Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Creation Myths Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Creation Myths - Essay Example God then created a beautiful garden Eden so that Adam could live in it. God then brought animals into the garden so that Adam can name them. So it was Adam, who was the first human being, responsible for naming the animals. Since Adam was the sole human being on earth he was given the power to dominate the animals. However, seeing his loneliness and lack of company God created the first woman and named him Eve. Adam and Eve were given the power to control everything on earth that was created from dirt. There was a tree in the center of the garden. Adam and Eve were forbidden by God to touch it. One day a snake entered the garden and tempted Eve to eat a fruit from the tree. The tree was known as the knowledge tree and provided knowledge to distinguish between the good and the evil. By eating the fruit Adam and Eve committed the first sin of disobedience. They failed to obey the order of God and this instilled in their minds a sense of guilt. When God asked Adam if he has eaten the fr uit he put the blame on Eve. â€Å"And the man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate†. (Troyer, 2007, p.105) Similarly Eve blamed the snake for her own act of disobedience. â€Å"And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate†. ... The first living creature appeared when Ra who was the Egyptian sun god was born out of an egg. He had many names and they symbolize different positions of the sun. He was â€Å"Aten (sun disk), Khepri (the rising sun), Ra (supreme god of Heliopolis), and Atum (the setting sun)†. (The Egyptian Religion and Creation Myth, n.d., p.35) Egypt is a land of â€Å"eternal sunshine† and so it was natural for them to symbolize the sun god as the creator of the universe. The human beings were created from the eye of Ra. The eye got lost and Ra could not find it. His son Shu and daughter Tefnut went to fetch it but failed. There was a struggle between them which caused the eye to shed tears. Human beings were born from the tears. Therefore the eye of Ra symbolizes life. â€Å"The act of bringing the eye back to the creator was equivalent to healing the earth – the restoration of right and order†. (The Egyptian Religion and Creation Myth, n.d., p.33) Ra’s son S hu represented dry air while daughter Tefnut represented moisture. Together they are symbolized in the Egyptian culture as life and justice. In both the mythologies it was the male who first created. Adam and Ra were both representatives of the male. In both cases there is the event of sibling murder. In Egyptian mythology Set killed his brother Osiris while in the Genesis Cain killed his brother and in both cases the reason was jealousy. What role does sex play? After God created Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, God brought all the animals into the garden and authorized Adam to name them. So it was Adam who named the animals and not Eve. This authority was given to man by God and so it is more a man’s duty than a woman to fulfill the command of God. Since Adam was created before Eve and so

Monday, October 28, 2019

Teacher and School Essay Example for Free

Teacher and School Essay Discipline is what enables us to follow through our daily actions and behaviors. We know that if we go anywhere around the world we have to be disciplined. Discipline is the only way to keep us physically as well as mentally fit. The most important discipline of a person is to be honest, ethical and confident in both home and in respective premises. Discipline at school: * We have to come regular in the school. * We must come to school on time. * We should show respect to others and ourselves. * We should follow the rules and regulations of the school and should take responsibilities of our action. * We must not bring anything in school that can be harmful or not allowed. * We must obey our teachers. * We must bring our identity card regularly and must not keep any classwork incomplete. * If we do not understand any lesson we must ask the teachers to help us once again. * We should help others with their own works when asked. * We should keep our school uniform neat and clean. * We must do our homework regularly. * We must arrange the chairs and switch off the fans and lights at the end of the day of school. * In classroom we must listen to what our teachers say and stop them who disturbs in the class. * We also should help the teachers with their task whenever asked. * We must not disturb the teachers or anyone in the class. * In school we must not quarrel or fight about anything in the class or anywhere in school. If anything happens in the class or school even with a small issue, we should discuss it with the teacher. * If by mistake anyone else’s copy or other stuff comes with us and we know that it is others’ copy we must politely return it back. * If we have done any mistake then we should apologize for the mistake to the teacher. Last but not the least, we should always be polite and show dissents to the elders, youngers and to our classmates. Disciplines at home: Home is the only place where we get to learn about the self-discipline and basic morals. In home we also have some responsibilities to fulfill. Those are: * The first duty which must be maintained at home is to respect our parents and elders. * It is our responsibility to keep our house neat and clean. * We must take care of our grandparents and everyone in our home and serve them to whatever they need. * We should try to do our works by ourselves. * We must maintain peace by cooperating with each other without quarrelling or fighting. * At home we must dust the house gear. * We also should garden the plants and trees regularly in the garden. * We must pick up the unused things and keep them in the proper place. * We should help our mother to do the household impositions. * We must wash our own cloths properly. * We must help the others with their work whenever asked. * We must clean up what we drop after eating. * If we make our room dirty and untidy, it is our concern to keep it clean. * Also we should save water, electricity, gas and other natural reserves as much as we can. To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to ones family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control ones own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to instruction, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him. We know that in home we represent our school and in school we represent our home. So it is important to be disciplined everywhere. Discipline at school and at home Name: Tasnim Ferdous. Class: ViiRoll no: 24Sec: Blue.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Emily Dickinson :: essays research papers

B) The riddle we can guess We speedily despise - Not anything is stale so long as yesterday’s surprise - How important is the idea of riddling in Emily Dickinson’s poetry? Cover a range of poems in your answer, and discuss at least four of them in close detail. During the late nineteenth century, Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) featured as one of the few female poets in the largely male-dominated sphere of American literature. Although she authored 1800 poems, only seven were published during her lifetime - why? Emily Dickinson has always provoked debate; over her life, her motivations for the words she wrote and the interpretations of those words. It can be argued that Emily Dickinson herself, was as ambiguous, as misunderstood and as elusive as her poetry. As a outlet for relentless examination of every aspect of her mind and faith her poems are both expository and puzzling. Her conclusions are often cryptically implicit and largely dependant on the readers ability to put together the pieces - to see the connections and implications. Amy Lowell said "She was the mistress of suggestion....and to a lesser degree, irony" The ruses and riddles in her poems came from her; and as such she too was a riddle. The riddle was important to Emily Dickinson for several reasons. She wished to reason with her own feelings despite her contradictory beliefs - she wished to be one who "distils amazing sense / from ordinary meanings (#448)". For her, life, nature and faith were all riddles in themselves. None of these three come with all the answers, although clues are given - her poems both deal with and mirror this phenomenon. And through a riddle, at the last - sagacity must go - (#501) (In these lines Dickinson doubts the sense of religious claims about life, death and life after death). Her cryptic language thus became part of her search for truth and personal clarification. She couched her poetry in ambiguous, complex and multi-layered language - in this form it became both a defence, and a game. The riddles concealed her anarchy, her dissension and her audaciousness in questioning the status quo. She achieved her most audacious commentaries and attacks on American perceptions and values through riddle and ruse; by ellipsis, dodge, a vague daring, an evident superiority of language and idea, staying virtually unknown . The ambiguities in the riddles were her defence against authority, religious tyranny and "norm" thinking.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Enron Case Study

