The United States A Country Of Equal Opportunity

The United States is often seen by many as a country of equal opportunity. A place where social classes do not exist. Unfortunately, thoughts such as these are wrong because the US is far from being the only country to escape this exception. When observed closely there are signs that each person manifests that distinctively show what social class they belong to. Although money is the most common marker of class, education along with health related topics such as heart disease and eating habits are strong inicators of class. Throughout time one of the most obvious class markers has been education and it still remains so. People who belong to the higher classes view education as a higher priority and have more access to the best school in the country. When stuck in lower classes people must attend schools where books, computers, and education are not found at the same level. An article in the Atantic Times mentions that â€Å" Kids who belong to lower social classes fell behind c hildren in the upper classes by about a year or so.† Today, that gap is close to four years.† For those in the upper class their kids are placed in an abundance of classes from an early age such as foreign language, art, and many sports. Children who are in lower classes have no way of getting a head start when compared to children in higher classes Sarah Garland also mentions how â€Å" When children have plenty of time to build social skills and bigger vocabularies in short term reduce their chances ofShow MoreRelatedBrown V. Board Of Education1294 Words   |  6 Pagesare cases in which their is so much controversy in the case that it needs to be handled by the Supreme Court of the United States or SCOTUS. Brown v. The Board of Education is a very intrical part of our United States history. This Supreme Court case desegregated public schools in the United States in 1954. The case involved saying no to African American children equal rights to state public schools du e to the laws requiring racial segregation. Oliver Brown, an African American, had an eight year oldRead MoreEquality And The American Dream1068 Words   |  5 Pagesthe official document that claimed that their new name the United States of America and they would succeed from unfair British control. The Declaration of Independence was famous for demanding that everyone should have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Fast forward 187 years, Martin Luther King gave his monumental â€Å"I Have A Dream† speech in 1963 about his displeasure in the nation’s ability to protect equal opportunity for its citizens. The American Dream has always been basedRead MoreThe American Dream866 Words   |  4 Pagesnot only citizens of the United States strive to attain, but an ideal that immigrants and citizens of other countries come to America in search for. Many people, including immigrants associate the American dream with success and good opportunities such as having a well-paying job, owning a home, doing better in life than parents, as well as upward social mobility. The American dream, being a national ethos of the United States, is supposed to represent equal opportunity for everyone, regardless ofRead MoreRepresentation Of The United States960 Words   |  4 Pagesin the legislature. Equality is defined as the state of being equal. especially in regards to a person’s status, their rights as citizens, and the opportunities given to them. In American society, every citizen is supposed to be given equal rights and opportunities by the politicians they chose to represent them in the country’s government. One issue that I believe to be viewed and discussed by many people in our society is whether the United States government represents its citizens equally orRead MoreCauses of Racism in the United States Essay example1039 Words   |  5 PagesThe United States of America is a multicultural nation. All races and cult ures are almost represented in America. Considered as a nation of immigrants, this country has faced and still facing many racial issues from the Civil Right Movement till today. Racism and discrimination have always been the most discussed topics when it comes to any society problems. To understand this issue we should try to find the causes and then think of an appropriate ways to reduce them. What should government do toRead MoreEssay On Gender Inequality1687 Words   |  7 Pagesgender inequality. Though some may argue that men experience gender inequality, this seems to exist on a much more invasive level for women. As of recently, the awareness of gender inequality in the workplace has increased. With the fight for equal pay and equal respect, society is already making strides towards the equality of women. With that being said, one aspect of gender inequality that seems to be widely unspoken about is the one present in families and households. Like I said before, genderRead MoreVoting throught the History of the United States: Not Living Up to the Founding Fathers ´ Ideals1118 Words   |  5 Pagesperfection is out of reach why even try. The American government was founded on the basis of equality, rights, liberty, opportunity, and democracy. These vision influences our actions and decision. There are sometimes when the government did not allow people to have equal rights and the freedom. The nation increased opportunity and equality to Americans perhaps not all though. United States have not lived up to the founding fathers’ ideals. Voting first limited to those who had land; then those whoRead MoreEqual Outcomes vs. Equal Opportunities Essay978 Words   |  4 PagesEqual Outcomes vs. Equal Opportunities Description: If you take all the change out of your pocket and look at the tail side of each coin you will find written in Latin the motto of the United States of America; e pluribus Unum. It states : out of many, one. This statement suggests that there are many different cultures that comprise our country, and all these cultures are as one. The United States political system has enacted numerous policies in order to ensure the equality promisedRead More What It Means to be an American Essay720 Words   |  3 Pagesbeen, and at times its not. It is hard for the United States to be correct all the time because they have been unwilling designated as the â€Å"World Police†. Throughout history there have been examples politically, economically, and socially, where being an American is rewarding and times where it is embarrassing. To be an American means progress. We evolved from a world ruled by white men to a world of equal opportunity. Politically the United States has had its ups and downs. The Watergate scandalRead MoreWhat It Means T Be an American Essay756 Words   |  4 Pagesbeen, and at times its not. It is hard for the United States to be correct all the time because they have been unwilling designated as the World Police. Throughout history there have been examples politically, economically, and socially, where being an American is rewarding and times where it is embarrassing. To be an American means progress. We evolved from a world ruled by white men to a world of equal opportunity. Politically the United States has had its ups and downs. The Watergate scandal

Memory Essay Free Essays

Autobiographic memories are known to be frequently inaccurate. In fact, when a person recalls the past, the images of real events are intermingled with events that either never occurred or are distorted so severely that there is little opportunity to recognize the true happenings in them. This occurs because of the operation of certain principles of memory that render exact memories difficult and almost unrealistic. We will write a custom essay sample on Memory Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now These principles include schemas and mechanisms of interference explaining why memories can often be inaccurate and misleading. Schemas Schemas directly affect human perception of the outer world, other people. They are even more significant in the conceptualization of what one is and what one believes oneself to be. A person operating on a schema has a distinct perception of one’s own self that fits into a framework pre-specified in the schema. This framework includes a variety of attributes directly related to the life of an individual. An elderly woman could see her life as one of a devoted Christian. In such a case, she can be willing to shove away the memories that do not demonstrate such a trend in her life. Thus, she may be willing to repress memories of youthful fun that do not fit into her current beliefs and attitudes so that she could feel more comfortable about her past. This can occur not because of intended self-deception, but because of the stated schema that operates at the subconscious level. A man whose schema is that of a courageous hero will live the life based on this schema. In this case, he will tend to repress memories of his childhood episodes in which he acted as a coward or a villain, in his own current perception. Such incidents will not fit into his schema and thus are repressed as conflicting. The schema in this way governs not only what occurs in the present, but also memories of the past. Interference Interference is another powerful influence on the mechanisms of memory that makes remembrance of the past often inaccurate. It occurs because a human mind cannot store infinite amounts of information. When new information comes in, it may interfere with the older layers. Interference falls into two types: proactive interference and retroactive interference. The first kind occurs when â€Å"an older memory interferes with remembering a newer memory† (Borree, 2002). This is especially relevant to the successive study of several foreign languages when the knowledge of the previously studied language can interfere with the knowledge of the current one. Retroactive interference, in contrast, occurs when â€Å"newer memories interfere with older ones† (Borree, 2002). The latter type is more relevant to the exploration of autobiographic memory inaccuracy. When the current information conflicts with older layers, it can take precedence over them. A person who has achieved high socioeconomic status in the present may inaccurately believe that his past was also more glorious than it really was. A common occurrence is to see the harsh treatment from parents as intolerable abuse when one is consistently told, for instance, in a therapy course, that he or she was the victim of abuse. Evidence shows that â€Å"some of the people who remembered terrible things like being abused as children were discovered to have created these memories under pressure from their therapists† (Borree, 2002). When people in society are continuously being told about abuse in families, they tend to see their past in the same light, inventing instances of abuse even where they were not present. This represents a case of interference where the past interferes with the present. Repression Repression is a term that was introduced by Sigmund Freud, the psychologist who invented the psychoanalysis theory. According to him, memories can be repressed if they are too painful or disagreeable to people. Humans tend to â€Å"push painful memories out of our awareness and into a deep, dark place called â€Å"the unconscious mind† (Borree, 2002). This mechanism, too, can explain how memories are stored in places from which they are never retrieved. This distorts the real picture of the past events. Manipulation Many people with susceptible psyche can fall prey to conscious manipulation that leads to the change in their memories post factum. A skilful person using hypnosis can put them in this state. Manipulation can be used in a less conspicuous manner – through the use of specific language, for instance. The lawyer in court who uses the word â€Å"tragedy† to describe the misfortunes of the victim will force the victim to believe that he or she has indeed been through a terrible tragedy. Conclusion Distortions of events in autobiographic memory can arise for a number of reasons. Schemas, interference, repression and manipulation are just a few mechanisms that can affect human memories. In each case, the result is the distorted perception of the past reality which is influenced by the current cognitive state of the individual. Reference Boeree, C.G. (2002). Memory. Retrieved August 2, 2006, from http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/memory.html                      How to cite Memory Essay, Essay examples

