Pride and Prejudice †review Essay

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 to the Reverend George Austen and his wife in Hampshire, England. The sixth child out of the seven, Jane was educated mostly at her home although she and her sister, Cassandra, were sent away to school for several years when they were young. Austen wrote several novels when she was in her teens, but her major works were written later on in her life. ‘Pride and Prejudice’, was first published in 1813. Austen began writing the novel in 1796 at the age of twenty-one. The first title was originally called ‘First Impressions’. Between 1810 and 1812 ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was rewritten for publication. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is usually considered to be the most popular of Austen’s novels. This novel is mainly about people expressing both pride and prejudice in their relationships. The main theme of the novel is marriage, which reoccurs throughout the story and it is marriage which attracted Lydia to run off with Mr Wickham. There is pressure on women of these times to marry properly this is because the women need to get financial safety, not for just themselves, but also for their families too. In this novel the most important cause of marriage for a woman were financially and a high social position. The first line of the novel justifies this and explains what the novel is about. â€Å"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife† (Chapter 1) This is a wonderful introductory line written by Jane Austen to introduce and outline much of this romantic novel. There are various reactions of Lydia going to Brighton by the Bennet family as they all have their own response and thoughts. Mr. Bennet is the husband of Mrs. Bennet and the father of Elizabeth, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Lydia. He is the master of Longbourn. He has a sarcastic humor intelligent and believes his two eldest daughters sensible, while he finds his wife and younger daughters silly. He does wants to be bothered as little as possible by his family. Even when Elizabeth warns him not to allow Lydia to go to Brighton, he does not listen to her because he does not want to be bothered with Lydia’s complaints. Mrs. Bennet is a different person does not really care about her daughter’s education. From the beginning of the novel her only obsession is to marry off her daughters to wealthy men, as she has a greed for wealth. Her only joys come from visiting others and gossip. She is a self-centered person and causes humiliation to the family due to her inappropriate behavior. Elizabeth Bennet is the second oldest of five sisters. Elizabeth is lively, smart, and intelligent. Her father and herself are not too different in their characteristics therefore she has a good relationship with her father and makes decisions wisely due to her intelligence. She is not scared to express her feelings and gets along with people very well except those who think they are far more superior to her, for example Darcy in the beginning but later on through the novel Elizabeth discovers Darcy to be a fine gentleman. Jane Bennet is the eldest Bennet daughter and is considered quite pretty by all has a good relationship with Elizabeth. She is Beautiful, friendly, sweet, sociable, humble and noble. Jane never thinks badly of anybody. Kitty Bennet is the third daughter in the family, and she is more under the influence of Lydia, Kitty follows what ever Lydia does. She effect by Lydia going off to Brighton. Mary Bennet The third oldest of the Bennet sisters, she is the most modest of the five daughters .She dislikes going out into the public, and uses her time studying instead. Lydia Bennet The youngest of the Bennet sisters, she is a self-centered girl who is the flirting kind. However she is the liveliest out of all the sisters. She is the first to get married despite her being a young teenager. She also has similar characteristics to her mother. She doesn’t really care about her family members after her marriage. The various reactions of Lydia going to Brighton are mainly negative. This is due to Lydia’s ridiculous thinking. She’s an extremely self-absorbed teenager. She has a great interest in men and particularly officers. She begins flirting with them once they have settled in the town and also admires and enjoys their presence, and exposes this in freely, in view of the fact that she has no shame. Due to her selfishness Lydia commits foolish acts which affect her and her reputation and mostly has an effect on her family. She shows a negative impression of her family by eloping with Mr Wickham mainly because she also has another four sisters who are keen to get married and their chances of doing so have diminished. She does what she likes without thinking of the consequences to come. It is like she is in a world of her own and doesn’t realise the bad reputation her family is developing because of her immature behaviour. Lydia is invited be her friend to Brighton by Mrs. Forster. Mrs. Bennet is extremely excited and pleased for Lydia’s trip to Brighton and wished all the best for her. â€Å"Mrs Bennet was diffuse in her good wishes for the felicity of her daughter and impressive in her injunctions that she would not miss the opportunity of enjoying herself as much as possible† (Chapter 41) Mrs. Bennet was totally trusting Lydia to go Brighton and thought she was old and mature to take care of her self, awareness to what the entire family is going to face shortly and how it will effect her sister’s chances of marriage. Lydia begins celebrating she is thrilled, perhaps because of the reason that she will be with the presence of the regiment. â€Å"Lydia Flew about the house in restless ecstasy, calling for everyone’s congratulations, and laughing and talking†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Chapter 41) She showed this excitement by roaming the house in happiness. She was awareness about her sister Kitty’s feelings and how degraded she feels, lonely and neglected. Kitty doesn’t understand why Mrs. Forster doesn’t ask her to come to Brighton too. â€Å"I cannot see why Mrs. Forster should not ask me as well as Lydia† (Chapter 41) Kitty as mentioned before follows Lydia in what ever she does and feels as though that she should be going as well due to her close relationship with Lydia. She becomes extremely upset, expressive and is envious towards Lydia. â€Å"The separation between her and her family was rather noisy and pathetic. Kitty was the only one who shed tears but she did weep from vexation and envy.† (Chapter 41) Kitty was mostly envious towards Lydia because of her trip to Brighton she was jealous and she wanted to go as much as her sister wanted to go. . She is saddened by the fact that Mrs. Forster requests Lydia to go and not her and can’t do anything about it. â€Å"Though I am not her particular friend. I have just as much right to be asked as she has, and more too, for I am two years older.† (Chapter 41) Kitty cannot accept the fact that she will not be going and exposes her frustration. Kitty gradually becomes resentful of Lydia’s attention. Lydia is unaware of Kitty because of her self-centeredness. Lydia and Kitty are very similar to one another when talking about their characteristics due to this, if Kitty would have gone she would have copied Lydia’s interest of men, and may have also began flirting just like her sister, and soon enough eloping with an officer and getting married just like Lydia. So by Kitty not going she may perhaps have been saved by the hazard she may have faced if she were to go. However, Elizabeth as the second oldest, was entirely aware of the situation and Lydia’s potential and capability, and is worried of what may occur if Lydia does go to Brighton. Mr. Bennet is a person who doesn’t not want to be bothered by his families problems so as a result he does not think about the damage Lydia may cause if she goes. Mr. Bennet just wants quiet and peace; by letting Lydia go perhaps he has the impression that there will be less botheration from his family. As mentioned before, Elizabeth has the same distinctiveness as her father and realizes that Lydia is not mature enough to go to Brighton so she tries and convince her father to think twice. â€Å"If you were aware.† said Elizabeth, â€Å"of the very great disadvantage to us all, which must arise from the public notice of Lydia’s unguarded and imprudent manner; nay, which has already arisen from it, I am sure you would judge differently in the affair.† (Chapter 41) Elizabeth is worried about Lydia going to Brighton and is trying her best to change her fathers mind and trying to stop her father giving Lydia permission to go. She also thinks that Kitty may be affected by this and points this out. â€Å"In this danger Kitty is also comprehended. She will follow wherever Lydia leads. Vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled! â€Å" (Chapter 41) Kitty follows Lydia in everything she does and Elizabeth realises this and is concerned, and mentions it. Elizabeth also expresses her frustration also by telling her father how the rest of the family can also be affected. Mr. Bennet is well aware of Lydia and her capabilities and her attitude towards men, especially officers, but simply doesn’t care and wants her to leave for the good of the town and possibly the family, as he mentions this to Elizabeth. â€Å"We shall have no peace at Longbourn if Lydia does not go to Brighton.† (Chapter 41) This quotation shows us that Mr. Bennet has no concern about his daughters and can’t be bothered. He fails to complete his duties as a proper father to the family. It may have been because of him not listening to Elizabeth that the bad reputation that Lydia soon gives to the family. This may have happened because of his immature behavior as a father. Despite the argument between Elizabeth and her father, Lydia is still sent to Brighton. After sometime the situation in Longbourn improves and Kitty overcomes her emotions. Later Elizabeth begins to have feelings for Darcy and is quite thrilled when she hears that she is going to meet him while on a trip with her aunty Mrs. Gardiner. Elizabeth arrives at Pemberley where Mr. Darcy was also. Her relationship with Darcy was improving on a regularly for the duration of her stay. She discovered what type of man Darcy actually is. She also gets to meet Georgiana Darcy the sister of Darcy. She is found very pleasant and charming to Elizabeth by surprise. While Elizabeth was on her trip she receives letters, one of them stating that Lydia had eloped with Mr. Wickham, she was shaken by the message and totally astonished that her sister had done such a thing. The emotions Elizabeth was going through made her burst in tears. â€Å"She burst into tears as she alluded to it and for a few minutes could not speak another word, (Chapter 46) Elizabeth is obviously in disbelief and in shock. She is worries about Lydia and the reputation and shame she have bought on the family, she must be also worried about her father feeling because it was his idea to allow Lydia to go in the first place. â€Å"Lydia-the humiliation, the misery, she was bringing on them all, soon swallowed up every private care. (Chapter 46) Jane expresses her devastation and requests that Elizabeth to return as soon as possible since there is disorder and astonishment from this shameless act by Lydia. The whole family regrets sending Lydia to Brighton. M r. Bennet is going through an immensely tense emotional situation. Mr Bennet on the other hand, handles the case with ease and isn’t extremely stressed compared to the rest of the family is. Kitty was told about the news and was not surprised at all, as if she was expecting it from her sister. â€Å"To Kitty, however, it does not seem so wholly unexpected.† (Chapter 47) Jane points out this in her letter. Kitty already has negative feelings about this matter and wasn’t really surprised. Elizabeth is totally overwhelmed by sad emotions mostly due to her absence and her concern for Lydia. Mr Darcy becomes aware of this situation and decides to think of a solution to the problem, as he is trying to build up a relationship with Lydia, this could be the chance to show he cares about her and her family and can feel the pain she is going through whilst thinking about the awful reputation that her family will have to face later on. The Bennets were completely disgraced by this and were mocked and looked bad upon by the community. However, there was still a way for the family to get rid of the reputation, which the family desperately hoped for that to happen was for Wickham to marry Lydia, as that was vital for a better future for the family, especially the sisters as they still have to get married. Mr Darcy shortly takes action and meets Wickham, and completes Wickham’s demands by paying off all his debts off which then soon encouraged Wickham to decide on marring Lydia. While everyone was miserable and disgusted by Lydia’s untrustworthiness and selfishness they were quite soon relieved, after hearing that Wickham was due to marry Lydia. Darcy’s attendance was very important in this and he also deserves an immense amount of praise for doing the right thing and sort out the problem in which Elizabeth was going through. . The matter is soon solved and Lydia is back together along with her family. She feel proud that she is the first out of the five daughters to get married and her parents are very proud too especially their mother as she was excited for her daughters marriages. Conclusion â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† is a book in which we can be taught that having pride and arrogance is not liked to have in your individuality as a person. It destroys your status inside a community an example of this from the book is Mr Darcy, who in due course shows his true qualities and changes from a disliked person to well-liked Lydia is a cheerful young lady after her wedding which Mr. Darcy showed by returning the Bennet’s family reputation the right way by speaking and encouraging his friend Mr. Wickham to marry Lydia as soon as possible On the other hand, her other sister Elizabeth finds herself a man who can become a great husband for her. Mr Darcy establishes this constantly because of his support to Elizabeth and his . Mr and Mrs Bennet, Jane, Kitty and Mary are all happy for Lydia after the family come together after her marriage ceremony. . The elopement of a woman with a man was very common at that time. As we can see from Mrs Bennet’s reaction it is a painful experience upon the mother as well as the entire family. The whole community changes their sight about the Bennet family due to a self-centred person mistake by Lydia. The story also gives us an image of how romance and relationships took place during that time enabling us to compare and contrast it with the present and we can see what sort of relationships went on between the men and women of the 19th century It all shows that how one person and by a mistake can destroy the family and effect everyone else in the family especially the parents.

