Interview of Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci Essay

Interview of Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci - Essay Example The following interview functions as an effort of gaining a greater perspective on these thoughts and perspectives. Leonardo: After my birth my father took primary custody over me. Still, I remained in contact with my mother. Both of my parents continued to have children after they separated and I ended up with the unique situation of having a total of 17 half sisters and brothers. During my youth growing up with my father I think greatly contributed to my later development. He always had scholarly texts around that I was able to read. You’ll remember that during this period the Internet wasn’t readily available so having access to this information was quite a privilege. Additionally, there were many members of my family that were painters, so I sort of fell into painting from that point (‘MOS’). Michelangelo: After I was born my mother became sick. I was immediately given to a wet nurse from a family of stonecutters. I know it sounds crazy, but I always felt that early influence contributed to my later intellectual disposition. Unfortunately my mother would die when I was very young. Indeed, I sort of had a depressing childhood and became very introspective, focusing on art. I soon developed a skill in this avenue and my father sent me to Francesco Galeota from Urbino, a masterful instructor (‘Michelangelo’). Leonardo: Well, I was always very confident about my work, but I guess the first time I received really great social recognition for my work was with even with one of my own paintings, but my instructor Andrea del Verrochio. Instructor Verrochio allowed me to paint an angel in his work Baptism of Christ. This work would later come to be recognized as a seminal painting (‘MOS’). Michelangelo: For me it was when I was sixteen years old. At this age I produced the Madonna of the Stairs. This work featured Mary, the mother of God, sitting on a

Obesity Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Obesity - Research Paper Example There are various studies, which have been conducted on obesity. One of such studies has been conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). According to their study, obesity is associated with a poor quality of life. The quality of life is decreased with an increasing level of obesity. The research has also revealed that the quality of health life of obese people is lower than those with normal weight. Obesity is also associated with a poor health status. It has also been found that obesity results in depression. One of the key mechanisms employed to measure obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is the index of weight for height. It is recognized as the most useful measurement for obesity. Individuals are considered to be obese when their BMI is 30 or more. Historically, obesity was considered only an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. However, the recent research has indicated that there are many factors involved in obesity. There are various genetic, physiological, and behavioral factors that result in obesity. The specific causes of obesity vary among individuals. According to Butland et al. (2007), ‘At the heart of obesity lies a homeostatic biological system that struggles to maintain energy balance to keep the body at a constant weight. This system is not well-adapted to a fast-changing world, where the pace of technological progress has outstripped human evolution’. The researchers now accept that the changes in external environment impact the tendency of individuals to gain or lose weight. Obesity is the accumulation of excess fat in the human body. This condition reduces life expectancy and increase the chance of developing life threatening diseases. One of the most important prevention activities for overcoming obesity is physical activities. The constant exercise could result in an