When Sharron Watkins, the former UP of Corporate Development offered to show the problems in counting decisions, Ken Lay, the Chair of the Board refused and said â€Å"He rather not see it†. 2. Regulatory Agencies, SEC and BAS Enron was able to hide their losses behind their ESP. or Special Purpose Entities by omitting an Spec's assets and liabilities from its consolidated financial statements and both SEC and BAS failed to provide formal guidelines for companies to follow in ESP. accounting and reporting.As a result of the minimal legal and accounting guidelines for Esp., Enron along with other companies was able to divert huge amounts of their liabilities and asses to off-balance sheet entities. 3. Management and Accounting team of Enron Both management and accounting team Of Enron manipulated the revenue recognition principle by making vague assumptions that inflated the profits booked on Enron's commodity contracts. There attempt was to keep the stock prices high by showin g inflated financial statements in order to receive high credit ratings and increased lender cash flow into the company. 4.Anderson Accounting Firm The Anderson firm, an independent audit firm failed to provide a more transparent financial statements of Enron. Anderson firm audited the many for 1 5 years where its auditors failed to perform their duties and professional standards of accounting. In fact, Anderson made efforts to restructure Enron's ESP. to continue to qualify as unconsolidated entities once they became aware of Enron's rapidly deteriorating financial condition. Anderson firm was more interested in retaining Enron as their client to provide consulting services hence creating a conflict of interest.Lists three type of consulting services that audit firm have provided to their audit client in recent years. For each item, indicate the specific threats, if any, that the reversion of the given services can pose for an audit firm independence. Auditors independence is consi dered a cornerstone in the accounting profession since they are entrusted by the general public to provide true picture of a company's financial position. It is believed that non-audit services provided by audit firms impair auditors independence to fairly attest the financial statements produced by the client company.Consulting and audit a same firm causes conflict of interest. Anderson firm earned approximately $52 million in fees from Enron in 2000, less than half of which was directly elated to the auditing, rest were for non-audit services. Audit firm may provide many types of consulting services such as: 1. Tax consulting services 2. Accounting system design services 3. Bookkeeping or other related services 4. Financial advice services, including internal audit consulting service. In this highly competitive market, non-audit services have taken precedence over the traditional accounting and auditing services.Even if an audit firm is fairly attesting financial statements and pr ovides honest opinion of a company, its stakeholders and other users may still presume otherwise due o the recent accounting debacles such as Enron and Anderson firm. The additional non-audit services may prove to be a threat to the audit firm's independence. By providing financial advice services for Enron's accounting procedures, Anderson provided them an opportunity to manipulate the reporting and treatment of the Esp..Bookkeeping and following correct accounting procedures are very important components of preparing financial statements. Manipulations of these data are likely to show up when it is audited accurately, and with precision. When the same company repaper and audits the financial statements, it can create conflict of interest just like in this case, where the creators of accounting procedures I. E the management and Anderson team fabricated the financial statements by using complex accounting procedures and loopholes that users could not understand.Any other consulting services such as tax advisory also creates a threat to the independence of the auditing firm, where manipulations are more likely to happen which can hurt the creditability of the audited statements and the auditor's opinion about the company. For purpose of this question, assume that the excerpts from the Power Report shown in Exhibit 3 provide accurate description of Andersen's involvement in Enron accounting and financial reporting decisions. Given this assumption, do you believe that Andersen's involvement in those decisions violated any professional auditing standards?If so, lists those standards and briefly explain your rationale. Arthur Anderson, once known as one of the top accounting firms in nation, was ridiculed and criticized for their questionable accounting and auditing procedures of their client Enron, which ultimately lead to its demise. Their faulty accounting practices shattered investor confidence in auditors throughout the country and made way to Serbians-Solely Act of 2002 and the creation of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PEPCO) to oversee the rule-making process for independent audit function.Anderson provided external auditing, internal auditing and consulting services to Enron. They violated several of their professional and ethical standards by accepting large suns in fees and perhaps by looking the other way to the faulty accounting practices contemplated by Enron's management ND giving them an unqualified audit opinion on the financial statements. Andersen earned around $52 million from Enron during 2000, but only $25 million was payment in reference to the 2000 audit. With such an involvement in non-audit services they were not independent of the company, violating the most important standard of auditing.They put their own interest before the interest of the users of their audited financial statements and opinion. From the excerpts it can be concluded that they were deeply involved in the accounting and structuring of the Esp., where they were more interested in electing millions of dollars in fees and failed to provide objective accounting judgment that should have prevented these transactions from going forward. Andersen failed to bring to the attention of Enron internal Audit and Compliance Committee about the serious reservations brought on internally about the related-party transactions, I. . Esp., which clearly shows the violation of professional auditing standards. Anderson firm should have supervised the auditing services provided by its auditors to maintain independence. This lacks of planning and supervision made Anderson to be highly involved in client accounting and financial porting decisions. Anderson had concerns about the disclosures of the related third-party transactions in the financial statement footnotes and instead of pointing those out to the Audit and Compliance Committee they vouched on its accuracy and issued an unqualified opinion on the financial. Enron Case Study Executive Summary: As per requested this group assignment prepared from Group 2 (NASA) contributed by Norazman Saharum , Shaufi Akil , Abd Manaf Jalil and Zubir Zainal Abidin . This group assignment part of final course entitle for 25 marks . This assignment to fulfill our MSU MBA Syllabus for subject Accounting For Corporate and Evaluation (DAC 5013) instructed by Dr Mazlinah Mat Zain . Our group have chosen The Arthur Andersen Troubles. The most famous scandal case Arthur Anderson scandal was involved in was the fraudulent auditing of Enron. In this case Arthur Anderson shredded vital documents sourcing the audit of Enron which occurred in the year 2002. Enron has clearly done some damage to the U. S. economy, but it will not hold up recovery from the current recession. The fundamental health of the U. S. economy is strong and now getting stronger. Some individual new economy companies will have depressed stock prices for some time, but they, too, will recover as they demonstrate that they are prepared to prevent Enron-like behaviour. We do believe Enron will be the morality play of the new economy. It will teach executives and the American public the most important ethics lessons of this decade. We will discuss more information on this issues based on the question given on Arthur Andersen and among them are the conflict of interest between the two roles played by Arthur Andersen, as auditor but also as consultant to Enron; the lack of attention shown by members of the Enron board of directors to the off-books financial entities with which Enron did business; and the lack of truthfulness by management about the health of the company and its business operations. Lastly, we would like to thanks to Dr Mazlinah on her dedicated and helpful to achieve our mission and mission to be a successful entrepreneur for the future. Arthur Andersen case study reminds us the most important ethics lessons of this decade. AMIN. Introduction; Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, was once one the â€Å"Big Five† accounting firms among Price Water House Coopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG , providing auditing, tax, and consulting services to large corporations. In 2002, the firm voluntarily surrendered its licenses to practice as Certified Public Accounting in the United States after being found guilty of criminal charges relating to the firm’s handling of the auditing of Enron, the energy corporation, resulting in the loss of 85,000 jobs. In this case Arthur Andersen shredded the vital documents sourcing the audit of Enron which occurred in the year 2002 . Although the verdict was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States, it has not returned as a viable business. However, how did this company get the reputation that it has while following such a moral slogan? As the clients demanded for more profit margins , Arthur Andersen scandal had to compromise his morality leading to the allegation that he had fraudulently altered the statement of such companies and corporation for example Sunbeam Products, Waste Management Inc. , Asia Pulp and Paper, The Baptist Foundation of Arizona , and WorldCom . Due to the downfall of Arthur Andersen, it lost nearly all of its business and clients. It lost not millions but billions of dollars due to this intense investigation. Although it is still in business and operating under Omega Management and has not as of yet declared bankruptcy, the firm will never reach its past legacy. Arthur Anderson's motto of â€Å"Think straight, talk straight† has forever been tainted in the eyes of Americans corporations. This devastation of fraudulent activity has forever left a deep and painful scar on America’s businesses. . The Arthur Andersen’s Troubles: Question 1: What did Arthur Andersen (AA) contribute to the Enron disaster? The most famous scandal case Arthur Andersen was involved in was the fraudulent auditing of Enron. In this case Arthur Andersen shredded vital documents sourcing the audit of Enron which occurred in the year 2002. According to Watkin, a financial executive who worked with Andrew Fastow told Enron CEO Kenneth Lay she feared that Enron would â€Å"implode in a wave of accounting audit scandal â€Å" (1: USA Today, Wed, Jan 16, 2002) AA apparent mistakes may have been made for several reasons to the Enron disaster including: †¢ Incompetence , as displayed and admitted in the rhythms case . Judgement errors; . as to the significants of each of the audit findings, or of the aggregate impact in any fiscal year. †¢ Lack of information caused by Enron staff not providing critical information, or failure on the part of AA personal to search it out . †¢ Time pressures :related to revenue generations and budget pressures that prevented adequate audit work and the full considera tions of complex SPE and prepay financial arrangements . †¢ Desire not to confront Enron management or advise the Enron board in order not to upset management, and particularly fastow, Skilling and Lay Lack of Independence. The Board of Directors failed to ensure the independence of the company auditor , allowing AA to provide internal audit and consulting services while serving the Enron outside auditors . †¢ A failure of AA’s internal policies whereby the concerns of a quality control or practice standards partner can and was overruled by the audit partner in charge of the Enron account. AA was the only one of the Big 5 accounting forms to have this flaw and it left the entire firm vulnerable to the decisions of the person with the most to lose by saying no to a client. A misunderstanding of the fiduciary role required by auditors . for example AA allowing Enron to engage in high risk accounting , inappropriate conflict of interest transactions, extensive undisclo sed off-the-books activities and excessive executive compensation . Given this â€Å"tone at the top’. It is reasonable to assume that AA partners were going to be motivated by revenue generations. But if too many risks are taken in the pursuit of revenue the probability of a series of audit problems leading to increasingly unfavorable consequences becomes greater . That is exactly what happened to Enron disaster. Unfortunately, the leaders of AA failed to recognize the cumulative degree to which the public, the politicians, and the SEC (The Securities and Exchange Commission) were angered by the progression of AA audit failures . Question 2: What Arthur Andersen (AA) decision were faulty? Arthur Andersen (AA) decision were faulty . This is the ‘ Enron Debacle† section presented previously covers in detail many of the questionable accounting transactions, legal structures, and related disclosures that AA reviewed as auditors of and consultants to Enron. AA faulty may have been made for several reason , including: †¢ AA apparently approved as auditors and consultants (and collected fees for the consulting advice) the structure of many special purpose entities (SPEs) that were used to generate false profits, hide losses, and keep financing off Enron’s consolidated financial statements , failed to meet the required outsiders 3 percent equity at risk, and decision control criteria for non consolidation . AA failed to recognize the generally accepted accounting principle (GAAP) that prohibits the recording of shares issued as an increase in shareholders’ equity unless they are issued for cash . †¢ AA did not advise Enron’s audit committee that Andrew Fastow, Enron’s CFO and his helpers were involved in significant conflict of interest situations without adequate alternative means of managing these conflicts. †¢ AA did not advise the Enron audit committee that Enron’s policies and internal control were not adequate to protect the shareholders’ interests even though AA had assumed Enron’s internal audit functions . Many transactions between Enron and the SPEs were not in the interest of Enron shareholders since: a) Enron profits and cash flow were manipulated and grossly inflated, misleading investors and falsely boosting management bonus arrangements. b) Extraordinarily overgenerous deals, fees, and liquidation arrangements were made by Fastow, or under his influence, with SPEs owned to Fastow , his family, and Kopper, who was also as employee of Enron . AA aparently did not adequately consider, the advice of its quality control partner, Carl Bass. He asked AA for an accounting change that would have resulted in a $30 – $50 million charge to Enron’s earnings. †¢ AA apparently did not find significant audit evidence, or did not act upon evidence found, related to the: 1)Mistaken valuation of shares or share rights transferred to SPEs 2 )Side deals between Enron and banks removing the bank’s risk from transactions such as the : a) Chewco SPE Rhythms hedge. ) Numerous prepay deals for energy futures, even though AA made a presentations to Enron on the GAAP and AA requirements that preclude such arrangements. Questions 3: What was the prime motivation behind the decision of Arthur Andersen’s audit partners on the Enron, WorldCom, Waste Management the public interest or†¦? Cite examples that reveal this motivation . The AA was motivated by greed instead of serving the public interest. The amount of money they got from the consulting fee has compromised their auditing works. In 1997, client Waste Management Inc. had the largest earnings restatement to date, wiping out $1. 7 billion in profits that it pulled in through the 1990s. The lead auditor on Waste Management was Robert Allgyer, who was known inside the firm as â€Å"the Rainmaker† for his success in cross-selling extra services to auditing clients. He was clearly successful at selling to Waste Management, which paid $17. 8 million in fees unrelated to the audit between 1991 and 1997, against audit fees of $7. 5 million. But he was also signing off on drastically inaccurate books. Among other things, the fast-growing trash hauler wasn't properly writing off the value of assets such as garbage trucks as they aged, a ruse that pumped up reported profits. The SEC's acting commissioner, Laura Unger, concluded that the agency had the â€Å"smoking gun† it was looking for to prove that the lure of consulting fees compromised auditor independence. The SEC filed suit in March 2002, accusing six former Waste Management executives of fraud. It alleges that Mr. Allgyer's judgment was skewed by consulting fees, in particular a $3. 7 million â€Å"strategic overview† of Waste Management operations. The project lasted for 11 months, but the client didn't adopt the recommendations. Bellow table shown example AA’s involvements in the major financial scandals as the audit firm that failed to discover their mistakes that reveal this motivation: |CLIENT |PROBLEM MISSED, DATE |LOSSES TO SHAREHOLDERS |JOB LOSSES |AA FINE | |WorldCom |$4. billion overstatement of |4179. 3 Million |17,000 |N. A | | |earnings announced on June 25,| | | | | |2002 | | | | | | | | | | | |Inflation of ncome, asset, | | | | | |etc bankrupt Dec 2, 2001 | | | | |Enron | |$66. 4 Billion |6,100 |$. 5 Million | | |Overstatement of income by | | |(for shredding) | | |$1. billion, 1992-1996 | | | | | | | | |$7 Million | | | | | | | |Waste Management | |420. 5 Billion |11,000 | | Question 7: Under what circumstances should audit firm shred or destroy working paper ? According to section 802 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, accountants who audit or review an issuer's financial statements are required to retain certain records relevant to that audit or review. These records include workpapers and other documents that form the basis of the audit or review, and memoranda, correspondence, communications, other documents, and records (including electronic records), which are created, sent or received in connection with the audit or review, and contain conclusions, opinions, analyses, or financial data related to the audit or review. To coordinate with forthcoming auditing standards concerning the retention of audit documentation, the rule requires that these records be retained for seven years after the auditor concludes the audit or review of the financial statements. Refer to the above question, for example if we as a professional audit firm can’t simply shred or destroy working paper. How long to keep a document, when and how to store the document, and how to dispose of the document, will depend on the type of document . As any internal auditor knows, there are numerous types of documents that may be accumulated as part f an audit or review. The final rule here requires the retention of all records relevant to the audit, including working papers and other documents that form the basis of the audited financial statements, as well as certain supporting documents. The guideline for document retention is that they must meet two criteria: (1) Documents are created, sent, or received in connection with the a udit or review, (2) the documents contain conclusions, opinions, analyses, or financial data related to the audit or review. Both Enron and Arthur Andersen are now gone, but this audit work-paper clean-up exercise, no doubt, was a major motivating factor for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act , Section 802 rules outlining penalties for the destruction of documents. The rules require external auditors who audit or review an enterprise's financial statements to retain certain records relevant to that work, including work papers and other documents that form the basis of the audit or review. These retention requirements include memoranda, correspondence, communications, other documents, and records, as well as related electronic records that are created, sent, or received in connection with the audit work and contain conclusions, opinions, analyses, or financial data related to the work. These records are to be retained for seven years after the auditor concludes the financial statements review. This rule was nothing new for many internal auditors as many audit functions have followed similar document retention rules based on U. S. tax document retention guidelines. The rules also states that if you know your company is under investigation, or even suspect that it might be, all document destruction and alteration must stop immediately. And, you must create a company records showing that you’ve ordered a halt to all automatic e-data destruction practices. Question 8: Answer the â€Å"Lingering Question† on page 94 . Enron has clearly done some damage to the U. S. economy, but it will not hold up recovery from the current recession. The fundamental health of the U. S. economy is strong and now getting stronger. I do believe Enron will be the morality play of the new economy. It will teach executives and the American public the most important ethics lessons of this decade. Among these lessons are: 1. You make money in the new economy in the same ways you make money in the old economy – by providing goods or services that have real value. 