Nutritional Habits

Diabetes is a very serious physiological disorder that is rather assuming an epidemic proportion the world over. It is caused by the inability of the pancreas to secrete enough insulin to work on the sugar (glucose) that has been ingested. It is treated by putting the patient on supplementary insulin and can be controlled by controlling the diet of the person afflicted with diabetes. This means reducing carbohydrate and increasing protein intake. The most important things in maintaining nutritional health of diabetics is to keep the blood glucose, blood lipids (fats) and blood pressure within an acceptable range. The acceptable range is shown thus: 1.Blood glucose should be 6-7% during fasting and before meals; and 90–130 mg/dl 2 hours after the start of a meal:

Low Morale of Prisoners

The prison employees safety is in jeopardy. Prison positions always carried a moderate amount of risk. Prisons are filled with people who believe that rules and regulations serve no purpose. These people violated the rules to the extent that they were removed from society.   Prisoners never deny nor apologize for their behavior. Making excuses for uncivilized behavior allows the low morale to never be acknowledged. Refusing to acknowledge the low morale problem among prisoners stops solutions from being possible. Causes of the Low Morale Among Prisoners There are as many outside influences for the low morale of prisoners as their own beliefs and opinions.   Giving in to easily to persuasion, wanting to be accepted, wanting friends and associates are the factors that are least acknowledged. Psychiatrists analyze   behavior and characteristics by social skills. However, wanting to have friends and please people leaves an opening to be influenced into unacceptable behavior. Today, no one can be certain if associates are really friends or enemies. Some of the current studies are mental illnesses, malnutrition, isolation, guards behavior and lack of rehabilitation and psychiatric programs are causing prisoners to have a lower regard for human life. Psychological games the guards use to cause the inmates to lose their individuality and focus contribute to low morale.   The system is set up so the prisoners frame of mind never changes for the better. Segregation in Maximum Security Prisons In maximum security prisons, â€Å"The prisoners spend 23 hours a day in small well lit cells, for one hour a day they have access to one small concrete recreation area† (Bender, November 4, 2005, P 15).   According to the study from Psychiatric News, segregation worsens behavior. With conditions like these, the prisoners learn is if they survive another day, they are doing the right thing.   They lose all knowledge of social skills. The only mental health treatment they are allowed is a brief time with the psychotherapists. The counseling is conducted in front of other inmates cells. Lack of treatment for drug and alcohol addiction is another problem in the prisons. â€Å"So far, one prisoner who repeatedly ends up in prison cost tax payers over $200,00† ( Imse, 2007).   The system does very little to correct the situation. The drug addicts cannot overcome the habit on their own. According to the Rocky Mountain News, the expenses of the medication and therapy is one of the reasons many prisoners do not get the proper treatment they need. According to the Human Rights Watch article, prisoners spent at least 23 hours during their daily activities along. The majority of damage to the prisoners is psychological. There is very little or no evidence of physical abuse. Mental humiliation and torture is impossible to prove. Conclusion Maximum security prisoners have a very low morale because of the psychological abuse they go through day after day. According to the latest research, isolation has the biggest impact on prisoner’s behavior. They are isolated, but are constantly watched. People in maximum security prisons are segregated because they have came across   secrets they were not supposed to. Bender, E, Psychiatric News (November 4, 2005), Volume 40, Number 21, P 15  © 2005 American Psychiatric Association Human Rights Watch (2000) HWR.ORG Imse, A, (Feb 16, 2007) Rocky Mountain News. Revolving Door to State Prisons Human Rights Watch, (February 2000) Vol. 12, No 1 G Out of Sight: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in the United States

Conflict and Critical Theory of Crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Conflict and Critical Theory of Crime - Essay Example Therefore, labeling or defining individuals as criminal offenders spurs processes that stabilize or reinforce participation in a crime or other conditions present before the labeling. Lemert’s contribution in criminology was significant, especially in differentiating between primary and secondary deviation. He referred to primary deviance as instances when individuals engage in behavior that violates the norms of a society without seeing himself or herself as taking part in a deviant action. The deviations are dealt with or rationalized as roles of socially satisfactory roles. On the other hand, secondary deviation refers to occurrence when an individual starts to employ deviant function or action as a defense, adjustment, or attack mechanism to the covert and overt issues developed by the resultant societal response to him. Some of the objective evidences associated with this change are in symbolic appurtenances of the novel role, speech, clothes, and mannerisms (Cordella and Siegel 130). Today, the labelling theory presents as highly significant aspect in criminal justice. Criminology experts can reduce crimes greatly by applying the labeling theory. The main idea behind employing this theory is that it assists in deciphering the reasons behind criminal intents and behaviors. By gaining an understanding why individuals take part in a crime, experts can devise ways to break the cycle, curb crime, and offer rehabilitation to the deviating individuals. However, this premise needs extensive research to perfect on ways that are appropriate to curb

Everyday Use by Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Everyday Use by Alice Walker - Essay Example However, her hopes are dashed when Dee returns with different world views and opinions about her heritage. Walker develops the theme of the meaning of heritage through the plot when Dee constructs a new heritage for herself after being angered by the oppression she feels exists in her family. Dee’s character is seen to have rejected her family legacy by giving herself a new name which she believes truthfully represents her African heritage. Dee’s renaming is the author’s way of trying to connect the past and indicates the flexible nature of identity. Walker does not mention Mama’s real name nor does he explain the foundation of Maggie’s name and this is meant to depict their unchanging and strong ties to their heritage and family legacy. The lack of name changing by the two characters shows that their identities are stable. Dee’s name changing reflects on her lack of belief in her true heritage as she believes that her name represents the fam ily oppressors, and views it as racist. Walker uses Dee’s character to portray the many confusing ideas that many African Americans have about their true heritage. Dee is seen not to truly understand the meaning of being African and all her actions to look African are viewed as meaningless. She differs greatly from her sister Maggie when she arrives from college and wants to possess some family quilt heirlooms. Dee does not seem to see the quilts as useful and would prefer to use them as artifacts to be used as decorations to represent a time that is long lost and from the past. Mama and Dee, however, view the quilts as very important in the family and believe that the quilts represent the presence of those that made and used the quilts. They see the quilts to be true tokens of their family origin and heritage as opposed to foreign and impersonal objects. The conflict between the three women intensifies when Mama chooses Maggie to be the one to own the quilts, as she believes that she will treat them with respect by using them in the way they were intended to be used. The theme of the diverse power of education is developed by the author through the depiction of how Dee’s achievement of higher education proves to be more divisive to the family’s relationship. Dee’s character is used by the author to show how education can change one’s view of heritage and culture. The education that Dee has received has alienated her from her family and she views her family home to be strange. Family values have been replaced by arrogant ideals and a loss of identity and heritage that only family can provide. Walker uses Dee’s character to show how education can influence an individual’s view of the life that they live. Dee’s education has caused her to have a different view on heritage and family legacy therefore causing her to disrespect anything but her own view. Walker uses the characters to depict how education, or t he lack of, is harmful. Due to her ignorance and lack of education, Maggie is seen to have hampered her achievement of self fulfillment. She is portrayed as one who has accepted the circumstances of her protected life and one who does what they are told. Walker uses the yard as a symbol to represent an area devoid of the short comings and regrets that fill Mama’s life. The yard appears in the beginning of the narrative as it is being thoroughly prepared for Dee’s arrival form college. The yard is used as a symbol that represents freedom and the lack of

Corporate Strategy Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate Strategy Case Study - Essay Example Macpac became a leading manufacturing unit of outdoor equipments as there were no other manufacturing industries in New Zealand. The sound internal resources like technology, manpower, innovative ideas and machinery equipments paved the way for the impending success in the this period. Product innovation was another stimulus responsible for the growth. The enormous entrepreneurial energy displayed by the founder also made the success achievable and it was a strong impetus for the rapid growth in the initial stage. In the startup stage, the entrepreneur focused mainly in his vision and available resources. Bruce McIntyre did not make much of an effort on market expansion, market penetration or product development. He efficiently used his internal resources like people, expertise, technology and funding. The growth depended on the company’s ‘international strategy of exporting’. By using acquired skills, knowledge and experience Macpac grew internationally out of challenging conditions of New Zealand. The entrepreneur prioritized customer service which raised a huge demand among the buyers. In 1978, this led to 100% growth in sales figure. In 1987, the export market of Macpac took a new shape. Export in the countries like Holland and Switzerland followed and soon after Germany and United Kingdom markets also were developed. The key factors behind the international success were: Macpac not only pursued a strategy to grow internationally but also concentrated on being a leading name domestically. Honesty and transparency was factor for Macpac’s success. Customers nowadays are very much cautious about what they buy. Many companies fail to prove their transparency and honesty in providing support and facts to the customers. But it was not the case with Macpac. Working as a powerful brand from the initial stage of starting up, Macpac never considered itself less than any strong brands. The attitude of being powerful was a significant

The advantages and disadvantages of the concentration of ownership Essay

The advantages and disadvantages of the concentration of ownership - Essay Example The advantages and disadvantages of the concentration of ownership With the advent of globalization, the seemingly uncontrollable force of capitalism, and the rapid development in technology, the media has become a commodity that can be sold and acquired like any goods or services in the market. By 1980s, the United States gradually deregulated the American media industries, paving the way for the open trading of media ownership. As a result, media ownership becomes increasingly concentrated as many companies and individuals see the benefits and power that come with controlling an effective tool in shaping public opinion and influencing all policy networks. Currently, six media conglomerates operate the majority of mass media platforms not just in the US but worldwide – News Corporation, Bertelsmann, Vivendi, AOL-Time Warner, Disney and Viacom; while only three news agencies lord over the reportage and syndication of news and journalistic materials. This paper will summarize the advantages and disadvantages of the concentration of mass media ownership. Advantages The main advantage allowing media consolidation is primarily in the economic front. Concentrating several smaller or individual outfits under one owner means better management, better access to funding and other resources. Biagi (2006) underscored that a large company can afford to train employees better, pay them higher wages and provide for better working conditions. (14). In addition to this, large companies who gobble up smaller media outfits are in a better position to manage the organization effectively. According to Wilkins and Christian (2008), the consolidation of ownership allows media practitioners to benefit from standardization and centralization of production (333). All in all, the benefits-arguments boil down to economic efficiencies. This fact is supposedly important in order for media outfits to survive in an increasingly competitive environment. Disadvantages Critics argue that the concentration of media ownership hurts the public interest most. The main position is that because large media owners want maximum financial returns and always susceptible to increased commercial pressures, it would go at great lengths in producing contents that would deliver the most profit, and in the process increase advertiser and sponsor influence, compromising the integrity of the news, often becoming unethical, and so forth. The consolidation works roughly the same the monopoly wherein the owner exercise a higher degree of control and power not just over a media organization but, more importantly, to the content that the organization produces. The disadvantage is greatly felt in an environment wherein the mass media finally evolved into humungous organization wielding enormous political power. Today, the largest media conglomerates were responsible for a large number of media statutes and regulations that are biased towards the interest of their corporations instead of the interest and welfare of the general public. According to Gupta (2006), for instance, th ere is now â€Å"little substantive coverage of the spectacular media deals in terms of the perceived effects of these deals,† and that â€Å"in most cases, journalists are directly affected but they do not report their own concerns† because of internal pressure (289). Finally, the concentration of power that results as a consequence of the consolidation of media outfits supposedly limits the diversity of opinion and the quality of ideas available to the public and greatly diminishes the so-called message pluralism (Biagi 14). Diversity and message pluralism is important because they reinforce the concepts of individualism and freedom. According to Perreira (2007), this is done by ensuring balanced

Write It Right Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Write It Right - Assignment Example Is the text clear and readable? Is papers structure logical? Do all my ideas coincide with the structure of my message? Can I change anything else in the message to make it better? ("Revising your Thesis"). According to POWA the four elements of the "writing context" are Content, Purpose, Writer, and Reader. Every writer, who is not writing for fun, has the purpose of his message. This purpose is embodied in message content, and is intended for certain readers. If I were the reader of my message I would have asked the following questions. Who is the writer and what type of person is he/she? What was the initial purpose of a writers message? How did writers features and mood influence the content of the message? Am I the only type of readers, for whom this message was created? Could I understand the content wrong? ("The Writing Context"). Very often a writer-beginner or the one without experience uses too many words while writing a paper, which are unnecessary and prevent a reader from understanding the main idea of the text. "Tightening" is one of the text revising technique, that allows to cut the excess words from a message, thus making it shorter, but more smooth and clear. "Tightening" can be done by restructuring a sentence or phrases in it to omit some of the words, making one big sentence from several short ones, using synonyms or set expressions instead of long descriptions and definitions