Tourism Economics and Airline Product †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Tourism Economics and Airline Product. Answer: Introduction: In many cases and instances, it becomes vital for a company to determine how much of a product or commodity would be available in the market at a specific time. As a marketing strategy, companies can choose to make their product available to only a few customers. Scarcity marketing is essentially using the fear of shortage to sell more. In terms of providing ideas about the market stock of a particular item, scarcity marketing is a very important tool (Koch and Benlian 2015). Market research has established the fact that customers attach more value to items that are short in quantity in terms of availability in the market. Two broad methods form the basis of this marketing tool: An item is short in supply and after it runs out, it will not be available anymore. The item in question is available only in that period of time and shall not be in supply in the future again (Kwon et al. 2016). The marketing tool is forged upon the basic premise of the idea that people want more the things that are difficult to obtain. A very popular and common example of scarcity marketing is selling of an item through an invitation-only event: making an item exclusive. This involves making the potential customers of any particular commodity understand that there is a shortage in supply of the same and there is only limited time to act upon it (Spanjol et al. 2015). The aim of this technique is to create a sense of urgency using aggressive call to action methods and making the people scared that the item will not e acquired by them if they do not act fast and buy the product. It is not clear when has this technique been first used by marketing companies or organisations, but it is sure that it has been used for many years. Disney Vault is one of the most popular and commonly referenced instances of this marketing strategy which started in the 1980s. In a brilliant marketing scheme, Disney Studios Home Entertainment started to issue their films as limited editions and urged the consumers to buy them before they were forever kept in the Disney Vault. The fact that these films were all limited edition and would not be available several years before it would be released again made the customers want to act fast as soon as a video was released. Apple is yet another company that uses this technique very cleverly. Promoting items as exclusive, bringing out services and privileges that entail a time bound availability clause to them is an effective way to sell products, despite them being priced at a level that may often be higher than the market price of the products that are similar in nature. There are several advantages of using scarcity marketing as the driving tool to boost the sales of any product, the primary advantage being able to position the products and services as a commodity. This single aspect helps to throttle the perceived value of the product to go higher, as well as establishing the fear of the limited availability (Koch and Benlian 2015). Scarcity of the product that is being sold also helps to retain the customers attention around the product through creating an interesting background for the product. Scarcity marketing can help to create a cult following of an item, which at times sees people keeping track on the availability of the product in the future and buying it again when it is. Scarcity marketing tactic is used heavily by online retail companies that always prompt the customers to buy things quickly by saying that the stock availability of the product is either depleted or diminishing rapidly and cannot be found again anytime soon (Koch and Ben lian 2015). There are many ways of effectively using and implementing the scarcity marketing tactics. Limited-number tactics: People value those items that have recently become less available in the market over a product that is abundant and can be readily purchased any time they wanted to (Spanjol et al. 2015). Online retail shops often also tell the customers about how many people are currently viewing the product, which makes the fear of them buying the product to be set in even more and the customers buy the item even faster, depending upon their needs. Out of stock: Many products are marketed as being available in a particular size or design, while any other form of the product is rendered as out of stock. This is an useful way to boost sales. Limited time tactics Holiday special sales on products One of kind specials: One of the most used forms of scarcity tactics and often the most useful one. All of these strategies are used by different industries for different products, which all have different levels of effectiveness for them. This is fairly easy idea to comprehend: all forms of communication and messages are linked together. At a very core level of the idea, lies the objective of linking every form of promoting tool together so that they are working together in harmony and that in turn ensures the most effective marketing for any product. Integrated marketing is a strategy and a tools that is much more than a popular and catchy slogan for a company or a product or nice looking logo; it is based, rather on the simple idea that the marketing whole is much greater than any of its fragmented parts (Kitchen and Burgmann 2015). Through successfully unifying every form of promoting skills and marketing tactics across all channels, an integrated marketing campaign can present a consistent and cohesive message to the customers that help to boost the brand image and increase market reputations of a company or a commodity. This helps immensely in terms of improving the effectiveness of the marketing the teams and their abilities to communicate and deliver a message about the product or service, as well as the overall name of the brand in the industry. Since the term first being coined by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, integrated marketing has undergone rapid changes since 1989. The term was once defined by traditional and mainstream media channels as direct mail and broadcast. Modern technological advancements and other new forms of tactics are still redefining the marketing strategies and this entails that the integrated marketing systems and strategies are still evolving and encompassing new aspects and ideas every day under its broad umbrella term (Andrews and Shimp 2017). This has resulted in consumers being exposed to media and information regarding products all the time and being connected to the people almost every possible second. Sales are helped like never before and marketing tactics have developed a number of new methods which were previously unimagined of even by the most prolific of the marketing giants and geniuses. IMC explicitly and exclusively focuses on the customers: the single biggest advantage of the system and often its biggest source of reliability. Furthermore, it is both cost-effective and efficient for brands and organisations alike. Using the IMC ensures that all forms of marketing and communication pieces are properly connected and ushers in the power of each of these attributes to guarantee that the customers of a brand receive consistent, powerful and relevant messages (Kitchen and Burgmann 2015). Being constantly notified about the brand and its products is a greatly beneficial thing and helps the customers to be updated about the new developments and products, which is very helpful when making a new purchase decision. The effectiveness of the IMC goes beyond the simple communication tools and other levels integration like horizontal, vertical, internal and external are incorporated in it to strengthen the IMC to an even greater extent. These are elaborated below. Horizontal integration happens across every area including the marketing mix and business functions. The production, finance, communication and distribution of every product should work together and must be aware of the fact that their actions send meaningful message to the customers. Different departments like direct mail, sales and advertising can help each other by adopting data integration and this requires for a marketing information system that collects and distributes relevant data throughout every department of the organization. The term vertical integration refers to the idea that the objectives of marketing and communications must support the objectives of the higher level corporate structure of the company and must be aligned with the corporate missions. Internal integration, for any organization, means marketing within the organization: keeping the staff aware, motivated and informed regarding any new developments, advertisements of the company that is going to be launched into the market, as well as the new corporate identities and new service standards. The staff should also be informed by the management about any new branches, acquisitions, partnerships and so on. External integration requires the organisations external partners like the advertising and public relations agencies to work together closely and successfully deliver a solution that is cohesive and seamless and has a clear and definitive message. IMC helps to forge the entire communications of the company around the customers and helps them to go through the different stages of the buying procedures that can often be very tricky and not clear by the layman who is using the services for the first time. It also increases profits by increasing and optimising the effectiveness (Camilleri 2018). In a world that is always on the move, a clear, consistent and consolidated message helps to deliver the facts and information to the consumers amidst all the thousands of advertisements that the consumers are bombarded with every day. References Koch, O.F. and Benlian, A., 2015. Promotional tactics for online viral marketing campaigns: how scarcity and personalization affect seed stage referrals.Journal of Interactive Marketing,32, pp.37-52. Kwon, W.S., Byun, S.E., Katz, J., Deshpande, G. and Forsythe, S., 2016. Scarcity Effects on Consumers' Affective, Cognitive, and Conative Responses: Moderating Role of Shopping Orientation. Spanjol, J., Tam, L., Qualls, W.J. and Bohlmann, J.D., 2015. Enacting change in strategic marketing decisions: the role of regulatory focus in teams. InMarketing in Transition: Scarcity, Globalism, Sustainability(pp. 37-37). Springer, Cham. Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017.Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Nelson Education. Camilleri, M.A., 2018. Integrated Marketing Communications. InTravel Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product(pp. 85-103). Springer, Cham. Kitchen, P.J. and Burgmann, I., 2015. Integrated marketing communication: Making it work at a strategic level.Journal of Business Strategy,36(4), pp.34-39.