2. Financial cleverness is no substitute for a good corporate strategy. . The arrogance of corporate executives who claim they are the best and the brightest, â€Å"the most innovative,† and who present themselves as superstars should be a â€Å"red flag† for investors, directors and the public. 4. Executives who are paid too much can think they are above the rules and can be tempted to cut ethical corners to retain their wealth and perquisites. 5. Government regulations and rules need to be updated for the new economy, not relaxed and eliminated. Due to the downfall of Arthur Anderson, it lost nearly all of its business ,employees, and clients. It lost not millions but billions of dollars due to this intense investigation. Although it is still in business and operating under Omega Management and has not as of yet declared bankruptcy, the firm will never reach its past legacy. We believe accounting regulations should be altered to prohibit ownership of both auditing and consulting services by the same accounting firm. Accounting firms are already moving to sever their consulting businesses. The SEC should probably adopt additional disclosure requirements. Various regulators should tighten requirements for directors to be alert and provide protections for whistleblowers who bring improper behaviour to public attention. But, in the final analysis, the solution to an Enron-type scandal lies in the attentiveness of directors and in the truthfulness and integrity of executives. Clever individuals will always find ways to conceal information or to engage in fraud. Enron Case Study Executive Summary: As per requested this group assignment prepared from Group 2 (NASA) contributed by Norazman Saharum , Shaufi Akil , Abd Manaf Jalil and Zubir Zainal Abidin . This group assignment part of final course entitle for 25 marks . This assignment to fulfill our MSU MBA Syllabus for subject Accounting For Corporate and Evaluation (DAC 5013) instructed by Dr Mazlinah Mat Zain . Our group have chosen The Arthur Andersen Troubles. The most famous scandal case Arthur Anderson scandal was involved in was the fraudulent auditing of Enron. In this case Arthur Anderson shredded vital documents sourcing the audit of Enron which occurred in the year 2002. Enron has clearly done some damage to the U. S. economy, but it will not hold up recovery from the current recession. The fundamental health of the U. S. economy is strong and now getting stronger. Some individual new economy companies will have depressed stock prices for some time, but they, too, will recover as they demonstrate that they are prepared to prevent Enron-like behaviour. We do believe Enron will be the morality play of the new economy. It will teach executives and the American public the most important ethics lessons of this decade. We will discuss more information on this issues based on the question given on Arthur Andersen and among them are the conflict of interest between the two roles played by Arthur Andersen, as auditor but also as consultant to Enron; the lack of attention shown by members of the Enron board of directors to the off-books financial entities with which Enron did business; and the lack of truthfulness by management about the health of the company and its business operations. Lastly, we would like to thanks to Dr Mazlinah on her dedicated and helpful to achieve our mission and mission to be a successful entrepreneur for the future. Arthur Andersen case study reminds us the most important ethics lessons of this decade. AMIN. Introduction; Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, was once one the â€Å"Big Five† accounting firms among Price Water House Coopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG , providing auditing, tax, and consulting services to large corporations. In 2002, the firm voluntarily surrendered its licenses to practice as Certified Public Accounting in the United States after being found guilty of criminal charges relating to the firm’s handling of the auditing of Enron, the energy corporation, resulting in the loss of 85,000 jobs. In this case Arthur Andersen shredded the vital documents sourcing the audit of Enron which occurred in the year 2002 . Although the verdict was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States, it has not returned as a viable business. However, how did this company get the reputation that it has while following such a moral slogan? As the clients demanded for more profit margins , Arthur Andersen scandal had to compromise his morality leading to the allegation that he had fraudulently altered the statement of such companies and corporation for example Sunbeam Products, Waste Management Inc. , Asia Pulp and Paper, The Baptist Foundation of Arizona , and WorldCom . Due to the downfall of Arthur Andersen, it lost nearly all of its business and clients. It lost not millions but billions of dollars due to this intense investigation. Although it is still in business and operating under Omega Management and has not as of yet declared bankruptcy, the firm will never reach its past legacy. Arthur Anderson's motto of â€Å"Think straight, talk straight† has forever been tainted in the eyes of Americans corporations. This devastation of fraudulent activity has forever left a deep and painful scar on America’s businesses. . The Arthur Andersen’s Troubles: Question 1: What did Arthur Andersen (AA) contribute to the Enron disaster? The most famous scandal case Arthur Andersen was involved in was the fraudulent auditing of Enron. In this case Arthur Andersen shredded vital documents sourcing the audit of Enron which occurred in the year 2002. According to Watkin, a financial executive who worked with Andrew Fastow told Enron CEO Kenneth Lay she feared that Enron would â€Å"implode in a wave of accounting audit scandal â€Å" (1: USA Today, Wed, Jan 16, 2002) AA apparent mistakes may have been made for several reasons to the Enron disaster including: †¢ Incompetence , as displayed and admitted in the rhythms case . Judgement errors; . as to the significants of each of the audit findings, or of the aggregate impact in any fiscal year. †¢ Lack of information caused by Enron staff not providing critical information, or failure on the part of AA personal to search it out . †¢ Time pressures :related to revenue generations and budget pressures that prevented adequate audit work and the full considera tions of complex SPE and prepay financial arrangements . †¢ Desire not to confront Enron management or advise the Enron board in order not to upset management, and particularly fastow, Skilling and Lay Lack of Independence. The Board of Directors failed to ensure the independence of the company auditor , allowing AA to provide internal audit and consulting services while serving the Enron outside auditors . †¢ A failure of AA’s internal policies whereby the concerns of a quality control or practice standards partner can and was overruled by the audit partner in charge of the Enron account. AA was the only one of the Big 5 accounting forms to have this flaw and it left the entire firm vulnerable to the decisions of the person with the most to lose by saying no to a client. A misunderstanding of the fiduciary role required by auditors . for example AA allowing Enron to engage in high risk accounting , inappropriate conflict of interest transactions, extensive undisclo sed off-the-books activities and excessive executive compensation . Given this â€Å"tone at the top’. It is reasonable to assume that AA partners were going to be motivated by revenue generations. But if too many risks are taken in the pursuit of revenue the probability of a series of audit problems leading to increasingly unfavorable consequences becomes greater . That is exactly what happened to Enron disaster. Unfortunately, the leaders of AA failed to recognize the cumulative degree to which the public, the politicians, and the SEC (The Securities and Exchange Commission) were angered by the progression of AA audit failures . Question 2: What Arthur Andersen (AA) decision were faulty? Arthur Andersen (AA) decision were faulty . This is the ‘ Enron Debacle† section presented previously covers in detail many of the questionable accounting transactions, legal structures, and related disclosures that AA reviewed as auditors of and consultants to Enron. AA faulty may have been made for several reason , including: †¢ AA apparently approved as auditors and consultants (and collected fees for the consulting advice) the structure of many special purpose entities (SPEs) that were used to generate false profits, hide losses, and keep financing off Enron’s consolidated financial statements , failed to meet the required outsiders 3 percent equity at risk, and decision control criteria for non consolidation . AA failed to recognize the generally accepted accounting principle (GAAP) that prohibits the recording of shares issued as an increase in shareholders’ equity unless they are issued for cash . †¢ AA did not advise Enron’s audit committee that Andrew Fastow, Enron’s CFO and his helpers were involved in significant conflict of interest situations without adequate alternative means of managing these conflicts. †¢ AA did not advise the Enron audit committee that Enron’s policies and internal control were not adequate to protect the shareholders’ interests even though AA had assumed Enron’s internal audit functions . Many transactions between Enron and the SPEs were not in the interest of Enron shareholders since: a) Enron profits and cash flow were manipulated and grossly inflated, misleading investors and falsely boosting management bonus arrangements. b) Extraordinarily overgenerous deals, fees, and liquidation arrangements were made by Fastow, or under his influence, with SPEs owned to Fastow , his family, and Kopper, who was also as employee of Enron . AA aparently did not adequately consider, the advice of its quality control partner, Carl Bass. He asked AA for an accounting change that would have resulted in a $30 – $50 million charge to Enron’s earnings. †¢ AA apparently did not find significant audit evidence, or did not act upon evidence found, related to the: 1)Mistaken valuation of shares or share rights transferred to SPEs 2 )Side deals between Enron and banks removing the bank’s risk from transactions such as the : a) Chewco SPE Rhythms hedge. ) Numerous prepay deals for energy futures, even though AA made a presentations to Enron on the GAAP and AA requirements that preclude such arrangements. Questions 3: What was the prime motivation behind the decision of Arthur Andersen’s audit partners on the Enron, WorldCom, Waste Management the public interest or†¦? Cite examples that reveal this motivation . The AA was motivated by greed instead of serving the public interest. The amount of money they got from the consulting fee has compromised their auditing works. In 1997, client Waste Management Inc. had the largest earnings restatement to date, wiping out $1. 7 billion in profits that it pulled in through the 1990s. The lead auditor on Waste Management was Robert Allgyer, who was known inside the firm as â€Å"the Rainmaker† for his success in cross-selling extra services to auditing clients. He was clearly successful at selling to Waste Management, which paid $17. 8 million in fees unrelated to the audit between 1991 and 1997, against audit fees of $7. 5 million. But he was also signing off on drastically inaccurate books. Among other things, the fast-growing trash hauler wasn't properly writing off the value of assets such as garbage trucks as they aged, a ruse that pumped up reported profits. The SEC's acting commissioner, Laura Unger, concluded that the agency had the â€Å"smoking gun† it was looking for to prove that the lure of consulting fees compromised auditor independence. The SEC filed suit in March 2002, accusing six former Waste Management executives of fraud. It alleges that Mr. Allgyer's judgment was skewed by consulting fees, in particular a $3. 7 million â€Å"strategic overview† of Waste Management operations. The project lasted for 11 months, but the client didn't adopt the recommendations. Bellow table shown example AA’s involvements in the major financial scandals as the audit firm that failed to discover their mistakes that reveal this motivation: |CLIENT |PROBLEM MISSED, DATE |LOSSES TO SHAREHOLDERS |JOB LOSSES |AA FINE | |WorldCom |$4. billion overstatement of |4179. 3 Million |17,000 |N. A | | |earnings announced on June 25,| | | | | |2002 | | | | | | | | | | | |Inflation of ncome, asset, | | | | | |etc bankrupt Dec 2, 2001 | | | | |Enron | |$66. 4 Billion |6,100 |$. 5 Million | | |Overstatement of income by | | |(for shredding) | | |$1. billion, 1992-1996 | | | | | | | | |$7 Million | | | | | | | |Waste Management | |420. 5 Billion |11,000 | | Question 7: Under what circumstances should audit firm shred or destroy working paper ? According to section 802 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, accountants who audit or review an issuer's financial statements are required to retain certain records relevant to that audit or review. These records include workpapers and other documents that form the basis of the audit or review, and memoranda, correspondence, communications, other documents, and records (including electronic records), which are created, sent or received in connection with the audit or review, and contain conclusions, opinions, analyses, or financial data related to the audit or review. To coordinate with forthcoming auditing standards concerning the retention of audit documentation, the rule requires that these records be retained for seven years after the auditor concludes the audit or review of the financial statements. Refer to the above question, for example if we as a professional audit firm can’t simply shred or destroy working paper. How long to keep a document, when and how to store the document, and how to dispose of the document, will depend on the type of document . As any internal auditor knows, there are numerous types of documents that may be accumulated as part f an audit or review. The final rule here requires the retention of all records relevant to the audit, including working papers and other documents that form the basis of the audited financial statements, as well as certain supporting documents. The guideline for document retention is that they must meet two criteria: (1) Documents are created, sent, or received in connection with the a udit or review, (2) the documents contain conclusions, opinions, analyses, or financial data related to the audit or review. Both Enron and Arthur Andersen are now gone, but this audit work-paper clean-up exercise, no doubt, was a major motivating factor for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act , Section 802 rules outlining penalties for the destruction of documents. The rules require external auditors who audit or review an enterprise's financial statements to retain certain records relevant to that work, including work papers and other documents that form the basis of the audit or review. These retention requirements include memoranda, correspondence, communications, other documents, and records, as well as related electronic records that are created, sent, or received in connection with the audit work and contain conclusions, opinions, analyses, or financial data related to the work. These records are to be retained for seven years after the auditor concludes the financial statements review. This rule was nothing new for many internal auditors as many audit functions have followed similar document retention rules based on U. S. tax document retention guidelines. The rules also states that if you know your company is under investigation, or even suspect that it might be, all document destruction and alteration must stop immediately. And, you must create a company records showing that you’ve ordered a halt to all automatic e-data destruction practices. Question 8: Answer the â€Å"Lingering Question† on page 94 . Enron has clearly done some damage to the U. S. economy, but it will not hold up recovery from the current recession. The fundamental health of the U. S. economy is strong and now getting stronger. I do believe Enron will be the morality play of the new economy. It will teach executives and the American public the most important ethics lessons of this decade. Among these lessons are: 1. You make money in the new economy in the same ways you make money in the old economy – by providing goods or services that have real value. 2. Financial cleverness is no substitute for a good corporate strategy. . The arrogance of corporate executives who claim they are the best and the brightest, â€Å"the most innovative,† and who present themselves as superstars should be a â€Å"red flag† for investors, directors and the public. 4. Executives who are paid too much can think they are above the rules and can be tempted to cut ethical corners to retain their wealth and perquisites. 5. Government regulations and rules need to be updated for the new economy, not relaxed and eliminated. Due to the downfall of Arthur Anderson, it lost nearly all of its business ,employees, and clients. It lost not millions but billions of dollars due to this intense investigation. Although it is still in business and operating under Omega Management and has not as of yet declared bankruptcy, the firm will never reach its past legacy. We believe accounting regulations should be altered to prohibit ownership of both auditing and consulting services by the same accounting firm. Accounting firms are already moving to sever their consulting businesses. The SEC should probably adopt additional disclosure requirements. Various regulators should tighten requirements for directors to be alert and provide protections for whistleblowers who bring improper behaviour to public attention. But, in the final analysis, the solution to an Enron-type scandal lies in the attentiveness of directors and in the truthfulness and integrity of executives. Clever individuals will always find ways to conceal information or to engage in fraud.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Miscommunications in the Workplace Essay

