THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT OF BUSINESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT OF BUSINESS - Essay Example The Chief Financial Officer and other senior officers are known to have misled the audit committee when it came to issues of high-risk accounting practices. Following the confusion brought about by the Enron’s complex financial statements to both the shareholders and analysts, speculations were raised enquiring on the sustainability of the company. One partnership created by Enron had allowed it to keep $600 debt off the books it availed to the government and its shareholders. The problem in the company became evident in 2001. In August the same year, Jeffrey Skilling the CEO of the company tabled his departure. His position was resumed by Lay. On March, Bethany Mclean, a Fortune Magazine writer wrote an article inquiring Enron’s ways of making money. The reality of its collapse surfaced on October 16th when the company announced a loss of $638 million in connection with its internet investment failure (Barbara, 12). The shareholders of the company filed a $40 billion c ase after the stock price fell from us$ 90.75 per share in mid-2000 nose-dived to less than 1$ by the end of November 2001. The U.S Security and Exchange Commission launched (SEC) an investigation in October. The investigation later exposed the multifaceted web of partnership specifically engineered to hide the debt (Barbara, 14). In November, it was revealed that the company had overstated its earnings for the past four years by $586 million. It was also revealed that Enron owed over $6 billion in debt by the following year. This is what led to the drastic fall of its stock prices that saw investors lose billions of money. The company agreed to repay its investors immediately. It could not come up with the money to repay the debt therefore it filed for bankruptcy in accordance with chapter 11. In pursuant of justice, many senior executive officers were brought to trial which formed a point of reckon for the many citizens whose lives had been destroy. Fastow, the then Chief Financia l Officer and his wife, Lea, pleaded guilty for the charges against them. He had been initially charged with 98 counts of money laundering, fraud and conspiracy among other crimes. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and was sentenced to 10 years without parole in a plea bargain to testify against Lay, Skilling and Causey. His wife Lea was sentenced to year imprisonment for aiding her husband hide government income. Lay and Skilling were brought to trial in January 2006 (Barbara, 15). Skilling was convicted of 19 of 28 counts of murder. He pleaded not guilty and attributed the cause of the company’s downfall to Fastow. Lay was found guilty of 6 counts of security and wire fraud and was subjected to a total of 45 years in prison. Unfortunately, Lay passed away in July, 2006 before his sentence was scheduled. Rick Causey the then Chief Accounting Officer was charged with six wrongdoing charges for non-exposure of Enron’s financial condition during his term. He was sentenced to seven years in penitentiary after pleading guilty. Arthur Andersen was charged with impediment of justice because of destroying documents, erasing emails and files that were affiliated to his auditing firm dealings with Enron. He was found guilty and was sentenced and his company was made to surrender its CPA license in August 2002

Physiological Tests Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Physiological Tests - Essay Example There are various factors that can easily control the accuracy of the results. E.g. An Individual's Motivational level and pacing ability can have a profound impact on the results. An average teenager female would have the score (difference of max height jumped and standing height reached) ranging between 31-40cm. A score of 51-60cm is regarded as a good score and anything above 60cm is categorized as Excellent. In order to improve the leg power, the subject should focus on exercises like Squats, Dead lifts, cycling and Swimming. 2.. A treadmill test is a continuous running for 9-15 minutes wherein Multistage Field Test (MFT) the subject runs at the sound of recorded beep. Traditionally MFT is done in open rather than indoor, so environment also has some affect. 3.In MFT the beep is on a recorded tape. As the audio-tapes may stretch over time, the tapes need to be calibrated which involves timing a one-minute interval and making adjustment to the distance between markers. The recording is also available on compact disc, which does not require such a stringent calibration, but should also be checked occasionally. 1. It enables the athlete to recruit and trigger fast twitch of muscle fibers. It helps to produce greater amount of force in smaller amount of time. This is in accordance to Henman's principle. Bench Throw allows the subject to release an external load before the limbs enter a decelerative kinematics' phase. 2. Bench Throw done continuously for a while followed by a rest period and repeated until a deceleration occurs has been proven to elevate the heart rate to training zone level. DISADVANTAGES 1. Inappropriate choice of weights can make significant changes to the results. If the weight is too light the rate of acceleration will be too fast and if the weight is too heavy the bar will decelerate before the release point. 2. It is a little risky. While the rod is thrown up, safety measures should be