Moving Your WordPress Blog to a New Host - Beginners Guide

Have you been putting off moving your WordPress blog to a better host because you find the idea of migrating servers so daunting? If so, you are not alone; this is a common concern. Fortunately, as long as you can follow directions, moving your WordPress blog to a new host can be as simple as running through a set of steps.This post will show you, step by step, how to move your WordPress blog without having to buy any expensive plugins. These instructions assume that you simply want to switch hosts and not change your domain name or the URL of your blog in any way.One last note before we begin: if the thought of moving your WordPress blog makes you nervous, consider asking your host if they offer migration services. Many hosts offer this for free or for a nominal fee (especially managed WordPress hosting solutions), and it can be worth the peace of mind knowing that your site is in the hands of someone who has done this before. If migration services arent an option, though, dont fear just keep reading.1. Install and activate the Duplicator plugin Duplicator WordPress Migration Plugin Author(s): Snap CreekCurrent Version: 1.3.22Last Updated: September 12, 2019duplicator.1.3.22.zip 98%Ratings 17,714,312Downloads WP 4.0+Requires Duplicator is a free WordPress plugin that really simplifies the process of moving your WordPress blog to a new location. This plugin will quickly and easily pack up your site on your old host and unpack it on your new one. While you can go through the steps of manually migrating your site without any plugins at all, Duplicator streamlines the process immensely.Install Duplicator on your old host by navigating to Plugins / Add New and typing duplicator into the search. It should be one of the first results. Click Install Now, and activate the plugin once installed.2. Create a packaged version of your sites files and databaseNow that youve activated Duplicator, you can use it to create a packaged version of your WordPress site and start the process of moving your WordPres blog to a new web host. Navigate to Duplicator / Packages and click the Create New button in the top right:On the next screen, Duplicator will ensure that your site is ready to pack. If your site does not pass the requirements, follow the advice on the plugins FAQ page. There are optional settings that you can work with, but they are not necessary to continue. Click Next to continue creating the package:On the next screen, Duplicator will run a scan of your site, which should only take a few seconds. At this point, the plugin will warn you if it finds any enormous files that you might not want to carry over with you when moving your WordPress blog to a new host. If it does find any errors, follow the suggestions to fix them, and then run the scan again.If everything looks good, click Build to create the installer package:It may take several minutes for Duplicator to build the package. When the build completes, the plugin will present you wi th two buttons, one to download the installer and the other to download the archive. Click each of them to download them both. These are your WordPress files and database, which you will need when moving your WordPress blog to your new host.3. Create a new MySQL database and user on your new hostDuplicator does not require us to install WordPress on the new host, but the one semi-technical thing we will need to do is create a new MySQL database and user. This will give us a place to put the database we exported from Duplicator in the previous step.The majority of popular web hosts use cPanel, which makes it easy to create new databases. I am moving my WordPress site to Bluehost, so I can show you what these steps look like on there, or you can get additional information from this help video:If you are using another host, I recommend searching their own documentation for instructions on how to create a new database, in case they are different.First, create a new database by entering a unique name and clicking Create Database:Next, add a new user (you can use the same name as your database) and create a strong password. I used the password generator. Be sure to record this password somewhere secure. Click Create A User:Next, you need to add the user you just created to your database. In the Add a User to a Database section of the page, choose the two that you just created, and click Add:Assign all privileges and click Make Changes:Thats it! Youve created your database and new user to use for your WordPress migration.4. Upload the installer and archive files to your new hostNext, you need to upload the two files you downloaded from Duplicator to the root location of your new WordPress site. There should be a .zip file (the archive) and a .php file (the installer).This needs to be a completely empty folder, which you will later point your domain name at. Here are the files Ive uploaded into mine:5. Run the Duplicator installerNext, you will want to navigate to the installer.php file and run the installer. It can be a little tricky to figure out what web address to visit if you are keeping the same domain name and dont want any downtime. However, there is a trick you can use to simulate switching your DNS on your local computer. WP Engine has a great tutorial for how to do this on Mac or PC here.When you make it to the installer, enter your database name, user, and password. The majority of the time, the host will just be localhost.Before you proceed, please be 100% sure that you are using the new database and user that you just created in step three and that you have uploaded the two Duplicator files into their own subdirectory! Then, click Test Connection to test your connection.Hopefully, the test will succeed, which looks like this:Assuming everything is working as planned, check off the box indicating that you have read the warnings and click Run Deployment.On the next screen, you will see the paths to the files and database. You should recognize your old domain name and the path to those files on your old host. Under those, you will see similar fields for your new host. You may need to change the URL under New Settings and Advanced Options to match your URL if it picks up the temporary IP. Once everything is set, click Run Update:If everything has gone according to plan, the next screen should have zero errors and give you a few suggestions for things to test on the new host:Congratulations the hard stuff is over!6. Check your filesAt this point, it is a good idea to compare the files on the old host to those on the new host. Assuming everything has migrated correctly, the new host should match the old, with the addition of a few extra files related to the migration.7. Change your nameserversIf everything checks out, its time to change your nameservers to point to the new host. This process is different on every domain registrar and host, so you may need to seek out their documentation if you are having trouble.O n your new host, follow the steps to assign the domain to your account. You will be asked to verify ownership of the domain, and the host will provide at least two nameservers for you to point the domain to. Log into your domain registrar, select your domain name, and edit the nameservers. Make sure you completely clear out the old ones.Once you update the nameservers, it may take as long as 48 hours for the change to take effect. Until you are sure this has occurred, you should not make any major changes to your website, as you may unintentionally be editing the site hosted on the old host without realizing it.8. Test your migrated site and delete installer filesIf you are not sure if the nameservers have taken effect, there is a simple way to test. Upload a file to your media library, then use the file manager on your new host to try and find the file you just uploaded. If you do not see it in your uploads folder, you are probably still being sent to the old host.Once you are sure that you are editing the WordPress install on the new host, navigate to Settings / Permalinks and click Save. This will refresh your permalink settings, which are often interrupted during a migration.After moving your WordPress blog, its important that you thoroughly test your website by visiting every page or as many pages as possible to look for redirection errors and other problems.Once you are sure everything is working as it should, click the link in the final step of the installer to perform the Security Cleanup, which will delete the installer files. This is very important, as these files pose a potential security risk.Finally, having successfully completed the migration, you can now cancel the old host.Final thoughts on moving your WordPress blogThats it! Though there are a lot of steps involved, the Duplicator plugin makes the process simple enough to help you with moving your WordPress blog to a new host. If you do run into trouble along the way, or the process looks too complicated, be sure to contact your new web host for assistance.Have you been successful at moving your WordPress blog before? Did you use a plugin, or migrate manually? Share your experiences in the comments below.* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, well receive a small fee. No worries though, youll still pay the standard amount so theres no cost on your part.

New Horizons in the Outer Solar System

New Horizons in the Outer Solar System The outer solar system  is  the region of space  beyond the planet Neptune,  and the last frontier. The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft have passed beyond the orbit of Neptune, but have not encountered any more worlds. That all changed with the  New Horizons mission.  The spacecraft spent 10 years flying out to Pluto, and then swept past the ​dwarf planet  on July 14, 2015. It not only looked at Pluto and its five  known moons, but the spacecrafts cameras mapped part of the surface. Other instruments concentrated on finding out more about the atmosphere. New Horizons mages  show that Pluto has a complex surface  with icy plains made of nitrogen ice, surrounded by jagged mountains consisting mostly of water ice. It turns out that Pluto was far more fascinating than anyone expected!   Now that it has passed Pluto, New Horizons  will explore the Kuiper Belt - a region of the solar system that stretches out beyond the planet Neptune and  populated with so-called  Kuiper Belt Objects  (KBOs). The best-known KBOs are  dwarf planets  Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Eris, and Haumea.  The mission has been approved to visit another dwarf planet called 2014 MU69, and will sweep past it on January 1, 2018. Luckily, this little world lies right along the missions flight path.   In the far distant future,  New Horizons  will enter the fringes of the Oort Cloud (the shell of icy particles that surrounds the solar system, named for  astronomer Jan Oort).   After that, it will traverse space forever.   New Horizons:ItsEyes and Ears New Horizons  science instruments were designed to answer questions about Pluto, such as: what does its surface look like? What surface features does it have, such as impact craters or canyons, or mountains?  Whats in its atmosphere? Lets take a look at the spacecraft and its specialized eyes and ears that have shown us so much about Pluto.   Ralph:  a high-resolution mapper with visible and infrared cameras to gather data that will help create very good maps of Pluto and Charon. Alice:  an imaging spectrometer sensitive to ultraviolet light, and built to probe Pluto’s atmosphere. A spectrometer separates light into its wavelengths, like a prism does. Alice  works to produce an image of the target at each wavelength, and will be able to study the â€Å"airglow† at Pluto. Airglow happens when gases in the atmosphere are excited (heated). Alice will track light from a distant star or the Sun through Pluto’s atmosphere to pick out wavelengths of light absorbed by Plutos air, which tells us what the atmosphere contains. REX:  short for radio experiment. It contains sophisticated electronics and is part of the radio telecommunications system. It can measure the weak radio emission from Pluto, and take the temperature of its night side.   LORRI:  the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager,a telescope with a 8.2-inch (20.8-centimeter) aperture that focuses visible light onto a charge coupled device (CCD). Near the time of closest approach, LORRI was built to look at Plutos surface at football-field size resolution.You can see some early images from LORRI here. Pluto travels through the solar wind, a stream of charged particles sweeping out from the Sun. So, New Horizons has the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) detector to measure charged particles from the solar wind to determine whether Pluto has a magnetosphere (a zone of protection created by its magnetic field) and how fast the Plutonian atmosphere is escaping. New Horizons has another plasma-sensing instrument called the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI). It will search for neutral atoms that escape Plutos atmosphere and subsequently become charged by their interaction with the solar wind. New Horizons involved college students from the University of Colorado as builders of the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter, which counts and measures the sizes of dust particles in interplanetary space.