Recently we have had two of our retailers contact us with problems regarding shipments they have received or have failed to receive. I know this is not the first time this has happened but I would like to minimize the possibilities of it happening again. It seems the root of our problem is miscommunication in the workplace. As a shipping manager that has seen this kind of issue before in past work experiences and I believe I know what we can do to solve our breakdown in communication between the various departments, retailers, and co-workers. As CFO I know you will see this proposal can benefit the company both financially and operationally. First, I propose that the company implement a required form of communication. I believe hand written notes are a thing of the past and that we should upgrade our communication requirements to electronic mail. If we had an e-mail only policy we could have record of all communication on file without the risk of losing a post-it note. E-mail also includes the option of a read receipt, which allows the user to know when the receiver has opened and read the message or if they have not seen the message yet and another form of  communication, such as a phone call, might be required to meet a deadline. The policy might also include that all e-mails must receive a reply no matter how simple the message. I can head a short meeting at the end of the day to cover the implementation of this plan. The idea here is to eliminate hand written notes as well as informal communication such as instant messengers and social network communications. We will need to upgrade a few of the employee’s company cell phones and instruct them on how to use e-mail on these devices. Even though e-mails are good for keeping a history of communications, public relations expert Lisa Elias states, â€Å"When delivering delicate information, pick up the phone. A gentle tone of voice can soften bad news or express warmth and caring, whereas an email or text can easily be misconstrued,† (Kouremetis 2013). Although e-mail can help eliminate the outside forms of communication, another possible resolution would be to implement task management software into the office. This alone may solve the issue. There are many different task management programs available but one that has caught my eye is AtTask, which is used by corporations such as HBO, Samsung, and Adobe. AtTask will allow us to run a free trial of the software prior to purchasing and claims the product will allow us to see what is going on with our projects, if we are on time, and when it will be done (â€Å"Services†, 2012). You will even have access to the task manager to see what is going on in our shipping bay. AtTask even has an integrated communications technology that allows for instant messaging between co-workers and a notes system for the client list. That way, if one person speaks with a client of ours and they request a change to their order he can enter the message in the client’s message folder and we can all receive the notification straight to our smart phones and computers. Even though, task management software will ultimately benefit company wide communication, another area that lacks focus is education on the subject matter of the workplace. A few of these men have worked here for over ten years and they know every part number by memory, but communication technology is outgrowing these few at a rapid pace. On the other end of the  spectrum, these younger men have keen senses of current technological advancements, but they could use some more time in learning the step-by-step processes we face on a daily basis. I propose that we run a workshop meeting once every two weeks for a total of eight weeks to teach the young ones about the process of shipping from us, the supplier, to the consumer/retailer. This workshop could possibly be run during hours if the time comes available, but will most likely need to take place on Saturday from 12:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. The instructors will be chosen from 3 of our most experienced workers who will earn overtime from these extra hours. A separate workshop on communication technology for the employees that have been here should happen once a week for an hour, probably on Wednesday evenings after work. The employees will be eligible for overtime with this extra hour on the job. I believe that being educated on the subject matter of the workplace is vital to our success. In addition to knowledge of the workplace being significant, another part of the communication process that has lacked in certain areas is feedback. Feedback is one of the four major communication functions (Belch 2012). It is the key to knowing your communication was successful. We need to emphasize in the training process that it is okay to ask questions. I have seen it happen before where someone is afraid to ask a question for fear of disapproval only to have to go back re-work what has been done. Asking the right questions can help us to do it right the first time (D.I.R.T.Fi.T.). I feel the previously mentioned workshops would be a great time to re-emphasize the importance of asking questions. Also, as mentioned in the first proposal, all e-mails must receive a reply or they will be followed up with a phone call. We must remember that sometimes in order to receive feedback it must be asked for. After explaining a work order or process it is vital to ask, â€Å"Do you understand?† or â€Å"Do you have any questions for me?† Another way of obtaining feedback would be through face-to-face technology. With our smartphones and office computers we can send a more personal message with FTF video conferencing. Google Hangouts are part of the Google suite of applications that support multi-party video chat as well as other Google applications including Sketch-UP, Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and screen sharing and these types of technologies are being recommended as  teaching formats to doctors and professors around the globe (Roseth, 2013). In conclusion, I do believe there is work to be done in regards to the communication process in the workplace. I have proposed four strategies to minimize the possibility of future communication breakdowns. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have. You may decide to choose one or to integrate all four, the choice is yours, but I do ask that you please take your time in considering the possibilities and I do trust you will choose what is best for the company. References Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2012). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, 9th Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Kouremetis, D. (2013). Choosing Communication Methods Wisely for Your Small Business. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/denakouremetis/2013/01/28/choosing-communication-methods-wisely-for-your-small-business/ Roseth, C. (2013). Blending Synchronous Face-to-face and Computer-Supported Cooperative Learning in a Hybrid Doctoral Seminar. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 57(3), 54-59. â€Å"Services†. (2012). AtTask software services retrieved from http://www.attask.com/services

