Pop Culture’s Influence on Dating Essay

What’s the best part about dating? The rush of getting to know a new person? The hope that it will lead to something more lasting? For some people it’s the dream to find their true love and have them sweep them off their feet. For others it’s finding a person who doesn’t mind a more casual relationship. Most of the time, they return home only to think about what might have happened if their life went as well as the scripted ones they watch all of the time. They wish that they had a team of writers planning the next move in their romantic lives, and had award winning actors take on their role in life. These people have become victims of the modern age in dating. Be it movies, television, or books, pop culture has helped men and women set unrealistic expectations for dating and romance. We all know that the silver screen puts the rose-colored glasses over romance, but it is how they portray dating in many different genres that is really skewed. Horror movies are expected to end badly, and it is no exception for dating in this movie style. Typically the young couple are terrorized on a date by some knife-wielding maniac out for revenge. That can lead to many assumptions, depending on how the movie ended. If the couple was killed during the course of the film, then it can be concluded that the good die young. But if they both survive (and there isn’t a sequel haunting them) then people may start to believe that true love is formed by going through a traumatic experience with someone. Often times in Horror films, the couple goes out to get some privacy, only to find themselves the killer’s first victims. Not many people get the wrong idea about dating from Horror movies, granted, but what about the plucky love interest for everyone’s favorite Superheros? Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, Pepper Potts, Peggy Carter, Lois Lane, and Jane Foster to name a few. These women have made a name for themselves by being charmed by Superheros. Their men (Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, Superman, and Thor, respectively) are either super strong, super smart, an alien, or any combination of the three. If that d oesn’t give people the wrong idea about romance, then the writers aren’t doing their job. The strong, but constantly endangered, women are intelligent and attractive, leading the â€Å"hero† in the audience to long for the power to fly in and save them from any and all perilous situations. With people wanting a hero, and heroes waiting for their fem fatal, no one is going to make it out of this dating game alive. Superpowers aside, perhaps the most disillusioning movie genre is the Romantic Comedy. Quirky but lovable characters are thrust together in strange situations and they always come out of it with the love of their life. This genre has capitalized on the nice-guy finally getting the girl, the best friends realizing that they were made for each other, and fairy tale endings that warm the audience’s hearts. Men and women alike are fans of the Romantic Comedy, in part because they’re designed that way; the actresses are all attractive or funny, the actors are both, and the script is written for both men and women. Whether or not they admit to it, everyone enjoys a good â€Å"rom-com† after a long day of disappointment, and why not? The protagonist always comes out on top, and there’s always that one great date following all of the duds. For as long as they’ve been around, movies have helped the public set impossible goals for dating, but then television came along and sped up the process. From play dates to wedding dates, television has given a â€Å"Step-by-Step† guide to dating, particularly in shows such as Boy Meets World, Friends, and How I Met Your Mother. In Boy Meets World the viewers watched as Cory Matthews grew up, fell in love, and lived his life. Cory’s â€Å"love-of-his-life† was Tapanga Lawrence, a girl that he started calling his wife in Pre-School. Their relationship went through rough patches, but someone always knew that it was meant to be. The idea that one can meet (and keep) their first love from their childhood days is almost as improbable as thinking that Superheros can swoop in and save the day. Against all odds Cory and Tapanga actually survive dating through High School, and marriage in College. Young children are taught through weekly episodes that true love can be found on the playground, and that while it is imperfect, it is eternal. Boy Meets World was a family oriented show, but what about the shows that were geared more towards the working adult? Friends was a television sitcom that followed the lives of six friends. Viewers watched as their favorite friend fell in and out of love. Rachel and Ross had an on-again, off-again relationship that confused everyone, including the actors. Their relationship was based on attraction but the way they treated each other was, at times, cruel. This couple was volatile at best, and a running joke for viewers; â€Å"Are Ross and Rachel together this week?† Another couple in the show occurred later on in the series, and provides a foil to Ross and Rachel. Chandler and Monica’s relationship was built on friendship and as such was more stable. They were the fun couple who’s lines were joking and who always put the other first. The show was casual with its approach to dating, with non-regular characters coming and going throughout the series. Other shows were not as simple. Soap Operas fall in line with the over-dramatization of romance and dating, and there are many shows that focus on finding love. How I Met Your Mother is literally the drawn out retelling of how Ted Mosby found the mother of his children. These shows, while entertaining and sometimes informative, tell men and women that their true love can be found in everyday places such as work, at a coffee shop, or even on the playground. Television is guilty of helping with today’s dating misconceptions, however the biggest offender is literature by far. â€Å"Bodice Rippers† may not be the only things leading to unrealistic ideas about love; everything from Shakespeare to the Teen Romance section in today’s book stores share some of the blame. Romeo and Juliet is perhaps the most well-known romance story of all time. The main characters are teenagers who pledge their love to each other, despite being from warring families. They kill themselves for love that they think is forever but, historically had they lived and been allowed to marry, one of the lovers would have had an affair or died of natural causes early on in their marriage. Poetry of that time was romantic and well written as well. It really is a pit y that most of those poems were written about love affairs with already married people. They spoke of undeniable attraction, and how they really shouldn’t be denying themselves the love of the other person. Romance novels from later centuries tell readers about an odd sensation of love-at-first-sight. â€Å"Our eyes met, and I knew right then and there that we were meant to be together forever.† This idea is the drug of romance novels, it is what gets readers hooked and coming back for more. People have spent countless hours pouring over books with lines like that acting as major plot devices. Most readers swoon over the muscled heroes, dreaming of being in the heroine’s place. Teen Romance novels take this idea and make it even more impossible. They write in supernatural beings for the awkward teenager to fall in love with. Even if they take away the fantasy element, at heart the stories are improbable. For the most part, teenagers in High School don’t know what romantic love is (or if they do, it is never forever). Teen Romance novels teach teenagers that the love of their life is waiting for them in their Biology class, is the partner on a History assignment, or is the loner who they see in the library everyday. Teenagers who read these books get the idea that they can find a true love in the hormone-ridden home of disappointment that is High School. Escaping the real world by reading isn’t bad, but letting the fiction influence the thought process never ended well for anyone. Pop culture isn’t inherently evil, but when it comes to dating and romance, it is probably best to stop drawing parallels with real life. Movies, books, and literature are supposed to be used as ways to escape reality, not as guidelines for how to live. It would be a little ridiculous to put disclaimers before movies, shows, and books reading â€Å"Warning: Relationships portrayed in this are fictional, and not based on real life† but it’s starting to feel necessary. Not every story has a happy ending, and even those who do aren’t forever. If the public could just learn to stop accepting pop culture as gospel, stop looking for their soul mate where they â€Å"never would have expected†, then the dating world would be a better place. A place where true love doesn’t mean a love against all odds, but a love that is real. Real love is when a couple can get into arguments, be mad at each other and that isn’t the end of the relationship; when it isn’t all rainbows and roses but they’re happy with each other. No one wants to watch a movie about that, but then again, no one wants to watch a baby being born and they film â€Å"the miracle of life† every day. Maybe if more movies, TV shows, and books were realistic, more people would enjoy dating.

Individuation Process Essay

* Individuation process the process of beeing aware of oneself and the way to discover one’s true, inner self. * According to jung:The ego. This is the conscious mind. * The personal unconscious. This includes forgotten or suppressed memories from our own personal lives. * The collective unconscious. This is shared by all people. It is the collective memory of human thought and experience, from ancient to modern times. This includes the basic human instincts and the archetypes. * The Self is that what we are in essence. In psychological terms, it includes the conscious, the unconscious, and the ego. The Self is the central archetype in the collective unconscious, Archetypes The collective unconscious is shared by us all. This means that it is present in each of us, a vast reservoir of the archetypes of the whole of humanity. It is accessible to everyone. The collective unconscious consists of characteristics that many people have in common and which each of us inherit at birth. The content of the archetype is basically unconscious. It undergoes a transformation when it becomes conscious or when it is being perceived. An archetype is experienced as image and as emotion. It is especially recognizable in such typical and important human situations as birth and death, adolescence, extreme fear or a fearful experience. During such life phases and experiences archetypes will often appear clearly in dreams Archetypes cannot be brushed aside. They will always manifest. Individuation Individuation means that one becomes a person, an individual, a totally integrated personality. It is a process of self realization during which one integrates those contents of the psyche that have the ability to become conscious. It is a search for totality. It is an experience that could be formulated as the discovery of the divine in yourself, or the discovery of the totality of your Self. This does not always happen without pain, but it is necessary to accept many things that normally we would shy away from. Once a person has accepted the contents of his unconsciousness and has reached the goal of the individuation process, he is conscious of his relationships with everything that lives, with the entire cosmos. The individuation process begins with becoming conscious of the Persona, the mask we take on in our every day life. After this we become conscious of the Shadow, the repressed characteristics of the ego. Then we become conscious of the Anima, the inner woman in each man, or the Animus, the inner man in each woman. Then the image of the old wise man, or the old wise mother appears, after which the experience of the Self happens. The shadows The Shadow is all those uncivilized desires and emotions that are incompatible with the norms of society and with our ideal personality. It is all we are ashamed of, that we do not wish to be. when confronted with yhe shadow we feel guilt and shame for the parts of ourselves which we keek hidden. The Anima is the female aspect present in every man. Another anima trick is pseudo-intellectual dialogs which prevents a man from feeling life closely and coming to real decisions. He thinks so much about life that he cannot live, and he losses all spontaneity and the flow of life. The dark aspect will most likely appear when a man has suppressed or underestimated his female nature, treating women with contempt or carelessness. The Animus The animus in women is the counterpart of the anima in men. Like the anima, the animus has three roots: the collective image of a man that a woman acquires, her own experiences with men in her life, and the latent male principle in herself. The Old Wise Man The old wise man appears in the form of king, hero, medicine man, savior, magician, saint, ruler over man and spirits, God’s closest friend and so on. This archetype is a real danger for the personality, because once it has been aroused, a man can easily believe that he possesses ‘mana’, real magical power, and wisdom. He who is possessed by this archetype believes he is gifted with great (maybe esoteric) wisdom, prophetic gifts, the ability to heal and so on. Such a man can gather followers, as he has entered the unconscious way further than anybody else. The archetype has a fascinating power, intuitively felt by people and not easily resisted. They are fascinated by what he is saying, but after analysis it is often not intelligent. The power of the old wise man can be destructive as it forces a man to act above his power and capacity. He does not posses the wisdom he claims. In reality it is the voice of the unconscious that should be subjected to criticism and analysis. The Great Mother In a woman the archetype of the great mother acts in a similar way to the old wise man in a man. Any woman possessed by this archetype, believes that she is gifted with an unlimited capacity to love and to understand, to help and to protect, and she will exhaust herself in service to others. The archetype can be destructive when the woman is fixated on the belief that anybody within her sphere of influence are ‘her children† and therefore they are helpless or dependent on her.