Investigating the physics of basketball Research Paper

Investigating the physics of basketball - Research Paper Example Concepts of momentum and collision are helpful in studying the behavior of ball when it hits the ground. On the other hand, equation of air resistance can be used to establish the favorable atmospheric conditions for playing basketball. Gravity and Projectile Motion A projectile is an object that has been thrown into space and is moving under the influence of gravity (Nag, Pati and Jana 16). The path of movement of a projectile is referred to as trajectory (McLester and Pierre 282). When the object does not encounter any force apart from gravity, its path is a parabolic (Goswami 28). A basketball in motion is an example of a projectile. This is because it moves under the influence of gravity once it is thrown by the player. In order to model a basketball motion as projectile motion some assumptions must be made. First, the effect of air resistance is ignored. Second, the ball is treated as a particle. Third the acceleration due to gravity is taken to be the same. Fourth, the spinning motion of the ball is assumed to be minimal. Under these conditions, the equations of motions can be applied to determine various motion parameters of the basketball. When a player throws a ball, it moves up to a maximum height, Ho. The speed of the ball decreases and at Ho the speed becomes zero. The ball then falls back with an increasing speed. The basketball player ought to know that the angle at which he/she throws the ball will affect the horizontal displacement of the ball. The horizontal displacement in this case is the distance the player is from the ring mast. The player must also know the right thrust to give the ball in order for it to reach the ring. Consequently, the kinematic equations are very helpful to the player. When a projectile is thrown to space at an angle, its velocity at any given point has two components; the horizontal component and the vertical components. The horizontal velocity is constant while the vertical velocity changes because of acceleration du e to gravity. If a projectile is launched with initial velocity Vo at an angle ? from the horizontal, its initial vertical velocity is Vo Sin ? while its initial horizontal velocity is Vo Sin ?. The horizontal displacement is given by the equation x = Vo Cos ? t .This equation resembles the formula for getting distance for one dimension motions. The horizontal velocity is constant for vertically launched projectiles. The equation is used to find the range of the projectile. The vertical displacement of projectile is given by the equation S = ut + 1/2 gt2 where u is initial velocity g is acceleration due to gravity and t is the time. For projectiles launched at an angle ?, the equation becomes; S = Vo Sin ? t - 1/2 g t2 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. (1) Making t the subject; T = x /Vo Cos ? t †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (2) Replacing S= Vo Sin ? (x / Vo Cos ?) -1/2 g (x /Vo Cos ?) 2........................... (3) Simplifying (3) S= x Tan ? – x2 (g / 2Vo2 Cos2 ?) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (4) A player throwing a ball is at distance R from the ring mast. The height of the ring mast is H1 and the height of the player is H2 as shown in the diagram below. The vertical displacement of the ball from where it was thrown is given by; Y = x Tan ? – x2 (g / 2Vo2 Cos2 ?) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (5) Y defines the displacement of t

Social responsibility of business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social responsibility of business - Essay Example Given the traits of a sentient being, while dismissive of any moral or ethical responsibility, the state of the corporation is placed in a space between responsibilities. The responsibility of the corporation to its owners relieving it of any responsibility to society, the shareholders are relieved of blame because they are largely unaware of the day to day decision making, while the CEO is relieved of blame because he is making decisions that support the interests of the owners. As Friedman makes his argument, he is discussing the concept of corporation in the framework of the shareholder model of corporate governance, which is the more popular form of governance in the United States. UK corporations also uses this model as the foundation of its principles of governance, but Japan, Germany, and most of the other European states use the stakeholder model of corporate governance (Barker 2010: 33-35). Friedman states that â€Å"In a free enterprise, private property system, a corporat e executive is an employee of the owners of the business... (His) responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires†. ... According to what Friedman (1970) is presenting, his belief supports the idea that businesses should rise and fail according to the ability to scramble to the top or get lost in the battle towards that end. The current issues that dairy farmers are faced with are an example of why this belief system is not conducive to sustainability. Food growth and nurturing is one of the more important industries for all human societies. Dairy farmers have had an increasingly difficult time in the UK and have been disappearing as a consequence. Evidence of the difficulties of dairy farms is that there were 300 dairy farms on the Isle of Wight during the 1960s, but only 15 remain (Findon 2010). Supermarkets are unwilling to pay a decent price to the farms and in the end they are forced to close their doors. Although those that are still left have been hoping that the price of dairy would rebound, it has stayed at a steady low, creating a business dynamic through which the costs of keeping their doo rs open is more than the benefit of maintaining their business (Findon 2010). In the case of the dairy farms, the stakeholder model of corporate governance must be put into place in order to create sustainability. Dairy products are necessary in the public domain, but high prices on dairy products do not do anything good for anyone. At the same time, dairy farms need to be able to sustain their position or they are only spinning their wheels and falling towards the inevitability of failure, which might cause a natural correction in prices due to scarcity of the product, but is not in the best interests of anyone. Darwinian thinking about businesses creates a dynamic

Human Resource Management Plan Essay Example for Free

Human Resource Management Plan Essay As a startup healthcare staffing agency for per diem, temporary and travel healthcare employment, human resources are our product; as such, a Human Resource Management Plan is vital to the success of this agency. This plan has been put together with input of management/ recruitment, sales and employee representatives. This is tool to aid in the building of this company, clearly defining roles and job responsibilities of the administrative staff; stressing the laws with which this company will comply; adding clear cut job descriptions for the labor force; and includes information on staffing, employee development/training and compensation strategies. Roles and Responsibilities Manager – Is responsible for the overall success of the human resource department. The manager will implement and define job descriptions; the training program; and contracts. The manager will procure all insurance, will assure compliance with JCAHO regulations and make sure that all state and federal statues are met as well as that all relevant laws and regulations are adhered to. The manager is responsible for acquiring human resources as well as being the final decision maker as to the hiring and termination of all employees. The manager must possess the following skills: leadership/management, budgeting, compliance will all legal binds, and effective communication. Sales Manager- the SM will be responsible for: initiating all contact with clients; following up on these contacts; negotiating for a contract between this company and client; ensuring that all contractual agreements are complied with; and developing a working relationship with client’s HR departments. The SM must possess the following skills: leadership, compliance with all legal binds, effective communication, the autonomy to make decisions and the ability to project respect of client and engender the appearance of trust, integrity and a positive image of the company. Support Personnel – the SP will be responsible for: all coding and billing; answering phones; requesting all background searches (criminal as well as credit); light booking such as time sheets and payroll; keeping track of all licenses, certification, contract and insurance expiration dates; scheduling of all employees; sending and sorting all correspondence; placing advertisements; and updating the website as needed. The SP must have the following skills: organization, trustworthiness, ability to comply with all reasonable requests by management and sales, keep a consistent and reliable work schedule, have the ability to keep all information private, and have a good work ethic and personality that reflects the image this company wants to convey. Legal Requirements The sales product of our company is its human resources. As such, there is a myriad of laws and statutes that require total attention to address HR legal compliance. Adhering to these regulations is tantamount to success for this company. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act is the chief statute that this company must adhere to. Every attempt will be made to reduce/avoid violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that protects against discrimination of race, color, sex (including pregnancy), religion and national origin (EEOC, 2012). Nor will there be violations of the Age Discrimination Act of 1967 and its’ amendments. There will be training in and awareness of disparate treatment of applicants including the EEOC’s new regulations on not hiring based on criminal background so that these laws are not violated (EEOC, 2012). It is our responsibility to give our clients the best candidate to fit their requirements so the job description should reflect clearly and without any ambiguity, the limitations of each position. However, records will be kept in accordance with EEOC regulations of all applicants as well as ensuring that all accommodations are made for any disabilities Punitive and compensatory damages can be levied against this company for violations of these acts. Benefits Required Until this company acquires 20+ employees it is not required to offer certain benefits (EEOC, 2012). The majority of its’ employees will be contract workers and as such, they are required to possess their own liability insurance, will not have access to company provided health insurance, disability or retirement benefits. Government required assistances such as COBRA, FMLA and ERIS plans will not be included in any benefit package until such time as this company hires salaried employees at the required minimum (EEOC, Disabilities 2012). At that time this policy will be revisited. OSHA regulations will be strictly enforced at the company’s geographical location and the appropriate information will be posted. Violations can be subject to penalties of up to $500,000. 00 and up to six months in jail (U. S. Legal, 2010-2013). Job Description of Contract Staff Attached is a sample job description for a RN with a psych component and psych experience. (See addendum 1). This description has been carefully analyzed and developed in accordance with all laws and regulations and will be give to our clients for comparison so that their HR department’s job escriptions are legally within all perimeters required and reflect essential job functions. This description was designed with help from the O*Net Online website and the Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection Procedures. This company’s mission is to supply RNs’, LPNs’, CNAs’, NAs’, Social service, therapeutic, as well as any other healthcare related staff on temporary need basis for hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities, including home care. Our job descriptions must reflect this clearly and include the requirements given us in the contract with our clients. Any limitations are those supplied to us by our client’s HR department and do not represent limitations on hiring by this company or any employees of this company. Each individual HR department will provide NOLA Nursing Agency with their job descriptions but we reserve the right to change any portion of this design to reflect current laws in agreement with the client’s HR department (Fried and Fottler, 2012, pp. 171,173,174, 176). Staffing and Employee Development Staffing will be guided by each individual job description. Jobs will be filled with the applicants who best fit with the requirements of our clients, suitability of the position and expectations of NOLA Nursing. Our hiring motto is â€Å"Best Person, Best Fit, equals Best Care. † To ensure excellence in training of our per diem staff by NNA before additional training is undertaken after hire, we will use the COPA model by Lenburg. The COPA model of assessment of competency by Lenburg provides for a framework to ensure that teaching and learning of skills by nurses are interactive and student focused. NNA will use this framework to prepare per diem nurses/healthcare staff for employment. Below are the four major questions complied in this model: 1. What are the essential competencies and outcomes for contemporary practice? 2. What are the indicators that define those competencies? 3. What are the most effective ways to learn those competencies? And, 4. What are the most effective ways to document that learners and/or practioners have achieved the required competencies? To further prepare our healthcare staff will use Lenburg’s eight core practice competencies with sub skill to grade new staff and use the data collected to fill out each individual’s skill set. See Addendum 2) It will also be incumbent upon NOLA Nursing Agency: * To recruit the best applicants to fulfill the specified job qualifications for our clients. This will include the initial structured interview which will test job-competency and access the applicant’s suitability for the position. A realistic job preview will be given to the chosen applicant before selection to increase th e success of the person-job/organization fit. (Fried et al, 2012, pp. 209, 211-212) * An employment agreement will be drafted and signed by NNA along the candidate and will be enforced by NNA. A separation agreement will also be initiated by NNA after receiving information by client and if necessary, an exit interview will be performed by same. * Preform all background checks including: job and education histories, criminal and civil backgrounds, validation of licenses/certifications/credentials, and checks of personal and professional references. A report will be made available to clients with signed permission of the applicant and adhering to required laws. Drug screening and physical abilities confirmed if required on job description, * Current individual liability insurance validated: copies kept on file as well as expiration dates of the insurance for each contract employee. * Protected class applications will be cataloged and statistics will be submitted to the appropriate government regulation agencies * CEUs for each applicant will be kept up to date and appropriate to the job description * Each applicant will be tested in a skills inventory and given necessary instruction in weak skills. A web bank of nursing skills will be made available so contract applicants can improve on their skill base. * Compensation and any benefits will be negotiated between NOLA Nursing and the applicant * Any issues that arise in the working environment will be mediated by NOLA Nursing and our client. * NOLA Nursing will monitor their contract employee’s job performances and any deficits will be addressed. * A critical incidents analysis will be kept on each contract employee to better select quality candidates for our clients Recruitment will be through advertisements in web based Job Boards, newspapers and participation in job fairs. An active bank of all applicants will be kept updated with a surplus of personnel available for each potential position. All necessary legal regulations and statutes will be considered in job placement and all information given on a particular candidate will be considered on a need to know basis. Our focus should be on giving our client a smooth, issue-free solution to their staffing deficits. While all attempts will be made to make a right person/right fit for each job description, voluntary and involuntary terminations will occur. To this end, the employment agreement between NNA and the applicant will include a section to negotiate issues resulting in a voluntary termination in an attempt to stay the dissolution of the contract. In case of a non-voluntary termination, NNA will act as representative of the employee to mediate any solutions that could result in the fulfillment of the contractual period. With due diligence performed by our company, turnover rates of temporary staff should be above the rate of regular employees. We make all efforts to satisfy our clients and our most important resource, our employees. Evidence based research by Cummins, J. in the online article, Nurse retention strategies: A growing priority, and Perrine, J, in Recruitment and retention report: Strategies to boost RN retention, have shown that the following strategies have improved retention rates, increasing motivation, satisfaction and performance: 1. Promote an environment where RN’s actively participate in the decision making processes that occur at the unit on the institutional level 2. Improve the perception of respect 3. Improve access between RNs’ and the organizational leadership 4.  Assist staff with education and training to meet the changing market needs 5. Lead by Example Compensation Contracts between job applicants and NOLA Nursing will be finalized after compensatory benefits are agreed upon and contracted by NNA and our client. Compensation will be on an hourly and per diem basis. HR will be cognizant of the market pay scale for each job description and compensation will stay above market value to attract competent candidates. Special attention will be given to equal pay for equal opportunities (Equal Pay Act). Diversity Evidence based research by Singleton, K and Krause, E (Sept 2009) in the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, has found a correlation between the improving health of a patient and the nurse being of the same culture as the patient. Within legal limits, considerations will be given to the population climate of the institution where the deficit of nurses is occurring. We are an equal opportunity employer so anyone who applies will have the same opportunity to be placed in a position per the job description perimeters. Selection will not be determined by race, age, gender, sexual preference, color, religion or national origin. Realities are that nationwide, 90% of U. S. nurses are Caucasian, and blacks and Hispanics are underrepresented per the US population (Aiken, 2007). All applicants will be looked at equally and attempts will be made to place any qualified applicant. Historical Perspective and Current Trends With the cycles of supply and demand on nursing labor market, the opening of the 21st century found healthcare systems trying to catch up with demand (Fried, et al, pp. 90). Many foreign nurses were brought into the States to meet the demand; nearly 15,000 passed the Nclex in 2005 according Aiken, however at the time, â€Å"American nursing schools were turning away applicants because of capacity limitations. † (Aiken, 2007) Projections are that the shortage in 2020 could reach 800,000 to 1. 1 million with a large block of nurses looking to retire from the labor force by 2020. Aiken quotes that graduation of nurses fell from over 95,000 in 1994 to below 70,000 by 2001 with a false increase from 2002-2005 being older nurses reentering the workforce and foreign educated nurses. Current trends have been to raise salaries, provide scholarships and give other incentives to retain and gain nursing staff. However with the lack of nursing teachers, and facilities, there will be again a nursing shortage of graduate nurses and on the other end of the spectrum; retiring nurses. Per Fried and Fottler (pp. 90), more than 30,000 qualified applicants were not accepted into baccalaureate nursing programs in 2007. With the increase in Magnate policies and the increase in associate nursing programs, there will be a shortage of 4 year nurses in the near future. Per Aiken, increases and shortages of nurses into the labor market is contingent upon federal subsidies. When there was a trend toward nursing layoffs in the period between 1995 to 2000 graduations fell causing the latest shortage of nurses. Wages grew 12. 8 % between 2000 -2004. This caused an upsurge in nursing school applicants and many were turned away. Aiken feels that graduations of nurses into the labor pool seem to be keeping up with demand. However the Affordable Care Act will open up primary care to an additional 40 million Americans with a rise in the market for additional nurses (Wakefield, 2010). Government subsidies have changed per the HRSA scholarship opportunities in the last two years. Where concentration was on increasing RN subsidies, now HRSA is concentrating on grants for nurse practitioners and nursing educators and has significantly reduced the monies offered to two and four year RNs. Once again the cycle of reduced enrollments in nursing school should follow the trend of reduced federal subsidies less nursing candidates. This bodes well for our job market niche and should be the basis for growth in this company

