How Technology Has Changed Our Lives Essay

Technology has altered our lives significantly in 20 years. It has advanced in many things like phones, computers, television, science, etc. Devices I think devices have improved the most in 20 years. In my opinion, I feel it has made our lives more independent. It enables us to wonder about things further, and then become curious and Google it. For example, when we aren’t sure of what to do (for school projects, DIY jobs) we can just pull up a site such as Ask.com, Answers.com and get instant help. Devices also have several reminder, alarm, note and calculator applications, making you stress-free. The internet now allows shopping lovers to purchase everything, from pencils to penthouses. And when you’re on the go, you’ll never be bored with games and book applications. Education Education has changed a lot too, and you might not notice it. If a kid is doing geography, they can access sites like Google Earth and explore the world in 3D. They are now able to access websites for checking homework, reminders, and important events. Teachers hardly ever use blackboards now, thanks to the new touch sense screens called SmartBoards. And for homeschooled kids ,they get just the same education as regular schooled kids. They can log on to online programs where they have lessons from real teachers via voice calls. Now a teacher is not limited by the number of chairs in her classroom. One teacher can teach 100 kids at a time. Medicine In the field of medicine, technology has truly saved millions of lives. Doctors have found cures to so many diseases, which were otherwise at one time fatal. Doctors can study the human body so very closely now, with things like CT scans and x-rays. With CT scans, doctors can examine everything in the human body to determine a certain problem that the person may have. Doctors have also developed more antibiotics, which are mandatory when a person is sick. These are just a few of the reasons how technology has changed our lives in 20 years. Read more:Â  Technology Improving Our Lives

Ponzi scheme and Madoff Fraud

Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent undertaking whereby the investors are duped into a seemingly profitable deal. The clients are asked to â€Å"invest† their money in a venture to earn huge interest rates. This normally works through the payment of the earlier investors’ interests and principals by using the later investors’ principal amount. This illegal activity got its name after Charles Ponzi of England (1920s). Bernard L. Madoff and Ponzi scheme Bernard Madoff, 70, is the former chairman of Nasdaq Stock Market. He held the position till December 2008 when he was arrested over alleged possibly the largest fraud ever in history.He is the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, which undertakes market-making, and acting as middleman in buying and selling of securities, but is since under receivership after a court order was obtained to place an injunction on its operations by the Security Exchange Commission. (Mike, 2008) It was revealed that Madoff had a separate and secretive investment arm of his firm which was running on a separate floor of their premises. The firm’s financial statements were kept â€Å"under lock and key† and Madoff was â€Å"cryptic† about the firm’s investment arm, according to some top level management employees of the firm.This secret investment arm is the one under investigation due to believe that it is where the Ponzi scheme was perpetrated. (Mike, 2008) Madoff was very smart in playing the Ponzi scheme. He filed false returns with the Securities Exchange Commission, and fabricated gains claiming that its investments together with accounting and audit firms it ran were highly lucrative. At some point for example, Fairfield Sentry Ltd, Madoff’s hedge fund ran by Madoff Investment Services to invest in the shares in Standards & Poor’s 500. Fairfield claimed that its share index had risen by 5.6%, while that of S&P 500 had fallen by more than 30%. Fairfield was late r said to be down by 0. 06% when that of S&P 500 had fallen by about16%. The firm was averaging 10. 5% annually since its inception in 1990. These statistics are quite illogical to believe, and is one way in which Mr. Madoff managed to survive through his Ponzi scheme. (Mike, 2008) The firm’s losses accrued up to $50 billion since it was no longer able to meet its customer demands. This is after clients requested for about $7 billion when they had only about $250 million in the account. (Mike, 2008)Prevention of similar frauds The SEC should be made more proactive. For instance, warnings such as those of Harry Markopoulos, a financial analyst, should have been taken seriously by the SEC since he started his revelation back in 1999. The hedge fund of Mr. Madoff too didn’t register till September 2006, which is too late. Recommendation for enforcement of law, such as Sec. 17 (a) of the Securities Act 1933, Sec. 10 (b) of Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and rule 10b-5 th ere under, and sections 206(1&2) of the Advisors Act of 1940, will also help prevent such frauds.It is worth to make public the reality of rates of interests offered by a firm to its clients. This creates transparency and some sense of genuineness of a firm’s undertaking. The accounting professionals also should be made to learn from such cases to prevent future occurrences of the same vice. Public awareness programs can be broadcasted through media too. This will warn investors to be careful in their choice of investments portfolio. Reference: Mike, S. (2008, December 13th). Biggest Fraud in History $50 billion Madoff Ponzi Scheme. Retrieved April 4th, 2009, from The Market Oracle: http://www. marketoracle. co. uk/Article7769. html.