A Votre Sante Teaching Note Essay Example for Free

A Votre Sante Teaching Note Essay ? Additionally, the case questions require both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the business issues faced by AVS. AVS has been used in a graduate-level managerial accounting class for MBAs, and would be most appropriate for an advanced undergraduate or a graduate-level accounting or MBA course. The detail in the case is rich enough to support a variety of analyses. Alternative uses could be to have the student construct a cost of goods manufactured statement or a traditional financial statement, both of which reinforce the differences between product and period costs. Additionally, alternative decision analysis questions could be developed using the variable and fixed cost structures described in the case. Case question number two is only one example of a potential decision analysis question. The contribution margin income statement (Teaching Note Exhibit 1) is fairly straightforward, with the following concepts or calculations causing the most difficulty: The inclusion of liquor taxes and sales commissions in variable costs: These are both period expenses, but are clearly based upon the number of bottles sold, and therefore are included in the variable costs. Where to include the wine master expense: Since the wine master is paid according to number of blends, not number of bottles, this expense is listed as a fixed cost. Arguably, it could be listed as a variable cost, given that the cost will be based on the number of wines produced. As part of the discussion we will examine the rationale behind listing wine master as a fixed or a variable expense. Barrel expense: The case states that the barrels produce the equivalent of 40 cases of wine. A case of wine is post-fermentation/bottling and therefore after the 10% loss has occurred. The barrels contain the wine at the start of the process. Therefore, there have to be enough barrels to hold all the wine at the beginning of the process, not at the end. This factor results in 63 (62.5) barrels being required for the harvest2. Teaching Note Exhibit 1: Contribution Margin Income Statement Part b asks, â€Å"What is the maximum amount that AVS would pay to buy an additional pound of Chardonnay grapes?† There are three parts to calculating this answer: the benefit from the additional Chardonnay wine to be sold, the relevant costs related to producing this wine and the opportunity cost of not producing as much Blanc de Blanc wine. Teaching Note: Exhibit 2 displays the calculations relevant to this decision. Chardonnay regular wine requires a 2 to 1 mixture of Chardonnay and generic white grapes. Therefore, the 18,000 pounds of Chardonnay grapes will be combined with 9,000 pounds of generic white grapes. The 27,000 pounds of grapes will result in an additional 9,000 bottles of new Chardonnay regular wine being produced. However, it will also result in a 3,000-bottle decrease in the amount of Blanc de Blanc wine produced, since some generic grapes will now be used for the Chardonnay-regular wine. Recall that only Chardonnay wine is processed in barrels. A Votre Sante Teaching Note. (2016, May 31).

24hrs Urinary Urea Nitrogen Practical Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

24hrs Urinary Urea Nitrogen Practical - Essay Example For example, a patient with a pathologically low blood pressure develops diminished urine flow. Nitrogen balance involves comparing nitrogen intake from foods and fluids with nitrogen excretion. Thus, nitrogen balance provides the clinician with an index of protein catabolism and a basis for assessing the adequacy of protein intake (Skipper, 1995; p. 86). In order to determine the nitrogen balance for each student in the group, data on the protein intake of these students must be acquired (Barakat et al., 2009) and inputed into the following formula: The dietary protein intake is best measured if the individual follows a standardized diet, that is, all the food that the individual eats must be measured before consumption, and duplicate meals must be prepared and analyzed for their nitrogen content (Manore et al., 2009; pp. 112-113). A minimum daily protein requirement is needed by the body to maintain its structural proteins, visceral proteins and immune competence. Conversely, when the body encounters certain stresses, its proteins also suffer level discrepancies. For example, starvation needs a progressive selection of fat as body fuel. Muscles stop utilizing glucose as soon as a meal is over and instead, fatty acids are used (Cahill, 1976). Ketoacid levels in blood become elevated over the first week, and the brain preferentially uses these instead of glucose. The net effect is to spare protein even further, as the brain further decreases the rate of using glucose. Nevertheless, there is still net negative nitrogen balance, but this can be nullified by amino acid or protein supplementation. In addition, protein kinetics are known to be accelerated in severe trauma. In fact, critically ill patients with major trauma demonstrate catabolism resulting in a net loss of body mass. Thus, the patient loses more nitrogen than is provided from nitrogen / protein sources (Wiliams & Shchlenker, 2003). The literature has varying ranges for the 24 hr UUN

Media News Versus You Tube Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Media News Versus You Tube - Essay Example The images posted on this site by the soldiers have made most Americans believe that the war on Iraq was not worth the loss of US lives. They need a full picture of Iraq to see what the gain is for that loss of life but the restrictions on media coverage do not allow this. The news media has been around for a very long time whereas, YouTube, the popular free video hosting website founded in February 2005, began its humble beginnings in a garage and offered the public a preview of the site in May 2005. And just six months later, YouTube made its official debut. Although this is an extremely large and popular site, it has met with much criticism. Videos filmed by amateur first gained popularity during the terrorist attacks on London subways and buses last summer, when traditional news organizations as well as informal websites utilized the photos and images supplied by witnesses. Now it is estimated that 100 million clips are viewed on YouTube daily and 65,000 videos uploaded every 24 hours. According to Nielsen/Netratings, the site has almost 20 million visitors each month, out of which around 44% are female, 56% male, while the most dominant age group is 12-17. Websites like YouTube, true to its motto, "broadcast yourself" allows people referring to them as "citizen journalists" to upload their own videos on an infinite array of subjects and has enabled anyone with a video camera or cell phone, live action films or written reports on news events. In relation to the Iraq war, the streamline media gives optimism to the viewers and shows the brighter side of the war, while the stories told by American soldiers in their homemade videos uploaded on this website, present a different picture. Beyond the philosophical dimensions of the global television communications, it is a close-up medium which readily involves emotions and is most effective in revealing the plights of the people. But troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan are hearing the message that they should carefully consider before they upload any videos on the website. As opposed to controlled media, YouTube has given access to the citizen journalists to provide first hand accounts of major events even though they are less journalism than the raw material generated by amateurs, which a skilled and trained journalist should know how to weigh, analyze, describe and explain. Therefore, one cannot deny the fact that to treat an amateur as equally credible as a professional, would be to erode the line between raw material and finished product. Many people believe that editorial gate keeping is a form of censorship if not mind control, and the explosion of the internet; giving the notion that 'information wants to be free' has made traditional journalism a ready target. To its proponents, citizen journalism represents a democratization of media and a shattering power of the unelected elite as it not only challenges the notion of journalism in journalism, but completely circumvents it. But there are people who are of the view that however wrapped in idealism, citizen journalism forms part of a larger attempt to degrade, even to disenfranchise journalism as practiced by trained professionals. However, there is no question that the soldier behind the

The effects of competitive sports on young minds Essay

The effects of competitive sports on young minds - Essay Example It is claimed that almost dramatic prevalence of organized or competitive sports in the US holds potential threat to children on multiple levels especially those aged between six and twelve. The article also contemplates how whenever there is an element of competition in a game or huge stress is placed by parents or coaches on young participants on winning it, unpleasant consequences occur. This is because many children feel unduly beleaguered during or after the game but unfortunately for them, they have to hide their true emotions from overenthusiastic elders who want them to act as remarkable child prodigies and outperform everyone else on the field by exerting themselves incessantly. However, discussion presented in this essay challenges the argument of Statsky and is meant to convince the readers that â€Å"children who have remained engaged in competitive sports activities since early age turn out to be more enthusiastic when playing games as adults later compared to those who are never encouraged to participate in demanding sports.† Despite Statsky’s argument that organized games like Little League Baseball and Peewee Football place huge burden on children because they incorporate adult standards, the fact worth considering is that it is smart activities like these which motivate many youngsters to shine not just in sports but in every other field of life. Children learn on this platform what it is like to defeat others on grounds of perseverance, bravery, spirit, and confidence. The importance of teamwork is inculcated in their minds and they learn how to treasure and defend their teams. They learn to appreciate how good teamwork lays the foundation of solidarity and success. In contrast to Statsky’s insistence that competitive pattern of sports can negatively influence both mental and physical development of children, attention should be directed at the enthralling assortment of valuable lessons which children take with them to the ir homes. If any negative consequences at all are associated with competitive sports, curbing such activities in the first place is definitely not an answer as promoted by Statsky. Rather people need to realize that any harmful influence exerted on children is not because of the games they play but parents or coaches are to be blamed for that. The authoress is right when she says that sometimes children participating in games like football are afraid to disappoint their mentors because of the looming prospect of harsh criticism. This explains why under such circumstances they try to continue the game despite not enjoying it or despite unusual strain exerted on their developing muscles. It is sadly true that some parents are principally interested in only thwarting other parents and their children and so they excessively pressurize their child to go all the way through to win the game. However, what needs to be done in this area is not arguing against the nature of competitive sports but insisting on regulating behaviors of parents, coaches, and children who participate in these games. Parents and instructors should be counseled about being more tolerant and children should be encouraged to say no to orders they find intimidating or impossible. Sports participation should not be colored in dark demeaning colors by media and journalists, rather poor adult behaviors need to be modified. Statsky defends her argument by claiming that many competitive sports activities often stimulate children to play in accordance with adult standards which understandably push them beyond their limits. This sort of strategic thinking behind competitive sports management is neither appropriate nor beneficial for children. Likewise, contemporary research recognizes that there is always a risk factor in any