How To Use Blog Comments For Content Marketing

How To Use Blog Comments For Content Marketing If youve been visiting some of the bigger blogs lately, youll notice an interesting trend: no more blog comments. Copyblogger  and  Michael Hyatt  are a couple  of the more popular bloggers who have pulled comments from their blogs. Other bloggers have entered the debate on why you should and shouldnt include comments with blog posts, or even the value of participating in blog comment sections. Weve even entered the fray, coming out with 10 reasons to have blog comments. What if we took a different look at the venerable blog comment tradition and viewed it as a form of content marketing? In some way, taking part in a blog comment section  is of similar  quality of some of the most common venues of content marketing. How To Use #Blog Comments To Become A Better Content Marketer  via @JulieNeidlinger Blog comment systems are much different than they used to be. Systems like Disqus and Livefyre act like a social network. Each user has a profile, and a record of all their comments across all the blogs theyve commented on that use these systems. Users can follow profiles, and vote on comments that they deem as valuable. Blog comments can also be fueled by social networks themselves, such as Facebook or Google+. In this way, participating in blog comments is quite similar as participating on a social network Blog Comments To Network And Connect Old school bloggers who were blogging years ago will fondly remember (and in some cases, not so fondly) the many connections they made in blog comment sections. Before there was social media, a blog comment section was the place to talk about a blog post. If you wanted to share it, you brought it back to your blog and packaged it for your readers. Now, social media has brought that to an end somewhat. For most blogs, the comment sections aren't as active, nor are they used the same way. Nevertheless, participating in a blog comment section is a way to find new bloggers to follow, and a way for them to find you. It also makes sense that you would meet and converse with people in the comments of a blog on a topic you were both interested in when otherwise, you'd not have connected. Blogs now are particularly niche-focused, making it more likely that you will meet relevant people you ought to network and connect with in the comments. You may never see them, otherwise, in social media. You might not end up in the same forum as they. But you are likely reading the same top blogs. Use #blog comments to connect with peers. Treat it like #socialmedia with unique  insights.Blog Comments For Generating Ideas A blog comment section is a fabulous place to get ideas for your next post. In fact, I've even written posts in response to discussions I've had in a blog comment section when I feel as if I need to flesh out my thoughts in greater detail. Then, once the post is finished, I go back to the discussion I was having and share the link and note that I wrote about it on my blog. As a blogger, the conversations happening in a blog comments section reveal more about what people want to read about than any daily perusal of your RSS feed reader. A feed reader tells you what other bloggers think ought to be written. A blog comment section has the questions and thoughts people are telling you they want written. When we published a post called How To Actually Plan Your Blog And Save A Ton Of Time, Ella had a great question for us. We used that inspiration from her blog comment to write a post called How To Start A Blog When You Have Absolutely No Audience to answer her question (and then we let Ella know when it launched). This is particularly the case on a popular industry blog, where people are turning to the expert for help. They will ask for clarification and help. Why not write a post and be that help? Pay attention to the words other blog commenters are using when they ask questions or comment, so that you use those same words in your own blog posts. Use #blog comments to find your best blog ideas. #bloggingBlog Comments Can Build Your Reputation There are some content marketers who don't actually  have a blog. They write on social media, such as Google+, participate in niche forums, or they focus their efforts on being a serious blog commenter. They build a reputation as an expert based on what they say in these non-blog locations. Reputation building can happen off of your blog. When people start to see your name across blocks in your industry, and see that you are leaving great comments, they remember. Your blog comments are building your reputation as someone with knowledge and expertise. People take notice. It may lead to requests for guest blog posts, an interview, or other avenues to participate in content marketing. Frankly, a knowledgeable post stands out in a blog comment section in this day and age. There is such a thing as building a bad reputation, of course.  One thing I do, when reading a cantankerous comment on a blog, is click on the commenter's name. If it is a comment system such as Disqus, I can quickly see what kind of comments they generally leave, and I assign them a reputation. Some people only leave comments to say disagreeable things. Even if they have their own blog and it is filled with great content, I'm not going to bother. The comments you are leaving are building your reputation. Make it a good one that shows you are knowledgeable and even-handed, instead of a disagreeable jerk with little to add to the conversation. Write knowledgeable and even-handed #blog comments, instead of being a disagreeable jerk.Blog Comments As Your Side Blog Depending upon how thoughtful and how much time you put in the comments section of a blog (going beyond the not-so-helpful "great post!"), you could view a blog comments section as a secondary method for blogging. We've talked about syndicating and repurposing your content on sites such as Medium.com, LinkedIn, et. al. In a sense, the blog comment section of a high-traffic blog can do some of the same. If you have written a great post that would really fit into the conversation in a comments section of a blog post, rework your blog post into a summary and share it in the comments section. This is better than simply saying "I wrote a post about this: http://blahblah.com" because people are tired of spammers leaving links without explanation in the comment section. Getting your content on Medium and LinkedIn works well because you expose it to a new audience. The same goes for a blog comment section, as long as you trim it down and provide a tidy quick-read summary. If you want to include the link at the end, you might say "I've talked about this in a bit more detail on my own blog" and use an inline link so it is visually appealing and seems less like link spam. Provide a unique perspective in #blog comments and link to a post to  flesh out the idea.Blog Comments As Your Daily Routine Most content marketers have a particular daily routine that they use to get ideas, stay active, and stay knowledgeable in their niche. These routines usually involve going through the day's RSS feeds in a reader, planning upcoming content on their editorial calendar, responding to social media, and so on. Why wouldn't you also block out time to leave one or two long comments on relevant blogs? That ought to be a part of your regular routine, too, if you are trying to build a reputation and a following. We talk a lot about long-form blog posts. Let's consider its cousin: long-form blog comment. You don't have to write a 1,000 word blog comment every day, but you can certainly leave a few paragraphs of relevant content to  meet other commenters and earn the appreciation of the blog owner where you left your comment.

Statistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Statistics - Essay Example Find your name in the list and make a note of your dataset number. You will use this to access your own datasets for the questions in section B. This project is worth 100% of the final mark Section A: Statistics Quiz Answers to questions in this section require no more than one or two sentences each! 1. Quantitative variables can be discrete or continuous. Explain the difference between discrete data and continuous data, and give one example of each. Answer: A discrete variable can assume only a countable number of values such as number of persons in a family, whereas a continuous variable can assume any numerical value over a certain interval or intervals (uncountable number of values) such as height of a person. 2. A measure of location is a quantity which is ‘typical’ of the data. Give the names of three such measures, and explain (in words, not formulae) how each is found. Answer: The most common measures of central tendency or location used to describe data are; Mod e: This is the most commonly occurring value. Median: The middle value when all the data are placed in order. Mean (Arithmetic Mean): It is the ratio of the sum of the scores to the number of the scores. 3. What is a measure of spread? Give the names of three such measures. ... in figure 1 suggests that median would be a suitable measure of location and interquartile range would be a suitable measure of spread for these data. 5. The probability that a ship has a defective radar is 0.05. The probability that a ship has a defective echo is 0.06. Three in one hundred ships have both a defective echo and a defective radar. Find the probability that a randomly chosen ship has either a defective echo or a defective radar. Answer: P(def. radar) = 0.05 P(def. echo) = 0.06 P(def. radar and def. echo) = 3/100 = 0.03 P (def. radar or def. echo) = P(def. radar) + P(def. echo) – P(def. radar and def. echo) P (def. radar or def. echo) = 0.05 + 0.06 – 0.03 = 0.08 6. Under what conditions might we use a binomial distribution as a probability model for our data? Answer: We use a binomial distribution when following four conditions are satisfied; The number of trials ‘n’ is fixed. Each trial is independent. Each trial represents one of two outcomes ("success" or "failure"). The probability of success ‘p’ is the same for each trial. 7. Under what conditions might we use a normal distribution as a probability model for our data? Answer: The mean, median and mode are equal The graph is symmetrical about the mean (50% above and 50% below) Because 100% of the distribution lies below the curve, the total area below the curve is 100% or 1.  ± 68% of the sample lies within one standard deviation of the mean; 34% above and 34% below  ± 96% within two standard deviations: 48% above and 48% below  ± 99.7% within three standard deviations: 49.85% above and 49.85% below The two ends are asymptotic to the horizontal axis. 8. In hypothesis testing, the p-value can be thought of as the chance of obtaining the observed results, or more extreme results, if the

Next Generation Air Transport System Research Paper

Next Generation Air Transport System - Research Paper Example It is the responsibility of Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) to manage public-private partnership in order to make NextGen be in operation by 2025. National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) is given the responsibility of undertaking all the research required for implementation of this system. All these three organizations continue to face a number of challenges when moving forward with the NextGen Implementation. According to Dilligham (2007), FAA continues facing questions about its management expertise in relation to implementing NextGen system. NextGen is a comprehensive initiative that involves the development of new technology and leveraging the existing ones to better air transport and therefore enables it to handle the future expected demands (JPDO, 2012). According to Boehm-Davis (2008), this system is an example of active networking technology that updates itself with real-time shared information. It is tailored to the individual needs of all U.S. air crafts. This system if properly implemented will enhance safety, reduce delays, save fuel, and reduce aviation’s adverse environmental impact. According to JPDO (2011), this system will include satellite navigation and control of aircrafts, advanced digital communications, and enhanced connectivity between all components of national air transportation system. One of its key components is an automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) which is targeted to replace the radar dishes used by the current system. Other key components are digital non-voice communication, advanced networking, network-enabled, network-centric operation, and a layered adaptive security system (Boehm-Davis, 2008). These technological components will be implemented both on the ground and on air to assist both air traffic controllers and the pilots in air navigation.  