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

My perfect job Essay Example

My perfect job Essay Example My perfect job Essay My perfect job Essay Name: Instructor: Course: Date: My perfect job I learnt planning is an important pillar of success. Therefore, I have laid out several objectives in my life. One of them is establishing a career corresponding to my profession. I am a business consultant so I want to be an entrepreneur. This job will bring great satisfaction to me because I enjoy dealing with business. I also feel it is important to utilize my academic and professional qualifications. Since they belong to this field, I am likely to be more successful than in another career. The business will benefit the community in many ways (112). The business I have in mind is starting a coffee shop. I have discovered a market niche in a certain area in town. There is no coffee shop and there is a big potential market for it. I have carried out a market research in the area and I realized people would appreciate a coffee shop for relaxation. I also like coffee so I am sure I will enjoy personally running the business. I like interacting with people and this business will create that opportunity. A business demands commitment and good managerial skills. I also need to be good at making analysis for good decision-making. I intend to do everything possible to offer quality services to my customers. The most interesting part about my business plan is designing a menu and the shop layout. Looking at the design on paper, I can tell it will be a suitable place for relaxation. People will look forward to their tea breaks and evenings, since they will like my coffee shop. My personality is a major contributing factor when I chose this type of business. I am a tender person I cannot stand harsh and stressful work. I will be among the first people to relax in the coffee shop (137). My plan includes having some music in the shop. People love relaxing as they listen to nice music. I believe in giving to the community since that is where we belong. The theme of my coffee shop is about creating a serene atmosphere for people. When they are running errands, they could walk in for lunch or a cup of coffee. Friends also meet in such places so it will be a good meeting point for friends and people with common interests. Many people wish to work in offices and big companies. This is because such jobs have attractive salaries and they are prestigious. There is nothing wrong with such wishes I just want to show contrast between majority of the people and I. I am sure my business will take some time before giving returns. The same case applies to most businesses in the first few months. My main target is to have a social place for people and they will be looking forward to coming back. I will treat my customers with a lot of respect and ensure they are satisfied. This is a strategy of creating customer loyalty (149). The serene environment will not only favor the customer but also me. As my working place, I will be comfortable spending the whole day serving my customers. I have an interest in artwork and interior decor. It will be exciting for me when I choose the appropriate material to put in the coffeehouse. It feels as if I will be doing a hobby. I believe that people should engage in jobs that pleases them. The output is better than those who force themselves into careers they do not like (167). Having a business gives the owner independence. Unlike the employment, employees have to abide to the rules of the work place. A business owner will formulate his own rules and revise them as he wishes. He is also free to run a personal errand without consulting anyone. However, it is important to know that business will thrive according to the input of the owner. Some owners hire employees to run the business in their absence. Delegation is important since the owner will be doing other external duties concerning the business. I plan to get a few employees to help me with the coffee shop. Sometimes I will be tired and I know I will need help. My employees will maintain high standards of customer service for my customers. Another strategy of attracting customer loyalty is being friendly and familiar with customers who frequent the coffee shop. They feel appreciated and comfortable so they will be coming often. It is important for customers to give their view and opinions about the business. Information from clients is a good source of how to improve a business (171). When my business grows, I will engage in more community service. I will donate to charity and community development. For example, I enjoy cleaning programs. I will sponsor them and personally participate. Businesses also contribute to the revenue used for public welfare. I believe in paying taxes and other duties the authority requires. I intend to treat my employees with dignity and conduct myself with integrity. Employees look up to their manager so I will set a good example. When employees have a good environment for working, they will treat the customers well. People should consider starting businesses, which they will enjoy running. It is a big step in developing economy and supporting the economy. A market research would greatly assist in identifying a business opportunity. Some markets have niches, which are good enough to be businesses. The community appreciates services and goods brought near them since it will save them time. Businesses are the key to reduction of unemployment. When businesses are started, many people will get employment hence uplift their living standards. I am happy to know that my business will play a big role in helping the economy and community (194). Works cited Morkes, Andrew. Encyclopedia of careers and vocational guidance. Chicago, Ill: Ferguson Publishing Company. 2003. Print.

Monday, October 21, 2019

ITCs cigarette Business Essay Example

ITCs cigarette Business Essay Example ITCs cigarette Business Essay ITCs cigarette Business Essay High incidence of taxation continuously has been a deterrent to ITCs cigarette Business. Taxes amount to over 80% of the value added in the cigarette industry, hence making cigarettes increasingly unaffordable to the Indian tobacco consumer. There are about 200 million tobacco consumers in India, and of them, fewer than 14% can afford cigarettes, although cigarettes contributes 90% of total Central and State revenues generated from tobacco sector. Non-cigarette forms of tobacco consumption, constituting nearly 85% of tobacco consumption in the country, contribute barely 10% of Government revenues because of the difficulty of tax collection and the low tax yields that characterize this largely unorganized sector. There has been a prolonged punitive and discriminatory taxation regime at Central and State levels have made cigarettes unaffordable to the majority of tobacco consumers. Also, Non-cigarette forms of tobacco products are largely produced in the unorganized sector characterized by lower rates of tax and ineffective enforcement. As a result, there is a growing migration to lower value forms of tobacco consumption. Just to illustrate, in 2003, the effective excise duty on most tobacco products other than cigarettes is equivalent to about 12% of the net value of the product whereas on cigarettes this component is as high as 140%. Moreover in 2003, VAT was introduced on cigarettes already subject to a plethora of taxes. The export prospects were affected by the uncertainty and diminished market presence caused by the crop holidays in Andhra Pradesh. As a result, the export attractiveness of Indian tobaccos is caught up in a vicious cycle to the growing detriment of the tobacco farmers. Also, small base of domestic cigarette consumption discourages investment in RD and quality enhancement of tobacco varieties thereby sub-optimizing the export potential of tobacco. There was also threat from contraband trade of cigarettes aided with loopholes in the regulatory framework and lack of effective enforcement. In 2004-05, severe restrictions were imposed on the cigarettes industry with respect to advertisement, sale and consumption of tobacco products with the implementation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade, Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA). All these in totality made cigarette business less profitable and more challenging. As a result, ITC started diversifying into multiple businesses. While exploring new opportunities, for long term growth, ITC depended on its multiple strengths synergies that it could bring about from its existing businesses. We discuss few of such businesses in detail in the following sections. The mill at Bhadrachalam produces 240,000 TPY of papers and boards and has three board machines and two smaller paper machines. The mill produces paperboards for the packaging and graphics segments with a product range that includes Cyber XLPac (folding box boards), Pearl/Saphire Graphik (solid bleached boards) high value boards and the Ecoviron range of recycled boards. It also makes liquid packaging boards for Tetrapak in India. One of the big innovations at this mill has been the commissioning of an Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) fibre line. This is a state-of-the-art line which meets the effluent norms set by the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India and thus ties in with the Environment theme in its Triple Bottomline. The Tribeni Tissues unit was initially part of the Wiggins Teape Company, UK from 1961 to 1988. In 1992, it merged with ITC Ltd. The mill and its paper machines were refurbished with the latest technology. It has a capacity of 33,000 TPY with a product range that includes cigarette tissues, fine papers, packaging papers and specialties. The range from papers produced is quite diverse including Cigarette Tissues and Components, Laminating Base Tissue, Acid-Free and Anti-Rust Tissues, Low Grammage Printing Papers, Di cor Papers to Insulation Grade and Medical Grade Papers. The unit is ISO 9001:2000 version and ISO 14001 accredited. ITC has another paperboard facility at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu which was acquired from BILT Industrial Packaging Company in 2004. This mill manufactures Coated Duplex boards Greyback and Whiteback made with 100% recycled materials and has a single board machine with 90,000 TPY of capacity. The products are continuously monitored for quality using a Siemens DCS system and Measurex QCS system. Quality as in other ITC units is a big focus and the mill has continuously demonstrated quality having achieved ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications. The delivery of rolls and sheets is ensured by a modern Finishing House with short turnaround times. Eco Naturo and Eco Naturo-HS are the two grades of Coated Duplex Grey Back board made from this unit. For almost the first time in India, a customer has the option to buy a higher bulk and stiffness of Greyback Board (GD2 grade) for his carton requirements. The unit at Bollarum near Hyderabad produces 5000 TPY of Cast Coated Papers and Boards, 10,000 TPY of Poly Extrusion coated boards and 10000 TPY of C2S art boards and Ivory cards. It is the market leader in South Asia in carton boards and ranks second in turnover within the Indian paper industry. Most leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods Brands in India use paperboard manufactured at this location. Exports constitute about 20% of sales and cater to international markets in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iran, Australia, UAE, Turkey, China, Singapore, UK, Greece, Germany and USA. The unit is ISO 9001:2000 series accredited.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Buck Naked and Butt Naked