Ethical reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ethical reflection - Essay Example Although it is unclear with respect to whether or not one or both of the twins could have survived if more timely action had taken place, it is affirmatively clear that the likelihood of one of the twins surviving could have been maximized if the hospital had the potential to perform the abortion when it was immediately required. Sadly, because of the ethical interpretation that such institutions hold onto, a baseline of help that would have been available to the patient was non-existent; further restricting the potential resources and means of address that this particular situation required. A further ethical reflection reveals the fact that even though an element of the Hippocratic Oath requires the medical professional to do no harm, they are also required to address the healthcare needs and promote life whenever possible. As can be seen, these two requirements of the Hippocratic oath, into conflict with one another with regards to the case in question. Rather than abandoning the Hippocratic Oath and attempting to forge and new ethical consideration that could address the situation at hand, it must be understood that the unique case represents a situation in which definitive action must be taken as a means of preserving the potential life that existed within the womb (Raghavan 1). By refusing the act in a time of need, the ethical burden is not only on the hospital and its staff with respect to not performing the abortion in conjunction with the parent’s wishes, it is also at fault for seeing the situation, prescribing a solution scenario, and then not addressi ng this scenario in the correct way. A further level of understanding and ethical analysis can be had with respect to the fact that the medical professionals intimately knew what was required in order for one of the fetuses to have a chance at viability; however, due to

Marketing Campaign Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing Campaign - Case Study Example Furthermore, it does not sacrifice the other wonders and advancements of car technology such as the optional Bluetooth capabilities or the option to include an input jack, so you can directly input whatever music you want to listen to while you drive around. It's your car, make it clean, make it affordable, and make it run well. That's a Toyota. For this marketing campaign we have chosen to specifically target men. We believe that this vehicle is already quite popular amongst women. However the gender gap is pretty big, and we need to find a way to market to more male customers. We are going to base the whole marketing technique around sex appeal, sports appeal, and make it so the Prius strongly appeals to the male population to increase our targeted sales. We are going to try to include as many groups, including marketing to all age groups of men, and to include people from every finical bracket. Already, TV ads are going to be geared towards the younger 18-35 audiences and older male audiences(35+), but both of those groups will be targeted by the sex appeal marketing plan. In addition, we are also going to cast people of many different races into the advertisements, so we can increase the appeal of this product to a more diverse group of customers. People connect best with people who are similar to them, this is why we also make sure to include all racial demographics. We are currently working on finding several celebrities to star in these ads, and are awaiting the results of which celebrities are most popular amongst the different age demographics that we have set aside for the male gender. We will be using male, as well as female actors, and intend to use attractive models to incorporate sex appeal into the marketing plan. Sex sells, everybody knows it, and if we could get a babe behind the wheel of a Prius or on a commercial, we would be golden. We have come up with a temporary draft of a man driving a Prius, with a hot girl, and then a man driving another model stuck with an ugly girl. This idea is just a rough draft and sample of one of the TV ads that may be implemented and used. The first wave of our campaign is going to be Internet based. We have joined with several huge advertising agencies to run online ads containing the Prius and the new Prius girls, a group of extremely attractive girls all swooning over the car, as they would in the first commercial idea. The ads will be run on companies such as Yahoo and Google, and we are currently looking into spreading these ads to popular sports sites to properly target the male demographic on the Internet, such as ESPN and Sports Net. The next campaign for our advertising is going to be TV, which will probably be the biggest force of our advertising. We have come up with several ad ideas and are in discussions with several popular rappers to try to appear in some of our commercials. We are also hoping to get several foot ball stars, basketball stars, baseball stars, and, of course, plenty of attractive women. We need to make the Prius sexy, because if men think the Prius is sexy they are going to purchase it. Men want sex appeal and if they think driving a Prius will help them have more sex appeal, then they will be more inclined to buy one. We are going to run these ads on the major networks, including EPSN, Comedy Central, FOX, ABC, Spike TV and CBS. In

International Political Economy &Islamic Factor of Central Asia Essay

International Political Economy &Islamic Factor of Central Asia - Essay Example For example, Belarus has been able to advance the trade with Central Asia especially larly Kazakhstan. This was made possible by the high integration level within the economy of Russia. On the other hand, Ukraine has been promoted by the Turkmen and Uzbek governments as a way of escaping from the dominance of Russian and as a Europe opening. The Guam (anti-Russssian institution designed for fostering of the strategic) and the economical alliances between Ukraine Georgia Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan is not efficient to alter the regional balance. Besides, the chapter demonstrates a failing in the Caspian unity which included the south Caucasus and Central Asia. The growth in the connectivity and the cooperation of the Central Asia is discussed at length in the chapter. Aspects like the regional leadership Uzbek-Kazakh Competition are also highlighted. In this chapter, the author discussed the structural Agricultural sector trends. In central Asia Kazakhstan is one special case in terms of the level of agriculture. The whole republic was displayed as a key driver of the Soviet development of Agriculture, especially as a result of the Virgin campaign lands that were launched in the year 1954 by the Khrushchev. The campaign of the virgin lands facilitated the Kazakhstan Agriculture to an extent where it made over 20 percent of the whole land. The Kazakh republic made exports worth ten million tons of wheat in 1980. They also made over 300,000 tons of meat whose revenues were made up of a third of the GDP. The other produce were not of great relevance to the Soviet scale despite being relevant on the local level. The southern section of the republic cultivated cotton and rice. To date, the country is in possession of two hundred and twenty two million hectares farmland, most of which is used for pasture. This is about 85 percent of t he

Ibrahim Pasha Essay Example for Free

Ibrahim Pasha Essay Ibrahim Pasha makes the sculpturer he found make a sculpture of himself. Kanuni gets very angry with Ibrahim pahsa because of this disrespect of him and doesn’t share his feelings about this with anyone. But later on he shares his feelings with Ibrahim pahsa. As a result of this , he wants to resign since he is afraid of Kanuni’s anger. Then, Ibrahim pahsa comes back to the palace to pick his belongings from his servants. Ibrahim Pasha’s wife Hatice Sultan asks why he is going, whether he will come back to the palace or not. But he doesnt want to say anything about the situation despite of her insists then he leaves. Hatice Sultan has a nightmare, her nightmare is that: her husband is killed by Kanuni and the head of her wife is in a sack on the table . When she wakes up, she cries and goes to the salon; she opens the sack and sees the head of Ibrahim Pasha’s sculpture. She thinks her husband has been killed. Then, she goes to her Kanuni’s palace and asks him whether her husband has been killed or not. Kanuni says he is okay, nevertheless she doesn’t believe. Later, Mustafa leaded on his aunt and she went to her mothers room. When Valide Sultan saw Hatice Sultan, she went to speak with her son for this situation and she teaches that Ibrahim Pasche was well . Later; she mentioned this situation to her sister. I think this part was the resolution of this episode. At the same time, Ibrahim Pasche was together with his twin brother and he confessed that he didnt love Hatice Sultan and he loved Nigar.