Inner Beauty Matters Essay Example for Free

Inner Beauty Matters Essay Inner beauty matters How many times do we see ourselves in the mirror and make negative comments about our looks. I’m not pretty or I’m too fat or I’m too overweight. These are few of the phrases that first come to mind in most girls when they look at themselves in the mirror. Well, 90% of teenage girls do not like the way they look or appear. The reason for that is in our society you get attention from people if you look attractive and stunning. Some girls who are overweight would get negative comments from peers like- ‘That girl is too ugly’ or ‘That girl looks like a bulldozer’. Fat is not something you have, it is something you are. We dont say You have fat, we say, You are fat. We identify with our bodies. So the teenager gets the message that this fatness is badness. Some of the teenagers who don’t accept the way they look, try to change themselves by dieting which leads to illnesses and diseases like anorexia. Dieting is the practice of ingesting food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases the goal is weight loss in those who are overweight or obese, but some people these days start dieting because they want to change the way they appear to the society. But what really matters in life? An old proverb states, â€Å"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. † Something or someone is beautiful, depending on the perspective of the person looking in. But the major thing that matters is- Is the person good-looking from inside? Because Without a doubt inner beauty lasts forever whereas outer beauty fades. Anyone can fake the outside to make himself or herself look better and pretty but inner beauty cant be faked. For example you could be the most beautiful person in the world but if you have a horrible personality it just makes you ugly. Your body image is how you perceive, think and feel about your body but this may have no link at all on your actual appearance. For instance, it is common in Western nations for women to believe they are larger and fatter than they really are. Only 16% of women are satisfied with their body weight. Our body shape is already decided before we are born. Each one of us is a unique human being with our own genes from our mum and dad. There is only one person in the world shaped like you. Dieting does not change body shape. The distribution of weight on your body is going to stay the same so learn to love who you are. Dieting is not effective dieting changes a persons metabolism so that they are more likely to lose muscle mass than fat. Instead of dieting to look better and attractive, you can exercise, which is the best and safest way to become healthier. Feeling good about your body as it is helps you to maintain a positive outlook in other areas of your life.

Comparing Do not go gentle into that good night and When I consider how

Comparing Dylan Thomas's poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and John Milton's poem When I consider How My Light Is Spent Dylan Thomas's poem "Do not go gentle into that good night" and John Milton's poem "When I consider how my light is spent" were written during times of trouble in their respective poet's life. Thomas was faced with losing his father to death; Milton was dealing with becoming completely blind at the age of forty-three. As each poet struggles to deal with the crisis occurring in his life, he makes a statement about the relationship between mankind and God, the reasons that God gives and then takes away certain gifts, and the proper way to live life. Thomas and Milton ended up with contrasting answers to these fundamental questions about life. The poets' use of personal events in their lives as a topic and their use of the personal pronouns "I" and "my" resolve possible questions of voice in both poems. Because Thomas refers directly to "my father" (line 6) and Milton opens his poem with the line "When I consider how my light is spent" (1), the reader can, with some basic knowledge of the history of each poem, reasonably assume that the poet and the speaker are interchangeable. Both Thomas and Milton chose to share their private thoughts on intensely personal matters with the world through their poems. By drawing from their own experiences, the poets give these works a tone that resonates with the reader because he/she can connect the words of the poem with his/her own life. Thomas and Milton present contrasting views of the relationship between mankind and God or the inevitable events of life. Thomas sees humans as having some degree of control; his father may not be able to live forever, bu... ...erent men at very different points in history, but both poets were struggling with difficult situations and trying to decide how they should react. Although their final conclusions are completely opposite , the raw emotion behind each poem resonates with the reader whether the poem is 45 or 345 years old. The human struggle to understand life, regret, and why God gives and withholds certain gifts will continue as long as humanity exists; each person who considers these questions will come to his/her own personal conclusions just as Thomas and Milton did. Works Cited: Milton, John. "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Compact Edition. Ed. David Damrosch. New York: Longman, 2000. Thomas, Dylan. â€Å"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.† Literature and Ourselves. Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 1997.

Taking Care of Our Elderly

Davis 1 E. Diana Davis ENGL 2010 Professor Asplund 21st September 2012 The Responsibility of Taking Care of Our Elders My grandmother knows a lot about how it feels to be left in a house alone, waiting for someone to assist her to just get out of bed. This Saturday morning I decided to go visit her while my grandfather was at dialysis. She was surprised to hear my voice as she turned her head over my way and smiled. I could hear the sound of relief in her voice just knowing her granddaughter was here to see about her.My grandmother has been blind since March 2012; she is a diabetic that has had an eye surgery to help repair a detached retina that is still healing. In the meanwhile she’s been dealing with paralysis on her right side from a stroke she suffered over twenty years ago, and it’s really taken a toll on her health. As I sat down beside her with a pen and paper I told her I wanted to get her point of view on how she feels about being an elderly person in this ha rd economy. I needed to know if they were able to cover all their needs on a fixed income. Did she really feel like her and my grandfather’s needs were really being met?As she began to tell me about her fears Davis 2 And concerns my heart sunk and I thought to myself, have we really failed to live up to the obligations of taking care of our elders. As she spoke in her little sweet tone, she made me aware of how hard it is to do simple things like taking a shower, cooking and even going to the restroom is a hard task to do these days. She said â€Å"I feel like everyone is too busy to lend a hand, and me and your grandfather don’t want to be a burden on you all. † I thought to myself as her granddaughter, was I even doing enough?Was the responsibility of taking care of our elderly been overlooked, or was it being passed down to the few faithful people who were getting burnt out on the responsibility? My grandparents as parents bared the moral, legal, and ethical responsibilities to care for their children. However, now that my grandparents have reached an age where they can no longer look after themselves, the duties of their adult children to support them is less clear. It is therefore only fair to say now that their children are grown up and now their parents have become elderly, they should take up the responsibility to provide a decent life for their parents.While it is not a legal obligation, it is a moral obligation and it’s time to pay forward what is owed to our parents/grandparents. It’s our responsibility to help any family member in need. Our family has raised us and helped to survive in this uncertain economy, so why shouldn't we help out when our parents and grandparents reach an age where they need our assistance? Davis 3 Only one out of in five people takes the needed steps to prepare legally and financially for taking care of an incapacitated parent. Consider this contrast between expectations and reality: Only 13 percent of some 4,000 U.S. workers surveyed for the 2011 (Aflac Work Forces Report) believe that the need for long-term care would affect their families. â€Å"The percentage of adult children providing personal care and/or financial assistance to a parent has more than tripled over the past 15 years,† the research group found. Of course, in today's tough economy, it also is common for elderly adults to be supporting their adult children. But in some ways, that's easier to accept: Parents often plan to leave whatever wealth they have to their children anyway.The flow of wealth from older to younger generation feels natural to many. But with Americans living so much longer now, the younger generation has to do more thinking about how they might care for parents who have exhausted their savings. After spending the whole day talking with my grandparents about their concerns I felt compelled to lend a hand. I made lunch for them and started to clean the kitchen. By the end of the day the whole house was spotless, and before I left I help my grandfather get my grandmother ready for bed.I have to say I was really exhausted when I finished, but the feeling I felt when I saw them smiling and relaxing together was worth a million bucks. As soon as I got home that night, I was determined that I had to help with this situation right away. The first thing to do was to call a family meeting. It was time for everyone to pull Davis 4 together and take up their responsibility to do their part. First thing we needed to do is put together a schedule and set it in stone. We all agreed that we would be assigned a day to go and check on our grandparents/parents.This action plan would include cooking, cleaning and donating at least a hundred dollars a month to help with their financial needs. So far this is working out great, and all it took was a concerned person to be a good listener and someone to pull a family together to put a plan in action. By working together as a family it helped to mend broken relationships and it helped us to accomplished many beautiful things. I’m happy to say my grandparents are well taken care now, and years have been added to their life span. Davis 5 Works Cited Http://www. aflac. com/ Aflac_WorkForces_Report 2011