Importance of Computer in Schools Essay Example for Free

Importance of Computer in Schools Essay Tara Dodrill began writing professionally in 1990. She is a travel writer and photographer working for print and online media, primarily covering Florida, ecotourism and off-the-beaten-path destinations. Her writing credits include RUMBUM, Yahoo News, Visit South magazine,and North Carolina Coastal Guide. She studied journalism and education at Ohio University and real estate at Hondros College. Computer classes in schools are important to a well-rounded education. Students are instructed on the basics of computer use as early as kindergarten. Educational software, often presented in a game-like format, entertains younger students while they learn key concepts. ? Technology Skills * The importance of computer study in schools goes beyond the reinforcement of classroom subjects and remedial assistance. Nearly all students will be faced with the need for technology skills when they attend college or enter the workforce. Keyboarding Classes * Keyboarding classes in elementary schools have replaced the old-fashioned typing classes once offered in high schools. Students learn at a young age how to use computers to generate reports, type essays and research homework assignments. * Career Preparation * Computer skills learned in middle school and high school will benefit students during higher education courses and their careers. Students as young as 12 learn how to create Power Point presentations, video projects and photo slideshows. Online Access * By learning how to use computers, students even in low-income areas have access to the world at large. Online learning courses, which were once a rarity at colleges, now comprise a large portion of many schools course catalogs. Adult Learners * Students who are introduced to computer courses at an early age adapt quickly to advances in technology, and typically do not fear additional training and new concepts as adult learners. Effect of Science and technology in our lives As what I understand about how Science and Technology affects our lives, That there are advantages and disadvantages. The Advantages are, it makes our lives simple by using equipment that can easily finish and do well the work or job. We can save more time and energy so that we can perform and do our other job. We can now easily communicate our love ones and relatives by using cellphone and internet, it can connect us even they are in the other part of the world and then with digital camera, we can see them just like they are in front of us. Technology now can give us more information about what are happening around the world that help us to get aware and prepare for disaster and calamity that might happen in our country or in our place. Science and Technology can cure our diseases, provide us shelter and foods for crowd people. Most of the people think that there are more advantages of science and technology as compare to the disadvantages. The major advantage of science and technology is that it has made our lives easier like invention of technology has decreased the manual work. The use of technology in agriculture has increased our productivity. Doing work at workplaces is easier because of invention of computers and notebooks. Development of technology in kitchens, beauty parlors, workplace, research labs and in all fields of life has become the necessity. Now we can study and understand our history,culture and society and by the help of Science and Technology we can share our stories of whats happening in our life, what we see and what we discover to by this way we can also help the children of the next generation. The major advantage of technology and science is to assist mankind in living well and more easily and in better health. There is also disadvantages on Science and Technology Many years comes our atmosphere slowly destroy because of the air pollution that came from the factory and it can cause Green House Effect (GHE) it is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gasses and is re-radiated in all directions. And it is harm for the people. Science and Technology make people lazy because people just depend on it and not do there work well. It will increased the anxiety of our lives, when technology goes in the wrong hand it can have an negative impact in our society it can create cyber crime, hacking, stealing of personal information and pornography websites. It also gives opportunities to the terrorist to make crime like bombing. As technology develops we forget our traditions style of living. it simply destroying our life styles. It also destroying our nature because of illegal logging, and mining and others, this is the cause of landslide and flood that can kill many people because nature cant stop it anymore.

Arguments for Regulating Financial Reporting

Arguments for Regulating Financial Reporting Acoording to Leuz and Verrecchia (2000) the accounting literature presents proof that the quality of accounting has economic consequences for e.g. costs of capital , efficiency of capital assignment (Bushman et al. 2006)etc. Land and Lang (2002) in their research mentioned that economic changes also have homogeneous consequences by stating that the quality of accounting has improved globally since 1990s. Land and Lang (2002) also say that the reason for the advancement in the quality of accounting is primarily due to globalisation and visualization of international accounting consensus. The argument proposed by the accounting theory is that the main aim of financial reporting is to reduce information asymmetry between managers and owners and other stakeholders contracting with the company (Watts, 1977; Ball, 2001). Favouring this notion Frankel and Li (2004) states that financial reporting decreases information asymmetry by disclosing relevant and timely information. Standard setting is a form of regulation which lays down generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) (Scott, 2003, p. 9). Also accounting standards for listed companies in the European Union are promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). This report answers this question that whether or not we need this kind of regulation of financial reporting. What is Financial Reporting? To answer the report question, firstly, there is a need to answer the questions like what is financial reporting, who are the users of financial reports and how is financial reporting regulated and what are the bodies responsible for regulating the financial reporting. By answering these questions a better understanding of financial reporting will be achieved and which will ultimately aid in answering the report questions. Financial reporting enables an organization to communicate information about its performance externally (Atrill et al. 2005). So, financial reports provide summarized information about an organizations transactions over a specific time period to external decision makers. (e.g. Investors). The users of financial reports are employees, trade unions, government, creditors, lenders, customers, shareholders and investment analyst (Elloit et al. 2006). The needs of these various users of financial reports can be completely different. However, the main emphasis is put on the most usable statements like balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. The Accounting standard boards (ASB) which is responsible for setting and issuing accounting standards, the ASB is part of a broader structure including the Financial Reporting Council, the review panel and the Urgent Issues Task Force (UITF). The Financial reporting Council (FRC) is the body charged with the broad overview of the standard setting system. Although the FRC oversees the process of producing accounting standards, it has no input into the detailed rules. Conversely the principle sources of such regulation are The Law and the Accountancy Profession. The Law consists of certain Acts. Much of the legislation governing the UKs preparation of accounts is personified in the companies Act 1985 and companies Act 1989. They are mainly concerned with the accounts of limited liability companies. These Acts state that all financial statements constructed under the Act must present a true and fair view. The Act also deals mainly with minimum disclosure requirements and is foremost concerned with the protection of shareholders and creditors. It provides a framework for general disclosure by requiring that certain financial statements such as the profit and loss accounts and the balance sheet, should be prepared and presented to the shareholders and requires the specific disclosure of certain items such as depreciation and so on. These disclosure requirements resolve some of the problems associated with the asymmetry of information between the directors and some user groups. They also enable user groups to compare the level of their inducemen ts with those received by the other groups. The Act also requires that the directors not only present the financial statements to the shareholders each year but also that independent auditors are appointed to examine the financial statements and report their findings to the shareholders. The law addresses the problem of information asymmetry by requiring the disclosure of certain key items of interest to user groups. The Accountancy Profession also recommend the same but in this role as regulator. The accountancy profession is more influential in achieving a significant increase in the comparability of financial statements. Whereas the law provides the general framework for what is to be accounted for in the financial reports, the accountancy profession provides detailed rules in the form of accounting standards about how items and transactions should be accounted for. The two main regulatory bodies of financial reporting are The Law and the Accounting Profession with the Accounting Standards Board usually known as ASB (Elliot et al. 2008). In UK, most of the legislation related to the publishing of accounts is embodied in the Companies Act 1985 and 1989. The Companies Act 1989 is the main frame which the companies and accountants have to follow. All the financial statement drawn up under the act 1989 must present a true and fair view and its function is to protect all the users of the financial reports and statements. The second and the most important regulatory body is the accounting profession. The standard setters should be aware of the information needed by all users of financial reports and should know the impact and the outcome of a different accounting method on the needs of those users. The standard setters should also be able to resolve the conflicts which exist between the needs of different users. So, they have to find an alternative wa y which best satisfy user needs and this could be achieved by choosing the improvement of the social welfare instead of welfare of individuals. We know that Accounting Standards Board is the main accounting standard setter. Because the ASB is composed of professional accountants, they may be unfamiliar with the user needs. So , when there is a need for a change in accounting standard the ASB prepare and publish a draft standard called the FRED (Financial Reporting Exposure Draft). After the publishing of these drafts the comments from the public is invited and in the light of these comments the FRED is changed (or unchanged). Now the FREDs are issued as FRS (Financial Reporting Standard). The main disadvantage of this system is the ASB members are unfamiliar with the different user needs and the comments from the general public may not be equally represented. There are four things that standards in financial reporting supply people using it. The first one is Comparability; financial statements must allow people to compare one company with another one and evaluate the managements performance without spending time and money adjusting them to a common format and common accounting treatments. It is essential that users of financial reports or investment decision makers be supplied with relevant and standard financial reports which have been regulated and hence standardized. The second thing that standards and regulations supply is called Credibility. Because all this standards and regulations exist accountants have to treat every company in the same way. If the accountancy profession permitted companies experiencing similar events to produce financial reports that disclosed markedly different results simply because of a freedom to select different accounting policies they would lose all of their credibility. So, the standards should be compos ed of rigid rules and should not be broken. The third thing is Influence that means, setting up the standards has encouraged a constructive appraisal of the policies being proposed for individual reporting problems and has been a stimulus for the development of a conceptual framework. The last thing that the standards have to supply is discipline. Companies left to their own devises without the need to obey standards will eventually be disciplined by the financial markets. But in the short run investors in such companies may suffer loss. The Financial Reporting Council is aware of the need to impose discipline because most of the company failures in recent years are because of obscure financial reporting. Why should the Accounting Standards set? As we argued before, an important role of the regulations is to increase the comparability of accounts by limiting the choice of alternative accounting methods and to supply standardized accounts. This standardization can be achieved only by uniform accounting practice. If all accounti ng methods were standardized, two organizations which began the year with same balance sheets and which made the same transactions during the year, they would report the same balance sheets and the same profit and loss account at the end of the year. In addition to these advantages of regulations in financial reporting, there are also some more useful functions. Regulations can help to reduce the influence of personal biases and political pressures on accounting judgments. They can increase the level of user confidence in, and understanding of, financial reporting by clarifying the basis on which all accounts are prepared and presented. Finally, they can provide a frame of reference for resolving accounting problems which are not mentioned in legislation or accounting standards. As we argued earlier although the regulations in financial reports have very advantages it has many disadvantages too; One if these disadvantages is the Adverse Allocative Effects, this could occur if the AS B did not take into account of the economic consequences of the new standard or regulation they have issued. For example, additional costs could be imposed on preparers of accounts and suboptimal managerial decisions might be taken to avoid any reduction in earning or net assets. Consensus-seeking can be another disadvantage and this means the issuing of standards that are over-influenced by those with easiest access to the standard-setters. Most of the time this could happen with complex subjects. Standard Overload is composed of a number of statements which creates the most important disadvantages of standards. Some of them are; 1. There is more than one standard-setter body so, as well as it becomes more difficult to follow the new changes, the accountants are becoming so regulated that it becomes very difficult to use his/her accounting profession, to make judgments. 2. There are too many standards and regulations, so in the long run, they restrict the development of accounting profession by discouraging the accountants from experimenting new ways of recording transactions. 3. Some points are too detailed and some of them are not sufficiently detailed so, makes it hard to obey. 4. Standards are for general-purpose and sometimes they fail to respond to users and the firms needs. For example, a company which wants to attract investment finance can not make the necessary judgment of how much information is necessary and what form it need take so, it couldnt take the actions necessary to attract investors and may bankrupt. Some of the standards are lack of a conceptual framework this means they havent got a clear defensible logic and the rules tend to be rather arbitrary. This causes the standards to lose its credibility and acceptability.