The Electronic Electrical Engineering Engineering Essay

The Electronic Electrical Engineering Engineering Essay Electronic electrical engineering incorporated with mechanical system has a big impact in a variety of field, such as biomedical, underwater vehicle, safety and security, space and etc. Before we actually start discussing the benefits and advantages that electronic and electrical engineering gives us in our everyday life, lets have some insights of the history of electronic engineering. Electronic engineering as a profession sprang from technological improvements in the  telegraph  industry in the late 1800s and the  radio  and the  telephone  industries in the early 1900s. People were attracted to radio by the technical fascination it inspired, first in receiving and then in transmitting. Many who went into broadcasting in the 1920s were only amateurs in the period before  World War I. The modern discipline of electronic engineering was to a large extent born out of telephone, radio, and  television  equipment development and the large amount of electronic systems development during  World War II  of  radar,  sonar, communication systems, and advanced munitions and weapon systems. In the interwar years, the subject was known as  radio engineering  and it was only in the late 1950s that the term  electronic engineering  started to emerge. In underwater, electronic and electrical engineering is doing a paramount job in the development of underwater vehicle technology, such as submarine, remotely operated underwater vehicle, and more significantly, automated underwater vehicle. An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) is a robotic device that is driven through the water by a propulsion system, controlled and piloted by an onboard computer, and maneuverable in three dimensions. This level of control, under most environmental conditions, permits the vehicle to follow precise preprogrammed trajectories wherever and whenever required. Sensors on board the AUV sample the ocean as the AUV moves through it, providing the ability to make both spatial and time series measurements. Sensor data collected by an AUV is automatically geospatially and temporally referenced and normally of superior quality. Multiple vehicle surveys increase productivity, can insure adequate temporal and spatial sampling, and provide a means of investigat ing the coherence of the ocean in time and space. The fact that an AUV is normally moving does not prevent it from also serving as a Lagrangian, or quasi Eulerian, platform. This mode of operation may be achieved by programming the vehicle to stop thrusting and float passively at a specific depth or density layer in the sea, or to actively loiter near a desired location. AUVs may also be programmed to swim at a constant pressure or altitude or to vary their depth and/or heading as they move through the water, so that undulating sea saw survey patterns covering both vertical and/or horizontal swaths may be formed. AUVs are also well suited to perform long linear transects, sea sawing through the water as they go, or traveling at a constant pressure. They also provide a highly productive means of performing seafloor surveys using acoustic or optical imaging systems. When compared to other Lagrangian platforms, AUVs become the tools of choice as the need for control and sensor power increases. The AUVs advantage in this area is achieved at the expense of endurance, which for an AUV is typically on the order of 8- 50 hours. Most vehicles can vary their velocity between 0.5 and 2.5 m/s. The optimum speed and the corresponding greatest range of the vehicle occur when its hotel load (all required power except propulsion) is twice the propulsive load. For most vehicles, this occurs at a velocity near 1.5 m/s. The degree of autonomy of the robot presents an interesting dichotomy. Total autonomy does not provide the user with any feedback on the vehicles progress or health, nor does it provide a means of controlling or redirecting the vehicle during a mission. It does, however, free the user to perform other tasks, thereby greatly reducing operational costs, as long as the vehicle and the operator meet at their duly appointed times at the end of the mission. For some missions, total autonomy may be the only choice; in other cases when the vehicle is performing a routine mission, it may be the preferable mode of operation. Bidirectional acoustic, radio frequency, and satellite based communications systems offer the capability to monitor and redirect AUV missions worldwide from a ship or from land. For this reason, semi-autonomous operations offer distinct advantages over fully autonomous operations. In the outset of development of AUV, AUVs have been used for a limited number of tasks dictated by the technology available. With the development of more advanced processing capabilities and high yield power supplies, AUVs are now being used for more and more tasks with roles and missions constantly evolving. Its application covers a variety of field, such as in commercial, military, research, as well as hobby. In the commercial side, the oil and gas industry employs AUVs to sketch out detailed maps of the seafloor before they start building subsea infrastructure; pipelines and subsea completions can be installed in the most cost effective manner with minimum disruption to the environment. The AUV allows survey companies to conduct precise surveys or areas where traditional bathymetric surveys would be less effective or too costly. Also, post-lay pipe surveys are now possible. Whereas in the military field, AUV does play an important role as a typical military mission for an AUV is t o map an area to determine if there are any mines, or to monitor a protected area (such as a harbor) for new unidentified objects. AUVs are also employed in anti-submarine warfare, to aid in the detection of manned submarines. Apart from that, scientists use AUVs to study lakes, the ocean, and the ocean floor. A variety of sensors can be affixed to AUVs to measure the concentration of various elements or compounds, the absorption or reflection of light, and the presence of microscopic life. Sensors, the primarily oceanographic tools, AUVs carry sensors to navigate autonomously and map features of the ocean. Typical sensors used by AUV include  compasses, depth sensor, side scan and other sonar, magnetometers,  thermistors  and conductivity probes.  One of the most conspicuous contributions of electrical and electronic engineering incorporated with mechanical system is the navigation of AUV. AUVs can navigate using an  underwater acoustic positioning system. An  Underwater Acoustic Positioning System  is a system for the tracking and navigation of underwater vehicles or divers by means of acoustic distance and/or direction measurements, and subsequent position triangulation. Underwater Acoustic Positioning Systems are commonly used in a wide variety of underwater work, including oil and gas exploration,  ocean sciences, salvage operations,  marine archeology, law enforcement and military activities. Basically, there are three broad types or classes that can be categorized in underwater acoustic positioning system. The first one is Long Baseline (LBL) Systems:  Long baseline systems, use a sea-floor baseline transponder network. The transponders are typically mounted in the corners of the operations site. LBL systems yield very high accuracy of generally better than 1 m and sometimes as good as 0.01m along with very robust positions. This is due to the fact that the transponders are installed in the reference frame of the work site itself (i.e. on the sea floor), the wide transponder spacing results in an ideal geometry for position computations, and the LBL system operates without an acoustic path to the (potentially distant) sea surface. Acoustic positioning systems measure positions relative to a framework of  baseline stations, which must be deployed prior to operations. In the case of a  long baseline (LBL)  system, a set of three or more baseline transponders are de ployed on the sea floor. The location of the baseline transponders either  relative to each other  or in global  must then be measured precisely. Some systems assist this task with an automated  acoustic self-survey, and in other cases  GPS  is used to establish the position of each baseline transponder as it is deployed or after deployment. When a surface reference such as a support ship is available,  ultra-short baseline  (USBL) or  short-baseline (SBL)  positioning is used to calculate where the subsea vehicle is relative to the known (GPS) position of the surface craft by means of acoustic range and bearing measurements. USBL systems and the related super short baseline (SSBL) systems rely on a small (ex. 230  mm across), tightly which is installed either on the side or in some cases on the bottom of a surface vessel. Unlike LBL and SBL systems, which determine position by measuring multiple distances, the USBL transducer array is used to measure the target  distance  from the transducer pole by using signal run time, and the target  direction  by measuring the  phase shift  of the reply signal as seen by the individual elements of the transducer array. The combination of distance and direction fixes the position of the tracked target relative to the surface vessel. Additional sensors including GPS, a gyro or electronic compass and a vertical reference unit are then used to compensate for the changing position and orientation (pitch, roll, and bearing) of the surface vessel and its transducer pole. USBL systems offer the advantage of not requiring a sea floor transponder array. The disadvantage is that positioning accuracy and robustness is not as good as for LBL systems. The reason is that the fixed angle resolved by a USBL system translates to a larger position error at greater distance. Also, the multiple sensors needed for the USBL transducer pole position and orientation compensation each introduce additional errors. Finally, the non-uniformity of the underwater acoustic environment cause signal refractions and reflections that have a greater impact on USBL positioning than is the case for the LBL geometry integrated transducer array that is typically mounted on the bottom end of a strong, rigid transducer pole. In the other hand short baseline systems use a baseline consisting of three or more individual sonar transducers that are connected by wire to a central control box. Accuracy depends on transducer spacing and mounting method. When a wider spacing is employed as when working from a large working barge or when operating from a dock or other fixed platform, the performance can be similar to LBL systems. When operating from a small boat where transducer spacing is tight, accuracy is reduced. Like USBL systems, SBL systems are frequently mounted on boats and ships, but specialized modes of deployment are common too. For example, the  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  uses a SBL system to position the  Jason  deep-ocean ROV relative to its associated MEDEA depressor weight with a reported accuracy of 9  cm. Besides, GPS Intelligent Buoys (GIB) is also employed in AUV navigation; the systems are inverted LBL devices where the transducers are replaced by floating buoys, self-po sitioned by GPS. The tracked position is calculated in real time at the surface from the Time-Of-Arrival (TOAs) of the acoustic signals sent by the underwater device, and acquired by the buoys. Such configuration allows fast, calibration-free deployment with accuracy similar to LBL systems. At the opposite of LBL, SBL or USBL systems, GIB systems use one-way acoustic signals from the emitter to the buoys, making it less sensible to surface or wall reflections. GIB systems are used to track AUVs, torpedoes, or divers, may be used to localize airplanes black-boxes, and may be used to determine the impact coordinates of inert or live weapons for weapon testing and training purposes. In recent years, several trends in underwater acoustic positioning have emerged. One is the introduction of compound systems such the combination of LBL and USBL in a so-called LUSBL configuration to enhance performance. These systems are generally used in the offshore oil gas sector and other high-end applications. Another trend is the introduction of compact, task optimized systems for a variety of specialized purposes. For example the California Department of Fish and Game  commissioned a system, which continually measures the opening area and geometry of a fish sampling net during a trawl. That information helps the department improve the accuracy of their fish stock assessments in the  Sacramento River Delta. Hundreds of different AUVs have been designed over the past 50 or so years, but only a few companies sell vehicles in any significant numbers. Vehicles range in size from man portable lightweight AUVs to large diameter vehicles of over 10 meters length. Once popular amongst the military and commercial sectors, the smaller vehicles are now losing popularity. It has been widely accepted by commercial organizations that to achieve the ranges and endurances required to optimize the efficiencies of operating AUVs a larger vehicle is required. However, smaller, lightweight and less expensive AUVs are still common as a budget option for universities. Some manufacturers have benefited from domestic government sponsorship including Bluefin and Kongsberg. The market is effectively split into three areas: scientific (including universities and research agencies), commercial offshore (oil and gas etc.) and military application (mine countermeasures, battle space preparation). The majority of these roles utilizes a similar design and operates in a cruise mode. They collect data while following a preplanned route at speeds between 1 and 4 knots. Commercially available AUVs include various designs such as the small REMUS 100 AUV developed by  Wood Holes Oceanographic Institution in the US. Most AUVs follow the traditional torpedo shape as this is seen as the best compromise between size, usable volume, hydrodynamic efficiency and ease of handling. There are some vehicles that make use of a modular design, enabling components to be changed easily by the operators.   The market is evolving and designs are now following commercial requirements rather than being purely developmental. The next stage is likely to be a hybrid AUV/ROV that is capable of surveys and light intervention tasks. This requires more control and the ability to hover. Again, the market will be driven by financial requirements and the aim to save money and expensive ship time. Today, while most AUVs are capable of unsupervised missions most operators remain within range of acoustic telemetry systems in order to maintain a close watch on their investment. This is not always possible. For example, Canada has recently taken delivery of two AUVs (ISE Explorers) to survey the sea floor underneath the Arctic ice in support of their claim under Article 76 of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. Also, ultra-low-power, long-range variants such as  underwater gliders  are becoming capable of operating unattended for weeks or months in littoral and open ocean areas, per iodically relaying data by satellite to shore, before returning to be picked up.