Living A Guilt Free Life Philosophy Essay

Living A Guilt Free Life Philosophy Essay There are millions of people who are constantly living with feelings of guilt. Some feel guilty if they eat a rich dessert. Some feel guilty whenever something goes wrong, thinking they should have tried to prevent it. Some feel guilty because they recovered from some accident while others did not. Some feel guilty about their past behavior. Some just feel guilty about anything and everything. It is crucial that you dig deep inside you and find out what it is that you truly feel. You need to realize that abusers will abuse no matter what you say or do and that you are not responsible for their behavior. Do not let your guilt mislead you into believing that it is you who did something wrong. You need to accept that you are the one being wronged and you need to speak out or seek help. Survivors Guilt is best described as a mental condition. It occurs when someone believes that he or she must have done wrong by being a survivor or a tragic or traumatic event. You may feel guilty that you survived a car accident that killed a family member. You may thing that you did not deserve to live through a war. You probably feel that you should have died instead of your mother. Survivors guilt can be very destructive. It can lead you to condemn or punish yourself for being alive. You can become debilitated by depression. The best way to deal with survivors guilt is to talk about what happened. It will help you accept the fact that there are others who feel such feelings and that you are not alone. You need to let grief take it full course. Allow yourself to grieve. Try to find a support group or network. Seek help from professional counselors. They can guide you through the recovery process. Break The Guilt Cycle Guilt often turns into a cycle that is self-perpetuating. What happens is you do something, you feel guilty, you condemn or punish yourself, and you repeat the behavior whenever the opportunity presents itself. The cycle keeps repeating itself because you are unable to take responsibility of what you do or for changing yourself. How do you begin to take responsibility? You must try to be honest. You need to honestly consider what part you play in the situation and accept it. If you are in an abusive relationship, you need to honestly look deep inside and accept that you did not do anything wrong. how to let go of guilt If you are feeling guilty for having done something wrong (healthy guilt), you need to take action to fix the situation. There are so many people who are just mega-gluttons for self-punishment; guilt is like a huge anchor weighing us down. It is easy to say Im sorry-it wont kill you. If you have offended someone by saying something offensive, apologize. You may find that it is not only more challenging to recognize that your busy work schedule is putting your marriage at risk, but also to actually make changes in your schedule. Healthy guilt keeps us in line. It tells us that we need to do something different from what we are currently doing so that we can fix relationships that are valuable to us. The sooner we make amends for what we have done wrong, the sooner the guilt will leave us alone. Accept that you did something wrong, make amends and move on. Learn from your behavior The purpose of guilt is not to make us miserable. Guilt is trying to tell us that there is something we can learn from what has happened. If we learn, it will be less likely that we will make the very same mistake again. Let us say that you have made a hurtful comment to someone, your guilt is telling you that (a) you should apologize and (b) take time to think about what you are going to say before you say it. If the guilt that you are feeling is not trying to correct an actual wrong behavior (unhealthy guilt), then there is not much for you to learn. So instead of wracking your brains on how to change the behavior, you need to understand why such a behavior is making you feel so guilty. Let us say that you feel guilty about not being a good mother because you are not with your kids 247. Since you are a single parent, you need to work so you can provide a good future for your kids. There is no need for you to feel guilty. You are working for your kids sake. Being their shadow and staying glued to them 247 wont put food on the table for them to eat. No human being anywhere on this earth, or elsewhere, is perfect. Even the person you look up to as a hero has some flaws. Striving to be 100% in control all the time and making sure every tiny thing is perfect is a recipe for disaster. All of us make mistakes and there are so many of us who take a path that can make us feel so guilty later in our lives. All we need to do is realize that we made a mistake and accept that we are not perfect. Spending every waking moment regretting something is not going to change anything. All it will do is disable you from moving on in your life. You are not perfect, neither is the rest of humanity.

Free Essays - No Innocence in Catcher in the Rye :: Catcher Rye Essays

No Innocence in Catcher in the Rye Probably the greatest irony of the novel is the fact that, despite his love of "childhood innocence," Holden is and acts far from innocent himself. In fact, he is its antithesis. He acts that way for many reasons. First of all, he has so many responsibilities. Second, he never fits in with the crowd, and finally, he never gets any real help for the problems that he deals with. Holden does have a love for "childhood innocence" as seen across the book. For example, on page two hundred and one "Somebody'd written ' Fuck you' on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them-cockeyed naturally- what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever'd written it... But I rubbed it [The 'fuck you' written on the wall] out anyway." Another example is on page two hundred and eight, "'So shut up.' It was the first time she [Phoebe] ever told me to shut up. It sounded terrible. God, it sounded terrible. It sounded worse than swearing." There is one more outstanding quotation from the novel which is found on page two hundred and thirteen. "I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe was going around and around [the carousel]." All these examples clearly show that Holden appreciated "childhood innocence" to a great extent. Yet Holden acts the opposite. The irony in this novel is Holden's behavior, which is far from being innocent. He smokes, drinks, always depressed, thinks about suicide, thinks about going embarking to a far place, and has people tell and act in many weird ways. There are three main reasons why he acts this way. Firstly, Holden being only sixteen years of age already has so much responsibility. He has to get money for food and travel. When he travels he has to make sure he doesn't get lost, and actually gets there. He has to make sure that he doesn't flunk school.