The Message in the Music Essay -- Song Analysis Essays Compare Contras

The Message in the Music Music means many different things to many different people. To a listener, a song is sometimes for four simple minutes of entertainment, but sometimes it is much more. Sometimes, a song is a message from the artist. This is much the same way from the opposite end of the spectrum. An artists message can get so complex that it is completely lost on the listener. This essay is about song analysis. I will be analyzing two songs performed by the same artist but performed with two different bands. Although performed by different groups, the music is similar and so is the message. The two bands being examined are Tool and A Perfect Circle. These are both considered rock bands and work within the same industrial vein. The bands major theme is that of religion. Unlike the popular religious music praising the Lords name on high, this music takes a drastic U-turn in the road to divinity by speaking of Jesus Christ the Savior in a sarcastic and uncaring tone. Lead singer Maynard James Keenan is an atheist. Although I feel these are excellent songs, I do not support the views taken, or supposedly taken, by the band. In the song Eulogy, the artist criticizes the Lord throughout the entire song as well as taking a sarcastic attitude when shedding a good light on Him. In the beginning of the song, the band sings, He had a lot to say. He had a lot of nothing to say. Well miss him. Were gonna miss him. The group is claiming that He might have had a lot to say, but it really amounted to nothing, maybe because they felt he didnt really mean anything he said. When saying that they are going to miss him, it seems like they have set themselves in a time when Jesus was about to be crucified and is saying they will miss... ... show how he no longer declares this savior his own. The song ends with the chorus which pretty much says the same thing, except when making reference to the spear, he uses the word spiteful, not hateful. Spiteful works much better in place of hateful. It make the listener realize that after all the things Jesus put them through that they are finally getting back at him, or spiting him. Both of these are excellent songs, simply for the fact that they have good melodies, strong choruses and insightful lyrics that make the listener think. For these facts, I will continue to listen to and enjoy these songs. Despite that, through analyzing the lyrics, Ive found messages that contradict my own personal beliefs. It goes to show that music can have a deeper and much different impact on peoples lives if they just take an extra minute to think about what they are hearing.

Pride in Greenleaf and Spotted Horses :: Greenleaf Spotted Horses Essays

Pride in Greenleaf" and Spotted Horses Pride is a feeling that most people in the world have always shared. Pride can be a great thing to have, but when a person has too much pride, the situation becomes very different. Pride can cause a person to do things he would not do under normal circumstances, and it can cause a person unhappiness. Mrs. May in "Greenleaf" and Henry Armstid in "Spotted Horses" both have a sad type of pride that leads to untimely death and demise. In Henry's case, his pride is the direct cause of his injuries done by the horses, and Mrs. May's is somewhat more indirect. In "Greenleaf," Mrs. May thought that she was a blessing to the world. She thought that everything good that happened was her doing and that everything she did was good. At one point in the story she says, "I work and slave, I struggle and sweat to keep this place for them and as soon as I'm dead, they'll marry trash and bring it in here and ruin everything. They will marry trash and ruin everything I've done." Although she hates the dairy farm and her two sons do not live up to her standards, she still has a sense of pride about them causing her to be so preoccupied with what she has done for them. The bull, a prominent symbol for what Mrs. May cannot control, meanders throughout the story and clashes and conflicts with her pride. The two are intertwined: she constantly visualizes and hears the bull in the day and sleep. In one of her dreams she talks of being "aware that what ever it was had been eating as long as she had the place and had eaten everything from the beginning of her fence line up to the house and now was eating the house and calmly with the same steady rhythm would continue through the house, eating her and the boys, and then on, eating everything but the Greenleafs." The bull symbolizes what she cannot do in life, what she cannot control, and what she has not done, and it is what makes her take the last step before her death by bringing out her pride and causing her to try and take control over the unknown, over itself. She is then gored to death by the bull, and this proves the point that she should not have concerned her whole life with her pride and what she had done and what she could not ultimately control.

Homecoming AQA Coursework This poem is a puzzle for the reader - there :: English Literature

Homecoming AQA Coursework This poem is a puzzle for the reader - there are some things the poet has not told us. This poem is a puzzle for the reader - there are some things the poet has not told us, and without them, our reading of the poem relies on guesswork. This seems deliberate, as the first thing the poem invites us to do is to look at two things separately, then put them together. The poem is written mostly in the second person, addressed to â€Å"you†. This may at first seem to be the general reader, but later in the poem, Armitage writes â€Å"I† and â€Å"we† - and it seems that here he speaks to a particular individual. The context and other clues suggest this is a lover or friend (someone he meets â€Å"sixteen years† after the incident he describes in the second section of the poem). Perhaps he wants the reader not so see this as something that happened once to another person, but as something all of us can, and maybe should, do. The first stanza - after the opening line - is quite easy to follow. The poet invites us think of a trust game. (Teachers and students of drama may know this game. Readers of the poem will perhaps have played it, or something like it.) â€Å"Those in front† spread their arms wide, and â€Å"free fall† backwards, while those behind catch them and â€Å"take their weight†. The point of the game is for those in front, to overcome the instinct to bend their legs and fall safely. The â€Å"right† way to fall is only safe because there is someone to catch us. The second stanza is far more puzzling, but will be familiar to anyone who knows school cloakrooms. A yellow cotton jacket has come off its hook. On the â€Å"cloakroom floor† it is trampled on - â€Å"scuffed and blackened underfoot.† The sequel to this is that â€Å"back home†, a mother (presumably the mother of the child whose jacket this is) â€Å"puts two and two together† and gets the wrong answer (â€Å"makes a...fist of it† in the dialect phrase). We do not know what the right answer would be. One possible reading is that the mother blames the child for being careless and not checking that the jacket was hung on its hook. There is a further sequel - the child sneaks out of the house at midnight. She does not go far (â€Å"no further than the call-box at the corner of the street†). We do not know whom she rings, or what becomes of it.