Buck Naked and Butt Naked Buck Naked and Butt Naked Buck Naked and Butt Naked By Maeve Maddox A reader has two questions about the idiom â€Å"buck naked†: 1. When did people start saying, â€Å"butt naked† instead of â€Å"buck naked†? 2. What does â€Å"buck naked† mean, anyway? buck naked, adjective: completely unclothed. In Old English, the word that is now spelled buck referred to a male deer. Later, the word also came be applied to the male of other species. For example, buck is the term for the male of the following animals: deer goat kangaroo mouse rabbit rat reindeer squirrel Not surprisingly, buck became a slang term for a male of the human species. The earliest OED citation for buck used to mean man or fellow is dated 1303. In the eighteenth century, buck was popular slang for a man who attended plays and other fashionable social events to be seen and admired. In Australia, buck was used to refer to male aborigines. In the United States, buck referred to both American Indians and men of African descent. Examples of this usage may be found in nineteenth-century entries in the US Congressional Record. Although various explanations have been offered, no one can say with certainty how the word buck came to be attached to naked. The earliest evidence of â€Å"buck naked† on the Ngram Viewer, which is based on printed sources, appears in 1914. â€Å"Butt naked† comes along in 1924, but doesn’t make much of a showing until 1980, when it begins to soar. Judging by a Google search, the newer term has taken over, at least on the Web: â€Å"buck naked†: 509,000 results   â€Å"butt naked†: 2,290,000 results    I prefer â€Å"buck naked,† because â€Å"butt-naked† strikes my ear as excessively vulgar. I cannot, however, argue that one is â€Å"more correct† than the other. Both expressions mean exactly the same thing. Both have found acceptance in colloquial speech. Neither, however, has a place in formal English. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Handy Expressions About Hands3 Types of HeadingsEspecially vs. Specially

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Virtual Workshops Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Virtual Workshops - Essay Example My formal categories were designed to show frequency in the video that highlighted rage and hostility and frequency of video which illustrated sympathy or disturbed reactions to the verdict. The content analysis format allowed me to establish the precise number of times that the news organization opted to illustrate any of these factors. One of my categories dealt with the social status of the trial participants (career, relationship to Saddam, etc.), which achieved no results in trying to determine whether people varying social status held differing opinions about the death sentence. Other than Saddam and the presiding judge, I could make no determination about social status as the media opted not to offer background information regarding the other trial participants. This failure could be remedied in further analyses by formulating categories for research that can be more readily displayed in the chosen data used for observation. In terms of future research, I might suggest that us ing the category of "intensity" might offer further data regarding whether the instances of emphasizing a media agenda are witnessed in terms of how media interactions take place. For instance, facial grimaces or smiles (in this case applying to the Saddam verdict) and their frequency within a form of media might suggest the emphasis being placed on fulfilling a biased media agenda. Virtual Workshop 3: Observation This is a content analysis report based on the observation carried out on people using a public transport.

How Saturated the DVD Market Has Become Case Study

How Saturated the DVD Market Has Become - Case Study Example The future development of the market will mainly depend on innovation; the company who manages to come up with new things will become the market leader. Blue-ray discs may not perform well because the blue ray players are quite expensive, people may be reluctant to buy blue ray players at a hefty price. It will also be great if companies can offer more space in a disc, it again comes down to innovation and reliability. Making a disc with more space is really difficult; the durability of the disc is another important factor. People will surely buy these discs if they can offer more space and if they are durable. Everything is becoming HD these days so it is important to make discs which can hold and play HD quality movies at a decent speed. Making scratch free discs is also a good idea to lure more customers into buying these modern day discs. These are some really important points which can give a company an edge and have an edge over others is always beneficial and profitable.   The blue-laser process is common to both the DVD types; the protection of the disc has been shrunk by the Blue-ray developers. HD discs have more capacity and a better scope of watching HD videos and other related content. The HD DVD format has not been altered much, the protective layer has not been meddled with and it has been left as it was. HD DVD is the next big thing there are no two ways about this, the picture quality is impeccable and a normal DVD can never match HD DVD but everything comes down to price. HD DVDs are way too expensive and not too many people would be willing to buy it. Normal DVDs can score over HD DVDs when it comes to price. If I were the manager of Toshiba I would employ the strategy of market penetration, similar products already exist in the market hence this strategy must be employed. Blue–Ray DVDs are way too expensive; I would cut down profits and make HD DVDs cheaper.

Friday, October 18, 2019

The Role of Magistrates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Role of Magistrates - Essay Example Thus, magistrates' assignments and the organization of their workloads can vary, sometimes dramatically, not only from district to district and courthouse to courthouse, but also among magistrates with offices along the same hallway in a single courthouse. (Carroll, 2003) Although they receive task assignments from district judges, magistrates, as judicial officers with their own legal and support staffs, retain at least some degree of autonomy in designing the organization of their workload. In fact, because they generally are not as involved with the time-consuming business of presiding over trials, events which require definitive scheduling in order to have parties, attorneys, witnesses, jurors, and other actors simultaneously present in one room, the subordinate judges frequently have significant autonomy in deciding when to address particular assigned tasks during their workdays. The magistrates generally are not responsible for prisoner cases. Habeas corpus and civil rights cases by prisoners are reviewed by two staff attorneys assigned to the district court. An experienced senior magistrate supervises these staff attorneys. Although this magistrate was laden with additional responsibilities, unlike in some other districts, he was not rewarded with the title "chief magistrate." After the initial screening by the staff attorneys, prisoner cases meeting procedural and legal requirements may be assigned by judges to their paired magistrates. A "duty magistrate" system developed for handling preliminary criminal matters. In the large court, magistrates are "on duty" for separate, rotating, one-week periods in which they have exclusive responsibility for processing the criminal cases. Thus, the magistrates normally handle criminal matters only once every five weeks. In the large court, criminal pre-trial matters, such as arraignments, bail reviews, detention hearings, initial appearances, search warrants, and arrest warrants, arise virtually every day. In addition, some of the judges have magistrates handle criminal pre-trial conferences to coordinate and settle evidentiary and other matters prior to trial. Magistrates in Action The following incident observed at the courthouse provides a picture of the magistrates at work as subordinate yet authoritative judicial officers. In the large courthouse, there is a daily "Duty Call" scheduled at one o'clock each afternoon to handle preliminary criminal matters. On this particular day, the district's magistrates held their regular monthly luncheon meeting, which did not conclude until 1:15. Afterwards, the duty magistrate talked with the author about the magistrates' roles for ten more minutes prior to entering the courtroom. Magistrates, like judges, recognize that lawyers and witnesses are frequently late in getting to court. Therefore, court proceedings generally do not begin and the magistrate or judge will not enter the courtroom until all other relevant actors are present. The magistrate's lack of concern about beginning precisely on time did not indicate

Interpretation of Compernicus in the 16th century Research Paper

Interpretation of Compernicus in the 16th century - Research Paper Example This essay will deal with the interpretations of Copernican cosmology among his contemporaries, with special attention being paid to views on Copernican theory exhibited by leading theologians of the epoch, both Catholic and Protestant. In addition, an account of interpretations of Copernicus in non-European historical environment will be presented, with Ottoman Empire serving as a case study. It will be argued that the dominant interpretations of Copernican astronomy in the 16th century were far from overwhelmingly hostile, as might be inferred from the treatment of Giordano Bruno and later Galileo Galilei, and that established ecclesiastical authorities in most cases lacked a coherent policy towards Copernicans until the 17th century. THE EARLY LUTHERAN RESPONSE TO THE COPERNICAN THEORY. MELANCHTHON, RHETICUS AND THE WITTENBERG INTERPRETATION Although the notion of existential hostility of Lutheran thinkers towards Copernican astronomy, presented by White in his famous account of L uther’s alleged derisory remark on Copernicus (White 1:126-7), is widespread, it seems that such a conclusion would be premature. While Kuhn asserts that Luther and Melanchthon viewed Copernican theory as contravening the Scripture and constituting near blasphemy (Kuhn 191), Barker and Westman strongly oppose such a view, instead suggesting that the attitude of Lutherans to Copernicanism was more nuanced (Barker; Westman, â€Å"The Copernicans and the Churches†). First of all, it is significant that the presentation of Copernican heliocentric theory itself was conducted not by Copernicus himself, but by Georg Joachim Rheticus (1514-1574), a young mathematician from the University of Wittenberg, which was the spiritual centre of Lutheran current in the Reformation (Westman, â€Å"The Copernicans and the Churches† 81). In fact, Rheticus was entrusted by Copernicus with publishing Narratio Prima, the draft version of the Copernican master work, De Revolutionibus, i n 1540. Together with another Lutheran scholar, Andreas Osiander (1498-1552), Rheticus published De Revolutionibus itself in 1543, with a special notice that the latter was an astronomical and mathematical, rather than philosophical, work. It is assumed that this notice was added in order to prevent possible backlash by conservative theologians and scholastics against Copernican theory (Westman, â€Å"The Copernicans and the Churches† 81). Such interpretation of Copernicus’s work, i.e. not as a work aimed at uncovering physical truth, but as a mathematical treatise that was merely to provide mathematically consistent observations was to become a basis for the so-called Wittenberg Interpretation of Copernicus. It is interesting to note that Melanchthon seems to have been initially critical of Copernicus’s ideas, but later acknowledged their validity, especially with regard to Copernican planetary parameters and theory of moon movements (Westman, â€Å"The Melanc hthon Circle†). Although Melanchthon never recognized the claims of Copernican heliocentrists with respect to cosmological issues, he obviously regarded Copernicus’s mathematical calculations on celestial body movements as superior to the Ptolemean ones. Melanchthon dismissed Copernican observation on the earth’s motion, finding it to be incompatible with the Scripture and the Aristotelian idea of simple motion, according to which each simple body has only one type of motion inherent in it (Westman, â€Å"

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Project Management & Strategic Planning - Case Study -- [S6] Essay