Stages of Study and Evaluation of Internal Control Essay

The stages/activities involve in studying and evaluating internal control are: A. Obtaining an understanding of the entity’s internal control structure. B. Assessing the preliminary level of control risk. C. Obtaining evidential matter to support the assessed level of control risk. D. Evaluating the results of evidential matter. E. Determining the necessary level of detection risk. STAGE A. Obtaining an understanding of the entity’s internal control structure. In planning the audit examination, each of the five components of internal control must be studied and understood by the auditor to enable him to (1) identify types of potential misstatements; (2) consider factors that affect the risk of misstatement; and (3) begin to design appropriate testing procedure. Understanding the Control Environment The auditor should obtain sufficient knowledge of the control environment to understand management’s and the board of director’s attitude, awareness, and actions concerning the control environment. The auditor should concentrate on the substance of management’s policies, procedures, and related actions rather than their form because management may establish appropriate policies and procedures but not act on them. Understanding Control Procedures Because some control procedures are integrated in specific components of the control environment and accounting system, as the auditor obtains an understanding of the control environment and accounting system, he is also likely to obtain knowledge about some control procedures. The auditor should consider the knowledge about the presence or absence of the control procedures obtained from the understanding of the control environment and accounting system in determining whether it is necessary to devote additional attention to obtain an understanding of control procedures to plan the audit. Understanding the Accounting and Internal Control Systems To understand the design of the accounting information system, the auditor determines (1) the major classes of transactions of the entity; (2) how  those transaction are initiated; (3) what accounting records exist and their nature; (4) how transactions are processed from initiation to completion, including the extent and nature of computer use; (5) the nature and details of the financial reporting process followed. Typically, this is accomplished and documented by a narrative description of the system or by flowcharting. The operation of the accounting information system is often determined by tracing one or few transactions through the system (called a transaction walk-through). Information controls relating to the accounting system are concerned with achieving objectives such as: Transactions are executed in accordance with management’s general or specific authorization. All transactions and other events are promptly recorded in the correct amount, in the appropriate accounts and in the proper accounting period so as to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with an identified financial reporting framework. Access to assets and records is permitted only in accordance with management’s authorization. Recorded assets are compared with the existing assets at reasonable intervals and appropriate action is taken regarding any differences. When obtaining an understanding of the accounting and internal control systems to plan the audit, the auditor obtains knowledge of the design of the accounting and internal control systems. When the transactions selected are typical of those transactions that pass through the system, this procedure may be treated as part of tests of control. The nature, timing, and extent of the procedures performed by the auditor to obtain an understanding of the accounting and internal control systems will vary with, among other things: The size and complexity of the entity and of its computer system. Materiality considerations. The type of internal controls involved. The nature of the entity’s documentation of specific internal controls. The auditor’s assessment of inherent risk. Ordinarily, the auditor’s understanding of the accounting and internal control systems significant to the audit is obtained through previous with the entity and is supplemented by: a. Inquiries of appropriate management, supervisory and other personnel at various organizational levels within the entity, together with reference to documentation, such as procedures  manuals, job descriptions, and flow charts; b. Inspection of documents and records procedure by the accounting and internal control systems; and c. Observation of the entity’s activities and operations, including observation of the organization of computer operations, management personnel and the nature of transaction processing. The auditor determines the policies, procedures, methods, and records placed in operation by inspecting documents and directly observing the policies and procedures in use. The auditor can examine actual, completed documents and records to bring the contents of the manual to life and better understand them. In addition, the auditor can observe client personnel in the process of preparing them and carrying out their normal accounting and control activities. This further enhances understanding and knowledge that controls have been placed in operation. Documentation of Understanding The auditor should document the understanding of the entity’s internal control structure elements obtained to plan the audit. The form and extent of this documentation is influenced by the size and complexity of the entity, as well as the nature of the entity’s internal control structure. Generally, the more complex the internal control structure and the more extensive the procedures performed, the more extensive the auditor’s documentation should be. 1. Internal Accounting Control Questionnaire Internal accounting control questionnaire contains a series of questions designed to detect control weaknesses. Most questionnaires are designed to yield â€Å"yes†, â€Å"no†, or â€Å"not applicable† answers to the questions. A â€Å"yes† answer generally indicates a satisfactory degree of internal accounting control while a â€Å"no† answer indicates a possible weakness in control or at least indicates that further investigation is required. If the weakness is material, them it should be reported to a senior management, the board of directors, and the audit committee. â€Å"Material weakness is one in which the procedures or degree of compliance with the procedures fail to provide reasonable assurance that material errors or irregularities would be prevented or promptly detected during the accounting process.† In completing the internal control questionnaire, the auditor should consider the  following critical aspects: 1. Is the system of internal control sound? 2. If it is not reliable, what errors might occur? 3. What alternative audit procedures should be adopted if the system is unreliable? Advantages They provide audit assurance that attention is given to presence or absence of all controls listed and that certain features of the system are not overlooked. They provide a means of obtaining uniform documentation of internal control system reviewed. They provide inexperienced audit staff members with guidance in performing internal control reviews. They facilitate the early detection of potential weaknesses in the system. Disadvantages Auditor may view the questionnaire device for accomplishing an automatic evaluation of internal control. Controls listed on questionnaire may not suit the particular circumstances of a specific audit. The auditor may overlook pertinent control not included in the questionnaires. 2. Flowcharts Flowchart is a symbolic diagram of a specific part of an internal accounting control system indicating the sequential flow of data and/or authority. An internal control flowchart uses standardized symbols, interconnecting lines, and annotations to represent information, document, and document flow. It provides a pictorial overview of a client’s internal control activities. It illustrates the interaction of individuals, records, and control related to a particular department or class of transactions. Internal control flowcharts generally reflect the segregation of duties by using a column across the top to reflect different departments and the flow of documents and the flow of documents from left to right. Advantages Easily understood. Since flowcharts provide a visual description supplemented by a written narrative, they are more easily understood. Better overall picture or complex system. A complex system may be reduced to a one or two-page flowchart which might otherwise require a 15-page internal control questionnaire or a 10-page narrative memo. Parallels EDP documentation. EDP systems are commonly documented with flowcharts which make it easier for EDP  purchase personnel to relate to the auditors. It is easy to update. Disadvantages Higher level of knowledge and training are required to prepare a good flowchart of a complex system. Flowcharts take more time to prepare and require more knowledge. It is more difficult to spot internal control weakness. The ff. questions should be answered before a flowchart is prepared: 1. Who performs the various functions in the routine? 2. Why are these functions performed? 3. What work is performed, and is the work considered input or output? 4. When are the functions performed and in what sequence? 5. How are the functions performed and in what sequence? Conference with senior management, supervisors, and employees using the above checklist should be conducted by the independent auditor before flowcharting the routine. In addition, copies of all forms, documents and reports used in the routine to be flowcharted should be obtained. A primary purpose of the internal control flowchart is to communicate effectively. The ff. techniques should assist in meeting this goal: Standardized symbols. Auditors use a uniform set of symbols developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Flowlines. The flow of documents should be from top to bottom and left to right. Arrowheads may be used on all lines and should be used when the flow is not standard or is bi-directional. Documents. When a document is created, its source should be indicated. Multiple-document symbols are required when multiple copies of the document are prepared. The disposition of every copy or each document should be shown. Processing. Processing symbols are used to identify any procedures applied to documents such as their being filed. Annotations. Comments and explanations should be used to make the flowchart easier to understand or more complete. The ff. guidelines may be useful in preparing a flowchart: Determine the class of transactions or transaction cycle to be flowcharted. Obtain an understanding of internal control by making inquiries of client personnel, observing employee activities, and examining documents, records, and policies and procedures manuals. Organize the flowchart into columns, using a different column for each department, function, or individual. Draw a sketch of the flowchart. Draw the flowchart and insert comments and annotations. Test the flowchart for completeness by following a few transactions through the chart. 3. Narrative Description A narrative is a written description of a particular phase or phases or a control system. Although useful for describing simple systems, narratives may be adequate when a system is complicated or frequently revised. If the systems are extensive and/or complex, separate narratives may be prepared for a smaller groups of control which relate to specific classes of transactions or accounts. Some auditor prepare narrative descriptions to accompany internal control questionnaire or flowcharts in order to provide information not otherwise included. Advantages: Narrative is flexible and may be tailor-made for engagement. Requires a detailed analysis and thus forces auditor to understand functioning of the system. Disadvantages: Auditor may not have the ability to describe the system correctly and concisely. This may require more time and careful study. Auditor may overlook important portions of internal control system. A poorly written internal accounting control narrative can lead to a misunderstanding of the system thus resulting in the improper design and application of compliance tests. 4. Internal Control Checklist This contains a detailed enumeration of the methods and practices which characterize good internal control or of item to be considered in reviewing internal control. 5. Decision tables In this approach, the system is depicted as decision points. Advantages and disadvantages are similar to those of the flowchart approach. STAGE B. ASSESSING THE PRELIMINARY LEVEL OF CONTROL RISK After obtaining an understanding of the accounting and internal control systems, the auditor should make a preliminary assessment of control risk, at the assertion level, for each material account balance or class of transactions. The preliminary assessment of control risk is the process where the auditor evaluates the effectiveness of a client’s internal control policies and procedures in preventing or detecting material misstatements in the financial statement assertions, namely: (1)/(2) Existence/ Occurrence. Procedures that require documentation, approvals, authorization, verification, and reconciliations. (3) Completeness. Procedures that ensure that all transactions that occur are recorded such as accounting for numerical sequence of documents. (4) Right and obligations. Procedures that ensure that the entity has a right to asset or an obligation to pay arising from the transaction. (5)/(6) Valuation/ Measurement. Procedures that ensure that a proper price is charged and that mathematical accuracy are present in recording and in developing the accounting records and financial statement. (7) Presentation and Disclosure. Procedures that indicate that a review has been made to ascertain that a transaction has been recorded in the proper account and that financial statement disclosure have been reviewed by competent personnel. The process of arriving at the auditor’s assessment of control risk is an iterative process that is refined as the auditor’s obtain more and more evidence about the effectiveness of various internal control policies and procedures. After obtaining the understanding of the internal control structure, the auditor may assess control risk at the maximum level. The term maximum level is used in this section to mean the greatest probability that a material misstatement that could occur in a financial statement assertion will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis by an entity’s internal control structure. Control risk may be assessed in quantitative terms, such as percentages, or in nonquantitative terms that range, for example, from a maximum to a minimum. Assessing control risk at below the maximum level involves- Identifying specific internal control structure policies and procedure relevant to specific assertions that are likely to prevent or detect material misstatements in those assertions. Performing tests of control to evaluate the effectiveness of such policies and procedures. The preliminary assessment of control risk for a financial statement assertion should be high unless the auditor: a. Is  able to identify internal controls relevant to the assertion which are likely to prevent or detect, and correct a material misstatement; and b. Plans to perform tests of control to support the assessment. Assessing Inherent Risk In developing the overall audit plan, the auditor should assess inherent risk at the financial level. In developing the audit program, the auditor should relate such assessment to material account balances and classes of transactions at assertion level, or assume that inherent risk is high for the assertion. To assess inherent risk, the auditor uses professional judgement to evaluate numerous factors, examples of which are: At the Financial Statement Level The integrity of management. Management experience and knowledge and changes in management during the period. Unusual pressure on management. The nature of the entity’s business. Factors affecting the industry in which the entity operates. At the Account Balance and Class of Transactions Level Financial statement accounts likely to be susceptible to misstatement. The complexity of underlying transactions and other events which might require using the work of an expert. The degree of judgment involved in determining account balances. Susceptible of asset to loss or misappropriation. The completion of unusual and complex transactions. Transactions not subjected to ordinary processing. Relationship between the Assessment of Inherent and Control Risks Management often reacts to inherent risk situations by designing accounting and internal control systems to prevent or detect, and correct misstatements and therefore, in many cases, inherent risk and control risk are highly interrelated. In such situations, if the auditor attempts to assess inherent risk and control