Coexistence of Contrary States in Blake’s The Tyger Essay -- Blake Tyg

Coexistence of Contrary States in Blake’s The Tyger Since the two hundred years that William Blake has composed his seminal poem "The Tyger", critics and readers alike have attempted to interpret its burning question - "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" Perhaps best embodying the spirit of Blake’s Songs of Experience, the tiger is the poetic counterpart to the Lamb of Innocence from Blake’s previous work, Songs of Innocence. Manifest in "The Tyger" is the key to understanding its identity and man’s conception of God, while ultimately serving to confront the reader with a powerful source of sublimity which reveals insight on Blake’s ideal union and coexistence of the two contrary states. The most significant underlying ideology of William Blake’s poetry is his essential psychomachia - the "contrary states", as Blake himself calls them. The work in which "The Tyger" and "The Lamb" appear distinctly states Blake’s purpose in a preface: "Shewing the two contrary states of the human soul." In "The Lamb", a basic question and an answer are given. The poem is a catechism (Miner 62). The simplistic and comfortable resolution purposely has no doubt or ambiguity surrounding its initial message of love, tranquility, Jesus Christ, and above all, innocence. The speaker sees God in terms he can understand - gentle and kind and very much like us (Reinhart 25). A tremendous void is clearly apparent. The poem’s straightforwardness leaves the reader with a discomforting feeling of the need for a more sophisticated perspective on the relationship between maker and humanity. This instinctual need for a contrary state gives birth to the tiger. The tiger’s imagery is astonishingly vivid. The beast "burning bright" with "fire" indicates ... ...d the Age of Revolution. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965. Erdman, David V. "Blake: The Historical Approach." William Blake. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. Miner, Paul. "’The Tyger’: Genesis & Evolution in the Poetry of William Blake." Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Jane Kelly Kosek. Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1995. 59-64. Natoli, Joseph. "William Blake." Notable Poets. Ed. G.E. Bentley. New York: Gale Research Inc., 1995. 79-95. Paley, Morton. "Tyger of Wrath." Twentieth Century Interpretations of Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Ed. Morton D. Paley. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969. 68-92 Raine, Kathleen. William Blake. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 1969. Reinhart, Charles. "William Blake." DLB. Ed. John R. Greenfield. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1990. Vol. 93. 23-25.

The Strengths and Weaknesses of the DSM-IV Classification System for Di

The Strengths and Weaknesses of the DSM-IV Classification System for Diagnosing Psychopathology Introduction: DSM-IV as a system of diagnosis has been criticised on its very foundation that far from improving the clinical practice it claims to have prioritised. To assess its strengths and weaknesses, the essay critically examined the purpose of DSM-IV and how its practice and techniques have been practically found useful. As in the definition offered by Allen (1998) the concept stands for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition. As a system, Allen (1998) added that, it ‘details the diagnostic criteria for nearly 300 mental disorders and nearly 100 other psychological conditions’. Stressing its strengths, many studies highlighted on its research focus that its authors have over-concentrated on its reliability which further led to its criticism. This criticism among other thing include the neglect some of the issues concerning clinicians, lack of precision in of its criteria, and bias that emanate from the technique that predetermine the patients di sorders. The essay, however, have survey literature based on the various issues raised as to its weakness and how these weakness to be overcome. Given the last points, comparative studies conducted on improvement measures to the clinical practices are examined. There are considerable issues to highlight in evaluating strengths and limitations of using DSM-IV as a method for diagnosing psychopathology. These are its emphasis on reliability and validity of it diagnostic criteria and classification methods and techniques. The strengths and limitations in the application of DSM-IV, as could be observed, depend on the technique and the purposes th... ...tent/full/156/11/1677 [accessed on 24th/11/2010] Ronald, C (2006), ‘Clinical calibrations of DSM-IV Diagnoses in the World Mental Health (WMH) Version of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI)’. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, Vol. 13/2. Samuel, D. B. and Widiger, T. A. (2006), ‘Clinicians’ Judgements of Clinical Utility: A Comparison of the DSM-IV and Five-Factor Models’. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 115/5. [Accessed on: 25/11/2010] Semiz UB, Basoglu C, Oner O, Munir KM, Ates A, Algul A, Ebrinc S, Cetin M. (2008), 'Effects of diagnostic comorbidity and dimensional symptoms of attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder in men with antisocial personality disorder'. Aust N Z J Psychiatry, 42(5):405-13. Online: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18473259 [accessed on: 24/11/2010]

Skills Required for Effective Time Management Essay -- essays research

Time management is a key essential that ensures any working environment runs efficiently and smoothly, without it there is no structure to your working day. If time management can be mastered then your workload can be achieved successfully. In this essay I will examine a number of the skills required for effective time management. Planning is of the utmost importance in time management, without it we don?t have a clear vision of what needs to be achieved and within what time frame. It is therefore vital that this is the first step, and in order to ensure you cover all areas that require your attention. Planning Planning your day or week can be daunting to many people. Some managers are born to it and some will struggle. To prevent or reduce stress within the office environment planning is essential. It can be categorised as short, medium or long term. Short term can be classed as a day or week, while medium is normally weeks leading to a few months. Long term tends to be several months perhaps leading to a year. So the first and obvious step is to put a time frame in place, and ensure that you use planning aids to mark your progress. Planning aids come in various forms. Diary?s and wall charts are very useful, especially for ?at a glance? scheduling, and will assist the manger during the normal working day. Diaries are a good start as they come in various styles e.g. day to a page or week to a page, the latter I prefer as it gives me an oversight as to what?s happening during the week. Wall charts again come in various designs and display the whole year. Colour coding the days wit h the relevant colour key can at an instance enable you to see the overall picture, and can also be used in conjunction with your dia... ...and are clearly taken for granted is e-mail and the telephone. E-mails can be set up to be received in various colours to indicate your superiors or colleagues. E-mails should only be looked at first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon, this prevents you being distracted and allows you to concentrate on the goal in hand. Telephone calls can be a nuisance if not controlled. Go straight to the point and if possible inform the caller of any time constraints. If feasible an answer machine can be utilised so you can filter out those unimportant calls, of course a message on the answer machine rather than an automated reply is more user friendly. In conclusion time management is a very important tool for modern day managers. With it managers can ensure efficiency is at the highest level with continual improvements with in any office or organisation.