Benihana Of Tokyo Essay

1. What is the Benihana concept? The Beninhana of Tokyo, basically a Japanese Steak House has a very unique concept in terms of the idea of watching the food being cooked live on the table in front of eyes. Benihana featured traditional Japanese cuisine experience in the urban U.S metropolis. It was the first introducer of Hibachi Cooking style in USA, celebrating the cooking of food so alive and entertaining. This experience comes with Teppanyaki tables which accommodated eight people and live cooking of food with service being provided by a chef and a waitress. The concept featured a chef dramatically preparing meals while engaging the eaters around him at the Teppanyaki Table which gave a totally new dining experience. The chefs were mostly trained for the showmanship and the Benihana form of cooking from Japan. This gave a feeling of exclusivity as each table had its own chef and waitress resulting in high engagement and participation from customers end. Benihana not only started with an adopted innovative cooking experience (something that did not exist in USA Before) but also featured Japanese historical authenticity in its design layouts and interior dà ©cor, the walls, ceilings, beams, artifacts and lightings were all from Japan to create a Japanese effect in the restaurant. 2. How does Benihana`s cost structure differ from that of a typical sit-down restaurant? The cost structure of Benihana differs a lot from that of a typical-sit down restaurant resulting in lesser costs and higher profit: Rocky borrowed the method of Hibachi Table to counter the problem of availability and cost of labor and by eliminating the need for a conventional Kitchen, the cost of labor was around 10%-12% of sales as compared to industry average of 30%-35%. By reducing the menu to simple three entrees the wastage was reduced and can cut food costs by 30%-35% compared to the industry average of 38%-48%. The cost of beverages as percent of sales was 20% for Benihana as compared to the industry average of 25-30% resulting in higher gross profit. Due to parental management relationships with the staff, the management salaries were around 4% of Benihana as compared to the industry average of around 6% were lower. Though the sites were chosen carefully but the rent was usually lower for benihana around 5% compared to industry average of 9%. Benihana on average advertised more than the industry and deliberately sent advertising messages to position it differently. Benihana spend 10% of its sales on advertising while the industry only spends 2%. Net Profit after income tax was relatively higher than the industry average for benihana.

Generations from the Internet Essay

the author wrote of the people as if they were comparable to animals. that was something noticeable. it could be that it was the author’s way of saying how some families lived when martial law still loomed over the entire nation. the members of the family in the story lived desolate lives. the father was a drunkard. the mother was physically abused. the grandfather was always left mumbling in some corner. and the kids had nothing to do but endure the dreadfulness of their lives. the girl, for example, was beautiful. she could have been an actress. but she was not able to properly utilize her God-given resources for her own sake. instead, she was obligated to help her family the best way she could. but what about herself? what about her own future? surely, the family was not normal. they were not like those families whose portraits hung proudly in a large room in a gargantuan house. luck was not on their side. as if their life was not terrible enough, the father found himself in trouble, and the girl was forced to have herself desecrated by men in whose hands the fate of her father lied. in the end, the father still died. what was weird was the way the family members took it all too lightly. the children’s taking a bath after the news was divulged was a sign that indeed, after the funeral, the laundry. they knew they couldn’t dwell on the sadness because there was life.. l ife they must fix if they wanted it to be so much better. their eating together including old selo was a sign of solidarity, and so was the children’s taking a bath. they went through things together, and that’s what’s important to them. and maybe the title says that the problems get passed from one generation to the other. the problems could get worse, have the same intensity, or better yet, be remedied in the future. but i think the children of this family will be encumbered for a long time. i guess times like those one couldn’t really afford to severe his ties with the last few bony shoulders to cry on. posted by faye gonzalez | 11:51 PM

Deconstructing OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find Research Paper Example