A response to a book called the emergence of the church By A Patzia Essay

A response to a book called the emergence of the church By A Patzia - Essay Example As part of that background he describes Judaism as it was in first-century Palestine as well as describing what life was like in the rest the Roman empire in general with a well presented exposition of what the Bible says about the growth of Christianity. The early church gained new recruits and spread over a greater geographical despite official persecution after Rome was burnt down, and Nero blamed the Christians for doing so. The books sources are pretty strictly biblical: the Didache is dated at or beyond 100 (p.99), and discussed only at the fringe, and the clearly first-century ROTAS square. In terms of evidence about the development and the eventual emergence of the early church as a distinct religion that was able to spread throughout the Roman Empire not mentioning the ROTAS square is arguably a serious omission. The ROTAS stone was actually found buried in the remains of Pompeii, being buried under the vast amount of waste products produced by the disastrous volcanic eruption of AD 79, and does not figure in this book. The ROTAS stone gives details of the early Christian presence in Pompeii, though of course nobody actually survived the volcanic eruption. Even if not mentioned anywhere else in his book, Patzia does not go into detail about the stone when discussing whether or not there were first-century churches in the Italian peninsula outside of Rome. Although it is not surprising that Patzia would want to concentrate upon the early church’s beginnings in Rome given its later importance for the Christian religion.1 If description and discussion of what the Bible says about the early Church is what youre looking for, this is as good a book to choose as any other. If you want too find out about the emergence and also the development of the early church from non-biblical sources then buy, or burrow another book on the early church.2 The ambience is distinctly Fuller, and here and there this brings up

Fundamental of Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Fundamental of Finance - Essay Example In our case, proposal A takes 4 years to recover the investment and proposal B takes only 3 years for the recovery of such investment. Accordingly the proposal B is ranked above the proposal A. The limitation in this method is that it does not consider time value of money. Net present value is a discounted cash flow approach to capital budgeting. â€Å"If the present value of future cash flow is greater than the initial cost, the project is worth undertaking. On the other hand, if the present value is less than the initial cost, a project should be rejected because investor would lose money if the project were accepted.†(Angelico A. Groppelli and Ehsan Nikbakhat, page 159)ii Assessing from this point of view, both proposal have a positive net present value. But as the net present value of proposal A is more than that of proposal B. Accordingly NPV method ranks proposal A ahead of proposal B. There are various shortcomings in methods of evaluation of capital projects that do not consider time value of money. It is generally felt that discounted cash flow methods provide a more objective basis for evaluating and selecting investment projects. These methods take account of both the magnitude and the timings of expected cash flows in each period of project’s life. Internal rate of return, like net present value method, is such a method that uses the discounted cash flow criteria to evaluate different capital projects. â€Å"The IRR for an investment is the discount (interest) rate that will make the present (or discounted) value of the cash flows from the operation equal to the initial outlay of the investment. An IRR above the minimum rate of return specified by management (called hurdle rate) is considered acceptable. When mutually exclusive projects are being compared, the project with highest IRR will be preferred.† (Ralph S.

Treatment of Accounting Issues Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Treatment of Accounting Issues - Case Study Example It is strongly advised to you to take a closer look at every issue along with its relevant treatment and feel free to consult me, had you require any further assistance. Marketing and Advertising Expenses According to the International Financial Reporting Standards, the marketing and advertising expenses should be charged to Income Statements the year which these marketing and advertising expenses incur. In the light of above criteria, the policy adopted by Mr. Julian to expense out 50% of the marketing and advertising expenditures in the profit and loss account while capitalizing the rest of 50% of the expense in the balance sheet and amortizing over the period of 5 years, seems as a deviation from the IFRS. Since, Mr. Julian is mainly interested in presenting the financial statements more profitable, that is why Mr. Julian has adopted this strategy. In this way, he could have avoided the 50% expenditures incurred the current year which would eventually have increased the profits su bstantially. Therefore, Mr. Rafael should disregard this policy of Mr. Julian and should instruct him to rectify the financial statements and charge out the capitalized amount of marketing and advertising expenses for the current year. Slow Moving Inventory The older policy of writing off the slow moving inventory was a bit conservative approach.