Project Management & Strategic Planning - Case Study -- [S6] - Essay Example major steps in strategic planning phase went missing; steps such as estimation of resource requirements, risk planning and communication with all stakeholders. Furthermore in monitoring and controlling phase business continuity was not planned hence the WestJet implementation took more time and cost along and resulted in customer dissatisfaction. Estimation of resources such as time, people and money ensures a better execution, through risk planning all the related risk factors to the project are estimated with risk prevention and mitigation plans while communication with all stakeholders including customers ensures business continuation in an effective way and clarifying roles and responsibilities (Charvat, 2002). Effective communication prior to a project initiation determines the information and communication needs of the stakeholders resulting in better understanding of responsibilities and tasks distribution as well as clarifying the expectations from them. It results in formation of a cohesive team resulting in a better performance later on and initiates a change management process within the organization. Increased level of awareness invites ideas from employees and customers and ensures readiness of all involved parties. Some disadvantages to communicating a major project in advance include wasted time of project managers in communicating with stakeholders, revealed plans to competitors most of the time triggering a reaction, increased level of suspicion amongst the employees and confusion within customers. Communicating major projects in advance, the project manager has to emphasize on explaining each stakeholder the specific value addition for them (Green, 2007). With volumes sales go down and decreased revenue is not considered good for even an organization in its transition or up-gradation. Along with the unavailability of seats or canceled flights it was essential that both airlines convey the positive message maintaining the trust of the customer

Musical Theater Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Musical Theater - Research Paper Example All over the world â€Å"Musicals† are performed. Sometimes they are performed at big budget venues such as Broadway theatre productions and West End theatre. It is sometimes performed on small scale theatres such as Off-Broadway and Fringe Theatre. The fact is that it is present in almost every corner of the world. Since from the start of twentieth century â€Å"book musicals† has been the source of musical plays in which dances and songs are integrated into a well composed story, having some real dramatic goals and as a result it evoked real emotions except laughter. There are three different componenets of book musicals, the first one is the book, the second is lyrics and the third is songs. The book refers to the main story and its spoken words. Book is also sometimes referred to as the combination of lyrics and dialogues together. In opera it is known as the libretto which mean a concise book in ltalian. The creative team of any musical have the responsibility to interpretate the musical in such a way that it influence the audience to a great extent. (Miller, 34) The creative team of each production consists of a musical director, director, orchestrator and choreographer. The technical aspects of musical production include props (the stage properties), set design, sound, lighting an d costumes. These technical aspects change from one production to the other depending on the story. The book musical usually do not have fixed length. It can have only single act and sometimes it contains several acts of different lengths. Musicals are normally presented in two different lengths with intermission in between. (Miller, 76) The first act is usually longer than the second one. Most of the musicals lasts from one hour to one and a half hour. In the first act most of the music and all of the characters are introduced. It often ends with plot complications. The second act reprises some important

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Project Management & Strategic Planning - Case Study -- [S6] Essay

Project Management & Strategic Planning - Case Study -- [S6] - Essay Example major steps in strategic planning phase went missing; steps such as estimation of resource requirements, risk planning and communication with all stakeholders. Furthermore in monitoring and controlling phase business continuity was not planned hence the WestJet implementation took more time and cost along and resulted in customer dissatisfaction. Estimation of resources such as time, people and money ensures a better execution, through risk planning all the related risk factors to the project are estimated with risk prevention and mitigation plans while communication with all stakeholders including customers ensures business continuation in an effective way and clarifying roles and responsibilities (Charvat, 2002). Effective communication prior to a project initiation determines the information and communication needs of the stakeholders resulting in better understanding of responsibilities and tasks distribution as well as clarifying the expectations from them. It results in formation of a cohesive team resulting in a better performance later on and initiates a change management process within the organization. Increased level of awareness invites ideas from employees and customers and ensures readiness of all involved parties. Some disadvantages to communicating a major project in advance include wasted time of project managers in communicating with stakeholders, revealed plans to competitors most of the time triggering a reaction, increased level of suspicion amongst the employees and confusion within customers. Communicating major projects in advance, the project manager has to emphasize on explaining each stakeholder the specific value addition for them (Green, 2007). With volumes sales go down and decreased revenue is not considered good for even an organization in its transition or up-gradation. Along with the unavailability of seats or canceled flights it was essential that both airlines convey the positive message maintaining the trust of the customer

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

The Principle of Differentiated Responsibility and to What Extend It Essay

The Principle of Differentiated Responsibility and to What Extend It is Important for the Development of International Laws - Essay Example The countries in the world usually experience common environmental issues despite the fact that vital differences do exist in the responsibilities that they are charged with performing. The notion has increasingly been receiving recognition in the field of environmental international law (Morosin, p.109). The international laws regarding the environment usually cover treaty laws along with customary laws that aim at protecting the environment (Honkonnen, p.28). Treaty laws comprise of many treaties which are multilateral and can be interpreted using many different methods obtained from reading the simple texts they are contained in (United Nations Environment Programme, p.13). When controversies arise due to the different interpretations that exist, different interpretations can be applied in solving the questions at hand (Morosin, p.42). On the other hand, in customary laws, the wide consensus and conviction of most governments are required before they can be legally binding on the members. They immediately become operational upon being signed by the countries and they do not remain matters to be attended to when convenient (Bonilla &Burhenne-Guilmin, p.112). There are however major controversies that exist between which laws along with policies should be followed or implemented (Bortscheller, p.67). The organization for international labour appreciates that the fact that due to the different cultures, climate, industrial traditions and economic opportunities, uniformity in the global labour conditions is quite difficult to achieve (Morosin, p.86). The environmental declaration made in Rio states that in light of the different contributions by different countries towards the worldwide environmental degradation, the countries responsibilities are different in curbing the problem (United Nations Environment Programme, p.14). However, the developed countries in the world have already acknowledged their leading role in helping to clean up the environment (Kiss & S helton, p.76). This is because they are more advanced technologically and have adequate finances to steer their efforts towards eliminating the effects of their activities on the environment (Morosin, p.97). In addition, the climate change framework convention also stated that different countries within the globe should all participate in protecting their climatic systems based on equality (Bonilla &Burhenne-Guilmin, p.19). It also states that their activities should be performed in accordance with their diverse responsibilities along with capabilities (Bortscheller, p.112). Two major concerns are considered in the principles of differentiated responsibilities. The first concern of the principle is that the nations in the world should work together towards eliminating their common problems in protecting their environments at all levels (Morosin, p.177). Secondly, it concerns itself with the different responsibilities along with capabilities that different nations have in their activ ities of protecting their environment (Bonilla &Burhenne-Guilmin, p.68). The Stockholm along with the Rio declarations facilitate for the differences in finances and technology among the countries in the world that are participating in the environments protection along with cleanup (Kiss & Shelton, p.149).The declaration of Stockholm holds that the international community should consider the difference that exists in the standards of facilities between the

Monday, October 14, 2019

Issuing the Draft Essay Example for Free

Issuing the Draft Essay In response to the first argument in favor of volunteer enlistment, I would counter that the overall effect would continue to support the status quo in that privileged and wealthy Americans would not have an urgent need to enlist. Due to this economic division between classes, the lower class sector would continue to be the majority of soldiers because of a lack of better options in civilian society. In this general sense the moral of the ‘volunteer’ would not increase but would remain either indifferent or resentful. Making the draft mandatory could be seen as an equalizing force that supports the doctrine that ‘all men are created equal,’ whether or not that be the case. Response to second argument: Responding to the second argument against the draft due to the lack of funding by the part of the government, I would contend that the volunteering aspect would cut the overall size of the military because of the negative perspective that the government is mis-appropriating their funds. If this were the case, volunteers would feel no urgent necessity to enlist because they would feel their efforts would not be recognized or supported sufficiently enough to warrant such a life changing decision. Although I agree that volunteers who join causes they believe in will ultimately perform with more vigor, in this case the moral boost would be ever-vanishing.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Native American Voices Know the Definition of Native American Essay ex

Many school children celebrate a clichà © Thanksgiving tradition in class where they play Indians and Pilgrims, and some children engage in the play of Cowboys vs. Indians. It is known that some died when colonization occurred, that some fought the United States government, and that they can be boiled down to just another school mascot. This is what many people understand of the original inhabitants of America. Historical knowledge of these people has been shallow and stereotyped. The past 150 years has given birth to a literate people now able to record their past, present, and future. Native American literature, as it evolves, defines the Native American culture and its status in the world, as an evolving people, more so than any historical account can. Before colonization, the Native Americans used oral traditions to teach, remember, entertain, and pray. Much of this knowledge was lost because of various reasons. After translation became an option some of these were written down. This is the beginning of Native American literature, the becoming of sound into word. A major pattern of distrust for the white man’s words are evident in this beginning of their literature. Cochise, an Apache leader, made a speech in 1872, loosely entitled [I am Alone] that addressed Americans. This was translated by a white man. It is not known how accurate it is, however, it conveys a strong message. Cochise is a proud man, who is always truthful. â€Å"I hereby pledge my word, a word that has never been broken† (1463). He has his doubts about the truthfulness of the Whites whom he watched come in small numbers and had welcomed in friendship. Cochise was confused to their behavior, â€Å"At last your soldiers did me a very great wrong†(1463). When they ... ...can literature you find the accounts of things such as the slaughtering of buffalo and leaving them to rot on the ground, and the United States government forbidding Indians to practice their religious rites and beliefs (Momaday 2507). The history books do not tell these things. History is written by those who write, and often enough by the ones that find themselves in power by gift or coercion. History has dealt the indigenous cultures of America a hard blow. The culture-shock faced by these people, who have dwindled down in number from the vast and populous tribes, is one that is still being felt today. Fortunately more and more Native American literature is being written and discovered. From these accounts, verse, and prose and insight can be gained into these proud people who are living in another man's world, once theirs, and have paid to do so ever since.