Deconstructing OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find Research Paper Example Deconstructing OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find Paper Deconstructing OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find Paper It is for centuries past that the theme of death and salvation was encapsulated majestically in western literature. Also, it is for centuries that modern writers have refrained from the intervention of such topic into their pieces of work, condemning its solemn repetition and its obsoleteness. However, in the 20th century American literature, Flannery OConnor has revived the thematic significance of Christian salvation in which death occasionally gets involved. A devout Christian she is, OConnor combines her profound religious knowledge with her Southern milieu, contemporary violence, and satiric sense of humour, which has emerged mostly in form of the short story, her most celebrated genre. Published and re-published since 1955 is OConnors first collection of short stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, throughout which her Christian beliefs have been meticulously patterned. Apart from other short stories that deal with the downfall of pride is A Good Man Is Hard to Find whose major concern has been directed toward death and salvation and has been embodied with other minor concerns, such as adults influences upon children and changing values in American society. This short story contains many jaunty features that help depict Flannery OConnors theme of death and salvation. OConnors unique choice of narration allows the reader to interpret the thematic messages at different dimensions, to display the evils of adults world as well as to capture more clearly the psychological complexity in the protagonists mind. Using the intrusive third-person limited omniscient narrative, OConnor introduces her heroine of the short stories along with her characteristics and her familial relationships. To begin with, A Good Man Is Hard to Find is viewed through the eyes of a talkative grandmother who, ignored by the rest of the family, relies on the texts to structure her reality. With no desire to go to Florida as well as the burning desire to visit east Tennessee, the grandmother in disguise of a good-hearted person refers to the newspaper article about the escaping Misfit and exclaims to her son Bailey, I wouldnt take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. It should also be noted that the article itself is a written text and, even though it refers to events outside and prior to the primary ri cit, it stands as an unrecognized prophecy of the later event. At this stage, indeed, the Misfit does not represent a real threat to the grandmother but is just a ploy to get her own way. The grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find is typified as talkative and manipulating. OConnors highlighted portrayal of the grandmother is, in some way, associated with the image of an old, deceitful witch with her hidden cat, Pitty Sing, and her big black valise that [looks] like the head of a hippopotamus. The head of a hippopotamus is an African sacrificial offering that is believed to placate the haunting spirits. The reader is also acknowledged at the beginning of the story that the heroine is about to take a journey that she is apparently unwilling to. The grandmother is on the way to Florida with her family. On the way to death and salvation, OConnor equips her stories with many picaresque elements in order to reflect the protagonists background as well as to illustrate the protagonists limited secular and religious knowledge. The grandmothers behaviors in A Good Man Is Hard to Find reemphasizes the fact that she is deceptive, a characteristic that will harm not only her family but also herself. She, prior to the trip, has managed to sneak the cat-that her son, Bailey, didnt like to arrive at a motel with-justifying her behavior by imagining [the cat] would miss her too much and, [fearfully,] he might brush himself against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself. Then, the grandmother reads fictions to the children, John Wesley and June Star, recounts them some ostensibly true stories, and provides a continual gloss on the physical world they are passing. Little niggers in the country dont have things like we do. If I could paint, Id paint that picture, or Look at the graveyard! ] That was the old family burying ground. That belonged to the plantation. Further on, the conversation between the grandmother and Red Sam, in which they discuss People are certainly not nice like they used to be, unveils the truth that the older people are delusory about their own bad characteristics and unaware of the inheritance of such behaviors to their innocent descendants. To be specific, the grandmother bequeaths her superficiality that is exposed through her obsession with the ladylike image to June Stars praise of materialism: her money-drive appearance, for instance. The concrete evidence for the inheritance of Grandmas characteristic is Baileys yellow shirt with bright blue parrot in it, which is passed from hand to hand, from dead Bailey to the Misfit. The blue parrot is somewhat a reminiscence of OConnors thoughtlessly talkative grandmother who is likewise in navy blue dress that day. An aggressive, bossy person like Red Sam is, at the same time, responsible for militant John Wesley, who always uses forces to get his own way: Well poke all the woodwork and find [the hidden silver]. Some readers may look at the kids in A Good Man Is Hard to Find as an exaggeration as well as externalization of adults bad characters, the caricatures of adults bad manners. Having prepared the ground for the protagonists cathartic moment, OConnor then creates a critical moment for the Grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, which functions as stimulus for the enlightenment of the central character. Having had an accident on the way to the house with a secret panel and now encountering the Misfit, the grandmother is in the most crucial position that life offers the