risks separately, there is a possibility of inappropriate risk assessment. As a result, audit risk may be more appropriately determined in such situations by making a combined assessment. Identification of Specific Internal Control Policies to Specific Assertions  Auditors are interested in control activities because they assist in establishing the validity of financial statement assertions. Controls that enhance the reliability of the financial statements may be preventive controls or detection controls. Preventive controls avoid errors and irregularities while detection controls recognizing that error will occur even under ideal conditions provide for a â€Å"double-check† to locate significant occurrences after the fact. If an entity’s controls are found to be effective, the auditor may reduce the selected auditing procedures to test a group of assertions. Control activities may provide direct evidence about the many assertions. In identifying internal control structure policies and procedures relevant to specific financial statement assertions, the auditor should consider that the policies and procedures can have either a pervasive effect on many assertions or a specific effect on an individual assertion, depending on the nature of the particular internal control structure element involved. Conversely, some control procedures often have a specific effect on an individual assertion embodied in a particular account balance or transaction class. The objective of procedu res performed to obtain understanding of the internal control structure is to provide the auditor with knowledge necessary for audit planning. The objective of test of controls is to provide evidential matter to use in assessing control risk. When the auditor concludes that procedures performed to obtain the understanding of the internal control structure also provide evidential matter for assessing control risk, he should consider the degree of assurance provided by that evidential matter. Although such evidential matter may not provide sufficient assurance to support an assessed level of control risk that is below the maximum level of certain assertions, it may do so for other assertions and thus provide a basis for modifying the nature, timing, or extent of the substantive tests that the auditor plans for those assertions. STAGE C. OBTAINING EVIDENTIAL MATTER TO SUPPORT THE ASSESSED LEVEL OF CONTROL RISK The auditor obtains evidential matter to enable him to determine the proper level of control risk by performing test of controls or compliance tests on selected policies and procedures. Compliance procedures are designed to obtain reasonable assurance that those internal controls on which tests requiring inspection of documents supporting transactions to gain evidence that controls have operated  properly and inquiries about and observation of controls which leave no audit trail. Test of Controls Procedures directed toward either the effectiveness of the design or operations of an internal control structure policy or procedure are referred to as tests of controls. Tests to obtain such evidential matter ordinarily include procedures such as inquiries of appropriate entity personnel, inspection of documents and reports, and observations of the application of specific internal control structure policies and procedures. Tests of control are performed to obtain audit evidence about the effectiveness of the: a. Design of the accounting and internal control systems, that is, whether they are suitably designed to prevent or detect and correct material misstatements; and b. Operation of the internal controls throughout the period. The auditor should obtain audit evidence through tests of controls to support any assessment of control risk which is less than high. The lower the assessment of control risk, the more support the auditor should obtain that accounting and internal control sy stems are suitably designed and operating effectively. When obtaining audit evidence about the effective operation of internal controls, the auditor considers how they were applied, the consistency with which they were applied during the period and by whom they were applied. The concept of effective operation recognizes that some deviations may have occurred. Deviations from prescribed controls may be caused by such factors as changes in key personnel, significant seasonal fluctuations in volume of transactions and human error. In computer information system environment, the objectives of tests of controls do not change from those in a manual environment; however, some audit procedures may change. The auditor may find it necessary, or may prefer, to use computer-assisted audit techniques. STAGE D. EVALUATING THE RESULTS OF THE EVIDENTIAL MATTER Based on the results of the tests of controls, the auditor should evaluate whether the internal controls are designed and operating as contemplated in the preliminary assessment of control risk. The evaluation of deviations may result in the auditor concluding that the assessed level of control risk needed to be revised. In such cases, the auditor would modify the nature,  timing, and extent of planned substantive procedures. The conclusion reached as a result of assessing control risk is referred to as the assessed level of control risk. In determining the evidential matter necessary to support a specific assessed level of control risk below the maximum level, the auditor should consider the characteristics of evidential matter about the control risk. Generally, however the lower the assessed level of control risk, the greater the assurance the evidential matter must provide that the internal control structure policies and procedures relevant to an assertion are designed and operating effectively. Ordinarily, the auditor’s observation provides more reliable audit evidence than merely making inquiries. However, audit evidence obtained by some tests of controls, such as observation, pertains only to the point in time at which the procedures was applied. The auditor may decide, therefore, to supplement these procedures with other tests of control capable of providing audit evidence about other period of time. In determining the appropriate audit evidence to support a conclusion about control risk, the auditor may consider the audit evidence obtained in prior audits. In a continuing engagement, the auditor will be aware of the accounting and internal control systems through work carried out previously but will need to update the knowledge gained and consider the need to obtain further audit evidence of any changes in control. The auditor in addition, should consider whether the internal controls were in use throughout the period. An audit of financial statements is a cumulative process; as the auditor assesses control risk, the information obtained may cause him to modify the nature, timing, or extent of the planned tests of controls for assessing control risk. The evaluation is based on the effectiveness of the entity’s control structure in preventing and/pr detecting material misstatements, as determined by the tests of controls. STAGE E. DETERMINING THE NECESSARY LEVEL OF DETECTION RISK The auditor uses the acceptable level of detection risk to determine the nature, timing, and extent of the auditing procedures to be used to detect material misstatements in the financial statement assertions, auditing procedures designed to detect such misstatements are referred to in this section as substantive tests. The level of detection risk relates directly to the auditor’s substantive procedures. The auditor’s control risk  assessment, together with the inherent risk assessment, influence the nature, timing, and extent of the substantive procedures to be performed to reduce risk, and therefore audit risk, to an acceptably low level. In this regard the auditor would consider: a. The nature of substantive procedures, for example, using tests directed toward independent parties outside the entity rather than tests directed toward parties or documentation within the entity, or using tests of details for a particular audit objectives in addition to analytical procedures; b. The timing of substantive procedures, for example, performing them at period rather than at an earlier date; and c. The extent of substantive procedures, for example, using a larger sample size. As the acceptable level of detection risk decrease, the assurance provided from substantive tests should increase. Consequently, the auditor may do one or more of the ff Change the nature of substantive tests from a less effective to a more effective procedures, such as using tests directed toward parties or documentation within the entity Change the timing of substantive tests, such as performing them at year-end rather than at interim date. Change the extent of substantive tests, such as using a larger sample size. There is an inverse relationship between the detection risks and the combined level of inherent and control risks. The substantive tests that the auditor performs consist of tests of details of transactions and balances, and analytical procedures. The objective of tests of details of transactions performed as substantive tests is to detect material misstatements in the financial statements. The auditor should recognize, however, that careful consideration should be given to the design and evaluation of such tests to ensure that both objectives will be accomplished. Audit Risk in the Small Business The auditor needs to obtain the same level of assurance in order to express an unqualified opinion on the financial statements of both small and large entities. However, many internal controls which would be relevant to large entities are not practical in the small business for example is the segregation of duties. In circumstances where segregation of duties is  limited and audit evidence of supervisory control is lacking, the audit evidence necessary to support the auditor’s opinion on the financial statements may have to be obtained entirely through the performance of substantive procedures. How Adequacy or Inadequacy of Internal Control Affects Audit Procedures The primary reason for studying and evaluating internal control is to provide a basis for relying upon the system and for determining the extent of year-end substantive tests to be performed. There is an inverse relationship between the effectiveness of internal control and the extent of detailed audit procedures; more effective system requires less detailed testing. Strengths and weaknesses identified during the evaluation of internal accounting control and tests of compliance will affect the nature, timing, and extent of audit procedures. The audit is not specifically designed to search for errors or irregularities, although during the study and evaluation of internal accounting control system and the performance of substantive tests, errors, or irregularities may be discovered. The auditor must consider the audit implication when errors or irregularities are likely to exist. Documentation of the Assessed Level of Control Risk The auditor should document in the working papers. a. The understanding obtained of the entity’s accounting and internal control systems; b. The assessment of control risk. When control risk is assessed at less than high, the auditor would also document the basis for the conclusions. Figure 11.2 Relationship of Effectiveness of Internal Control and Substantive Tests Controls initially considered effective Controls initial not considered effective or not cost efficient Reduce control risk Assess control risk at maximum (100%) Reduce acceptable risk of overreliance on internal control Acceptable risk of overreliance on internal control- 100% (maximum) Perform tests of control (inquiries, inspection, observation, and reperformance) Perform no tests of controls Increase detection risk Decrease detection risk Reduce planned substantive test 1. Use less persuasive substantive tests. 2. Perform the substantive tests at interim date. 3. Decrease extent of substantive test by selecting a smaller sample size. Perform extensive substantive testing 1. Use more effective substantive tests. 2. Perform substantive tests at year-end 3. Increase extent of substantive tests by selecting a larger sample size. Communication of Performance, Improvements and Observations in Internal Control Management. As a result of obtaining an understanding of the accounting and internal control systems and tests of controls, the auditor may become aware of weaknesses in the systems. The auditor should make the management aware, as soon as practical and at an appropriate responsibility, of material weaknesses in the design or operation of the accounting and internal control systems, which have come to the auditor’s attention. The communication to management of material weaknesses would ordinarily in writing. Management letter may be made that will contain constructive suggestions or improvements in internal control or other suggestions for increased efficiency in operations. This letter is considered a by-product rather than the aim of the audit and is often completed sometimes after the completion of the field work. If however, the auditor identifies material weaknesses, he has a professional responsibility to communicate them to both senior management and the board of directors. The auditor should issue a written report at the earliest possible that it is documented in the work papers. Reportable Conditions Specifically, these are the matters coming to the auditor’s attention that, in his judgement, should be communicated to the audit committee because they represent significant deficiencies in the design or operation of the internal control structure, which could adversely affect the organization’s ability to record, process, summarize, and report financial data consistent with the assertions of management in the financial statements. Examples of reportable conditions are as follows: Deficiencies in internal control  structure design Inadequate overall internal control structure design Absence of appropriate segregation of duties consistent with appropriate control objectives. Absence of appropriate reviews, and approvals of transactions, accounting entries, or systems output. Inadequate procedures for appropriately assessing and applying accounting principles. Inadequate provisions for the safeguarding of assets. Absence of other internal control techniques considered appropriate for the type and level of transaction activity. Evidence that a system fails to provide complete and accurate output that is consistent with objectives and current needs because of design flaws. Failures in the operation of the internal control structure Evidence of failure of identified controls in preventing or detecting misstatements of accounting information Evidence that a system fails to provide complete and accurate output consistent with the entity’s control objectives because of the misapplication of control procedures. Evidence of failure to safeguard assets from loss, damage, or misappropriation. Evidence of intentional override of the internal control structure by those in authority to the detriment of the overall objectives of the system. Evidence of failure to perform tasks that are part of the internal control structure, such as reconciliation not prepared or not timely prepared. Evidence of willful wrongdoing by employees or management. Evidence of manipulation, falsification, or alteration of accounting records or supporting documents. Evidence of intentional misapplication of accounting principles. Evidence of misrepresentation by client personnel to the auditor. Evidence that employees or management lack the qualifications and training to fulfill their assigned functions. Others Absence of sufficient level of control consciousness within the organization Failure to follow up and correct previously identified internal control structure deficiencies. Evidence of significant or extensive undisclosed  related party transactions. Evidence of undue bias or lack of objectivity by those responsible for accounting decisions. Reporting- Form and Content Conditions noted by the auditor that are considered reportable under this section or that are the result of agreement with the client should be reported, preferable in writing. If the information is communicated orally, the auditor should document the communication by appropriate memoranda or notations in the working papers. Any report issued on reportable conditions should: Indicate that a purpose of the audit was to report on the financial statements and not to provide assurance on the internal control structure. Include the definition of reportable conditions.  Include the restriction on distribution as discussed in the previous paragraph. If no reportable conditions are found, an auditor may not issue a letter stating that. Such a letter may mislead users by implying a greater level of assurance about the lack of any significant deficiencies than the auditor could really provide. However, an auditor may issue a letter indicating that no material weaknesses were found during the course of an audit.