Domestic Business Activities from an International and Global Point of Research Paper

Domestic Business Activities from an International and Global Point of View - Research Paper Example As Vice President, it is important to have knowledge of domestic activities and policies and to understand the various cultures and operations of the sales force outside of the United States. This can only be accomplished by using a human resource (staff) from around the world as they are familiar with the countries, company, and cultures in which they live and are operating. Proper training, understanding of a various cultures, how business is handled in different parts of the world, varying company policies and operations (although the company is one entity, policies and routines vary slightly, if not extremely, in order to accommodate the differences), language and cultural differences, various sales methods, training, customer service, account management, follow-up procedures, key accounts management, etc. can only be handled by working with the various sales teams and using their expertise. The Vice President must make use of his number one asset which is a human resource in ord er to apply the best approaches and methods and focus on both the macro and microeconomics of the global business. He cannot do this alone but will achieve success if he learns from those in the various parts of the world and learns from those who are experts in the various locations and cultures in which they live and work. They will know the best approaches to communication, sales, customer service, find solutions, developing innovative tactics, etc. The best way of managing a diverse sales team is to incorporate the sales management from each area and empowering them and learning from them.

Arts pictures description Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Arts pictures description - Essay Example Once, Chowdhury travelled to India as an adult, he was confronted with a harsh reality, one that helped him understand why his father fled India and settled abroad. The Laundry Puja is colourful, disorganized, bright and at the same time, demonstrates a settled doom. The doom is further accentuated by the woman at the center of the photograph whose hands are clasped together as if in prayer. There are two men in the photograph. One appears to just be standing idly against a wall and the other appears to be walking, but it is not clear whether he is entering the area or leaving it. In the background there are three richly colored murals capturing India’s bright culture. Similarly the floor appears to be cement with a bright red color smeared over most of the floor. There are pots and pans on the floor as well as a pile of garments over which a clothes line hangs with garments either drying or airing. In the forefront of the photograph is an alarming image of a man’s head . As it sits upon the bright red floor, it at once gives the impression of a decapitated man, with a red fork protruding from his mouth and yellow beads adorning his facial hair. A closer look reveals that the head is made of some foreign material and is not in fact real. The surreal smirk on the man’s face and the half-closed eyes, present a macabre image all the same. As Chowdhury explains, the disorganization and the mixture of colours and images are meant to convey the confused and complex reality of India as he himself experienced and the fanciful exoticism that he imagined as a boy. Image 2 This painting appears to be abstract expressionism. Abstract expressionism was an art movement that began after the Second World War. During the war, constraints on artists expression in Germany and the Soviet Union resulted in many artists leaving for other parts of Europe and the US. In New York, these artist took advantage of their new found freedom of expression and created a for m of art that sent a clear message. Art had no boundaries and did not have to comply with rigid philosophies. Abstract expressionism therefore emerged as an expression of freedom and resistance to constraints on creative freedom. The expressionist wanted to exercise â€Å"spontaneous freedom of expression† (Chivers, 4). For the abstract expressionist the emphasis was on the filling and using the entire canvas and drawing attention to its surface. What the abstract expressionist wanted to accomplish was highlighting the surface specifications of the canvas, its â€Å"flatness†, and to convey the message that all of the canvas is important (Chivers, 4). The image above epitomizes abstract expressionism in that it does not draw attention to a narrative, but rather it draws attention to the full canvas which displays a uniform image throughout the canvas. What you see in the left side of the canvas is mirrored on the right side, although the colors may have been reversed o r changed somewhat. Regardless, the straight lines with fixed colors alternating in shades and arrangements demonstrate the spontaneous expression of abstract expressionism. Image 3 Kim Keever’s Landscape collection. The above image is a part of New York artist’s Kim Keever’s Landscape collection. Keever’s landscape collection are meant to depart from traditional landscape art. Keever accomplishes