Chapter 1 Course Notes

Financial Accounting Theory and Analysis 10e Chapter 1 – The Development of Accounting Theory What is Theory? Webster defines theory as â€Å"Systematically organized knowledge, applicable in a relatively wide variety of circumstances; a system of assumptions, accepted principles and rules of procedure to analyze, predict or otherwise explain the nature of behavior of a specified set of phenomena. † Why is the development of a general theory of accounting important?The development of a general theory of accounting is because of the role accounting plays in our economic society. We live in a capitalistic society which is characterized by a self-regulated market that operates through the forces of supply and demand. What is the relationship of accounting research to accounting theory? The goal of accounting theory is to provide a set of principles and relationships that explains observed practices and predicts unobserved practices.That is, accounting theory should be able to explain why companies elect certain accounting methods over others and should enable users to predict the attributes of firms that elect various accounting methods. And as in other disciplines, accounting theory should also be verifiable through accounting research. Accounting research is needed to attain a more general theory of accounting, and in this regard the various theories of accounting that have been posited must be subjected to verification. The Early History of AccountingZenon Papyri * Accounting records have been found to date back several thousand years in various parts of the world. Discovered in 1915, the Zenon Papyri contained information Apollonius private estate for a period of about 30 years concerning construction projects, agricultural activities, and business operations during the 3rd century B. C. According to Hain, this â€Å"surprisingly elaborate accounting system† was used in Greece since the fi fth century B. C. â€Å"Zenon’s accounting system contained provisions for esponsibility accounting, a written record of all transactions, a personal account for wages paid to employees, inventory records, and a record of asset acquisitions and disposals. In addition, there is evidence that all the accounts were audited. † The Impact of the Renaissance * It wasn’t until approximately 1300-1500 the need arose for more accurate records due to the Italians merchants vigoursly pursing trade and commerce. Italian merchants borrowed Arabic numeral system and the basis of arithmetic and an evolving trend toward the present double entry book keeping system developed. In 1494 an Italian monk, Fra Luca Pacioli, wrote a book on arithmetic that included a description of double-entry bookkeeping. Pacioli’s work, Summa de Arithmetica Geometria Proportioniet Proportionalita, did not fully describe double-entry bookkeeping; rather, it formalized the practices and ideas that had been evolving over the years. Double-entry bookkeeping enabled business organizations to keep complete records of transactions and ultimately resulted in the ability to prepare financial statements. The evolution of joint ventures into ongoing businessesAs ongoing business organizations replaced isolated ventures, it became necessary to develop accounting records and reports that reflected a continuing investment of capital employed in various ways and to periodically summarize the results of activities. By the nineteenth century, bookkeeping expanded into accounting, and the concept that the owner’s original contribution, plus or minus profits or losses, indicated net worth emerged. However, profit was considered an increase in assets from any source, as the concepts of cost and income were yet to be developed.Another factor that influenced the development of accounting during the nineteenth century was the evolution in England of joint ventures into business corporations. Under the corporate form of business, owner s (stockholders) may not be management. Thus many individuals, external to the business itself, needed information about the corporation’s activities. Moreover, owners and prospective owners wanted to evaluate whether stockholder investments have yielded a return.As a consequence, the emerging existence of corporations created a need for periodic reporting as well as a need to distinguish between capital and income. The impact of the industrial revolution and the progressive movement The industrial revolution and the succession of the Companies Acts in England also increased the need for professional standards and accountants. In the later part of the nineteenth century, the industrial revolution arrived in the United States, bringing the need for more formal accounting procedures and standards. Railroads became a major economic influence.These companies created the need for supporting industries, which in turn led to increases in the market for corporate securities and an in creased need for trained accountants as the separation of the management and ownership functions became more distinct. The concept of capital maintenance The major concern of accounting during the early 1900s was the development of a theory that could cope with corporate abuses that were occurring at that time, and capital maintenance emerged as a concept. This concept evolved from maintaining invested capital intact to maintaining the physical productive capacity of the firm to maintaining real capital.In essence, this last view of capital maintenance was an extension of the economic concept of income (see Chapter 5) that there could be no increase in wealth unless the stockholder or the firm were better off at the end of the period than at the beginning. The accountant as a protector of business interests World War I changed the public’s attitude toward the business sector. Many people believed that the successful completion of the war could at least partially be attributed to the ingenuity of American business. As a consequence, the public perceived that business had reformed and that external regulation was no longer necessary.The accountant’s role changed from protector of third parties to protector of business interests. Critics of accounting practice during the 1920s suggested that accountants abdicated the stewardship role, placed too much emphasis on the needs of management, and permitted too much flexibility in financial reporting. During this time financial statements were viewed as the representations of management, and accountants did not have the ability to require businesses to use accounting principles they did not wish to employ. The result of this attitude is well known. In 1929 the stock market crashed and the Great Depression ensued.Although accountants were not initially blamed for these events, the possibility of governmental intervention in the corporate sector loomed. Accounting in the United States since 1930 Meetings bet ween NYSE and AIA One of the first attempts to improve accounting began shortly after the inception of the Great Depression with a series of meetings between representatives of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the American Institute of Accountants. The purpose of these meetings was to discuss problems pertaining to the interests of investors, the NYSE, and accountants in the preparation of external financial statements.The cooperative efforts between the members of the NYSE and the AIA were well received. However, the post-Depression atmosphere in the United States was characterized by regulation. There was even legislation introduced that would have required auditors to be licensed by the federal government after passing a civil service examination. AAA Similarly, in 1935 the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting changed its name to the American Accounting Association (AAA) and announced its intention to expand its activities in the research and develop ment of accounting principles and standards.The first result of these expanded activities was the publication, in 1936, of a brief report cautiously titled â€Å"A Tentative Statement of Accounting Principles Underlying Corporate Financial Statements. † The four-and-one-half-page document summarized the significant concepts underlying financial statements at that time. SEC (Securities And Exchange Commission) Two of the most important pieces of legislation passed at this time were the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).The SEC was created to administer various securities acts. Under powers provided by Congress, the SEC was given the authority to prescribe accounting principles and reporting practices. Nevertheless, because the SEC has acted as an overseer and allowed the private sector to develop accounting principles, this authority has seldom been used. However, the SEC has exerted p ressure on the accounting profession and has been especially interested in narrowing areas of difference in accounting practice. * Securities Act of 1933A federal piece of legislation enacted as a result of the market crash of 1929. The legislation had two main goals: (1) to ensure more transparency in financial statements so investors can make informed decisions about investments, and (2) to establish laws against misrepresentation and fraudulent activities in the securities markets. * Securities Exchange Act of 1934 The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was created to provide governance of securities transactions on the secondary market (after issue) and regulate the exchanges and broker-dealers in order to protect the investing public.Committee on Accounting Procedure The AICPA’s Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP) was formed in 1936. The committee had authority to issue pronouncements on matters of accounting practice and procedure in order to establish generally accept ed practices. CAP was relatively inactive during its first two years, but became more active in response to the SEC’s release of ASR No. 4. One of the first responses was to expand CAP membership from 7 to 21. Major concerns were: * Use of the historical cost model of accounting.The then-accepted definition of assets as unamortized cost was seen by some critics as allowing management too much flexibility in deciding when to charge costs to expense. * The impact on inflation on reported profits. Lobbies were held by several companies in the 1940s for the use of replacement cost depreciation. Both CAP and the SEC rejected the efforts. This decade long debate didn’t until Congress passed legislation in 1954 amending the IRS Tax Code to allow accelerated depreciation. CAP works were originally published in the form of Accounting Research Bulletins (ARBs).The pronouncements did not dictate mandatory practice and received authority only from their general acceptance. The Acc ounting Research Bulletins were consolidated in 1953 into Accounting Terminology Bulletin No. 1, â€Å"Review and Resume† and ARB No 43 through 51 was published from 1953 until 1959. The recommendations of these bulletins that have not been superseded are contained in the FASB Accounting Standards Codifications. Accounting Principles Board By 1959 the methods of formulating accounting principles were being questioned as not arising from research or based on theory.The CAP was also criticized for acting in a piecemeal fashion and issuing standards that, in many cases, were inconsistent. Additionally, all of its members were part-time and as a result their independence was questioned. Finally, the fact that all of the CAP members were required to be AICPA members prevented many financial executives, investors, and academics from serving on the committee. As a result, accountants and financial statement users were calling for wider representation in the development of accounting principles.The AICPA responded to the alleged shortcomings of the CAP by forming the Accounting Principles Board (APB). The objectives of this body were to advance the written expression of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), to narrow areas of difference in appropriate practice, and to in the method of establishing accounting principles was quickly squelched when the first APB chairman, Weldon Powell, voiced his belief that accounting research was more applied and pure and that the usefulness of the end product was a major concern.The APB was composed of from seventeen to twenty-one members, who were selected primarily from the accounting profession but also included individuals from industry, government, and academia. Initially, the pronouncements of the APB, termed â€Å"opinions,† were not mandatory practice; however, the issuance of APB Opinion No. 2 (see FASB ASC 740-10-25 and 45) and a subsequent partial retraction contained in APB Opinion No. 4 (see FASB ASC 740-10-50) highlighted the need for standard-setting groups to have more authority. Financial Accounting Standards BoardDue to the growing criticism of the APB, in 1971 the board of directors of the AICPA appointed two committees. The Wheat Committee, chaired by Francis Wheat, was to study how financial accounting principles should be established. The Trueblood Committee, chaired by Robert Trueblood, was asked to determine the objectives of financial statements. The Wheat Committee issued its report in 1972 recommending that the APB be abolished and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) be created. In contrast to the APB, whose members were all from the AICPA, this new board was to comprise representatives from various organizations.The members of the FASB were also to be full-time paid employees, unlike the APB members, who served part-time and were not paid. the Accounting Principles Board Formation and structure The APB was composed of from seventeen to twenty-one members, who were selected primarily from the accounting profession but also included individuals from industry, government, and academia. Types of pronouncements * APB Opinions Initially, the pronouncements of the APB, termed â€Å"opinions,† were not mandatory practice; however, the issuance of APB Opinion No. 2 (see FASB ASC 740-10-25 and 45) and a subsequent partial retraction contained in APB Opinion No. (see FASB ASC 740-10-50) highlighted the need for standard-setting groups to have more authority. The flap over accounting for the investment tax Credit This controversy was over the proper method to use in accounting for the investment tax credit. In the early 1960s the country was suffering from the effects of a recession. After President John F. Kennedy took office, his advisors suggested an innovative fiscal economic policy that involved a direct income tax credit (as opposed to a tax deduction) based on a percentage of the cost of a qualified investment.Congress pas sed legislation creating the investment tax credit in 1961. The APB was then faced with deciding how companies should record and report the effects of the investment tax credit. It considered two alternative approaches: 1. The flow-through method, which treated the tax credit as a decrease in income tax expense in the year it occurred. 