Persuasive Advertising Essay

Advertising plays an important role in our diverse, media-saturated world. It surrounds our everyday lives. It is in everything we do, whether we are looking for a number in the phone directory, taking a ride down a road, or watching TV. According to Jamie Beckett’s article in San Francisco Chronicle, â€Å"The average U. S. adult is bombarded by 255 advertisements every day–100 on TV, 60 in magazines, 50 on the radio, and 45 in newspapers† (Beckett). More recently, Advertising Age estimated that the average American sees, hears, or reads more than 5,000 persuasive ads a day, which means that there is almost nowhere we can avoid their presence. Today, ad agencies spend more than $300 billion in the United States and $500 billion worldwide on advertising. Therefore, we can acknowledge that advertising is created in a results-oriented perspective that will increase companies’ and organizations’ profits in the forms of purchases, donations, votes, joinings, etc. This perspective can be achieved by using manipulative and persuasive techniques in advertising that would get people’s attention. These messages appear in many formats–print and electronic, verbal and visual, logical and emotional. As Stuart Hirschberg wrote in his essay â€Å"The Rhetoric of Advertising†, â€Å"The most common manipulative techniques are designed to make consumers want to consume to satisfy deep-seated human drives. In purchasing a certain product, we are offered to create ourselves, our personality, and our relationships through consumption† (Hirschberg 229). Thus, we all become the targets of this form of persuasion that uses pathos, positive images, and/or deceptive language to influence our needs, interests, and decisions. The ad from Martha Stewart Living magazine shows its readers a new Honda CR-V automobile. Also, the company at the same time introduces its new campaign called the â€Å"Leap List† to the magazine’s primary audience that mostly consists of women ages 25 to 45. This campaign encourages people to make a list of the desired things they want to accomplish before the major event happens in their lives, such as the birth of their children. As we see, the ad is mostly aimed at younger consumers of the magazine who are looking for a better appearance of the car and new opportunities in their lives. The company offers to achieve these things with its new CR-V automobiles by using some of the aforementioned influential techniques, such as pathos, visual arts, deceptive claims, and weasel words in order to get viewers’ attention, establish credibility and trust, stimulate desires for the product, and the most important, motivate the audience to buy it. Pathos is the most powerful and effective tool in advertising. As stated by Hirschberg, â€Å"The emotional appeals in ads function exactly the way assumptions about value do in the written arguments. They supply the unstated major premise that supplies a rationale to persuade an audience that a particular product will meet one or another of several different kinds of needs† (Hirschberg 229). Due to the fact that human beings are initially emotional creatures who are more likely to be persuaded by emotions and feelings, and then rational by thinking and reacting, advertisers use both positive and negative emotional appeals to force and influence our minds. One of the ubiquitous emotional appeals in advertising is the use of the â€Å"you† word, which is supposed to address the message to each individual. In its ad, Honda uses the â€Å"you† word five times by making the ad more personalized and stressing consumers’ personal benefits from purchasing the company’s new car. In my opinion, Honda evokes positive as well as negative emotional appeals in its ad. There is an orange, bold title in the ad that says Before I have kids I want to and then there is an illustrated list of ten goals. It includes flying a plane, rock climbing, skyaking, sailing, running a marathon, learning to scuba, mountain-cycling, learning to pick the banjo, marching in a Mardi Gras parade, and taking up archery. As the viewer, I can say that this list catches my eyes because the goals in the ad are interesting and they make me feel enthusiastic and excited. In my opinion, Honda demonstrates our freedom and variety of opportunities that we can achieve by doing the things that we enjoy and like. After reading and seeing these examples, the audience starts to visualize its own desires and the ways of achieving their personal goals. The ad makes us feel motivated and excited about pursuing our dreams and wishes. On the other hand, the company persuades its readers to think and feel guilty of wasting their time and not achieving the things they want the most. That is why the company offers its all-new, 31-mpg-highway Honda CR-V that would deliver the potential buyers to wherever they want to go and whatever things they want to accomplish. In our modern world of technologies and computers, advertisers have recourse to artistic design, computer graphics, high-tech artistry, special effects, digital sounds, and computer animation that can help them to get various kinds of viewers’ attention. A study made by the University of Georgia has found that exposure to visual art in advertising, even if the exposure is fleeting, makes consumers evaluate products more positively. According to Henrik Hagtvedt, the artist and one of the researchers of this study, â€Å"Visual arts have historically been used as a tool for persuasion. It has been used to sell everything from religion to politics to spaghetti sauce to the artist’s image† (Hagtvedt). The same strategy can be observed in the Honda CR-V automobile ad that consists of many bright, positive images and bright colors. The color of the presented car is shiny Metallic Silver that typifies elegance, patience, modesty, and reliability. According to Pat Bertram’s article â€Å"What the Color of Your Car Says About You†, â€Å"People who drive silver vehicles have above average confidence about the course of their lives, and they also have consistent mood† (Bertram). Besides, this color is unisex and suits both females and males. Another visual attention-getting feature in the ad is tinted car windows. What is this for? In my opinion, advertisers make our eyes focused on the car itself rather than the interior or background and they try to accentuate the look of the vehicle. The tinted car implies the feeling of security and privacy that is becoming very popular in the modern society. Also, the direction of the car heading towards the illustrations of the goals from the Leap List emphasizes the company’s statement of helping viewers to achieve their aspirations. Another widespread element of reaching and influencing the audience is the use of weasel words and ambiguous language. Asking personal questions in ads shows us one of the deceptive techniques in language used in advertising. The question used in the Honda CR-V ad leaves its readers wondering about the answer. â€Å"What are you waiting for? † asks the ad, the question that viewers usually cannot answer. The tactic of asking the rhetorical question provokes curiosity and creates interests that make people think, desire, and visualize themselves having the product. Another kind of common deception in ads is the use of weasel words. The frequency of using the weasel words can be observed not only in politics but in advertising as well. According to Hirschberg, â€Å"Of all the techniques advertisers use to influence what people believe and how they spend their money, none is more basic than the use of so-called weasel words that retract the meaning of the words they are next to just as a weasel sucks the meat out of egg† (Hirschberg 232). As the target audience, we repeatedly see, read, or hear such weasel words as helps, free, virtually, like, new, as much as, faster, or better. These ambiguous words allow persuaders to say something without really saying anything and make us believe in the importance of purchasing their products. The ad in Martha Stewart Living magazine states that the company’s new technologically advanced, up-for-almost-anything new Honda CR-V automobile was built to help us check off every last item from our leap lists. By using the word â€Å"helps†, Honda offers a solution and aid to the consumers’ problems, but in reality the company promises nothing really concrete. So the word â€Å"helps† lets the companies escape from its supposed promises. At first sight, advertising seems to be relatively simple in structure, format, and availability, but its content and depth is complex. Hirschberg said, â€Å"Whether ads are presented as sources of information enabling the consumer to make educated choices between products or aim at offering memorable images or witty, thoughtful, or poetic copy, the underlying intent of all advertising is to persuade the specific audience† (Hirschberg 227). After reading â€Å"The Rhetoric of Advertising†, I learned that pathos is a very powerful and influential approach in advertising. I also started to analyze the details used in ads because all of them have different purposes. It is very helpful to know the techniques advertisers use to get our attention as well as the ways they apply the language and visualization. Personally, I started to pay more attention to colors that advertisers use in ads because each of these colors has its own definition and characteristic that can influence our perceptions of the images. As we may observe, advertisers do not waste any inch of the ad space on adding unnecessary information, but they also do not provide all specifics and features about their products. That is why, as the primary audience, we should be more skeptical and questionable of what we see and want to buy. In the ad created by Honda, we can see pathos, bright images, and claims that can attract the potential buyers’ attention. John O’Toole, the former president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, believed that the consumers should be at the center of the process, and that the only kind of language either verbal or nonverbal effectively persuades the consumers as an individual. As discussed earlier, disclosing people’s desires and making the personalized ad makes this Honda ad from Martha Stewart Living magazine more attractive and memorable to the viewers. Advertisers also used the persuasive language that we can observe in the ad in the forms of weasel words and question claims. Overall, I found this ad well made and interesting to analyze because it consists of different influential and persuasive techniques that we can determine after reading Stuart Hirschberg’s essay â€Å"The Rhetoric of Advertising. †

Baseball Stats

Appendix Data Set Howell and Huessy (1985) reported on a study of 386 children who had, and had not, exhibited symptoms of attention deficit disorder (ADD)—previously known as hyperkinesis or minimal brain dysfunction—during childhood. In 1965 teachers of all second-grade school children in a number of schools in northwestern Vermont were asked to complete a questionnaire for each of their students dealing with behaviors commonly associated with ADD.Questionnaires on these same children were again completed when the children were in the fourth and fifth grades and, for purposes of this data set only, those three scores were averaged to produce a score labeled ADDSC. The higher the score, the more ADD-like behaviors the child exhibited. At the end of ninth grade and again at the end of twelfth grade, information on the performances of these children was obtained from school records. These data offer the opportunity to examine questions about whether later behavior can be predicted from earlier behavior and to examine academically related variables and their interrelationships. A description of each variable follows. †¢ ADDSCAverage of three ADD-like behavior scores †¢ GENDER1 = male; 2 = female †¢ REPEAT1 = repeated at least one grade; 0 = did not repeat †¢ IQIQ obtained from a group-administered IQ test †¢ ENGLLevel of English in 9th grade: 1 = college prep; 2 = general; 3 = remedial †¢ ENGGGrade in English in 9th grade: 4 = A, etc. †¢ GPAGrade point average in 9th grade †¢ SOCPROBSocial problems in 9th grad: 1 = yes; 0 – no †¢ DROPOUT1 = dropped out before completing high school; 0 = did not drop out The data are available at http://www. uvm. du/~dhowell/fundamentals7/DataFiles/Add. dat ASRIEEGSD DEEQ NN P0R DX PGG AC O S EL G PP C A RO TOU BT 45 10111232. 6000 5010102232. 7500 4910108244. 0000 5510109222. 2500 3910118233. 0000 6811 79221. 6701 6911 88222. 2511 5610102243. 4000 5810105311. 3300 4810 92243. 5000 3410131243. 7500 5020104132. 6700 8510 83232. 7510 4910 84222. 0000 5110 85232. 7500 5310110222. 5000 3620121143. 5500 6220120232. 7500 4620100243. 5000 5020 94222. 7511 4720 89123. 000 5020 93243. 2500 4420128243. 3000 5020 84232. 7500 2920127143. 7500 4920106232. 7500 2610137233. 0000 8511 82321. 7511 5310106232. 7510 5310109221. 3300 7210 91220. 6700 3510111222. 2500 4210105221. 7500 3710118243. 2500 4610103321. 7500 4810101133. 0000 4610101333. 0000 4911 95233. 0000 6511108233. 2500 5210 95332. 2510 7511 98211. 0001 5810 82232. 5001 4320100133. 0000 6020100232. 4000 4310107122. 0000 5110 95222. 7500 7011 97232. 6711 6911 93222. 0000 6511 81122. 0000 6320 89221. 6700 4420111243. 0000 6121 95211. 5001 4020106243. 7500 6220 83310. 6700 5910 81221. 000 4720115144. 0000 5020112233. 0000 5020 92232. 3300 6520 85221. 7500 5420 95323. 0000 4420115243. 7500 6620 91242. 6711 3420107143. 5000 7420102200. 6700 5721 86332. 2500 6020 96133. 0010 3620114233. 5000 5010105221. 7 500 6010 82211. 0000 4510120233. 0000 5510 88211. 0001 4410 90132. 5000 5720 85232. 5000 3320106143. 7500 3020109143. 5000 6410 75321. 0010 4911 91232. 2500 7610 96221. 0000 4010108232. 5000 4810 86232. 7500 6510 98220. 7500 5010 99221. 3000 7010 95211. 2500 7810 88331. 5000 4410111223. 0000 4810103212. 0000 5210107222. 0000 4010118222. 5000

Overview of Learning Styles Essay

Learning is a very personal experience for every person individually, However, I had not realized the extent of how personal, learning actually is in reality. I was amazed each week as I learned about learning with personal Learning Patterns, how each pattern works, and how my use of each pattern affects not only the way I learn; but the way I work, perform tasks, and interact with others. I was blown away by the profound effects these Learning Patterns can have, both positively and negatively, if not used properly. Before this course, my definition of learning was very generic, stating that learning is integral to success and that one should strive to learn as much as possible. While I know that those statements and beliefs are true, I would now define learning as a very personal and individual process of acquiring information based on an individual’s personal learning patterns and how they obtain, retain, and apply that information. To someone who has not taken this course, I would explain that learning is actually easier, when they know how they learn as an individual. I would explain the 4 learning patterns with brief descriptions of each and a short example of how each one works, why they are important, and how they help in regards to learning and interacting with others, or performing specific tasks. I would let them know that when you learn using these patterns, you are learning with Intention, and Intentional learning brings out the best in them and in the successful completion of their goals and dreams! I have always loved learning and embrace it with an open mind and a willingness to absorb as much knowledge as I possibly can! My Learning Pattern scores are as follows†¦ Sequence- 26 Precision-31 Technical Reasoning-19 and Confluence-26 Typically, I have used Sequence, Precision, and Confluence frequently in my life in everything from being a parent, to work related issues and achieving goals. Although, until now, I did not realize my frequent use of these patterns. I have used Technical Reasoning at certain times as well, because these 4 patterns are actually meant to work together as a team, for individuals to achieve success in all that they do. However, most people use one or more patterns to a higher degree than others and avoid some patterns altogether; therein lies the problem of not knowing  about these patterns and how they work for you personally. When you know of these patterns and know your personal use of each pattern, you can direct them, or FIT them to work as the team they are meant to be! I have benefited greatly from this course. Some of the benefits I have realized are as follows†¦ I have learned to FIT, which is to Forge, Intensify, or Tether my learning patterns, in order to get the most beneficial, maximum result from my patterns. I have learned to Forge my Technical Reasoning, so that when working with computer tech type projects, that normall y would have highly frustrated me, now has become just another step toward the completion, and I am able to follow through with ease! I have also better developed my Sequence and Precision in the way that I approach and complete assignments. Before this course, I would just sit down and write the assignment, without consciously using my learning patterns. Now, I use Sequence and Precision to pre-write a draft, edit, and review my writing, as well as critically re-reading the assignment instructions, decoding it, and double checking to ensure that I have completed all the requirements, which also requires Technical Reasoning, I also use Confluence in a better, more intentional manner as well, by brainstorming topics and looking at the â€Å"Big Picture†. After reviewing my work piece by piece, I now look at the overall presentation to ensure that my assignment is connected properly and that each part ties to the other, and the complete picture is balanced. Although, I have enjoyed it, this course has also been challenging for me and these challenges have impacted me in a very profound way. One major challenge for me was learning to FIT my learning patterns. Because I am a Strong-willed Learner, with 3 Use First lea rning patterns, it is a challenge to Tether dominant patterns when needed. For instance, I need to consciously practice Tethering my Precision because I tend to be overly descriptive, as you might have noticed! Also, Forging my Technical Reasoning remains a challenge as well. But, I now have the strategies to be able to accomplish what challenges me. I now have the help of Decoding, Word Walls, and Personal Strategy Cards to help with challenges as well. And these strategies allow me to move forward with a strong confidence, which is backed by quality resources that help to propel my achievements toward success, without frustration, and I can progress smoothly and efficiently. As I write this last paragraph, and this course comes to it’s end, I  realize how much I have really enjoyed this course, and find myself a bit sad that is already over. I really enjoyed learning about myself and how I learn as an individual, and how others learn individually. I enjoyed how each week connected to the week before and brought you to the next, as the Course’s Confluence blossomed to the Big Picture like a beautiful lotus flower , opening to showcase it’s subtle perfection, this course quietly, yet greatly makes its profound impact upon me and has made positive changes in me that I will carry with me forever; and for that, I am extremely grateful and even more proud of my decision to obtain my degree. I had expected this course to be a good course and I was confident about learning in an online platform, However, this course has greatly exceeded my expectations in every way. From getting to know my fellow classmates as they shared their lives, challenges, and dreams; to our dedicated and knowledgeable instructor who gives feedback in a very positive, understanding, and nonjudgmental way, to the confidence I have now because of the strategies I now have the option to use. I am very happy to have taken this course and I will use the beneficial knowledge I have gained from it, to obtain my degree, have success in my career, and live my life†¦ With Focused Intention!!!!