Arguments for Regulating Financial Reporting

Arguments for Regulating Financial Reporting Acoording to Leuz and Verrecchia (2000) the accounting literature presents proof that the quality of accounting has economic consequences for e.g. costs of capital , efficiency of capital assignment (Bushman et al. 2006)etc. Land and Lang (2002) in their research mentioned that economic changes also have homogeneous consequences by stating that the quality of accounting has improved globally since 1990s. Land and Lang (2002) also say that the reason for the advancement in the quality of accounting is primarily due to globalisation and visualization of international accounting consensus. The argument proposed by the accounting theory is that the main aim of financial reporting is to reduce information asymmetry between managers and owners and other stakeholders contracting with the company (Watts, 1977; Ball, 2001). Favouring this notion Frankel and Li (2004) states that financial reporting decreases information asymmetry by disclosing relevant and timely information. Standard setting is a form of regulation which lays down generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) (Scott, 2003, p. 9). Also accounting standards for listed companies in the European Union are promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). This report answers this question that whether or not we need this kind of regulation of financial reporting. What is Financial Reporting? To answer the report question, firstly, there is a need to answer the questions like what is financial reporting, who are the users of financial reports and how is financial reporting regulated and what are the bodies responsible for regulating the financial reporting. By answering these questions a better understanding of financial reporting will be achieved and which will ultimately aid in answering the report questions. Financial reporting enables an organization to communicate information about its performance externally (Atrill et al. 2005). So, financial reports provide summarized information about an organizations transactions over a specific time period to external decision makers. (e.g. Investors). The users of financial reports are employees, trade unions, government, creditors, lenders, customers, shareholders and investment analyst (Elloit et al. 2006). The needs of these various users of financial reports can be completely different. However, the main emphasis is put on the most usable statements like balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. The Accounting standard boards (ASB) which is responsible for setting and issuing accounting standards, the ASB is part of a broader structure including the Financial Reporting Council, the review panel and the Urgent Issues Task Force (UITF). The Financial reporting Council (FRC) is the body charged with the broad overview of the standard setting system. Although the FRC oversees the process of producing accounting standards, it has no input into the detailed rules. Conversely the principle sources of such regulation are The Law and the Accountancy Profession. The Law consists of certain Acts. Much of the legislation governing the UKs preparation of accounts is personified in the companies Act 1985 and companies Act 1989. They are mainly concerned with the accounts of limited liability companies. These Acts state that all financial statements constructed under the Act must present a true and fair view. The Act also deals mainly with minimum disclosure requirements and is foremost concerned with the protection of shareholders and creditors. It provides a framework for general disclosure by requiring that certain financial statements such as the profit and loss accounts and the balance sheet, should be prepared and presented to the shareholders and requires the specific disclosure of certain items such as depreciation and so on. These disclosure requirements resolve some of the problems associated with the asymmetry of information between the directors and some user groups. They also enable user groups to compare the level of their inducemen ts with those received by the other groups. The Act also requires that the directors not only present the financial statements to the shareholders each year but also that independent auditors are appointed to examine the financial statements and report their findings to the shareholders. The law addresses the problem of information asymmetry by requiring the disclosure of certain key items of interest to user groups. The Accountancy Profession also recommend the same but in this role as regulator. The accountancy profession is more influential in achieving a significant increase in the comparability of financial statements. Whereas the law provides the general framework for what is to be accounted for in the financial reports, the accountancy profession provides detailed rules in the form of accounting standards about how items and transactions should be accounted for. The two main regulatory bodies of financial reporting are The Law and the Accounting Profession with the Accounting Standards Board usually known as ASB (Elliot et al. 2008). In UK, most of the legislation related to the publishing of accounts is embodied in the Companies Act 1985 and 1989. The Companies Act 1989 is the main frame which the companies and accountants have to follow. All the financial statement drawn up under the act 1989 must present a true and fair view and its function is to protect all the users of the financial reports and statements. The second and the most important regulatory body is the accounting profession. The standard setters should be aware of the information needed by all users of financial reports and should know the impact and the outcome of a different accounting method on the needs of those users. The standard setters should also be able to resolve the conflicts which exist between the needs of different users. So, they have to find an alternative wa y which best satisfy user needs and this could be achieved by choosing the improvement of the social welfare instead of welfare of individuals. We know that Accounting Standards Board is the main accounting standard setter. Because the ASB is composed of professional accountants, they may be unfamiliar with the user needs. So , when there is a need for a change in accounting standard the ASB prepare and publish a draft standard called the FRED (Financial Reporting Exposure Draft). After the publishing of these drafts the comments from the public is invited and in the light of these comments the FRED is changed (or unchanged). Now the FREDs are issued as FRS (Financial Reporting Standard). The main disadvantage of this system is the ASB members are unfamiliar with the different user needs and the comments from the general public may not be equally represented. There are four things that standards in financial reporting supply people using it. The first one is Comparability; financial statements must allow people to compare one company with another one and evaluate the managements performance without spending time and money adjusting them to a common format and common accounting treatments. It is essential that users of financial reports or investment decision makers be supplied with relevant and standard financial reports which have been regulated and hence standardized. The second thing that standards and regulations supply is called Credibility. Because all this standards and regulations exist accountants have to treat every company in the same way. If the accountancy profession permitted companies experiencing similar events to produce financial reports that disclosed markedly different results simply because of a freedom to select different accounting policies they would lose all of their credibility. So, the standards should be compos ed of rigid rules and should not be broken. The third thing is Influence that means, setting up the standards has encouraged a constructive appraisal of the policies being proposed for individual reporting problems and has been a stimulus for the development of a conceptual framework. The last thing that the standards have to supply is discipline. Companies left to their own devises without the need to obey standards will eventually be disciplined by the financial markets. But in the short run investors in such companies may suffer loss. The Financial Reporting Council is aware of the need to impose discipline because most of the company failures in recent years are because of obscure financial reporting. Why should the Accounting Standards set? As we argued before, an important role of the regulations is to increase the comparability of accounts by limiting the choice of alternative accounting methods and to supply standardized accounts. This standardization can be achieved only by uniform accounting practice. If all accounti ng methods were standardized, two organizations which began the year with same balance sheets and which made the same transactions during the year, they would report the same balance sheets and the same profit and loss account at the end of the year. In addition to these advantages of regulations in financial reporting, there are also some more useful functions. Regulations can help to reduce the influence of personal biases and political pressures on accounting judgments. They can increase the level of user confidence in, and understanding of, financial reporting by clarifying the basis on which all accounts are prepared and presented. Finally, they can provide a frame of reference for resolving accounting problems which are not mentioned in legislation or accounting standards. As we argued earlier although the regulations in financial reports have very advantages it has many disadvantages too; One if these disadvantages is the Adverse Allocative Effects, this could occur if the AS B did not take into account of the economic consequences of the new standard or regulation they have issued. For example, additional costs could be imposed on preparers of accounts and suboptimal managerial decisions might be taken to avoid any reduction in earning or net assets. Consensus-seeking can be another disadvantage and this means the issuing of standards that are over-influenced by those with easiest access to the standard-setters. Most of the time this could happen with complex subjects. Standard Overload is composed of a number of statements which creates the most important disadvantages of standards. Some of them are; 1. There is more than one standard-setter body so, as well as it becomes more difficult to follow the new changes, the accountants are becoming so regulated that it becomes very difficult to use his/her accounting profession, to make judgments. 2. There are too many standards and regulations, so in the long run, they restrict the development of accounting profession by discouraging the accountants from experimenting new ways of recording transactions. 3. Some points are too detailed and some of them are not sufficiently detailed so, makes it hard to obey. 4. Standards are for general-purpose and sometimes they fail to respond to users and the firms needs. For example, a company which wants to attract investment finance can not make the necessary judgment of how much information is necessary and what form it need take so, it couldnt take the actions necessary to attract investors and may bankrupt. Some of the standards are lack of a conceptual framework this means they havent got a clear defensible logic and the rules tend to be rather arbitrary. This causes the standards to lose its credibility and acceptability.