2. The deferred method, which treated the tax credit as a reduction in the cost of the asset and therefore was reflected over the life of the asset through Rule 203The lack of support for some of the APB’s pronouncements and concern over the formulation and acceptance of GAAP caused the Council of the AICPA to adopt Rule 203 of the Code of Professional Ethics. 10 This rule requires departures from accounting principles published in APB Opinions or Accounting Research Bulletins (or subsequently FASB Statements and now the FASB ASC) to be disclosed in footnotes to financial statements or in independent auditors’ reports when the effects of such departures are material.This action has had the effect of requiring companies and public accountants who deviate from authoritative pronouncements to justify such departures. Criticism of the APB 1. The independence of the members of the APB. The individuals serving on the board had full-time responsibilities elsewhere that might influence their views of certain issues. 2. The structure of the board. The largest eight public accounting firms (at that time) were automatically awarded one member, and there were usually five or six other public accountants on the APB. 3. Response time.The emerging accounting problems were not being investigated and solved quickly enough by the part-time members. The financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) The Wheat Committee The Wheat Committee, chaired by Francis Wheat, was to study how financial accounting principles should be established. The AICPA quickly adopted the Wheat Committee recommendations, and the FASB became the official body c harged with issuing accounting standards. The Trueblood Committee The Trueblood Committee, chaired by Robert Trueblood, was asked to determine the objectives of fi nancial statements.The FASB was established The Wheat Committee issued its report in 1972 recommending that the APB be abolished and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) be created. The structure of the FASB The structure of the FASB is as follows. A board of trustees nominated by organizations whose members have special knowledge and interest in financial reporting is selected. The organizations originally chosen to select the trustees were the American Accounting Association; the AICPA; the Financial Executives Institute; the National Association of Accountants (The NAA’s ame was later changed to Institute of Management Accountants in 1991), and the Financial Analysts Federation. In 1997 the board of trustees added four members from public interest organizations. The board that governs the FASB is the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF). The FAF appoints the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC), which advises the FASB on major policy issues, the selection of task forces, and the agenda of topics. The number of members on the FASAC varies from year to year. The bylaws call for at least twenty members to be appointed.However, the actual number of members has grown to about thirty in recent years to obtain representation from a wider group of interested parties. FASB Mission The FASB’s mission is to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting for the guidance and education of the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information. In attempting to accomplish this mission, the FASB seeks to: 1. Improve the usefulness of financial reporting by focusing on the primary characteristics of relevance and reliability and on the qualities of comparability and consistency 2.Keep standards current to reflect changes in methods of doing business and changes in the economic environment 3. Consider promptly any significant areas of deficiency in financial reporting that might be improved through the standard-setting process 4. Promote the international comparability of accounting standards concurrent with improving the quality of financial reporting 5. Improve the common understanding of the nature and purposes of information contained in financial reports Type of Pronouncements * Statements of Financial Accounting Concepts Statements of Financial Accounting Standards * Interpretations * Technical Bullentins Originally, the FASB issued two types of pronouncements, Statements of Financial Accounting Standards (SFASs) and Interpretations. Subsequently, the FASB established two new series of releases: (1) Statements of Financial Accounting Concepts (SFACs) and (2) Technical Bulletins. SFASs conveyed required accounting methods and procedures for specific accounting issues and officially created GAAP. In terpretations were modifications or extensions of issues pronouncements.SFACs are intended to establish the objectives and concepts that the FASB will use in developing standards of financial accounting and reporting. To date, the FASB has issued seven SFACs, which are discussed in depth in Chapters 2, 6, and 7. SFACs differed from Statements of Financial Accounting Standards in that they did not establish GAAP. Similarly, they are not intended to invoke Rule 203 of the Rules of Conduct of the Code of Professional Ethics. It is anticipated that the major beneficiary of these SFACs will be the FASB itself.However, knowledge of the objectives and concepts the board uses should enable financial statement users to better understand the content and limitations of financial accounting information. Technical Bulletins were strictly interpretive in nature and did not establish new standards or amend existing standards. They were intended to provide guidance on financial accounting and repor ting problems on a timely basis. Emerging Issues One of the fi rst criticisms of the FASB was for failing to provide timely guidance on emerging implementation and practice problems.During 1984 the FASB responded to this criticism by (1) establishing a task force, the Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF), to assist in identifying issues and problems that might require action; and (2) expanding the scope of the FASB Technical Bulletins in an effort to offer quicker guidance on a wider variety of issues. The EITF was formed in response to two confl icting issues. On the one hand, accountants are faced with a variety of issues that are not fully addressed in accounting pronouncements, such as interest rate swaps or new fi nancial instruments. These and other new issues need immediate resolution.On the other hand, many accountants maintain that the ever-increasing body of professional pronouncements has created a standards overload problem (discussed in more detail below). The FASB establi shed the EITF in an attempt to simultaneously address both issues. The goal of the EITF is to provide timely guidance on new issues while limiting the number of issues whose resolutions require formal pronouncements by the FASB. Standards Overload One of the fi rst criticisms of the FASB was for failing to provide timely guidance on emerging implementation and practice problems.During 1984 the FASB responded to this criticism by (1) establishing a task force, the Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF), to assist in identifying issues and problems that might require action; and (2) expanding the scope of the FASB Technical Bulletins in an effort to offer quicker guidance on a wider variety of issues. The EITF was formed in response to two confl icting issues. On the one hand, accountants are faced with a variety of issues that are not fully addressed in accounting pronouncements, such as interest rate swaps or new fi nancial instruments.These and other new issues need immediate resolution . On the other hand, many accountants maintain that the ever-increasing body of professional pronouncements has created a standards overload problem (discussed in more detail below). The FASB established the EITF in an attempt to simultaneously address both issues. The goal of the EITF is to provide timely guidance on new issues while limiting the number of issues whose resolutions require formal pronouncements by the FASB. Standard setting as a political processA highly infl uential academic accountant stated that accounting standards are as much a product of political action as they are of careful logic or empirical fi ndings. 15 This phenomenon exists because a variety of parties are interested in and affected by the development of accounting standards. Various users of accounting information have found that the best way to infl uence the formulation of accounting standards is to attempt to infl uence the standard setters. The CAP, APB, and FASB have all come under a great deal o f pressure to develop or amend standards so as to benefi t a particular user group.For example, the APB had originally intended to develop a comprehensive theory of accounting before attempting to solve any current problems; however, this approach was abandoned when it was determined that such an effort might take up to fi ve years and that the SEC would not wait that long before taking action. The Business Roundtable engaged in what initially was a successful effort (later reversed) to increase the required consensus for passage of a SFAS from a simple majority to fi ve of the seven members of the FASB.Congressional action was threatened over the FASB’s proposed elimination of the pooling of interest method of accounting for business combinations (see Chapter 16). Two of the most notable examples of the politicizing of accounting standards involved the issues of employee stock options and fair value accounting. Economic Consequences The increased pressure on the standard-set ting process is not surprising, considering that many accounting standards have signifi cant economic consequences. Economic consequences refers to the impact of accounting reports on various segments of our economic society.This concept holds that the accounting practices a company adopts affect its security price and value. Consequently, the choice of accounting methods infl uences decision making rather than just refl ecting the results of these decisions. Consider the release of the FASB’s pronouncement on other postretirement benefi ts (OPRBs) FASB Statement No. 106, â€Å"Other Post Retirement Benefi ts† (see FASB ASC 715-10-30, 60, and 80). The accounting guidelines for OPRBs required companies to change from a pay-as-you-go basis to an accrual basis for health care and other benefi ts that companies provide to retirees and their dependents.The accrual basis requires companies to measure the obligation to provide future services and accrue these costs during the years employees provide service. This change in accounting caused a large increase in recorded expenses for many companies. Consequently, a number of companies simply ceased providing such benefi ts to their employees, at a large social cost. The impact on our economic society of accounting for OPRBs illustrates the need for the FASB to fully consider both the necessity to further develop sound reporting practices and the possible economic consequences of new codifi cation content.Accounting standard setting does not exist in a vacuum. It cannot be completely insulated from political pressures, nor can it avoid carefully evaluating the possible ramifi cations of standard setting. gaap Evolution of phrase: * Changed wording of auditor’s certificate brought about by meetings between NYSE and AIA One result of the meetings between the AICPA and members of the NYSE following the onset of the Great Depression was a revision in the wording of the certifi cate issued by CPAs. The o pinion paragraph formerly stated that the fi nancial statements had been examined and were accurate.The terminology was changed to say that the statements are â€Å"fairly presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. † This expression is now interpreted as encompassing the conventions, rules, and procedures that are necessary to explain accepted accounting practice at a given time. Therefore fi nancial statements are fair only to the extent that the principles are fair and the statements comply with the principles. * The APB’s definition * The Auditing Standards Executive Committee’s definition The current sources of GAAP consist of four levels described as A, B, C, and D by Statement of Auditing Standards No 69 he business reporting research project Steering Committee Working Group the role of ethics in accounting Ethics are concerned with the types of behavior society considers right and wrong. Accounting ethics incorporate social sta ndards of behavior as well as behavioral standards that relate specifi cally to the profession. The environment of public accounting has become ethically complex. The accountants’ Code of Professional Ethics developed by the AICPA has evolved over time, and as business transactions have become more and more complex, ethical issues have also become more complex.Accounting in Crisis – the events of the early 2000s On January 1, 2001, Enron’s stock was selling for over $90 per share. From that time until the early summer of 2001, nineteen investment research fi rms reviewed its performance and twelve had given it a â€Å"strong buy† recommendation, while fi ve others had recommended it as â€Å"buy. †27 Additionally, the company’s 2000 annual report indicated that its auditor had not found any signifi cant accounting problems. However, on August 14, 2001, it was announced that the company’s president, Jeffery Skilling, had resigned after only six months on the job for â€Å"purely personal reasons. Enron used what were termed special-purpose entities (SPEs) now termed variable interest entities (VIEs) to access capital and hedge risk. 28 By using SPEs such as limited partnerships with outside parties, a company may be permitted to increase its fi nancial leverage and return on assets without reporting debt on its balance sheet. 