The Great Gatsby Essays

The Great Gatsby Essays The Great Gatsby Essay The Great Gatsby Essay The Great Gatsby as a description of the failure of the American dream. The Great Gatsby is a concentrated meditation on the American dream, understood as the faith that anyone, even of the most humble origins, can attain wealth and social standing in the United States through talent and individual initiative. Fitzgerald explores the compelling appeal of this dream, and the circumstances that render it as deceptive as it is enduring. Fitzgeralds protagonist is a young man from North Dakota, James Gatz, who changes his name to Jay Gatsby and manufactures a persona out of his own Platonic self-conception. While in his soldiers uniform just prior to service in World War I, Gatsby falls in love with Daisy, a beautiful, rich young woman whose voice has the sound of money. After the war, Gatsby pursues Daisy, even though she has by then married a gruff and tasteless man of her own class. Gatsby buys a huge, garish mansion on Long Island near Daisys home and tries t o impress her and her social set with lavish parties financed, as some of his guests rightly suspect, by the illegal sale of alcoholic beverages. But Daisy rejects Gatsbys suit, as her feelings and behavior are controlled by the conventions of her class in ways that the innocent American dreamer does not understand. In the end, it is inherited wealth and social standing that determine much more of ones destiny than is determined by talent and individual initiative, readers of The Great Gatsby are led to conclude. Much of the power of The Great Gatsby derives from Fitzgeralds having provided readers with an opportunity to simultaneously see through the pretenders illusions and identify deeply with his aspirations and even love him for having made the effort. Nelly, on the other hand, is considered to be far more worthy narrator because of her close association with Heathcliff having grown up with him and her honest, occasionally blunt opinion. An example is where Nelly asks Catherine Why do you love him? (referring to Edgar Linton) and then proceeding to say Bad! to her replies. This could be construed as a breach of etiquette in the nineteen hundreds for a servant to speak so to a lady of higher station and demonstrates Nellys ability to speak her mind which endears her to the reader. As a result of this fact it is Nelly who undertakes the conveying of the tale of Wuthering Heights and to whom we look for our opinions in other characters. She is, in fact, a narrator within a narrator due to her recounting of the tale of Wuthering Heights to Lockwood for entertainment and both tells the story and yet features heavily in its events. Fitzgeralds narrator, Nick Carraway is young, thoughtful and intelligent. He has moved from the West in favour of the fake and unproductive society of New York which he ultimately rejects. The landscape to which he moves is unproductive due to the fact that it grows or produces nothing dealing only in stocks and shares a world that Nick unsuccessfully immerses himself in. The world into which Nick ventures could be accurately captured by Fitzgeralds description of Daisys voice being full of money . He is also considered to be truthful in regard to his views on other characters. This impression is given to us by the words: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. A self-confession giving vital information to us this being that what Nick says can be taken as an objective view or judgement. His actions throughout the novel, including his contempt towards Tom Buchanan and Daisy following their response to Gatsbys death, and his noble attempts to gather supposed friends and relatives to Gatsbys funeral, when they flocked to his parties, also add to Nicks honest nature and therefore Fitzgeralds presentation through him. Both Bronte and Fitzgerald share in the creation of their narrators as forming them as strangers discovering new and unfamiliar places; taking the reader with them as their knowledge and relationships develop. Both authors use the narrator in their novels for a variety of similar reasons. A narrator gives an added element of realism to the story, as if someone is actually telling something that happened. The use of precise dates and setting also add to this feeling of the novels being real. West Egg in Gatsby and 1801- in Wuthering Heights elucidating this point. The narrator also allows a detached character development that one is unable to achieve if the novels were written in the first person. Opinions can be posited and actions can be viewed externally to the actual character, making judgements more objective.