Relationships :: essays research papers

Relationships are impossible, or are they? Why is it that most relationships don’t work? Man meets woman, they date, move in together, get married, have kids and then divorce. This is what most relationships are nowadays. What causes a relationship to fall apart, what relationships you should get out of and are there such things as soul mates. Most people believe that their relationship isn’t like others. They don’t have problems. These kinds of people also think that their partner won’t cheat on them or do anything wrong. But the truth is that almost all relationships won’t last forever. A few reasons relationships fall apart are if one partner cheats, they lose interest in each other, lack of communication which causes problems, if you try to change someone and it backfires, and if you hide something you should have told the other person and then they find out about it later. In a relationship you can tell when you’re losing interest in each other. Some signs are that you don’t talk much with each other, you don’t spend time together anymore instead its spent with your friends away from home. Some signs to tell if the other person in the relationship is cheating is by the person starts to come home from work later then they usually do, they start to smell like perfume that neither of you have, when you confront them about cheating they get all nervous and deny it, when you ask them why they’ve been coming home late from work lately they makeup stupid excuses. And they say there going somewhere but when you phone to see if they are there they aren’t. If you’re in a relationship and the person does any of these things your relationship could be falling apart. Should you leave or stay in an abusive relationship? The answer to this question as you should know it is leave as soon as you can. The reason you should leave an abusive relationship is because if you don’t, you could end up hurt. Most of the time when a person is in this kind of a position they are too scared to leave it because they think the one who is abusing will hurt them more. In some cases they could that’s why its important to leave. Another thing about people who are in this position is that if you suspect they are being abused and you confront them about it they will deny it and change the subject. A few other signs of someone being abused is if they always