29 The arrangement works as follows: An entity contributes fi xed assets and related debt to an SPE in exchange for an ownership interest.The SPE then borrows large sums of money from a fi nancial institution to purchase assets or conduct other business without the debt or assets showing up on the originating company’s fi nancial statements. The originating company can also sell leveraged assets to the SPE and record a profi t. At the time these transactions took place, the FASB required that only 3 percent of a SPE be owned by an outside investor. If this guideline is met, the SPE d idn’t need to be consolidated and the SPE’s debt was not disclosed on the originating company’s fi nancial statements.Enron used SPEs to new degrees of complexity and sophistication, capitalizing them with not only a variety of fi xed assets and liabilities but also extremely complex derivative fi nancial instruments, its own restricted stock, rights to acquire its stock, and related liabilities. Additionally, as Enron’s fi nancial dealings became more complicated, the company apparently also transferred troubled assets that were falling in value, such as certain overseas energy facilities, its broadband operation, or stock in companies that had been spun off to the SPEs. As a consequence, the losses on these assets were kept off Enron’s books.To compensate partnership investors for assuming downside risk, Enron promised to issue additional shares of its stock. As the value of the assets in these partnerships fell, Enron began to incur larger and l arger obligations to issue its own stock farther down the road. The problem was later compounded as the value of Enron’s stock declined. On October 16, 2001, the company reported a third-quarter loss and its stock dropped to about $33 a share. On October 28, as some of the problems with the SPEs were made public, a special committee of the board of directors of Enron was established under the chairmanship of William C.Powers, dean of the University of Texas Law School. The Powers Committee Report concluded that some Enron employees were directly involved in the SPEs and were enriched by tens of millions of dollars they never should have received. The committee also found that many of the transactions were designed to achieve favorable fi nancial statement results and were not based on legitimate economic objectives or to transfer risk. International Accounting standards A truly global economy emerged during the 1990s, as many U. S. companies generated signifi cant amounts of revenue and profi ts in foreign markets.Multinational companies are faced with decisions on the allocation of resources to their most effi cient uses. These allocations cannot be accomplished without accurate and reliable fi nancial information. Companies seeking capital or investment opportunities across national boundaries face cost and time issues. Capitalseeking fi rms must reconcile their fi nancial statements to the accounting rules of the nation in which they are seeking capital, and investors must identify foreign reporting differences. The increasingly global economy requires that this process be simplifi ed.Thus there is a push to harmonize international accounting standards. The IASB is an independent private sector body that was formed in 1973 to achieve this purpose. Its objectives are 1. To formulate and publish in the public interest accounting standards to be observed in the presentation of fi nancial statements and to promote their worldwide acceptance and observanc e 2. To work generally for the improvement and harmonization of regulations, accounting standards, and procedures relating to the presentation of fi nancial statements33These objectives have resulted in attempts to coordinate and harmonize the activities of the many countries and agencies engaged in setting accounting standards. The IASB standards also provide a useful starting point for developing countries wishing to establish accounting standards. 34 The IASB has also developed a conceptual framework titled the Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements. 35 The conclusions articulated in this release are similar to those contained in the FASB’s Conceptual Framework Project.That is, the objective of fi nancial statements is to provide useful information to a wide range of users for decision-making purposes. The information provided should contain the qualitative characteristics of relevance, reliability, comparability, and understandability. At t he time this book was published, the IASB had issued forty-one Statements of Accounting Standards (IASs) and ten Statements of Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). However, since it has no enforcement authority, the IASB must rely on the â€Å"best endeavors† of its members.Neither the FASB nor the SEC is a member of the IASB, so its standards have no authority in the United States at the present time. However, the SEC recently ruled that foreign companies that adopt IASB standards are eligible to list their securities for sale on U. S. stock exchanges (see Chapter 3 for a further discussion of this issue). As noted in Chapters 2 and 3, there is also a movement to have IASB standards become GAAP for U. S. companies. The emergence of multinational corporations has resulted in a need for the increased harmonization of worldwide accounting standards.The role of the IASB is discussed in more detail in Chapter 3, and the IASB standards are reviewed throughout this text in chapte rs dealing with the issues addressed by each IAS or IFRS. Cases †¢ Case 1-1 Sources of GAAP The FASB ASC is now the sole authoritative source for all U. S. GAAP. a. What are the major goals of the FASB ASC? b. How is the FASB ASC expected to improve the practice of accounting? c. What literature is now contained in the FASB ASC? d. What should an accountant do if the guidance for a particular transaction or event is not specifi ed within the FASB ASC? †¢ Case 1-2 Accounting EthicsWhen the FASB issues new standards, the implementation date is frequently 12 months from date of issuance, and early implementation is encouraged. Becky Hoger, controller, discusses with her fi nancial vice president the need for early implementation of a standard that would result in a fairer presentation of the company’s fi nancial condition and earnings. When the fi nancial vice president determines that early implementation of the standard will adversely affect the reported net income f or the year, he discourages Hoger from implementing the standard until it is required. Required: a. What, if any, ethical issue is involved in this case? . Is the fi nancial vice president acting improperly or immorally? c. What does Hoger have to gain by advocacy of early implementation? d. Who might be affected by the decision against early implementation? (CMA adapted) †¢ Case 1-3 Politicalization of Accounting Standards Some accountants have said that politicalization in the development and acceptance of generally accepted accounting principles (i. e. , standard setting) is taking place. Some use the term politicalization in a narrow sense to mean the infl uence by governmental agencies, particularly the SEC, on the development of generally accepted accounting principles.Others use it more broadly to mean the compromising that takes place in bodies responsible for developing these principles because of the infl uence and pressure of interested groups (SEC, American Accounti ng Association, businesses through their various organizations, Institute of Management Accountants, fi nancial analysts, bankers, lawyers, etc. ). Required: a. The Committee on Accounting Procedure of the AICPA was established in the mid- to late 1930s and functioned until 1959, at which time the Accounting Principles Board came into existence.In 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board was formed, and the APB went out of existence. Do the reasons these groups were formed, their methods of operation while in existence, and the reasons for the demise of the fi rst two indicate an increasing politicalization (as the term is used in the broad sense) of accounting standard setting? Explain your answer by indicating how the CAP, APB, and FASB operated or operate. Cite specifi c developments that tend to support your answer. b. What arguments can be raised to support the politicalization of accounting standard setting? . What arguments can be raised against the politicalization of accounting standard setting? (CMA adapted) †¢ Case 1-4 Generally Accepted Accounting Principles At the completion of the Darby Department Store audit, the president asks about the meaning of the phrase â€Å"in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles,† which appears in your audit report on the management’s fi nancial statements. He observes that the meaning of the phrase must include more than what he thinks of as â€Å"principles. † Required: a.Explain the meaning of the term accounting principles as used in the audit report. (Do not in this part discuss the signifi cance of â€Å"generally accepted. †) b. The president wants to know how you determine whether or not an accounting principle is generally accepted. Discuss the sources of evidence for determining whether an accounting principle has substantial authoritative support. c. The president believes that diversity in accounting practice will always exist among independent entit ies despite continual improvements in comparability.Discuss the arguments that support his belief. †¢ Case 1-5 The Evolution of the Accounting Profession The nineteenth century witnessed the evolution of joint ventures into business corporations. Required: Discuss how the emergence and growth of the corporate form of business affected perceptions regarding the role of the accounting profession in fi nancial reporting in England and the United States. †¢ Case 1-6 Accounting in Crisis During the early 2000s, the role of accounting and the auditing profession changed and several accounting scandals were uncovered. Required: a.What conditions caused accounting and the auditing profession role to change during this time? b. What major changes occurred as a result of the accounting scandals at that time? †¢ Case 1-7 The FASB The FASB is the offi cial body charged with issuing accounting standards. Required: a. Discuss the structure of the FASB. b. How are the Financial Acco unting Foundation members nominated? c. SFAC No. 2 describes a number of key characteristics or qualities for accounting information. Briefl y discuss the importance of any three of these qualities for fi nancial reporting purposes. CMA adapted) FASB ASC Research For each of the following research cases, search the FASB ASC database for information to address the issues. Cut and paste the FASB ASC paragraphs that support your responses. Then summarize briefl y what your responses are, citing the paragraphs used to support your responses. †¢ FASB ASC 1-1 Variable Interest Entities In this chapter, we discuss how Enron and other companies use Variable Interest Entities (VIEs) to keep the effects of transactions and events off corporate balance sheets. 1. How does the FASB defi ne a VIE?In other words, how does an entity qualify to be a VIE? 2. Is a company that meets the defi nition of a VIE required to consolidate the VIE? †¢ FASB ASC 1-2 Status of Accounting Research Bulle tins Portions of ARB No. 43 are still considered GAAP. Three of the most important issues covered in ARB No. 43 are revenue recognition, treasury stock, and comparative fi nancial statements. Find the appropriate sections of the FASB ASC, originally contained in ARB No. 43, that address these issues. Cite the sources and copy the relevant information. †¢ FASB ASC 1-3 Accounting for the Investment Tax CreditThe accounting alternative treatments for the investment tax credit originally outlined in APB Opinions 2 and 4 are still considered GAAP. Find and cite the FASB ASC paragraphs and copy the relevant information. †¢ FASB ASC 1-4 Securities and Exchange Commission Comments SEC observers frequently provide comments at EITF meetings. Find, cite, and copy the observer comments on: 1. Revenue recognition—customer payments and incentives 2. Debt with conversions and other options 3. Software cost of sales and services †¢ FASB ASC 1-5 Generally Accepted Accounting Pr ocedure GuidelinesFind the guidelines for determining GAAP in the FASB ASC. Room for Debate †¢ Debate 1-1 Which Body Should Set Accounting Standards in the United States? Team Debate Team 1: Argue that the SEC should set accounting standards in the United States. Team 2: Argue that the FASB should set accounting standards in the United States. †¢ Debate 1-2 Should the Scope of Accounting Standards Be Narrowed Further? Team Debate Team 1: Pretend you are management. Argue against the narrowing of accounting choices. Team 2: Pretend you are a prospective investor. Argue for the narrowing of accounting choices.