Midnight Journal Entry

The Midnight Journal Entry Anne T. Lawrence, San Jose State University On an overcast afternoon in Portland, Oregon, on Friday, March 28, 2003, Richard Okumoto intently studied a set of hard-copy accounting documents called â€Å"adjusting journal entries† spread out on his desk. He had been appointed chief financial officer (CFO) of Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (ESI), a multi-million dollar equipment manufacturer, just a few weeks earlier. Okumoto was in the midst of closing the company’s books for the third quarter of fiscal year 2003, which ended February 28.An experienced executive who had served as CFO for several other technology firms, Okumoto was familiar with the task, which normally would be routine. But this time, he felt that something was seriously amiss. When reviewing the company’s recent results, he had noticed a sharp dip in accrued liabilities between the two quarters ending May 31 (the last quarter of the 2002 fiscal year) and August 31 (the first quarter of the current fiscal year).Now, looking at the detailed journal entries his staff had provided, he noticed that several significant accounting entries had been made around midnight on September 12, 2002. The entries made that September evening had significantly changed the company’s results for the quarter ending August 31, 2002, a few days before they were reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He later recalled: The fact that the time stamps [on the journal entries] were midnight through one o’clock in the morning made me believe they were having difficulties closing the quarter.Not just because of accounting difficulties, but because they were having difficulties finding the right answers. My initial reaction was, even given a difficult quarterly close, if the team was working that late at night, that wasn’t typical. From the pass codes required by the accounting software, Okumoto could see who had made the entries. They inclu ded James Dooley, then the company’s acting chief operating officer and now the CEO, the corporate controller, and several senior members of the finance team. One midnight journal entry in particular drew the new CFO’s attention.The late-night team had wiped out an accrued liability of $977,000 associated with the anticipated cost of retirement and severance benefits to company employees in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. That entry, and several smaller ones, all of which were favorable to net income, had the cumulative effect of permitting the company to report earnings of $0. 01 per share for the quarter ending August 31, 2002, rather than a loss. When he realized that, Okumoto recalled, he felt â€Å"a sinking feeling in my gut. † He asked himself, â€Å"What happened here? At that time of night?All of the changes in a single direction? What’s going on? † He was sure something was not right. RICHARD OKUMOTO Born in 1952, Richard Okumoto was raised wit h his four siblings in a Japanese-American family in a low-income, African-American neighborhood that bordered the Pepper Street Projects of Pasadena, California. He explained how his parents’ experiences had shaped their outlook: My parents grew up during the depression years. Dad farmed with relatives, and Mom grew up tending 3,000 chickens on a three-acre ranch in Gardena, California.Shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese, my parents were relocated under Executive Order 9066 [under which persons of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast were sent to relocation camps during World War II]. They met and married in a relocation camp. During their incarceration, their families could not make their payments. Dad and his relatives lost their land, and Mom’s parents lost their chicken ranch. After those experiences, my father was committed to having no debt. He built our family home in 1955, with the idea of paying off the loan in eight years.In 1962, Okumotoâ⠂¬â„¢s father, who worked as a gardener, landscaper, and salesman of Japanese mutual funds, was disabled in a serious auto accident. Fortunately, by then, he had almost paid off the loan on their home, so the family was able to survive financially. After the accident, Okumoto’s mother took a job cleaning homes to help support her five children. Okumoto described his relationship with his mother: She and I had an especially close bond. Shortly before my dad’s accident, both her parents had died. I was the one who supported her through a very difficult year.As a result, she always treated me differently from the other kids—almost like an adult. The Okumoto family’s financial situation after the accident was difficult. Okumoto had vivid memories of how they coped: Money was very short. We had to account for every penny. Every week, my mother wrote down in a leather-bound journal everything she earned and everything we spent in the household, down to the penn y. Every week, from the time I was ten years old, she went through that with me. We lived on a cash basis. There was no credit card, no second mortgage.In that situation, budgeting became extremely important. Her comment to me was, â€Å"You can’t complain [about what you don’t have] unless you understand what’s happening. † Those were her ground rules. He added this comment about his mother’s values: The ethics of doing the right thing become very important, because that’s really all you have. [My mother] instilled in me at an early age, regardless of what else you do, always take the high road, always do the right thing. That has influenced me throughout my career.After high school, Okumoto attended San Jose State University, where he completed an undergraduate degree in accounting in 1974 and attended the MBA program from1975 to 1978. He soon embarked on a highly successful career in finance. Over the next two-and-a-half decades, he held increasingly responsible roles at a number of high-technology companies in the Silicon Valley, including Fairchild Semiconductor, Novellus Systems, Measurex, Credence Systems, and Photon Dynamics. Okumoto admired a number of managers he had worked for, who had set high professional and ethical standards for him and his co-workers.He felt fortunate to have had three exceptional mentors: Woody Spedden, the CEO of Credence Systems; Jim Hefferman, his boss at Fairchild and later at Measurex; and Don Waite, the CFO at Measurex who later took over that position at Seagate Technologies. â€Å"All three individuals upheld the highest integrity,† Okumoto recalled. â€Å"Aside from the technical training I received from them, I got a strong ethical grounding. They would always tell me to ask myself—what are your obligations to others? † ELECTRO SCIENTIFIC INDUSTRIES, INC. Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. ESI), the company that Okumoto joined as CFO in early 2003, was t he second-largest technology company in Oregon, trailing only Tektronix in size. Based in Portland, the company was founded in 1944 as Brown Engineering to make test and measurement equipment. As technology evolved, so did the company’s products. In the 1960s, the firm—by then called ESI—moved into lasers, and later developed applications of laser technology for the emerging semiconductor industry. ESI went public on the NASDAQ exchange in 1983. In 2003, ESI’s core business was providing precision production equipment to electronics firms.The company manufactured equipment that was used in the production of a wide range of electronics products, such as computers, cellular phones, home entertainment systems, automotive electronics, electronic games, and personal digital devices. Its products included advanced laser systems, test equipment, and packaging systems, among others. The company’s customers included many leading electronics firms, including AMD, Ericsson, IBM, Samsung, Hitachi, Flextronics, Honeywell, and Lucent. Seventy percent of ESI’s sales were outside the United States, mainly in Asia and Europe.The company owned and operated manufacturing facilities in Portland and Klamath Falls, Oregon, and in Escondido, California, and operated sales offices in many countries. In 2002, it employed 875 people and reported sales revenue of $167 million (down from $472 million the prior year). Like many firms in the electronics industry, ESI was badly battered by the economic downturn that began in 2001. After achieving record sales and income in the fiscal year ending May 31, 2001, the company’s financial results declined precipitously in FY 2002, as shown in Exhibit A.Sales and profits had continued to decline in the first half of FY 2003. Exhibit A: Electro Scientific Industries, Selected Sales and Income Data, 1998-2002 | 1998| 1999| 2000| 2001| 2002| Net sales| 252,134| 197,118| 299,419| 471,853| 166,545| Net i ncome (loss)| 22,347| 7,528| 40,860| 99,933| (15,961)| Net income (loss) per share| 0. 89| 0. 29| 1. 55| 3. 71| (0. 58)| Data refer to fiscal years ending May 31. All data are given in thousands of dollars, except per share data. Source: ESI 2002 Annual Report. The company noted in its 2002 annual report:In fiscal year 2002, ESI weathered the worst downturn in the electronics industry in over 30 years†¦We are conducting a thorough review of our overall market strategy as well as product line strategies to assure that they will generate significant shareholder returns over the inevitable cycles in our industry. To cut costs, the company initiated a shutdown of its Escondido facility, consolidating its operations in Portland. It divested several underperforming lines of business and sought to invest in areas it saw as promising through partnerships and, potentially, acquisitions.It also informally explored a merger with another firm in southern California. In early 2002, Don VanL uvanee, the company’s long-time CEO, suffered a stroke and was no longer able to serve. The board appointed David Bolender, the former CEO of Protocol Systems and a director since 1988, to step in as acting CEO until it could find a permanent replacement. At that time, the board also elevated James Dooley, who had been serving as the firm’s chief financial officer, to the role of acting chief operating officer to run the company’s day-to-day affairs.In December 2002, the board promoted Dooley to the position of chief executive officer, and Bolender became chairman of the board. (Executives and directors of ESI named in the case, and their positions, are summarized in Exhibit B. ) [Exhibit B should appear about here; it is at the end of the file. ] CLOSING THE QUARTER Shortly after Dooley became CEO, Okumoto was recruited as chief financial officer. He started work on February 17, 2003. I was excited about the job. I thought it might be my last one in the industr y. The company, management, and employees—all had a long history of stability.To me, it was another walk down the path of hard work, a fresh chance to apply my skills in strategic planning and execution as well as to implement the new Sarbanes-Oxley compliance rules. His first task was to prepare for the FY 2003 third quarter close. In reviewing the company’s books for the past several quarters, he soon noticed a sharp downward spike in the balance of accrued liabilities. He noted that fact for further investigation. In addition to closing the quarter, several other items required Okumoto’s attention.Just one week into his new job, on February 24, he got an email from John (â€Å"Jack†) Isselmann, Jr. , the general counsel, asking him to forward to the manager of the Japanese office, Mike Tetsui, a set of revised work rules (terms of employment) for ESI’s Japanese employees. As a newcomer, Okumoto knew little of the background or why he had been as ked to do this, but complied with the general counsel’s request, sending on to the Japanese office manager the revised work rules. Okumoto received the following reply from Tetsui on March 2: I have read the proposed work rule and found no section of [sic] retirement fund.I do not know what is the intention of removing that section, but it is a huge impact on each employee we have†¦I do not think I can get concents [sic] from [ESI’s Japanese] employees without reasonable change in retirement benefit. Please let me know how you would like me to proceed. Okumoto recalled: My first response was, â€Å"uh-oh. † There was a big disconnect between what I had been told and Mike’s reply. I had assumed that the Japanese had already been informed of the cancellation of their retirement benefits and agreed to the changes. It was clear they had not.In a prior job at Novellus Systems, Okumoto had set up that company’s Japanese operations, and he was aware that Japanese work rules were normally filed with the government. Regulators were very strict about altering any documented benefits. Accordingly, Okumoto believed that ESI was obligated to pay benefits that had been promised to employees, and he told Isselmann this. Okumoto also expressed the opinion that employees, if dissatisfied with the revised rules, could take the matter before the Japanese labor board, and that this would be a â€Å"quantifiable event† that would have to be recorded on the books as a liability.Isselmann responded that he was unfamiliar with Japanese law. On March 4, Okumoto spoke with CEO James Dooley about his concerns that the reversal of benefits for Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese employees might expose ESI to litigation, and this could affect the accounting treatment of the event. Dooley strongly disagreed. Okumoto recalled: He told me that everything had been cleared with everyone. He said there was full information. There was full disclosure. H e emphasized that KPMG [ESI’s external auditor], the company’s own legal staff, and the board had all signed off on it. He said I should â€Å"just get past it. Okumoto was concerned about this conversation, particularly because the CEO seemed so defensive. On March 11, Okumoto met again with Dooley, this time to discuss Okumoto’s upcoming presentation to the audit committee. The new CFO recommended that the company delay announcing its third quarter earnings and restate its first and second quarter earnings to report correctly the $977,000 in liabilities associated with the anticipated cost of retirement benefits for its Asian employees. Okumoto explained his view that not reporting these liabilities had violated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.At that point, Okumoto recalled, Dooley became visibly upset. The CEO—all six feet-six inches and 280 pounds of him—turned an angry red and told me again to just get past this. That’s when I knew that this was going to be swept under the rug. It was clear I was not part of the club. Then Jim said, â€Å"If I’ve got to reverse this entry, I’ll quit. † THE â€Å"MOFO† MEMORANDUM On March 13, Okumoto attended a meeting of the board of directors’ audit committee. Also present at that meeting, in addition to the audit committee members, were Dooley, Isselmann, and several senior managers.At the meeting, Okumoto recommended that the company’s financial statements for the previous two quarters be restated, and that it hire an independent accounting firm to conduct an audit of the Asian benefits issue. Dooley countered that everyone had been fully informed of the reversal and had â€Å"bought off† on it. The audit committee