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Solving Problem Creatively Over The Net :: essays research papers

Solving Problem Creatively Over the Net Since I got my internet privileges last 3 month, I had learn and encounter many weird and wonderful things. I have met the ugly side of internet and learnt something called "if you overspend your time limit, the phone bill gonna be very ugly."Perhaps the most interesting moment I encounter in the internet is when I discover homepage making. I made a homepage from learning HTML language from a web site. I want my homepage to be bold and simple but most of all animation- free. As a surfer myself, I know how it feels when entering a homepage that is full with high resolution graphic and animation. The animation had to be reload and reload again. Within 2 hours I managed to made myself a homepage.I also know to make an impressive homepage,one must have a high counter number so that people will revisit the homepage again. I can't use any "sensual" word to attract people cause it's against Geocities's rule. So I did a very nasty thing. I cheated, I put an extra counter number in my homepage beside my origi nal counter number so each time when it reload it will look like this---->0101.While the only people who visited my homepage was myself, but instead the counter number show 101. MIRC The Solution When my PC suffered a data crash, I lost all my data. I lost all my e-mail address and most importantly my browser.The computer technician managed to repair my PC but he gave me an old version of Netscape.I have trouble using it in Win'95.So I downloaded the later version of Netscape.The downloading seize when it reaches 52%. I had to reload if I were to use Netscape.Instead I used MIRC to download the program because MIRC come with this neat feature that allow me to resume downloading where I left out. As a result, I get to continue my downloading at 17564 byte from a friend. I'm The Biggest Leech The rule of warez is-to download you must upload. The warez people even wrote a scipt to ban people who didn't upload when they download. To upload any program of mine to anyone will take forever, all the file I have is at least 6

Friday, October 11, 2019

Comparing between the working class and the middle class

In this section I will be comparing between the working class and the middle class. I will also be looking into the comparisons within the classes. Finally I will be showing evidence that the gap is closing between the classes. The following will also explain the vast differences between the home of Mr Jones the dentist, which is top of the middle class, and the Widow, which is the bottom of the working class. Mr Jones lives in 4 Ravensworth Terrace and the Widow lives in 4 Francis Street Mr Jones's house was situated opposite to the park and near to the town. This was useful for work, because he owned 2 houses. One of them was his living house and the other was his dentistry house. On the other side of the museum there was the colliery village. There was a row of pit cottages here. In number 4 lived the Widow with her 2 children. The house was near the pit; this meant that the air was dusty, smoky and murky. This was also a noisy place to live, all because of one thing, the pit. The pit owned the pit cottages; these were for the families of the pit workers. They were also given free coal for working in the mine. This is a big difference to Mr Jones. He owned both of his houses. This shows that Mr Jones had a beautiful surrounding to his house and that the widow was worse off. Mr Jones lived in a house with a ground floor, first floor and an attic. On the ground floor is where Mr Jones's kitchen, living room and utility room were. On the first floor there was a master bedroom, the bathroom and a nursery. In the attic lived the maid. This is because the Jones's were more important. Outside they had a privy that only the maid used and a coal shed. This is compared to the widow's bungalow, which had a kitchen, living room/bedroom and an attic. In the widow's house there were several uses for the rooms. The front room was used for sleeping and entertaining visitors. This would only be used on special occasions like Christmas or weddings. The kitchen was used for cooking, cleaning, sleeping, bathing and drying clothes. The loft was one room, which was where the children slept. Mr Jones's house is totally different. His kitchen was used purely for cooking and cleaning, the bathroom for sanitation etc. So where as the widow's house was compact Mr Jones's house was spacious. The gardens for Francis Street were large. This is because they needed to grow fruit and vegetables, because they could not afford to buy fresh produce. On the other hand Mr Jones had a small garden because he could afford to buy fresh fruit and vegetables each day. In his garden he was able to grow flowers and shrubs. The sanitation of the houses was different. The widow's toilet was an ash pit privy outside. For toilet paper they used newspaper cut into squares. Mr Jones's was very different. He had a plumbed in bathroom with shower, bath, sink and flushing toilet. They also had an outside privy, which was purely used by the maid. The plumbed in bathroom was for family only. This is compared to the widow who had a tin bath hanging on the wall outside and had a cold-water tap in the utility room. Mr Jones was totally different because he had hot and cold taps inside and a plumbed in bath too. In the widow's house there was only candle light, she also had a fire lit 24 hours a day, six days a week, 365 days a year. The reason for the fire not being on for 7 days a week was so that the family could clean it. This provided heat to cook on and boiled water. It also lights up the kitchen and also heats the house up. Mr Jones on the other hand had electric lighting in every room with electric heaters. He only had one need for an open fire because he needed it for appearances and heating. He also had a cooker fire, which was used for cooking. This shows the vast differences between the top of the middle class and the bottom of the working class. I am comparing 2 and 4 Francis Street. In number 2 lived The Methodist family, and in number 4 lived the Widow. I will explore the main differences between each. The families were both working class and lived in pit cottages. There were a lot of differences between them. Firstly I will be explaining the bedding, which each family had. In both houses they had 3 beds. One in the front room, one in the attic and one in the kitchen. In the widows house 1 child would sleep in the kitchen, the other child would sleep in the loft and the widow would sleep in the double bed in the front room. This was the same for the Methodist Family, except that the Mum and Dad would have slept in the front room. In the widows house she had thin sheets in the kitchen, because of the heat from the fire. The bed in the loft would have thin sheets too; this is because they had an open chimney. The bed in the front room would have a homemade quilt and she had hooky mats for extra warmth. This is compared to the Methodist's, their beds in the kitchen and loft would be the same, but the bed in the front room would have a thick white duvet. This showed wealth, because after the miners came home from work they would be covered in coal dust, so their covers will get dirty more often. Now I will extract the differences between the furniture of each house. The widow had a brass double bed; this was the cheapest at the time, a sofa, and a table; with floor mats as a tablecloth. This shows that the widow didn't have enough money to buy new objects. This is compared to the Methodist's. I will start with their half-tester bed; this was a bed, which had 2 posts with cloth draped over the top. They had a chest with a showcase with pottery and books on show, also a couple of tables with tablecloths, a rocking chair and a fireplace. This shows that they have more money to spend on luxuries. There is a huge difference in the furniture. Now I will look into the different floors in each house. In the widow's house she had stone floors with a lot of hooky mats. These were all different because the family did not have enough money to afford carpets. Now I will look at the Methodist family. They had fitted carpets and carpets up the stairs. This shows the family is well off because they could afford the carpets to be fitted. Now I will evaluate the differences in lighting in each house. The widow has oil lamps; the only problem was that she could not afford to use them. Instead they had to use candles. They could not afford oil because they barely had enough money to get by. This is compared with the Methodist family. They too had oil lamps; they used their oil lamps regularly. This shows they had money to spend. Looking at the income of each household, the widow had to work for extra income just to get by together with the low income from her two mining sons. She made her extra income by making and selling hooky and proggy mats, organising a quilting club in her home where other working class women sat around the fire and made quilts for a small charge. She also took in washing from other people, which added to her income. This compared to the Methodist family who had adequate money from the husband and children who worked down the pit. They needed no extra income to add to their wages. All the information above shows that even though the Methodist family and the widow are in the same social class their lives are totally different. In the next section I will be explaining how different Mr Jones's houses were to Miss Smith's house. Even though they are both in the same class their homes were very different. Mr Jones lives at 4 Ravensworth Terrace and a couple of doors down lived Miss Smith at No 2. First I will be explaining where each houses money came from. Miss Smith's money came from her music teaching. She charged 6d per half hour. This is 2 1/2 pence in today's currency. Whereas the dentist, Mr Jones, charged 15 shillings for a filling; à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1 7s 6d for a false tooth; and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10 10s (10 guinea) for a full set of false teeth. This shows the huge difference in one days work. The difference between both heating and cooking in each household are that in Mr Jones's house he had a gas cooker and a fire range. For heating he had electric heaters around the home. This is being compared to Miss Smith's home where she had an open fire in the front room and her bedroom. This would only be lit if she were ill in bed. Her maid cooked on a coal fire range in the kitchen. The lighting in each house varied because Mr Jones had electric lighting in each room throughout each of his houses. This shows that he was wealthy because he could afford to have this installed. This is compared to Miss Smith who only used oil lamps through her house. The sanitation which each house had was different because Mr Jones had a fully plumbed in bath, flushing toilet and shower in the bathroom as well hot and cold water taps. He also had an outside toilet, which only the maid used. This is a vast difference to Miss Smith. She had an outside toilet and a tin bath hanging from the outside wall. They brought this in front of the fire range. For the morning wash the maid would fetch a hot bowel of water to each bedroom. Mr Jones had several stained glass windows, a gramophone and a nursery for the children. This is compared with Miss Smith's luxuries, which were 7-1/2 octaves piano, carpets fitted up the stairs, biblical plaque readings and a stained glass window. The next comparison area is the servants in each house. Miss Smith had a level maid. This means that the maid lived on the same floor was her. Miss Smith's maid used the same washing and sanitation as herself. This is compared to the maid of Mr Jones. He had a maid, which slept in the attic and could not wash or use his plumbed in bathroom. She had to use a tin bath and the outside toilet. Even though they were in the same social category there were a lot of differences between them. I have explained earlier the vast differences between the top of the middle class (Mr Jones) and the bottom of the working class (the widow). Also I have explained the differences between the two working class houses and the homes of the two middle class houses. I will be looking in more depth between the middle class home of Miss Smith and the working class home of the Methodist family and finding similarities. For example both houses were of Victorian dà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½cor. This was dark colours, dark fabrics for curtains and drapes and bold wallpaper. This was unusual because in 1913 the most common dà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½cor was Georgian. In each of the houses there was a coal fire, this was the heat source for both. This was also used as the method of cooking. They both had fitted carpets up the stairs and around the house. Their ornaments and pictures were also very similar. Each house had two matching china dogs and several portraits of the Royal Family of the time. The lighting for each house was oil lamps. Unlike the widow both families could afford to use it, but they could not afford electricity. The similarities of sanitation were that each house would have a tin bath, cold tap and an outside toilet. From the information I have gathered and presented I have found a hierarchy of families. They are: * Mr Jones the dentist * Miss Smith the music teacher * Methodist family * The Widow Miss Smith could not live like Mr Jones because she had something called â€Å"old money†. This is money, which she inherited when her parents passed away, whilst Mr Jones had â€Å"new money†. This is money, which he had earned. Mr Jones had a constant supply of money from work whereas Miss Smith's money would eventually decrease. The widow could not afford to live in the same condition as the Methodist family because she only had her sons bringing in wages from the pit. If her husband were still alive she would be able to live more like the Methodist family. So, I think that the gaps between the classes were closing at this period of time. This is because their houses were very similar. Their style of decoration, heat, light etc was of the same standards.