the former CFO of Crazy Eddie’s, Sam presided over one of the most famous scandals in the chronicles of corporate crime.
He lays all of it out, bare, raw, and unembellished by any of the usual self-serving rationaliziations often given to insiders’ accounts – all unadulterated on his website.

This is an ethics CPE program like no other – if it were accredited as such.
As it is, it’s just a website – but oh, what a website!

White-collar offense never sounded so exciting.
That’s because the Crazy Eddie’s scandal was at heart a soap opera presenting all the common human foibles known to a Greek chorus – lust, greed, betrayal, along with family.
Yes, family.

The familial element in this drama makes this type of corporate criminal offense so – if the pun will be pardoned – familiar to lay readers, grabbing and holding their attention where other accounts would lose them under a hill of technical information.
However, it isn’t that Sam offers no minutiae of his own; his very purpose these days is to combat criminal activity, after all; it’s that these details, which would be so boring otherwise with no benefit of a human drama in which to place them in the correct perspective, come to brilliant life against the context of a family power battle that resonantes purposely with everyone who’s actually underwent any semblance of sibling rivalry.

How’s that for an ethics CPE course!

So you want to be a lawyer. You know it will mean a lot of researching, a lot of time invested with books – but you like reading, and figuring things out, and you enjoy words, language, and all the semantic nuances required.

You even know that the LSAT test for admission to law school is hard, and something to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for, for special prep courses, coaching classes and so on. You also realize that law school itself will be difficult as nails, at least throughout the all-too-crucial First Year.

Great. Maybe you even know that you will be forever hitting the books as a practicing lawyer, forever taking online CPE courses and their exams, one after the other, in order to maintain your position with the professional association governing your licensure.

Super.

But did you know it will be quite tough getting a high-enough-paying job as lawyer in order to pay back your student loans? In fact, those online CPE courses will surely cost some money, too.

Oh, you probably think you’ve got that covered. You’ll graduate at the top of your class, or you’ll be accepted into an Ivy League law school and graduate none too low in the ranks so as to get hired by a top corporate law firm and easily recoup your investment in two to three years’ time.

And indeed, if such a thing does happen, your odds would be much better than those for virtually the rest of your peers, even in this economy. But “better than” does not mean “inherently good.” ’Cause guess what happens – globalization is coming to the legal profession also.

Yes, you heard that right – outsourcing. Certainly, some of the online CPE courses available on the worldwide web were produced overseas! And though the legal profession has attempted to resist it (after all, it took a whole decade for everyone to change from WordPerfect to Microsoft Word!), it’s finally started to affect the industry.

Taking online CPE courses is more convenient than previously, but it’s still something that one would need to take seriously.
Those unfamiliar with continuing professional education may suppose that it’s just some type of nonsense or they may think it’s like school all over again.
The truth is, however, somewhere in the centre.

Online CPE courses help make it even less like school, and for all the seriousness involved they can be almost fun.
A well-written course can help make things seem less onerous – as anything obligatory often tends to be – but of course if one is a professional then one will do whatever must be done regardless of the fun factor!

Still, it’s pleasant to know that not all online CPE courses need to be as dull as traditional mail correspondence classes were.
No need to make a chore even more of a chore, after all!
Hopefully, staying on top of advancements in one’s field, whether it be the law or medicine or any other occupation, could be exciting enough in and of itself.

Frankly, if undergoing continuing education would be a difficulty, then there’s no reason to enter such careers to begin with, despite the prestige and the higher income.
(And, regarding lawyers, the higher income is nowhere near as guaranteed as for the other professions!)
These days, even personal fitness trainers are anticipated to take continuing education courses.
That’s right – those guys and gals at the gym!

Chalk it all up to an ever increasingly competitive job market, where credentials mean getting a foot in the door.
Obviously, it’s not just market pressures, as the scope of knowledge in a field like medicine is always improving with each new discovery.
However, while something like the law is also subject to constant change, it basically does not command the same kind of rates nowadays as it once did.
Law graduates have actually gone on to file class-action lawsuits against their alma maters, putting those legal abilities to the simply use they can find in this economy!

Wine racks are a sign of the serious oenophile, or wine conoisseur.
Which is “racks,” plural, mind you – rows and rows of them, in all probability inside a climate-controlled basement cellar, what’s more!

So how exactly does one get going?
A number of fairly good introductions exist online.
Just before purchasing wine racks and other paraphernalia of the hobby, do a simple Google search and peruse as many as possible to get a good all-round education.

Usually, the first thing to do would be to sample some wines.
Again, using the internet should be a good starting point: check to see whether any wine tasting events are being held in your area, whether sponsored by a club or a merchant or even – specifically – a local vineyards!
Once you create your own impression of your own tastes, you will be prepared for those wine racks for your own home!

No, not a full-fledged professional cellar such as described at the outset, unfortunately, but simple decorative fare good for your kitchen or den or, even, study!
A cornucopia of options is out there for the rest of us who cannot afford dedicating our basements to storing wine.
Racks can be produced out of just about any material nowadays, into almost any design.
Some aren’t even immediately recognizable as such without actually holding a bottle or two of wine!

But you aren’t done yet.
If you need to really get into wine, you might “wine” up getting a hundred-dollar wine newsletter – Robert Parker’s famous “The Wine Advocate.”
He’s the premier wine critic in the business, so much so that what he says will actually have an effect on the market!
But one thing to always remember, no matter how far along you go in this hobby: trust your own taste buds.
Never feel like a thousand-dollar bottle of wine is supposed to taste good!
If you enjoy the twenty-dollar bottle, that’s what you like – period.

Many Blu Ray releases are just the most recent example of the idea in the familiar French proverb that notes how “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” That’s because just as with the introduction of DVD a decade earlier, many releases failed to live up to what is possible with the Blu-ray format. Sharper pictures? Over seven channels of discrete sound, including the subwoofer? Not always, notwithstanding the 25 GB of storage available on standard single-layer discs. Even if nothing compared to the numbers affected with DVD, when VHS was simply ported straight to disc, some Blu-ray releases have been barely distinguishable from their prior incarnations!

With a storied heritage going all the way back to the early 19th Century, The Convent of Jesus and Mary Schools are located throughout the world today, whether in Asia or Africa, Europe or the Americas. But even as they receive financial support from the Church itself, it is the support of the local communities that host them which has been crucial to their continuing success, particularly those most generous contributions from business people, not all of whom are Catholic or even Christian, such as with the case of an Isaac Toussie whose funds go towards a branch in India.

Another fact which one may not necessarily imagine of a Catholic school is that while they are parochial, in many cases one does not even have to believe in God to attend. Certainly, they do participate in the evangelical mission of the Church, but non-Catholics may opt out of any religious instruction offered, which matters are typically taught just once a week or so, at the end of the school day. After all, much in Catholic education follows the inquiring spirit of the Jesuit Order, one which tends to welcome open inquiry and emphasizes the natural sciences. Indeed, it is for this reason that Catholic schools tend to have such a stellar reputation in many places, even in New York City, the so-called Sodom-on-the-Hudson, where even secular parents will send their children to attend.

Believe it or not, a Catholic education can be among the lowest anywhere, with annual tuition at some five thousand dollars – not bad compared to the ten to twenty thousand dollars charged by others! Yet not every single Catholic school is so modern, of course; it is usually those that happen to be situated in generally non-Christian countries or otherwise highly secular locations which offer such openness.