declined Okumoto’s suggestion that an independent accounting firm be brought in, but it did direct Barry Harmon (formerly ESI’s CFO and a member of the audit committee), Okumoto, and Isselmann to lead an internal investigation into the matter.After the audit committee meeting, Isselmann came into the CFO’s office. Okumoto recalled: He closed the door and just broke down. He told me that after the benefits reversal in September he had asked MoFo [Morrison Foerster, an outside law firm on retainer to ESI] to review its legality. MoFo had advised it was illegal to cancel the retirement benefits without employee consent. He said he had immediately shown the memo to Dooley, who had brow-beat him, intimidated him, and essentially boxed him into a corner. I believed this, because in one meeting I actually saw Jim stand up and tower over Jack, who was only 5 feet-6.I watched Jim almost physically overtake him. Jack was a young guy, pretty inexperienced, and his job at ESI was his first in the industry. On his way out, Isselmann handed Okumoto some documents. From the documents, Okumoto learned that on October 3, 2002, Isselmann had written MoFo, asking for an opinion on wh ether or not it would be legal for the company to terminate the Asian employees’ retirement benefits unilaterally. In his letter, Isselmann had pointed out that the rules had been distributed to employees but had not been submitted to the relevant government agency.On October 7, Toshihiro So, a Japanese labor and employment attorney affiliated with Morrison Foerster, responded to Isselmann’s request. The MoFo memo, now in Okumoto’s hands, read in part: Retirement allowances are not a legal requirement [in Japan]. However, once the company agrees to pay retirement allowances in Rules of Employment (even though they have not been submitted to the relevant government agency), the company is obliged to pay them in accordance with the Rules and cannot remove them at the company’s discretion.According to Japanese case laws, as a general rule, †¦the deprivation of previously acquired rights by newly drawn up or changed work rules are [sic] not permittedâ₠¬ ¦[It] is required that before changing the work rules, the company should hear and consider the opinion of the related employees. Okumoto was shocked. â€Å"This is the smoking gun,† he thought. Investigating further, Okumoto learned that although private employers in Japan were not obligated to pay retirement benefits, doing so was considered a good industry practice, and since 1981 ESI had offered such a benefit to its employees there.Under the rules of employment established for ESI’s employees in Japan, any employee (except executives) who chose to retire after reaching the voluntary retirement age of 60 would be entitled to a â€Å"retirement allowance† of one month’s pay per year of service—in effect, a one-time severance payment. Workers who were involuntarily terminated and the estates of any workers who died before reaching the age of 60 were also entitled to this benefit. Similar rules were in effect for the company’s workers in Korea and Taiwan. At the time, ESI had 18 employees in Japan, 13 in Korea, and 23 in Taiwan, mostly in sales and customer support roles.On March 14, Okumoto called an â€Å"all hands† meeting to disclose his initial findings and discuss a path forward. Present at the meeting were Dooley, Isselmann, Harmon, and several other senior managers. The CFO asked directly if there had been full disclosure and review of all material facts with respect to the accrual reversal. Dooley confirmed that everything had been disclosed. Okumoto did not mention the MoFo memo, thinking that Dooley’s response indicated that he must have already disclosed it to KPMG and the audit committee. On March 20, Okumoto spoke by telephone with Mike Tetsui.The Japanese manager told the CFO that the employees had not yet been told that their retirement benefits had been terminated, and he—Tetsui—would resign before he would tell them that news, which he expected would be devastating. â₠¬Å"As head of the group,† Tetsui told Okumoto, â€Å"I will fall on my sword. † On March 21, Okumoto met again with Dooley to press him on how the reversal had happened. Dooley was initially â€Å"combative. † As the conversation went on, however, he â€Å"let his guard down† and began talking about what had happened on the night of September 12.As Okumoto recalled the conversation: Jim told me that he had sent a financial packet to the board of directors prior to their meeting on September 13. After he had distributed the packet, but before the meeting, he was contacted by KPMG, who told him there had been an error in the company’s calculations of its overhead costs, so the financial statements distributed to the board were incorrect. ESI’s reportable earnings were suddenly much less than they thought, by as much as a million dollars.Jim said this was particularly important because the company was in informal merger discussions with a compan y in southern California. Then he said, â€Å"No one was helping me, so I had to help myself. † When Jim made that comment, my first thought was, he was looking for revenue. He was hunting for credits. He was looking to manipulate earnings. That was a definite red flag. Okumoto walked out of Dooley’s office stunned. He called his staff together and asked them to assemble any documentation they had on accounting entries on or around September 12.He also began talking with the members of the finance team who had participated in the late-night meeting with Dooley and learned that a number of people on the finance staff had questioned the benefits reversal, but had not brought it forward. This was consistent with a negative tone at the top. I would almost characterize it as bullying. That’s one reason why no one stepped forward. That tone at the top created an environment where people really couldn’t speak out. It’s important to look at the people. Ità ¢â‚¬â„¢s similar to qualitative research. We all do that intuitively.When I looked at the body language of a lot of the people involved—the cost accountants, the financial analysts—it became apparent to me that they were scared. They knew something was wrong, and they wanted to say something, but something held them back. They reminded me of beaten animals. Growing up in the neighborhood I did, I knew what fear looked like. As part of his further investigation, Okumoto independently approached the audit team from KPMG. They told him Dooley had informed them that the company had received a legal opinion that the reversal was appropriate, and they had deemed that information sufficient.Okumoto observed: KPMG was new on the account, which they picked up after the collapse of Arthur Andersen. They didn’t have deep familiarity with it. They did not have all the information. Some of the partners were new. On March 28, a week after he had requested the relevant account ing entries for September 12, his staff finally produced the complete documentation for that date. Now, drilling down into the details, he saw the full scope of the midnight journal entries—and who had made them. WEIGHING THE RISKS Over the weekend, Okumoto considered his next moves. None of the ndividuals and groups from whom he had sought support—the CEO, the general counsel, or the auditors—seemed to share his concern about the seriousness of the issue. The audit committee had shown some interest, but had turned down his recommendation to bring in independent auditors and seemed to believe the matter could be handled internally. Okumoto was losing sleep, worrying constantly about what—if any—additional steps he should take. He had tried to warn the key players. From all, he had received the same message: We don’t see this as a serious problem. Let it go.Okumoto realized the risks of escalating the issue further. He was earning a base sala ry of $250,000, with the possibility of a 100 percent performance bonus. He reflected: I certainly realized the risks. I knew that if I brought this forward, there was a strong likelihood that I would either lose my job, or I would be in an environment where it would be difficult to operate, so I would have to leave. The idea also occurred to him that â€Å"I can leverage this for more money and stock if I look the other way. Plus, I can become invaluable to the company with this dirt.I can immediately become part of the established inside club. † He had also recently signed a contract to purchase a home in the nearby community of Lake Oswego, and wondered how he would make good on that commitment if he lost his job. However, he felt reasonably secure financially. Following the example of his parents, Okumoto had worked hard to avoid debt and to save for adverse times. He reflected: One of the first things I ask friends who are or would like to be CFOs or general managers, wh ere risks such as this can jeopardize their careers, is: Are you financially secure enough to make good decisions?Because if you aren’t, I can count on the fact that you will make bad decisions when times of adversity hit. We all talk about the value of making good decisions, but as we all know, life creeps in. There are economic commitments, family commitments, and people are sometimes moved to do the wrong thing. As the old adage goes, hire your sales people so they are hungry enough to get the deal done. Hire your finance people so they are not hungry enough to do the wrong thing. He added: Fortunately, I was financially in a position where I could afford to leave if t came to that. I was single, so I figured the only person I had to protect was myself. He also had a network of friends in the area he felt he could turn to for support. I had a number of friends in the Portland area, having worked there earlier. My prior company had a division of about 1000 employees in the area. Of these, 500 had worked directly for me. It might have been a false sense of security, but I felt I had a pretty good infrastructure of people that I knew. By this time, Okumoto was also becoming concerned about his personal safety.Several times, he received anonymous messages on his home answering machine. At the time, he was living temporarily in corporate housing while he shopped for a home, and he felt he was particularly visible there. But, he added that he was not easily intimidated. I felt that I could take care of myself. I had faced a lot worse threats than this one. As a teenager, I was robbed at gunpoint. I was stabbed in the back and left for dead. I was beaten so badly that my eyes were swollen shut. I grew up around a lot of physical violence. Although Okumoto saw risks in taking action, he also saw risks in inaction.He commented: I was concerned about my own legal liability if I did not take action. From the point of view of the DOJ [Department of Justice] and SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission], if you don’t fix the problem, you become the problem. I had potential legal risk. As Okumoto pondered the risks of both action and inaction, he reflected on the board of directors and what kind of response he might expect if he approached them directly. (See Exhibit C for a list of members of the board. ) [Exhibit C should appear about here; it is at the end of the file. ] Dooley was the only insider on the board.There were some old timers on the board—like Barry Harmon, who had earlier been CFO at ESI. But there were also a fair number of independents. Even though I was new at the company, I had a prior relationship with two of the directors. Jerry Taylor, the former CFO at Applied Materials, was a member of the audit committee. Jerry and I had worked together 25 years earlier at Fairchild. So, I had a long-standing relationship with him. Jon Tompkins, the former CEO of KLA-Tencor, was also on the board. I had known Jon from T encor days, where he had interviewed me for the CFO position.As he contemplated his next move, Okumoto thought back to an experience earlier in his career. As he told the story: I had been in a situation before where I hadn’t spoken up. I had been a CFO for another public company. I was in a situation in which I had questions on some of the accounting. But it was close enough, and I was concerned that I didn’t have enough evidence to support my reservations. I had only been with the company three months. Within four months, we had a major revenue shortfall. At that time, I made the decision not to try to cover up the revenue shortfall.But, because we had not called it to the attention of analysts earlier, we lost the confidence of the Street. At that point, the CEO and I both resigned. I made a decision then that if I ever again saw something that was close, I would act much faster. He also thought about his mother’s admonition always to do the right thing, and the advice of his mentors, who had counseled him always to ask the question—what are your obligations to others? Exhibit B: Executives and Directors of Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. Named in the Case and Their Positions (Listed in Order of Mention)Richard OkumotoChief Financial Officer (CFO) James T. â€Å"Jim† DooleyActing Chief Operating Officer (COO), early 2002 – December 2002 Chief Executive Officer (CEO), December 2002 – Don VanLuvaneeFormer CEO David F. BolenderActing CEO, early 2002 – December 2002 Chairman of the Board, December 2002 – John â€Å"Jack† Isselmann, Jr. General Counsel Mike TetsuiManager, Japanese Office Barry L. Harmon Former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Director and Member of the Audit Committee Gerald F. â€Å"Jerry† TaylorDirector and Member of the Audit Committee Jon D. TompkinsDirectorExhibit C: Members of the Board of Directors, ESI Inc. , March 2003 David F. Bolender, Chairman of the Board Chairman of the Board and CEO (retired), Protocol Systems, Inc. ; President of Pacific Power and Light Co. (retired) James T. Dooley, Chief Executive Officer Barry L. Harmon (member of the Audit Committee) Senior Vice President (retired), Avocet Corp. ; formerly, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ESI Keith L. Thomson Vice President (retired), Intel Corp. ; Chair of the Board of Trustees, University of Oregon Foundation Jon D. TompkinsCEO and Chairman of the Board (retired), KLA-Tencor Corp. ; President and CEO of Spectra-Physics (retired) Vernon B. Ryles, Jr. President and CEO (retired), Poppers Supply Co. Gerald F. Taylor (member of the Audit Committee) Chief Financial Officer (retired), Applied Materials W. Arthur Porter (Chairman of the Audit Committee) Dean of the College of Engineering, University of Oklahoma Larry L. Hansen Executive Vice President (retired), Tylan General, Inc. —————————— ————– [ 2 ]. Copyright  © 2012 by the Case Research Journal and Anne T. Lawrence.The author developed this case to provide a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either the effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. An earlier version of this case was presented at NACRA’s annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, October 2011. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Richard Okumoto and the thoughtful comments of the editor, Deborah Ettington, and three anonymous reviewers. [ 3 ]. In 2002, average annual salaries for ESI employees were $68,000 in Japan, $27,000 in Korea, and $38,000 in Taiwan (in U. S. dollars).