Of Mice and Men George Milton Essay

George Milton is a complex character from the novella, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. He travels with his long time companion, Lennie Small since Lennie is unable to care for himself. He has no family and spends his days working as a ranch hand. In the novella, the protagonist George is an authoritative,, resentful, yet very compassionate character. George’s authoritative nature is evident form the start of the novella. His companion Lennie is small minded and often acts like a child. Therefore, George must be very direct to ensure that Lennie understands and can take orders so that there will not be any problems or confusion. In the beginning of the novella Lennie carries around a dead mouse and George has to scowl him to get him to give it up. â€Å"You gonna give me that mouse or do i have to sock you?† (Steinbeck 8). George acts like a father to Lennie because he has to, Lennie does not know any better and needs that parental like guidance. As a result of Georg e’s authoritative nature and giving up part of his life to care for Lennie, he is often resentful. George loves Lennie but he is a constant nuisance to him. When George gets frustrated he expresses his true feelings about his life. â€Å"†¦ God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Steinbeck 11). George feels that if Lennie was not around and if he did not have to care for him, he would be able to live a better life. When George gets annoyed with Lennie, his irritable quality becomes apparent

Qualities of Leader

Different companies, teams and situations need different kinds of leader and leadership qualities. However those leaders always possess some basic qualities which I appreciate such as: communication, trustworthy, confidence, enthusiasm, stability, thoughtfulness and be a model. Communication is the key to become a good leader. He/She should stay close with the team and care for them in only their work but also their privation if possible.People always want to be cared, especially by their leader/boss. By communicating, the leader can find out others’ potential so that the assignment leads to effect results. Making time to listen, to meet, to celebrate with the team can develop the team spirit which is very important in teamworking. Creating trust in the team is very important for leaders. But at first the leader have to believe on his team that they will accomplish their assignments with the best results.Treating fairly also helps to inspire loyalty much. As a consequence, the leader will be well supportive Great leaders are enthusiatic people. They are always ready to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. Only by keeping their passion that they can deal with such a lot of work. Also, dedicated leaders can give their team inspiration and encourage them at work. Ability to keep a cool head is one of leaders’ qualities. When storms, emotions, crises,†¦ come and go, the team can only rely on their leader.Staying calm, finding out the reason and solution of such things, supporting the team are those things that a leader shound do. Another important quality is confidence. Leaders must be confident of their words, behaviour and making decision/judgement. Be sure of theirselves is the key to success and leaders are good examples of that. Finally, diligence is very necessary. A good leader should never forget to strengthen these qualities mentioned. Keeping up-to-date will help them to stand still in their leardership role.

Essay on Computer Systems

Essay on Computer Systems Essay on Computer Systems Computer Systems Alistair Burden Unit 2: Computer Systems Assignment Brief 1 Core Computer Components CPU (Central Processing Unit) The CPU is the abbreviation for central processing unit. Sometimes referred to simply as the central processor, but more commonly called processor, the CPU is the brains of the computer where most calculations take place. GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a computer chip that performs rapid mathematical calculations, primarily for the purpose of rendering images. In the early days of computing, the central processing unit (CPU) performed these calculations. Motherboard The motherboard is a printed circuit board containing the principal components of a computer or other device, with connectors for other circuit boards to be slotted into. RAM (Random Access Memory) Random-access memory is a form of computer data storage. A random-access memory device allows data items to be read and written in roughly the same amount of time regardless of the order in which data items are accessed. PSU (Power Supply Unit) The power supply is a system that converts AC current from the wall outlet into the DC currents required by electronic circuits. A computer power supply converts AC into multiple DC voltages. CD-ROM Drive (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory Drive) A CD-ROM is an optical disc which contains audio or software data whose memory is read only. A CD-ROM Drive or optical drive is the device used to read them, it uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or fromoptical discs. HDD/SSD (Hard Drive/Solid State Drive) A HDD is a storage device used to store data. Unlike RAM, which requires electrical power to maintain its state, a hard disk drive stores data magnetically. Therefore, it retains its data when the power source is turned off or disconnected. An SSD is a storage device containing non-volatile flash memory, used in place of a hard disk because of its much greater speed. Input Devices Keyboard A keyboard is the set of typewriter-like keys that enables you to enter data into a computer. Computer keyboards are similar to