Christian; she is facing death. She does not really prepare for it and struggles to have the event postponed. Thus, she initiates the conversation with the Misfit, which allows her to contemplate with her own but unrecognized bad deeds and to realize, even in her limited way, that she is responsible for the man before her. OConnor, before the moment of sudden awareness, lets her heroine digress through her false values. The Grandmas litany of convenient fictions involves class distinction: I know youre a good man. You dont look a bit like you have common blood, and her shallowness: You shouldnt call yourself the Misfit because I know youre a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell. The grandmother also asserts vaguely that redemption can be achieved through work: You could be honest if youd only try [ ] Think how wonderful it would be to settle down [ ] If you would pray [ ] Jesus will help you. A hypocritical old soul she is, the grandmas wits are no match to the Misfits. Her attempts are sterile; the killing of her family members continues in the woods [that] gaped like a dark open mouth. At this point, the reader as well as the grandma has learned about the Misfits life profile and opinions in general. He is a different breed of dog from his siblings, as his father says: its some that can live their whole life out without asking about it, and its others has to know why it is, and this boy is one of the latters. Hes going to be into everything. In fact, the Misfit seems to have been through everything-from a gospel singer to a murderer. Unlike the Misfit, the grandmother never questions the mechanics of the universe-to ask herself why things are. This default puts the Misfit several cuts above the grandmother, who is just afraid to miss something and would rather choose to settle down. Her eagerness to be in everything is simply an act of jotting down the mileage on the car at 55890 or an attempt to create a whole universe behind the visual phenomena wishing she were [telling the truth]. It is noteworthy that she is the one who has named the Misfit and thus forces him to become what he is recognized to be. The grandmother, who cannot be categorized into either type according to the Misfits father, and others who possess the same characteristic are somewhat responsible for coercing a defenseless-looking man to become a murderer. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later youre going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it, says the Misfit. They could prove I had committed [crime] because they had the papers on me. [But,] I cant make all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment. This is his divine reason for calling himself the Misfit. However, the grandmother has not fai led to grasp a rare chance for enlightenment and has therefore achieved moral development, though in her limited way. At first, facing the Misfit and never thinking that God will help her, she affectedly advises him to pray for Gods help: If you would pray [ ] Jesus would help you. Then, still encouraging the Misfit, her genuine thought about Christ manifests itself physically: Jesus. Jesus, meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing, an action similar to the earlier moment that her uncontrollable embarrassment has released a hidden cat accidentally. The grandmother, at last, denies Gods grace: Maybe he didnt raise the dead, which the Misfit objects: I wasnt there so I cant say He didnt. The role of the two characters is now vice versa. The grandmother, who is supposed to display her faith in God, reveals her true atheistic self and is ironically successful in her contrition and redemption, while the Misfit is reluctant to oppose God, whose help he has earlier denied overtly. It may be true that a person like the grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find cannot be good unless it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. But, it is true that she, cherishing the rare moment of salvation that has been offered, has become aware of her sins: the grandmothers head cleared for an instant, repents unintentionally at the critical moment of her being murdered: Why youre one of my babies. Youre one of my own children, and ultimately rests in peace: her [childlike] face smiling up at the cloudless sky. Ironically, the grandmas bad influences become evident upon her murderer. The Misfit, in other words, is bewitched by the old ladys hypocritical soul. He is now wearing Baileys shirt in which is the blue parrot, a reminiscence of the deceptive and talkative grandmother. Additionally, as the grandmother reaches out and touches him on the shoulder, the Misfit springs back as if a snake had bitten him. He also inherits the grandmas witch imagery by picking up the cat that was rubbing itself against his leg. The grandmothers bad influences have, at the end of the story, lowered the Misfits level of Grace to that of the grandmas at the beginning of A Good Man Is Hard to Find. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is not merely an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida. In it, Flannery OConnor has cunningly combined her religious beliefs with her contemporary and realistic environment, presented mainly through a female protagonist, an artful grandmother. Her heroine not only makes the reader laugh heartily but thoughtfully. She instills the universal belief of the Christian salvation through the tactful prevalence of humour and bloodshed. OConnor funny violence in the story is not meant to be the end in itself but a new beginning of an eternal life. The man in the violent situation reveals those qualities least dispensable in his personality, those qualities which are all he will have to take into eternity with him (OConnor, The Element of Suspense in A Good Man Is Hard to Find from The Longman Masters of Short Fiction by Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn). The story, thus, reminds the reader of the intrusion of Gods Providence and of the accessibility of salvation, which is regardless of time, place and the impurity of ones soul.